My Backyard Chickies!

This is our third set of chicks.  We got our first set last year and then one of hens had a few more.  Well free range does not always work out well, especially when your neighbor gives them away for you.  So now we down to one hen left, Big Bird.  Well Big Bird makes it between the neighbors and our house.  We feed her and they get the eggs. 

Well, I am not sure if this is working for us and I would hate to have them give her away on us, so I needed to entice her back to the coop.  Now I will admit, my coop needs some rehab.  I took a design I had seen from a local ministry seed bank and put it to work in my yard.  Well, a few flaws, I do not have a laying hen house or a place for them to scratch.  So I have a few ideas how to make the corrections thanks to www.backyardchickens.com.

Thankfully, our local 4H club is selling baby chicks at the feed store down the road.  So we loaded up and went to get 2, to help bring Big Bird to the coop.  Well, we got there and they just had sold the last ones.  Lucky for us, the gal called to bring more up, so we hung around until they got there.  Well, 2 turned into 6! #2 and I could not help ourselves, we liked the yellow ones, black ones, and the turkins. 

For now, we have them on the porch with a light.  The chicks will be here for about the next 2 months.  I was hoping for older ones so I would not have this part of chickens, but the benefit is, they will be very tame chicks.  Especially with all the attention they are getting, below is  #3’s hand of love to them.  She has already been banded to “love” them without supervision.  She has fed them cookies and had to know what poop feels like. 

 

In about 6 months, I should get to boast that my pets make my breakfast.

~trish

#2’s Birthday cake - Truck

 

Here is my son’s birthday cake.  It took me a while to figure out what to do.  He has been disillusioned with Chuckie cheese Commercials and has only requested a Chuckie Cheese Cake.  Well, that was not going to happen.  I can go on about my despair of Chuckie Cheese and how it is not the wonderful entertainment of my childhood anymore, but I will spare you.  So after much thought, a TRUCK!

I made this from 2 box cakes and 2 tubs of icing.  My approximate cost $4.   I used sprinkles to color.   To get the shape, I  used 3 pans; a pyrex circle and rectangle pan and then my casserole pan.  He loved it.  I only quickly threw this together, i.e., started at 8 am and finished about 11 am, as I was boiling eggs for our Palm Sunday Traditional Egg Coloring Event at the House.  I snuck in a little birthday party in the mix this year, since I had a few people here and I could let him feel like he had a party without having one.  Shhh.

I believe next year we will be having just 1 party for all the kids and do a huge blow-out.  I am thinking of a theme with bounce houses, the whole 9 yards and make it like a festival.  Of course, I will still do a special cake for each one with just family.

~trish

Fridge Service call

My husband, bless his heart, had the best laugh at me about a year back.  My fridge was not keeping cold, but my freezer was working fine.  So, I called the service man to come have a look.  Now, my hopes were that I would be getting a “New to Me” huge fridge!  Well through his inspection of my fridge, he informs me that I am not allowing the vents to work because of all the “STUFF” in ziplock bags up against them. 

Well, news to me!  I had no idea that my fridge was cooled by the freezer venting into the fridge.  Oh, my husband rolled laughing that I had to have a service man tell me that I had too much “stuff” in the freezer and how to pack my fridge.  My husband swore by all means, this was a lack in my domestic upbringing!

The only one who ever used their freezer growing up was my Step-mom.  And Dad did have stories about how the last 2 feet at the bottom was no-mans land.  I did not give it much thought until I went to visit and opened her freezer.

So I believe using every cubic inch of the freezer is a learned behavior!

~trish

My week of Mexican in review.

I know I gave you just a single posting that I was going to do a week of mexican food.  Well, we did finish it up, but I never did post all the pictures.

   

Here all all my photos I had left for the week.  We had chicken, zucchini, rice and beans; green enchiladas, Chorizo as a taco salad and then in burritos.  We loved the Chorizo, but man did it take our stomach to get used to it.

~trish

Mommy’s first BENTO!

Here is my lunch and snacks for the day.  I am heading off to crop and scrap for the day and needed to bring my lunch.  This most awesome container, is one I got from Tupperware.  I love it, it has all the little compartments.  Previously, when I used it for the kids, the carrots spot fits a juice box.  The sandwich and chip spot is perfect for a flat sandwich and then you have 2 snack compartments.  Well, being true to bento style, it is all about packing.

 

So Mommy is having celery and carrots with ranch dressing, turkey and cheese sammies, fritos, cookies, peanuts, mandarins, and strawberries.  I hope to be cool at the lunch table like #1.

~trish

Bento 18

It was pizza Friday, but I was in luck that chicken nuggets would do!  I am excited that these nuggets are from my mega buy at Publix.  So she  had 4 nuggets, 2 cheese crackers, carrots (from the garden), ranch dressing, strawberries, and a swedish fish.

I felt like I was light on the lunch, but I had to keep in mind that it was their Easter party day.  So those little bunny cupcakes was on her menu later. – Everything was eaten.

I did investigate a new bento maker’s style.  Of course, I snuck into her lunch and took pictures.

This was her snack style, since her daughter was having the pizza.    She is using little ice cream cones as holders for the pretzels.

Do you love her use of Easter egg containers?  I love it!  Here is a better picture of the bunny filled with pickles!.

I believe her older daughter is now requesting a bento style lunch too.

~trish

Summer Sack Purse

Here is a quick purse for a child. I made this per a request for a little girl.  The front pocket is designed for a drink bottle.

Bunny Cup Cakes

I have to say I was inspired by the March All You Magazine.  I only grabbed it to add to my coupon resources.  Well, tomorrow is #1’s Easter party and I jumped at the chance to make the cupcakes.  Probably more effort than I should be exerting right now, when I have so much else to do.  Drum roll please…….

Here is the stash!

I used marshmallows cut in half with sugar sprinkles.  Chocolate chips for the eyes.  M&Ms for the nose.  Pretzels for the whiskers.   MIni marshmallows for the cheeks.  My only downfall was that I used fluffy icing.  I have a fear that this stuff is not going to harden up.  So I am nervous that the face will stay in tack.  We will find out!

~trish

bento 17

More of the same.  except this time I put mandarin oranges in the mix.  So she had cheetos, strawberries, celery with peanut butter and raisins, crackers with cheese, and turkey and cheese roll ups.  I am having a problem getting the picks back home.  I am not really in the mood to have those disposable.

The other skirt I made.

Here it is.  I swear I had to thumb through half a dozen pics to get this one.  I think my husband takes great effort to take a bad picture of me.

3/25/10 Winn-Dixie Shopping – spent $50.78

Now I was lured in with the Easter Dinner deal, where you buy a ham and get for FREE: country crock mac and cheese, ice cream, Hawaiian sweet rolls, and 2-liter of coke.  Now there are weeks, I do not go to Winn-Dixie, but when they do the meals I cannot miss out on them! 

So I went in with a plan and my coupons in hand.  Well, things went crazy in there.  I bought things, that I hadn’t planned on, WHY?  Manufacturers coupons on the items that were on SALE!

So I got my free meal as planned with the 10 pound ham.  I got hot dog buns and hamburger buns for our gathering this Sunday at $1 each, this is comparable to Sam’s club prices. 

Super deals!

Sandies! 10 packages!  They were BOGO $3.99 with $2/2 coupon on the package.  I spent $1 each.

Emeralds Peanuts! 5 containers! 1/2 off sale at $1.64 with $1 off coupon on each one.  I spent $ 0.64 each.

Town House Crackers! 6 boxes. BOGO $3.99 with $2/2 coupon on the box.  I spent $1 each

Betty Crocker Icing! 8 tubs.  Sale $0.99.  On these flavors had $0.25 off coupon. I spent $0.74 each.

 

Now on my coupons!  I had a $10 of $50, so my goal was to reach $50.  I spent $50.78 ( No TAX to the TAX MAN!). 

I had $92.75 saved by the sales and $25.40 in coupons, I saved a total of $118.15!

Sweet!

~trish

Angry Prego Strikes Anarchy to the clothes designers!

I can’t take it anymore!  Six years ago the clothes I had were for the most part perfect.  Thanks to the wonderful desire of generosity and sharing, I literally had some one take of with a large collection of the best clothes I had.  Especially, the full panel pants that were only in the belly section. 

No all the designers want these low-riders, no elastic pants.  Well, is it that I have gotten older or is it that I am on my fourth pregnancy that has caused my butt and hips to form one uniform shape, that creates no indention for my clothes to hold onto?  So with the way the clothes are now, you better have an indention at the hips and no pressure under the belly.  Well, I have no indention and a ton of pressure at the bladder so I live with constantly pulling and tugging at my clothes.

Ahhh!  I hate it.  My clothes are pulling at my undies.  I am going crazy!  So I gave up.  Looked through the fabric I just received from a friend and found something pleasant or peasant, as a test run.  Well, here was what I came up with.  I felt a little bit of little house on the prairie.  The shirt fitting under the tummy took the illusion of muumuu dress away. Also, I did pair it up with camisole sweater to give it some shape.

I will say this is first thing in the morning and at my age and this pregnancy, I do not wake up as fresh as a spring chicken anymore.  I am at 33 weeks, so just pass the 8 month mark.  Well I wasn’t sure about how it looked, but I gave it a whirl for the day.  At the end of the day, wow!  How nice was it to not have to tug and pull at my pants all day or try to discreetly fix my undies as my pants make them creep down.

This is a dark color for me.  I am considering tie-dyeing it with bleach.  I am hoping to get a more bohemian feel to it.  I made it a bit larger than my tummy, since I will get a lot bigger in the coming weeks.  I also have plans to take in the elastic after the baby.

So at the end of the day, I made another skirt for tomorrow.  A different look and style altogether.  You will have to wait until later to see it.

~trish

Toy Story – Jessie pants!

I was asked to help out making some jeans from Goodwill into a pair of Jessie pants.  Ohh, of course I hijacked the entire project!  Well first, I needed to know what Jessie looked like.

From there!  I got the iron out with the rotary cutter, and the sewing machine.  The details I wanted to get was the white fray on the bottom and black trim, another image had shown more black trim.  So with plenty of wonder-under, black bias tape, and white ribbon I created:

 

Sorry about the double picture.  I added silver studding, mostly because I had it to use.  I am slightly embarrassed to say, that these are from my super cool western days in high school, when I was the queen of the FFA!  My husband only laughed hysterically at me.  Oh well, a decade later, they are in use again.  I also added a star at on the back pockets.

I did give a few stitches at the bottom and across the top.  I hind sight, I would have cut the seam and stitched the whole thing together.

~trish

Bento 16

That wonderful pack of celery had to make it in.  SO!  Celery with peanut butter and raisins, turkey and cheese roll-ups (using the new fork-picks I got from Publix), strawberries, yogurt, cheetos, and a swedish fish.  Now I have had a lot of questions about the yogurt.  Well, this is what the  go-gurts look like, this one is banana split.

Now what is fun, is when you realize that there are other bentos in the class.  On our way yesterday, we found this one lurking the halls.  How neat was that!  The mom has her own blog and is at: http://ilovegreyskies.blogspot.com/

This is fun!  I also have another mom that just joined in and gave her kid, her first bento today.  I look forward to talking her into sending me pictures.

~trish

Bento supply found – reuse-able toothpicks!

From some of the other blogs, I have seen really cute toothpick things in the lunches.  I thought these were so cool and a nice addition to the bento.  I have been looking for 2 weeks and resigned that when I see them, then I will get them.  Well off at Publix, I found these in the clearance box.  I also then found tooth pick hearts at the Dollar Tree.

 

I also got so excited today!  On my way to take the girls to school, I seen another child and mom coming in with his bento box!  Oh, it was a super cool one.   I will have to steal a pic next time!

What a $100 feels like to me!

So I have told you in the past that I spend about $150 a week only and that is to buy everything but gas.  What is more shocking to others is that I typically do not spend more than $100 on groceries.  Of course, it is usually, HOW!, What do you eat? and so on.  So today I did my stock up shopping by buying based on sale adds.  Now this is not my normal spending/shopping week.  I have a LOT of stuff here I normally do not buy!  But when I spend a $100, this is about how much I get for it.  I am missing 1 bag of frozen nuggets, 1 loaf of bread, and 2 cans of generic ravioli that I already gave away.

What you do see is: 3 loaves of bread, 10 packages of 8 oz kraft cheese, 5 bags of frozen chicken nuggets, 4 family stouffer’s dinners, 2 V8 fusions, 4 syrups, 2 bags of flour, 1 sugar, 1 lb sausage, 3 packages of hotdogs, creamer, tea bags, cream cheese, 2 mandarin orange cans, celery, 2 packages of lance crackers, 2 bags of cereal, 4 bags of bagels, and i variety bag of frito lay chips.

The BIG DEALS! in this assortment. 

The chicken nuggets are 1 lb 10oz bags that were BOGO $5.99, I had $1 off coupon on each bag, so each bag was $2.  Compare that to drive thru wendy’s of 5 for $1!  I will add this in for a bento lunch or 2.

Lance crackers.  BOGO $2.89, I had $1 off each one.  So $0.89 for both!

Kraft Cheese. BOGO $3.69.  I had $2 off 2 and 10 of them!  So 10 pounds of cheese for $16.90!

 

So publix $41.60, Walmart $27.90, Winn Dixie $19.51, total $ 89.01

Huge thanks to!

www.southernsavers.com

www.iheartpublix.com

~trish

Birthday Bows!

I made these as a gift!

 

So I was making more hair bows as a gift this time.  My only challenge was what do I put them in to make them special.  As I was walking in my mom’s craft room, I seen a box she made for chocolates.  I figured how perfect!  The one big bow I made would not fit inside, so I made it part of the embellishment.  Inside, I made 2 slits to clip the clips too.  This girl loves camo!

~trish

Simplicity 2483

Here is the dresses I made for the girls.  I made them the next size up, since both of them are about out of the size they are in, but not yet the next size.  I love this fabric!  The pattern was not a bad pattern to make.  I did have difficulty in the pockets and it gave me an unfinished edged at  about 1/8th inch at both edges of each pocket.  I did get an amazing better way to use bias tape with the pattern.  I fudged the zippers and just used what I had.  I look forward to the warmer weather and all the colored tank tops I can match with the fabric.

Mom and Daughter Class by Mimi

So, this is Mimi!  And this is her “ROOM!”  It was beautiful and big and she has a TON of stuff!  So we made  a wonderful Easter  arrangement.  Here is her daughter and friend being productive.

Taa Daa!  Is this not the cutest!   You can check her out at her blog:

http://stampinwithmimi.blogspot.com/

 

~trish

Spring is here with strawberries!

Ahh!  Strawberries are in!  I got a flat of strawberries for about $13 from my favorite produce man!  My hopes were to jam them for this coming year.  Well, I will have to buy another flat to do that!  My honey and children devoured them at first glance.  So I do not have enough to jam.

bento 15

Yes, we missed yesterday!  I was way too tired to be accountable for much!  So today the girls went to school with friendship bread muffins, strawberries, raisins, yogurt, and apple sauce.  I just got a starter of friendship bread the other week.  I made the bread as mini muffins, regular muffins, and loaves.  I figured it was the perfect mix for the lunch.  Of course, I forgot the spoons.  Thank goodness, the school had some.

Bento 14 – Pizza Day!

This is the last of my bunny pizza, I will have to make more.  This is not my typical, but the bunny’s cried for change.  I filled the box with pizza and strawberries.  I added a go-gurt and a few m&m’s.  Any complaints? YES!  She was not happy that the go-gurt and the m&m’s were not IN the box!  What kind of monster did I create?  It came back empty!  She ate it all, but apparently presentation and containment is an important factor at the VPK lunch table.  Who would have thought?
I did want to show the typical drinks with her lunch.  I have an old baby bottle (5oz) for her juice and then I give her a water bottle.  I give her the water bottle as a just in case measure of if she is still thirsty.  I feel like she has enough produce that she really doesn’t need the juice, but it is keeping up with the lunches.  My #1 actually prefers water over soda.  The other 2 will steal my soda in a heart beat.

Bento 12 & 13

Remaining cheese Quesada with cherry tomatoes, frosted animal cookies, raisins, and 3 swedish fish swimming across the lunch.  A little background on what I figure to be my actual lunch cost for her meals is less than $1 a day. 

The pink frosted animal cookies are a bag from the day old bread store that I bought for about $ 1.25.  All of these cookies you have seen in the lunches are from the same bag and also the few that are stolen from the bag randomly though out the day by all others.  I like to buy bags of small cookies because 3-4 cookies at that size is the perfect portion.

The swedish fish that swim in now and then are from the same box from the Dollar Tree.  I still have about half a dozen left.  I buy a couple of packages of the jelly type treats to help break up the lunches.  Although, the worms had My son “the bird” attack and have been completely demolished.  I do have 1 more secret stash of gummies!

Mini Sammies, tomatoes, strawberries, watermelons, a oreo (walmart brand), and gummy worms.  This is thanks to the produce man.  I picked up a flat of strawberries and a watermelon, so they made an appearance at lunch.  Everything was eaten, but the gummies.  #1 complained that they were too sweet.  I usually will not add my hubby’s beloved generic oreos, but I was afraid with the vast amount of produce there would be no staying power in their tummies.  I am sure you have experienced the 2 hours after a salad, you are hungry for more.  So the cookie was to help keep them filled.

Bento 10 & 11

 
Cheese Quesada strips, tomatoes, jell-o, cookies, raisins, and 1/3 fruit roll-up. – Ate everything.

Fluffernutters, tomatoes, cookies, raisins, and gummy worms.  I cut the sammies into butterfly for the oldest, 2 – year old just got it with the crust off.  Dealing with the time change, my energy is slightly less.  - Both eat everything.
Yogurt has now been requested.  Thankfully, I picked up go-gurts or something like that in the tube and froze them.  I think I got them for about $0.80 a box.  So I am ready for yogurt in the lunch. 
Got to keep up at the lunch table.  This effort is all in keeping the total amount spent at the end of the week down.  So campaigning to keep her lunch box happy for her eyes is just my way of keeping those hot lunches out of her desire.  And my money in my pocket.
~trish

a New Clothes line!

My wonderful husband doubled my clothes line hanging ability!  To celebrate and not have to bend over, I made this to hold my clothes pins.  I just love the fabric and lined it with some old stuff I have had for years.

I made the pattern using a child’s hanger.  I made the opening too big, so it  hold less pins than I would have liked.  Well, have twice as much line, means I also need more pins.

At this point, I can hang 3 loads, but I am limited by the number of pins I have.  I am off to buy another bag of clothes pins.  So I am going to make a second hanger for the old line, matching of course.

~trish

Hair Bows

Now, I first seen the cute adorable hair bows at a craft show.  I love them!  But I can’t afford to get everyone I want for the girls.  I have tried to recreate them, with little success.  I finally got on to a new method with felt and cross-stitching.  They are beautiful, but a lot of work.  So I have only finished 1 set.  I decided I was going to get it together and make several hair bows to be ready for kindergarten.  The tool to success in making hair bows is the hot glue gun.

So today, I need some sitting time to give this poor prego body some rest.  So I made this!

I needed to make a frame to keep them together, otherwise my time would have been needlessly spent.  I made 2 with the clasping clip, brown ruffle with the pink middle and the green, blue, and brown ruffle.  I then used the snap clips for the rest.  You can get the snap clasp at wal-mart for about $2 for 10, but the best deal is using a coupon and getting them from Jo-Ann’s.  They are in the quilting  section and you can get about 30 for $3.  I like these the best, because they are larger and not already decorated.

The glittery one is made from felt, using a sizzix die cut.  I used Elmore's glue to add the glitter to the edges.  Now this was too much work and very messy.  Thus, why there is only one.  I used a brad to bring it together.

My next set of clips, was after I found the stash of flowers.  My #1 loves purple.  So I used ribbon to cover the clips and then I layered the flowers.  The sunflower is using a Stampin’ Up corduroy brad.

From there, I found the stash of stray ribbons.  I will say it was most relaxing with my little glue gun going to town.  I probably could handle a blog crawl to get some other inspiration for creating them.  I am excited to have a small loot of them ready.  I need to make a set for both girls for Easter and figure out their dresses.