Happy Valentines!

Thought I would compile all my little Valentine touches around the house. Besides St. Patty's, this is probably the holiday I have the least decorations for, but I love red and hearts, so visually, it probably pleases me the most.

Love the dishsoap in the shot there. Oh well real life.

Prim Hearts

I just loved the little frame from the dollar section at Target.

Made this little bowl for my hubby one year for Valentines. I filled it with his favorite chocolates.

Boston Baked Beans catching the light on my windowsill.

Do my red ceiling fixtures count too? Look at the unmatched bulbs. Oops!

Happy Valentines Day!! Already thinking of what I am going to make for our family Valentine's dinner. Hubby and I never go out on that night because of crowds but will probably sneak out for a quiet breakfast that weekend. What are your plans? I always love to hear good ideas for holiday memory making.

Linking to:

Coastal Charm

Ruby Tuesday

New Nostalgia

A Delightsome Life

Sue Loves Cherries

Between Naps on the Porch

Life as Lori

Bargain Hunting with Laurie

Frugal Challenge Update and Cleaning with Baking Soda

I have to just share the wonders of cleaning with baking soda.  Like many of you I am always looking for more natural, less toxic cleaning solutions for my home. I have a daughter that is very sensitive to chemicals among other things so I decided to try baking soda for cleaning our kitchen. WOW is all I can say. I really didn't expect much as I am used to cleaning with soft scrub type cleaners to keep my tile clean. Below you can see normal counter crud with a sprinkle of baking soda. It worked wonderfully. I am sold.

 Here's a free baking soda sprinkle container they sent me from a free offer.

Look at my counters. I swear they shined.

Here's the typical caked on crud on my crockpot.

Water spots on my faucet that I can never seem to totally get rid of.

Look at the shine!!

 See that shine.

As for other things I am having trouble keeping the fridge stocked these days. I feel like I already have to go to the store again tomorrow and I was just there Friday. Growing kids can eat a lot of food but I think I will stretch it out by baking some banana muffins in the morning to use up some oldies and then try to cook mainly from my pantry. Less trips means less money spent. Often we are looking for the easy pre-made thing to grab and feel the need to keep that stocked but by making some things from scratch I can stretch the days between shopping trips.
Thankfully our days have been warm and we haven't had to run our heater. This will save on my next utility bill for sure.

Linking to:
The Saved Quarter
Tip Junkie

Valentine Glow

I love, no I LOVE  to decorate for holidays. One holiday passes and I am dragging out the boxes of decorations for the next one. I  also love some sort of lights on the house for each holiday so for the Valentine holiday my hubby started hanging all my lighted hearts on our windows out front and so that is how they hang every year now.  

 Indoors I have a few glowing hearts here and there. Peeking through my kitchen window you can see a strand of lighted hearts hanging from a shelf.

My dry sink. I keep showing this heart. I love it. Found it on a clearance rack one year and snatched it up.

Joining:

Show Off Your Cottage Monday

Metamorphasis Monday

The Stories of a 2 z

Dittle Dattle

Holiday Haven

Bargain Hunting with Laurie

A Blog Must See

This is one of my favorite blogs and you must go visit Boogie Board Cottage. Look at that picture. So serene. She has a lovely Valentine post and a blog party right now. Her cottage is so darling. Make sure you scroll back through her Christmas decorating. That is what first caught my attention back in December. Thanks to Boogie Board Cottage for the feature a few weeks ago.

Cowboy Cookies for My Lineman

My hubby has to travel for his work and has been gone all week and I am missing my man. He is a tall, dark and rugged handsome lineman, living in a house full of women. Even our dogs are female. No bother for him, he is our balance. I miss him and made his favorite cookies for him. He'll be home in 3 hours and five or so minutes.

Love from me to him for taking care of his family. I am one of the lucky ones. Gosh can you tell I miss him? Absence does make the heart grow fonder. Okay I'll stop now.

These are so yummy and basically a chocolate chip cookie with oatmeal in it. The recipe is below.

Love this too. My cookie scoop from Pampered Chef!!

Cowboy Cookies

1/2 lb. butter

1 c. dark brown sugar

1.c granulated sugar (you can cut these to 3/4 for a less sweet cookie but this is the orig. recipe)

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

2 1/4 c. flour

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

2 c. chocolate chips

1 c. oatmeal

(if you like nuts add 1/2 c. or so of your choice)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease some cookie sheets. (I use the butter wrappers). Cream the butter, then gradually add the two sugars, beating until light and smooth. Beat in the egg and the vanilla. Mix the flour, oatmeal, salt, and baking soda together and add it to the first mixture, blending well. Stir in the nuts (optional) and the chocolate chips. Drop by scoops or about a tsp. onto the cookie sheets about an inch apart and bake 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned.

Linking to:

Be Different Act Normal

Saturday Show Off

The Tablescaper

Tidy Mom

Today's Creative Blog

Tea Rose Home

Hip Chalkboards

Wanted to make the girls some funky sort of hip chalkboards for their room we have been re-doin'. So I took a couple of formerly unhip old pictures that have been tucked away and came with this house and came up with these cuties.



Here is the former picture and though some may like this look, it isn't me. I'm not a formal kinda gal. I'm sure they were bought in the 60s or 70s. The back said May Co. An old dept. store that used to be in this area.

I took the frames and pictures apart and actually flipped the paintings over and sanded the back sides with fine sand paper.

Then I got to work painting the frames. I just picked up a couple of bright color samples from Ace Hardware.

I used spray chalk board paint for these pieces and an extra one I will have to show you later.

Here they are all done. I think they came out too cute and the girls really like them. Now we are just waiting for dad to come home from working out of town to hang them for us.

Linking to:

Remodelaholic

Chic on a Shoestring

Fingerprints on the Fridge

Bargain Hunting with Laurie

Perfectly Imperfect

Tatertots and Jello 

Between Naps on the Porch

Someday Crafts

Domestically Speaking

Sat. Night Special

Frugal Challenge Update and Target Deals

Today was a great day for me at Target. If you need kids clothes they had some great mark downs and dog and cat treats were very cheap or free. Here's what I bought:
3 Crayola Bath paints 3@2.48=7.44 ( not a need but a good item to keep my active two yr old busy with in the tub)
2 Toddler pants 2.00 & 2.78=4.78
2 Toddler Swt. Shirts 2.78 x 2= 5.56
3 Crunch & Clean cat snacks 3x1.49=4.47- (3) 1.50 coupons=FREE
3 Crunch & Clean Dog Treats 3x2.49=7.47- (3) 2.00 coupons=1.47 for all three
Total=19.25 plus 1.78 tax for a total of 21.03 for all that. Good buys for sure.


I do love to use coupons but only ever have 3 or 4 of a coupon at the most per week. I order one paper and others give me theirs or I use my rewards from the drug stores to buy a paper if I feel coupons are worth it that week. I feel satisfied to get 3 or 4 of an item free or cheap and leave the rest for others. Plus, how would I store it all? As it is, I have to be creative now. A 50s house was not built with lots of storage.


As for other things, I did go out for a long needed lunch with old friends. 6.99 plus tax with my coupon at Soup Plantation. I love that place.


Dinner has been clean out the freezer for the last couple of days. I hate throwing out food so I just start pulling things out and dinner can be some odd combos but the kids actually like it. Will continue to cook out of one of my freezers as it is due for a deep clean in there and I have to get it as empty as possible.


Linking to:
Life as Mom
Organize and Decorate Everything

Bedroom Heaven

The PotteryBarn bedding catalog came yesterday. Two words, I died.

Look at this pillow. I want.

How sweet is this pillow? I have a thing for pillows but don't indulge that often. I may have to keep an eye on these for clearance markdown time.

You may not know, or care for that matter, but I was a working gal (part time) for 19 years before I came home to be a SAHM with my little one. My mom used to come over to watch my older girls and it was perfect, but I longed to be home.

Anyway, it has been two years and I miss my dear friends I worked with so today I am heading into Pasadena to have a long catch-up lunch with them. Too excited to see them all. They are the one thing I miss about working.