Great Giveaway

Jennifer at Dear Lily is having a great giveaway.  Head on over and visit!

http://dearlillieblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/giveaway-time-and-big-sale.html BLOG30

Eden's Wash Day! or Should I Say Dry Day?!

Oh the things we get to do at Granna's House!



Squeaky clean and Dry!!!!!!



Just Call Me "Mrs. Prudence!"

What is this mess? 

  Glad you asked! 

What you are seeing on the table is a "coupon organizing party"!  Well, I'm the only one at this party, but that's OK!

Ladies, it works!

I know, I know all the excuses!  Believe me!  "It's not worth the time and effort",  "I don't feel like it",  "It's too complicated",  "But I don't use any of that stuff" on and on we cold go.

Now,

I know that I don't do it the "right" way,

 but

I do feel like if I don't take advantage of it to the best of my ability, I am not being the best steward of God's money that I could be.

There are so many helps out there.  Blogs that tell you exactly what's on sale (that's when you do the best using the coupons, btw,) the stores that have the best deals all over town, even scenarios that will allow you to get items free, or in some cases, where they (the manufacturers or stores) will actually GIVE YOU money!

 It's CRAZY!

I'm not that "into"it, but it can be done!  I know, because my daughter has actually been able to achieve that, and a lady in our church brings things and gives them away; things she has gotten absolutely FREE!

What I am trying to do right now, is buy up non- perishable items that I can store, as I see them on sale.  This is our year to have Christmas at our house, and I usually start stocking up a month or so before Christmas.  Why not do it 8 or nine months before?  Also I've heard that people maybe should stock up on groceries because of the economy and world situations, so since I have the place to store them, I decided I would do this.  Won't hurt anything I guess.  I will use my coupons as much as I can while doing this.  It really gives you such a feeling of accomplishment.

It also makes me feel like I am portraying the Proverbs 31 lady; the lady we are to pattern our lives after.  In Proverbs 31:16.  it says of her that: "She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.  Then verse 18 says, " She perceiveth that her merchandise is good: her candle goeth not out by night."  I want the merchandise I buy to be good, don't you?  Look at verse 11 ,"The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil."  Wouldn't this make husband so happy?  I especially like this verse, Pr 31:15 She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens.  She always has food in her house to feed her family and others.  This was so much like my grandmother and my mother as well.  I want to be this way.  I have no excuse when all I have to do is go a couple of miles down the road and purchase it;  saving money with coupons as I do so.

Now it does take a little bit of planning and organizing, but it will be worth in when you see the amount you have saved on your grocery receipt!  It is helpful to just sit down for an hour, maybe 45 min. each week and organize your coupons.  You'll be glad you did!

One other helpful thing that I will throw out, and this is so simple and takes very little time to do.  Sign up at your local grocery (Kroger) for me, for their digital coupons.  You just log in and add their digital coupons to your loyalty card (get one if your grocery offers one), and it will be automatically deducted from your grocery order.  This is something you might want to do on a weekly basis.  It works good for me to do on Monday.  That way, if I buy something that week, and it's on the card, it will be deducted. 

Oh, btw, Sunday's newspaper is the place, as we know, to get the coupons.  We have a guy in our church who delivers the paper, and usually brings us some freebies (left overs!)  Isn't that great!  Also, I love getting the coupons in the mail from Kroger.  It seems the more you spend and shop with them, the more coupons they send you.  Can't beat that!

This is the bag I use in the Summer to "hide" the ugly coupon holder.  It's big enough to even throw my purse or anything else in there. 




There I go, Mrs. Prudence herself!


How about you?  What are your thoughts on couponing?  Or, how are you being frugal?

So, this is my "gleanings" for today.  Hope it's something that will help someone!

I'm linking to this party today.

My "Old" Old Ky Home

This past weekend my husband was out of town and I decided it was time to go "home"!

I took a trip to see my mom!  She lives in Eastern Ky in the same house where I grew up.  I had a wonderful time as usual.

I even got to go to church with her on Sunday morning.  I don't remember doing that since I've been married!  (Many moons!) 

I love to visit my mom.  She is such a blessing to me.  I am so thankful for her.  She always blesses my heart each time I go.  I love to hear the stories and accounts of things in her childhood and from the neighborhood (the same one she has lived most of her life in). 

It makes me sad to leave and each time I go, I know I need to go more.  It is just hard to get a way sometimes, but sometimes we just have to make time for the important things in life.  I know.


Mom's at Thanksgiving



She has a beautiful house.  Sometime I hope to do a blog on her deco.



The barn .....always an important part of life there.  Also all the grands and greats at Thanksgiving last year.

This is the church where my mom, and sister's family go, and the church where I went as a girl.

This is just a little snippet of my "old" old Ky home.  I love to go back there!

We Have a Winner!

Congratulations Keetha from The Eclectic Company, on being the winner of my very first give away!  She is the winner because she is my 25th follower!  I enjoyed visiting her blog.  She just seems like one of those people that would be a joy to be around!  Thank you. Keetha for your encouragement!

Crystal "Shine" delier!

This is a project long time in the making.

After looking like this

 for, oh I don't know, probably 5 or so years,  (actually worse, because I washed it in dishwasher),


This wonderful old chandalier that my husband and I picked up at an antique store for $30.00, now looks like this:

Thanks to Lonnielove for doing this:



Yes, he put this thing that was in broken pieces together and now it looks like, well, not new, but shiny like new.  It can't look like new, because it probably came out of an old restaurant, and I really don't want it to look new.  So it really looks the way I wanted it to look, I guess.  I'm happy with having a light over the dining room table, can you tell?!

Oh and I helped: 

Who can find the clue in the above picture that I helped??????
I'm linking this to:
http://happytodesign.blogspot.com/

Why White????

Good Question!  As for the answer, I don't know if I can answer that or not, but I'm going to try in this post about the painting of the living room. 

Early January (20ll), I casually told my husband that we needed to paint.....soon.  Well, he took me seriously.  So seriously that at church the next service he asked a painter in our church to come and do some painting for us.  He told me after church that he was coming the next day!  Yikes!  Wait!  I'm not ready!  Yet I knew that here was my chance and that I better get ready!

Soooooo, after many hours, (I hate to admit that, but yes, hours) on line actually doing what I call a "crash course" on interior painting, (thanks to Maria  at http://mariakillam.com/home.htm)  and after many trips to Lowes and thousands,   several paint decks and samples,  I always came back to, yes, you guessed it, WHITE!

I really don't know why except that when I look at pictures of all white rooms, my heart just seems to kinda pitter patter!  Words like, peaceful, clean, restful, pure, relaxing come to mind!  I know it is not the look a lot of people are going after, and on most of the home decorating shows, they really look down on all white.  Oh well, I still like it!  Acutally, I remember when we first built the house 16 years ago that I really wanted to paint the walls white, and the woman at the paint store talked me out of it.  That goes to show it's always good to go with your first choice!

Another reason is because I like to change things up so much, and what "color" goes with everything any better than white?!!!!

I have loved painted white furniture for a loooong time and have much painted white furniture.  My kitchen is white as well.  It is just something that I never tire of, and as one avid white fan said, when you get started on white, you just want more white!

Sooooooooooooo, there are some of the reasons.  I guess there are others, and if  I think of them I will add them later.  For now, I guess the answer to my own question of "Why White?" is "Why Not?"

You can see the way the living room looked before here.   Also below are some close ups of the before wall color.   It was a creamy color which was OK, but I like the white much better.  The actual name of it is "Spare White". 

Before white and with the "touch up" mud.



As you can see here, it had a sort of brownish tint to it.



Before when compared to the white trim.



This is an after white paint shot taken by grandaughter,  Abby.  Without looking at the items which are not supposed to be in here,  (bench, black and white picture on fireplace, etc.), you can see how much brighther these walls are. 

I still have quite a bit to do in this room, but I really do like the way it turned out.