Days in the Sun

Winter hasn't been that bad here in Tennessee but for some reason it has been harder to handle this year. I long for warm sunny days outdoors. My husband and I made a trip to our favorite place, Norris State Park, last weekend just to get outside. The wind was blowing and it was chilly but the sun felt so good. We walked along the Clinch river and watched the wildlife. There were lots of geese, songbirds and otters. But the thing I enjoyed most were the Herons. There were 3 that were chasing each other back and forth in front of the area where we were. I was lucky enough to get this great shot of one of them. Being outdoors for the day reminded me that each season has its charms. I shouldn't wish so hard for spring and in the process miss what winter has to offer. I think too often in life I do the same, wish for something to hurry and pass so that I can get on to something else and I miss what that time has for me. So from here on out my goal is to enjoy each season of my life more for what it is, good or bad, and learn the lesson it has to offer. I'll end with one of my favorite quotes from Rainer Maria Rilke: If your everyday life seems poor, don't blame it; blame yourself; admit to yourself that you are not enough of a poet to call forth its riches; because for the creator there is no poverty and no poor indifferent place.

Making Cards on the cheap

Valentine card for my daughter I got the idea from a group on Flickr, changed and adapted it for my purposes. We turned it into a plaque for her wall. Making cards can save money. But assembling the supplies and really getting into this hobby can be expensive. I have found ways to save dollars and still have plenty of goodies to work with. The first thing to do is open your eyes to the ways to use things you might otherwise pass up. If you look in the aisles of Hobby Lobby you see items for scrap booking and card making such as fibers and unusual papers or metal objects. If you look at the picture below you can see many of the items that I have used in making my cards. I find most of my items at the thrift store, dollar stores and even in my garbage can.

Supplies I've collected

I have bought old board games such as Scrabble for 50 cents to a dollar and use the tiles for unique wording on pieces. Sometimes I just lay the words out on my scanner and copy them, cut out and paste onto my cards. I buy old patterns at thrift stores and flea markets, copy the cover and cut out for unique artwork. I cut up old maps for backgrounds(travel brochures are great sources of free clip art) use the inside papers from junk mail envelopes, use old sheet music, use pages of print from local papers or magazines, ribbon and trims bought on clearance. I copy old family black and white pictures, use pages from books bought at yard sales for pennies. My favorite resource right now is the Dollar Tree. They have rubber stamps and other scrapbook supplies such as paper and punches for $1 each.

Card making is a fun and rewarding hobby and can be an inexpensive one if you use your imagination.

Visit Biblical Womanhood for more frugal ideas.

This U2 video is so clever

I love it. It must have taken quite awhile to get it all the clips gathered and in sync.

Works for Me

One of my very favorite products to use is UnDo or Scrappers Solution, I have seen it sold under both names. It was made for Scrapbookers to use to remove stickers placed in the wrong place from scrapbook pages. The coolest thing about it is that you can put the sticker aside and let it dry and it will stick to the page again. I use it most often to remove stickers from presents that I am giving. It doesn't leave any oily spots or any marks at all. Just let it dry and there is no evidence of it at all. I have used it to remove stickers from very fragile packaging material such as tissue paper and it works great. It comes with the scraper that you see on the small bottle to lift the stickers. I always remove this from the bottle because the liquid is so thin it pours out and you only need about half what comes out of the bottle. Removing the scraper makes it easier to control the amount used. It is a little expensive but well worth the price because it takes such a small amount. Works for me

Happy Valentines Day

I'm posting this a day early because I'm not sure I'll be able to post tomorrow. I've been sick off and on since Christmas. Unfortunately more on than off. Usually we have our tree down by the first week of January but this year I was just too tired to do it. The middle of January rolled around and there it still stood. I got the ornaments off but the lights were still up. We used it as mood lighting! LOL. It became a joke around here that we would just throw a blanket over it and leave it until next Christmas. The end of January came around and still the tree loomed in the corner of our living room mocking me. One day my daughter came home from work with a mysterious bag and a big grin. She told me she had a surprise for me and pulled out two rolls of Valentine garland and told me that since the tree was still up we might as well make a Valentine tree out of it. So we proceeded to decorate the Valentine tree. I think it turned out really pretty. We used cardstock, paint and lots of glitter. Anyway, after tomorrow that tree is history. We joked that we would just leave it up and decorate it for every holiday but...no. Maybe if we had a den and a living room I might consider it but I am so sick of having this thing in my LR. The kids got a real kick out of it though and we had fun decorating it. Let me wish everyone has a Happy Valentines Day.

I laughed so hard at this!

Pray for this family.

A local family was devastated by a fire last night. They lost their 4 oldest children. The 911 calls were all over the news today and it was truly heartbreaking. I'm sure that the family would welcome the prayers of everyone so please keep them in your thoughts.

Laugh because it is Funny!

This video is one of the funniest things I've ever seen. It happened right here at the Comedy Barn in Pigeon Forge Tennessee. A couple audience members are brought on stage to participate. The guy in the middle has one of the funniest laughs I've ever heard.

Frugal Friday Tip: Pretty Peppermint Sugar

This is my first time contributing to the Frugal Friday posts. I should have posted this right after Christmas. If you are like us, you always have candy canes left over after the holidays. Here is a great idea that I wish I could take credit for, but I can't. I saw a piece on the Today Show after Christmas where this was one of the ideas presented. Take your leftover peppermint candy from Christmas and run it through your coffee grinder. You can clean your coffee grinder first by running some white rice through it. It makes a wonderful peppermint sugar that is great in hot chocolate or sprinkled over vanilla ice cream. I've also mixed it into whipped cream to use over chocolate cake. YUM! I would suggest that you could mix it to taste into powdered sugar to stretch your peppermint if you don't have many pieces. I think this would work well with any flavor hard candy. I want to try it with butterscotch. The results are pretty, pink and yummy.

Is there anything worse than being average?

I think not. I'm so average it hurts.

Angels

Patty over at Morning Ramble shared stories from her life where divine intervention kept her safe. It reminded me of something that happened almost 23 years ago . We lived in a small town outside of Montgomery Alabama. We were only married for a few years and didn't have much money, but we loved to window shop and imagine what we would buy if we could. One Saturday afternoon we decided to go to a local furniture store and look around to see what was new. We decided to split up, Randy took our 3 year old son to look around downstairs and I took our 13 month old daughter upstairs to look at sofas. If you have ever tried to carry a 13 month old around for very long you know that once they learn to walk, they want DOWN. When we got upstairs my daughter was squirming to get down out of my arms. I didn't see but one exit, the stairs we had just come up, and I decided it was safe enough. Besides, I wanted to look at the furniture in peace. So I let her down. She toddled away from me and the stairs. I kept one eye on her as I looked around to make sure she didn't go anywhere near the stairs. I felt perfectly safe letting her walk around the chairs and sofas, there was nothing I could see that could harm her. After a few minutes I had a "thought" come into my mind, very clear, "Where is Laura?" I looked over and called to her, I saw her look in my direction and smile. She was completely across the room from the stairs. Everything I saw said to me she was fine. I turned away and again, much stronger, much more urgent sounding, almost like an order barked at me, "WHERE IS LAURA? CHECK ON HER NOW" I literally jumped. I turned and ran over to where my daughter was. When I came around the sofa she was walking past I saw there, cut into the floor, right next to the wall not 2 feet from where she was, a slot about 15-16 inches wide. It was cut into the floor for the door to the delivery area downstairs to be raised and lowered. To you or I, or an older child even, that slot would not have been a real danger but to my 13 month old it was a death trap. If she had fallen through she would have falled about 20 feet to a hard concrete floor below. I snatched her up and sat shaking for a few minutes before I found the strength to walk back down those stairs. When I tried to tell my husband about what happened. I never could describe the voice I heard. It was much more than a thought, almost like someone standing speaking over my shoulder directly into my ear. I heard it as clear as a bell that second time. There have been other times that I believe Angels have protected my family. I may never understand why they have been spared harm, but I will always be grateful . Life gets us down, and is really hard sometimes. We should all remember how precious we are and that we are loved.

Free is *almost* always a good thing...

I've been trying an experiment. A few months ago I checked out the book A Mom's Guide to Making and Saving Thousands on the Internet. I found some useful tips and felt the book was a good read. I was intrigued by the section on internet freebies. Could a person really spend a few minutes each day filling out forms and receive enough free merchandise, samples and coupons to make it worth while? I set out to find out. My two biggest concerns, time and the knowledge that my email address would probably be bombarded with spam were taken care of with self imposed time limits and a new address at Yahoo used exclusively for freebies. I began by choosing freebies listed at the author's site Momdotcom.blogspot.com. I decided that I would only sign up for around 4 or 5 a day. This prevented my obsessive self from getting carried away with hours of surfing looking at one after another. I learned a few very important things: Stay away from what is called a 2 step offer. Basically a "Visit our sponsors site and choose blah blah blah...and we will send you XYZ." Do not fall for that one unless you are interested in signing up for new credit cards etc. My goal is to spend less not more. I am not interested in point rewards or any such program. Maybe there are benefits for certain consumers but not for my family. That is something each person would have to research for themselves. I am only interested in sampling a product so those are the offers I look for. Second, until and when you figure out what you are doing you will definately need that second email address. I signed up for quite a few items that continue to send email to my box everyday. In fact, I have already deleted that email address and opened a new one. For the period of one month I decided keep all items I received in a basket and take stock of whether my 5-10 minutes a day were worth it. Judge for yourself...

Advantages were I got to try products that I otherwise might not have. I received samples that were useful, some that were useless and some really cool things, like a Sponge Bob Square Pants battery toothbrush, useful posters for homeschooling, and even an entire info packet from Nato with a dvd and computer game. I continue to get coupons on items from various companies. Most of the coupons are for $1 off or more.

All in all I give the experience and the book a grade of B. I would recommend it but caution you to look closely at each site you visit and only sign up for those directly connected to the product that you are requesting a sample of OR through a reputable company such as Wal Mart or Target. Free should be just that,free, without a catch of any sort. If you try this, drop me a line with your results.