as promised

I'm excited to add some new items to my store! I've been working on things that are perfect for teachers ~ lanyards and wristlet key fobs. What? You're not a teacher? Well, I bet you know one or two. These make perfect gifts for a very reasonable price.

But wait! These aren't just for teachers. People in many different professions wear lanyards these days. They are perfect for holding ID badges, not to mention keys. I made two different kinds. These are all patchwork and are about 1.25" wide.

These are more narrow, at about three quarters of an inch wide, and have a lobster claw clasp.

Gorgeous fabrics, right? You might need a few of them, you know, to match different outfits.

Lanyards just aren't your thing? Well, these wristlet key fobs might be just the ticket for you. It easily slips onto your wrist so you can keep your keys handy, but your hands free. Plus with these cheerful fabrics, it's not likely to get lost in your purse!

Head on over to the shop to check out all the options available. And as usual, I'll add more as I make them.

just a peek

This is just a peek at something awesome that will be coming this way soon.

Probably tomorrow.

fooled

When I make smoothies for Greg's breakfast in the morning, I usually make extra for the kids to have for breakfast as well. Our smoothies are pretty basic ~ yogurt, milk, bananas (2 because Greg likes it extra banana-ish), and frozen fruit (berries). The kids keep telling me how great it would be if I made them with ice cream instead of yogurt. I agree, but that's not flying for breakfast unless it's for the mommy ~ not that I've eaten ice cream for breakfast before! Shhh.

So the other day, the smoothie was straight up strawberry banana since we had used all of the mixed berries. I hear Heather very excitedly tell Stephanie that mommy used ice cream this time. She informed her that not only did it taste like it, but there was an empty ice cream container in the trash. Heather squealed. Stephanie squealed. And they both ran downstairs to devour the delicious smoothie they believed to be ice cream filled.

Fooled them.

Later that afternoon when the subject came up again, I kept up the farce came clean. I told them that it was indeed only yogurt in their smoothie and the reason the empty ice cream carton was in the trash was because Greg and I had ice cream before bed the night before.

From the looks on their faces, I'm not sure which miffed them the most ~ the fact that they had a regular smoothie (that was reportedly scrumptious enough to pass for the ice cream kind) or that we had ice cream without them the night before.

beading with grandma

The kids have been showing and interest in making jewelry lately. I spent some time with beads and such a while back, but my experience is really limited. So we called on an expert to help us. Grandma Smith accepted the challenge.

But first Grandpa Smith took us ladies out to lunch at the club. Ok, well, maybe it wasn't a club. But it felt like one and has the most beautiful view of our city. And there was a golf course somewhere nearby. On our way, the children declared that when they retire they are going to live in that area of town and be close to Grandma and Grandpa Smith. So sweet.

Then we spent the afternoon learning how to make these gorgeous bracelets while Grandpa napped in front of the t.v. So pretty and delicate. These were so much easier to make than I had imagined. Heather did the light blue and Stephanie did the pink. When we showed Greg, he was sufficiently impressed with our mad beading skillz.

I made mine with a darker, almost turquoise blue, but while burning the end of the string, the main string accidentally got severed as well. Oops. I am going to have to redo mine. No worries ~ now I'll be really good at it.

I'm pretty sure that when we have lunch with Suzanne today and go shopping at Joann's I'll be coerced sweet talked into buying some more beading supplies.

a look behind closed doors

Is there ever a time in your life when you declare enough is enough? For quite some time now I have been dissatisfied with the state of my Tupperware (although not all of it is actually Tupperware) cabinets. One holds all the bowls and a shelf in a lower cabinet holds all the lids. It had come to the point where I was so frustrated with the lids that I'd tell Heather which lid I needed and she'd dive in and look for it. She's getting really good at knowing which lids to with which bowls.

Yesterday, even she couldn't find the lid I needed. That moment was the catalyst moment. Something had to be done ~ and now. So on a whim I finally set out to rearrange the cabinets.

The cabinet with the bowls wasn't too badly organized, although a little jumbly. See that red one on top? Why was a bigger one on top of a smaller one? Sometimes this cabinet is in more disarray because for reasons unexplainable to me the kids seem unable or unwilling to stack like bowls with other like bowls. I am constantly restacking the bottom shelf.

This hideous mess is what sent me over the edge. I have attempted time and time again to organize this neatly. There are two baskets holding lids. There was once order and calmness in here. Now there is this. There are even lids on the lower shelf where they aren't supposed to be. At times I will admit that I open the door and throw the lids in there and shut it quickly. Getting a lid out? Well, you need a miner's lamp and some heavy equipment to venture into this black hole.

This cabinet is low (and I am not) which made getting lids out of the back a pain. Note to all home builders: Please only install the lower cabinets with those fancy pull-out drawers from now on! You will make our lives easier.

Viola! I decided to store the lids closer to their respective bowl mate. I moved the biggest bowls out of this cabinet and am amazed at the space it gave me. Let's take a moment to admire the beauty. Ahhh.

Some lids are lined up neatly next to its corresponding bottom. Easy to find. Easy to get.

Most lids are still in a basket, but still very close to their mate. The tiniest lids are in the yellow basket.

Order has been restored.

I put some seldom used items that I am unwilling to part with in the waaayy back of this lower cabinet. The bigger bowls and their lids are in the front of the cabinet. Easy to find. Easy to get.

This little project allowed me to get rid of some stuff. I found I had more lids than bottoms. Out they go. The containers that never shut quite right? Out they go.

cvs games

There are ladies out there who are real pros at shopping at CVS. Me? Strictly amateur! But every once in a while I am able to work out a smokin' deal for myself. All of the above stuff was only $46.95 ~ except the kid. She has been far more expensive than that! She was my shopping helper on Saturday. I ended up doing four transactions ~ only three of which were planned ~ during this trip. We won't discuss how I messed up and had to do a fourth one. The cashier was very accommodating. After it was all said and done I realized I could have had only two transactions. See? Amateur!

Anyway, let's talk about the super deals I got on some of the items.

The Neutrogena sunscreen was $9.99 each. Buy two and get $10 Extra Care Bucks. So each tube of sunscreen was essentially $4.99. Great deal there. I love this sunscreen! It's the only kind I've found besides baby sunscreen that doesn't sting my face and it's not greasy at all.

The Softsoap body wash was on sale for $3. Not a steal, but a good price. But if you bought a total of $15 worth, you get $5 EC bucks. I had four 75 cents off coupons. After coupons and EC bucks I paid $1.40 per bottle of body wash. Now that's a deal!

I've had my eye on the Fit and Fresh containers for the kids' bento-style lunches. At Target they are $9.99. I was willing to pay it, but just kept putting it off. Good thing I did because they were on clearance at CVS for $4.49. There was only one, but there was a coupon inside for $1 off another one. I found another one at a different CVS and only paid $3.49 for it. Awesome! And you better believe that with a cute new lunch container, I will be showing off the girls' lunches when school starts!

The baggies and hand soap were on sale and I did have coupons, but they weren't extraordinary deals just good ones.

When Greg saw me taking a picture of all of this he asked me what I was doing. I just smiled at him and he rolled his eyes and said, "Oh my gosh!"

P.S. Don't go to CVS expecting to get these deals. The sale was over on Saturday. I was shopping on the last day of the sale. Sorry.

menu plan monday ~ august 2

Except for getting milk and Dr. Pepper on Saturday, the last time I went grocery shopping was 12 days ago. I pretty much made my goal of making it two weeks ~ but I knew we'd need milk. Our fridge can't hold enough milk for our family for two weeks. The only time I drink milk is with Ovaltine sometimes while I'm getting ready in the morning. But for the other three chug-a-lugs in the house, I buy three gallons a week.

The kids and I are going grocery shopping today and I'm hoping to make it last two weeks again. That is, with the exception of milk and maybe some produce.

So I planned ten meals for the next two weeks. The other nights will be something easy, like grilled cheese and soup.

• chicken tetrazzini
• roasted chicken (crockpot)
• cheesy chicken & rice casserole (with leftover chicken from the crockpot)
• tacos
• shredded beef quesadillas (with leftover roast from last night)
• pizza
• swedish meatballs
• classic macaroni & cheese (the kind in the oven ~ fancy)
• stir fry
• steak and pasta salad

What's on your menu plan? Visit orgjunkie.com for more ideas.

it's the little things

The grand gestures in life are, well, certainly grand. The exotic trips, diamond bracelets, new cars.... But let's face it ~ when in life are we afforded such luxury on a grand scale? And really? All the grand gesture takes is money. The small moments in life require so much more than money.

Surely, it's the small moments in life that deserve the most attention. The small moments that, if you are not careful, get overlooked. Let's zoom in the camera lens and focus on the small moment while I tell you a story.

For those of you who know me just a little bit know my love for Mexican food runs deep and wide. A daily dose of the culinary delight is not too often in my opinion.  When we go out to eat, we can frequently be found in front of a bowl of chips and salsa with mariachi tunes wafting overhead. In the early days of dating, something else was happening at the table of which I was completely unaware. You see, our favorite restaurant has largish chips. In a single-handed movement, Greg would break a chip in half in the bowl and take one half, fully intending to come back for the other now perfectly sized chip. But before he could, I'd see a perfectly sized chip and swoop in on it.  Every.single.chip he broke in half for himself, I took the other half. Yet he kept on doing it ~ kept on letting me take the other half. He could have been stingy and taken the large chip out to hold onto the second half while he munched on the first half. But he didn't. He let me have it. He let this continue for many a night out before he told me. I honestly had no idea what I was doing. We laughed a good about it.

To this day, he still breaks his chips in half ~ one for him and one for me. And every once in a while, he gives me a little smile as he breaks the first one in half. It is in these small moments when I am struck by the notion of the little things Greg does to show me I am important to him ~ to show me his love.

We need to quit looking for the grand gesture in life and focus on the small moments of each day. It is by the small moments that our lives are defined. It is in the small moment we find true love show its face.

Take a minute and think about a small moment in your life when true love was shown to you. Share your small moment in the comments if you like ~ I'd love to hear it!


**Disclaimers: 

• The fact that this post comes on the heels of me breaking a sprinkler head while trying to do Greg a favor of mowing the grass yesterday is purely coincidental.
• I'm not so silly that I would turn down a grand gesture, say to Europe. Anyone? Anyone?

reverse applique tee

Suzanne asked if I could make a shirt with a number one on the front for Aiden's first birthday. No problem. I've done appliques before, but decided to use this opportunity to try a reverse applique. The idea of a reverse applique had been a little daunting for me. This being my first time for the reverse applique and all, I decided to document the possible disaster it for you to enjoy. Maybe you'll get up enough gumption to do it too!

Materials:

• tee shirt of your choice
• coordinating fabric
• matching or contrasting thread
• a number (or other figure) printed out or drawn on paper

I always prewash my fabrics and tees to minimize shrinking and funky looking appliques in subsequent washes.

Cut enough of the coordinating fabric for the image to fit on. If you want the image centered on the tee, fold it in half and pin at the center points.

Slide the fabric inside the tee with something underneath the fabric so you don't pin onto the back of the tee. I used one of my cutting rulers. You can use cardboard or anything else that will fit in there. Make sure the fabric lines up with where you will be placing your applique.

Place the applique on the front. You can see that I folded the number one in half so I can line the center point up with the pins that indicate the center point of the shirt. Pin the paper, the tee, and the fabric underneath together. Once you have it pinned, peek underneath to make sure you caught the coordinating fabric and everything is lined up the way you want it.

Stitch on the lines.

At the beginning and ending, you can backstitch a couple of stitches or you can leave a long tail, thread each tail on a needle and poke it to the underneath side of the shirt where you tie all the long threads.

Time to take the paper off. It felt like I was going to rip the stitches when I was ripping the paper away. So I wet the stitched area with a wet q-tip. The wet paper pulled away from the stitching pretty well.  I had to pick away a few small scraps.

In the center of the applique portion, pinch the tee to pull it away from the fabric underneath. You can pinch the fabric from underneath at the same time to make sure you've pulled them apart.

With small scissors, snip a hole in the center. Make sure you snip tee shirt material only!

Trim away the tee shirt fabric close to the stitching - about 1/8" close. Take your time so you don't accidentally snip the stitching. Snipping the stitching = not good.

After the front portion is trimmed away, trim the coordinating fabric to reduce the bulk.

And there you have a reverse applique tee shirt. I don't know what I was so afraid of because this turned out well and wasn't really that hard. What else can I stick a reverse applique on?

If you do a reverse applique ~ let me know, I'd love to see it!

I'm sharing this at Just a Girl's Show and Share Day.

And at Somewhat Simple's Strut Yourself Thursday. 

cute baby gift

Do you know someone who is having a baby? Need a gift? These cute baby items ~ receiving blanket, burp cloths, reversible bib, and diaper clutch ~ are available now in the shop. They are each sold separately.

up a tree

Did you ever climb a tree as a kid? We lived for a while in a neighborhood with the most awesome trees. Our neighbor had the perfect climbing tree. Every once in a while I'd climb with a book in my teeth so I could read up there. Nerd! I know. 

A couple of weeks ago the kids declared they wanted to climb the ash tree in the front yard. My scaredy-cat-mommy instincts kicked in and I just about broke out in a cold sweat. Luckily Greg was there to approve the activity and give them a boost into the tree because there aren't too many branches low enough for these shorty kids. They were giving each other boosts, but then only one person could be in the tree at a time.

Heather climbed the highest. She was somewhat limited, though, because the tree is still a little immature for major tree climbing.

Stephanie found a spot she liked and pretty much hung out there.

The longer she was in the tree, the more comfortable she was with the idea of it.

Later they made tree house signs ~ warning boys to stay out. Yesterday Greg said their signs were still up in the leafy maze of the tree.

After Greg and I went inside, I think they figured out how to get both of themselves in the tree without any grown up help.

Crazy monkeys!

menu plan monday ~ july 26

It's been a while since I've planned an official menu. Since I have a little more time on my hands these days (yay, summer!), it's a good time to refocus my efforts in this area. I'm also going to be planning a cooking day in the next few weeks to get some meals in the freezer for when school and dance start up again. I'm also still hoping to shave our monthly grocery budget down ~ way down. I also want to explore bread making some more & try out some different recipes, especially since I bought the brick of yeast from Costco!

This week we'll have:

• BBQ ribs in the crockpot 
• crescent chicken
• chef salad
• tacos
• homemade chicken noodle soup
• roast with mashed potatoes & gravy

We are still working on eating the beef cuts that we had in the freezer prior to buying our quarter cow. Except for hamburger meat, we haven't used any of the new beef. The hamburger meat was really good, by the way.

As always, visit orgjunkie.com for more menu ideas or to participate in Menu Plan Monday yourself. I get some new ideas for meals by reading what other people are doing.

what have you been up to?

What have you been doing these last few days?

Heather made this Mickey Mouse. So cute. She used double-sided tape to stick the beads on the paper. Clever.

I made this skirt for Heather's friend Maddy's birthday. We paired it with a black tee-shirt. There's a little bit of a story behind this skirt.

Suzanne was making herself a skirt. She miscalculated, the skirt ended up a little small, and she didn't have enough of the black polka dot fabric to fix it. So she gave me the too-small skirt. I cut a little off the sides and moved the waist down and Stephanie was the proud owner of a new skirt. Suzanne also gave me the extra floral fabric as well. I had some red polka dot material so I used that to make Heather a skirt. It wasn't until I was all done that I realized I had the same black polka dots! Suzanne bought herself some more fabric to try again. The three of them wore their skirts to school on the same day ~ all with a black tee. Maddy told Heather she wanted a skirt like that. So, I bought more of the floral fabric and ta da! One for Maddy too ~ and a black tee.

Aiden's first birthday party was this weekend. I made him a Kidlet and filled it with books, a coloring book, and crayons.

I am a firm believer that children should be introduced to crayons when they turn one. You are never too young to start to create! This is my favorite gift for one-year olds.

I made some more dishwasher magnets for the shop. I also made a few patchwork zipper pouches. Head on over to check them out.

And as an added bonus, I've almost conquered Mt. Washmore. Someday. Someday soon.