DIY The Life

DIY Burlap Christmas Tree Skirt

Posted on December 18, 2015

DIYSKIRT

Hi everyone!  I just wanted to share a fun DIY to add a little something extra to your Christmas decor.  I actually made this burlap tree skirt a couple of Christmas’s ago and never got around to sharing how easy it is!

I used my existing tree skirt as a base which helped a ton.   That way I didn’t have to guess and measure how big I wanted the skirt.   Also, our older skirt was padded and it added a nice under-layer for the burlap skirt.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Tree skirt (for a base)

Ivory fabric (felt, fleece, whatever you can find on sale)

Burlap

Hot glue gun + Glue

Lay out the ivory fabric and place the old tree skirt on top.  (FYI this will ruin the old skirt since we will be gluing the 2 together).  Trace a circle following the guide of the old skirt onto the ivory fabric leaving about an inch of overhang for the ivory.  Once it is traced, cut along the line so you have 2 circles, the old skirt and the new piece of fabric.

Using the hot glue gun, glue the old skirt to the new fabric.

Take the burlap and cut it into 3″ wide strips.  You are going to start lining the ivory fabric with burlap from the outside of the tree skirt and work your way into the center.   The ivory fabric will help if there are any spots that you can see through the burlap and it will serve as a layer to blend the colors.  That worked especially good in my case since the old skirt I used was red.

You are going to hot glue the burlap down in the strips.  Glue a few inches and then fold the burlap creating a ruffle, glue that piece down.  Then glue another few inches and keep ruffling.  Layer each row with an inch overlap to create a full look.

Once you get to the center you’re all done!  I was even able to use the old tree skirt buttons to hook my new skirt closed once I placed it around the tree.

This was a super easy project that took only a couple of hours!  And because all I had to purchase the fabric, it cost under $10!

Hope you are having a fun, festive December!

XO Danielle

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The Life

The Results of our $100 Grocery Budget Challenge

Posted on December 10, 2015

finalgrocerynormal

Ok, Ok!  I haven’t forgotten to post the final results from our November $100.00 budget grocery challenge, it’s just that we got so busy!  And maybe I came in over budget and didn’t want to tell.  If you are reading about the challenge for the first time, you can check out all the details here.

So week 2 I didn’t shop AT ALL!  I had enough milk + eggs (those seem to run out first in our house) to last from that week 1 trip to Costco.  I literally grabbed an onion one night to make fajitas and we survived without going to the store all week.

So Week 2:

ONION: $.59

Total: $57.75

Leaving me with a total of $42.25 for 16 days including Thanksgiving.

That’s when I panicked.  I decided to give myself an extra $50.00 to buy food for Thanksgiving and so we wouldn’t have an empty fridge when our family came to visit 🙂

I decided on a less is more Thanksgiving.  I usually like to make lots of appetizers to pick on.  Then we have my favorite butternut squash soup.  By the time the meal is served everyone is already so stuffed.  This year I decided not to make the soup.  Or salad.  And to snack on we just had cheese and crackers, bread, pesto and hummus.  And you know what?  It was more then enough.  We still had so much food to eat and tons of food leftover.

Here’s my shopping list totals after shopping Week 3

Butterball Turkey $.99/lb    18.6lbs = $18.41

Sabra hummus $3.99 BOGO + There was $1/1 coupons!  4 hummus = $4.00

Celery $.49

Onion bag $1.99

Apple bag $1.99

Potatoes (white) $1.89

Potatoes (sweet) $1.63

Butternut squash $2.19

Lemons 3/$1 = $1.00

Limes 5/$1 = $1.00

Carrots $.99

Baby brussel sprouts $2.99

Chicken broth BOGO $2.29   Bought 2 = $2.29

Pepperidge Farm Stuffing $2.00

Green beans $2.50

French’s onions $2.99 (couldn’t live without those costly suckers)

Milk 2@ $3.29 = $6.58

Pita bread $1.99

Wheat Bread $1.99

Kraft cheddar and jack cheeses 2/$5 = $5.00

Ritz crackers $3.79 BOGO + $1/1 coupons  Bought 4 boxes = $.90 each/ $3.60

Bruce’s Yams $2.69

Butter 2/$6.00 = $6.00

Grands biscuits $1.00

Napkins BOGO $2.29  Bought 4 packs $4.58

Dawn dishsoap 2/$5 = $2.50

$84.28

Well, the shopping for Thanksgiving was over my planned $50.00 but that’s ok.  Gigi picked up all the dessert fixings and my in-laws graciously brought plenty of wine 🙂  Another big thing that saved my budget for the Thanksgiving holiday was not to make huge side dishes.  Usually I would have doubled the amount of green bean casserole and sweet potato casserole that I made.  This year I just did single recipes of all of it.  And you know what?  We still had tons of leftovers.  To think that I usually spend double and then end up throwing the leftovers out after we eat them all weekend is just like throwing money in the garbage.

Even with budgeting for the Holiday I was able to put out a big plate of snacks to pick on before dinner and a whole feast.  We had turkey, and my father in law’s delicious gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, roasted brussel sprout, green bean casserole, roasted butternut squash and apples, and stuffing.  I mean what else could we have needed??

After that trip to the store my total was at $142.03 EEK!  It was only 11/25!  I still had 5 days left.

My last trip was super simple.  I wanted to freeze a couple of pot pies (See photo below) with the leftover turkey breast and we needed milk.  We always need milk in this house 🙂  PS Pot pies is a great way to utilize leftover turkey and roast chicken.  Especially when everyone gets sick of eating the leftovers.  I just assembled the pot pies really quick and froze them.  We ate one the week after Thanksgiving and we still have another for a different day.

Last shopping trip of the budget!

Frozen mixed vegetables: $1.99

Milk: $3.29

Eggs: $4.65  (eggs are so super expensive)

Pie Crusts: $2.69/pack.  2 packages: = $5.38

Total $15.31

GRAND TOTAL!

$157.34

Ahhhh!  I went over.  But overall I’m super happy with the challenge results.  It was hard!  Really, really hard!  And to be honest, I’m sick of sending peanut butter and jelly to school for lunch everyday.  But that’s what worked in the budget.  I have always been a frugal shopped in the grocery store, but even I learned a few things this month.

Shop sales

Utilize leftovers (pot pies!)

Save produce.  A big trick of mine is when I don’t think I am going to use the produce that I usually overbuy, I chop it all up and roast it.  Toss it all in some olive oil and S+P and you have given it a whole new life!

Don’t shop hungry

Buy in bulk when the sale is good.  Did you notice I bought 4 packs of napkins one trip?  Well the napkins were BOGO and we were running low.  So I stocked up when the price was the best.  And you know what?  I likely won’t need to buy any more packages for 6-8 weeks.

Did you challenge yourself to a grocery budget this month?  Try it!  Let me know how it goes!!  I hope you learned something, even if all you got from this was that I serve bruce’s canned yams at Thanksgiving.  Ha!  They are just so yummy, I’m not ashamed!  If you have any tips or comments I’d love to hear them!!

XO Danielle

I love to connect with my readers on social media, so feel free to share this with a friend, and find me on Instagram and Facebook.

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The Life

It’s been a year.

Posted on December 7, 2015

I can’t believe it’s already been a year dad.  An entire year since I’ve heard your voice.  A voice so deep it was like you were growling through the other end of the telephone when we spoke.  And when you were in a good mood it would rise.  Octaves higher as you shouted my name in delight when I answered the phone.  It’s been a whole year since I’ve heard that voice.
My voicemail is full.  Still full of messages from you.  I can’t listen.  I haven’t opened not one this whole year.  Maybe soon but I make no promises.
When I make the kids American cheese omelettes I think of you.  I cook the eggs until the edges brown and watch as the cheese melts in a way that only a slice of processed cheese can melt.  And I think of you the entire time.  Did you like American cheese omelettes?  I don’t remember.  But the way I can’t stop thinking about you each time I cook one makes my heart think you must have.  I wish I could make you one now.  They really are delicious.
I don’t talk about you.  Not to mom.  Or Mike.  Or even my sisters.  I don’t know what I would say.  So it’s almost like it never happened.  Maybe if we don’t talk about it we can pretend that it didn’t.  That you’ve just been too busy to call.  I’m scared of what will happen if I open my mouth and your name comes out.  I’m scared of all the things that I might say or feel.  So I don’t.  Maybe it will get easier.
I kiss my kids everyday.  I constantly tell them that I love them.  I know how much you loved me but I didn’t get to hear it enough.  I didn’t get a kiss on the head every night from you.  Didn’t hear you say I love you as I left in the morning to meet my friends at school.  I wish I could have heard you say it more.
I turned thirty this summer.  For the first time in years I didn’t jump every time the phone rang that day.  In hopes that it would be you calling to sing happy birthday through the telephone.   In hopes that you wouldn’t forget what day it was, leaving me at midnight wondering where you were.  This year I didn’t jump when the phone rang at all.  I knew you wouldn’t be on the other line.  I knew I wouldn’t hear your voice.  Singing me that silly song.   I’ll never hear you sing it again.
So that’s it I suppose.  I try not to think of you too much but you are always on my mind.  And that’s ok.  Its like I get to have a part of you around all the time now.   I miss you terribly and I pray you are resting peacefully.
DJ

 

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The Life

My 2 wedding bands.

Posted on December 3, 2015

wedding

I feel blessed to have two wedding bands.  The first of the two is a thin band.  With a small row of diamonds.  Mike gave it to me after we had been dating for 4 years.  A year after that he proposed.  And when we went to the courthouse to become husband and wife 5 years ago he slid that band onto my left ring finger.  It was the same band that we said our vows again with exactly one year later during our wedding reception in front of everyone we loved.

As for Mike’s wedding band?  We got it at Macy’s and I remember trying to get it for the best price.  I believe we paid $150 for it.  It’s not gold.  There are no diamonds.  It is simply a band.  That is meaning enough for him.

A few years later I was shocked to see my second wedding band hanging from a branch on our Christmas tree.  My dream ring.  And so my first band got pushed back into my drawer and I proudly wore my upgraded band with a gigantic smile on my face.

5 years of marriage and the ring we got Mike from Macy’s is dented and scratched.  His band shows every bit of the past 5 years.  Every 12 hour day he works.  Every fight and disagreement.  The birth of our 2 beautiful kids.  It’s proof that marriage is hard.  But my husband wears that ring proudly every day because he knows that our marriage is worth it.

When you look at our hands next to each other it is an exact replication of our lives.  He works incredibly hard for our family.  When I got laid off this summer and I cried that I needed a job he told me I had one.  He told me that I was finally going to get to stay home with my kids and that was the hardest job in the world.  And when he comes home from a 12 hour day and the house is still a mess and I didn’t make dinner he just sits and sips his bourbon and listens to me ramble on about how hard my day was.

He is the best kind of man and I am lucky to call him my husband.  So today, as we celebrate 5 years, I will wear band number one.  Because that’s how our love story started.  Just like my 2 wedding bands, he is my past and he is my future.  I couldn’t be any luckier.

XO Danielle

I love to connect with my readers on social media, so feel free to share this with a friend, and find me on Instagram and Facebook.