Orange Juice Made Pretty

A few weeks ago, I hosted a bridal shower brunch for a sweet friend (Hi Amber!).

As I was planning out the menu, I knew that orange juice was a must have item. But I couldn't serve just "ordinary" oj. I needed to dress it up a bit. I was amazed at the sweet comments I received about the juice and how it was served, so I thought I'd go ahead and share with you!



I found some cute plastic flutes at Hobby Lobby. Before I filled them with juice, I simply added a thin wedge of orange... peel and all. (One orange gave me enough slices for around 40 flutes.)

It was very easy and added just an extra little touch that people really seemed to enjoy!

With summer quickly approaching, you could try it with lemonade. If you want to get a bit more "fancy" and toss in a couple of raspberries or strawberries!

New Grocery Budget Plan & Weekly Dinner Menu

I'm not good at keeping track of our expenses. I try to be cautious on the amount I spend so that we don't go over budget, but the truth is... I never really track to see if I stick to our budget or not.

With that said, this is our first month to use Dave Ramsey's cash system to pay for our groceries.

My eyes have been openned wide. It's week 2 of the month and you'd have to pry my white knuckles off of the cash. I'm terrified to run out of money from our grocery "account."

I always try to use what we have in our pantry/freezer to create my weekly meal plan, but I'm taking this to an all new level this week. Here's what I've come up with using what we have. I still need to get a few odds and ends (milk, veggies, etc) but those things shouldn't total too much.

Monday- Husband & I are going to a local restaurant's "soft openning" for a free dinner. My daughter will have a grilled cheese sandwich with some other odds and ends.

Tuesday- TACO TUESDAY! Pulled pork tacos with cilantro/lime rice. (Be watching for a future post about these tacos.... they are so good!)

Wednesday- Grilled chicken and baked potatoes topped with cheesy broccoli.

Thursday- BBQ Chicken Pizza

Friday- BLT Sandwiches and chips

Saturday- Grilled kabobs

Sunday- BREAKFAST NIGHT! Omelets and hashbrowns

As you can see, our Tuesday nights are "Taco Tuesdays." This plan gives me the chance to use leftover meat that is from the weekend or in our freezer. And really, who doesn't love a taco? Sunday nights are "Breakfast Nights." I love ending the weekend with a very casual meal and I think that breakfast is just the thing for that. Plus, there are so many breakfast options that we really aren't limited to the same things each week.

I'm excited to see how this cash system works for us and keeps us more accountable! It's definitely inspired me to shop more carefully and cut out more of the "junk food" that we were wasting our money on.

Weekly To Do List

Do you ever feel like you haven't accomplished even the basic things on your weekly to do list?

image courtesy of lifehack.org

I frequently find that my days are filled with more and more to do's than before. And because of this, the things I really want and need to accomplish weekly are pushed aside and I am playing catch up later on in the week.

I often feel as though I am drowning beneath it all.

Not a pleasant feeling, but I'm sure most moms can relate in some form or fashion.

I've discovered having a plan ahead of time works well for me. I have given myself a couple of daily to do's to accomplish Sunday through Saturday. Knowing each day what is on my plate (that I really want to and must get done) has really helped me to stay better on top of things.

Also only assigning myself one to three tasks daily allows me to have more time in my day for other things and to not get overwhelmed as easily.

Here is my weekly to do list:

Sunday - clip & organize my coupons
Monday - wash bedding & vacuum my upstairs
Tuesday - clean bathrooms, wash rugs, & restock toilet paper
Wednesday - school & menu planning
Thursday - grocery shopping
Friday - wipe down appliances, steam kitchen floor, & wash kitchen towels
Saturday - pick up bedrooms & dust

Of course since I also work part time and my schedule rotates weekly at work, I find that there are weeks I must rearrange my to do's and also reprioritize knowing that I will not get to it all.

This list does however hold me accountable to getting the things done that I know I want to accomplish on a weekly basis.

It has been working well for me and I challenge you to also arrange your to do's throughout your week so you can attempt to accomplish it all without the stress of feeling like it all needs done at once.

Framed 3D Artwork Made Easy

I love making something out of nothing.

When the floating butterfly mobile was finished, I ended up having some extra butterflies that didn't get used as well as the paper that they were cut from.

I don't know if you're like me at all, but I just couldn't throw them away. There had to be someway to use them.... eventually.



It didn't take me long to decide that I should make some artwork for the bookshelf in the nursery.

Such a great decision.



I found a pink frame I had laying around the house (under my bed to be exact) and got to work. Using a plain piece of white cardstock, I put that in the frame first and on top added the pink paper that the butterflies were cut from.

The next step was to fold the wings of the butterflies so that they would stand out from the frame. Then I put a small piece of tape behind the body of each butterfly to secure it to the framed paper.

This project was absolutely FREE (yay!) and took less than 10 minutes from start to finish. I love how something so simple became the perfect touch for my little girl's nursery!

Eat More, Spend Less Series

Image courtesy of invest-money-stocks.com

We are doing a major diet overhaul in our house, and I venture to say Maria is attempting something similar in her home also. It's been a slow process, but one that has been in the works for months, maybe even a year by this point. It's been a slow process, but one that takes time considering how large of a change we're undertaking.

The biggest change we're attempting to make is to eat real, whole foods instead of processed and packaged foods. We're trying to eliminate high fructose corn syrup, msg, nitrates, food dyes, hormones, and preservatives from our diet.

The process of doing this can be difficult, but we believe the health benefits our family will reap from it are well worth it!

What we've been doing over the past months is slowly weaning these items out of our house. I've been reading food labels and paying close attention to items at the grocery store before buying them.

It can be a pretty difficult task, in that, these ingredients are often found in even foods we assume to be "healthy".

Additionally I am learning how to cook, and how to make foods we can buy in processed form from scratch. Items like breads, baked goods, salad dressings, seasonings, yogurt... eventually these are all items I hope to prepare myself.

I am also trying to learn healthy alternatives to many items. Alternatives to sugar, oils, margarine, white flour... the list goes on and on.

Fortunately it's a task I'm excited for, and one that I am learning step by step.

One resource I have found is an amazing blog series that came out this week that I am trying to soak up. It is full of some great information on trying to eat better and healthier, all while staying within your budget.

Eat Well, Spend Less

These bloggers are already women that I read daily and that I find really know their stuff. There are many great resources within this series and I recommend you look around and consider the benefits of a healthier diet for your own family.

Transitions

To me, my life at the moment seems chaotic.

There are so many things that I want to accomplish, but I just can't focus. Some of the things that I want to do are: Start spending more quiet time with God, I want to get more serious about couponing, I want to cut out some of the processed foods we eat, I want to start baking more, I want to work on a "summer curriculum" that I can use with my 2-year-old this summer, I want to plant our garden.

Overall, I just need to finalize a way to be more productive.

What is holding me back from accomplishing this stuff? I'm less than 3 weeks away from having a 2nd daughter and soon after that I'll be transitioning into a new job with new hours at work.

The combination of those things is making it hard for me to want to start a new task because everything is so overwhelming.

Sigh.

I'm excited for a new schedule and can't wait to figure out what life is going to be like in the coming months! It makes me anxious to think about it because I'm ready to dive on in. Until then, I'm sure I'll keep adding to my list of things I want to do.

Sorry for the ramblings. :)

Any advice on how to tackle everything?

A tour of my new home office

We use to live in a house without an office.

We have a decent amount of space, but between bedrooms, a guestroom, my craft closet, exercise equipment, a play room, and everything else in between, it didn't leave us with a place for an office. It can get pretty frustrating not having a space for all of the paperwork that comes in and out of our house, plus all of the random odds and ends that belong in an office space.

I've always loved the idea of having a command center on a wall in our dining room. It was a blank canvas across from our dining room table that we pass often. It in the perfect space for my mock office space.

Now the question came about what to put there.

Primarily it had to be fairly inexpensive, or at least well worth the cost. So, I scoured Craigslist, my go to resource for all things furniture related.

I looked at desks, I looked at buffets, I looked at dressers, I looked daily.

When I saw the piece I wanted, I knew it instantly. It was perfect.



I really like the style, but I also like the amount of storage it can potentially give me.


I started out by placing a couple of baskets on the top shelf. One holds receipts, and the other currently holds household remodeling items we've been collecting and want to keep together.


The next shelf holds a couple of really important items for us. These are our junk mail boxes. My husband has one, I have one. Any mail or paperwork that enters our house that doesn't immediately get shredded goes in to these large boxes. They hold quite a bit and when I have papers I'm not quite sure what to do with at the moment, they just get hidden away here until I have a plan.

The green plant container in the middle is where we currently toss our loose change.

The bottom shelf is still pretty naked.

Obviously our telephone sits there and our charging station for our cell phones. I have a couple of ideas for what else I need in this space, but since I haven't found it exactly, at the price I'm willing to pay, it remains empty.

I do want a filing shelf or holder for action items. A place where items that need to be addressed soon will live. Bills that need paid or filed, forms that need to be completed and returned, etc. I'm thinking The Container Store has some pretty cute items I may need to consider:
They even have cute matching pencil cups!



Continuing on with my new "office" the drawers are big and deep, things have a tendency to get tossed in there and lost. I've bought some dividers and have really worked purposefully to give items their own place. This is where we keep all of our office items from staplers, to pens, to paperclips... lots of little items. I definitely need to figure out how to store the little things within these drawers better.


I also labeled one drawer our "tool" drawer. Of course these aren't our only tools, but these are the ones we seem to need frequently, or that I use on occasion. I also housed our flashlights in there so I'll know where to find them if I ever need them.

Finally, the underneath cabinets are also useful. Unfortunately there is a shelf that does not allow for a file folder system to be placed in there, which would be ideal. I've considered removing the shelf, but that hasn't happened yet and may not.

Currently I have my coupon binder, my coupon insert file system, and my household notebook on one shelf. It's great to have a place to put these items away when I'm not using them! In the past they have just stayed out on the table, on the kitchen counter, or in a pile on the floor.

I've also claimed a spot for reams of paper, newspapers, and my husband's items inside the bottom cabinets. It just gives us a place to keep things hidden from sight, which makes me much happier!

I hope you've enjoyed the tour of my new office. If you don't have your own space and maybe suffer from uncontrolled office clutter because of it, I hope this inspires you to get creative!

Tis the Season for Garage Sales

Photo courtesy of garage-floor.org

I can not even tell you how excited I am that garage sale season is just about here. I have been scouring ads on Craigslist watching for sales starting up in my city and am beginning to think that this week I may have to start shopping.

Since we are on the "Dave Ramsey" plan and I know that I have a habit of buying items for no real good reason, this summer I have made a plan.

I've made a shopping list of items I'm really looking to score at rock bottom, garage sale prices. I can't wait to make it more of a "hunt" this season rather than the grazing I tend to do.

Some of the items I'm really hoping to find this year include: canning jars and supplies, children's clothing for the fall and winter, a table to put in my entry way, a coat rack, a coffee table/ bench/ lamps for my family room.

Of course this is a list that can be altered and added to at any time. I do however hope to avoid purchasing random items at garage sales just for the fun of it.

Photo courtesy of asmallvictory.org

We'll see how well that goes, right?

Another plan I have, and one that will be a bit more effective for me is to budget my garage sale spending on extras. Of course if I find the above items for a good price I'll buy... but for other odds and ends... I think I'm going to limit myself to $25 a month.

That should stretch plenty far at garage sale prices!

Heavenly Muffins

I love these pumpkin chocolate chip muffins.



They are moist. They are easy to make. And they even satisfy my late night chocolate craving.

My toddler loves them.... almost as much as me. She'll devour a muffin in minutes, but first she picks off the chocolate chips that are on top of the muffin and throws them a way. That makes me sad. Such a waste of perfectly good chocolate!

This muffin recipe is from the Tasty Kitchen. Check it out. Really. You won't be sorry.

I've made them twice, both times with whole flour. Once with vegetable oil, once with applesauce. There is no taste difference, so I definitely recommend the applesauce to make them a bit healthier.

Let me know if you try them!

Floating Butterfly Mobile

Several weeks ago I was working on the nursery for my 2nd daughter. I'm only a few weeks away from my due date, but feel (and look) like I could pop at any moment.

I can't wait!

Back to the nursery... I decided that she needed a mobile over her crib so that she could have something beautiful to look at. It needed to be something that would inspire her daydreams. I automatically knew that I didn't want something generic. It needed to be unique, fun and magical!

This is what I came up with.



I knew that I wanted the butterflies to appear like they were floating, so I needed to find something to hang them from. This beauty was found in the clearance aisle at Hobby Lobby for around $6.



Using my Silhouette, I cut out butterfly shapes in textured cardstock and vellum paper.



If you look close, you can see that the vellum butterflies curl up a little. Love it.

I simply used tape to attach the butterflies to clear thread that were tied to the frame. The entire process of cutting and hanging took approximately 1 hour. That's not bad for a one-of-a-kind piece that will make my daughter smile and laugh in the months to come.

And I must admit.... I love the shadows on the wall.



Since my balance is a "little" off these days, my husband hung the whole thing from the ceiling using eye hooks that he screwed into studs. Then we used fishing line to tie the frame to the hooks. He discovered that using some super glue to the knots did wonders to keeping them from slipping. (That stuff is amazing!)

I'm anxious to see my little girl giggle in excitement over her winged friends!