Decorating with easy crafting

My daughter's school has one fundraiser per year. This fundraiser is huge! It's a night time dinner and auction. They auction large items, gift sets, small items, desserts, etc. We are given tickets to sell for this dinner and of course, we buy some of the tickets for ourselves along with selling some. At this fundraiser, we are required to decorate our own tables. It keeps the cost down for them and we have fun doing it. They judge for the best table as well. Last year, we really couldn't come up with many ideas on what to do and we just worked with what we had for the most part. This year, I wanted something simple but easy and also something that didn't cost a lot and that we could reuse if we like. Since burlap is the new thing and I just love the look of it, I had the idea of burlap and a pretty light blue color. I later changed my mind to a turquoise color and I think it turned out great!

Here's what we made:

• Burlap place mats (bought a roll and cut them out). We also used lace, turquoise burlap, buttons and pearls to embellish the place mats. 
• Mason jars with burlap trim...large ones trimmed with regular burlap and lace and filled with flowers and small mason jars wrapped with turquoise burlap. Those will have tea lights floating in water so that the lights will glow through the burlap.
• Also having seat covers made from table cloths found at a resale shop. We were lucky enough to find 3 that were exactly the same!!! These will also have the burlap tied into it. 

For the place mats, mason jars and trim for seat covers, we only spent around $20. I used coupons at Hobby Lobby for the items that weren't already on sale for 50% off and I already had the lace in my fabric stash and buttons in my button jar! Yes, I have a jar just for buttons. 

Savings advice......for any project you have whether it be for a function or just decorating your home, check resale/thrift stores first!! You can find some great little treasures! If you know early enough, you can also look at yard sales. 

FYI Hobby Lobby has an online coupon most of the time for 40% off of any item. You can show them this in the store without having to print it. If you prefer, it's also offered in the Sunday paper (Houston Chronicle) on the back side of the 'funnies' at the bottom of the page. 

A few tips on saving money

Who doesn't like to save money? When I am going to the grocery store, I start planning my trip a few days prior. I do subscribe to the Sunday paper just for the coupons, print online coupons, and have a coupon binder but I still have a lot of learning to do. I haven't mastered it yet. I actually only saved about $6 today with my coupons. Better than nothing I guess. However, today when I went, I took a pen and paper to write down the prices of the items I bought that offer a generic brand and name brand. The difference is amazing!!! I only wrote down the ones that I actually purchased. By buying Great Value (Walmart brand), we saved over $16 !!!!! That's amazing! These products are ones that I recommend because they taste just like the name brands. I am willing to try it at least once. If I don't like it, I'll go back to the name brand. I still saved money even though a lot of these name brand items offered a coupon. It still cost less than the name brand. So, I saved a total of $22 by taking small steps. I'd say that's pretty good. Here are easy things that you can do to save:

• Clip coupons!
• Follow companies on Facebook. They publish coupons there. Also sign up for their newsletters on their main website. Great way to get coupons!
• Check other store ads. Milk in my location is cheaper at pharmacy stores than it is at Walmart. I typically pay $1 less at those stores. 
• Compare prices by size of packaging. Example: We love Frigo Cheese Heads string cheese. If you have 2 coupons, it's cheaper to buy to smaller packs. If you don't have coupons, it's cheaper to buy one 24 pack. 
• Follow couponing blogs!!!! They find the best deals and lay it all out for you! Here are a few of my favorites.... www.couponingtodisney.com and www.passionforsavings.com
• Get store cards such as CVS and Walgreens and look for store coupons to use with manufacturers coupons. You can stack  (use together) these.
• Make a grocery list and try your hardest to stick to it!!!
• Don't go to the store hungry. You'll spend more and get more 'junk'.
• Make a meal plan and make your list by this plan. It helps knowing what you actually need before you go to the store. I look at each recipe and write down everything I need to buy for that recipe. If I have a few that require chicken, I'll mark that I need 3. 

Enjoy your savings! Feel free to ask questions in the comment section.

Let's help the planet together

In this world we live in, we have so many convenient options when it comes to things we purchase. Since moving to this little town, I found out that they have a recycling center. I was thrilled by this. Not only am I doing my part, as little as it may be, to help the planet...I am doing something! Every little bit counts. They give me the option to recycle almost everything!! You may think it's time consuming or too much trouble to recycle but it's really not. They gave me bag and a holder to keep at home so I can fill them and bring them back. I have 4 of those bags but I also use my personal plastic tubs to fill. I fill those with newspaper and cardboard....any boxed meal container goes in this. You wouldn't believe how few garbage bags we go through. I could put my garbage can by the road only once every two weeks. It makes a huge difference.

Here's what we recycle:

Newspapers and Magazines
Plastic bottles (water, laundry, etc)
Milk Jugs
Cardboard and food boxes
Aluminum cans
Tin cans

I also recycle plastic bags but I have to take them to the grocery store. Oddly enough, the recycling center here doesn't take them. I try my best not to use plastic bags. When I go to the grocery store, I use my reusable bags. These are usually .99 each when you buy them but sometimes around Earth Day, you can get them FREE!!!! If you know me, you know that I am all for getting free stuff and saving!!!! I do my best to always have at least one reusable bag with me but there are a lot of times that I do forget them. If I go into a store and only buy one or two things, then I refuse a plastic bag. No need for it. 

My challenge to you is to find a recycling center close to you or look for recycling containers anywhere you shop. A lot of places offer a separate 'garbage can' for these items. If nothing else, buy reusable bags and use those instead of plastic. 

OH!!! Almost forgot another easy way to help the planet. Avoid buying bottled water if you can. We have a Brita filter that we keep in the fridge. That will save a lot of plastic!

Let's do this together!

God has a plan .... I have to remind myself of this!

As I sort of mentioned in my last post, my husband and I have been trying to conceive for 3 yrs now. For anyone that has had infertility, you know that this feels like a lifetime!! With baby #1 it was 9 months of TTC so we expected that baby #2 would take a while. We just never even imagined that it would take THIS long! 

We actually started trying again in July of 2009 (more than 3 yrs ago). In September of 2009, my husband's job forced him to move away from where we lived. My daughter and I stayed where we were because his location wasn't guaranteed for any length of time. About a month later, my daughter Kiya and I moved in with family in MS until my husband's job was settled. FYI...same company, different locations. He bounced around different locations for about 8 months. For 7 months before her 2nd birthday, we lived 17 hrs apart and saw each other only once a month. That was tough! Life as a railroad wife. Finally, in April of 2010 we moved to where he was and that's when I consider us really starting to TTC. So, with that being said, April 2013 will be three years. In those 3 yrs, we have moved a lot, gone through a lot and of course, had a lot of disappointing months. Looking back, I'm glad it didn't happen in the first year. There was way too much moving going on. I know that God has a plan for us and He obviously knew what he was doing. 

We are so blessed to have our daughter Kiya. She is our pride and joy. She's smart, beautiful, kind and friendly but she's also stubborn and strong-willed. I'm told that will help her as an adult but right now she's torturing her mommy. Haha !!! She knows what she wants and has a mind of her own. She's a lot like her daddy for sure. The longer it takes us to get pregnant now, the more I appreciate having her. There is not one day that goes by that I don't wish I was pregnant RIGHT NOW!! I just have to keep reminding myself that God has a plan. As my husband and I got married and made 'our' plans, we didn't know that they wouldn't go as hoped. We hoped for a boy first and a girl second. Two kids, two years apart. I'm sure God laughed when we came up with that plan. If I got pregnant right now, our children would be over 5 yrs apart. Nowhere close to what we hoped. I see so many of my friends and family that are either pregnant, just had a baby or are done having children (according to their plan). I am SO happy for them. I have no bad feelings towards any of them or any negative feelings. Babies are such a blessing! It just gives me more little ones to hold and love on. :) I can't say that it's not hard though. I see people that get pregnant on 'accident' or almost as easy as looking at each other gets them pregnant and I just think 'IT'S NOT FAIR' but I can't think that way. I know God has a plan and I am going to keep saying that to remind myself. Today's sermon at church was just what I needed. The pastor said 'God wants to bless you' and it's completely true. I do believe that God has a plan but it's tough to KNOW that we are going to get pregnant again. By now, we just feel like it's never going to happen. Yes, we've conceived before but now it has taken 3 yrs and it just seems like a lifetime and we want to give up. Every month we are disappointed, me more so than my husband I think. I've been to the dr several times and I have been checked and they find nothing wrong. I've taken Clomid, charted, done OPKs, charted temps, studied my cycle, everything I can think of!! Nothing works. We have considered other options but I feel like by doing that, we are trying to take control. Maybe God just wants me to not worry about it at all, not think about it....just hand it over to HIM completely. That's the hard part for me. I feel like if I don't pay attention to every detail, I'll miss 'the day' and it won't happen. I just need prayer from you guys to help me give it all to HIM 100%, not just 50%. I say to myself that God has a plan but it's just so tough to never think about it. I hear that so often...'quit trying and it will happen'. Well that's like telling someone that smokes to never think about a cigarette ever again', not possible. When you want something so bad, it's constantly on your brain. I also battle with this. I know God has a plan but in my head, I'm arguing with myself saying that maybe God's plan is that we only have one child. My sister, Jamie, opened my eyes to something and the pastor kind of said the same thing today. She said that God wants us to be happy...why would He not give you a 2nd baby that you want so bad? God wants to bless us. We just have to wait for HIM. 

Isaiah 30:18

Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him

This and That

Hi everyone! So I'm starting this blog hoping that I might inspire someone along the way. I'll begin by telling you my story. 

I grew up in Mississippi with my parents and 3 siblings. When I was 21(Feb 2005), my father passed away from lung cancer. This was his second battle with cancer. Unfortunately, he didn't win the 2nd time around. Christmas of '05 my now husband and I moved to TX for his career with the railroad. We are still located in TX but someday I hope to get back to or close to, MS. It will always be HOME to me. I miss my family sooooo much!! They mean the world to me. 

The moment we were married, my husband was ready to start a family. Me being 23 at the time, needed some convincing. About 6 months later, I decided I was ready too so the TTC (trying to conceive) began. Several months went by with no luck. May I add that I had never been on birth control before. I felt like we had been trying forever and that everyone else was getting pregnant but us. FINALLY 9 months after TTC we were pregnant!! I was over joyed!!! Naturally, I sent a picture of the + test to my hubby via text message. Next time will be different. P.S. That 9 months felt like eternity!!!!! 

Now, 5 1/2 yrs later, we have moved SEVERAL times due to my husband's job but still in TX. Now we are in the country and we love it!! 

We are now TTC #2. That's another post though! 

This blog is going to just be about a little bit of everything. Topics such as growing as a Christian and a mother, fitness, savings, life in general, crafts, photography, etc. Wherever my mind takes me! Feel free to share my blog. I hope to touch someone's life at some point. We as moms need to grow together.