Monday, October 24, 2011

Mia's 2nd Birthday or Quinceanera in Human Years

I've always said that for my dog's birthdays I would take cute photos of them but never get around to doing so. This time however, Mia turned 2 years old which is almost 15 in human years so I threw her a Quinceanera party.

I made her this cute dress by cutting down a child's dress.



She was so pretty. I'm surprised she let me put a bow in her hair. She usually goes wild and tears the bows out and rips up her dresses.

Family Group Photo 


 Mia 2 year, Eli 3 years, and I.


Then the guests started to arrive. Mia looked nervous.


At last we sang happy birthday and Mia got to eat her favorite beef and gravy flavored cake.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Gift Card Deal Pay $25 now, get $25 target and $50 restaurant.com gift cards

One more deal I forgot to mention. This is also on  www.eversave.com

You pay $25 and get 1 target gift card with a value of $25 plus you get a $50 restaurant.com gift card. The cards will be mailed to your house. Or if you cant wait for them to be mailed, the codes are posted on your eversave.com account immediately so you can print it out.

This deal ends in about 2 days.

If you buy stuff at Target anyways, why not pay $25 now and get the $50 restaurant.com card for free? This is how to stretch the value of each dollar. Your $25 investment now got you a free restaurant meal.

Great Deals for Christmas Presents

Now is the time of year to start looking for great deals on possible Christmas presents online. You must allow plenty of time for the item to ship to you, and extra time if something was wrong with it that you could return it and get it back in time.

So far I have found 2 awesome deals:

Deal #1 : One Kings Lane

www.onekingslane.com

Sign up as a first time user and they will give you a $15 credit towards your purchase. They have new sales every day so check them out as soon as they start so you can grab the cheaper items to make your total equal exactly $15. That means you get the items for free you just have to pay shipping. I got two 12 inch serving dishes and one divided glass appetizer platter for $0, I just had to pay $4.95 shipping. 




 Deal #2: Two AMC silver movie tickets for $13, plus get a $3 for being a new user on eversave.com. However, this $3 cant be used on this deal.

The ticket deal will only last for another 14 hours. So get yours asap. It will make for some great gifts especially if your doing secret Santa and have no idea what to get the person.


  If you know of any great deals going on please e-mail me at ladyme2blog@yahoo.com or post a comment.

Sunday, October 16, 2011

The Best Bread Recipe Ever

I have never been able to master making any type of bread from scratch. I've failed every time.  I found this recipe on www.allrecipes.com and it was amazing! If you check the reviews everyone raves about it and frequently mention that anyone can make this bread. The bread tastes kind of sweet and buttery.

Amish White Bread By Peg
Ingredients:
2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
2/3 cup white sugar
1 1/2 tbs active dry yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt 1/4 cup vegetable oil
6 cups bread flour

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/amish-white-bread/detail.aspx

Directions:

Start by mixing the warm water, sugar, and yeast. Stir thoroughly with a whisk. I let mine sit for 10 minutes until it got nice a foamy. If it does not get foamy then your yeast is not good and you need to start over again.


Then I added the salt and vegetable oil. Now start adding the flour one cup at a time. I used a whisk as long as I could, then I switched to a spatula, then finally I had to flip the dough out onto a floured counter top to add in the last few cups of flour by hand. 

Once all the flour has been added, knead the dough for about 5 minutes. Next, find a large bowl and coat the inside of it with some oil. Put the dough into the bowl, cover it with a kitchen towel, and let it rise for 2 hours. If it has risen properly, it should have doubled in size as shown in the photo below.


Once it has risen, dump the dough onto a counter top and knead it some more. You might have to add a little bit of flour because the dough collects moisture as it rises and becomes sticky. This recipe makes two loaves of bread so I divided my loaves into two. Then shape each piece of dough into logs.

I decided to decorate my loaf by cutting off about 1/4 of the dough and rolling it into 3 long pieces of rope. Then I braided the three pieces together. When I was done I attached the braid to the top of my loaf. This is just a decorative step and is not necessary.


Bake the loaf at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. I decided to brush my loaf with some butter so it would look nice and shiny. It tasted so good and was definitely worth making.  Enjoy!

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Who wants some FREE eyeshadow?

So I got 6 of them for free. I will keep one, and give away the other 5 to people who follow my blog.


So that I can verify that you are indeed the follower you claim to be, please comment anything to this posting.


Since I only have 5 items,  the first 2 people will get 2 colors of my choice sent to them, and the 3rd person will get 1.

Send your e-mail request to:   ladyme2blog@yahoo.com
With the following info:
1. Name of person to mail it to
2. Address you want me to mail it to. U.S.A. address only.
3. Your follower/blogger ID name



Make $5.16 couponing at Walmart, plus Best Deals This Week: Publix, CVS, & Walgreens

These are some of these best deals going around this week. I do not post about every single sale item in these stores but only the best ones that I believe are at rock bottom price. When an item is at its rock bottom price you should stock up on it like crazy. Unfortunately for me I only get 2 Sunday newspapers every week so I do not have a whole bunch of coupons to do these deals multiple times. But for my household of 2, its enough.

Publix: Deals end Tuesday October 11th or Wednesday October 12th depending on where you live

Dove Antiperspirant & Deodorant: Buy one get one free for $2.99. Find two $0.75 off one from the Redplum October 2nd edition, which drops the price to $1.49 for two deodorants. Make sure you pay attention to which Dove deodorants you pick up because the Ultimate ones are not buy one get one free. Why is this a good deal? As far as I have noticed since I began couponing in March 2011, deals on women's deodorants, shampoos, body wash, etc... are very rare. The men's version of these items are always on sale and always have tons of coupons. So stock up now.


CVS: Last day for this deal is Saturday October 15th 2011.

Sparkle 8 count paper towels: On sale for $4.99 this week, plus when you buy one you get back a $1 extra care buck. Find one coupon for $1 off 2 found in the October 9th Redplum insert. Grab two sets of Sparkle paper towels. The price is $9.98 - $1/2 = $8.98 for 16 paper towels. At the time you pay $8.98 out of pocket, but a $2 extra care buck will print out. So essentially the towels cost you $6.98 for 16 or $0.44 per roll. When I went in to buy mine, I had a $5 extra care buck from last week so I paid $3.98 for the two sets of paper towels.



Walgreens: Last day for this deal is October 31st 2011. This is an ongoing monthly special.

Cottonelle 12 pack of toilet paper: on sale for $5 each. The monthly ongoing deal is if you buy two of them, you will get a $3 register reward. Therefore you will need to but two of these. Plus find two $1 off 1 cottonelle coupon found in the Walgreens October coupon booklet (you can pick up near the flyers/newspaper racks), and use one on each pack. CAUTION make sure you grab the PURPLE ones, not the blue ones pictured below. It has been reported that the register reward will not print unless you buy the purple ones. It looks exactly like the one below but purple. Unfortunately when I went in the store I didn't know about this and I grabbed the blue ones. After I paid and no register reward printed I asked the manager and they had no clue what is going on. Since I could not remember where I heard about this deal, I just gave up and took the blue ones anyways because it was still a good deal. If you grab the right ones and use two $1 off 1, the price is $8 for both that you will pay out of pocket but a $3 register reward will print essentially making this $5 for both. That is $0.21 for each roll.


Walmart: Deal ends...I'm not sure.

This is a huge overage deal if done right. You will actually be making money for doing this which can be applied to other items you want to purchase at Walmart. In the proctor and gamble October 2nd 2011 insert, there were $8 off 2 Cover Girl Face Products coupons. I was lucky enough to have 3 of these inserts, so I had 3 of these coupons. That meant I would have to buy 6 Cover Girl items, which totaled no more than $24 and I could get it all for FREE. However, as I was looking at the Cover Girl products, I noticed the cheapest item available was some eyeshadow that was $3.14 each. So I bought 6 of them which amounted to $18.84. Once my coupons were applied, $18.84-$24 = -$5.16. Walmart actually owed my $5.16. They will give it to you as cash or they will apply it to another purchase. I decided to apply mine to some groceries. There might be a cheaper item at Publix. I think I saw some Cover Girl items for $2 and some cents. As far as I have researched, Publix will apply the overage to your cart of items but they will not give it back to you as cash.


By no means do I need anymore eyeshadow and I actually have no clue what to do with them. But it made me some money. That is why couponers should not throw away any coupon. You might find a money making deal on a product you thought to just throw the coupon away because its something you never buy or use. Many months ago I posted that I bought a pro biotic just because I made $2 off the transaction.


This is one of my Yorkshire Terrier pups. The puppies are 4 weeks old.    :)

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Homemade Wonton Soup

One of my favorite soups is wonton soup. Not only does it not require a lot of ingredients, but this recipe cooks up a huge batch that should last you a while. If you can, buy some sesame oil which adds a wonderful depth of flavor to this dish. Many times recipes call for fancy ingredients that honestly don't add much of anything in terms of flavor. But trust me, you will notice the sesame oil. Unfortunately I noticed I didn't have some, after I had started cooking. The cooking method below describes how to make the soup with the sesame oil.

Ingredients:
1 lb ground pork
1 package of wonton wrappers
2 carrots roughly chopped
1 large onion roughly chopped
1.5 tsp of Italian dried herb seasoning blend
1 tsp of garlic powder
2 tsp of soy sauce
1 tsp of sesame oil

For the soup:
64 oz total of chicken broth 
4 tablespoons of soy sauce
1 carrot sliced into circles

8 oz of mushrooms
2 tsp of Italian dried herb seasoning
1.5 tsp of garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Begin by adding the ground pork to a bowl. Mix in the garlic powder, soy sauce, sesame oil, and dried herbs. Set aside. Add the carrots and onion, (which you might want to roughly chop up depending on how good your food blender is) into your food processor or blender. For some odd reason I shredded my carrots before I put them in my food blender as seen in the photos. This was obviously a waste of time. Anyways, blend the ingredients until it creates a fine dip type of consistency. Add this to the ground pork and mix thoroughly.


Now we can begin making the wontons. I bought this type of wonton wrapper at my local Publix:


It doesn't say how many wontons there were, but my recipe used the whole packet. To stuff the wontons, I used a teaspoon to measure out 1 teaspoon worth of meat mix. Place this onto the center of the wrapper. I then dipped my finger tips in some water which I had in a small cup, and wet all the edges of the wrapper. This will help create a better seal. Then I folded the wrapper over to create a triangle shape. I pinched the middle corner of the triangle first, and then pinched my way around the whole wrapper. Once the triangle is completely sealed, I grabbed the outer two corners of the triangle and brought them together, pinching the two corners together to create the wonton shape.


Now I started working on the soup. First add all the chicken broth. Then add enough water to fill your pot about 1/3 from the rim. Next, add the sliced mushrooms, sliced carrot, soy sauce, garlic powder, and Italian dried herbs. Taste the liquid. If it does not have the flavor to your liking, add some salt and pepper. Once the liquid is boiling add the wontons into the soup one at a time. Cook for 30 minutes. By this time all the wontons should have floated to the surface meaning they are done.


You probably notice a Yorkshire Terrier face under the sliced carrots picture above. That was a wonderful Yorkshire Terrier printed glass cutting board John gave to my hubby Branden. Thanks so much John. I adore it.

Enjoy!

Sunday, October 2, 2011

AWESOME Dove Hair Products Deal and FREE Toothbrushes and Floss at CVS this Week

I know it has been a long time (I'm having lots of computer access and photo card reader problems), but I had to post about this deal. So CVS has several Dove hair care products on sale 2 for $6. When you buy $15 worth of Dove hair care products you get a $5 extra care buck reward. For this to work you need to get the following coupons:

3- buy one get one free Dove hair care products coupons found in the Red Plum insert for today October 2nd 2011

3- $0.75/1 Dove hair care product printable which can be found on  coupons.com when you search under the personal care section. It looks like this:

You can print two of these from each computer. I used my home and work computer so I got a total of 4 coupons. Just search for it again or hit the back button to print a second time.


Once you have the coupons, go to CVS as soon as possible because they will be out of stock very quickly, and grab 6 total Dove hair care items that are under the 2 for $6 deal. I grabbed 3 shampoos and 3 conditioners. Once everything is done the transaction works like this:

6 Dove hair care products, 2/$6 = $18 plus applicable taxes.
                                                       - (3) Buy one get on free coupons
                                                       - (3) $0.75 cents off
                You pay out of pocket    = $6.75, and get a $5 extra care buck to be used on a future purchase. With the extra care buck the total comes to $1.75 (plus whatever taxes you had to pay) for 6 Dove products! When ever I see deals like this on shampoo and conditioner for women I go all out because it is a very rare thing. The men's stuff is always on sale.

***Also at CVS there is a nice deal on floss and toothbrushes.*** I did the following transaction:

Get 2 Oral B Complete Floss 55 yards (can be the "satin" kind) which is on sale 2 for $6 plus get a $2 extra care buck when purchased
Get 1 Reach Toothbrush 2pk which is on sale for $3.99 plus get $2 extra care buck when purchased

Find these coupons and use when checking out:

2- $2 off Crest Complete toothpaste, Scope Dual Blast rinse, or Oral-B Complete floss or toothbrush coupons found in the Smart Source of September 11th 2011.

1- $2 off Reach toothbrush, excl Crystal Clean printable coupon found by clicking here. Scroll to the bottom and click on the "click to get $2 off " green button.




The final transaction turns out like this:


2 Oral B Floss 2 for $6 and 1 Reach toothbrush 2pk $3.99 = $9.99
                                                                                             - (2) $2 off the floss
                                                                                             - (1) $2 off the tooth brushes
                                                              You pay out of pocket = $3.99 plus taxes, but you get back two $2 extra care bucks which amounts to $4. So in the end its all FREE. 


I do not look at the extra care bucks as a "discount" but more as a way to stretch the buying power of my money. I get more stuff for the same amount of money.


These deals end October 8th 2011.