hey local friends!

i love my aunt trish and you should too!

(this is a photo of trish and her husband ed...who is only 3 yrs older than me!)

trish is one of those people that when she walks into a room, everyone notices her. i never had that quality. but we were both single for awhile in the 90s and it was annoying to have boys look at her (she is 12 years older than me) before they even notice me!

ggggrrrrr...

oh, back to why i love her...

trish works in a title 1 school in philadelphia. not because the pay is so fantastic, but because she wants to make a difference in these kids lives. and she does all the time.

her 'prize closet' at school has socks, shirts, soap and peanut butter. she used to stock it with candy and toys but the kids didn't want that stuff.

they NEEDED clothing. and not just for them, but their little brothers and sisters.

at christmas time, she gets all of her friends and their businesses to donate clothes for not just her students, but their brothers and sisters too!

last year, after the holidays and the kids came back to school, some of them were wearing their pjs that were given to them as clothes. these kids never had pjs and just didn't know what to do with them.

right now i am working on making each kid (oh-i forgot to tell you...she has 30 (THIRTY!) 1st graders and 12 are 'unspecified special ed'.) a pencil case for halloween. i have some pencils, toothbrushes and some things left over from last halloween.

now im out of money and i need your help.

if anyone (local of course) has some zippers in your sewing stash, and wouldn't mind donating them, i would love them! i got most of my fabric at thrift store really really cheap, so im good there.

but zippers cost alot.

and i really don't care what color they are.

or if you have something that you can donate to some children who need a hand-up, please let me know. small things (that wont cost a ton to ship) like glue sticks, erasers...things like that would be awesome.

so if you have one sitting around you wouldn't mind giving to a wonderful cause, please let me know!

i will even come pick them up!

thanks friends for letting me beg. i will get back to crafting now.

part 2...and i didnt know there was going to be a part 2!

some of you might remember this gift i made for my boys babysitter. here is a link back to the post.

well while shopping at target, i found a bright yellow hand towel for 79 cents. i had some green bay fabric left over so i...

cut a strip and folded the edge over after i zig zagged it.

and made a matching towel for her kitchen at college.

oh...i dont know if she will have a kitchen at college. i should have asked her mom.

oh well!
have fun saundra!
http://thethriftyba.blogspot.com/2010/08/part-2and-i-didnt-know-there-was-going.html

look who is liking rice pudding!

you all know about my love affair with aunt pegs.

now that i have given amber the secret to yummy rice pudding, we are together forever!

click here!

 ps-look at this new charm.

i know! you can get it here!

 

are you red or blue?

yup-it is that time of the year again...

college football.

it happens ever year.

and if you live it utah, you know about the rivially.

byu or utah?

im only a utah fan because i married one. i wear red when needed and make sure my kids do too.

(i do enjoy sports only because there is food incorporated into the celebration.)

but with these-it doesnt matter if you are a real fan or just married to one!

of course, aunt peg's made these and they are available in her etsy shop

and at $7 each (plus shipping) who can resist showing their true colors?

you can guess which one i already have!

(and yes i wear it with pride!)

be sure to tell aunt peg that i sent you!

ready for fall

arent we all?

i love the changing of the seasons that utah has,

but towards the end of the season, im ready to move on!

im looking forward to wearing sweaters and my sweet 'you lost 25 lbs you deserve these boots' boots.

i love the smell of leaves falling to the ground and my kids playing in them.

and going 'pumpkin hunting' with the kids.

we take out 'hunting' seriously here.

but mostly im all about the food. really, any decent reason to eat is a good enough one for me!

growing up, my nana made the BEST rice pudding. im not a pudding eater usually, but this i make an exception for. infact, unless it is 'nana's rice pudding', i wont touch it.

1 cup of rice (uncooked, generic...NO MINUTE RICE!!)

½ gallon milk

¼ LB margarine

¼ cup of sugar

1 cup water

bring to a boil and boil for 30 minutes.

STIR CONSTANTLY!

(yes-30 minutes of stirring! it can be your arm workout for the week!)

3 eggs, beaten

1 TBS vanilla

¾ cup of sugar

mix well and add after the 30 minutes is up.

stir well.

pour into 9 x 13 pan. sprinkle with cinnamon.

 

what i do when chris is out of town!

these are some older photos, but i wanted to share what happens in my home when chris goes on a business trip. (which, by the way, he is doing AGAIN today! stay tuned for some fun!)

parker was very interested in space at the time, and since his walls were blue-it seemed only logical that we paint on his walls the planets!

i wish i would have taken photos of the process, but i was so freaked out that i would mess up and chris would kill me for painting the walls that i didnt. (you see, chris used to paint walls professionally while putting himself thru college. he is VERY PARTICULAR about his walls. yes, my hubby is a paint natzi.)

parker picked out the paint colors from my craft paints (yep-i just used acrylic paints!) and i found bowls and cups to use to make circles.

that is the red spot on juipter.

we made pluto as a protest of it being down graded from from a planet. it will always be a planet to us!

if you look closely you can see we used glow in the dark paint and an eraser to make stars all over the wall.

and of course you need a HUGE SUN. we used sponges to give it that look.

we have his bed positioned in the middle of the galaxy and put glow in the dark stars over head.

yes-im the coolest mom ever!

and no-chris didnt have a fit!








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and its so very cheri

mmarvelous award from mbellished!

all i can say is i love winning!

and although this isnt a real prize, i will count it anyways!

meg has a rockin' blog (called mbellished) that i read daily!

please check it out for yourself, you will be a follower!

thank you meg!

 

the guidelines for accepting this award are...

thank the person/people who gave it to you.

tell 7 things yourself.

pass the award on to 15 bloggers,

whom you have recently discovered,

and think are fantastic.

since i LOVE LOVE talking about myself, we will do that part first!

1. i hate yard work. i like my yard to look nice but i really hate doing it.

2. im not fond of dusting either.

3. i didnt cry when my kids went to preschool, kindergarten or even first grade. i actually love each milestone they reach and love the freedom their growing up gives us both.

4. i wish i looked more italian, like my neice jackie. she got all the good genes.

5. i havent had a boob job. when i first met my husband (i didnt find this out until later) he thought i did.

6. i wish i could let my kids meet my nana. she has been gone since 1994 and i still miss her daily.

7. we let our kids watch the simpsons. think bad of me if you want, unfriend me if you want, but some amazing family talks have started because of that show.

so 15 blogs that rock...

debbiedoos

madiganmade

cheap chic home

im saving with style (aka how to be posh on a budget)

apron girls

tracy trinkets & treasures

jenny matlock

simply handmade by paige

a shabby life

jamee homemaker

thrifty and chic decor

made (i just won a pattern from here!)

a little tipsy

a girl and a glue gun

sew ambitious

please check out these great blogs-i wouldnt follow them unless they brought me smiles and ideas!

thrifty finds for the thrifty ba

my boys and i hit the thrift store one last time before school started.

and parker is getting quite good and finding things.

have you ever played rummikub? my in-laws introduced parker to it a few weeks back. when he found this complete set (we counted all the tiles-all 106 are there!) for $3 in a leather/faux leather case, we couldnt pass it up!

he is unfortunately getting quite good at it...

(i will admit, i thought it was a backgammon set and didnt even open it. parker is becoming a good thrifter!)

this is going to be for one of the beautiful young women in my neighborhood for their birthday. and for 25 cents, it is so worth it! it is wood with a giant magnet on the back.

you know my love of all things target, so imagine when i found these lemons and limes (not balls-DARN!) for a whole 75 cents! i think it was mismarked, but too bad!

and these are going to a certain friend for christmas. i plan to fill them with home made peanut brittle.

oh, and the price of the jars and carrier?

a very expensive...$5.

seriously, how could someone part with these?

(when i found them i didnt want to put them down while i got a cart. so i carried them to the front of the store and hurt my back! they were that heavy! i could barely walk the rest of the day. that is true love for a friend!)

thank you for not letting my child drown

im one of those people who likes to write thank you notes and give small thank you gifts.

(i really like receiving them too!)

the boys took swim lessons this summer and i wanted to thank their teachers for being so patient with them.

you see, parker isnt the most co-ordinated child alive. or daring.

and nate, well...he thinks he is the greatest thing ever made and that all the girls like him. and that is really all that is important to him.

they both love swimming, but just arent very good at it.

this year, not only did parker (age 9 1/2) finally jump off of the low dive but...

nate went into the deep end.

(with their life guard teachers by their side)

im certain these teens werent paid enough.

so i needed to give them a BIG HUGE THANK YOU.

i got a couple of water bottles from food storage and with some packing tape, i taped a crystal light packet to the front of the bottle (i rolled the tape so it wasnt seen but easy to get off.)

i would have done a walmart brand gatoraide but i didnt want to go to the store and this is what i had.

then i got some kite string and tied it around a million times.

put some thank you tages that my boys signed and there you go-

a fast, easy thank you gift for any coach!

i also like to do this for my friends and instructors at jazzercise for their birthdays.

i believe it isnt always the cost of the thank you gift, but the fact that you say thank you.

(or happy birthday!)