CVS Plan starting 9/10

CVS Plan

These items are on sale with the use of your extra care card. When you use your card you are also qualified to get extra care buck (ecb) specials which are advertised in the sales ad. There is a little trick too that I found out this month… This week’s ad is in effect through 5pm Saturday and next week’s add goes into effect 4pm Saturday. So you have a 1-hour window where you can shop and get all the sales for both weeks, which is sometimes helpful, like when you have to spend so much over time to get gift card specials. You can see both of their ads on their website. Cvs.com

#1 Saturday, October 10^th

2 Izze four-packs = $6

Total = $6

+ $1 ecb for next trip

#2 Sunday, October 11^th

3 Charmin 16-pack = $29.97

- $5 off $25 coupon

- $1 ecb from trans. #1

Total = $23.97

+ $10 ecb for next purchase

#3 Sunday, October 11^th

7 Finish 20-pack (dishwasher detergent) = $20.93

- 5 coupons (.75/1 pack) (total of $5.25 in coupons)

- $10 ecb from trans. #2

Total = $5.68

+ $10 ecb for next purchase

#4 Sometime next week after I get the coupons I ordered

5 Dawn liquid dish soap = $4.95

- 5 coupons (.50/1) ( total of 2.50 in coupons) = $2.45

6 Xtra laundry detergent = $8.94

- $10 ecb from trans. #3

Total = $1.39

Grand Total = $37.04

2 Izze (4-pack)

3 Charmin (16-pack)

7 Finish (20-pack)

5 Dawn dish soap

6 Xtra laundry detergent

If I purchased these items without coupons or sales the total would be $117.67, so this is a 66% savings.

Craft and Heartsy

So I finally received the I-top tool that I was anxious to get after going to market. I was so excited to receive it about two weeks ago that I thought I was going to make all the bobby pins by the end of that first weekend. I was sadly mistaken. Instead I've only finished 4 or 5 sets. I really am starting to hate not having enough time for everything. There is so much I want to get done, but its like I get caught up on one thing then another project falls behind. Its getting really frustrating.

In other news, I know I've mentioned my new found obsession with Heartsy, but I'm not sure people are understanding how awesome it is. It is like the Groupon of Etsy! The necklace, pictured above, was one of the latest deals. I was able to get this one and one for my mom (with all of her kid's names on it) for the awesomely reasonable price of $8. So it makes me feel a bit cheap, but I took care of my mom's birthday gift without breaking a sweat or the bank! Yeah, I've already given it to her because there are only a couple people I know who appreciate a deal almost as much as I do, and she is one of them.

P.S. This is a draft that I made on July 9th! I forgot to finish it! However, nothing much has changed about it except now I've made about 3 more sets of bobby pins and the rest of the backings I ordered for the i-top tool came in. They are resting nicely in a bag next to my desk at work!

New Cooking

In the realm of the kitchen I've made a couple new dishes.

The first one was completely new to me because I've never cooked tilapia before. It was so easy. I just put this garlic lemon spice baked it until until the fish was nice and flaky. The squash was really interesting with that lemon combination on it, in a good way of course!

The second new to me recipe was the Chicken Parmesan from the Betty Crocker cook book. It was super easy to make. I was missing a couple key ingredients; the tomato sauce and the "proper" pasta. No sweat though, just make due with what you have so I used pizza sauce and lasagna pasta broken up into pieces. It was really good, and it only took about 35 minutes including prep time. I did learn that I should probably start cooking 3 or 4 chicken breast instead of just 2 because Josh ate his and half of mine.

I'm going to add these two new entrees to our menu list for sure, and now I'm even more inspired to use my cookbook. Do you have a favorite recipe or cookbook?

Striped Strips!

New Fabric? Um yes! The two print fabrics are Alexander Henry, and the solid is a Free Spirit piece. Aren't they delicious? In case you haven't had the chance to see the Free Spirit solid colors yourself let me tell you that they are absolutely wonderful. They are a great quality, an affordable price, and they come in the most interesting colors. It is kind of difficult to explain the colors that are available. Of course they are normal colors like pink, green, blue, etc. its just the hues are slightly "off" compared to the average solids so they are really fun and original.

Anyway, I was making a baby blanket sample that required 2 different yards of fabric and then about 3 yards in different sized trims. Instead of going through the hassle of picking out different ribbons I decided to use the Alexander Henry stripe fabric and just cut it up into different sizes (folding the raw edges to the underneath inside).

I really like how it turned out. I think it was a lot easier, less time consuming, and it worked just as well because the stripes are different enough.

There is a baby bag that goes with this, but I still don't have a good picture of it. I will post it along with pattern information as soon as I have it all put together at SewFlakes. The pattern is super easy, cute, and all together it only took about 2 hours to make, and about an hour to run to the store, 10 minutes away, to get what I forgot. *laughs*

B.A.zaar!!!

I've finally decided on a name for Broken Arrow's Main Street craft fair on October 22nd. We will call it the B.A.zaar!!

I'm pretty excited about it. The vendor applications have been sent to those who attended the craft party on June 10th (that I have email addresses for), and some other local Etsy shop owners who also expressed interest. If you are interested in booth space during the craft fair please let me know by emailing talesofanewhousewife (at) gmail (dot) com. Right now booth spaces will be $35-$45 depending on the placement, but the prices will go up after July 31st.

I'm also very excited that Renee with GreenerMe is designing the graphic/logo for the event! She is a local artist, and she has done the logos for Make Tulsa and IndieEmporium. How cool is that?!

The goal is to have a flyer finished and ready for PDF and paper distribution by the beginning of next week. Also I will be publicly announcing the B.A.zaar as an event on Facebook so we can all start inviting our friends to vend and/or shop at the event.

Also, if anyone knows of any non-profit crafting groups/organizations that might want to be present during the fair please contact me because I'm hoping to have spaces reserved for community groups.

Own worst enemy sometimes.....

I've been thinking about doing a pattern for my tote bag for a while now. I started working on it tonight. I was half way through the assembly and picture taking when I realized that I messed up the dimensions. I'm almost to the point of giving up on this because I've made around 5 tote bags and none of them are the same size and all of them start with the same amount of fabric. *face palm*

I'm not really worried about it though. I think I will be able to get it together the next time because I finally visualized the math formula involved. The trick now will be to articulate it so other people can make their own adjustments.

In other news, I was going to clean up the craft closet a little bit this evening, but I was immediately distracted. ("Squirrel!") Look at this Nicey Jane fabric! I've been wanting this fabric for so long and while at market I was able to get two kits made up of fat sixths pieces. I'm not sure that it is the entire line, but it is still a good portion! Isn't it beautiful? I don't care if it isn't the newest line because I still love it. Now I just have to decide what to do with it.

This is how I'm my own worst enemy. I have about a billion things to do, and here I am looking at fabric, dreaming up the perfect use for it. If I was independently wealthy I would spend my days making pretty things. Sometimes it is frustrating how much I divide my time up. There is so much I want to accomplish, but not enough time. I suppose that sometimes ideas are the burden of a genius. *hahaha* Really though, how irritating it is to have so much ambitious without enough time to do everything...stupid responsibilities like work get in my way.

Tonight I'm going to step back from it all, and make a list per suggestion of a great friend of mine. I'll order it, and then start knocking things out tomorrow evening.

Unicorn, Butterfly, Rainbows, and Other Girl Stuff Party!

My niece, Kendall, spent the night with me for the first time since she was a baby. It was so much fun because she has her own little personality developing which is great to experience and observe.

The evening got off to a bad start thanks to a migraine and me loosing my dinner. I thought I was going to have my mom come pick her back up, but Kendall was really upset by that idea that I had to fake feeling better because I couldn't stand to see her so sad. Thankfully, Josh drove on the way back home from picking him up so I could rest for a few minutes which helped relieve the pain.

Kendall holding my Big Bird waiting nicely for me to get better. She also had to wait for her food to settle before we went swimming.

We picked Uncle Josh up from work, and saw some big airplanes. Then we all colored and played pictionary.

This morning she woke up early enough to make Princess cupcakes.

It took a few tries to get the hang of sprinkling versus pouring. Thankfully, we had enough going on that she forgot about the cupcakes because after test tasting the frosting I'm confident that they were going to be nasty, plus she dropped half and egg shell in the mix. I think we picked all the bits out, but there is no telling.

Then thanks to some Groupons we went with my first cousin Trisha and her friend to the Fun House at the Riverwalk in Jenks. Kendall loves Ski Ball which was awesome for me because it is my favorite as well. She ended up getting lots of toys with her tickets and was quite happy. By the time I took her home I'm sure she was ready for a nap so it was a good weekend.

The next time I hang out with her, next month, I'll be taking her to Build-a-Bear for her birthday trip. We go every year, sometimes twice. The goal is that she will have 18+ bears by 2024. I wonder if she will keep going with me when she is a teenager?