crochet crochet crochet all day

Wow! I haven't been on here in a long time!! So, what have I been up to you ask? Well, a lot of crocheting. I made a facebook business page for my crochet items that are for sale. If you want to check it out, search Maggie's Creative Crochet. I wish my phone would let me post pictures. Some of this stuff is just adorable! It really is, I'm not just bragging. I'll try to post more but I'm just not very good at keeping up on things :( sorry for that.

posting from my phone?

I find it absolutely amazing that I can post from my new phone! I am really way excited about this! The modem on our computer died so I haven't been able to post in quite a while but since I can get onto blogger on my phone I guess I don't have much of an excuse anymore. I can't edit very well though so please excuse any bad grammar. So, what have we been up to? Not much actually. Everything is still chugging along. We carved pumpkins this week. And I found pumpkin pie poptarts at walmart. They are awesome! The box of 12 lasted 2 days so I guess they are a hit at my house! I did just now figure out that I can't insert picture :( hopefully we will be getting a new modem soon so things in blogworld will run smoother.

its been a while

My internet was shut off for a while so i havent been on here in what seems like FOREVER. lol. it has been a few weeks. My little princess started preschool last week! she loves it!! awesome. Mikey and Layla both started soccer a couple weeks ago with they love! I think they love everything :) I got the old winter clothes packed up and ready to go. now I have to find some new stuff for this year :( and pack up all the summer clothes now that its starting to get chilier. Ive had my truck worked on 2 times and it still have something else wrong with it. Its one thing after another with that thing. It is almost paid off though so now its time for me to seriously look into finding a crossover or a minivan. Im thinking a minivan though for the space and options.

goals are needed

I am lagging in my life lately. I think the reason is that I have no real goals to work towards. Nothing at all is really going on. Nothing to really work towards and look forward to. I stay home and do nothing and go to work sometimes. So, I am going to set some goals.
1) Not to call in to work or volunteer to be the one sent home. I would like to not miss a day of work for the next 4 months. until after christmas at least.
2) Get everything to gether and done so that I can take the class that I need to get into the DMACC nursing program.
3) organize and decorate my living room so that it looks nice and put together. I really dont like the disorganized chaos that is my living room.
4) Teach my daughter to read. She is doing a great job so far but she just wants to know it without learning it. It frustrates her when she can't just do something without effort, she is very much like me in this way.
5) finish the booster seat sewing thing....urgh...this is a much more annoying sewing project then I had anticipated so I have been putting it off for months...
6) LEARN HTML!!! seriously, I really want to know this. I think a trip to the library is in order.
7) fabric scrap "beanbag" chairs. I don't know if I have enough fabric scraps for this though...

I have some furniture redo's that I want to get done once I find "the perfect piece" a new desk, some kitchen table chairs, some painting of dressers that I already have etc....

i dont feel good :(

I don't feel good. I actually feel really really yucky. And I often feel really really yucky. I wish I had (could afford) health insurance so i could do something about it... maybe in the future sometime.... in the meantime mylanta, pepto and tums are my new best friends(and my bed and toilet).

slowest computer EVER

I think I have THE slowest computer ever. ok, well, maybe not. And it was free so I can't complain too much but... how exactly do I make it faster? and not freeze up so much? I'm pretty sucky when it comes to computers so any good advice is greatly appreciated! and NO, i dont have a bunch of stuff downloaded. I really dont think I have downloaded anything actually...I also really really want to design my own background and buttons for my blog so if someone can steer me in the right direction for this I would totally love you forever! k?k. Thanks! :) oh yeah, my printer won't print. well, actually it prints but not dark enough to actually be able to see what you are printing :( how do I fix that. no, it's not out of ink, just got some actually....HELP!!

Scheduled schedules

I actually just figured out (after like 3 months of on again off again blogging) that you can schedule posts! freaking awesome! that means: 1) when I want to blog I can make several posts at once and schedule them to show up throughout the week, 2) maybe I can keep my blog from being nothing for weeks at a time because I have hit a roadblock or a lack of time 3) Its one more nifty little tidbit that I should have known weeks ago...

keyword

I find the keywords that people search for that lead them to my blog absolutely fascinating... for instance "picture painted not style" I wonder what exactly that person was looking for and how that perticular phrase led them to MY blog and not someone elses? It kinda makes me want to insert random words into each post just to see what people will search for next to wind up on my blog. Chicken nuggets.... Shaved cat.... rubber duckie bathroom rug... lol. ok thats enough for now. but there will be more, you just wait and see :)

what i wore...whenever....

I have been reading alot of blogs lately and there are some common themes among some of them. One of these themes is the "what I wore (usually wednesday)" posts. I'm gonna have to be honest, I really dont care what you wore wednesday or any other day of the week. I wear pj's or scubs 90% of the time. If I am not at work I wear pj's unless I HAVE to change out of them. Occasionally I actually like to get dressed but not most days. Most days I get out of bed and actually put on more pj's (or sweats). Yes I am that woman. I love it. I am always cumfy, easy to please and I love my clothes and don't feel the need to show off what I wore. So, what I wore wednesday was, PJ's :). and tuesday, and monday, and sunday, no, wait, sunday I may have worn scrubs, and then pj's. At least I wear cute scrubs!

saving money, aka coupons coupons everywhere

I have been a stickler on saving and using coupons for things when they are on sale. I like to believe i have become pretty good at getting good name brand items for super cheap or even free sometimes. The best resources I use to help me save money are: moneysavingmom.com/, wildforwags.com/, passionforsavings.com/ And for help at the local grocery store, fareway I use, themillennialhousewife.blogspot.com/. I have literally saved hundreds the last few months by using coupons and ad matching and using these websites to help me find great deals. I have gotten free shampoo and soaps, 50 cent chex mix, and tons of other super cheap items. check them out and learn how to save a ton!

stupid fleas

My pets have fleas. I have tried frontline, vectra(i think thats the name) some kind of pill, hartz, baths in dawn, and so far, it hasn't worked. I need something to get rid of these fleas! HELP! Someone told me something Earth once but I dont remember the full name or have any idea where to get it. My delima: my dog is a Rott, he has very sensitive skin, alot of things(flea shampoo amongst others) make him itch worse then the fleas themselves. the kitties are ok with anything but with grembles thick fur it's hard to keep them off of him. Anyone have any suggestions?

homemade apple cinnamon granola bars aka apple crisp to go

I love granola bars! they are really way expensive though. 4 bucks for 8 bars?? really?? So what do I do? find out how to make them myself! of course! with some Internet searching I came across a ton(and i mean a ton) of recipes and how tos. I decided that I would mix them and do some testing to find what we liked best. So what I came up with was:

Mix the following on a cookie sheet with sides:
2 1/4 cups oats
3/4 cup cream of wheat
1 cup crushed peanuts

put this in the oven at about 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes, stirring a couple times to evenly toast.
While that is toasting mix the following in a sauce pan over medium heat until mixture liquefies completely:
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp Cinnamon

in a large bowl mix all of the above ingredients AND 1 1/2 cup chopped dried apples until the dry mixture is COMPLETELY coated with the wet mixture. Line a cake pan with foil or wax paper. Grease the foil. top with another piece of greased foil/wax paper.  Press your mixture into the pan as firmly as you can. I used the sauce pan to press down. put in the freezer for a couple hours, until the granola is completely cooled. flip onto a cutting pan and cut into you desired size bars.

The whole process took about 20 minutes(not counting freezer time) and they turned out absolutely scrumptious!! like apple crisp in bar form.

I based my recipe on the ideas from here: Granola bars, granola bars 2, Granola bars 3. The first link is where most of my inspiration came from. I really didn't want to bake them and that one helped me figure out how I could get away with not baking :)

ThredUp

I found a website for swapping kids clothes that I wanted to share. ThredUp is an interesting concept. They send you prepaid boxes. You fill them with you kids nice clean stylish clothes and then you send them to someone else that picks them. You then get credit for the box that you can use to pick your own. Or you can add money to your account and use that to buy boxes. The boxes are $15.95 each(5$ for the box and 10.95 for shipping) and are supposed to contain 75-100 $ worth of used clothing. Well, I have sent out 4 boxes this week. I picked my first one today. Hopefully the boxes that we recieve are as nice as the ones I sent.

Also :) sign up for swagbucks If you aren't already! who doesn't love to get free points they can use to uy things just for doing internet searches?

kiddie made personalized tee shirt

My kids decided they wanted to have shirts to wear for the 4th of July. I'm not going to run out to the store and buy and expensive tee shirt for just one day. I'm too cheap for that. So what do I do? We have loads of plain tee's and tanks that can be "converted". I took a couple plain white tank tops for the girls and a plain navy blue one for the boy. Take some red, white and blue acylic paint, and textile medium and let the kids have at it. They loved it and their shirts turned out super cute! cheap fun woohoo! sorry no pictures. Camera broke :(

coupons coupons everywhere

The only real work (other then my job) that I have had any motivation to do lately is clip coupons, search for coupons and print coupons, and compare coupons. I think coupons are becoming an addiction. At least it's not an expensive addiction. I'm having some trouble finding good coupons online. So, I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions on where to get good coupons? The best ones I have found I get from signing up for a certain brands website and then I get coupons and free samples. But that's very time consuming. And I don't get very many. but $2 off a box of cereal (or something like that) isn't a bad deal. So, what website is the best for multiple online coupons? And I need a good organizational tip for all the coupons that I have. I have them in labeled envelopes right now, which totally works but I want some suggestions on better ways to keep it all straight. THANKS :)

And!! If you aren't signed up for Swagbucks <<---Click there! you earn points just for searching the Internet, taking surveys and redeeming coupons! how awesome is that!

lately

Lately I suck at updating my blog and my fb page. I'm sorry. I'm still alive and kicking. I just don't feel like doing anything. maybe I have depression. IDK. I'm not sad. I just have NO motivation to do anything whatsoever. My house is a mess and I have a ton of stuff to do that is just not getting done. The only thing I have done lately is cut coupons and compare ads. I guess thats better then nothing at all. Now I have to actually do the grocery shopping :( I am not a very big fan of grocery shopping. especially with hubby and kids in tow. they always want to add things to the cart and just don't understand that if they wait a week we can buy it on sale with a coupon and spend a quarter the price. I'm cheap. I have to be, I'm poor. I have to scrimp and save where I can or it just wouldn't stretch where it is needed. By th way, If you don't have SwagBucks, sign up. You get points for doing internet searches. The points can be used to buy giftcards, electronics, toys, all kinds of things. When you refer someone else you get matching points with them. So, sign up! please :)

Plastic bag rug

My mom told me that wheh she was a kid the old lady that lived behind her would use plastic bread bags to crochet rugs. This sounds completly cool to me (and right down my alley) so I looked it up. I found so much on crocheting with plastic bags! So right now I am attempting to make my "yarn" so that I can whip out a rug here pretty soon :)

i dont wanna...

Grow up I wanna be a toys R us kid. Thats it. good bye :)

resurected tomatoes

My tomato plant is coming back to life wooohooo! guess it just needed to be transplanted and watered. And after all the rain we got last night it has definitely been watered! something else sprouted up too. Too bad I didn't think to label them originally. guess I am just gonna have to let it grow and figure out what it is later lol.

soaps and lotions

A friend and I are going to try our hand at homemade soaps and lotions and such. I have found a couple of recipes but nothing that really catches my eye. Does anyone have any good recipes? or maybe websites that will help us to have an idea of what works together, what doesn't work...that kinda thing? Also, looking for some info on flea markets, bazars, farmers markets that sorta thing where we could possibly sell some our homemade stuff.... Thanks :)