Thursday, January 31, 2013

Wow...

I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to leave a comment on my Dare to Dresden post, I WILL thank everyone individually, it will just take me some time :)


I will also be working on a tutorial for my bunting and will get it posted this weekend :)

In the Meantime, my friend Amy at A Quilting Sheep is having an awesome give away Just 'cause, ok, and for having hit the 300 follower milestone ;)

Make sure to hop over and give her some love, and maybe win a prize, But hurry! It ends today!!!




Wednesday, January 30, 2013

I dared to Dresden, differently


I was extremely excited when I found, via A Quilting Sheep, the Dare to Dresden Blog hop. I love Dresden plates, and I immediately came up with a few ideas for my day. Then it struck, the illness that has been hounding me for 3 weeks now. So, My 3 projects ideas became 2, and then 1.

I wanted to do something different, not only from my normal, but also something unexpected from the quilting blog-o-sphere.

So here is my Dresden Project..

 
The center of each Dresden scallop is a fabric rose, and the scallops have been quilted. I am very pleased with the results, and am so glad I decided to experiment :)


Now, if only I had been able to get dresden #2 finished...
 It's free hand embroidery, and has been fun to work on, when I can keep from coughing long enough lol!


A HUGE thank you to Mdm Samm from Sew We Quilt, and Christine from Quilt monster in my closet for Hosting, and cheering on, this Blog Hop!!

Make sure to treat yourself to some more eye candy by visiting the rest of the creative souls participating in the blog Hop!




January 30th, 2013
Charlotte H @ “that Other Blog”
Clothes and Crafts --- Moved to 31st
January 31th, 2013
If you missed the earlier posts of the hop, it's not too late to make the rounds:
January 24th, 2013
January 25th, 2013
Rosemary B @ “that Other Blog”
Sandra Kaye Design


Thanks for stopping by!!
 

Saturday, January 12, 2013

a little under the weather..

We've had a little bug making the rounds at our house this week. just 2-3 day, fever, headache and stuffy/runny nose. It was my turn the last couple of days (Better today, just a lingering headache)

Here's what my day looked like yesterday..
Chick flicks while snuggled up on the couch in my favorite quilt
pretty embroidery flosses and a project idea.

oooh...packages in the mail make me smile..


a mix of vintage, and modern fabrics...those little Tiffany blue dots make my heart go pitter patter :)









Here's a little sneak of what I worked on..



What have you been working on?

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Meal planning..and a printable!



 In my quest to simplify our lives, and my continued efforts to keep grocery costs down and the budget under control, I'm adding a more structured meal planning to the my weekly regime.

The trap I was finding myself in, and I'm sure the same goes for all coupon-ers, is getting lost in the pursuit of a deal..I was so focused on maximizing the coupons/sale combo, I was running out of budget before I got my staples or meal items. That isn't to say that I bought stuff we wouldn't use, just that I would lose sight of the bigger picture and would need to spend more money to flesh out what I had already bought.
Which is counter productive in the face of maintaining a lower grocery budget.



But I digress..The point is that I was making my lists according to sales and coupons but I was not tracking the actual costs, so when I would get done with the coupon deals and only had $10 to buy $50 or more worth of staples/needed items, well, I'd messed up, big time.

Sometimes in the past I was on my A game and had decided what we were going to eat that week and made my lists accordingly, but didn't factor any stock ups, and ended up having to pay full price mid summer for soups because I hadn't maximized my coupon/sales deals the fall and winter before. So after much research blog hopping and pinterest browsing, I came up with a series of printable ideas..And since Hubby likes playing around with desktop publishing, I presented him with an example of a layout I liked, and the information I needed to have on it. and here is the result:


The meal plan, shopping list, check box for coupon, where it's on sale (in case I need to price match at Wal-Mart) and the cost. As you can see, I'm not completely done here, and since I haven't finalized my staples shopping list needs for him to play with, I just added them to the bottom of this list.

Hubby has given me the green light to share the printable he made for me, But I do need to say thank you to http://www.fontspace.com/ for the shareware font that he used!

You can find the PDF here: 
Menu planner & shopping list printable

Until next time!