Shop Hop Saturday 2/26/11

Good Saturday to all!  I am later than usual getting my shop hop blog posted for this week.  This morning I was busy with some posts on gather and packing a few boxes.  This afternoon I had a good time visiting with my friend Heather.  I met her through gather then found out we only live 30 minutes from each other.  It's always so great for me when she comes to visit and I have someone to visit with (rant and whine too) in person instead of just on the computer all the time.

Due to our move, I have packed up all of my crafts and have dedicated the time I usually work on crafts to packing boxes.  Four more days and we close on the house!!

However, I did finish up that table runner and got it listed in my etsy store this week.  In addition, I put together a set of little girls bracelets that were already made.  I also put together 2 more of the hot pad and coaster sets with items I already had made.
You can see of it below:

Hot Pad and Coaster Set in Country Blue

marsha32 

Hot Pad and Coaster Set 

Little Girls Bracelets Set of 5 

Christmas Table Runner

 

We are moving starting Wednesday and will be living in the house by this time next Saturday.  I won't have anything new to list in my etsy shop between now and then.  I'm not sure if I will make this post next week or not!  I have a feeling that all of Saturday is going to be dedicated to getting us as settled in to start staying in our new home as I can.  I will be taking a car load of boxes over on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and putting away what I can each day as well.

Click the button below and join abitosunshine in this blog hop!   Supporting each other is important, and Ruthi putting together this hop was such an excellent idea.

Drugstore Bootstrap Challenge Week 4

Welcome to Week 4 of the Drugstore Bootstrap challenge for the month of February.  The challenge is posted by Frugal Follies and you can find the post here.

We only have Walgreen's here.

My Rules:
1.  I can spend no more than $10 out of pocket the whole month.
2.  Sales tax does not count in the $10 total.
3.  I can start with the $5 in register rewards that I have on hand.
4.  I can use any coupons that I can, and they also do not count in the total, as the total is just out of pocket.

As you know, I blew the $10 OOP for the month after the 3rd week of shopping.  Also as you know, we are closing on our house next week.  Since I blew it, I decided to not worry about it too much, and most all I bought this week is now packed to moved to our new home.  I still feel like I did pretty well!

I bought:
RePhresh Tampons, on sale for $5.99, used $1 coupon and got back $5 in RR's.
2-Clorox Clean Up Wipes in sale 2 for $6, got back $2 in RR's
2 Ziploc freezer bags, on sale 2 for $5 with Walgreen's coupon and I used $1/2 coupon
Dove Deoderant, on sale for $1.99 with Walgreen's coupon and I used a $2 coupon
2 Glade Relax spray, on sale 2 for $5, used 2-$1 coupons and got back $1 in RR's.
I then used my $10 in RR's from the previous week.


I paid $7.98 OOP (not including sales tax), saved $18.58 total in coupons (including Walgreen's coupons), and have $8 total is RR's for my next shopping.


This brings my total OOP for the month to $21.65.  I still feel good about it since over the month I now have several items for our new home.


What will the March challenge be?

Thinking on Thursday - Pondering with a Purpose 2/24/11

This week's prompt is: Beauty

The word beauty reminds me of the saying that beauty is what is on the inside, not what is on the outside. Or, beauty is only skin deep.  This is the way everyone should look at it, but most don't.  I'm guilty myself of judging from the outside!

I am no raving beauty, nor have I ever been.  Everywhere I go it seems that I see at least one other female that I say--"I wish I could look like that."  Sad, but true.

I'm happy that those that love me, see my beauty within.

If you would like to join in and do some pondering with a purpose, click the button and join in.

Pillsbury Bake-Off Information and Giveaway!

It's that time of year when Pillsbury is having their annual Bake-Off!  Read below for the details and when finished, enter to win a prize pack from Pillsbury and myblogspark!

 

Pillsbury is looking for original recipes that taste and look delicious, are easy to prepare and that families across America will love to eat. Consumers can submit recipes in one of four recipe categories:

• The Breakfast & Brunches category includes casual brunch or weekend family breakfast ideas. For example, sweet rolls, pull-aparts, pastries, breakfast breads, egg dishes or breakfast sandwiches.
• In the Entertaining Appetizers category, entrants can submit appetizers and snacks to serve at casual gatherings with family and friends or for holiday entertaining. For example, bite size appetizers, tartlets, pinwheels, puffs, bruschetta or focaccia.
• The Dinner Made Easy™ category encourages home cooks to create easy-to-prepare main dishes that will delight your family. For example, pizzas, calzones, sandwiches, foldovers, casseroles, chilis, soups or savory pies.
• Quick and easy treats for anytime celebrations can be entered into the Sweet Treats category. For example, cookies, pies, tarts, brownies or bars.

Entries are being accepted online between now and April 18, 2011, at www.bakeoff.com. One hundred lucky finalists will compete for a chance at the grand prize during the contest finals, which take place March 25-27, 2012 at the Peabody Orlando Hotel in Florida. You’ll also find contest details, including eligible products, prizes and the official rules, on the web site.

The recipes will be judged for 1) taste, 2) appearance, 3) creativity and 4) consumer appeal. All entries must meet the requirements of the recipe category and appropriately use two of the eligible products in at least the quantity specified.

Sue Compton of Delanco, N.J. was named the grand prize winner of the 44th Pillsbury Bake-Off^® Contest in 2010 for her original Mini Ice Cream Cookie Cups recipe. At the 43rd Pillsbury Bake-Off® Contest in 2008, Carolyn Gurtz walked away with the million-dollar grand prize for her Double-Delight Peanut Butter Cookies. At the 2006 competition, the 42nd Contest, Anna Ginsberg, a stay-at-home mom who you might know from her blog, Cookie Madness, earned the $1 million prize for her Baked Chicken and Spinach Stuffing.
 Now on to the giveaway!  One of my lucky winners will receive the prize pack pictured below.  The prize pack includes a Pillsbury Doughboy apron, Pillsbury Doughboy pen and Pillsbury Bake-Off 44th Contest 100 Winning Recipes Booklet (all on cards with photos)

Giveaway ends Thursday March 10, 2011 9 pm CST.  Winner will be chosen using random.org and will be given 48 hours to contact me with their information or another winner will be chosen.
Giveaway is open to residents of the United States.


Please leave a separate comment for each means of entry.  Mandatory entry must be done in order for other entries to be counted.  Please include a way for me to contact you in one of the comments.


*Mandatory entry:  Please tell me what your favorite Pillsbury Bake-Off recipe is or what you think goes in to coming up with a winning entry.


Additional ways to enter:  (one comment per entry)


*Post this giveaway on twitter using the hashtag #myblogspark.  Include the link to your tweet in the comment.


*Follow my blog publicly with Google friend connect.


*Subscribe to my blog by email.


*Friend me on facebook.  Click here.


*Follow me on twitter.  Click here.


*Participate in one or both of my weekly linky posts.  I have a linky for squidoo lenses on Thursdays and a giveaways linky on Tuesdays.  This is one entry for each time you participate throughout the giveaway.  Both linky's remain active for a week.


Most of all....have fun and good luck!!


Disclaimer:  Pillsbury provided you with the free product, information, and giveaway through MyBlogSpark.

Squidoo Hopping 2/24/11

Good Thursday morning to all!

I enjoy living a frugal life.  A lot of my frugality I learned from my grandmothers who grew up in the great depression era.  A lot of my life, living frugally was a necessity, and in today's economy, I still see it as a necessity for all!

For this weeks squidoo blog hop, I would like to share with you the lenses I have made that deal with being frugal.  I have lots more of this type of lens ideas rolling around in my head, and hopefully one day I will get busy and get them built!

Frugal Family Friendly Recipes 

This lens was part of a Rocketmoms assignment.  I had shared these recipes already in gather and I put them all together in this lens.  What I need to do is remember next time I make these recipes to come back to the lens and add a photo for each one as well.

My Coupon/Refund Story

This was one of my very first posts over on gather and I turned it into a squidoo lenses, going into more detail and adding photos.  Coupons are a great way to save money!  I also need to update this lens to include links to the different blogs I follow to find the great coupon deals!

Miserly Moms by Jonni McCoy --...

I'm including this book review because this is an awesome book!!  This gal knows what she is talking about on living a frugal life.  It's a keeper on my bookshelf.

Crafts As Gifts

I make a lot of crafts for gifts.  There are lots that I've forgotten to add to this lens along the way.  Again, I need to update this one to add some of the more recent gifts I've made.  I truly feel that a homemade gift comes from the heart.

I hope you've enjoyed today's choices and I look forward to seeing what all of you add this week as well.

Lioness Arising by Lisa Bevere--Book Review

Lioness Arising--Wake Up and Change the World by Lisa Bevere.
ISBN 978-0-307-45778-3  Published by Waterbrook Press

Lioness Arising is a Christian book for women.  It  focuses on the importance of women leaders in the church.  It's very inspiring.

The author, Lisa Bevere, starts the book out with telling us of a vision she had in a dream.  That vision--the voice of God---telling her to be a lioness.  Go out and teach others to also be a lioness.

There is a lot of controversy out there between different religious denominations on whether it's Biblical for women to be leaders in the church.  On a personal note, there are many women leaders in my home church.  Even I am on the church council and am starting my 3rd term as such.

Lisa used the example of the lions and lionesses throughout the book.  I found this all to be very eye opening and interesting.  An education within an education let's call it.

Many supporting Bible verses are quoted throughout the book.

I really enjoyed reading the book, and as I said, was very inspired by it.  There is one part that sticks out the most to me about the book.  It reads that if you walk into a church and there is no greeting or interaction between members....walk back out!   The feeling of family is very important within the church and for spreading the Gospel.  

I recommend this book.  It would be a great read for a women's leadership conference...or to be given to the women attending to read before the conference.  I will be passing the book along to other women in my church, just haven't decided who to start with.  The majority of the women members are already active within the church.

Click here to get a preview of the book by reading chapter one!  http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/2010/08/04/sneak-peek-lioness-arising/?ref=BloggingForBooks_Chapter1Link

 





Disclaimer:  I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.  All opinions are my own.

Please click below and rank and rate this review for me:

WIP Wednesday 2/23/11

I'm late getting my WIP post up for this week...but as you know, the major work in progress for us right now is buying the house.  We've been busy today getting some things done as well as some packing.  I've been packing one or two boxes a day.  With the house closing in a week I need to step that up a bit.

I've put away all of my crafts and such except for some things I am working on for the house.  A man at church is cleaning out his mother's house since her passing and gave me a bag of rug yarn.  I have made a little rug for in front of the kitchen sink and I'm now working on making placemats for the table too.  I doubt I can get them done before we move, but I'm working on them while just sitting  and doing things here on the computer.

Below is photos of the little rug...my work on the placemats....boxes that are packed and in one part of the basement.....and boxes that are packed in our bedroom.

Please click the button at the bottom of my post to join in and check out other's WIP's as well.

Giveaways Linky Tuesday

Mailbox Monday 2/21/2011

It's Monday and time for Mailbox Monday where we share the freebies we've gotten in the past week.  Mailbox Monday is in conjunction with AFrugalFriend.  Please click the button at the end of my post to join in the fun and/or see what others have rec'd this past week.

I'm sorry that I don't have a photo this week.  Things are stressful, busy, and hectic around here as we prepare to move.  The house is to close March 2...I pray it does!

Looks like mostly a pile of magazines this week.
I rec'd:
Entertainment Weekly
Sports Illustrated
2011 Swim Suit Edition Sports Illustrated(Steve is way too excited about this one  LOL)
Forbes
Bloomsberg Businessweek
Time
People
Family Fun
4 other pieces of hausernet mail (man I wish I would see a check from them!)
Card from National Consumer Panel on why I've not transmitted (oops)
The Gardener's Idea Book

My email looked a lot better this week:
$11.06 paypal from squidoo
$30 total paypal from gather
.09 paypal from youdata

I've already started using the new address when sending for freebies since they take awhile to come....sure hope I'm not doing so in vain!  I even send for a refund using the new address as well.  And, I've changed my addresses on some websites and such too, the ones I know won't be sending me anything else until next month.  I sure hope this wasn't a dumb move on my part!