Menu Planning

I don't think this is my first Menu Plan Monday, but it has been quite awhile. Menu Planning is something that I used to do all of the time and have become a little (a lot) relaxed on lately. I based my menu this week on what we have in the house and that I can easily make this week with out purchasing a lot from the store. I do have to get a few items, but this will be a very frugal week. I hope that I can pull a menu together next week with the same concept.

Monday - Baked Mostaccioli with Sausage (leftover from Sunday)

Tuesday - Oven Fried Chicken with sweet potatoes and broccoli edit: Really good and we ended up having a salad instead of broccoli

Wednesday - Beef Roast with potatoes and carrots edit" we ended up having hamburgers and tater tots, I forgot to take the roast out of the oven in time and it was not thawed.

Thursday - Hoppin John Soup with Rice and Sweet Corn Muffins

Friday - Pizza

Saturday - Baked Potato Soup with Bread Bowls

Sunday - Kathy's Delicious Whole Slow Cooker Chicken served with Rice


Want to see more menu ideas head on over to I'm an Organizing Junkie and check out Menu Plan Monday.

16.5 things to do before I turn 34...

The new year is fast approaching us I am not a resolution person, well, let me say that I am the typical resolution making person, make them on January 1st and by January 15th they have gone by the wayside. This year, I’m not making any resolutions but I am going to make a list of 16-1/2 things I want to do before I turn 34. That gives me 5 months from today. My 34th birthday is May 23rd.

There are many people out there that make lists of things that they want to do or need to do. I am a list maker (not necessarily a list completer) but feel that I need to do this to feel better about myself.

The year 2008 has been a pretty tough year on me and my family. From the flooding of our basement to the most recent of my diamond popping out of my engagement ring and all the stuff that happened in between. I have been pretty hard on myself, my husband, my friends and my kids. I really don’t blame anyone, there is really no one to blame, life happens and it really happens for a reason, what that reason is I’m not sure but I do know that it will be shown to me at a later date.

Here is a list of the 16.5 things I want to complete before I turn 34.

1. Write a list of all the bad things that happened to us in 2008 and burn them in the fireplace. Let’s forget about them and start anew.
2. Pay off 2 credit cards.
3. Make plans to spend some time with my close friends (Kristi & Nancy we need to work on this).
4. Complete 2 of my quilt projects that are started.
5. Read at least 1 book a month for 5 months (Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May)
6. Send a care package of baked goods once a month (Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May) to an unsuspecting recipient.
7. Make a craft once a month with the boys (Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May)
8. Read 5 times per week with the boys ‘
9. Send birthday cards (Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May)
10. Make weekly meal plans (and stick to it) for 6 weeks.
11. Set up a savings account with automatic transfers from our checking accounts for Christmas next year.
12. Organize my storage closet, the one that houses all of my fabrics.
13. Plan a family outing once a month to someplace fun (Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May)
14. Do something creative every week.
15. Make a minimum of 1 block a week on my Baby Jane® scrappy quilt. (This one will be a challenge I’m sure!)
16. Hang my coffee cups under my counter. (They have been sitting there waiting to be hung since I received them for Mother’s Day)
16.5 Participate in the Cookie Carnival each month (Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May)

Some of these will be easy for me…some of them will be a challenge. I’m also going to try to be better about posting pics and pieces of our everyday. As I said above, 2008 turned out to be a really hard year for us, not necessarily bad we learned a lot from what happened to us, but definitely hard to handle. Of course, once this ambitious list is complete, I’ll have to come up with 34 things to do in my 34th year….hmmmm, maybe I should start thinking about that!!

My mantra for the last week (besides the prayer to St. Anthony) has been “All will be fine in 2009” and I truly believe that!

This That and the Other....

Is hosting a GIVEAWAY! And all you have to do is leave a comment on her blog voting for which Name you like for her weekly Quilt/Sewing Blog Feature. Isn't this adorable! This cute little table runner is what you can WIN!!!

My personal choice is "Press Her Foot Friday". But she has a lot of cute names to choose from. That's just the one that caught my attention.

Holiday time

I have been working on my gifts lists for the upcoming season and am going to be cutting into some fabric today for a few gifts for some girls on my list. I am going to try to make as many gifts as I can this year and must get a head start.

Here is my list so far:

2-3 Ragged Squares Quilt
Several sets of Patchwork Towels
2 Rocket Ships
a few crayon rolls that I gave a few Christmas' ago and have decided to do again
Silhoutte pictures of the boys for the grandmas
Tree pencil toppers for the boys' classmates at Christmas (on need to do 50)
And a few of these bags as gifts as well.

That's just the start of my list. Along with some other projects I'm working on. I think it will feel good to make as many gifts as I can this year. I need some ideas for teacher gifts, I definitely need for and perhaps 2 more for the girls in the office at pre-school. Any ideas??

I'm still here...kinda

It's been a busy month. School started in August, back to work for me, birthday party in September, run, run, run, run, an order for 20 witches, 20 frankensteins and 6 cats that turned in to me getting another order for 40 witches and 40 frankensteins, 2009 document prepartions for another job and then the daily household stuff, laundry, dishes and sometimes vacuuming. The house isn't dirty but I wouldn't call it clean.

Here are some things that I worked on during my absence:

My dining room chairs BEFORE:
and AFTER:

And this is a birthday cake that I did for M's 6th birthday. He's really into Star Wars right now.

And just another snapshot...he had 5 friends come over and they all kept taking the figures off. I finally told them that the next person that removed one would lose their fingers. They stopped, thank goodness.

And now my external drive is not acting right so I cannot upload any other photos. I'll have to wait for S to look at it. It probably came unplugged again. More pictures later, maybe next week.

Storage Cubes

I was not feeling well today and didn't feel like doing much in the line of housework. I do have to go into work and thought some relaxation was necessary. Crazy Mom Quilts is hosting "Gifts to Create for Christmas '08", she is posting tutorials for different handmade gifts.

One that looked easy enough to complete in a small time frame was the Storage Cubes. I already had precut fabric squares, a few boxes in the recycle bin and a remnant of some plastic vinyl. I set out to work. It took me a little less than an hour to complete this project.

Here is the finished storage cube.

I like it, no I love it. The tutorial was easy to follow with clear directions. I'll be making some more of these cuties. And maybe some of the ones that nest.

Some Fun on Labor Day

A quick break from refinishing my dining room chairs. S and the boys have gone fishing and I have been sanding and decided to take a quick break. I found this over at Monica's and thought it would be fun!!

1. In Wendy's Garden, 2. Strawberry, 3. Taylorville High School, 4. Flores do cerrado 623, 5. ~~ When The Sun Goes Down..... ~~, 6. Sweet Iced Tea, 7. the sun over tuscany, 8. White Chocolate Strawberry Shortcake with Creme Fraiche, 9. SOMEWHERE IN THE SUN, 10. Duomo, Gubbio - Italy, 11. So close, So far.., 12. SQALwk2

Here's what you do if you'd like to participate:

Here’s how it works:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker. Choose 3 columns with 4 rows.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to? (or, What year did you graduate high school?)
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name. (kid version: favorite animal?)

That's it!! Have a great Labor Day!!!