What is it

with my weekends being so busy lately?

Last Saturday (5-30) we traveled to Erie. We needed to buy Kyle a paint ball helmet for an upcoming air-soft battle with 9 other teens. We decided, since we were going anyway, to make a day of it. In addition to searching for the helmet, we also ate lunch at Ponderosa, watched Race to Witch Mountain at the discount theater, shopped for a baby shower gift, and wandered around the mall. Sunday morning was church and then the baby shower. Poor Noelle got stuck, along with two other girls, watching the little ones. She didn't find it fair (but handled it very maturely), she wanted to see what gifts the baby got, especially the look on Cheyenne's face when she opened the gift from us (an absolutely adorable little blue bathrobe that Kirk picked out).

Last night (Friday) was the air soft battle and Ky had a good time but came home exhausted. Kirk picked him up so that this morning Noelle and I could go to the community yard sales in Pleasantville (I haven't missed this in 4-5 years). We got up early to pick up Cindy and help her get her sale set up (Barb let her set up in her front yard), then off we went. Lets just say it involves a lot of walking because Pville may be small but it is spread out. We found many bargains and a lot of good food to eat. Tomorrow we have church and an evening fellowship time around a fire. It was going to be a dinner but changed, now I need to return at least one of the bags of fresh spinach I bought for the salad I was going to make. See what I get for being prepared ;)

My Busy Day

Its been a busy day here. Kyle, Noelle, and I rode our bikes to a couple yard sales. I found a basically brand new coffee thermos carafe for $2, a little vase for all the flowers Noelle is always picking for me (she's such a sweetie), and some trims for crazy quilting. We got home from doing that and I decided to clear off the deck and sweep it. Got interrupted before cleaning the deck furniture to walk Noelle to the Y for homeschool gym (got over there and found out it had been canceled), went to the dollar store for a few things, then to Save-A-Lot for some more things, then walked home. Found out I needed to make a real grocery shopping trip in the van, so I made a list and off I went. I also bought some Impatiens to plant in a planters on the deck. The kids put the groceries away while I went and finally got the deck furniture hosed down and scrubbed. Came back in and made dinner. Ate, went back outside to put the cushions on the furniture while the kids cleaned up from dinner, then Kyle came outside and helped me haul all the furniture back up onto the deck. Planted my flowers, talked to the neighbors for a few minutes, then came inside and got on the computer. You know what? I'm tired.

On another note -- Kirk's mom called this morning and was talking to the machine, waiting for me to pick up. She wanted to do something special for his 50th birthday. Well, Kirk came home very early from work (not feeling well) and sitting on the computer, heard her message. I started laughing as I picked up the phone and informed her he had heard the whole thing. He said something to the effect of, "Over my dead body." Lol. Kevin's (Kirk's brother) girlfriend surprised him with a 50th birthday party last year and I was told that I better not do something similar.

More About CQing

Here's an update on my CQ square.
I still have a lot more embellishing to do.

The day before Mother's Day I bought a bunch of different colored costume satins out of the bargain bin at Walmart (Who can pass up $2/yard?) and some trims.

Another great resource for fabrics and trims are yard sales. Especially little girl dresses. I found this one on Friday for $1 I have accumulated a lot of buttons, threads, fabrics, trims, batting, needles, ribbons, beads, etc. over the years this way.

Another weekend...

Friday -- walked around town going to yard sales, payed bills, perused some stores, road our bikes to the library, walked to the store for a rotisserie chicken and some Italian bread for dinner, watched The Andy Griffith Show on DVD from Netflix

Saturday -- did laundry, dishes, played on the internet, worked on my CQ square, found some cross stitch projects I started years ago and did some work on one (the bee sampler to go on a pillow for Noelle), made a pasta salad for dinner, Kirk and Noelle went to Walmart for a giant sub for dinner and to get Noelle some shorts, watched The Andy Griffith Show on DVD (another one)

Sunday -- Kirk had to work today, kids and I went to church without him, I had power point today and recorded the sermon from our guest speaker Ed Black (a missionary to Croatia), took Noelle to Walmart to exchange her shorts (dad let her buy a size too small), got home and did dishes, walked to the store, made coleslaw and chicken drumsticks for dinner, did dishes, relaxed for a while, then wrote on this blog :)

Off to bed now, night all!

Yesterday

Owen is now 4 years old. Isn't he handsome? We think so. We could have done something special for him but I don't think he noticed :-)
I carved out a corner in our multipurpose room for my sewing space. Its nice to have a place all set up and ready to go. I got the table at a yard sale last year.
In a post last March I said we were going to make this room into our bedroom but it just never happened. We need a new bed and it has to be taken through the window to get it down stairs, so we're waiting until we get a new bed. Hopefully that will be soon as it really is shot and it doesn't help with Kirk's back and neck problems. He gets up and goes to work everyday even though he's usually in a great deal of pain. Prayers for him would be appreciated.

I finally finished the sewing portion of my first CQ block.
Now I need to do the embroidery over the seams and any embellishment I want. You can see a finished example here. I joined an online group called CQembellishers because that's the part I'm looking forward to the most. They refer to it as eye candy. I use to cross stitch before the kids were born and when they were little. I always meant to learn other embroidery stitches and they are what you use in CQs.

For dinner I made what we call Breakfast Pizza. Its really simple but good!

Breakfast Pizza

1 tube crescent rolls
1 pound sausage, cooked and drained
4 eggs
2 tablespoons milk
3/4 cup shredded cheddar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Press crescent rolls into the bottom and slightly up the sides of a 9 x 13 inch pan. Spread sausage over crust. Whisk eggs and milk together, pour over sausage. Sprinkle with cheese and bake for about 15 minutes.

I actually did a variation on this yesterday. I used bacon, cooked and crumbled, in place of the sausage and used shredded swiss cheese instead of the cheddar. It was really good but I think I may have to increase the amount of eggs to 6 or decrease the amount of bacon to half. I served it with fruit and yogurt.

Bargains for Scrapbooking

I read through those scrapbooking books from the library and one of them had an interesting idea for paper storage. I didn't think much more about it after that. Well, I was yard saling during our community yard sales and ended up finding the materials I needed, as well as a brand new scrapbook for $5. Seems like someone is trying to tell me something ;)

I've decided it will take me a while to gather all the supplies needed for scrapbooking so I will be waiting until winter to start. Unless it snows and I can go cross country skiing what else am I going to do?!

Here's a picture of my new scrap booking storage unit.

Did I mention that I got all the materials except the cable ties ($1) for free?

There are more wire squares and I only have 3 connectors left but I found the connectors online for $0.20 a piece.

I'm going to make some storage units for the kids because they really need them, there are no closets in their rooms. I really scored with this find as the wire cube units (6 cubes) sell for $35 a set.

Busy, Busy!

Our church joined with another church to do Power Lab VBS this week. On day one we had 53 kids! I don't know what the count was last night but it was much much more than day 1. I have been busy taking pictures. Some of these were placed into a slideshow each day to be played for the kids at closing (there is a really neat software that helps you do this easily) and I have been told the kids look forward to these :)

We've had practices for our upcoming dance, July 16th......

A meeting for our homeschool co-op........

Getting Noelle to play practices on bicycle............

Running errands on bicycle............

Today I'm running more errands with the van (I can't haul my friend's yard sale stuff out of storage on my bike).............

Community yard sales are tomorrow..............

Sunday is our family reunion.....................

I also have all my household chores to do...........

I thought Summer was supposed to be a time to relax?!?!

Today's Treasure

Click on the picture and then hover over each item to get a description of the items and the cost.

IMG_4670
Originally uploaded by LyrpapperThe kids, my friend Cindy, and I biked all over to yard sales. They were very spread out around town and we're all quite tired.

All the exercise that I have been getting lately riding my bike has been really nice, I've dropped 2 pounds without even trying. Yeah me!

My Saturday

Had dance practice in the morning. So glad there was air conditioning! Half the routine learned.........

Lunch, then off to community yard sales.....

Our treasures for the day:

• light poncho - $0.25
• fluffy, cuddly doggy purse - $0.75
• large campbells soup mug - $0.75
• Chocolate isn't a vegetable? candy dish - $0.50
• 2 quart pitcher - $0.10
• Captain Underpants books - free
• more books - free
• bright pink slinky - free
• shorts and skort - $1.00

Walking in the hot humid weather sure takes its toll.......

Laundry, dishes...........

Returned library books, got some more. Also 2 movies..........

Bought fruit to make a fruit salad for dinner. We also had coleslaw. I refused to cook and make the house any warmer............

Watched movies.........

The Goods

Thought I'd share my treasures of the day =D

• marble cheese slicer for $.50
• apple slicer corer for $.25
• 3 - 8"x10" Self Stick Mounting Foam Boards at $.25
• 1 - 11"x14" one for $.75
• 1 - 5"x7" one for $.10
• 375 piece bag of multi-colored tri-beads for $.25
• 2 small magentic notepads for $.25
• Cotton Courture hoody for $2

All for only $4.95

Yeah me!

Yard Sales

The weather has been so nice this week and apparently the yard sale season has begun. With the cost of gas being what it is, its a good thing we live in a town that is relatively flat so we can ride our bikes. If we find something too big to carry in a backpack we can always come back for it in the van later. Riding our bikes is also great exercise so that's another bonus.

Why do I like yard sales? Well one person's junk is another's treasure! Its treasure hunting in modern days, lol. Its also a great way to get rid of the stuff you've accumulated that you no longer want or need. Our family had one last year and even hauled our stuff to another town that had community yard sales to make even more money. Community yard sales are a little bit of heaven for us die hard yard salers. Yard sales on every street!

Thrift stores are good as well but usually cost more than yard sales, not to mention that they are in another town and gas is too expensive. Definitely not cost effective, so I'll continue to treasure hunt in my own town.