It's Grilling Season Around Here!

Ok, so last fall my grill started shooting fireballs at me while cooking chicken and I told my husband it was to dangerous to use any more.  Of course he could not just take my word for it. He had to try it out and have fireballs shot at him in order to agree. We decided we either needed to get a new grill or buy replacement parts for the one we had. Well after a wind storm a few months ago our grill was toppled over and the handle was broken off and the grate were broken also in addition to the already broken burner. I guess our decision was made for us. So this past weekend my husband went to Lowes and bought a new grill and we made our favorite ribs recipe. The recipe includes dry rubbing the ribs and cooking them in the oven for three hours in a water bath. This is what they look like when that is done. The meat is already falling off the bone, as you can see.

 the are great now but then you slather them in bbq sauce and cook on the grill for about another 15 minutes. The final product looks like this...

I thought I did not like ribs until I had this recipe ( my sister gave it to me).   We started making these last summer and we sent some to our neighbors. They all loved them and now when I go buy ribs at BJ's wholesale I buy them for us all and we take turns cooking a package from each neighbor. That way each family gets a rack and nothing goes to waste.

Maura

25% OFF

I love to save my pennies. I buy clothes on clearance at the end of the season for the kids and put them away till next year. I  always get a good deal on my family vacations (waiting till Disney offers their packages) , and stock up on non perishable food items my family likes when I know they are a good deal. The one thing I am not very good at is cutting coupons. Now don't get me wrong I do cut out the bed, bath and beyond coupons, and I use coupons I get in the mail for Kohls or Yankee Candle, but I have never been good at cutting grocery coupons. So I am setting a goal for myself this month to cut 25% off my grocery bill. I usually spend about 140$ a week ( this includes my weekly shop and little shops I make during the week for fruit or meats).  Given that amount I am going to try to cut 35$ per week off my bill each week.

How will I do this you may ask? Well I have been reading up on blogs and websites about couponing.  While I do don't want to be a "super couponer" (those people who spend hours on end trying to get everything for free, paying .05 cents for a cart full of groceries) I do want to start saving on the things I normally buy.  So I started this weekend by buying extra newspapers, I plan to do this again but from now on I will pay for the papers and leave them for someone else who does not care about the coupons.  I don't want to be wasteful. I will start a stock pile of coupons and start buying things on sale with coupons.  I have learned that you can use two coupons when there is a buy one get one promotion (which I never knew) and I also learned that cvs is a great place to get grocery deals too. I know to some 25% may seem like a little but when you keep adding it up 35$ a week that ends up being 140$ a month and over 1600.$ a year. Thats not chump change. Does anyone else out there use coupons and do you have any helpful hints for me?

Maura

Is this the end?

A few days ago I took part in the Get your face on party over at the stories of a to z and I posted about my make up regime. I got many responses about the lash and brow gel I use instead of mascara. I check periodically to see if it is on sale. Well when I checked today it was not in the mascara section any more and when I typed it in the search box it came up at the rock bottom price of 4.00$. I was very excited about the price but bummed out that it was not coming up on the main page. I think it may be on its way to being discontinued.  This is the the third makeup item in recent months that I use to be discontinued.  I am buying enough to hold me over for quite a while but what will I do when I run out?  What do you ladies do when your makeup favorites are discontinued? Find a replacement, Beg the company to keep making it, or just forget about it?

Getting My Face On!

Beth at the stories of a to z is having a party today and I guess I am one of the few crazy people in blog- land who is willing to show my before and after! So here is my crazy face upon waking up in the morning and here are my steps to my made up face.

1. I wash with Cetaphil cleanser 2x a day and put Cetaphil moisturizer  with spf 15 on in the morning every day. I put it on my face and neck so I don't end up looking like a twenty year old with a 60 year olds neck. Not that I look twenty or anything. I always put my moisturizer on right after I was to try to keep the moisture in.

2. After that I put on underwear for lids by origins (it gives you just a little bit of sparkle on the eyes- but not that teenie bopper look) I then top that off with a little eye shadow from the body shop- not sure of the name but it is matte and has a number 13 on it. I then put on black eyeliner on top lid only and smudge it in a little and curl my eyelashes and use a brow and lash gel instead of mascara on both my lashes and my unruly eyebrows. I like this because it comes off so easy and I don't have to scrub and scrub to get it off.

After I do my eyes it is on to the cheeks- as you will notice I don't wear foundation. I don't like the way it feels on my face but I do like a little color on the cheeks and for that I go to my favorite Origins Pinch your cheeks brownberry- I think it is being discontinued as I can never find it but I love it.  Finally I add a little lip liner- the cheap stuff from the pharmacy (can't read the name anymore) and top it off with Maybelline Shiny-licious in sugar plum.  and here is my after.

 I know I don't wear a lot of make up but I try to do the best with what I use. I still like to have a natural me look - but better then what I wake up with. 

I hope more people join the party! If I can do it so can you! 

Heartwork

Well you may or may not know that my husband and children are really into art. My husband works hard and plays hard and part of that play includes painting.  After a long day at work he finds it relaxing to paint with the kids or alone. He actually took about 10 years away from painting and got back into it last year. I love all the paintings he does but I especially love the most recent one he did from a photo. The picture is of my daughter in bar harbour maine.

He has also painted from another photo my niece took in maine of a big old red barn

This one is on display in my dining room

I just love the shadows and light on that one.

Oh and here is a chalice that we found in an antique shop

and as a sweet valentines gift my daughter painted this sweet heart

and my husband painted this one!

I just love my new heartwork. Don't You! 

I am looking forward to seeing what they come up with for good ole St Patty's Day!

I am an addict!

But not the kind you think. I am addicted to homemade bread.  As most of you know I got  a Kitchen Aid Mixer for Christmas this year. I started out making my old favorites -chocolate chip cookies in it and they came out even better than usual, more light and airy. Then I started making meatloaf in it and now my kids are asking- did you make it in the mixer? again it is so much lighter and less dense then when I mix it by hand. But now I have moved on to making homemade white bread and my family loves it. I am making about 2 loaves a week and I have not had to buy bread in about a month. It does take a few hours to make, not working the whole time of course, but if you ask my family it is totally worth it. I just took my loaves out of the oven and here they are.

I got the recipe from Baking with Julia. It is a great cookbook and I have been eyeing a few other recipes including chocolate truffle tartlets and croissants.  I am not sure about the croissants yet as it may be a little above my skill level. If the pictures of the loaves above are not enough to tempt you I thought I would post my "lunch" today.  Yum- first a slice of bread.

Then a little butter

and finally a little homemade strawberry rhubarb jam we made last summer

  

put it all together and it is heaven on a plate

are you guys addicted to any foods? 

Some Before and Afters

Well I have lived in my home for 3 years now, and we have done quite a bit to it since we moved in. I have my basics done like furniture and paint colors and drapes but I am still at work on the little bits that finish things off. I have been procrastinating a lot lately.  I will get a project done this week, but as of yet I have not done anything except clean my house. So since I dont have any current projects I thought I would post my before and afters of what my home looked like when we moved in and where we are now. I am also posting a picture of my living room (with the fireplace) to show a fellow blogger what the paint color she has chosen might look like on her walls. It is Benjamin Moore Ivoire. That is the color of my living room walls. I love it and I hope You do to. So without further adeu...

these are pics of my daughters room before we moved in and after.
Her paint color is sherwin williams Lily.

Next we have our front hallway before (narrow and flowery) and after (open and airy). I like open and airy, how about you?

our tv room had spongy blue carpet when we moved in and as with the rest of the house it got a new life with hardwoods. I also love fresh blue paint on the walls in this room

I promised Beth of The stories of AtoZ that I would show her my living room as I used the paint color in it that she is thinking of using in her kitchen so here it is. Before...

and after! I used Sherwin williams Ivoire for the paint color.

Things have changed a bit around here since these pics were taken... furniture layout and wall decor. However I am still happy with all the wall colors I chose.

I will post more before and afters soon of the rest of the house but for now that is all!

Hope everyone has a great day.

Back to reality

Just got back last night from Disney. My husband, two kids and I  all went for 9 glorious days. The weather could not have been better and the kids could not have behaved better. The weather was so nice we actually went to Typhoon Lagoon water park twice. I am bummed out to be back to the tedium of home. I feel like a family vacation was good for my soul though. I really enjoyed time with my family with no dishes or laundry or errands to do. Just good quality fun for us all! I will be back to my projects shortly. I want to work on my second dresser this week and finish my candle holders. In the mean time it is my daughter bday today so I am off to bake cake and wrap presents before she gets home. Hope everyone is doing well!

Almost New Dresser

Ok so yet again I forgot to take a before photo however I have a second dresser which is yet to be done and It has the same finish that the first had so please forgive me that it is not the exact one. So here is some back round. My parents had these dressers in our home growing up.  When they moved to arizona all their furniture (which they did not want to take with them) was divided up between the kids and I ended up with this set. It has two dressers and a full size bed. We use the bed in our spare room and I am yet to decide if I will change that but my husband and I have been sharing one of the two dresser for the past 10 years. I know it is crazy! The other day after letting the paint cure for a few days I finally put my clothing in the refinished dresser and showed my husband all the room he had in his... he was shocked at how full his drawers still were. Thats how much we had shoved in there. It was pretty ridiculous.

Any how I sanded and primed the dresser then did 3 coats of white paint. I had to make new holes for the handles as the old handles were 3 1/2 inches from hole to hole and standard handles today seem to be 3 inches. Luckily the new handles covered up the old holes.  So to make the new holes I started by making a jig- a piece of wood with holes drilled in it to match the holes from the handles. I put felt pads on the back of the jig as not to scratch my new finish.  My only problem that occurred was that I broke a drill bit one of the drawers and had to go in at another angle to reach the hole in the handle. It was very frustrating. In the end I think it is a pretty great transformation.

Dont you love the shiny new handles?

Here is the finished product. I  need to touch up one little spot as the drill bumped the drawer when the drill bit broke. Oh well no ones perfect!

I'm working on it.

So I know I have not posted in a while and I like to include photos with my posts but I am a little behind the eight ball these days.  We are heading for Disney in orlando next week and I am trying to pull things together for our trip while also completing a few tasks around the house. Today I finished painting an old dresser. It was my mom and dads dresser from the set they got when they first got married.  They are quality(really solid) but I did not like the cherry stain on them. I have painted one white and want to wait a few days for that to really dry so that I can put new hardware on it.  The other dresser will have to wait till we return. I hope to post pics early next week of the completed dresser.