Saturday Night

Isn't that a creative title? I couldn't think of anything else :P Sorry I was gone for a couple of days - went all melty brained (migraine) again! But I'm backkkkk. And here is where I'm at:

What's For Sale

Garden Earrings

Aren't these cute? It may not be the right time of the year to be out in your garden (unless you're in the southern hemisphere!) but that doesn't mean it's not a great time to buy these earrings! Wouldn't they make a great Christmas present? Click on the link above to go check 'em out in my store! 

Groovy Nights

Aren't these great to wear to a party? Or even just to add a little jazz to your every day life? I sure think so! Click on the link! 

Daily Crafty ADD

Well - being knocked out with a bad migraine makes for no crafting :( BUT I did go shopping! 

Aren't they cute? It was hard to take a good picture - but that's red and green folks! I'm going to play with them soon, but I have a couple of other things I need to work on first. I'll show you what I mean tomorrow :D

Grocery Shopping for Less

Last week I posted that I only spent $58 on groceries for the week. I was asked many times, "how do you do it?" It's actually a lot of work before you even think about going to the grocery store.

There are four major things I do in advance.
First I think everyone should have a budget, you can read how I do ours here. We have an envelope specifically for grocery shopping. Say you get paid on the 1st and the 15th (like we do) pick an amount to put in the envelope. Then, figure out how much you are willing to spend on groceries. For example, we usually put $100 in on the 1st and 15th. Then I figure out how many grocery trips we need to take and usually say I want to spend $80 - $100 a trip. If you don't spend the whole amount, put it back in the envelope...it rolls over! Money starts stock piling once you actually start saving money!

Second I realize this option isn't available to everyone. My Mom sends us Omaha Steaks, I think we average one order every two months. Our last shipment had pork tenderloin, catfish, and filets. They send you 4 - 6 of each item, and since there are only two of us..it lasts a while! So, when someone asks what you want for Christmas this year...tell them you want steaks!

Third Coupons! Get them anywhere you can, newspapers, online, product packages. Also, we get free samples in the mail..and they usually come with a coupon for the product. 

Fourth Make the menu for the week, try using ingredients you already have hand. Try doing meals with a lot of the same ingredients (chop once, use twice!) 

Ok, so now you are ready to go grocery shopping! Get your list, the money you set aside, a calculator and a pen! We walk up and down every aisle, I use the calculator to keep track of how much we are spending..that way we have no surprises when we get to the register! Make sure you use the pen to cross of things you buy, I hate forgetting things! 

We stockpile, but not a lot. We have lots of shampoo, toothbrushes and toothpaste. We don't buy a lot of snacks, and if we do...it's usually pudding and yogurt. We splurge on two things, beef jerky and cheese. And we usually get a bottle of Lucky Duck wine, really really cheap and yummy! Once a month we have to buy dog food and paper products. I also don't buy any canned products, everything is fresh or frozen.

It  might take a while to get a hang of it, we were spending about $100 for a while, getting a good stockpile. But now we are averaging about $60 - $70 (and we buy things that will rollover into the next week), AND we don't use all the money in our budget...so we are still saving money!

We are grocery shopping tonight. I set aside $80. I'm aiming to spend only $60 of that!

Good luck! 

The Adventures of Dress Shopping: Part 2

Today was very unsuccessful.

To get the day started, we went to a movie. Eat, Love, Pray. I'm praying that the book is better. The movie was slooooow. The only part I liked was Italy, because the food looked so good! I wish I could throw caution to the wind and eat everything I want. But alas, I care what my pant size is....

Speaking of pant size, let's get to the dress shopping. Stop one was a major fail. Way too many beads, cutouts, and heavy dresses. I'd rather not add an extra 20 pounds to myself just by wearing a dress! We walked out, not happy.

The second place seemed very uppity. Mannequins that you couldn't touch and no cameras allowed! I didn't really see anything that I liked, and only tried things on because I was bored. Here are the results (yes, I took pictures when they weren't allowed!)

I am not a size 14, but that's what this dress is. What dummy sized these things?! It's not zippered in this picture, and looks kinda awful..but I kinda liked it. I could move in it. And, according to the lady, I have a nice figure in it!

We all agreed that we liked this on the rack. But I was sent back into the dressing room when I came out. Seriously, that slit is awful!

Not me, at all. But I kinda like that it's different. But because I'm so short, the strap didn't fit the right way. It would be more towards my shoulder...and not my neck!

I think after two days of shopping I definitely have an idea of what I want. Now there's only two more obstacles to cross...shoes and hair!

The Adventures of Dress Shopping

Today I went out on the first shopping excursion for a ball dress! I was joined by three great ladies, Breanna, Carmen and Natosha. We had such high hopes! But we were let down, not once, not twice...but three times!

The first store was the only store we planned to go to. Online they had an amazing selection. When we walked in the lady pointed us in the direction of all the red and blue dresses. They were awful. There was not even one that was a maybe. They all had cutouts, glitter and belonged on Dancing with the Stars.

The second store was much better. And there was a huge sale! I tried on three dresses and loved two of them. And, I'm so excited, one of them is the dress I posted a few days ago! Which one is your favorite?

This is the dress I posted the other day. I like it, but it's so hard to tell because it's not my size. I hate that!

The color on this one is so different than something I would usually go for. I wish I got a picture of the back, it was blue and gold ropes, really pretty. I'm not sure if I'd be comfortable in it though!

I stole this dress from Breanna only because she liked another dress more. Lucky for me, I love this one. It needs to be altered like crazy...because I'm a midget.

It was decided that everything looked good on Breanna. She even looked awesome in an orange dress!

My vote is that she gets this one!

This one was too cute!

Even though we found dresses we loved, we left empty handed. The lady who helped us  was super nice, she copied down all the info on the dresses we liked. I have a feeling I'll end up there to buy my dress!

After a light lunch, we decided we wanted to try on more dresses. Since we were in New Bern, we traveled two hours to get to Wilmington. We couldn't find one of the places and ended up in some hippie store with tie dye dresses...probably not where we were supposed to be. Then, we decided to go to the mall. Me and Breanna both remember seeing an awesome dress store there in the past. After scouring the store, we were told it closed. SUCKED. 

I needed a pick me up and caffeine. We got some Starbucks and got back on the road to Jacksonville.

It was the longest shopping day ever...but most of the day was spent in the car. I was just so happy that I found dresses that I liked!

My Favorite Activity

I love love love grocery shopping. I used to love going grocery shopping with my Mom. Even though there is a grocery store right across the street from our house, we would travel a little bit further just for a great grocery shopping experience.

Our favorite places for grocery shopping are Roche Brothers and Stop & Shop. Roche Brothers has an amazing cheese selection, I could literally stare at it all day. They have a great olive bar, with peppers stuffed with cheese and prosciutto. If you have never tried those, what are you waiting for?! But the best part of Roche Brothers are the prepared foods. You can go in there, get a healthy-already-made meal for the entire family. And it's so so so good! I miss their chicken wings!

Stop & Shop is perfect for someone like me. I don't like chatty cashiers, but I also loathe self checkout. So what's the only other option? Self-scanners. Oh.My.God. Here's how it works.

1. Bring your own bags.
2. Scan your Stop & Shop card when you walk in the door and receive your own scanner.
3. As you shop, scan the products, and bag them yourself.
4. At checkout, point your scanner at the screen...all of your products are shown on the screen.
5. Pay by sliding your money into the little box (same way you do self-check out)
6. Some people are randomly chosen to look through bags, to make sure nothing was stolen. It's totally random.

No talking, no human interaction, fast AND you save money! How? Your totally is displayed on the scanner..so you have no surprises when you get to the register! I LOVE THIS! And miss it so much.

Wednesday night is grocery shopping night for me and Danny. We do our shopping at Walmart. I like their cheap prices and they have a great variety of choices. I love meal planning and coupons. Here's another way to save money: make meals with a lot of the same products. Buy one thing, use it in several ways!

Grocery shopping at Walmart is not my favorite thing, but I love food and creating meals from it. This is our grocery list for our dinners:

Spinach
Lima Beans
Summer Squash
Corn
Grape Tomatoes
Lime
Bacon
Cantaloupe
2 Red Onions
Red Bliss Potatoes
Sour Cream

And here is what I'll be creating with only those ingredients:
Pepper-Jack Chicken with Succotash (cheese from last weeks meals and chicken from Reina!)
Bacon-Cantaloupe Wraps (have all the condiments and the wraps!)
T-Bone and Potato Salad (remember, our freezer is stocked with Omaha Steaks!)
Spinach and Steak Salad (yep, we have lots of steak in there!)

Meals that I don't have to buy ANYTHING for:
Catfish with double baked potatoes and veggie
Breakfast Skillet


Now I'm excited to go shopping...and start eating!

$500: A His and Hers Story

What would you do with $500?

What he bought

 

What I might buy

A new haircut

A new dress

Visit Tryon Palace

but I'll probably wait until August 1..it's free that day!

Go on a River Cruise

And save the rest for a rainy day!

I'll probably just end up saving all of it.

Shopping, Swapping and Eating

Does anyone else feel like the weekend flew by? I don't even feel like we did anything, but looking back..I guess it was a good weekend!

Danny usually gets out of work late on Friday nights, so I was a little surprised when he came strolling in the house early. We grilled some steaks and I made a yummy pasta salad. In case you were wondering, we still have a freezer full of Omaha Steaks! After dinner we headed to the store so I could get everything for my swap partner. I had a hard time sticking to the gift limit...the limit that I chose for everyone! Oops! I think Brittney will like everything I sent.

You know what I hate about Jacksonville? There are about five Post Offices, and none of them open on Saturday. Also, there are about a BILLION banks in Jacksonville...and most of them are not open on Saturdays. It doesn't make sense to me. Half of the town works the same hours, doesn't it make sense to be open one of the few days they have off?

Anyway, Saturday morning we had to travel to Richlands. It's not THAT far away..but it's the fact of the matter! The postal worker asked me if the package was fragile. Why do they do that? I said yes, he put a stamp on it...and then tossed it into the bucket. Maybe fragile has a different meaning at a Post Office, but I thought it meant "breakable?!" I'm crossing my fingers that nothing breaks on its travels out to California!

We were going to spend the day in New Bern exploring, but the weather wasn't really on our side. So we ended up watching LOST. This is the third time I've watched the entire season and now that we know how it ends...I catch little things that I've never noticed before. It's like a game. And Kate still bugs me. I wish they killed her off in season one.

I planned a surprise date for Saturday night. When I lived in Chapel Hill we always went to Hams for awesome spinach artichoke dip (they put bacon on top!) and beers. I randomly Googled Hams locations the other day and apparently there used to be one in New Bern. I looked up the new name of the place...SAME MENU! So, even though I told Danny the name of the restaurant we were going to it was still a surprise. He was clueless until we walked in and there was a sign that said "still accepting Hams gift certificates." The artichoke dip was just as good as we remembered! To top the night off we shared some chocolate peanut butter ice cream. A great date night!

Yesterday Danny had some friends over for a little cookout (um, all we do is eat....) My Mom makes awesome sweet and sour kielbasa, I know how she makes it...but I wanted to put my own spin on it. I randomly combined some ingredients...and oh.my.God....it must have been good because those boys ate it up in! We watched the World Cup. Even though I thought the game was a little boring, I think it's pretty sweet that Spain one! And isn't that who Paul the Octopus said would win?!

We finished season two of LOST last night...so looks like we'll be moving on to Season three tonight! At this rate I'm going to need to buy season five this weekend! Cross your fingers that the pawn shop has it cheap!!

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Navy ladies, have you entered my giveaway? Don't miss out! Link is up top!

Typical Conversations

Some of these conversations are full of TMI...consider yourself warned.

Two days after eating corn on the cob:
Danny: how was the corn...?
Me: I never realized I didn't chew corn...

After I looked in the mirror and saw a little pimple:
Me: My face is breaking out so bad 
Danny: Yea, I noticed! 

While at Petsmart, in line, with the money in my pocket...holding a huge bag of dog food and a bone. Danny had Miley...who was sniffing a dog.
Me: Crap, she's peeing...
Danny: Can you clean it up?
Me: (looks at my extremely full hands)
Danny: Fine, hold the leash.
Me: (plops down the food and shoves the bone at him) I'll just do it myself.
(I was extremely frustrated that I had to do everything on that trip...)

Walking through Walmart, I noticed Danny staring at some guy:
Me: Stop staring!
Danny: But he looks just like Jack!
Me: Who the eff is Jack?!
Danny: (giving me the 'duh' look) FROM LOST! 

On another Walmart trip...
Loudspeaker: Would customers Daniel and Nicole please report to customer service, your party is waiting for you.
Danny: Did they catch onto our scam?!
Me: Oh my God. We need to leave.
(turns out they were actually calling Dana and Nicole) Not sure what scam I'm talking about...click here!

Shoes, Microwaves and Tattoos

(This post is going to be all over the place and could probably be three posts..but I'll forget something if I don't just do it!)

My husband has a shoe obsession. His only goal last weekend was to buy three pairs of shoes. Flip flops (check!) running shoes (check!) and white tennis shoes (check!) And BONUS! He got polish for his many pairs of boots. Why do I find this so interesting? I think it's the tennis shoes! He reminded me of something straight out of a polo commercial...or a Kennedy hanging out on the Cape (think, snobby.) I made fun of him endlessly, good thing he has a great sense of humor!

Now, microwave! We registered at Kohls for our wedding and one of the first things we recieved in the mail was a really nice microwave. When we moved into the apartment, I set it up and threw away the box. How was I to know it was broken. We searched endlessly for the same microwave to do a swap out and return it...but we couldn't find anything! So, we went to Walmart and bought the boring and cheaper version of our broken one. Now, the fun stuff. We did the swap out and returned the broken one to a different Walmart. We had a great story...we were returning it because it didn't look like what was on the box. The woman ate it up, gave us our money back and sent  us on our merry way. Ten minutes later? "Could the customers who returned the  microwave please return to the desk?" We snuck out the back door! And now I have visions of WANTED signs at the return counter! Wanted: Walmart Microwave Swappers!

This week has been so great! As a result the apartment is a mess..but I've been having such a great time! Monday me and Breanna went to Raleigh and did some shopping. Tuesday I had lunch with Katie. And yesterday I was officially welcomed to the Marine Corps. (Swiping my ID) Beep! "Hear that sound? Welcome to the Marine Corps." Then! Me and Breanna went out for tattoos!! I came out with this little gem on my ribs, and we're going back Saturday so Breanna can get hers! 

I'm loving life and I hope everyone else is having a great week!

Good Morning World!

So all my dear creative friends - what are your plans for today? I am going to be in a crafty frenzy to finish my bead embroidery project. It's SO CLOSE but I have to finish it TODAY. After it's done there will be pictures and an explanation - don't worry! I've had a lot of fun working on this project. It's my first ever in bead embroidery and I have many more already crowding around in my head!

Other than that - I have to run some errands today. It's time for me and the hubby to get updated drivers licenses (now that we've moved) and I need to go to the craft store. Not that I object to needing to go to the craft store! As I'm sure you can guess, it's one of my favorite places to be! I need to pick up something to back my bead embroidery project with. And a few more supplies while we're at it. Actually...I think I'm going to drag my poor hubby both to the craft store AND the bead store! *wicked grin*

All in all - it's a busy day ahead of me!