Of course, I have to mention that the Quilting on a Budget blog is having a giveaway too. Make a comment before 12/05/08 and you can win one of two great quilting books, a year's subscription to FAMILY FUN magazine, or a $25.00 Amazon.com gift certificate!
We had our first Papa Murphy's pizza here last night. Have you tried these? Yum-BO! You call in an order for the pizza you want (Jeff wanted the Philly Cheese Steak), pick it up, then bring it home and cook it! It seems to be about $5 less than other pizza chain stores, and it really was quite good. Well, OK, I missed my Papa John's garlic butter to dip the crust in, but I'm better off without it anyway. I pre-set the oven while Jeff went to pick up the pizza, and it took just 12 minutes to cook. Fresh taste, nice crust (a little lighter and less bready than most) and a good amount of toppings. Good stuff -- and better than cooking.
I made homemade bread last week. Used a standard white bread recipe but added in a few ingredients of my own -- 1/4 cup wheat gluten, a tablespoon of minced garlic, some olive oil, and about 2 cups of grated cheddar cheese, 1/2 cup of grated parmesian, and 1 tsp. of oregano. Oh my! That was good warm from the oven. But even better was having it toasted. It just brought the garlic and cheese flavors to the front and it tasted and smelled like -- ready? -- Cheezits! Can you smell my house from where you sit? Mmmmmmmmm..... That recipe is a keeper for sure.
I don't have a lot planned this week -- my regular two days of babysitting, but Jeff will be home on vacation (again) on Friday, so that will make it easy-peasy. If Jeff is here, Brayden is glued to his side. I feed them both, take care of nap time, and that's it. The rest of the day will be boys' day together. The do men stuff. Brayden was here on Saturday and they worked together to fix a floor lamp in my quilt room. Brayden helped hold wrenches, turned screw drivers, and accompanied Jeff to ACE to get new parts. They both love Hardware stores. The store is not 5 minutes from my house, yet they were gone for 90 minutes.
Although we had wonderful temperatures on Thanksgiving Day and the day after, we're back to winter here in southwestern Ohio. It's spitting snow and windy. Despite having the thermostat set down to 67 during the day, the heat is running non-stop. Snow is forecast for Tuesday. Whether I like it or not -- winter has arrived.
Sounds like a good time to quilt!
Dec 1, 2008
This and that...
Back to real life... Thanksgiving is behind us, Christmas is knocking at the door... Lists need to be made (cleaning, Christmas card, mailing by date, gifts left to buy...), and what am I doing? Quilting! Really for the first time in many, many months, the quilt bug bit me and I spent almost the entire weekend working on a patchwork pine tree wallhanging. It's all pieced, borders are on, it's pin-basted and now waiting for me to figure out why my sewing machine isn't liking the metallic thread I want to use... All those months that I could have spent many guilt-free hours quilting, and I wait until the pressure is on for the holidays! But the one thing I know is this: It will all get done. It might get done at the last minute, but it always gets done!
No menu planning Monday for me today. Why? Because I don't feel like it! LOL If I sit down to plan my menues, I have to make my grocery list. If I make a grocery list, I have to ruminate over the Krogers ad. If I get out my Krogers ad, I have to gather all my unclipped coupons. Heck, there's enough food in the house to feed 20 people for a week. No menu planning this week. I'll be quilting instead! Let them eat turkey!
I won another blog giveaway! Gosh, I don't enter all that many, but it certainly seems to pay off! This one was from The Precious Peas blog, and I'm really thrilled with what I've won. Some "super cool" sunglasses for grandson Brayden! Sssshh...don't tell him. I think they'd make an adorable Christmas present! Although my daughter often has sunglasses on Brayden, I never think about it, and then watch him squint and wince when we're outside in the sun. So these sunglasses from My First Shades are going to be just the ticket. I love the strap idea so they stay on for longer than two minutes!
Of course, I have to mention that the Quilting on a Budget blog is having a giveaway too. Make a comment before 12/05/08 and you can win one of two great quilting books, a year's subscription to FAMILY FUN magazine, or a $25.00 Amazon.com gift certificate!
We had our first Papa Murphy's pizza here last night. Have you tried these? Yum-BO! You call in an order for the pizza you want (Jeff wanted the Philly Cheese Steak), pick it up, then bring it home and cook it! It seems to be about $5 less than other pizza chain stores, and it really was quite good. Well, OK, I missed my Papa John's garlic butter to dip the crust in, but I'm better off without it anyway. I pre-set the oven while Jeff went to pick up the pizza, and it took just 12 minutes to cook. Fresh taste, nice crust (a little lighter and less bready than most) and a good amount of toppings. Good stuff -- and better than cooking.
I made homemade bread last week. Used a standard white bread recipe but added in a few ingredients of my own -- 1/4 cup wheat gluten, a tablespoon of minced garlic, some olive oil, and about 2 cups of grated cheddar cheese, 1/2 cup of grated parmesian, and 1 tsp. of oregano. Oh my! That was good warm from the oven. But even better was having it toasted. It just brought the garlic and cheese flavors to the front and it tasted and smelled like -- ready? -- Cheezits! Can you smell my house from where you sit? Mmmmmmmmm..... That recipe is a keeper for sure.
I don't have a lot planned this week -- my regular two days of babysitting, but Jeff will be home on vacation (again) on Friday, so that will make it easy-peasy. If Jeff is here, Brayden is glued to his side. I feed them both, take care of nap time, and that's it. The rest of the day will be boys' day together. The do men stuff. Brayden was here on Saturday and they worked together to fix a floor lamp in my quilt room. Brayden helped hold wrenches, turned screw drivers, and accompanied Jeff to ACE to get new parts. They both love Hardware stores. The store is not 5 minutes from my house, yet they were gone for 90 minutes.
Although we had wonderful temperatures on Thanksgiving Day and the day after, we're back to winter here in southwestern Ohio. It's spitting snow and windy. Despite having the thermostat set down to 67 during the day, the heat is running non-stop. Snow is forecast for Tuesday. Whether I like it or not -- winter has arrived.
Sounds like a good time to quilt!
Of course, I have to mention that the Quilting on a Budget blog is having a giveaway too. Make a comment before 12/05/08 and you can win one of two great quilting books, a year's subscription to FAMILY FUN magazine, or a $25.00 Amazon.com gift certificate!
We had our first Papa Murphy's pizza here last night. Have you tried these? Yum-BO! You call in an order for the pizza you want (Jeff wanted the Philly Cheese Steak), pick it up, then bring it home and cook it! It seems to be about $5 less than other pizza chain stores, and it really was quite good. Well, OK, I missed my Papa John's garlic butter to dip the crust in, but I'm better off without it anyway. I pre-set the oven while Jeff went to pick up the pizza, and it took just 12 minutes to cook. Fresh taste, nice crust (a little lighter and less bready than most) and a good amount of toppings. Good stuff -- and better than cooking.
I made homemade bread last week. Used a standard white bread recipe but added in a few ingredients of my own -- 1/4 cup wheat gluten, a tablespoon of minced garlic, some olive oil, and about 2 cups of grated cheddar cheese, 1/2 cup of grated parmesian, and 1 tsp. of oregano. Oh my! That was good warm from the oven. But even better was having it toasted. It just brought the garlic and cheese flavors to the front and it tasted and smelled like -- ready? -- Cheezits! Can you smell my house from where you sit? Mmmmmmmmm..... That recipe is a keeper for sure.
I don't have a lot planned this week -- my regular two days of babysitting, but Jeff will be home on vacation (again) on Friday, so that will make it easy-peasy. If Jeff is here, Brayden is glued to his side. I feed them both, take care of nap time, and that's it. The rest of the day will be boys' day together. The do men stuff. Brayden was here on Saturday and they worked together to fix a floor lamp in my quilt room. Brayden helped hold wrenches, turned screw drivers, and accompanied Jeff to ACE to get new parts. They both love Hardware stores. The store is not 5 minutes from my house, yet they were gone for 90 minutes.
Although we had wonderful temperatures on Thanksgiving Day and the day after, we're back to winter here in southwestern Ohio. It's spitting snow and windy. Despite having the thermostat set down to 67 during the day, the heat is running non-stop. Snow is forecast for Tuesday. Whether I like it or not -- winter has arrived.
Sounds like a good time to quilt!
Nov 28, 2008
Frugal Christmas Wrapping Ideas
I've mentioned before that I like to wrap my online-ordered gifts as soon as they arrive at the front door. So today I thought I'd try and find some frugal ideas for doing the wrapping.
My personal favorite that I have done several years in the past is to wrap all gifts in brown paper grocery store bags. I buy a few packages of very inexpensive stick-on stars in red and gold and stick them all over the package, then tie the package with raffia or a coordinating vintage ribbon. (For some reason, my husband bought a moving box full of vintage cloth ribbon a few years ago! I still have 3/4ths of the box left!)
Got to love people that make use of plastic shopping bags! I've seen bags made into all kinds of things, but this is so appropriate for the upcoming holidays. Make a holiday package BOW from your plastic grocery bags! Check out the step by step instructions on the Creature Comforts: DIY blog.
And God Bless Martha during the holiday season. For once I see a craft on her web site that I can actually do AND afford! I'm going to use last year's Christmas cards to make monogram gift tags! No instructions, but do you really need them?
Feeling a little more crafty? Check out Carol Duvall's ideas for re-using Christmas cards - you know you have them!
From McCall's Quilting is this GREAT idea for using up your stack of lone quilt blocks. I'm loving this one! Step by step instructions here.
And God Bless Martha during the holiday season. For once I see a craft on her web site that I can actually do AND afford! I'm going to use last year's Christmas cards to make monogram gift tags! No instructions, but do you really need them?
Feeling a little more crafty? Check out Carol Duvall's ideas for re-using Christmas cards - you know you have them!
From McCall's Quilting is this GREAT idea for using up your stack of lone quilt blocks. I'm loving this one! Step by step instructions here.
Our Thanksgiving
Our one non-food tradition at our Thanksgiving table is for everyone to hold hands before we eat and say what they are thankful for. This is the first year that 2 year old Brayden is old enough to speak complete sentences, so I took him aside before dinner and explained what we were going to do and why we were doing it, and asked him to think about what he wanted to say "thank you" for. When it was his turn, he got a little shy with all eyes on him, but a very quiet, timid voice, he said, "I'm thankful for lunch." Awwwwwww....
And what did Mr. Fussy Eater eat for Thanksgiving dinner? Spaghettio's and Bread & Butter pickles, of course! Honestly, I didn't care. The important thing is that he was there, sitting at our Thanksgiving Table. What he actually ate really didn't matter.
There's the difference between being a grandparent and a parent!
Nov 27, 2008
May I send you a $10 gift certificate for dinner?
Restaurant.com is offering me (and I'm sure many others! LOL) the opportunity to mail out three $10 gift certificates PER DAY from now until Christmas! I'd like to share them with YOU!
First, just go to Restaurant.com and check your zip code and see if there are participating restaurants in your area. Then simply leave a comment on my blog, then email me with YES PLEASE in the subject line, and I'll send you a Gift Certificate!
Usually the $10 certificates are used against a purchase of $25 or more. Be sure to read the fine print for the restaurant of your choice. I don't believe these gift certificates are transferrable -- so the person I email them to is probably the person who is going to have to use them.
This will be on a first-come, first serve basis, and I'll mail them at the rate of three per day. It may take a few days for you to get yours. I will post a notice here if and when I run out of Gift Certificates.
Happy Thanksgiving
To All Our Family and Friends.
Just a note to let you know we are
hoping to see you Thanksgiving Day
But....
Martha Stewart will not be dining with us this Thanksgiving.
I'm telling you in advance, so don't act surprised.
Since Ms. Stewart won't be coming, I've made a few small changes:
Our sidewalk will not be lined with homemade, paper bag luminaries.
After a trial run, it was decided that no matter how cleverly done,
rows of flaming lunch sacks do not have the desired welcoming effect.
Once inside, our guests will note that the entry hall is not decorated
with the swags of Indian corn and fall foliage I had planned to make.
Instead, I've gotten the kids involved in the decorating by having them
track in colorful autumn leaves from the front yard.
The mud was their idea.
The dining table will not be covered with expensive linens, fancy china,
or crystal goblets. If possible, we will use dishes that match and everyone
will get a fork. Since this IS Thanksgiving, we will refrain from using the
plastic Peter Rabbit plate and the Santa napkins from last Christmas.
Our centerpiece will not be the tower of fresh fruit and flowers that I
promised. Instead we will be displaying a hedgehog-like decoration
hand-crafted from the finest construction paper.
The artist assures me it is a turkey.
We will be dining fashionably late. The children will entertain you while
you wait. I'm sure they will be happy to share every choice comment I
have made regarding Thanksgiving, pilgrims and the turkey hotline. Please
remember that most of these comments were made at 5:00 a.m.
upon discovering that the turkey was still hard enough to cut diamonds.
As accompaniment to the children's recital, I will play a recording of
tribal drumming. If the children should mention that I don't own a recording
of tribal drumming, or that tribal drumming sounds suspiciously like a frozen
turkey in a clothes dryer, ignore them. They are lying.
We toyed with the idea of ringing a dainty silver bell to announce the
start of our feast. In the end, we chose to keep our traditional method.
We've also decided against a formal seating arrangement.
When the smoke alarm sounds, please gather around the table
and sit where you like. In the spirit of harmony, we will ask the children
to sit at a separate table. In a separate room. Next door.
Now, I know you have all seen pictures of one person carving a turkey in
front of a crowd of appreciative onlookers. This will not be happening at
our dinner. For safety reasons, the turkey will be carved in a private
ceremony. I stress "private" meaning: Do not, under any circumstances,
enter the kitchen to laugh at me. Do not send small, unsuspecting children
to check on my progress. I have an electric knife. The turkey is unarmed.
It stands to reason that I will eventually win. When I do, we will eat.
I would like to take this opportunity to remind my young diners that
"passing the rolls" is not a football play. Nor is it a request to bean your
sister in the head with warm tasty bread.
Oh, and one reminder for the adults: For the duration of the meal, and
especially while in the presence of young diners, we will refer to the
giblet gravy by its lesser-known name: Cheese Sauce.
If a young diner questions you regarding the origins
or type of Cheese Sauce, plead ignorance.
Cheese Sauce stains.
Before I forget, there is one last change. Instead of offering a choice
between 12 different scrumptious desserts, we will be serving the
traditional pumpkin pie, garnished with whipped cream and small fingerprints.
You will still have a choice; take it or leave it.
I hope you aren't too disappointed that Martha Stewart
will not be dining with us this Thanksgiving.
She probably won't come next year either.
Author: Barbara A Tyler
Nov 25, 2008
I never quite understood "Black Friday"
Black Friday is almost here. Such a negative name for the day after Thanksgiving. I've never done the up-at-4am and at the stores by 5am thing. Oh wait, one time Jeff and I did go to one store to get a good deal on something one of the kids wanted for Christmas. The store was one of those open 24 hours a day anyway, so we arrived at 3am -- and the toy wasn't there! We asked if it would be available at 4am if we waited for the sale to start, and were told they'd already sold out. That was my last venture into Black Friday. I have better things to do -- like, sleep!
I didn't realize Black Friday includes shopping on the Internet. And I was even more pleased to find out that Amazon's "Black Friday" actually starts TODAY!
And look what I found -- something that's on my Christmas list for about $50 less than what I'd planned on paying for it. In fact, I just got an electronics store flyer in snail-mail and their Black Friday price was $139! See? No getting up at 4am for me!
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