Our first truly chilly Saturday has kept us hopping busy! We started out at Michaels with our 50% off coupons. I finally have my advent exchange for my online egroup for stitchers and she is leaning more towards a stitching package so I made sure to go down the cross stitch aisle and pick out a few things. I LOVE 50% off coupons – especially since flyerland now has the Michaels flyer so you can print off as many as you need!
Ken took his coupon and got the green tinsel embossing powder for our Christmas cards. We also go a package of cream/beige coloured cardstock for the same project (it was already on sale for 3.00). Definitely a great way to get what we need and keep it under 10.00! So now all I need is some time to MAKE the cards! I have a bunch of ribbon bits and pieces from other projects I am going to use up making them and then will have to head back to Dollarama for more.
After Michaels we went to H&W… 20 lbs of potatoes for 5.00. This has me frantically using up the last of the 20lb bag mom and Mike bought us. So I made up a huge vat of mashed potatoes (I just wish I had had some sour cream to mix in – but when I use them later I can always add that) and Ken picked up some more containers and into the freezer it went. Apparently you can freeze mashed potatoes for 2 months… I doubt they will last that long in this house!
We go the simple route – peel and cube the potatoes, boil in water until you can pierce them easily with a fork, drain and then add milk and butter and mash! MMM yum!
Mashed Potatoes!
I also managed to find the time to make up the newest double batch of sugar cookies with Ken. He is icing these ones red – we are going to try out a bit of cherry flavouring to see how it goes (to match the mint green icing of course!). No time for my applesauce muffins sadly – but there is always tomorrow! And extra apples from H&W so I can make another batch of applesauce anyway!
Laying by the Stove Soaking Up the Warm!
In our brainstorming for future lapbooks I came up with the idea of making what we have called “melty beads” spiders. So of course I had to hop on the internet and search… well after checking all over the place I remembered that we had labelled packages (mini ones) of them that I had bought from Michaels which meant I could look up that name! What a great site! The Perler Bead site is an absolute gem, though we currently have Ikea brand ones (way less colour options) I am rather sure I can do quite a few of the patterns they have. (that and I printed out another 50% off coupon for Ken and the boys for tomorrow when they are out and about after Sunday School… hint hint hint) What amazing options for patterns – the one I am DYING to make is the gingerbread house! It is 3D! So up on the wish list it has gone… and tomorrow I am going to try making leaves and a Christmas mitten. It amazes me how many of these sites CANNOT ship up here to Canada! This site, of course, is one of them.
I sorted through the survey groups I am a part of and managed to request 16.00 worth of cheques… one more Christmas present paid for! Or a chunk of my advent. But either way, doing surveys is starting to pay off. It will take a few weeks probably for the cheques to get here but at least I am adding to the family coffers!
Our evening was a gaming evening – game of choice – Chez Geek with Chris and Chris. Tonight was their treat food wise! And what a treat!
Nom Nom Nom
This was my second experience with curry… total yum though the sticky rice and the steamed bun filled me up quite quickly and even though it wasn’t totally spicy my mouth was not impressed! Definitely something I would not mind having again AND they left us the leftovers! LOTS of milk was imbibed as well.
Desert was another treat – pumpkin pie and whipped cream… mmm. So we were definitely spoiled rotten!
Pumpkin Pie!
Tonight I was back to stitching, this time the Tux to make a spare in case of interest. Again I am tweaking the pattern as the half stitches are just not clear enough in my mind for the right arm. Ken has PROMISED me new patterns as early as tomorrow so I can get back to work on the ideas spinning in my head – as well as the pattern page back up and running.
Tomorrow is Sunday School for the twins, I am planning on keeping the younger two home as a friend is dropping why on her way to picking up another friend. So in order to be here for the relatively brief visit I need to skip out on church. I figure that gives me the time to make a batch of applesauce with the apples we got today and maybe even do some extra cleaning. It is a long weekend here in Canada so I am going to take every chance I get to do more and more sorting and cleaning. Although with this house it is a lack of storage upstairs that gets me every time!!
Keeping Busy and Being Creative! (Zander middle)