pals

fashion friday- upcycled goodness

The kids are off school for a few days, so the crafts are flying off the handle over here.  There are diaramas, cotton balls, google eyes, and tiny little scraps of paper as far as the eye can see.

My sewing machine is fired up, and today we tried out the art of upcycling. 

What was once an old shirt and pair of socks, has been transformed into a lovely skirt and leg warmer combo for Syd!  Now that I know what a gathering stitch is, we made a cute little flower to pin on her shirt.... to pull it all together of course :)

Happy Friday all!

back on the wagon

I suppose it all began last winter.

We had just lovingly welcomed our little Ellery, making us a family of 7. 

A large family.

Two in diapers...again, and 5 little mouths to feed.  Did I mention, that Tim can put away a 9x13 casserole by himself? Yep. 

My grocery trips to Meijers were chaos.  A frenetic grabbing  and tossing of food, in an effort to get out of there and keep the peace....because I always took the kids.  I would easily drop close to $200 per week on groceries....and always seem to be out of food.

Something needed to change, or our kids were literally going to eat us out of house and home.

And so, my 2010 New Years resolution was to cut our grocery bill.... significantly. I knew this would involve a complete rehaul, to change my haphazard ways of grocery spending.  It would involve PLANNING.  Not something I was used to in the food dept.
 
I discovered the art of couponing, and began to follow a few blogs.  I began to understand how the game worked, and I must say, it changed the entire way I approached shopping. 

I soon caught the fever and fast became a coupon addict.  It made me sick to think of all the times I paid  (gasp) full price!  I was filled with glee every Sunday when I picked up my newspaper... looking  forward to my coupons in the same way a kid looks forward to Christmas. 

It took a bit of time, clipping, planning etc. I would get my coupons in order, print my grocery list, and  shop by myself at night after Tim came home from work.  Pretty soon I had enough free deoderent lining our shelves, that Tim told me to stop, because he was clearly set for life. I proudly showed off every reciept I brought home, because our grocery bill was down by more than half....and we were eating well. I was using better beauty products than I'd used in a long time.

Well, summer came...which brought about 5 kids at home  all. the. time.,and no break. Tim became so busy at work, that it was just too late to go out by the time he got home. Because I couldn't seem to catch a break, I slowly began to fall behind in my organization as well.  

Trips to the store would  involve me holding Ellery, Stella laying in the aisle screaming until I would put Ellery down to cry, and pick her up, the big kids fighting, and many clipped ankles.  One particularly weary day in July, I left Meijers with 2 screaming babies, sore ankles, milk, formula, wine and pokemon cards.  Clearly all the staples :) 

I quit couponing for the month of August....with the hopes of getting started again once school began, and I had more time LOL.  It made me sick to just aimlessly buy...but I just couldn't get it together.  September passed by in a blur of back to school, soccer, field trips, new puppy, entertaining, extra responsibilities,and just figuring out this new scheduled school life again.

Wow, I'm sorry, this story is so long winded!

I've been getting myself organized again, and last week I finally started playing with my coupons again.

I'm pretty proud of my first transaction back. A simple one.

All of this was free, and I made $0.63 profit!  A necessary break, but it feels good to be back!

fashion friday

Awhile back, my dear friend and fellow craft enthusiast, Cara, stitched up some matching outfits for my gals. They are absolutely darling...the picture doesn't really do them justice.

I have wanted a nice photo of us females for quite some time now....the weather this past weekend was perfect for photographer Tim to snap a few.

 I

4th annual Klackyloo

The gorgeous fall weather of this past weekend was positively perfect for our annual trek to Klackles Orchard.....and clearly the rest of the state had the same idea as us. LOL

Once again good times were had by all. Our "all" seems to grow every year :) Unfortunately when we left, the van did not stear us into the Ponderosa parking lot, as it usually does.  Elle needed a snooze badly, and was asleep before we got out of the parking lot. So, we let her sleep for a bit and stopped when we got closer to home.  A small town restaurant with good, cheap food, crayons on the table, and "regulars" lurking everywhere.  It always amuses me to watch peoples eyes when we walk in places as a family.  You can see the mental counting...and then the familiar smile and nod.   It may be our "new" tradition!

The apple pickin' was slim this year...and that's being very generous! We've never worked so hard to fill up 6 bags of apples! If you look closely in the picture above, an apple was spotted at the very top of the tree. The highest we could get was Austin standing on Tims shoulders...so Tim got creative with my water bottle.

fashion friday

If you have a little girl, and love a Target bargain, you probably recognize the dress that Ellery is wearing in the photo above.

It was the dress during the fall/winter of 2008. You know, that brilliant find that you saw on every little girl in church.

Well, the dress is now Ellery's hand-me-down.

While perusing a garage sale awhile back, I stumbled upon the same outfit in Stella's size. You knowI was thrilled....ridiculously.

Best .75 I've spent in a long time :)

why I chose 3 day kindergarten for this boy....

...because how else would he find the time to catch birds for the cage in my living room?