My Top 5 Christmas Shopping Ideas For Kiddos!!

So with Thanksgiving and Christmas so very close together I've stared my shopping early and thankfully I'm just about done.:)
I wanted to share with you just our Top 5 places we like to shop for our kiddos.
If' you have been with me long you know how much that I love Good Will and Salvation Army ( Sally's as my family calls it!)  so you know that there will be other cool places like that on my list!
So on with my list. :)

1.  Your Local "Facebook" Garage Sale, Buy Sell Trade Page.
   Just look for it you'll find it. we have 6 for our area!

 I have bought 3 or 4 gifts for the kids this year on there for about 1/4 of the price of the store.   and you know that they don't care if its not brand new. it's already out of the package and ready to play with! :)

    2. Good Will and Sally's .
Again you have gently used clothing and great toys, just double check if your buying games that all the pieces are there!


    3. Garage Sales.

 It's kinda late this year for this one, but I love shopping all summer long for great gifts, and again for about 1/2 to 1/4 of the price of the store for " Like new" things.

   
    4.Christian Book Distributers
I love that I can find great God Centered books and Toys Here as well!

 

    5. Vision Forum
We have bought a few Birthday gifts as well as Christmas gifts here. we love that they have REAL boy toys. like sling shots and play guns. They also have a great staff that was very helpful as well!


Ok I can't just stop with 5. I need to do just one more! :)


   6. Itsy!!!!

 I love, love, love all the cool stuff that you can find on there, I love the kids pages you can go here to see it! But you can also find neat stuff for YOU from the Kiddos ;) .  You can go here to find that too!



So there you have it! and now you know my secrets to where most of our kiddos gifts come from. :)
I may post about Adult gifts this week and the fun of finding a great deal to give as gifts too!

Have a wonderful day !!! I'm off to get life going in our Little home. that includes starting a fire, cause my fingers are about to fall off from being so cold! :)

Blessings,
Carra

     

What Have I been up to?

This week has been full of little projects. Like... going through tubs of kids clothes in the basement to sell on our Garage Sale site. making cloth napkins, and who can for get laundry!

But I think my most favorite project of all was this one.

Here's my little story to go with it.

 

I love Pottery Barn Kids Quilts, I have for years, not so much for the name. but the quality of the quilts themselves. I had been watch this adorable set for a while now for the boys room. but I could never bring myself to spend $99. each for them.

 

I just love it.!

This weekend I got to go Garage Sales in a town nearby.  And guess what I found?  This adorable Queen size quilt for only $8. I originally bought it for Jon and I's bed. but after getting it home I didn't just " Love It " like I thought that I would.

 

So guess what ???? It got a make over and a new home.  The Boys Beds!

So I Cute it up the center and rolled down the two sides and pined it.

 

And  30 min later...there you have it!!! I love it.

 I never would have thought that I would like as much as the Pottery Barn ones. but you know what I DO! It's just what we needed to and all for $8. I'm going to make them some fun pillows out of the shams that came with in the near future. :)
So I guess the Thrifty side of me came out again. I can't help but praise the Lord for a good deal, and for a fun project for our boys. They just loved it. the back side is really soft. and Aiden loves that. :)
So there's my Quilt story for ya!

What have you been up to this week? I'd love to hear form you. :)
I'll try and post tomorrow about the cloth napkins that I got finished as well.
I'm starting a new journey for our family towards being a " Paper Free" Home. and I'll post on that in the very near future.

Till me meet again, Have a blessed day!

Carra

Thrifty Thursday!

I thought it would be fun to start up something new with this being the first week in May!
Thrifty Thursday!!!
Just a fun post on how to be thrifty. It may be shopping, cleaning, time or caring for my precious family I feel a burden to use them each for the Lord wisely. and I have to say, I just love a good deal when I'm shopping!
So for our very first post I'm going to use one that I just love, and use it often.

Freezing Cookie Dough!!!!

We all love the smell of fresh cookies baking in the oven, but with 4 little ones under foot I don't always have the time or the energy to bake cookies once a week, so I've started making a double batch and baking half of it, and then freezing the last batch in balls and when the kids ask for cookies I can slip some into the oven and in just a few minuets have yummy warm cookies for them!

It's been nice to for those times when friends stop by unexpectedly and I have nothing fresh in the house to offer with tea, to just stick them in and there ready in a few, and the house smells yummy too! 

So all you do is Make your family favorite's and  flash freeze them for a few hours. bag them up in a freezer zip lock and write the name on the bag and the temp to bake them at, with the time (add 2 minuets to the baking time because of being frozen)  and your set!   

I try to have ours lay flat in the freezer, but if space is an issue for you don't worry about it, but make sure their good and frozen before you bag them up!

I'm thinking of doing a  "Thrifty Thursday " link up. what would you think???

For this week if you have a blog post about saving 4 or being thrifty that you'd like to share with each other, just leave it in a comment below. and we'll hop over that way for this week. we'll see what next week holds. 

Be on the look out for our next DoTERRA Essential Oil giveaway here in the next few days.

Have a great day!!!

Blessings,
Carra

Hubby surprised me with a Button for our blog the other day!!! I was soooooo excited, and just smitten with him. :) I'd love for you to grab it! ( you can find it over on the right)

Dusting Rags!

Lemon Dusting Rags!


I try to avoid using chemical cleaners if possible.
I'm trying to get everything in our cleaning box to be safe to use and wouldn't kill our kiddo's if they were to accidentally get it. Baking Soda, Vinegar, and Lemon go a long way!

These lemon dust cloths take just minutes to prepare and can be stored in an airtight jar until you're ready to use them. Sometimes dusting with a dry cloth does more harm then good as it moves the dirt around instead of catching it. These cloths are damp and infused with vinegar to help catch and kill the bugs at the same time. The addition of olive oil and lemon rind bring a soft polish to your furniture.
 You'll need six things:

1 cup vinegar

1 cup water

1 tsp olive oil

1 lemon rind

2 dust rags

1 glass jar with lid


Mix the vinegar, water, and olive oil together. Soak the rags in the solution. Ring out until damp-dry. Alternate rinds with rags inside your jar and seal the lid tightly.
Blessings,
Happy cleaning!!!


Do you have any natural cleaning solutions to share? I'd love to hear some new ideas!!!

Money saving tips!!!

This morning I don't have lots of time to share so I thought I'd do 3 little post of things that we we around our home to save $.
 Some of them are tried and tested, and some I'm yet to try. but that I heard from friends that work well and can't wait to try!!!

1. Vinegar Dishwasher rinse. Love it!!

If you’ve been wanting a way to cut costs on dishwasher rinse aid… here’s a great frugal alternative:
White Vinegar!
That’s it! Rather than using expensive rinse agents, simply fill your rinse aid dispenser with white vinegar. Vinegar does a great job at removing spots and disinfecting, too!

2. Yummy smelling house. Love it!
 Essential oils can be dabbed onto a cotton ball and tucked around the house. I use different scents for different seasons, like Lemongrass and Grapefruit… or Orange.”

 When it's dry in our house because of the wood stove I add a few drops of oil to our vaporizer!

3.Homemade Glass Cleaner  (yet to try!)

1 cup Water
1/4 cup White Vinegar
2 to 3 drops Dawn Dish Soap
Empty Spray Bottle

Combine water, white vinegar, and dawn dish soap in an empty spray bottle, and… that’s it! You’ve just made Homemade Glass Cleaner!



Well I'm off to get my hungry Crew some breakfast!
Blessings!

Homemade dry Laundry soap!!!

Dry Homemade Laundry Detergent

Some of you have been asking about what Laundry soap I make so I thought I'd re post this for ya!
Now that I've used it for long time now, I can say that I would rather use this recipe rather then my liquid. only because it really gets the  stains out of the kiddo's clothes without needing a pretreater, so that saves me a few minuets in my day, and thats a HUGE pulse for me! and too I also like the smell of the Fels. so clean and fresh!
Also it makes a much smaller recipe then my other kind, so that helps out there to with wondering where to store it!!
So next time your wash room looks a bit like " Mt. Washmore" give this new recipe a try, you just might like it!

Homemade Laundry Detergent Recipe
2 bars Fels-Naptha laundry soap
4 cups Arm and Hammer washing soda
4 cups Borax
2 cups Oxyclean
In a large bowl mix together the washing soda, Borax, and the Oxyclean. Grate the Fels-Naptha (a food processor makes this part much easier). Combine the grated soap into the dry mixture and combine thoroughly. Place in container with a small scoop. I just used the oxyclean scoop!
 1 scoop for each load, or 2 TBS. of you choose to use a different scoop!

2 TBS per load for toploader

1/2 TBS per load for front loader


If I have a load that I know has some set stains, I will fill my washer and let it set over night with the load, and in the morning " No More Stains" gatta love that! :)

Blessings!!!

Money Saving tip!!

This week I'm working lots and lots in the basement trying to get everything ready for 'lil Man" to arrive so that I don't need to be down there much when he arrives. And let me give you a little tour of our basement.
It's where I have all our tubs of the kids clothes for the next season and sizes, canning shelves, extra groceries, our washer and drier, as well as our wood stove that heats our home in these cold winter days! But to be honest it's a MESS!! with Christmas and things, everything that I didn't want to look at got stuck down there. and so I'm trying to get it all in order this week!
With making our own laundry soap, I've been trying to find a recipe for homemade " good for you"  fabric softener and just haven't found any that I really like. I use white Vinegar for our cloth diapers and have used that a few times, but I want that yummy smell that goes with it too!
And by mistake (a HUGE mess)  I found this recipe a few weeks ago and I really like it!

Take your favorite liquid fabric softener and soak an old hand towel and wet it completely with the softener. Wring it out and let it dry completely, then throw it in with your next load.  It will help to stretching out softener use. In other words, save money. 
 I used it on Lanna's quilt a few weeks ago and her room still smells yummy and fresh!!!

Have a great day!!!
Blessings!!!

New for 2012!!

Happy New Year!!!! I pray that the Lord blessed you with a great end to "2011" and and even more blessed start to the new year!!!

I've been praying about the future of our little blog and where to take it this year. the Lord has led me to share with you where I am in this season of life that He has my in right now, and Boy! it sure is a busy one!!!

Even though it's busy and sometimes I feel like it's more then I can handle. but by God's grace I make it :)

So with sharing about what the Lord using in our home to mold and make us into His image I'll be sharing a lot about...

 Loving God's Word, Becoming a Proverbs 31 Woman,  Serving My husband,

 Money Saving $ Tips, Raising Children, Organizing and Giveaways,(cause we all love giveaways!!!)

And with baby #4 to arrive in April I'm not sure how much I'll be blogging in April so I'll try and get a few things going before he arrives.

So with all that said here is my first Money Saving tip for 2012!!

Freezing Cookie Dough!!!!

We all love the smell of fresh cookies baking in the oven, but with 3 little ones under foot I don't always have the time or the energy to bake cookies once a week, so I've started making a double batch and baking half of it, and then freezing the last batch in balls and when the kids ask for cookies I can slip some into the oven and in just a few minuets have yummy warm cookies for them!

It's been nice to for those times when friends stop by unexpectedly and I have nothing fresh in the house to offer with tea, to just stick them in and there ready in a few, and the house smells yummy too!

So all you do is Make your family favorite's and  flash freeze them for a few hours. bag them up in a freezer zip lock and write the name on the bag and the temp to bake them at, with the time (add 2 minuets to the baking time because of being frozen)  and your set!   

I try to have ours lay flat in the freezer, but if space is an issue for you don't worry about it, but make sure their good and frozen before you bag them up!

And when your ready!!

Happy Baking!!!!



Dry Laundry Detergent

I'm at it again, I'm was in scarch of a new laundry soap that was in dry form and here it is.
I can say that I would rather use this recipe rather then my liquid. only because it really gets the light stains out of Aiden's clothes from his baby food without needing a pretreater! and I like the smell of the Fels. so clean and fresh!
Also it makes a much smaller recipe then my other kind, so that helps out there too!
So next time your wash room looks a bit like " Mt. Washmore" give this new recipe a try, you just might like it!

Homemade Laundry Detergent Recipe
2 bars Fels-Naptha laundry soap
4 cups Arm and Hammer washing soda
4 cups Borax
2 cups Oxyclean

In a large bowl mix together the washing soda, Borax, and the Oxyclean. Grate the Fels-Naptha (a food processor makes this part much easier). Combine the grated soap into the dry mixture and combine thoroughly. Place in container with a small scoop. I just used the oxyclean scoop!
and 1 scoop to warm water!

Home Made Laundry Soap!!!

A few weeks ago we had a Ladies luncheon at church, it was such a great time of sharing and great "Lady Like" yummy yummy food!
One of the ladies shared how she makes and uses homemade laundry soap for her family, She went on to talk about how it's just about $.20 a gallon to make it. Yep!!! you read right $.20 a gallon to make it!!!!!
When she said that I was in. I was ready to make it.
Any way that I can save $$$$ is so exciting to me. I love that if we can save more on everyday life stuff, the more $$$$ we have to giveaway for His Glory.
Any way, so we planned that day to get together that next week and make it.
We had a ball. we each made some kinda of bread to snack on and got together. it was so much fun and Soooo easy to do. and the bread each of us made was so yummy!



I'm not going to go into detail about how we did it. but if your interested in it, leave me a commit and I can email the info to you!

So here is all you need to make it. and then just add water!

The beginning!

I've been using it for about 2 weeks now and really like it.
Aiden has really sensitive skin and it's working with him, so that again is saving us lots of $$$$ on not having to buy baby detergent.

Oh so fun!!! We had a great day of fun and encouragement while saving $$$$. and my heart was so blessed just to be with other Moms and Grandmas who love the Lord and want to bless their families.


Like I said earlier, if your interested in making your own , leave me a commit and I can email the info and recipe to you!

Blessings!