Thrifty Finds

Linking up to rhonda's blog at southern hospitality. Goodwill find on the denim valance $1.99, hockey stick [free from a neighbor] and the hanging rings from Wal-mart. The hardest part was trying to figure out how to mount this. BB is playing house hockey this year and is a huge Columbus Blue Jackets fan. So that's what his bedroom is done in. The walls are a blue/gray color, not light blue as the first photo looks - had to use my flash because it's raining and that's a dark corner in his room. Wall color in second photo is much better.

Fall Grog Mix for the Techers

We decided to sprinkle our teachers with a little fall treat. Fall officially began last week, but we had rain all week and it just was yucky. I bought all the ingredients and this made a ton. I wanted enough to make for 9 teachers [including the principal and secretaries], but ended up using all my mason jars and some treat bags which we'll pass out to some neighbors.

Washed the jars, added a ribbon and tag to the lids, twine for additional fall feel.
Ready to pour - except we took out the blue M&M's because they don't look like fall to us.

This made all 12 jars, plus 6 bags, plus what's left over for us.

martha stewart measuring spoons

So I like watching The Barefoot Contessa on the Food Network. I think I would like living next to Ina in the Hamptons and just pop over to see what she's up to ... every day. I had seen her use these measuring spoons instead of measuring cups [not the ones photographed below, but similar]. To me it just made sense to use a spoon instead of a cup for measuring. Not only are these spoons easier to hold, but have multi-uses. I grab them all the time for measuring, serving from stovetop to plates, from microwave to thermos, from soup to a bowl. They really are a perfect serving spoon ~ part service spoon/part ladle. Using a ladle has always been awkward for me. The roundness never seems to be the size of the bowl I have, but these spoons have never let me down.

Not easy to find. My mom was on the hunt and found some Martha Stewart ones for me at Kmart, although I only have 3 in my set. These below are now carried at Kmart too.

more bento ....

I could quite possibly be addicted to bento. Read my post here. Okay, so I'm not going to take this to the degree that some people do as I just don't see myself buying seaweed and forming it into shapes for mouths and eyes and hair. But I do really like the way the below photo looks. Especially that light blue silicone baking cup. Do you see it? Yea, that's what I like. I needed one this morning for Bear's lunch. He wanted salami and provolone rolled [yes, I used toothpicks as he's almost 10 and hoped he didn't jab anyone at the lunch table]. He also wanted a bun and mandarin oranges. Oh those oranges would have been so cute in a silicone cup, but all I had were the pink and red hearts which I'm sure would have embarrassed him to death in front of the other 4th grade boys.

So off to Jo-Ann's today with my 40% and 50% coupons to buy some of these yummy Wilton silicone baking cups. Had to get square ones too because you never know what shape of dish you'll be using.

I already had these from Valentine's Day.


Oh, and while I was there, look at this neat silicone brownie pop tray. You put your brownie mixture in there, bake it and put sticks in them as soon as they come out of the oven. Then after they cool, you dip them in melted chocolate, into some non-perils or sprinkles and enjoy. Perfect, perfect for a school party.

They also have these in this flower shape. How cute? I need some more coupons.

eat this not that

Have you heard or seen this book? There are actually quite a few different editions of these books, one for restaurants, one for fast food, one for kids, one for people dieting. It is really neat. It tells you what options are better than what you currently might be consuming. The website is neat too. On the website you can see, for instance, the top 125 healthiest snack options at the grocery store.
It rates restaurants. Chick-fil-a for instance scores an A- while Baja Fresh scores a surprising D; PF Chang's scores a D- while Wendy's scored a B+. You read about hidden ingredients, not only fatty things but items with an incredible sugar content.

the smell is in the air

I love Country Living magazine. Here's a sneak peak of some wonderful pumpkins to get you in the mood. I'm so ready for fall. Boys are playing football, BB is getting ready for hockey league, Soph is in soccer. Although it's still fairly warm during the days, the nights are getting chilly, the grass is very dewy, and it's time to take out all my annuals and put in some mums. My favorite time of year.

do you bento?

Do you know what bento is? I sure didn't until about a year ago. My daughter, who is 6, got into trading stickers with her friends. Before I knew it I was hitting every Japanese store around here looking for the darling Japanese stickers and the oh so coveted water stickers [that's another story]. At the Japanese stores, I noticed all these cute boxes and holders for chopsticks and little tiny containers. Not being able to read Japanese, I couldn't tell what these little bottles were used for, I was thinking doll house stuff? Boy was I wrong. How could I not know those little bottles and tiny containers were for soy sauce or seaweed flakes.

So flash forward to school time meals. We have a fairly heavy Asian population in our little city, a pull from our Honda factories and The Ohio State University. So naturally, our schools would have a large Asian make-up, not just Japanese, but Chinese, Korean and Indian. I love to go to the school to help out during lunch time, but I really love sneaking a peek at the little Japanese girls lunchboxes or bentos. They are truly works of art. I'm sure they all think I'm some crazy American wanting to study their bento containers.

These pictures are from Adventures in Bentomaking. Aren't they just beautiful? Now has this inspired me to do this for myself or kids? Probably not. Packing three lunches in the morning is daunting enough, let alone taking the extra time to cut everything in perfect symmetry.

If this intrigues you, you can buy products from japan with love on etsy or their website. They have a section dedicted to all things bento.

Owl & Hedgehog Bedding at Target - WOW

This is from Target, but I feel it's a complete knock-off of the Pottery Barn owl collection from last year, read about it here. That is what Target is all about though, finding what sells and duplicating it. Have you ever felt the kids clothing looks like last year's Mini Boden? This line is very wallet friendly, very, very cute [although PBK is cuter IMO], but only comes in a twin size. I remember seeing an ad in a Sunday flyer last week and it had the wallies with trees and owls and hedgehogs. Read the reviews if you are interested.

It started with this ~

The bedding ~

the valance ~

the lamp [which is much cuter in person] ~

Brady Quinn

My kids love Brady Quinn. It's probably more the fact that Brady went to my kids' elementary school, and they will go to the same middle and high school that he did too. He is "God" in their eyes. Bear said to me last year at school during all the Brady hype "Brady Quinn might have walked right here where I'm walking." too cute.

So imagine my boys' delight when Brady appeared at our high school game last Friday. He caused quite a stir. We couldn't get close to him, they were keeping people back or it would have been a swarm. I only managed to snap a few photos, from far away.