My Samantha

24 years ago today... it was snowing. How do I remember that? It was the day I gave birth to my one and only child. The love of my life. My Samantha Jo. Not only my daughter, but also the mom of my two grandsons, Ethan and Evan. Thanks Sammi Jo for making me mom, and a granny :-) I sure do love you :-)

Kroger Savings 12-31-10

Thank goodness I remembered today was 12-31-2010. My coupon organizer was full of Cs that expired today, and when I realized I needed to scan through to see if there were any that matched up with my Kroger ad, well, it was actually last night around 11 p.m. I got to bed at 1:30 after going through a couple hundred Cs, then loading several eCoupons onto my Kroger card.

I got to Kroger this morning earlier than I usually do, and there were only about 10 people in the entire store! Yeah for me! No distractions, no crowd = fun shopping experience (if there is such a thing).

I went in with a plan to only purchase non-grocery consumables that were on sale this week. I had coupons for everything on my list, as well as two coupons for free items. Above is the photo of this trip and here's the breakdown and what I paid (after coupons):

12 double rolls Charmin Ultra Soft - $2.49

Bounty 8 roll pack - $4.49

Duracell batteries 8 pack - $2.49

Pampers 70 count - $16.99

Pampers Thick Care wipes - FREE (with purchase of Pampers)

Febreeze Air Effects - they paid me .21 cents to take this so it was better than free

Dawn - .19 cents

Bounce dryer sheets 120 count - $2.99

Always liners 100 count - $2.49

Tampax 50 count - $2.49

Olay body wash - .99 cents

Olay hand lotion - FREE (with purchase of Olay wash)

Secret - .29 cents

Crest 6 ounce with Scope - .50 cents

4 Old Spice deoderent - $3.16

I somehow paid $4.00 less on my total than I expected and the only thing I can figure out is I must have had a few eCoupons loaded that I didn't factor in.

My grand total was $35.05 plus tax!

My Studio

Who needs a formal living room anyway? I'd rather have a place to sew, and that's what I got when we moved into our home five years ago. Here's where I go to dream, play and create. My little oasis.

My worktable was inspired by a friend's window treatment worktable. Hubby found a huge, solid wood table at a hardware store that was heading for the storage shed. He thought of me and my love of all tables big, and asked if they would sell it. A few days later we loaded it on the trailer and brought it home. This photo may be a little deceiving as this table is 5 feet wide by 8 feet long! It almost didn't fit in our front door. We actually had to saw quite a bit off the legs to get it in! It's over waist high, which is just the perfect height. I can reach more than half-way across, so I can use every inch of it. I ordered commercial grade, worktable padding and canvas for the top, and added an inch of black insulation board to the layers so I can pin directly into the table. Talk about a dream. It makes any project more fun. Plus there's lots and lots of storage underneath. Pardon my wrinkly yellow fabric on the sides... it was the biggest piece of yardage I had on hand that I was willing to staple around the table. It's just intended to hide the mess underneath! I'll show you that later...

Here's my new Brother Duetta sewing and embroidery machine! I've spent the last two days getting to know her, and I'm not the least bit disappointed. Amazing machine!

My crazy big collection of sewing and quilting books in on the left. Patterns, etc., are across the room....

My goal is to fit every single piece of fabric I own into this room. I have the two bookcases on the right filled to capacity, 1/2 of the two bookcases on the left filled (the top half of those bookcases is filled with notions and patterns), and I still have, lets just say, quite a few more yards downstairs. I would actually love to fit anything and everything that I own craft-wise in this room at some point. I will admit that I have too much.

Until a few weeks ago, this room contained a large train table. If you have young sons or grandsons, you likely know what this is. I finally managed to wrangle it downstairs into the extra bedroom, which my grandsons now call their "toy room". Yeah for Granny!

Here's a peek under the big table... notice there's still a little free space on the right... I try not to get too excited about this as I know it will not last for long.

My studio spills over into my dining room - - thank goodness we can eat in our kitchen. In the five years we've lived here, I've used the dining room for eating twice. It is generally the home for my serger, and my Quilt-Cut (another of my favorite things), and they really do get more use if they stay out in the open. Storing a serger just isn't any fun at all.

Now I know you're wondering if my studio stays this neat all the time. While I'd like to say "oh, sure!", you probably know that isn't true :-) If there's a mess in there, it means I am actually getting to sew!