Back to School Time

Picture from Organized Home

Call me crazy, but I started and completed the boys' back to school supply shopping on Sunday. Why? Are you Crazy? To be quite honest, YES! We are going on vacation in August the week before school starts. We arrive home on Sunday, meet the teacher on Monday and start school on Tuesday. I won't have time once August arrives to get that oh so necessary supply shopping done.

At the end of the year, the school sent home a flier for a Supply Kit. Hmmm, I almost bought it for the nice little price of $34.00 (which included shipping and handling) and that only would have been for M. Then I thought about it, I can do better than that, I have to buy supplies for 2 this year.

I knew on Friday I would be doing my shopping on Sunday. I received my email ad from Staples with penny deals. I wrote out a combined list for both boys, checked my current supplies, then checked the other sales ads and got ready to go. My first stop was Target. They had colored pencils for $.50 a box, I needed 1 but bought 2 the second is a backup for later in the year. They also had pencils boxes for $.50, picked up 2 as that is what I needed. Next on the list was backpacks. I got a great deal, I picked up two $9 backpacks and received for free 2 $9.99 lunch bags. I picked up a few other things that were not school related but vacation related and checked out.

I headed over to Staples, 3 pink erasers $1, a pkg of 8 pencils a penny with a limit of 2, scissors 2 pairs for $1, highlighters 6 per pkg $1 limit of 2, binders $.99 and then they had reams of copy paper buy them for $3.69 get a $3.68 rebate (makes them a penny each) with a limit of 2 and lastly a 60 pack of 4x6 photo paper for $8.99 with a $7.99 rebate (making it $1.00). They also had a coupon if you spend $20 you get $5 off. My total at Staples was $26.90 and I will be receiving $16.35 in rebates. Not to bad.

Next stop the dreaded Wal-Mart, but I finished up my shopping there and spent $17.56.

All being said, with 2 backpacks and all of their supplies I spent $46.90, which means I spent $28.90 on supplies for 2 kids and have lots of extras, versus spending $34 on one kid and still having to go out and go shopping. And we have enough supplies to get us started for the school year and we will have extras for later in the year. Will I hit the stores after school starts for their clearance deals? Of course, because extra supplies make great teacher gifts or stocking stuffers or friend gifts for upcoming birthday parties we will be having.

Up next I will be seeking some clothes deals. But I've decided they only need a few outfits each to start the school year. We're good on clothes as well!!!

Have you started your back to school shopping?

WIP

I haven't started anything new, I've been working on some old projects this week.

How's it going? Quite well...

1. John Deere Cushions for Lara - DONE - Sunday, July 5. Needs to be delivered the next time I make a trip home.

2. Pinwheel Baby Quilt for my newest niece - quilt top almost done, working on prairie points.

3. Ragged Squares Quilt x 2 - my mom asked me to make for someone that she works with, one for the new baby girl due any day and one for her big sister. Both need to be sandwiched, quilted and binded. This is Lucie's.

4. Black and White Sox Quilt - this one is for my husband and his love of the White Sox. I started it in July and at the beginning of the week only had 5 sets of 4 blocks done. There are a total of 12 sets of 4 blocks. Making the quilt have 48 blocks. Here's the layout....

and a somewhate closeup of the 12 different fabrics.

Sorry for the fuzzy pictures, it's cloudy and rainy here on the day the pictures were taken.

It doesn't look like much, but I feel good about getting a bit of work completed this week. There are still some WIP that I need to pull out and work on, but I think working on 3 projects at a time, a little bit each day is enough for me to handle. With a little persistence, I should have at least 3 of these done by next week!!!

Independence Day

We attended a party on the 4th of July, I had not been feeling well for a few days and needed something quick to take with us. Not that these were quick, but they were fun and I made them festive. My original plans were to make all white sugar cookies and use blue and red sprinkles on them. I didn't have any blue sprinkles and neither did the grocery store (and I wasn't about to run all over town looking for some). I ended up having a lightbulb moment and thought, why couldn't I tint the cookies. So that's what I did, rolled them in sugar and baked!

Stacked Coins Quilt

My neighbor had a baby boy in May. A few of our other neighbors threw an impromptu baby shower for her, I had 2 days notice. I went, without a gift, BUT told her that I would like to make her a quilt. And here it is.

A glimpse of the back, with it's tag.

All folded up....

ready to be delivered....

I used 2 charm packs of Moda Neptune and unbleached muslin. For the back, I had a leftover piece of pre-quilted fabric from a bedspread another neighbor wanted me to make and I followed the quilted lines for my quilt.

The pattern used can be found at Moda Bake Shop. The pattern is Stacked Coins Baby Quilt.

Three by Three Swap - June Blocks

Completed, packaged and mailed off Wednesday!!!

Sorry, my photo taking skills need improvement as well as my phot editing skills.

Friday Baking with NotQuiteJuneCleaver

I was reading about NotQuiteJuneCleaver's Friday Baking and decided on Monday I was going to make the recipes. Shannon was going to a White Sox game and well, it was just me and the boys. We headed to the store to grab a few missing ingredients (3 to be exact) and came home to get started.

You can find the recipes here. First up, Quiche Susan. I have made Quiche once, did not bake it long enough and the middle was not quite done and well, it was gross. This one however, was AWESOME! The boys helped themselves to seconds.

I used 1 cup orange cauliflower, 1 cup broccoli and 1 cup mushrooms (these were all in the refrigerator). Sauteed them in olive oil and butter, until they were crisp tender.

I used a store bought deep dish pie crust (I didn't have time to make one as when I decided to start it was already 4:30 and we had to run to the store for those missing ingredients).

I used a mix of mozzarella, monterey, colby and parmesan for my cheeses. How yummy does this look right out of the oven????

And let me just say (and the boys agreed) this tastes even better than it looks. We'll be making this recipe again with different veggies, whatever we have on hand.

Next up was the Mixed Berry Cobbler. In the freezer, I had a bag of Mixed berries that included blueberries, blackberries and raspberries. The bag contained 3 cups. Hmm, what to do since strawberries were not recommended and I have lots of those in the freezer, I had some rhubarb. Well, that should work. I followed the rest of the directions and well, it was pretty good.

I forgot to snap a photo of it with the ice cream on top. It was really good and the kids have enjoyed it warmed with ice cream the last few days. I did get my strawberries into the cobbler through my ice cream, I used Strawberry Supreme Frozen Yogurt by Schwan's. It was oh so very good!!!

Tea Towel and Potholder Swap

As I talked about here, I participated in a Swap over at down---to---earth. The items were to be postmarked by April 26, 2009. My swap partner was on holiday and not able to get a package ready to send to me, so I was waiting to hear back from her. I posted my package to her today. We are already getting busy with summer activities and I didn't want to sit on it any longer, better she has it and is able to use it.

Here is what I sent to her:

2 potholders

A dishtowel that I added the same fabrics from the potholders to:

She has chickens and I thought it only appropriate to send her an embroidered tea towel.

Okay, two tea towels, you can't have a rooster without a hen:

I found the embroidery patterns at Vintage Transfer Finds. She has a lot of great embroidery patterns.

We were also supposed to include a sweet or savory recipe. She chose savory, so I sent her our recipe for Sausage & Pepper Pasta.