Cute Commercial

Gotta love this advertisement for breast cancer awareness--

Quilt Club March Meeting

My friendship quilting group met this month at my home. I really enjoy being a hostess. We had a great time.

First we had show and tell...



This quilt was made by Lorelei. It is for the Tara Guild's Monthly Mini. Each month a member commits to make a mini quilt that other members buy tickets for a chance to win the quilt.



This is a quilt top made by Carolyn. I really like two-color quilts.

After show and tell we ate a light breakfast of muffins, pineapple, juice, and coffee. The girls really loved the coffee. (It was Publix Special Roast that I got for a penny a few weeks back!)


Here are three of the ladies in the club. We are hoping to add to our numbers! The more the merrier!



From left to right: Lorelei, Carolyn, and Nancy.

Now it was time to get to work on our projects...



Below is my sweet Mom working on her project.


She wouldn't be happy if she knew I posted her picture...It will be our little secret!


Here are the ladies working away....




Carolyn worked on her Easter quilt. She is very creative and it the type of person who doesn't need or want to work from a pattern. That is a real gift.


Loreli worked on some quilt blocks for a block exchange. The name of the block is Contrary Wife. The only requirement was that the blocks have orange in them. I think I would like to make a whole quilt with this block.

The girls insisted that I be in my blog this time. I would rather just take their picture. Here I am holding a lap quilt I am working on now. This a pattern by Atkinson Designs. It is called Cheese and Crackers. This is a UFO that has been sitting around my sewing room for a couple of years. I love brights!


Nancy worked on her Lightning Strikes bargello quilt. I started one of these at the same time as she did. I haven't touched it since Day 1. Maybe I can get motivated now that I see her's coming together. Our monthly meetings really help to keep us on track. This will be a beautiful quilt! Don't you just love her color choices!


Here is the project my Mom, Margaret, worked on. She finished the quilt top in one day! She accomplishes more at 84 (almost 85) years old than most of us half her age. What a blessing!
This wall hanging was a kit made by The Longaberger Company. Mom loves blue and white and would like to make a larger blue and white quilt--maybe with some floras.



Can't wait until next month!

Menu Plan Monday 3/30/09

I have just finished an inventory of my freezer (with hubby's help), and found that I have a better variety of meat than I thought. We bought a half of a cow in December, and I thought that I only had steaks and ground beef in my freezer. But, I still have a pork roast left from when we bought a whole hog earlier in 2008. I also came across a turkey breast bought for $0.29/lb and a whole turkey that was marked down. So, I am trying to incorporate some of those items in this week's menu. Buying the meat from local Georgia farmers and buying markdown meat in the supermarket has really helped to lower our grocery bill.

Here is what I have planned for this week:

Breakfasts
Cereal/milk
Granola bars
Oatmeal
Fruit (oranges, apples, strawberries)

Lunches
Leftovers
Lean Cuisines
yogurt
carrots sticks
fruit

Dinners

Monday
Steak
mashed potatoes
Steamed veggie

Tuesday
Hamburgers
Home fries
Fruit

Wednesday
Leftovers

Thursday
Roast turkey breast
Rice dish
Steamed veggie

Friday
BBQ pulled pork sandwiches
Coleslaw
Corn

Saturday
Homemade pizza
Fruit

Sunday
Leftovers

Be sure to go to I'm and Organizing Junkie and check out more Menu Planning Monday ideas.

Have a great week!

Publix 3/23/09

I went to Publix today just to get a few items in two transactions so I could get two penny items. They had Honey Maid graham crackers B1G1 and that is a staple for my mom who is now living with us!

On my second transactions, the Arnold's bread didn't ring up at the correct price so I got the item free and used a $1 coupon. You can't beat Publix customer service!

Transaction #1

2 Honey Maid Graham Crackers $2.00 & $1.99 ea.

2 Kellogg's Special K $2.00 & $1.99 ea

...- $1/2 MQ ($1.50 & $1.49 ea)

1 Fresh Express Bag Salad $2.50

...- $1 MQ (Kroger mailer)

...- $1 Publix Q ($.50)

1 Publix Big Roll papertowels--Penny item

Total OOP $7.80

Transaction #2

1 Fast Fixins Chicken Tenders B1G1 $3.00 ea

...- $0.75 MQ (All You magazine) ($2.25)

2 Lenders Bagels B1G1 $1 and $0.99 ea

2 Green Giant boxed veggies $1 ea

...- 2 $0.50 printable Q (FREE)

1 Arnold Rye bread rang up @$2.99 instead of $2.50 so FREE

... - $1 MQ

1 Publix Big Roll paper towels--penny item

Total OOP $3.43 Yeah!!!

To see how other shoppers did this week be sure to visit the following blogs:

Publix Super Savers at Fiddledeedee

Friday Finals at Southern Savers

Super Savings Saturday at Money Saving Mom

Menu Plan Monday 3/23/09

I missed planning meals for last week, so I am trying to get back on track. I still have a full freezer and pantry, and I need to try and use up some of my stockpile.

Here is my plan for the week:

Breakfasts
Cereal and milk
Granola Bars
Bagels
OJ
Bananas
Bran Muffins

Lunches
Lean Cuisines (bought for $1.49 ea at Kroger!)
Leftovers
Yogurt
Fruit

Dinners

Monday
Crockpot beef ribs w/potatoes and carrots
Rice
Green peas
Apple pie

Tuesday
Steak
Mashed potatoes
Steamed Veggie

Wednesday
Spaghetti sauce
Noodles
Fruit

Thursday
Potato Soup

Friday
Pinto beans
Rice
Coleslaw
Steamed veggie

Saturday
Campbell's Two-Step Chicken
Rice
Steamed broccoli and carrots

Sunday
Leftovers

More Menu Plan Monday ideas can be found at I'm an Organizing Junkie. Have a great week!

Walmart 3/20/09

I made a trip to shop at Walmart for the first time in months. I read about all the freebies on Money Saving Mom's Walmart post, so I had to grab those before the coupons expired. There are too many items (66!) to list every item, but it was a great trip. I even got seeds and seed starting supplies--which, of course, I didn't have coupons for. Also, I picked up the free puppy food, even though I don't have a dog! I can always donate.

My total before coupons was $134.13. After coupons, my OOP was $60.28!

Now that was a FUN shopping trip!

To see how other folks did, go over to Money Saving Mom and check out Super Savings Saturday.

Also check out Friday Finals over at Southern Savers.

Quilt Journal

I just wanted to make a quick post to let my vast readership know that I am still around. It has been a very busy two weeks. Work, teaching Financial Peace University at church, participating in the Love Dare small group study at my church, and more...

I thought I would do a series of posts to document the quilts I have made. And, I will post on current projects as well.

In the picture above is my son, Thomas, and his best friend from grade school through high school. The two buddies decided to attend rival colleges. My son attends Georgia Tech, and his friend Rhys goes to University of Georgia. I made each of them a quilt to take to their respective dorms. Both quilts are an adaptation of the Turning Twenty patterns. I just altered the Georgia Tech quilt to include an appliqued yellow jacket block.

The two guys don't get to see much of each other anymore, but I hope these quilts will bring back fond memories.

Menu Plan Monday 3/9/09

You might have seen some of these menus on my MPM for the last couple of weeks. Things simply haven't gone quite as planned. We still managed to eat at home, we just didn't follow the plan. This week, we are giving our kids the opportunity to plan and cook one meal themselves. This opportunity is part of a bigger deal at our home to get the kids more involved in the daily chores and allow them to earn extra money for work done above their regular chores. A couple of nights a week off from cooking would be a nice treat for me.

Here goes:

Monday
Hamburgers
home fries
steamed brocolli

Tuesday
Spaghetti sauce
noodles
salad

Wednesday (a good day for kids to cook)
grilled cheese
tomato soup
apples

Thursday
Fetticini alfredo w/grilled chicken
steamed veggie

Friday
Meatloaf
mashed potatoes
steamed veggie

Saturday
Chicken pot pie

Sunday
leftovers

To see more menu ideas visit Menu Plan Monday over at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Have a great week!

Publix Penny Item 3/8

The penny item for 3/8-3/9 is Publix cookies. You can receive this item for a penny by spending $10 or more on one transaction. The coupon is located in the sales flyer in the Sunday paper, but most stores will give it to you if you just ask. Penny item may vary by store.

Tennis Tablecloth

A friend of mine plays on an ALTA tennis team. A couple of years ago she asked me to embroider her a tablecloth that she could use at team luncheons. One of the team members just loved the tablecloth. So, this year she ask me to embroider another to give to her teammate for a birthday gift. Here it is:




Fun!

Quilt Club

Saturday I went to my friend Nancy's house to help sew a charity auction quilt for her, and my friend Lorelei's church. We all contributed blocks for the quilt. We are using a pattern by Atkinson Designs call Lucky Stars. These star blocks look great as a scrappy quilt. It is a very forgiving pattern and it is fun to make the big 16" blocks.

First, we had to have some coffee cake!


Here is Nancy counting the block to see if we have the required 64 to make a king size quilt.



More blocks!!!






We laid out the rows and decided the sewing order of the blocks.


Time to start sewing!


Raggedy Ann and Andy supervised the activities...










Time for Show & Tell!

Here is Lorelei's Star/applique quilt. (Sorry Lorelei--I don't remember the real name of the quilt!). Lorelei won multiple awards for this quilt.



Here is Lorelei's red and white quilt. She won these blocks at the Tara Guild meeting back in Feb. 2005, right after we all started quilting. She has gradually been working on this since. She said it was funny to look back at her earlier attempts to make these hearts in the border. She said "I didn't know what I was doing!". She has become quite a skilled quilter in four short years. Love the applique border!



Here is the baby quilt Nancy is currently working on...





Here is Nancy's king size sampler quilt. This is the first quilt that each one of us made. We all were taught quilting by our friend, Gloria. A sampler quilt was the perfect project to start with since we learned new things with each different block. Gloria recently moved to Chicago--we miss our teacher!




It was a fun day. Can't wait until next month's quilt club meeting!

Menu Plan Monday 3/2/09

As I look over my menu plan from last week, I realize that we didn't follow it at all. Sometimes it just goes that way. I have had a bad cold, and we were really busy. We still managed to eat from home and not eat out except for the planned dinner with friends. We just scrounged most nights. I am not sure I really made much of a dent in our pantry. I am not even sure what week I am on of my 6-week Pantry Challenge, but I am continuing it this week. I do plan on making a grocery trip to Kroger (Mega Event!), and Publix, so I might actually spend more than the planned $15.

Anyhoo...here is the plan for this week:

Monday
Chicken and rice
Steamed veggie

Tuesday
Chili
Cornbread

Wednesday
Crockpot beef roast
mashed potatoes
steamed veggie

Thursday
Leftovers

Friday
Steak
mashed potatoes
green beans

Saturday
pancakes
sausage
mandarin oranges

Sunday
Spaghetti sauce
noodles
salad

To see more Menu Plan Monday ideas head over to I'm and Organizing Junkie.

Have a great week!

Southern Snow!

It's Snowing Today!

A huge storm rolled across the south today, and right across our area! Big beautiful, fluffy flakes - sometimes coming down in a huge heavy downpour of snow.

"Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes!"

By the end of the day, the ground was coated in a lovely white blanket.

Silly kids!

My husband (a teacher) and daughter get the day off tomorrow. Bums!