For All You Cat Lovers

I had a few giggles at the bully cat. Hope you enjoy!

Alternative Store for Groceries

DH hasn't been working regularly since late spring so money has been tight. As you all know, the price of groceries has sky-rocketed and continues to rise. I stopped by a salvage grocery store yesterday to see what kind of deals I could find. I found that you could not do a "regular" grocery shopping trip here but you could stock up on some great bargains. Here's a little look at what I bought.

"Nom-noms" for Opi and Nellie Belle's Sunday dinner. They were 50 cents each.

"Fancy' coffee $2.99 each.

Hubby's favorite-- a special yesterday at 2 for 99 cents

$1.59!

Only 39 cents!

25 cents each for these

Starbucks decaf for only $3.09

Pepsi and Coke products were 20 cents per can

Everything was in date. Some of the packaging was slightly damaged. I checked to make sure that if a can was dented, that the seal wasn't involved. The soda cans needed to be wiped off before I put them in the fridge because there was a little stickiness to them--probably opened cans slopped their contents on the good cans. You can probably tell that we're big coffee drinkers! I'm supposed to drink decaf but I will use the flavored coffee and mix it with my plain decaf. One thing I have learned not to buy at stores like this one is taco shells. I had bought a box that looked pristine--no damage or signs of being overly handled. Unfortunately, most of the shells were broken.

Hope that you have luck looking for bargains too.

Hugs, 

Sharon

Monday's Link to Free Crochet Pattern (29 August 2011)

Photo courtesy of Garnstudio

I've been into squares lately and when I saw this pattern I just knew I had to share it with you. I love the use of color in the sample shown and the border is very pretty imho. Check it out!

Happy National Dog Day!

Happy National Dog Day from mine to yours!

Opi

Nellie Belle

Update on Our Troublesome Neighbor Situation

In this post, I told you about the distress we feel from our one neighbor who literally stalks us with his camera when we're outside. He's taken pictures of me early in the morning when I opened my front door to my son and I was wearing my robe. He calls the police if a car is hanging an inch or 2 over the sidewalk when it is in our drive and well, you've probably read the other post so you know what we've been going through with him the last couple of years. Tonight, our other neighbor called the police on "goofy" because there was a car hanging over goofy's driveway. Of course, by the time the police got there, the car was gone. Anyway, the latest development is that goofy has a camera aimed out of his window, at our house round the clock the last couple of days. We've been advised by the police officer to go to the county attorney. He didn't know for sure if we had any recourse but the county attorney might be able to help us someway. Maybe since the police were called on him, he'll settle down. We'll see; otherwise we may have to take some legal action.

Monday's Link to Free Crochet Pattern (22 August 2011)

Here's an interesting pattern for slippers. Enjoy everyone!

What Would You Do?

I'm really distressed here. We have some wonderful neighbors. We're friendly with them all.The neighborhood gentleman all hang out together and very often work on home improvement projects together. Oh and let me make it clear, we're not talking about youngsters here because they range in age from almost 50 to 90s. Unfortunately, one neighbor doesn't fit in. He doesn't take care of his home and our property values are affected by it. He takes our pictures and one day he took mine when I answered the door to my son early one  morning and I was in my robe! If a car is parked an inch over the public sidewalk he calls the police. He called the police when his next door neighbor was having a deck built for confirmation a permit had been obtained. He stands across the street and stares in our garage (aka mancave) when the men congregate there. Today he climbed on top of his shed to get a better view over here. It's creepy and I don't know what to do about it. Check out these pictures of him today (yes, I've sunk to his level and started taking pictures):

Ta Da, Slippers Are Done!

I've been using up some of my odds and ends of yarn for the scrap afghan I'm making. The yarn I used in the slippers was a rather large amount of "leftovers" so I made the slippers before delegating the yarn to the scrap 'ghan project. I ended up having to downsize the cuff so that I'd have enough yarn. I think it looks ok and I've done it before so I knew they'd turn out ok. They're off to the "gift drawer." Hope you enjoy.

WIP Wednesday, 17 August 2011

I just started a pair of slipper booties. I needed a break from the bigger projects and canning I've been working on. I just started them so there's not much done yet.

I'm using some leftover yarn from my stash.

If you'd like to see what some other folks are doing, you can click on the following button.

Crocheting--Not Much Going On

I finally wove the ends in on the small afghan I made.

I think the one yarn I used is what is causing the rippling. The purple is a cheap polyester yarn I got a bargain on and I think it's the rippler.

I've been doing a little on my scrap 'ghan. It will be a while before it's finished. It is a nice brainless project.

p.s. I did a count on the tomato sauce  I canned: 8 qts, 12 pts, and 20-- 1/2 pts.

Monday's Link to Free Pattern--15 August 2011

I fell in love with this pattern as soon as I saw it. This is tentatively on my mile long to-do list. Enjoy!

Update on Yesterday's Tomato Sauce...

The tomato sauce I started yesterday I ended up having to finish cooking it down today because it was such a large batch. I mixed the 2 types of tomatoes and the sauce is red now and not the golden yellow color I was afraid it was going to be. I ended up with 6 qts, 4 pts and 1 half pint. I will probably only end up canning a few more jars this summer because the tomatoes aren't yielding very much now. Next year I will probably plant a few more plants and increase my production. I was very fortunate that a friend of my mil was getting rid of some canning jars and gave them to me. I used my entire jar supply that I had on hand. Need to get a few smaller jars next year because I like an assortment of sizes for the tomato sauce.

Hope y'all are having a great day!  Hugs...

It's A Tomatoful Day!

Today I harvested 2 large containers of tomatoes from my garden. I had planned on making sauce out of them tomorrow.

Then, my mil came over and was telling me that where she volunteers, there were 2 boxes of tomatoes that no one was using and were starting to go bad. Of course, I said "I'll take them."

 I brought them home, sorted, cut out bad spots and many ended up in the mulch pile. After I whirled the good tomatoes around in my food processor, I ended up having to start cooking them down in the bottom to my pressure canner PLUS I filled my largest stock pot 1/2 way with more sauce. The weird thing about my freebie tomatoes is the color. The color resembles the color of Kraft macaroni and cheese. Once the 2 pots can be combined into 1 then maybe the color will be a little better. Getting all the tomatoes ready to cook took me almost 2 hours. I don't know why so long....Guess I'm getting slower in my old age. :)  I'm looking forward to using this sauce in my homemade spaghetti sauce this fall.

That's my day today.

Hope everyone is staying cool and having a great week.  Hugs...

WIP Wednesday (10 August 2011)

I'm just about finished with this afghan. This is the one I made the center from some squares that came with some yarn I picked up at a thrift store or yard sale. I only have the ends to weave in. I'm not sure why the edging is "ruffly." I made it a little different by putting 2 rounds of sc before I did the shells--I won't do that next time. All the yarn I used was leftovers from other projects.

To see some other crafty things, click on the button at the bottom of this post. Have a great week!

Monday's Link to Free Crochet Pattern (08 August 2011)

Here are some cute slippers to crochet that look like cows! Wish these were in adult sizes. I have a friend who is crazy about cows and I would love to make them for her. Enjoy!

Remember to Check Out Free Reads for Your Kindle

If you go to this page you can find many free books for your kindle. Just thought I'd post this again for those of you who'd like to find some inexpensive reads. I read the reviews before I download because some of the books aren't very good my cup-of-tea.

WIP Wednesday--Even More Tomato Sauce (03 August 2011)

I'm making tomato sauce again. I usually get 2 pints and about 5, 1/2 pints. Seems like a lot of work for such a small quantity but the taste is so much better and since no salt is used, it's low sodium too. Here's a glimpse of what I've got going this morning.

To see what other folks are up to, click on the button below. Hope everyone is staying cool and having a great week.

Monday's Link to Crochet Pattern (01 August 2011)

Here's another dishcloth pattern. This one is designed by the Crochet Dude. Enjoy!



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