Revisiting Coupons other than Grocery Coupons

I posted a question on How people use grocery coupons and how they make it work a few months ago..However..I am not one of those people..I gave up..wish I could but I buy store brand and shop the sales add weekly and this works for us fine...However I have recently gotten into using Store coupons....Example: When I have to go to  town and shop for Clothes or art supplies or any Retail store I have found that the Store usually has a coupon for 40% off one item or 15% off total purchase and sometimes I can combine two % off coupons...I have bought New shirts for $1.25 a piece regular price $40.00.... I usually go to the store web site and see what coupon they offer and print it out...make my list for town (we go about twice a month as it is an Hours drive to the nearest city) and get what is on my list....another example was today...I went to a local Retail store I needed underwear for my son and socks...the sale was buy one and get one 1/2 off mix and match..I got one of each regular price for both would have been $20.98...I had a 20% coupon and a $10.00 off store coupon so total was $3.58 plus .29 tax...Not Bad!... Hope this encourages you to take advantage of  the stores now instead for them taking advantage of you! :) 

Mr Coffee gave up!

Mr Coffee quit! He gave up and no amount of cleaning would start him to perking again! So New coffee pot for us!...But wait I had this stored in my garage....But how does it work...several tries and some internet research later and I had some weak but drinkable coffee....(think I may need some help with the stove top  Percolator..)







However, after several calls to parents on how to make it work they had this beauty stored away...Works like a charm! No filters..(bonus on frugal  side :)...It is a original Percolator and brews HOT coffee in nothing flat..Thinking I may never buy a new "traditional coffee maker" again!! So not only did I save on buying a new coffee pot I learned several new ways to brew coffee today...(I may never sleep tonight!) ..May you never be without your Cup of Joe in the morning! 

Not Your Ordinary SALSA!

Remember these...and the "Cats" that dug them up?

Green tomatoes....We wrapped most of them up in newspaper and some have already ripened...A neighbor gave my parents some more and .....

HOT peppers...along with some other peppers we collected along the way... We put our crafty minds together my Mother and I and created this...

No it is not Green gruel...How about Green Tomato salsa...IT IS YUMMY!!! 

13 pints of the stuff...... PLUS we put up 6 1/2 pints of Jalapeno Pepper Jelly!...Good Eats Indeed!

What da Heck!....I think I am in a dream..

Must have met my Kitty catch for the week...Late  yesterday Animal Control came and picked up the traps...they said they would bring them out again on Monday...BUT..Over night our Guest was back...so we will have to wait and see what happens over the weekend...In the meantime we found a Mouse in the House last night...I think I am turning into the Little Old Lady who lived in a Shoe who had to many ANIMALS she did not know what to do! HA! Well as least I still have a sense of Humor...(Maybe at least one of Cats should have stayed...Hmmmm? Maybe not!)

Day Two of the "Skunk"?!?!?! Capture...

Nope...Day two it is another Kitty....I think we are on Kitty patrol here in the Panhandle?!?!....Well they are coming to pick this one  up and set another trap...lets see what tomorrow brings

Skunk or Raccoon??

That is what they are telling me at Animal Control....Yep! It is going over my Fence and then the portable gate and digging up where Garrison left off... Not only that... it dug up my tomatoes and squash...Now  I have about 10 to 15 pounds of Green tomatoes trying to ripen in the garage in newspaper... Needless to say I have only caught this...


And she is Mad and WILD!!!....Waiting on Animal Control Now..Sorry Kitty but you have Pooped in my Yard for the Last Time.. ( YES!!! I pick up after my dogs EVERYDAY!!!! I have seen her around for a while and have been picking up after her as well!!!) But I am having Animal Control re-set the trap because after she was caught something still came in last night and dug up even more in the garden....But for the record!!!! We called Animal Control Because we thought it was a Skunk and right now in our area they have found SEVERAL skunks with Rabies..so Kitty must go and be checked anyway... Lets see what the traps brings in tomorrow or else whatever it is will have dug a tunnel under my house by tomorrow

Other ways to use an Old Utensil

We were given a box of old Utensils the other day...We picked out a few items that we wanted and we were going to send the rest of the box to the donation store...BUT...Hubby had an idea.....boy was I surprised!...Remember  the signs that we are donating to the Creative Arts Center in efforts that all proceeds keep it running for the next year? He thought this would work better than hangers on the back of the signs and boy do they...

WoW!!!!! I loved them! You could use them for cool Plate holders as well.....He even made these cool "Coat" hooks out of spoons...

Well off we go...back out to Santa's work shop..Who knows what we will create today.....

Two for $20.00 or Were They????

Two for $20.00 at an Estate Sale...I only needed one Chair to go outside in my new painting area.....How about $10.00 for just one?....One was in pretty bad shape...it needed some TLC...I just walked away and thought about it..As we where paying for our other treasures ( two frames $1.00 and a  butcher block  $1.00) She says how about both for $5.00? Ok! You got a deal!

So with a little elbow work and $12.00 later.....We got these Beauty's....

The not so good one has New Cross bars, and is drying with a new seat, cleaned and oiled and ready to use some 12 hours later :)...

The Better of the two will be my "New" sewing chair and the other will be my painting chair...Not Bad for a days work!

Let the Holidays Begin!

It is that time of year! The Holidays are starting up and Halloween starts them off for us.... Such a fun holiday you get to dress up and eat candy...the kids get just as excited about it as some of the other Holidays.

Well the signs above and below are made from a box of wood we acquired from an estate sale for 2.50...so I bought it in hopes of doing something with it for a Bazaar for our local Art club and all proceeds would go to keep it running for the up coming year...that and the yearly $25.00 member fee...some of the women are in their late 60's to early 80's....what fun I have learning from them.

I got to see a DIY yourself project here www.susieharrisblog.com/2009/07/inspiration/pass-it-on.html    ....so most of the wood will be used to make signs to donate for the Bazaar...(like The Witch Is In sign on the front door)...the rest we used to make Halloween decorations (out of the not so good wood... )

Can you see the "Tombstones" under the window?....Those are old cutting boards....I have to give Credit to Hubby for making the Ghost and Cat...he did those free hand and cut them out... Aren't they just the Cutest?!?!?...Well we had fun making them anyway! :0)

 The Old Cutting boards..hehe..I guess everything does have a purpose..:)

Square Foot Gardening Anyone Can Do It!!!

This is at my Father's house...Early this spring he tilled his whole back yard and put in a garden...Needless to say he went on Vacation and weeds set in and the Peach tress started blooming...and you know how it goes..it was a FLOP! So I convinced him to put in a small square foot garden for fall and this is it...Again he is on vacation but when he gets home WOW~!

I can not wait till he gets a load of these Radish's...

Fun and easy....Check out this web site http://www.squarefootgardening.com/whatissfg

Reuse, Reuse, Reuse!

I don't buy Paper products except toilet paper...No Paper Towels, No Paper Napkins...No Paper Plates...No Paper! (Drives my Mom Crazy!!! :) ) I use old cup towels or I buy 25# sacks of flour in a cloth bag and turn them into cup towels for drying dishes ( And Yes! I have a dish washer I just choose to hand wash!) I use Knitted or Crochet squares for dish rags.... and I convert cute material in large squares for dinner napkins..I have also started converting old t-shirts as cleaning rags...these are shirts that you can not donate! They Make great rags for cleaning as well as rags for my new art classes!...

 This is my son's 4T stained t-shirt it will make two rags...Just cut apart with Pinking Shears and you got your self some rags! No sewing  :)

These are used for my art class to clean brushes when we are done...I just take them home throw them in the wash and hang out to dry...then already for my next class!

I try and recycle when I can..I wish I could be better about it... But here is one way I can do it! No Paper for Us!!!!

Puppy Sitting...I Guess you can call it that!

Jill and Garrison...Garrison is my Father's Dog... That is him on the left...(not a good picture)...He is SO CUTE!

Yep That is him on the Table...Day Two of our week long stay... (Can Dog's have 9 Lives?)

No it is not puppy Jail.....It is the only way I can get him to eat as he wants to Play with Jill the whole time she is trying to eat...His Owner (my Dad) thinks this torture...Well a girl has to do it!

And Day 4 of his visit...He pulled the wires out of the air conditioner..... He was only out side about 30 min...Unsupervised...Now $60.00 later  we had to put a portable fence around it to protect "Him" as well as the air conditioner! I am sure more Hi-jinks are in the works but for now Let's just hope they are more "Cute" than Costly!!!

What a Week!

It started out fine. I could not wait to go back to art class. I had my Old makeup artist brushes all converted to art supplies and was ready! Then a neighbor had an old art supply kit for sale complete with Aluminum table top easel, Oil paints and all the brushes for $30.00 !!! ALL RIGHT!

I was so excited about it that I could not wait to get home and clean the brushes up..I had  already cleaned and went through the oils and off  I went home with dreams of beautiful landscapes in my future. Upon finishing up cleaning the brushes, I had been carrying a glass canning jar that had previously held Mineral spirits....We had put up a baby gate to keep "Jill the Thief" locked in the kitchen....Well all this lead too.............

5 stitches and a beauty of a black eye some 6 days later as I had fallen over the gate with jar in hand......Could have been worse!!!!......What a way to start the last week!.... Here is to a better start this week!

The Love of an Old Stove!

My Lovely Old Stove Top, Oh How I Love Thee....To bad can't get part to fix you anymore!

  

I Love this old stove top! Check out the center. Do you know what that is?

A non stick griddle..It makes the BEST Pancakes and Grilled Cheese Sandwiches in the world!

However she is an old girl.....All her knobs  broke and to replace them you have to change out the knobs at 18.00each and the switch at 30.00 each that is a whooping $240.00 before shipping and taxes...Whoa! A new coil 5 burner stove top is about $350.00.


The poor guy at the parts house saw how much I loved that stove, we even had the original papers on it..(somewhere from 1960-1970) He was even impressed with that! So HE asked "Do you care if it has the number on the knobs?" me "No, I just want to keep my stove!"....He said I sell guitar parts...you could put a Amplifier hexagonal control knob on it...should work and you can get them at Radio Shack two in a pack for 1.99.....

Guess what?!?! They all worked but one, that one needed a new switch..which will be on order soon!

So happy that I get too keep my old girl a little while longer!

Have a safe and Happy Holiday....Sit out in the breeze and " Let Your Underwear Flop in Wind!"

Homemade Wood Furniture Polish

Check it out! I am the kind of person I have to see it, than try it kind of gal. (Sorry about the hand print on the other side) 

Remember when I told you I could skip some aisles in the grocery store? Well one of the many is the Cleaning supply aisle........ And the above is proof that it works! I love this stuff and the added benefit is that my hands get an extra dose of oil and are soft and supple after I get done...two birds one stone, can't beat that!


Here it is! Try it! Be sure and use and old cotton rag or t-shirt and just put some on a rag and rub it in. (NOTE! if your furniture has a polyurethane coat or is Laminated this will NOT soak in)

1/2 Cup Lemon Juice (bottle is fine)
1 Tablespoon Olive oil

Put in jar and shake...That's it!
  Let me know how you like it I love it!

One Man's Trash is Another's Treasure!

Especially if you Love Old jars and need Good Canning Jars too!

Look at these Beauty's...Wire ones......Old Kerr Jars........Corn Oil Jug's (makes good Wine fermenting jugs :) )

My Favorite is the old Clorox bottle...will go good with my other antique jug's  that I put my Homemade Laundry soap in!

What a find!! All we had to do was clean out under my mother's  house (a 1944 house built by my Grandfather) and they were our's for the taking!

Homemade Microwave Popcorn...YES! It can be done!!!

Homemade Microwave Popcorn

Ever buy Microwave Popcorn? Do you know you can make it yourself for next to nothing! All you need is a bag of Real Popcorn , a brown paper bag, a stapler and of course a microwave.

Now you have to put in 3 Tablespoons of Popcorn, a little spray of Non-stick spray or spray butter if you want...Press all the air out of bag, roll the top of bag down twice and staple it one time to keep closed...( for some reason the staple does not spark in the microwave, I do not know why?!?!?)  Pop in the microwave and You got Microwave Popcorn without the added expense of Store bought! Enjoy!

Let Them Eat Bread...........

It's Easy!!! Everyone should know how to do it!!!! Not with a Bread machine........Kneaded with your bare hands...........kinda good old fashion bread.....so here it is!!!

Homemade Bread

2 1/2 cups Flour ( may need  more when kneading)
1 Cup Very warm water
1 Tablespoon yeast
1 Tablespoon Sugar or Honey
1 tsp. Salt
3 Tablespoons Oil

Put All Ingredients in a Large mixing bowl (reserve one tablespoon of oil)  ( I use an old Tupperware bowl that has a lid) Knead.......Push..........Pull....Get your hands dirty......any way you like it....but do it for 5 MINUTES......Set a timer if you have too.... Than form a ball in the center of your bowl and put the reserved oil on the ball of dough.....cover and let raise until it has doubled in size.....could take an Hour to a couple of Hours...depends of the weather :)............ Then once it has doubled in size punch it down and form into a loaf to fit your bread pan.........Place  formed loaf in a warmed  ( NOT Hot just warmed up a bit oven) WITH a Pan of HOT WATER to help with the 2nd rise...It works trust me!!!! Once it has risen the 2nd time take out the water and bake at 350' for about 30-35 mins.............

  Homemade bread that everyone will love! Good Luck!......Try it!! You may like it....!