Coupons, Coupons, Coupons!!

So since the start of the year I've been doing some couponing. Not extreme (ok kinda) but just buying things I know we will use when they are at a good price (or free!)

I've watched probably every episode of Extreme Couponing and it just fascinates me. I know some episodes and people they have featured have been cases of coupon fraud....but for those that are legit, it blows me away! I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm cheap, so this works for me.

I learned a little from a friend of mine, and from reading other blogs of couponers. Now I'm teaching a few other friends, and my sister.

Here's a few of the shopping trips I've had this last 5 weeks.....

Do you see on the Walmart receipt where they PAID me $0.18?!?! Yep! You should have seen the confusion on the cashiers face when her register said that hahaha. She was so clueless.

Approximate retail value of all that stuff is $710. I've paid approx $169!!

If you want to see what I do every week, head on over to my facebook page and check it out! Feel free to ask questions too!

What do you do to save money??

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Hope everyone had a fun and safe new year last night! Mine was totally lame. I did the exact same thing I did last year, which was nothing. I sat in bed with the kid and crocheted a baby hat while we watched tv. And to make it worse, I accidentally missed the countdown...I was on the wrong channel. We started hearing fireworks and I checked my phone, it was 12. Oops, sorry kid....happy new year, time for bed. Then I spent another hour and a half watching the Kardashians (my guilty pleasure, shh don't tell).

So here we are in 2013. I don't neccesarily make resolutions, but there are a few things I need to work on personally this year. Also some goals I would like to accomplish. I had some rough times in 2012 and I'm hoping this year turns out to be better.

Since I've been absent from my blog for the last 6 months I thought I would catch you up my life through the eyes of Instagram. Here's what I've been doing....

I took a girls trip with my mom and sister to the lake. It was a really good weekend :)

Yep, I read all these books....and then started the Crossfire novels, which are along the same lines. Loved them all!

We went to more ball games this year than I can count.

 

Us, on the right, with my sis and her boo at a ball game.

And another ball game....told you we went to a lot of games!

I changed my hair color from the navy blue that it was, to this turquoise color.

Spent some time with the family at the water park.

Went to KC Irish Fest in the heaviest downpour ever!

Had some amazing craft beers brewed at my favorite brewery in KC.



Fell in a hole at my bff's house at her bachelorette party. Sprained ankle. Super fun to walk down the aisle in heels at her wedding! Took 2 months for this to heal :(

Enjoyed some blissful nights by the firepit.

These dogs crack me up! She falls asleep sitting up!

Mr. Perfect bought me a gorgeous orchid plant. I usually end up killing them after a few months, but they are so pretty to look at until then.

For 3 years we have not had a working overhead light in the kitchen. Don't ask me why it took us so long to just get a new light, but we finally did! What a difference that has made around here

Enjoyed a Vetereans Day celebration at the kiddo's school. My dad was invited to be honored. It was a special day, and I was happy to be able to go.

Sat through the kiddo's first violin performance of the year.

Raking, ugh, nuff said

My sweet baby in the leaves. I mean seriously, the cuteness!

Little baby got a yellow pea coat to wear in the cold. She has next to no hair and comes from NC.

Christmas!

Played a very competitive game of electronic Monopoly with the family.

Made super cute little tote bags to hold gifts for the nieces for Christmas

Really? Little dog is lucky old dog is so nice...

Had a dinner date with my kiddo. Finally convinced her to get something other than a gross cheeseburger at the mexican place we like to go to. Those tacos are the best!

Thanks to mom and dad for the new laptop for Christmas!!! Now I can blog again ;)

It snowed several inches yesterday. I thought it was just darling that these two were watching it together. Best friend love.

 

 

Hope you enjoyed some of the better things that have happened in the last 6 months. There was also some bad, lots of bad, but I won't get into that here. Hope everyone is enjoying the new year! I will be back very soon to show you some of the projects I have been working on around here :)

 

Happy 2013!

I'M BACK!!!!

HELLO!!! My poor little blog I have ignored for oh, 6 months :(  My laptop died in July. I've been stuck using my super slow, ancient desktop. So basically I only use it for paying my bills and...yeah that's pretty much it. BUT, mom and dad save the day! New, amazing laptop for Christmas. Yup, I love it. So now I can blog again :)


Is anyone still out there? Anyone?? I love you forever if you are....

Grrr

So my laptop is on the fritz....permanently. I went out of town last weekend with my mom and sis for a girls weekend and when I came back the laptop was D.E.A.D.  I'm so frustrated. Everything is on that computer. My parents can pull all the files off, no problem. But I'm losing all my software, photo editing programs, everything. Not sure what I'm going to do. Nothing right now, I'm going out of town again this week. In the meantime, I suppose I won't be blogging much. With all my trips this month and now this, I haven't had time for anything.

I'm writing this post from my desktop. Unfortunately, it is older than my laptop and doesn't have the capability to do much past internet and word processing. So forgive me for not blogging lately. Don't leave me friends. I will get this all sorted out, eventually.

In other news, I'm guest judging on The CSI Project this week. I'm pretty excited about it! Her theme this week is refashions and you all know how I love a good refashion!

Anywho, until I get my computer situation figured out, I'll see ya later!

Happy Birthday America!!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!! Whether you are spending today with friends or family, having a bbq or swimming, I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday!!!

Aren't fireworks the BEST?????? LOVE them!!!!!

Giveaway Time!!!

Hi friends! Sorry for my absence. If you didn't know, I am a school photographer by profession. My summer, sadly, is over. I went back to work last week. We have lots and lots of seniors to photograph during the summer. It's a total bummer because I'm never ready to go back after having 6 weeks off. It just doesn't seem long enough. I always have a difficult time having motivation for anything when I go back to work. I get off, I come home and I seriously sit on the couch the rest of the day. Maybe because I'm used to going about my day at my own pace by the time I go back and working wears me out. Ugh.

On top of work, the kiddo had her 11th birthday last weekend. Talk about exhausting. Shopping for presents, food for the sleepover, planning the sleepover, entertaining the girls, cleaning the house, it seriously stressed me out. I'm SO glad we are done with the party. The only thing I still have looming over my head is her family party....which may never happen. We cancelled the family portion last weekend because 3 of her cousins have chicken pox and 3 more of them are in contagious stages. Seriously bad timing for that. But now that it's all over, I took the kiddo over to share lollypops with them yesterday. 2 weeks from now, we should be seeing spots. She's not thrilled about it at all. I'm not thrilled either, but we figure it would be best for her to get over it now when she's 11 and she won't miss any school for it. Can we just fast forward to like, September????

I'm sure you are tired of my ranting, so I will stop.

I don't have any wonderful sewing tip this week. BUT I do have a little sewing project to share with you AND a fabulous giveaway at the end. Woo Hoo!!

A couple weeks ago I replied to a request for pattern testers at At Home With Mrs H. Samantha was wanting people to test her pattern for a bow pleated bag. It's super cute!

Here is how mine turned out!

Ignore my chipping polish {yuck}.

Cute right?!?!

Her pattern is super easy to use. It has options for a fixed strap, as opposed to the adjustable one on mine. And it has an option for a slip pocket inside instead of a zippered one.

Wanna make your own?!?!?!?  Samantha is letting me giveaway one of her patterns to one of you lucky ducks! All you have to do is leave me a comment telling me what color you would make your bag if you won!!  :)

For a bonus entry, like me on Facebook. Then leave a separate comment telling me you did so. If you already like me, leave a separate comment saying you already follow :)

Last giveaway I did a couple weeks ago only had ONE person enter, so your chances are pretty good at winning if you enter. Just sayin'

Giveaway closes next Monday (7/2) at 11:59pm. Winner chosen by random and announced Tuesday July 3rd.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE --------->  If you don't win and still want a pattern, Samantha is offering my friends 15% off the pattern in her etsy store!!!! WOOT!!! Click here to visit her etsy store. Enter the code BOWPLEAT15 for the discount!

Go enter people!!

Facebook Update and a little Ranting

I'm going to go ahead and get the ranting off my chest. Please forgive me if I sound a little peeved, but I am. 

The other day I got a comment that I felt was rude. I have deleted it from my blog. I'm not going to say what it said, or who said it, but it was just one sentence that put down my project. And this person doesn't have their email address activated so I couldn't respond to resolve this....hence, the reason for this post. I like to keep my blog as an upbeat place. Everyone has struggles and stress that exist in their private lives, and I am no exception to that. So my blog is my happy place. It's my place to share my projects and encourage other people to be creative and do what they love. I feel like there is a little community surrounding blogging and that community is generally very supportive and uplifting. So from here on out, let's live by the golden rule, shall we?

If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all!!!

That concludes my rant. Sorry if that made you uncomfortable. Hopefully I won't have to do it again :)

Moving on to something more exciting...

I started a Facebook fan page for my blog about 6 weeks ago or so. I don't post on there all day long, but I keep it pretty updated. I hadn't really done anything to make it look pretty or be very welcoming, until now. Things are looking a little nicer over there. Won't you go check it out and like me, you know, if you want to???

You can click this link or follow me through the button on my sidebar.

Love you all bunches and bunches!! Have a great hump day!

Updates

Yes, I am still alive!! I haven't posted in over a week and I feel SUPER guilty about that. I have a whole list of projects to share with you, just haven't gotten around to doing it. So here's an update about what's been going on that's kept me away from bloggy land.

My kiddo graduated 5th grade last week! AHHH!!! She looks and {sometimes} acts more like a 3rd grader haha. Hope she doesn't get eaten alive next year.

My much dreaded 30th birthday was last Friday! Eek! The good news is I didn't develop gray hair or deep wrinkles over night. The bad news is, I still don't like it. Here's the highlights {I'll spare you all the party pics and just show you the nice pics}

I got a Silhouette Cameo!!!!!!!!!!!! SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!! {not that you can tell}

We had cupcakes with mustaches that my sister made. The cupcakes were to die for! Made with Blue Moon, Guinness, Pink Champagne......the best! And candy staches. We had a seriously fun time with these. She made 3 different kinds in tons of fun colors. I loved it!

Check out this potting bench my dad made me! It's gorgeous. I can plant flowers in the middle and it has seating on each side. He's so handy :)

And we had a new little one join our family in the last week. Her name is Zoey and she's just the most precious little girl ever.

I mean, seriously, check out all that CUTENESS!!! She's so darling. She is a beagle, whippet mix and we just love her. She has fit in really well at our house. I've even caught her and my old pitbull, Carmen, cuddling. I pretty much snuggle her constantly.

More great DIY/crafty posts are soon to come my friends..... Can't wait to show you what I've been working on!