Kitchen Reds

Just a few shots from my kitchen. I love the color red and I love hearts, so I am pulling out my Valentine's decor already. Helps me to get over the taking down of the Christmas decor. I'm sure you can tell I love hearts by my header. I thought it would be fun for Valentine's Day. 

The little fabric hearts in the prim bowl were a project I did last year. I am not very crafty but they came out cute.


Linking to:  and It's A Very Cherry World for Rednesday and All Things Heart and Home and The Colorado Lady for Vintage Thingy Thursday
Also linking to:
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2011 Frugal Challenge Update

Took this weekend to re-organize, clean and purge my coupons. I love couponing and it is the way I pay for the items this family of six needs for a fraction of what I used to spend. I use a spot in a funky little closet to store my coupons. It was a mess with Christmas stuff thrown in there and coupons not organized. Here is the space now all spiffed and stacked by date. I don't have room for a big file system so I just stack by date and stick a big post it out the side with the date for easy finding.

Next my daughter who is detail oriented and helps me with my binder, cleaned out my folder and stashed the new coupons I had clipped.

Also, in the last week I started to call on my different bills that I may be able to negotiate reductions in. I called our cell phone carrier and found there were some things on our bill we were paying for that we didn't need. My bill will now be $14 less per month. I will work on our insurance rates this week. Worth a shot.

I cleaned out my purse and car and added tons of change to my change bucket. I cash it in about 2-3 times a year at our bank. The total usually is around $65. I will then immediately deposit it and go home transferring the money online using it to pay towards a debt we are working on. That way it is not able to be squandered elsewhere.


I have all my coupons clipped and lists ready to go and will make stops today in a circle to save gas. Lastly, I have my $20 P&G rebate all ready to pop in the mail today. Let's hope for some good rebates in 2011.

Grown Up Space

Aaahhh! All the Christmas stuff and such is tucked away for another year. I miss it but I love the sort of visual resting space after all the decorations are down and before you put back all your year long decor. Gives one a chance to see the space and decide if you want to make changes and we did.

This spot on my counter held a tree this morning but now it is clear of clutter and replaced with some hopeful spring flowers and a simple candle. My little piggy hides a funky blue tile that is original to the kitchen.

Now I wish I had a before pic of our funny little front room. It was the original dining room before a remodel. We had our two year old's play toys in here and gates to corral her in that worked great when she was little and crawling, but we decided to turn it back into a grown up room. This is where we put our tree this year and you can see her toys off to the left.

We don't want to spend any money on furniture and frankly our house is full of the stuff so we set to movin' things around. I like it so much and it flows into our dinging room.

 You can see one of the gates on the right here that we need to take down. SO MUCH BETTER. I'd love to hang some curtain panels on the sides of my shutters.

 My hubby is still out there moving things around so who knows what I'll find in the morning. Some more tweaking for sure but a nice spot in the chair for me to read to Quinn or to read the mail. Here's to new beginnings.
                         Linking to: Funky Junk Interiors
                                             The Tablescaper
                                             Between Naps on the Porch

http://astrollthrulife.blogspot.com/

Owl Birthday

My daughter turned 13 yesterday and she is so into owls so a few months ago I spied these on Three Pixie Lane and saved them in my favorites knowing these were going to be perfect for her birthday cupcakes. All you need is to bake cupcakes, a can of chocolate frosting, a package of M&M's, some cashews and Oreos. I did make up a little white frosting with powdered sugar to use on the eyes. This helps hold the candy eyes on. These are so simple but so cute and everyone loved them. 

Aren't these little guys adorable? They would be perfect for fall too.

YUMMMM!!!

Taking part in Foodie Friday

Linking to My Romantic Home, Southern in My Heart and Boogieboard Cottage

It's So Very Cheri and Dittle Dattle andHappy to Design

Frugal Challenge Update

I haven't done much coupon shopping cause of Christmas, but since we were low on some things, I decided to head out with my deals and take part in the P & G buy $50 get $20 rebate. It ends on the 31st. I bought a couple of things at Target but most was from CVS. I'm not going to list all the deals as I am too lazy but the above picture plus 2 boxes of toothpaste and 2 boxes of Always pads will have cost me after the rebate less than $9. I am pretty proud of myself. That is over $50 worth of stuff. I am  back at it and ready to build up my stockpiles. Maybe my totals aren't as low as some but I am only a mediocre couponer. Better than paying full price. One blog I check out for easy lists of deals is http://jerikayssearchfortheperfectdeal.blogspot.com/. She is straightforward and simple to follow. I check other deals sites but her totals are very low so she is worth a visit if you are a couponer. Here is the link to the rebate. I know it is kind of late but I threw my deals together in one day and even if you didn't use coupons, getting $50 for $30 is still a great deal. rebate

Red Vintage Stove

This was my Christmas gift from my hubby this year. He says it is for my second childhood. It is a Little Chef oven. I have a kitchen built in the 50's with original cabinets and tile and even my oven is original. I thought this would be such a cute retro-vintage addition.

Little Chef stoves were made starting in the 1940s by Tacoma Metal Products. Here's a description I found online:

Tacoma Metal Products "Little Chef" stoves were made of aluminum, because it was less expensive and more plentiful than steel, and came in various models. The deluxe model had two ovens and baked, the least expensive model did not bake. "Little Chef" stoves were distributed nationwide, and advertised in the Saturday Evening Post, Life and American Home. View of Tacoma Metal Products "Little Chef", miniature electric range.

They even had little cookbooks. How cute is that cover?

I found this little wax pie at my favorite shop.
I love the red and white.

Now I just need to find some cute old cookware to go with it.

Vintage Love 

Linking to: Sue Loves Cherries and Ruby Tuesday and Coloradolady and My Romantic Home

and Common Ground and Bargain Hunting with Laurie

Frugal Challenge Update

I took Frugal Makes Cents idea of using up leftover holiday food to create meals and ran with it. I took out anything that could be made into supper type food, added some noodles and created our dinner. Here is what I started with:

Left over veggies from our veggie tray, diced ham leftover from Christmas morn and American Cheese all stuck together from the deli tray.

This was more veggies leftover from deli tray and leftover stilton with cranberries thrown on top of a partial bag of spinach in the  crisper drawer.
I melted the cheese with some butter and milk, threw in the ham.

And here you go. Not only edible but actually quite tasty and one of those what I call FREE meals. Not really free but you know it is from food you would have to toss. Now how can I make dinner out of what must be five pounds of leftover cookies. Note to self: next year cut cookie recipes in half. I should know by now that 41/2 c. of flour is going to make heeps of cookies.

Linking to http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/ for a sort of dinner metamorphasis.

Country General Christmas

My most favorite place in the world beside my home is a darling store in our downtown called Country General Store. I want to live there. If you like country, prim, farmhouse, vintage wonderfulness than you'd love this store. Anyway, my very smart family always buys my gifts there. I know the wrapping. It is so cute. Here I am Christmas morning holding all my cute packages.

 So you know the only place I will go to after Christmas shopping is there. I took my gift certificates and headed out. I bought some darling ornaments for my tree and loads of gifts for my friends and family for next year. Here is just a quick peek.

My mom had these little glitter house when I was young so I had to have some for my tree or maybe to display next year.

 This is a bigger house to display with a light thru the back and the vintage tree to the right I just loved.

Here are some of the gifts for next year and you can see my little list to the right where I am trying to stay organized and list what I bought and who it is for. I always tape it to the inside of my gift cupboard so I know what I have as the year goes on. This isn't necessary spending but I used my gc's for my own stuff and paid cash for the gifts which were 50% off. Buying ahead helps me keep the Christmas budget under control and the stuff is so cute. Linking to Seasonal Sundays at theThe Tablescaper.

2011 Get a Cuter Blog

Let's just say I am a novice blogger. I am not even savvy with a computer so trying to cutin' up my blog is a major challenge. I finally found a background I like and managed to get that on there but I want a better header picture thing-a-ma-jig. I don't even know what a lot of terms are but I love it. How fun is it to have your own space on the internet where you can create. My daughter helps me sometimes but she is not a patient teacher.  Pooey on her. Does she think writing the checks for college are fun?

So this year I vow to make a cuter blog. No one wants to waste time looking at my ugly blog design. It's okay. I know how it looks but I am working on it and will somehow teach myself how to now get a cute header. All I need after that is a way better camera but that will have to wait. Remember the daughter in college and the three more after that. Maybe for my birthday. Thanks to all those that look beyond my challenged  blog design and still manage to read my post and even sometimes leave me a nice comment. You are the fuel that keeps me from giving up and admitting my blog will never be cute.
Update... Do you think my blog looks better. I worked all day when I had free time figuring out how to add a background and then a header. Yeah! I feel so proud. I think the header could be  better but it is CUTE for now and will do. Makes me happy!

Blessings for a Merry Christmas and Missing my Mom

Why I'm up at 4:30 on Christmas Eve morning I have no idea but although I absolutely love Christmas, one can't help but be touched by the memories of our loved ones. I lost my mom to cancer nine years ago, and Christmas always brings her to mind. We were as close as a mother and daughter could be and I just miss her so much right now. I am curled up on my couch covered with her afghan she made back in the 70s. Remember those ones with all the crazy yarn colors I love it. I feel surrounded by her when I use it. Don't mean to be a downer as I am not sad but just feeling some Christmas melancholy. Want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas full of love and blessings. I feel especially tickled this year to see Christmas through the eyes of my two year old. I never thought we would have a little one again, so to share it with her is so special. Over 40 mommies rock!! Blessings to you all and thanks for taking the time to read my blog. I so love any comments. Tickles me when I see new ones!! Thanks!!

It's Rednesday

Some Christmas reds for Rednesday

 Sorry this pic is blurry. I still can't totally figure out my camera.

 Picked up this cheery red table cloth at Target.

Because we will be serving a buffet on Christmas day, I just used a simple centerpiece as this table will be laden with food so everyone can pick when they want.

Have a Very Moo-Christmas. Blessings to you all for this holiday season. God Bless. Linking with Sue Loves Cherries for Rednesday. Also linking with Coastal Charm