Garden delight salad

I "bought" some Rozoni Garden Delight pasta because I had a coupon that made it absolutely free. I cooked it up and then put these ingredients with it:

* Diced tomatoes
* Diced olives
* Cubed cheese
* Italian dressing
* Pepperonis or diced ham

We loved it and have made more since.

** Be careful not to cook the noodles too long. The noodles were overcooked in these pictures. Thus, the noodles got a little broken up when stirred.

Candy Bar covers

I made candy bar covers for Crunch bars. I made them so that you are able to slide the wrapper off and eat the candy bar. Then I put a message on it to give to the people I visit teach.

Camping at Maple Reservoir

We went with our friends, Amber and Creighton, camping up Payson Canyon. We had a great time. The weather was perfect and we got to enjoy crickets chirping and frogs croaking as we looked out at the reservoir.

We had delicious tin foil dinners.

Creighton and Amber decided to float the reservoir. They must have not enjoyed it enough because afterwards they had to push each other in the lake and get soaking wet. Thus, they had to change- hence the funny outfits ;)

While these two were enjoying the water, Garrett and I (mainly Garrett) enjoyed shooting guns.

Garrett has a great shot. It was fun watching him shoot a watermelon, causing it to fly up high in the air and explode into tons of pieces.

Freezer Pleasers!

Garrett has been wanting a freezer for a very long time. The other day I was cruising around KSL and I found a great deal for a freezer. It looked practically brand new and was the perfect size. An added bonus was that it was just around the corner from our house. We had to stack our washer and dryer to make room for the freezer. We actually switched the washer and dryer with the freezer after we took this picture.

You can't have a freezer with nothing in it, so I have been shopping and cooking like crazy. I bought a ton of meat to freeze and cooked lasagna, deluxe mashed potatoes, and chicken rolls to freeze.

I made 32 chicken rolls. They are so delicious and great to just take out of the freezer and heat up in the microwave. Then top it off with some gravy.

We have a cookbook that has some good recipes but the pictures are terrible and make all the food look disgusting. I always comment on the poor quality of pictures. Now I am posting low quality pictures that make the food that I bake look less then appealing. I apologize. My brother Devin took all the photography genes.

Lasagna: Trust me, this lasagna taste much better then it looks in picture

Grapesicles

We had a bunch of grapes in our fridge so I thought I would try something new-- grapesicles. I have tried freezing grapes before, just in a bowl. This time I put the grapes on a skewer. It's a great treat for a hot summer day.

Garrett is so nice to pose for me :)

Walmart Trip

There are a lot of strategies to saving money. It really is a learned skill. It's amazing how much I have learned since the first time I used a coupon. I am getting a lot better at saving money and doing it quickly. When I started couponing it would take me a while to figure out what I am doing. Today's trip to Walmart was quick and painless! While I don't like shopping at Walmart for a few reasons, I keep going there to shop because they price match. Yesterday I looked at all the grocery ads and made a list of everything I needed. I write down the item, the store, the page of the ad, and the cost of each item. So today when I went to Walmart I quickly grabbed all my items and went to check out. I told the cashier how much each item was and if she questioned it then I showed her the ad. After she rang up everything then I gave her my coupons.

I spent a total of 23.63 (before taxes)

Let me break it down for you:

4 bricks of Tillamook Cheese (My favorite and lasts a long time): $3.99 each ($15.96)

Tomatoes: $0.50

White Nectarines: $0.45

White peaches: $0.40 ($ 0.13 after coupon)

Peaches: $0.75

Green Onions: $0.50

Lettuce: $0.88

Cantolope: $0.83 (free after coupon)

Yogurt: Free

2 batteries: + $0.03

Travel Body wash: +$1.03

6 boxes of cereal: $1.49 each ($8.94) -> $1.15/ Box (after coupons)

2 bags of m&m's: Free

I used a bunch of coupons with the cereal-

*(2) Free bag of m&m's w/ purchase of 2 boxes of Rice Krispies

* $1.00 off fresh fruit with purchase of Kellogg's cereal

* 1.00 off two boxes of Rice Krispies

*1.00 off two boxes of Special K

Completely free items

I get so excited when I get a good deal on an item. All these items I got completely free! Love it!

Free:

1. 2 LaVictoria Salsa (Facebook coupons)

2. Free batteries (Facebook coupon)

3. Free candles (online coupon)

4. 4 bags of chips (coupons.com coupon * smith's manager's special)

5. 4 milkyways (vlasic coupon coupon)

6. Relish (coupons.com coupon)

7. Oral-B toothbrush (smartsource coupon & smith's manager's special)

8. Curad Bandaids (online coupon)

9. Nesquick chocolate (smartsource coupon & smith's manager's special)

10. Tictacs (smartsource coupon)

11. 2 boxes of pasta (online coupon)

Crazy Coupon Adventure

I have been couponing now for about two months. By couponing, I mean that I have a binder that I keep all of my coupons in, get the Sunday newspaper, save all the coupons I see, and print off coupons from the computer. I take the binder with me and plan my shopping trips so I can save on groceries and essential items. I really enjoy couponing for many reasons- it's relaxing(the preparation part), fun to plug numbers, great to try new products, and exciting to see the savings. While I have gotten some really great deals, I would not call myself extreme at all. I realized Monday night/Tuesday morning that I will never be an extreme couponer. I haven't watched the show "Extreme Couponer" but I think I witnessed it at the Saratoga Springs Walmart this week. I had been hearing and reading posts about people going to Walmart on Tuesdays in Utah County because they double all coupons that are under one dollar. For example, if a coupon is 25 cents, they will double it to make it 50 cents off. If a coupon is between 50 cents and 99 cents they will just "double" to make it 1 dollar. I thought it would be fun to try this out and experience doubling coupons. I invited my friend Stacie along with me. We got to Walmart around 10:30 p.m. with the plan to check out at 12 a.m. and get home at a reasonable hour. After going down the first aisle I questioned what in the world I was doing there. It was really overwhelming. There were people (mainly women) all over with their carts heaping over with products. Women were already waiting in line to check out with their items that they would be doubling at midnight. Stacie and I walked down the aisles trying to find the items that we wanted to get. Disappointed, at the many bare shelves. The first 5 things on my list were already gone- at 10:30 p.m!!! At this point I felt like giving up and leaving empty handed. But, how could I? I drove almost a half hour for this experience (A crazy experience! What was I thinking?) and to get some good deals. Stacie and I walked down each aisle trying to find what we wanted to get. Luckily there were still some items left for us. We noticed a women with a cart full of stuff and the gum that I had a coupon for. I asked her where she got the gum and she said, "I don't remember, but I probably took it all." That's when I took a double look in her cart. ARE YOU SERIOUS? I couldn't believe my eyes. She had tons of the boxes filled with gum. I then noticed her cart full of diaper wipes. Confused at how in the world she could possibly get so many coupons for the same product, I asked her a few questions and this is the gist of what she said, "I have my ways. It is legal and honest. I have people that cut out coupons for me and I am looking for some more helpers. If you want you can help me out and I'll pay you with about 20 coupon inserts a week." By this time I was so confused. How in the world does somebody get this many coupons and why do you want to spend your whole life engulfed in couponing? She then pointed to her coupons. She had an entire plastic filing box/tub full of all of her coupons. SERIOUSLY?!?!? I didn't know how to respond to her, so I just said, "WOW!" As we left, the lady gave us a wink and said, "Some day you will know." I guess when I am older I will know how to get lots of coupons too. However, she was kind enough to let me take one of her gums from the cart. Stacie and I got some really good deals. Our experience was a really big eye opener to me. I came home and told Garrett I wasn't sure if I ever wanted to use a coupon again. Some of those ladies were so serious about couponing. They had tons of each product in their cart. Then there was Stacie and me, with one of a few items.

A week or so ago, I told my brother about one of my great couponing trips and the money that I spent. He gave me a hard time and said that the time you put into couponing, you might as well work more to get paid more and not worry about saving the money. After my Wal-mart experience I can definitely see his point of view. These people were so EXTREME and it seemed like their whole life focused around couponing. What do you think about couponing???

Swiffer

We have a swiffer. You use it to mop the floor. In order to use it you have to wrap a cloth around it that has cleaning chemicals on it. I decided to make a cover for the swiffer that is reusable. All you have to do is put it in soap and water and then wrap it around your swiffer. I got the pattern somewhere online but I don't remember where. It's been a while. The most difficult part of making this was learning how to make a button hole.

Supplies needed: Scissors, 2 buttons, thread, towel, swiffer

I Spy

Aunt Jan and I got together to make I spy games. They are a fun activity to keep kids quiet and entertained. You look through the plastic and find specific objects. We made up the pattern on our own and sewed them up in a night.

Shadow Box

My dad planned an outrageous family trip last summer. We traveled all around the islands of Barkley Sound. For Christmas, Garrett and I made my dad a gift to remember the trip. It took us months to find everything we needed to make the gift just perfect for my dad.

1. Canoe: We found the canoe at hobby lobby. We painted the canoe the color of my parent's canoe on our trip.

2. Sand: We collected the sand while in Canada on an island.

3. Picture: The picture in the background was taken while on our vacation. Garrett and I are in the red canoe on the left side.

4. Shadow box frame: It was so hard to find a frame that would fit the wide canoe.

Wedding Memories

My wedding bouquet had been sitting in a box for over a year. A few days ago Garrett and I were walking around Jo-Ann Fabric, looking for a frame for our canvas picture when I stumbled upon a display/shadow box. I hadn't been able to find anything that would work to put my bouquet in and this box looked like it would be perfect. It was also on clearance- marked way down. I brought it home and put my bouquet in it and Garrett's boutonniere. Here is the final product. While the bouquet isn't as gorgeous as on my wedding day, it's the memories that count. Right?

I dried some roses that Garrett gave me. Then I took a sparking apple cider bottle and tore a piece of paper into smaller pieces. Then I mod podged the pieces onto the bottle. This picture is poor quality. It looks better in person, I promise!

Quiet Book

Last summer I wanted to learn how to sew and work on a crafty project. After searching around on blogs I came across Oopsey Daisy's blog. She has a lot of examples of quiet book pages and they looked so adorable and easy (little did I know). A few days later my Aunt Jan mentioned to me that she also wanted to make a quiet book. So we got together and planned out the pages we wanted in our books, went shopping for all of our supplies, and got to work. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. The first problem was that we were making a total of 7 quiet books! That's a lot!!!!

Aunt Jan and I cutting out all of the pages.

We spent many hours slaving away on these books. It was very time consuming and overwhelming. We decided to put the pages on hold and take a break. I started working on the pages a little bit in my free time. But they started to become a burden rather than an enjoyable free time activity. When my mom came to town she helped me finish up the pages. She is a life saver! I wish I got a fraction of her crafty talents. While the pages are nos finished, I haven't bound them into a book. I am waiting until I know who I am giving them to so I can customize the covers.

Shoe Page

Skill: Tying a shoe

Weaving Page:

Skill: Weaving (over, under, over, under), fine motor skills

Mailbox Page:

Skill: Imaginative Play, Writing letters
It opens, When I know who the book is for I want to make a little card and envelop and stitch a message on in.
Car Page:

Skill: Imaginative play, motor skills
Number Page:

Skill: counting, fine motor (moving beads)
Flower Page:

Skill: Buttoning, Tying a bow

Apple Tree Page:

Skill: Snaps (fine motor), counting

Shape Page:

Skill: Shapes

Mirror Page:

Skill: Looking cute ;) , facial expressions

Gumball Machine Page:

Skill: Colors

When mom comes to town...

My mom came to visit a while ago (January). While she was here we got a lot of projects done. My mom is soooo talented and crafty.

We made some baby shower gifts-

SOCKS: We put the bows, buttons, and hearts on the socks

ONESIES: We cut and iron on the tie, the hand stitched around the edged.

BURP CLOTHES

I love the heart on the bum!

We made some hair clips.

A while back I started making a quiet book, but got a little overwhelmed and stopped working on the pages. My mom helped me put the finishing touches on the pages. Here is one of the pages we completed.