Just Another Day...

Well it is my last weekend unemployed and it looks like I will be spending it stuck in the bed... cause once again I am sick! Seriously can someone fix my health issues. I actually think I am fine now, but my lovely husband has confined me to the bed for the time being as I stupidly said "I felt fine while laying in the bed." So that is where I stay! Oh well at least I have a TV and internet in here, oh and did I mention I have a husband that is happily waiting on my hand and foot! Maybe I should just pretend to stay sick!

I had a get together for AAUW (American Association of University Women) on Thursday night and I forgot to talk about it. I have only been a member since January, but have really enjoyed the group and the women that I have met. It is really the only thing I am involved with here besides the church. I have done my best to get invovled quickly in the group and am actually the chair for the Holiday Home Tour and also for the Academic Spelling Bee! Guess it is a good thing I only took a part time job, both of those events are going to keep me really busy through the end of the year!

Our event on Thursday was a Salad Supper which honored our scholarship receipients. We give out 6 scholarships to the local highschools, junior college, and college here and it was really neat meeting the young women who received these scholarships. I actually had one at my table and she was great to speak with! We also did our induction ceremony and had some awards given out. I actually won a Women of Worth award for jumping in and getting involved so quickly which was neat! I wish I would have had some pictures but as usual I forgot my camera! I really have to get better at that!

Alright I am off to continue to lay in the confines of my bed... enjoy your weekends... and go do something fun for me!

Show Us Your House Friday - Living Room!

Well it is time for another edition of Show Us Where You Live Friday over at Kelly's Korner. I was not going to participate in this week's living room showcase A) because even though this is one of my favorite rooms to hang out in, it is one of my least favorite decorated rooms because our furniture is too big and when we got it, we were too lazy to rehang the art work to fit better with it B) because it is the room that is usually the catch all for all the junk and is usually way to messy to take pictures of and C) I wasn't really in the mood. Well yesterday just happened to be Living Room cleaning day over here so the room was clean, I got over the fact that it needs better decorating, and I had nothing else to do yesterday, so here is my Living Room to share with the blog world!!!!Here is the living room as you enter it. Our sofa is actually a sectional, but the room is not big enough for us to fit all of the peices, so the connector peice sits in a corner awaiting the day we have a hour big enough for it to join the sofa crowd. We got the rug at a sidewalk art and rug sale and we love it! The end table at the bottom of the table was actually made by Keith in his highschool shop class. I actually have a matching one of the other side that was made by his brother a few years after and he didn't want it, so now we have a matching set! As you can see, Saban is try to escape out of the door. Here is the room from behind the sofa's. We bought the TV stands at Target and I can't wait for the day we can buy a TV that isn't that large and I can buy the bottom peice to put it on. The container that is on the right stand, holds all of Keith's junk when he comes home. It was the best purchase I ever made! This way I the top of my cabinent is not covered in change, wallet, watch, keys and all of that nonsense that comes out of his pockets. Thank you Bed Bath and Beyond!Here is another picture of the TV stand area. That basket to the left holds the cat toys, and about 5 minutes after this picture was taken, all of those toys were back on my floor! The pictures above the TV stand are wedding pictures and a picture of my parents with the little guy. The pictures in the stand are a mix of wedding pictures, pictures of the nephew, and a picture from my friends wedding. One day there will be somewhere else for the electronics to go and I can get my other stand back for decorating!Here is a close-up of the right TV stand. The peices on top and the cross are from Hobby Lobby OF COURSE!!!

These pictures hang beind our sofa and are my favorite thing in the room. My dad got me these on one of his many trips to France, and I actually have two more that I am yet to frame. I really need to get on that!

Well that is our Living Room! I hope you enjoyed it. Please take the time to visit Kelly's Korner and check out all of the other living rooms over there!

Seriously How Do Other's Do This...

I don't understand how people can survive being unemployed for an extensive amount of time. I mean I know some people can't fix that as there is not a vast selection of jobs out there, but still, I have never been so bored in my entire life! It is especially not fun cause I can't spend any money as we took almost a 50% cut in pay with my layoff and it will still be another month until the unemployment check starts coming in. Thank GOD I start my part time job next week! At least I will be able to get out of the house for a few hours a day. I think I can control my boredom in the afternoon if I at least have something to do in the morning, but right now 10 hours of being alone in this house makes the day go by ridiculously slow and I just run out of things to do.

So yeah, nothing else to write about unless you all want me to talk about how I can sit here and watch 8 hours of tv a day... which really is just SICK!

My First CVS Couponing Trip!

As I am sure many of you have read, CVS is one of the best places for a bargain shopper. As I am really starting to get into this couponing thing with all that spare time thanks to the job having been so slow and now my 1 week of unemployment before the part time job starts on the 12th, I decided to try it out today. Let's just say I was pretty impressed with myself!

So here is what I got and the breakdown...

Special K:
Regular Price $4.49
3/$10 price 3.34
Had $1 off coupon
PAID: $2.34

Frosted Flakes:
Regular Price $5.19
3/10 price 3.34 (*2 $6.64)
Had $1 off coupon
PAID: $5.64
Cereal:$10.00 and received $5 in Extra Care bucks so REALLY only paid $5!

Listerine Total Care:

Regular Price $6.49

CVS Price $3.49
Had $2 off coupon
PAID: $1.49 (That's almost 80% off!!!!)

Renu Contact Solution:
Regular Price: $8.99
CVS Price $7.99
Had $1 off coupon
PAID: $6.99 and received $2 in Extra Care bucks so REALLY only paid $4.99

Colgate Maxfresh Toothpaste:
Regular Price: $3.39
CVS Price $2.99 (*2) 5.98
Had $1 off 2 coupon
PAID: 4.98 and received $4 in Extra Care bucks so REALLY only paid $.98!

So my total after Coupons and discounts I paid $23.46 and received $11 in Extra Care bucks for my next purchase... If I had paid full price for each of the items, my total would have been $37.13 and no Free Money to spend on my next purchase! That is a 37% difference!

I have to say for my first try at CVS I did pretty good! Next time I hope to spend even less, but for 7 items that usually aren't too cheap, I must give myself a pat on the back!

You can read about other bloggers CVS shopping experiences here, here, and here! One day I will get that good!

Jiminey Cricket

When I think of crickets, the little guy above is what I think of. Or those wonderful summer nights sitting outside enjoying the fresh air. Unfortunately now I have a new found memory of crickets. They have decided to take up shop in our back door.

Cricket's are not inside pets... they do not like the inside and when they are inside they like to let out a peircing scream constantly! Let's just say that it has not been pretty around here the past 2 nights! Keith has tried to get rid of that little bug about 5 times now, and he just seems to KEEP COMING BACK! I swear he can regenerate himself no matter how many times I see him on the bottom of a shoe!

Oh and what about that cat we have that is supposed to be a bug catcher and supposed to help out in situations like that... please! When I heard that little cricket singing his song at 5 AM Sunday morning... where was that bug catcher you ask??? Sprawled out on my pillow giving me the death look cause I ever so slightly shifted my body and interrupted his sleep! He is of no bug catching use around here.

So that is how we spent out weekend... fighting a 1 inch invader of my property! Oh the life here in East Texas.

Show Us Where You Live Friday...

Kelly over at Kelly's Korner is doing a virtual home tour and today was kitchen's and I decided to participate as the kitchen is my favorite part of the home as I love to cook and bake. We unfortunately live in a rental home as we are not sure how long we will end up living in Tyler, so I had to do my best in order to make the kitchen my own. If this was a home we bought oh how different it would be!

We will start with the main portion of the kitchen. This is looking in from the breakfast area.

As you can see, we have way to much clutter on the counter tops, but there just is not enough cabinent space for everything we have. It is small but it lets me do what needs to be done in the kitchen!

Here is our breakfast area. The table is a hand me down from Keith's parents, but it works perfect!
Here is my favorite thing in my kitchen/breakfast area. My Baker's Rack! My mom bought this for me when we moved here and I just love it. I love being able to display my accent peices to my dishes, and it also allows a little more storage space!!!
We have two sets of serving dishes. The set that goes with my everyday dishes which are done by Tracy Porter and is her Octavia Hill line (which has been discontinued which I discussed here). The second is a LA themed set, which I am still working on the peices too! It is hard to find as it is only sold in specialty sites or on the tabasco.com website.

Here is some artwork that is on our walls. I love the fleur de lis as you can tell... that's the LA in me!!
And here is a close-up of our dishes. The red one and the print are the Tracy Porter ones, the green accent plates I added and are from JC Penney's. They had to be added as I only bought 8 salad plates in the red and since they are discontinued and I have 12 of almost everything else, it really makes it a little difficult to serve 10 people salads!!! Next time I will know better!

And that is where we live... well more like where I live, Keith really only comes in to find food and doesn't spend nearly as much time in the kitchen as I do! Thanks for visiting!

Wilton Cake 3!!!

I have enjoyed my cake class so much and was kind of sad about it being the last one! But don't worry, I will be attending Class 2 hopefully in July since I can't take it next month and they are not offering in June... So eventually more pictures and cakes will be coming!

For my final cake, I decided on chocolate in honor of my boss. I asked for her suggestion and her favorite cake is a chocolate cake with white icing and even though she won't be able to eat it cause she is in Baton Rouge and I am here, I told her I would make it anyway and take pictures. So here is the recipe for the cake and for icing I will be using the class Wilton Buttercream.


Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Cake
Hershey's Kitchens


Ingredients:
2 c. sugar
1-3/4 c. all-purpose flour
3/4 c. HERSHEY'S Cocoa
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1-1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 c. milk
1/2 c. vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 c. boiling water

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare two 9-inch round baking pans.
-Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl.
-Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes.
-Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin).
-Pour batter into prepared pans.
-Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
-Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks.
-Cool completely.

The cake right out of the oven!

All iced and ready for decorating!

As LSU themed as I can get using roses!! I mean is there any other color that goes as good with yellow as purple????