Trim Healthy Table and an Amazon $5.00 off $15.00 Coupon on Books

I've been wanting the new Trim Healthy Table cookbook and was getting ready to order it for myself on Amazon for Christmas.  I was happy to see that there is a $5.00 off $15.00 book promotion going on right now.  The code is:  BOOKGIFT17.


You can use the code on most any book or combination of books totaling at least $15.00 though.  Just make sure the code works on your particular book order before pressing "Order".  This would be good to use for buying children's books for Christmas gifts.

Sewing To Sell Book

This looks like an interesting read for anyone who wants to make money from home. I love sewing gifts for my family and also items to sell in my Etsy Shop. The problem is to figure out what people actually want! It also has to be something that doesn't take forever to make.


One of my favorite things to make to sell is Clothespin Bags. But, I have to face it, not too many people are in the market for those in this day and time! I think I could sell quilts, but they take me forever to make!


So there might be some ideas in this book.

Sewing/Quilting Clips Lightning Deal

I've been wanting to try some of these kinds of clips for holding down the binding when either machine sewing it or hand sewing it. And the little tins are so cute too. They are on sale for $7.88 on a lightning deal for another hour and 40 minutes


After that I "think"  they will be $9.88.  Be sure to check your price before hitting the purchase button!

Anxious For Nothing - A Bible Study

I thought I would share a new On Line Bible Study that starts Monday.  Its based on the book, "Anxious For Nothing" by Max Lucado.  Its being offered by the Proverbs 31 Ministry at THIS LINK.

The Bible study is free, but you have to furnish your own book.  I got mine at the library.  I hope to be able to renew it in order to finish the Bible study.  My library also has it in E-Reader format, but all their copies are already on loan.  I have my name on the waiting list just in case.

You can download the first 3 chapters from Proverbs 31 if you want to do the Bible study, but don't have a book yet.

You can order the book from Proverbs 31 which helps to support their ministry or from Amazon in print form or digital format HERE.

Any time is a good time to learn about not being anxious, but this time of year is an especially good time!

Cast all your anxiety on Him, because he cares for you.  1 Peter 5:7

Here comes November!

Happy November!

One of my grandsons on a beautiful Fall day.

I have been plugging away steadily decluttering and organizing in the zones in the farmhouse, each week working in what ever zone the Flylady is in.  If you haven't heard of Flylady, its a wonderful program for getting organized and getting things done!  I have implemented the Flylady principles off and on for years and haven't found any other method that works as well.

Last week we were working in the master bedroom and closet.  It was the perfect time for switching to my Fall and Winter clothes and storing the Summer ones!  I filled up a couple of boxes with shoes and clothes that I no longer like, or don't fit and actually dropped them off at the thrift shop right away, instead of riding them around in the back of my vehicle for days or weeks.

I didn't quite finish doing what I wanted to get done in that closet, so this week, I have been doing tiny jobs each day.  I can get so much done by breaking up big jobs into small bite size jobs.  Sometimes its a micro size bite of the job, but eventually the job will get done if I hang in there!

The first 2 days of this week were dedicated to the living room.  I have three jobs in mind for that area.  Number 1 is to purge some old magazines that are stored in a basket.  Number 2 is to clean the dust bunnies from under the furniture. Number 3 is to vacuum under the cushions on the couch.  None of those are too much work, but need to be done.

The rest of the week will be spent on the front porch and entry way.  Neither of those areas need much work, but I do need to get rid of some scraggly plants that are on the porch and sweep.  There are also some pumpkins that are beginning to look a little bad, so I need to check on those.  I'll leave my fall decorations up for a couple of more weeks though.

I've been planning for Christmas, following along with Flylady's "Cruising Through The Holidays" plan.  I haven't made too much progress, but I'm working on it!  I bought a red journal to keep my lists and ideas in.   I plan to get more serious about getting ready for Christmas early now that November is here. 

I hope your November is peaceful and blessed!

A Slice of My Life October 9, 2017

Good Morning!

I worked in the sewing room on Saturday and completed two more of the small monogrammed tote bags that I am working on for Christmas gifts.  I also started on the 4th bag.  I felt a bit of accomplishment since I had not been able to find the time or motivation to do any sewing lately.

My plan is to work at least 15 minutes each day in the sewing room.   But, with even the best of intentions, lots of days (well most days) it doesn't happen. sigh.....

Also on Saturday my hubby and I cleaned out one of my Zinnia flower beds.  The flowers were still blooming, but the plant part was looking very bad.  I picked a bunch of the flowers and then we pulled up all the zinnia plants and I trimmed all the remaining plants.  That's one flower bed that has been put to bed for the winter!   The flowers made a very pretty arrangement that I have been enjoying all weekend, and should last most of the week.

This is the other Zinnia bed that has mostly yellow zinnias.  They are still looking pretty good, so I'll leave them for a while longer.  Its been very dry lately, so we've been watering them.

This week I am working in Zone 2 on the Flylady plan which is the kitchen.  Here are my plans:

1  Declutter and throw away some of the junky plastic ware we have accumulated.  I get so mad when I am running short of time and I'm trying to pack my lunch and none of the lids will fit the bowl I put something in!

2.  Wipe off the cabinet doors and the fronts of the appliances.  Our cabinets are white and dust accumulates on them.  The best way to remove this is to use baby wipes or Lysol wipes.

3.  Wipe out the refrigerator shelves  and drawers and throw away anything that needs to be tossed.

4.  Declutter duplicate and unneeded kitchen utensils, gadgets, pans, etc.  I have a huge pile of cookie sheets, muffin tins and spatulas. 

5.  Store some things that are normally stored on the counter inside the cabinets.  Hopefully there will be more room when I get rid of some things.  For example, I don't use the blender that often, but it is taking up room on the counter.  Same goes for the red Pioneer Woman Dutch Oven.  Its pretty, but adds to that cluttered look.

6.  Wash the window over the sink.

7.  Use magic minutes:  Those are the minutes that can be used while waiting for something else, or when you just have an extra minute.  I could wipe out one of the shelves inside the refrigerator door during a magic minute, or wipe one cabinet door front!

Ideas for food this week:

Butterbeans cooked with smoked sausage that has been cut into small pieces

Beef kabobs cooked in the oven.

Sloppy Joes

Bite size celery sticks with a spoon of pimento cheese on each one.

Hot dogs

Green beans cooked with ham bits

I hope your week is blessed and productive!

A Slice of My Life.....

Good Monday morning to you. Here's what's going on in my life this week.

What I'm wearing:  At the moment I'm still in my comfy clothes with a quilt tucked around me as I type this.  The temperature dropped enough outside that its slightly cool inside.  Its 69 degrees in here with no AC running.  That's the way I like it!

What I'm going to wear today:  I hung my clothes for today on the hook on the closet door yesterday.  Its black pants, purple and black striped top that has gold buttons on the shoulders.  A long necklace that has gold and black beads on it.   Black sandals.  I'll wear sandals a few more weeks before its too cold around here.

What I'm hearing:  Bad news on TV.  The sound of dishes clinking as Hubby unloads the dishwasher.  The sound of his cup of coffee brewing.  The low hum of the fan that runs while we sleep, which hasn't been turned off yet.


What I'm working on in the home this week: I am going to work in the dining room and front entry way.  Just 10 minutes a day!

1.  Pull the dust bunnies from under the china cabinet and all other furniture with the static duster and vacuum them.
2.  Clean cob webs from the ceiling area and light fixture.
3.  Wash the glass doors at the front and back doors.
4.  Dust the top of the china cabinet and all other furniture.
5.  Declutter and clean up plants.

What's going on outside of the home:

I have a doctor's appointment this morning for my annual check up.  No coffee for me this morning!  UGG.   I don't usually eat anything until lunch, but I normally do have coffee with stevia and half and half.

Going to work every day, as usual.

What's for supper tonight:

Pork Chops.  Potatoes.  Broccoli and cheese. 

What's going on in the sewing room:

I'm working on the little monogrammed tote bags for Christmas gifts and the machine quilting of the Road Trip Quilt.  That's the plan, anyway.  I didn't touch any of that last week.  UGG 

It was a busy weekend!  I'm hoping for a quiet week and more time in the sewing room.  Just 10 minutes a day would be great!

Speed Cleaning in the Living Room - Days 2 and 3

Items found under the couch!  Traces of Summer and babysitting boys!

I am continuing on with my plan to do a 10 minute speed cleaning session each day "before" work this week.  Yesterday it did NOT happen before work.  However, when I got home I went straight into the living room.  I was really tired, but I figured I could do anything for 10 minutes.  Supper was going to be easy and simple:  Fresh tomatoes from the garden and ham sandwiches! So, I started cleaning at 5:30 and finished at 5:40.  Here's what I did:

I moved the couch and 2 end tables away from the wall.  They sit underneath 2 windows.  I dusted the mini blinds and floor boards with the pink fluffy static duster that I use.  Then I vacuumed the entire area.

I moved the furniture back.  Done in 10 minutes!

Today will be day 3 and I plan to move more furniture, vacuum underneath and dust floor boards.  Not very exciting, but a well spent 10 minutes, I hope!

Speed Cleaning in the Living Room This Week!

Happy Monday and first week of Autumn, 2017!

This week I am doing some speed cleaning in the living room!  Speed cleaning for me this week means I am going to work for 10 minutes each day before going to work, and am posting it here for accountability.

I know 10 minutes doesn't seem like much, but by Friday, if I stick to it, I will have worked for 50 minutes!

Today's 10 minutes are going to be spent as follows:

Couch and chair duty!  I'm going to remove the cushions and clean up all the crumbs and dirt that always slowly accumulate under them.  I'll pick up the biggest pieces like popcorn, etc. and then vacuum the rest with our hand held vacuum.  I'll also vacuum the cushions, the back and arms of the couch and chairs.  I'll move as quickly as possible and see if I can get all that done in 10 minutes!

I've been doing well with speed cleaning each Saturday like I described  HERE.  If you haven't read that post, it tells how I clean for an hour each week, doing four 15 minute jobs.  It really does make a difference.... and its only an hour!  Love it. 

We had unexpected company Saturday afternoon, and even though my house wasn't perfect, I was happy with its appearance.  As you may know, our house was built in the 1940s.  Our visitor was a 75 year old man who grew up in this house and he wanted to walk down memory lane.  He remembered his father building the house.  It was so interesting to hear him tell about his memories.  There were some good memories and some bad memories.

A weekly speed cleaning hour is great, but I need to do some deep cleaning also.  So, join me this week as I do some speed deep cleaning!

I hope your week will be blessed!  

Practice first.... Sew once!

I worked on the monogrammed bags I am making for Christmas gifts over the weekend.  I had already been successful with one bag.  The monogram came out really well.  So I continued on with working on some more bags.  I was not happy to discover that different letters of the alphabet need to be spaced differently, depending on the shape of the letter!  I'm afraid I messed up two of the panels that would have become bags.

Here's the one that I made weekend before last came out great on the first try.

But this one is Bad!  That "W" is way too close to the center "S".

It turned out much better on this practice piece.  I wrote down the numbers and can now monogram the bag correctly.

This one is kind of hard to see, but the "J" on the right is just not right.

This practice piece is much better and I did write down the numbers for future reference!

This one came out ok the first time, thankfully!

Here the machine is set up to go.  Hopefully the practice pieces and numbers I have written down with make this bag a success!

I will definitely do practice pieces from now on before sewing on the fabric I planned to use!

A Tiny Frugal Tip# 5 - Play The Games

There are so many stores out there and ALL of them want your money!  There are all kinds of gimmicks that they use to achieve their goal to get you into their store and to spend your money there.  But you have to be smarter than they are!

One of my best frugal tips is to decide on a select few stores, learn their "deal games" and then play the games well.  Just focus on a few.  For me, I have chosen CVS, Dollar General, and Food Lion, as far as brick and mortar stores.  These three stores are convenient for me.  I also love Amazon Subscribe and Save.

I know their prices.  I know how to play their games.  I have their MVP card, Extra Care card, and and have signed up for their digital coupons.  When I go to CVS, if it isn't on sale, or I don't have a coupon, I don't buy it!  At Dollar General, I know what is a good price and I leave the other stuff there.  

A price book is a great tool to help you play the games well.  I like to bring the price of an item down so low, using a combination of sale prices and coupons, that there's no doubt that the price is the best I can find.

My "old lady" brain can't keep up with too many stores at one time.  Sure, there are some great deals at Rite Aid, Walgreens, and Walmart.  I'll visit these stores from time to time, but they just aren't my "deal stores".

There's only such much time to spend on getting the best deal.

So that's my tiny frugal tip for today.  Play the Games ...... and play them well!

Fall Around The Farmhouse

Good morning! Fall is my favorite time of year and so the Fall decorating at the farmhouse has begun!

Door mat from Dollar General.  Love the few scattered leaves already at the top.

This flag is perfect because my hubby has a red truck and lots of times there are pumpkins in it!

This is what you see when you come in our back door.  I made the runner a few years ago.  The only thing new is the "harvest" sign which came from Dollar General.

A yard sale find a few years ago.

I love using what I already have on hand.  However, I would love to add some Fall dishes to my collection, so I'll be on the look out for them, especially when they are put on clearance after the fall season is over.

I grew this sunflower.

If you look close you will see that the dishes in the china cabinet are Christmas dishes!

Another red truck with pumpkins.

This is old but I bought it at Family Dollar.

The Fall quilt I made many years ago.

I love this leaf shaped bowl my daughter gave me a few years ago.

I love anything with sunflowers on it!

Fake gourds.

This is a runner I made a few years ago on the kitchen counter/bar.

This picture has battery operated flickering lights.  I bought it on a deep clearance at Family Christian Stores a couple of years ago.  Its one of my all time favorite fall decorations. 

Dollar General scare crow girl and mini stool. 

Mini stool from Dollar General.

This is what the stools look like without the items sitting on them.

An old yard sale find.

Dollar General..... again.

I'm the first person in the neighborhood with pumpkins on display.  There will be more to come!

I hope you enjoyed this little Fall tour!