Today I was looking through my mail and realized that I have been tossing away free money. I have been sent free gift cards from Kohls, JC Penny, and other stores but I would toss them because I thought that you had to purchase a certain amount of something in order to get something for free.
Well today I went to Kohls to see what I could get for $10. And there were a couple of things that I wanted and are on my wishlist, but I found some towels for $1.99 for a set of eight and although they aren't the best quality, they are perfect for our guest bathroom. I also get 4 napkins to add to my Thanksgiving Day decor. So I have 24 towels and 4 napkins for $10.04. Which means I actually paid 4¢ after my gift card.
I will be using these from now on instead of tossing them. Well I'm tired and need to get to bed. Goodnight, Tracy

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Photo uploaded

Well this is a test to see if this works.

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Get it all together

Well that is exactly what I have been working on, getting it all together. Reorganizing our master suite closet, getting the office clutter free ( is really my hardest task when it comes to organizing) and trying to make small productive steps in decorating. Which was spray painting the guest bathroom faucet and shower components, light fixture and door knobs. And after all that it looks amazing, but I realized that I really need to replace the shower head all together. With little ones you have to have shower heads that can be held to wash sticky feet and shampooed hair. But these things all take money that isn't in the budget right now. But I did get some scrapbooking done as well.  I really am proud of the fact that I am almost just a year behind in the youngest's album but I don't have any photos to share mostly because I am using my phone to post. So once I get an understanding of how to edit and add the pics from my phone I will surely be uploading photos. Until then, smiles. Tracy

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Food Allergies

So I don't really talk about this much but since having children (3 of the 4) with food allergies, I often avoid certain things for our family. I do sometimes experiment which substitutions but often times we avoid certain things all together.

One of those things that I love is banana bread, and I haven't made it ever from scratch and I refused to make it from a pack because I know that the ingredients could have nuts in it. And no matter what nut I wanted to put in it at least one of my children with allergies would be allergic to it. And it never crossed my mind to actually make it without nuts. Which is weird because we make chocolate chip cookies, and brownies and every other dessert that calls for nuts without them.

So today I looked at my fruit basket and thought I really want to make banana bread with those really ripe bananas. I have been freezing the bad ones for months for smoothies or milkshakes but I really wanted banana bread.

So I searched online for the perfect quick recipe to make before the kids got home from school and it was one that jumped right out at me from here http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/banana_bread/

And although it took an hour to cook it was nice to have this waiting for the kids for an after school snack...

And they loved it! I pulled out my glass cake stand that I got for $2 at a garage sale and it looks really cute on the stand. I love fall, it's cool enough to experiment with baking recipes and not feel like you are burning up! So this week I say if it's cooling down where you are at, try a recipe that you haven't tried or haven't made in awhile.  Smiles, Tracy

So fall is officially here...

I used to associate fall with having a little more time to relax and do crafting projects. Well in that was the case in the state that I used to live in, but not so much here. The temperature changes a little during this season but not by much. And for the most part there are things that I have on my to-do list that are calling my names.

I don't have a lot of fall decorations for the outside of the house. In fact, I never purchased anything for our first house. And honestly I was not really thinking that I was going to do that just yet for this house. I think that if you put up fall themed decorations some people associate those decorations with celebrating a certain day of October that we don't celebrate at all. And in our last house I put up a wreath one year and that was the year that we received knocks on our door that night (even with the lights off). So I was thinking that maybe I wouldn't do anything. But I really do want something that says Have a Blessed Thanksgiving/ autumn or something. I am thinking vinyl. And I knew that I was going to do a wreath again. But I couldn't find on that I loved. So I picked up an undecorated Christmas wreath from Walmart and some floral items from the Dollar Tree. And I was good, well that was until I headed to the 50% off sale at my local Goodwill and saw that there was a wood branch wreath for $1.50. It had roses on it and I got rid of those because that isn't exactly what I had planned for my fall wreath and the size isn't perfect but it will work and so I got all my supplies together.

And sat them on the kitchen table for a few hours before I decided that I need to just do it.

Once it was completed which actually took a few hours because I was working on it while completing a project for LT's room and working on a picture frame that I love. And I loved the finished wreath. And I went to hang it last night but that was interrupted by spider killing, and watching baby toads and finally looking at the stars. So I sat it on the hall floor. This morning I decided that it was time to get it on the door. But when deciding that I was stumped because wasn't sure if I wanted to add a nail again in the door since I had to patch the previous nail hole because hubby just ripped the Christmas wreath off with the nail. The wreath was ok but the door not so much. But I decided to just do it. And I screwed in a nail and made an actual hanger with burlap that I had in my stash. It turned out perfectly.

So for a total cost of approximately $10 (because I didn't use all the floral stuff I bought) I now have a fall wreath that I honestly now love. Adding the burlap made it perfect and it went from being an ok wreath to me to being perfect.  And now I have plans to get other items that are fall themed for the front of the house. I am thinking maybe a huge planter and some fall related something or another?

 

And now I see that I need to touch up the trim more and scrap off some excess paint on the door kick.

Happy Fall Blessings! Smiles, Tracy

Garage door...what an improvement!!!

The entry way into our home from the garage was always an issue for me when it came to the look and feel of the door. It was a plain white door that I wiped down honestly at least 2xs a day. And the day that we had a garage sale I wiped it down way more than that. And it was getting to the point where it also was becoming dingy as well. I believe it was partly due to the flat builder's grade paint. I hoped to paint the house rooms all before starting to work on projects that didn't really matter too much to anymore but me, but sometimes you just feel enough is enough.

So I pulled out my paint samples that I had gotten from Lowes for painting our bedroom and mixed several colors together to get what was as close to dark turquoise as possible. I didn't want to buy paint because I honestly knew that I will most likely change this in the long run because I will paint the entire garage when I purchase the above shelving system and storage containers.  And I began painting the door. It looked ok and I honestly was fine with it but I wanted something more. Then I decided that it would look better if I distressed it and so I added the black/espresso stain. It was almost perfect and then that's when I decided to pull out my cricut and cut a sign.  And now it is absolutely awesome. The sign is truly a trial and error experiment and I honestly will be doing that over too when I get more vinyl.

What I learned is that any vinyl works in my cricut. And I used painters tape (in place of the cricut transfer tape) because I didn't have the correct tape. As I stated this was a project that I decided to just do. I also learned that it would maybe be easier to make the sign straight by making very light lines or my leveler. And finally I will add some decorative elements to the design next time. Maybe a flourish or some sort of scroll. But the best part it how easy I can do the whole design with MTC!

 

Well I am off to take care of my 2 sick ones. Which is the one major issue with having children in public school...all the cooties that are spread!

I love surfing the web and reading decorating ideas. I often think that I should share more ideas that I have about my own home. I mean I have shown things that I am working on and maybe given some tips but I haven't really shared too many details. I am hoping to change this.

So today I took these supplies                      

and began labeling my storage containers that I did have in my pantry and baking cabinet. I was on pinterest and I saw some chalk board labels. Now I knew that Hobby Lobby carried that chalkboard vinyl and  instead of waiting to do this project, I went to pick up a roll. Well first off that place is addictive for those of us that love all things decorative. I have since made a wishlist of things that I just have to get once I can afford to do a little fun shopping for the house.

So I got the chalkboard vinyl ( a little under $6 with tax), and then used my chalkboard markers that I also picked up from Hobby Lobby months ago (for our family menu chalkboard) and pulled out my old reliable Big Shot and cut some labels using a Spellbinders Nestabilities die set (Labels 4) and this is what my pantry looks like right now.

I have also went over my storage containers that I had used white rub ons to label over a year ago and re-did those with these labels as well. I know that my containers don't all match and I need a few a lot  more but this is something that I am not in a rush to complete or willing to invest loads of money into at this time (especially because I want to do our kitchen and great room). But I do love the black labels.  I really like that I used a few scrapbooking tools to make my home better.

I am hoping to find the mother load of storage options at a garage sale...that would truly be awesome!

So I was wondering if other people use a pantry and cabinets for for food storage. I was thinking about this because I have a pantry but I used 3 of my other 5 cabinets for junk food, baking, and spice storage. I have been thinking about maybe putting the junk food in the pantry too but I think that it would make it to easy for the little ones to get to more junk food items instead of the health stuff that I would prefer for them to have. And it doesn't seem to make sense to store spices in my pantry since I cook on the other side of the kitchen. Plus my baking goods are all by the stove and baking pans. I guess now that I think of it, it makes perfect sense for me not to store all my items in the pantry.