Works For Me Wednesday: Couponing once a month

Posted on January 7, 2009 by Barbara Harper

I have a love/hate relationship with coupons. Well…mostly hate. It seems so tedious to cut them out and file them, then most of the time I forget them before heading out to the store. So from time to time I sort through my coupons and toss out the expired ones and cringe thinking of the money I could have saved.

I was going through this ritual a week or so before the end of December when I decided to pull out all the coupons expiring at the end of the year to see if I could use them. I found many for grocery items I regularly bought, some $1 or more off, some for goods that I didn’t need yet but would use soon. I decided this time to shop around the coupons. I ended up saving $12 at Wal-Mart (where we usually but toiletries anyway because they’re cheaper and where I used the $1 off coupons that the grocery store would not double) and about that much again at the grocery store (which doubled coupons under a certain amount). That certainly provided motivation!

I decided that might be the better way to use coupons: instead of trying to deal with them every week and failing, it might be easier to go through them once a month and pull out all the ones expiring within the next month, and shop for those items whether I need them just then or not.

There is a limit to this as we don’t have a lot of storage space. Because of that I still avoid coupons where you have to buy an abundance of one product, and I avoid those requiring a complicated assortment as just taking too much time. But overall this method works much better for me than what I had been doing.

For an abundance of workable tips, visit Rocks In My Dryer most Wednesdays.

A Thanksgiving Meme

Posted on November 18, 2008 by Barbara Harper

I saw this at Smiling Sally‘s:

1. Which do you like better: cooking at your house, or going elsewhere?

I like both. We’ve cooked here for the better part of our married lives, but earlier on we got together with friends whose folks (whom we also knew) came down for Thanksgiving, and it was a fun time catching up with all of them. I imagine some time in the next few years there will be daughters-in-law who will take over the main event, and I am fine with that.

2. Do you buy a fresh or frozen bird?

Frozen, whatever’s on sale.

3. What kind of stuffing?

Cornbread.

4. Sweet potato or pumpkin pie?

I like both but my family would boycott if I had sweet potato pie instead of pumpkin.

5. Do you believe that turkey leftovers are a curse, or the point of the whole thing?

I LOVE turkey leftovers!! They’re not “the point,” necessarily, but I love turkey sandwiches, casseroles, and turkey-bone soup after Thanksgiving! But then again, that IS why we only have turkey once a year.

6. Which side dish would provoke a riot if you left it off the menu?

I don’t know. We always have stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy (Thanksgiving is one of the few times we have mashed potatoes), and some kind of vegetable casserole.

7. Do you save the carcass to make soup or stock?

YES!! One of my favorite things.

8. What do you wish you had that would make preparing Thanksgiving dinner easier?

Can’t think of anything, really, except a bigger kitchen so more than one person could work in there without it being crowded.

9. Do you get up at the crack of dawn to have dinner ready in the early afternoon, or do you eat at your normal dinner hour?

I do get up early to get the turkey in. (Preparing the turkey and baking it is the easiest part, I think, but the part I was most scared of the first time. It’s later when all the side dishes are going and I’m trying to get everything ready at the same time that is busy and hard.) I’d rather eat in early afternoon, clean the kitchen up, and then be “off” for the rest of the day while everyone makes a sandwich or heats up a plate of leftovers when they get hungry than do a big meal like that for dinner.

10. If you go to somebody else’s house, what’s your favorite dish to bring?

Whatever they ask of me.

11. What do you wish one of your guests would not bring to your house? What would you like them to bring?

I don’t really expect anyone to bring anything. Perhaps whatever soft drinks they like — there are so many varieties it’s hard to please everyone.

12. Does your usual mix of guests result in drama, or is it a group you’re happy to see?

It’s usually just immediate family and we’re glad for the chance to stop all the other crazy schedules and just relax for the day. That’s one reason we don’t usually have other guests (other than girlfriends now), though I wouldn’t be opposed to it.

13. Is your cranberry sauce fresh or canned? Whole or jellied?

NO cranberry sauce! Bleah!

14. What’s your absolute favorite thing on the menu?

That’s hard to say — I like it all!

15. Share one family tradition.

Nothing really out of the ordinary. Sometimes we do go around the table and share what we’re thankful for. We’re not football fans, so the afternoon or evening might be spent watching a video or playing a game. We also usually get in some long distance phone calls to far away family some time during the day.

Let me know if you do this as well and I’ll come by!

I am linking this to Kelli’s Week of Giving Thanks at There’s No Place Like Home — a festival of Thanksgiving posts — poems, quotes, decorations, crafts, recipes, etc. You can have fun there perusing lots of Thanksgiving inspiration.

Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt: Ruin(ed)

Posted on November 15, 2008 by Barbara Harper

PhotoHunt

Theme: Ruin(ed)| Become a Photo Hunter

I didn’t have to think too long about what kind of ruins I could find for this photo hunt. 🙂 These have appeared on my blog before.

This was supposed to be for a ladies’ meeting at church — but fell apart when I tried to get it out of the pan. It is some kind of spice cake — I’ve never made it before or since. I did scrape out the rest of the cake and made the glaze for it and poured it on, and we ate it! It tasted great! But I did have to come up with something else for the meeting — I don’t remember what now.

These are from several years ago — they were supposed to look like little muppets. I had seen the idea in a magazine. I think the idea was to bake cupcakes, put one upside down on top of another one (and probably glue it with frosting), cut out a little wedge for the mouth, then put little dollops of white with a mini chocolate chip in the middle for eyes. It looked so cute and easy in the magazine. How could it go wrong? Somehow it did, and they ended up looking like swamp monster babies left out in the rain. Unfortunately this was for Jeremy’s second birthday, and though he didn’t care, we had invited friends over. There was no back-up plan, so I served this spectacle. They were very kind about it.

Cake-baking and decorating are not my specialties, as you can tell.

You can find more ruins at TN Chick‘s, the creator and hostess of Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt.

A prayer for home

Posted on November 2, 2008 by Barbara Harper

Lord, this humble house we’d keep
Sweet with play and calm with sleep.
Help us so that we may give
Beauty to the lives we live.
Let Thy love and let Thy grace
Shine upon our dwelling place.

-Edgar A. Guest

(Graphic courtesy of Graphic Garden)

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on October 24, 2008 by Barbara Harper

Susanne at Living to Tell the Story hosts a “Friday Fave Five” in which we share our five favorite things from the past week. Click on the button to read more of the details.

So here are a few favorite things from my week:

1. 50% off coupons and gifts cards — in general! — but especially when with them I got:

2. These clear stamps for free:

You just peel them off and put them on the clear block, stamp, wash it off and put it back. I love the idea of being able to see exactly where you are putting the stamp — the old ones were on wooden blocks and sometimes it would take several tries to get it straight and exactly where I wanted it. I haven’t tried these yet but I am itching to.

The gift card was to Michael’s from Jesse for my birthday — can you believe I’d had it since August and hadn’t used it yet? But I am glad I saved it for now.

3. This stuff:

My two older sons love the Sticky Fingers restaurant in the town where they commute to school, but the rest of us had never been there — there is not one in our town. We finally did go over there and eat a few weeks ago, and I LOVED this sauce. And they sell it in some grocery stores!

I have a couple of baked dishes with barbecue sauce, and it didn’t really work well for that — we liked our regular Kraft BBQ sauce better. But as a condiment it is out of this world.

I made a new recipe (to me) called Saucy Pork Chops in the crock pot last Sunday, and it was just ok to me. It seemed to be missing something, though the rest of the family liked it. But we had more pork chops than I had thought were in the package, so I pulled the meat off the bones of the rest of it and Monday got some onion rolls for sandwiches, and with the Sticky Fingers Carolina Sweet sauce — oh my — mouth bliss!!!

4. Texas Toast. I had seen this in the stores for ages but just had never gotten any. But I got some this week because in the store I couldn’t decide between the onion rolls or Texas Toast for the BBQ sandwiches. Then I made French toast with them one morning for breakfast. I haven’t made French toast in ages, but now I am planning on making it for the family this weekend. More mouth bliss!!

5. One of my favorite moments this past week occurred last night. Often the messages from the BJU chapel service come on the radio around the time I am cleaning up the kitchen, and I enjoy listening to it while I am working there, but usually when I am done I turn off the radio and leave the room. Last night, though, the message was on a passage I had just read that morning (from Eph. 4 about grieving the Holy Spirit), and it was really speaking to my heart, so I stayed in the kitchen while it was on. While I was listening I decided to do some of those “extra” kitchen jobs like cleaning out the microwave and cleaning the crumbs from the bottom of the toaster oven, etc. Cleaning is not my favorite thing, but I do enjoy the results, and listening to something profitable while my hands are busy enhances the time. In fact…in some ways I listen better when my hands are busy. If I am just sitting I tend to get drowsy or distracted or fidgety. I know of mission churches in primitive areas where the people had no concept of any kind of public meeting with one speaker, much less church, and the idea of sitting still and listening when they had so much to do was preposterous to them, so they brought their basket-making or rope-making or net-mending or carving or whatever along with them to church. I’ve thought that’s really not a bad idea! But I can’t see our American churches going that way, and I don’t think I would really be ready for them to.

I’m digressing, but that whole time was a blessing not only in getting some things done that aren’t part of my daily routine (I so enjoyed using my gleaming microwave this morning!), but even more than that I enjoyed a message that really spoke it my heart in a way that it hadn’t been spoken to in a long time and opened up the passage a little more for me. I have still been thinking about it this morning.

Then earlier I caught a brief clip of a message while in the kitchen for a few minutes that has also stayed with me, about the fact that King Darius’s eyes were opened to see that “the God of Daniel…is the living God, and stedfast for ever, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, and his dominion shall be even unto the end” (Daniel 5:26) primarily through an unfair situation — the “set-up” that landed Daniel in the lion’s den. It really gives a new perspective that the Lord may have us in situations like that not only to teach us something, but to manifest something of Himself through us. Paul and Silas singing while in jail would be another example — an unfair situation that led to the salvation of the jailer and others. And Joseph’s life. I wonder how many opportunities like that I miss because I am inwardly grousing over the unfairness and injustice of it all instead of trusting the Lord to work in the situation.

So…it looks like it was a good week for being fed — spiritually, creatively, mentally, and spiritually.

Works For Me Wednesday: Leftover Rice

Posted on September 17, 2008 by Barbara Harper

I haven’t done a WFMW in a while, having run through my whole repertoire of tips long ago. But when I was making lunch today I realized I had an unshared tip I could share.

The condensed version: leftover rice can be frozen.

What would you use frozen rice in? Well, I often make canned soups for lunch in the winter when I am eating alone, but most of them are too soupy for me, so I like to add a bit of leftover rice or some frozen corn or leftover tomato soup, etc. I especially like adding the leftover rice but didn’t always have any on hand when making soup. And when I had leftover rice on hand it often grew green fuzzies in the frig because I had other plans for lunch. So once I put some leftover rice in a plastic zipped bag in the freezer, then took it out and microwaved it about 20-30 seconds, just enough to loosen it up from the solidness it freezes into, added it into my soup, and it worked beautifully.

Now I often make a little extra rice in order to have some leftover to freeze.

You could also mix it in a bit of leftover casserole or cover it with a little leftover gravy.

You can find Works For Me Wednesday most weeks at Rocks In My Dryer.

Show and Tell and a decorating question for you

Posted on August 15, 2008 by Barbara Harper

Kelli at There’s No Place Like Home hosts “Show and Tell Friday” asking “Do you have a something special to share with us? It could be a trinket from grade school, a piece of jewelry, an antique find. Your show and tell can be old or new. Use your imagination and dig through those old boxes in your closet if you have to! Feel free to share pictures and if there’s a story behind your special something, that’s even better! If you would like to join in, all you have to do is post your “Show and Tell” on your blog, copy the post link, come over here and add it to Mr. Linky. Guidelines are here.

I wanted to show this cute little shelf set actually on the wall…and I was going to hang them up myself, but the places that are supposed to catch on the nail were in odd places (different heights on the back), and I thought I’d better wait for my husband.

These were on sale at My Rose Retreat in connection with Pink Friday a couple of weeks ago. I can’t wait to get them up!

I also wanted to show the progress on my cross stitch piece:

The area that comprises the shine in the window was 1 thread in only a half cross stitch. That certainly goes a lot faster! But I have never done that and wasn’t sure I’d like it –but I do.

I also wanted to ask for some opinions. I found fabric for my family room curtains months ago, but I’ve been held up starting them because I couldn’t find any trim here in town. Then just a few weeks ago I got some at a place going out of business, but I am not quite sure about it and haven’t had a chance yet to go to another town and explore. I am almost of a mind to skip the trim altogether.

Here are the two fabrics:

The pattern has long straight curtains panels topped by a valance which is done in such a way that you see a little bit of the lining. I was going to use the checked fabric as the main fabric for the curtains and valance and the toile as the lining of the valance that will show in places. But I thought it was too pretty to have so much of it hidden. But I don’t like using it as the main fabric for the valance (I am positioning these according to what I am trying to describe, though of course it would be gathered and cut to a pattern):

I thought about making a double valance instead, one with the toile, and a shorter one with the checked fabric over the checked panels, so that more of the toile could be seen all the way across:

And then I have thought about just using the checked fabric for the valance and panels and saving the toile for pillows. The place I bought the toile from had just enough for the valance and I was going to need more for the pillows anyway: this would solve that problem.

The trim shown is what I bought at the going-out-of-business place. It’s about the color of the couches in that room. If I don’t use it on the valance I can use it on pillows.

So — if any of my descriptions have made sense — what do you think? Trim, no trim, a different trim? Toile lining, toile valance, no toile?

And thanks for sharing. It is these kinds of (in)decisions that hold me up in getting projects done.

Show and Tell Friday

Posted on August 8, 2008 by Barbara Harper

These are a couple of recent online sale purchases. Every Friday some of the shops at Make Mine Pink feature sales based on a theme of the week. Last week it was baby gifts, this week it is “Wonderful Whites.” I think the week I got these the theme was something like “From the Garden.”

I got these from Hydrangea Home at a very nice sale price. The first one is just “me” all the way around. And I have always wanted something like the second one for when I cut a few roses from the bushes along the house or bring flowers home from the store.

I also wanted to show my current work-in-progress:

You can visit other Show and Tells or join in the fun at Kelli’s.

Happy Friday!

Show and Tell Friday: Paula Vaughn collection

Posted on August 1, 2008 by Barbara Harper

I mentioned before that Paula Vaughn is one of my favorite artists. I first became aware of her books maybe 20 or more years ago when I first saw her cross stitch patterns. I bough several, but with beginning a young family I didn’t have time to do them then. However, my sister made a couple for me which I have shown before:

Then somehow I discovered that her cross stitch patterns were based on her water color paintings. When we moved to a new home several years ago, we had a separate family room and living room, which was new to us — we had just had a living room before. So we had a whole new room to furnish. In the course of looking for ways to decorate it, I discovered some Paula Vaughn prints in a local shop, but I felt they were too expensive. But my next birthday my dear husband bought them for me.

Unfortunately, that’s not the greatest picture. Trying to get adequate lighting while not reflecting off the glass was a problem. Here is a close-up of the middle one:

Then over the last few years my family has given me a couple of Paula Vaughn books as gifts. One is The Best of Paula Vaughn. I don’t know if it is in print any more: I didn’t find it on Amazon.

It’s mainly pictures of her cross stitch designs with the patterns and a little background information.

The other, The Romance of Paula Vaughn, has cross stitch projects but also several other kinds of projects. Here are a few samples from the book:

I love her style (obviously!) Though I hope to eventually make a few projects from the book, even if I never do, I love perusing the books when I need a boost of inspiration. There is something about beautiful art and handiwork that just does something for my soul. I used to struggle with that: I used to think maybe I should just be functional. But then I was reminded that God could have made the world just functional, but He also made it beautiful. Beauty and creativity are a part of His character, and it’s ok if we reflect and enjoy those traits within the means and time He has given us at different seasons of life.

I finally did start a Paula Vaughn cross stitch project of my own! I’ve had the pattern for a while, though it is newer than some of the ones I bought when my kids were small. I started it a couple of weeks ago, and the pattern seemed really complicated to me, but it is coming together more quickly and easily than I would have thought. Here is what I have so far:

I hope you have enjoyed looking through Paula’s art as much as I have enjoyed sharing it with you! You can find more Show and Tells or join in on the fun at Kelli’s.

A big sale for the frugally minded…

Posted on July 30, 2008 by Barbara Harper

..or those who want to learn how to be more frugal.

TODAY ONLY you can get an incredible ebook package from MoneySavingMom.com–over $100 worth of money-saving ebooks, homemaking helps, and encouragement for only $5.97. She’s offering a lot of good stuff a great price and I’d highly recommend you run over here and check it out.

What makes this deal so good is that this ebook package includes the ecourse Supermarket Savings 101–this course alone is worth much more than $5.97 and will teach you how to drastically reduce your grocery bill. If high fuel and food costs are discouraging you and leaving you strapped for cash, I’d encourage you to check out this ecourse. You’ll learn how to cut your grocery bill by up to 50% or more.

Go here
to read more about this huge sale! Hurry, though, the price goes up tomorrow.