September Acres

Last weekend we headed out to Dillards to find sheets for our new bed. No luck on the sheets but check out this lovely cake stand I found tucked away on the 70% off rack. I fell in love with it when I saw it and I was more in love with the price :$5.79! There were lots of great deals on that rack. We also scored a large white stoneware platter for $9.00. Make sure you check out those racks in the corners at the end of the season. Bargains abound and it reinforces my motto: You never need to pay full price for anything! Head over to the Shabby Nest for Frugal Friday.

I am joining the 'I can make that party' hosted by Just a Girl today. LOTS of fun, easy, thrifty Christmas gift ideas. Head on over and check it out. Here's what I have: Little jars of hot cocoa mix. They would be great for teachers, babysitters, mail carriers, coaches, scout leaders, neighbors, etc. I used jars I had from mushrooms. The Walmart brand mushrooms are great because the top is solid gold so I didn't have to try to cover a logo. I have been collecting these jars for months just for this project. You can use already made hot cocoa mix (buy it in bulk) or make your own. I made a little tag with instructions (sorry it's blurry). Just printed the instructions on regular paper - you could also use cardstock . I used these rub- ons from Target's $1 spot to decorate the jar and part of the label. I got one sheet of the red and one of the blue for $1. Can't beat that! You could also paint the jar or use stickers. Just be creative. Eve...

it's time to start Christmas shopping. I can't believe it is October 22 nd already. Every year I say it, but 'where does the time go?' I have always been an early Christmas shopper. I am done with all shopping before Thanksgiving. Except for the Secret Santa gifts on my husband's side since names don't get picked until Thanksgiving day. I don't do well with that system at all but what can I do?? I have already started my shopping. Of course. We're not sure what we're getting LM for her 'big' gift this year. Either a trampoline (this would pretty much be family gift since I would enjoy it just as much as she would) OR a Barbie camper. It's pretty snazzy. Nothing like the one I had as a young girl. I remember no toilet in mine. No TV either. Times, they are a-changing. Anyway, I think the logistics of Santa putting the trampoline together on Christmas Eve, presumably in the dark, would be a nightmare. So, I am thinking camper for C...

to stimulate the economy. We headed out to the mall yesterday. Snagged some bargains. Cleared out the stockroom at Dillards. Stimulated the economy. First, here is part of my husband's haul. He loves Polo. Polo loves him. It fits, he likes it. It's a win-win. And the Polo department is right at the door we always use when we go to the mall. (I am a creature of habit. I always use the same door when I go shopping anywhere. I find a place I like and that's it. Please don't try to confuse me and make me use another door. I usually try to get the same parking spot, too. Or within the same area. I am sure this is some kind of illness. And I am sure there are meds out there for it.) If he ever wears the shorts and orange T together I won't lose him. Oh, the best part: each item = $8.99. I felt guilty. A glimpse at what Little Miss came home with. I am seeing the skirt with a pink top or turtleneck, jean jacket and her pink Uggs. That's the nice thing about living he...

The story below is not intended to offend or hurt anyone and I apologize in advance if it has that effect. It is intended to really demonstrate that our kids are always listening to us . I know that most of us have nicknames (some nice, some not) for places we shop. Here, we refer to Walmart as 'the Curry-Mao-Mart'. Let me explain so I don't offend anyone (I never intend to offend, I promise). Many years ago, even before LM was born, a friend called Walmart "China Mart", referring to the many products made in China. I had never heard this and thought it was funny. A while later I read an article in the Arizona Republic (I have a nickname for this paper, too) in the business section about Walmart. It was a hypothetical story about how life for all of us would change if we kept sending jobs overseas & importing everything from China. It also told the story of what life would be like if we brought jobs back & started manufacturing here in the US agai...

All Little Miss asked to do while we are on vacation was go to Chuck E Cheese. Since we don't (thankfully)have one in our town I thought we could go while we're here. We headed out Wednesday morning and went to this fun aquarium first. It was really neat. They have a little pool with stingrays which we could 'pet'. That was a hit for Little Miss. Lots of neat fish & a shark tank - I swear one of the sharks was looking at us like 'my, you all look tasty.' :) After we left the aquarium we headed off to Chuck E Cheese. I have only been one time about 12 years ago with a friend and her kids. I remember it being noisy and not too fun - probably because I was not yet a mom. So I was prepared for the worst! I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. It was clean (a biggie for me), well laid out, had nice, helpful employees and tons of games for the kids. We had brought our coupons that we cut out of the paper a few weeks ago - LM ended up getting about...

$1 each at the grocery store. I thought they would be cute for the summer time. Only a few more days until it's officially here...

I made a trek to Marshall's today to see if this top was still there. I had it in my stack to try on a couple of weeks ago and when I was done trying almost everything in the store in my size I realized I forgot to try this on. Since I wasn't about to go back into the fitting rooms to try it on I decided to leave without it. Then I thought about it for 2 weeks. So back I went today with Little Miss in tow (my mom went, too). Luckily they still had it, I tried it on, it fit & looked cute so I got it. My husband even liked it. I only recently discoverd "Vineyard Vines" and just love their things. It was a steal at $29.99. The other reason for the shopping trip was to get Little Miss a bathing suit, a 'two-piecer' as she would say. She is one of the few girls in her group of friends who wears a 'one-piecer'. So since she is getting to the age where she likes to be like the other girls (it's too early for that, isn't it?) she has been...

We went to Kmart today (breaking my 'no shopping on weekends' rule) so my daughter could spend her gift card from her birthday. I wanted to bow out and just send Little Miss with her dad but he wanted me to go since he was gone all weekend. Very sweet. Well, who knew they STILL had Christmas items lingering among the shelves? For $6.14 (regular retail value: $34.93) we are now the owners of this cute vinyl kids Christmas table cloth, curling ribbon, the oh-so lovely tree skirt for the tree in my daughter's room (only a 7 year old would love that one!) and the finger tip towels (which I think will be cute in gift baskets next Christmas). Christmas wrap was 90% off!!! It was hard to resist but I bought some at 75% off and just couldn't see getting more as I still have some wrap from 2 yrs a ago. Please excuse the blurry photo. My daughter ended up getting a Hannah Montana doll which came with a locker and provoked the question: "Why don't we have lockers...

I heard that today is 'National Free Shipping' day for alot of online retailers. I guess it's the last day to get your merchandise in time for Christmas using ground or regular shipping methods. Oooh - free shipping with all the discounts out there. Doesn't that sound good? Now, I don't need anything but if I have a free moment maybe I will just look. Can't hurt. Of course, with my schedule today there will be little time for shopping of any kind. I am off to my daughter's school in about an hour to help with the Christmas festivities. School is out at 1 today and they are off until Jan 5th. It is kind of nice to have a week to just do fun things. I still have a little wrapping to do but I usually do that at night after Little Miss is in bed. If you have a Safeway near you and you are in the market for a Gingerbread house kit run over there today to see if they still have them for $6. Yes, that's right. Marked down from $12.99. They were...

If you have read this blog for any time you know of my dislike for Walmart. Well, I am having my husband's birthday party on Saturday and decided I would head to Walmart for the supplies and some of the food. Mainly I was going for the beer and wine as they have the best prices in town. They also have the best prices on paper goods (plates, napkins, etc.) I was happy with what I got and the prices. I actually came in almost $5 under budget. I have a couple small things to pick up at the grocery store on Sat. morning which may put me a tad over but if I hadn't trekked out to Walmart I would be WAY over. The thing that made me the happiest was my big pumpkin shown above. $3.98!! They are $6 at Safeway and I kept thinking that was alot. I guess I was right. :) My friend is being kind enough to make a big pot of chili for the party. She is a great cook and it will be one less thing for me to do. I am making homemade mac 'n cheese. Kind of a comfort food type of party. A ...

netted me this cute square plate ($3.99) (the square bowls are from Walmart, last year) and this darling sign for the front porch ($4.99) I don't think I have been to Marshalls in about 10 years. I forgot how cute and cheap things were. We have a new Marshalls near Target so I will probably try to stop there when I go to Target. Target netted me some papertowels, moisturizer and other boring but practical things. Oh, and some teacher gifts and stocking stuffers from 'the spot'. I love that place. I am slowly getting the house Halloween ready. Should be done by the 31st...

I stumbled across a new blog, Canadian Country Gal . Cheryl, the author of the blog has a website where she sells some fun country things. Like these cute signs. I am always looking for cute Halloween stuff. Nothing tacky or scary. She has a nice collection of signs for different holidays. Check it out at: Yesterday's Country and Prim Decor . I will go back to look some more after I get some freshly brewed coffee....

Well, I cannot believe it is Wednesday evening. Where did the week go? Oh, I know. We got a call from my dad on Saturday at noon saying my Grandmother had taken a turn for the worse and he and my mom were going up on Sunday. After very little discussion, my husband & I decided to go also. We rode separately as my husband needed to get back to work and my parents weren't sure how long they would stay. We arrived at my grandparent's about 5'ish on Sunday (after an 8 hour trip). My grandmother was asleep and had not been awake since Saturday afternoon. She is on morphine (she is in alot of pain, probably from stomach cancer but it has never been diagnosed since she told the doctor that she would not be cut open to find out - my grandma is 91.) So they have been giving her the morphine every couple of hours to keep the pain from getting too bad so she is sleeping. When she wakes she is in alot of pain. We just arrived home this evening. As of today she is still s...

My uncle used to tell a story about a vase he picked up for my aunt in Italy. It is beautiful, tall and was a perfect fit for the dining room so he thought she would love it. The vase itself cost about $100 or so. The vase arrives at home one day and my aunt loves it BUT... the new vase makes the table look shabby, so, voila they are the proud owners of a new dining room table that seats about 8. With the new table and the new vase the china cabinet looks a little worn. You see where this is going. So the new vase was the inspiration for the new dining room table, the new china cabinet and new carpet. The $100 vase has now cost my uncle $10,000! This is what we are experiencing here right now. We are getting new countertops, we have to get a new faucet, new R/O dispenser, new sink for the wet bar and possibly a new faucet for the wet bar, as well as paint and a few new pieces of tile for the floor. As if that weren't enough my husband thought we needed a new dining room table. This...

Well, our kitchen seems to be coming along. The cabinets are painted, the half wall between the kitchen and dining room is gone, tile is fixed. The counters should go in next week along with a new island and the slide outs in the pantry. I am really still kind of in disbelief. We have talked about this for so long and it's finally almost done. I still have some things to do: Prime and paint the part of the wall that needed new drywall when the half wall came down. Paint the kitchen. It is a pretty quick job since there is not a ton of wall space. We picked the color 'chocolate curl'- isn't that great for a kitchen? It is a dark brown (of course). It is from Lowe's - Olympic. They supposedly have a lower VOC which is good. Every little bit helps. I picked 'peppered pecan' for this small area in the hallway that has cabinets and is also getting new countertop since there is some left over. Right now it's is a lavendar - ish color which looked great with...

Okay, I am boycotting American Idol but I did watch it last night with my husband (that's an hour of my life I won't get back). But I tell him that I am not 'invested' anymore. Just don't care who wins. I honestly think that America should not be able to vote. It isn't a talent contest when they do. Case in point: Chris Daughtry. I should let this go - I am sure he has. :) Case in point #2: Jason Castro is still on there. What a train wreck that was last night. He is becoming a joke in our house (can you say Sanjaya?). And he always says "I don't know many of _______'s songs" Tonight it was the whole bloomin' rock'n roll category. What, I ask, does he know?? I saw Carly clapping for him last night and I know she was thinking 'I should be up there instead of you buddy'. I know I was thinking that. I thought the others were pretty good last night. We had some kind of audio problem though - you really couldn't hear the music, j...

I just got back from my debut on the local radio talk show. I went to talk about the garage sale our hockey league is holding this weekend. What fun that was! The guys who do the show are really funny (I listen to them alot) so it was fun to be on the 'inside'. I even got to stay when my segment was over AND they let me talk!! The topic was the standardized tests that they do in the public schools here. Kind of controversial. But as so many times happens the topic just kinds of blossoms - we ended up talking about how so many kids don't get enough sleep or good breakfasts, making it hard to learn. A real passion of mine. Especially now seeing the kids in my daughter's class that are yawning by 8:30 or hungry even before then. I gave them my card and told them that if they ever needed to have an extra mouth on air to give me a call! After I got home I got a phone call from Lands End regarding my return. I posted a while back on trying to find jeans for my da...

I got my daughter's Easter dress a while back and I am so in love with it! I hope she likes it as much. I am having problems uploading the picture (operator error, I am sure!). I splurged on it which I haven't done in her last 6 Easters so I was okay with that -- we still have money to eat with - haha (more on that later). I will try to get the picture uploaded as I am sure anyone reading this is on the edge of their seats. Regarding eating: I have NO IDEA what we are having for dinner. I have about 30 minutes to figure it out. Yikes. Usually, I have it figured out in the morning but I don't know what happened today. I am tempted just to do spaghetti but we just had that and my husband mentioned that he is sick of it (can't imagine why!) So I am off to check a few websites for inspiration and poke around in the pantry to see what I come up with. My daughter suggested candy - don't I wish. :) I was in my daughter's class all day today so I am totally ...

Well, my husband is home from his second trip in a week. His uncle died on Saturday, the 16th so he flew back for the funeral by himself and got home today. Needless to say it was a long week for us all but I am glad he could go spend time with his family. We were able to stop at a couple of places after we picked him up today. I wanted this little cake stand from Williams-Sonoma. It is the small green one on the top. I saw it in the catalog & fell in love with it. I am putting my few Easter decorations out now even though I have my St Patrick's things out also. I dont have a lot of either so it doesn't look too wild. I also got this adorable towel at Williams-Sonoma. I just fell in love with the color and little bunny pattern. Definitely an impulse item but so worth it! So, I think I have spent enough on new decorations this year. I also made a little run to Walmart yesterday and got some Easter basket stuff for my daughter. I didn't get any candy, just a few things t...