A Princess Room - Finished!!!!

Last weekend, I began the arduous task of shoveling cleaning out the Princess's bedroom while she was out of town. It took me the FULL week, but at 11 p.m. Friday night, I finally completed it. Her room is very small, her closet teensy, and its very dark (the girl totally likes to sleep in on the weekends and a darkish room helps with that). The room presented several problems: too much stuff, not enough storage and not enough money to buy new storage stuff, so I had to go with what I had on hand.

I wish I had thought to take a "before" picture, when you couldn't even walk through it, but here are a couple of "during" (warning! these could cause nightmares!):

And 7 days, 4 garbage bags, 2 boxes of donations, and 6 boxes of stuff for us to sort through together, we have:

(I had to repair the seat cushion above, the ties had totally ripped off. My sewing skills are less than stellar, but fortunately you can't really see how bad the job is,and they are at least holding!)

(Yes that is a jillion times larger than life picture of Kellan Lutz from Twilight, at least its a PRETTY picture to have to look at all the time --- ha!)

So there you have it, a full week's worth of work. I'm just hoping she can keep it looking the way it does now. It won't be pretty if she can't!!!!!!!!

Linking up at :I'm An Organizing Junkie

In A Time Crunch

Last weekend, I started cleaning out the Princess's room while she is gone to Disney World with her Dad. Here we are, 7 days later, and I'm not finished yet. This was a HUGE undertaking --- who knew that a 17 year old could cram so much stuff into such a small room?

I worked diligently throughout last weekend. I put in several hours on Monday night. Tuesday night, I had meeting and didn't get home until close to 9 so nothing then. Wednesday night, I put in some more time. Last night, I went to Zumba after work and was exhausted by the time I got home, so nothing last night either.

Problem is, she comes home TOMORROW. I've got tonight and tomorrow morning to finish this up or the princess will come home to a room still torn to shreds! I'm down to the reorganizing the clothes and the last bit of "stuff" that is laying on the bed and then a final sweep and mop. I've been dusting and sweeping as I go, but will still need to do a final hit on all surfaces.

I'm hoping that with everything in its place and a place for everything she will not only keep it in order, but it will also make things easier when it is time to pack her up to go off to college. One can hope, I suppose!!!!

Wish me luck! I've got a deadline to meet!!!!

Viva Italian Days! Publix Shopping

This week's shopping was a doozy. I had a plan in place, but I quickly adjusted it on the fly when I got into the store and the Publix Store Coupons were all over the place, meaning quite a few items were definitely down to my "buy it now" price. I think this is the longest it has taken me in the grocery store in quite a while, but it was definitely worth it. Here is what I got:

1 Purex Laundry Detergent
2 Smart Balance Spreads
3 Green Giant Frozen Vegetables
2 International Delight Coffee Creamers
10 Betty Crocker Fruit Snacks
2 Tyson Chicken
1 Progresso Panko Bread Crumbs
3 Progresso Chicken Broth
1 Lucky Charms Breakfast Bar
1 Nature Made Fish Oil Capsules
4 Green Giant Canned Vegetables
1 Sundown Adult Multi Vitamin
2 Kraft Shredded Mozzerella
4 Pedigree Dentastix
1 Quaker Oatmeal
4 Hefty One Zip Freezer Bags
1 Muellers Whole Grain Spaghetti
3 Zatarains Rice Mix
4 Ramen Noodles
3 Hunt's Tomatoes
1 Gatorade
Bananas
Fresh Express Salad Mix
2 Kraft Chunk Cheese

When I got to the checkout I was a little nervous looking at my cart as it was close to overflowing:

I hadn't had a cart that full in quite some time and I was hoping I hadn't just sent by budget to squawking! Fortunately, though it came in better than I thought:

Spent: $82.93
Saved: $95.94 or 54%--- and while most of those savings were due to the really great sale prices this week, a full $26 of that was just coupons.

No Long Weekend For Me. Sigh.

While many are off of work or school today for Presidents Day, I'm up and getting ready to go to work. Bummer. Of all weekends to have had a long one, this would have been perfect!!! Why? Because I have a HUGE uncompleted project going on!

The Princess left Friday afternoon to drive down to Mobile to her Dad's. Saturday, they got up and headed to Orlando for a week at Walt Disney World. That leaves just me and the pups at the house. Saturday morning, the temps were nice although it was pretty overcast, so I got out in the yard and got to work. I cut back branches and bushes. Hauled debris to the curb. Cut the grass/weeds in the backyard. Cleared the front bed of the bane of my yard existence (monkey grass). Put a new border around that bed to define it better, moved rocks around the border of another bed and planted more bulbs. By noonish, I could hardly move.

So, I decided to start another project --- cleaning out the Princess's Room! Its been a while since it was completely shoveled out, and I thought it might go better if she wasn't there for us to snarl at each other! Wow. That has been a project!!!! I've been sorely tempted to just get rid of about half her stuff, but my Mom did that to me once and it still makes me mad! So, I've been good. If its obviously trashed or broken, it goes in the garbage or recycling. Obviously too small, in the donations box. Not sure? Into another box for her to go through when she gets back. Progress is being made!

I worked all afternoon Saturday, and from about 11 - 6 on Sunday (had to go grocery shopping Sunday morning). I still have several hours worth of work to do -- not to mention a mountain of laundry that I pulled out from the recesses of her closet and under the bed! I'm hoping to put in a couple hours each evening this week, Zumba and other meetings permitting so that I can focus on some freezer cooking and other areas of the house next weekend!

Really, really wish that THIS was a long weekend!!!!!!! But alas, time to get ready for work.

Proof I Actually Do Cook!

Do you Pinterest? Earlier this week, when I was home sick and basically unmotivated to do anything but laze on the couch, I did find the time to play on Pinterest. For those of you that aren't addicted yet, Pinterest is basically an online version of tearing ideas out of magazines and putting them in a binder. However, it requires far fewer organizational skills!

One of the things I pinned recently was a recipe for Crockpot Potato Soup which can be found at the fabulous Pearls, Handcuffs & Happy Hour Blog. This soup was SO easy to make, I basically just dumped everything in the crockpot and let it do its thing. Perfect for an easy dinner when you feel like crap! In truth, since there are only 2 of us in the house, I reduced the recipe by 1/3 and we had enough for dinner, several leftover meals and I froze the rest (we will see how it does on the thaw, because googling produced mix results regarding potato soup out of the freezer).

Another recipe we have been loving has been for Cheesy Biscuits which in all honesty, a friend found for me first on Plain Chicken, but that another friend found on Pinterest, which is now how I easily go back to the recipe. I am talking YUM!!!!! These get made, and then quickly disappear. I've made them in mini muffin size and regular muffin size and both have been perfect!!!!

So there you have it --- proof I actually cook!

Aldi Shopping

I split my shopping between 2 stores this week. Knowing my price points for most basics things off the top of my head helps me do this with the minimum of work. Aldi usually has prices that kick the tail off of the larger grocery stores when items I need aren't on sale. So, here is what I picked up:

2 Boxes Dog Treats
1 Quart Sized Freezer Bags
1 Mini Rice Cakes Snack Pack
Black Beans
1 lbs. Spaghetti
2 Coffee Creamer
1 Light Sour Cream
Chili Beans
Great Northern Beans
Celery
Tangerines
Honey
Red Beans & Rice
1 Crescent Rolls
Chili Powder
Crushed Red Pepper
Rice Cakes
Oat Bran Bread
Bananas

Spent: $30.65

This Week's Publix Shopping

I have been totally absent this week due to being sideline with a sinus infection. You'd THINK that laying on the couch for a couple of days would have provided me with plent of time to blog, catch up on blogs and stuff. But no, I completely vegged. I did make it to the grocery stores oer the weekend. I stopped in at Publix to take advantage of several deals they had going on. Here is what I got:

4 Red Baron Frozen Pizzas
1 Betty Crocker Fundamiddles Cupcake Mix
2 Grands! Biscuits
4 Ramen Noodles
1 Breyer's Ice Cream
1 Crystal Light
1 Smart Balance Milk
2 Pasta Roni
1 Publix Sweet Peas
1 Simply Potatoes Hashbrowns
1 Publix Cheddar
2 Orville Redenbacher Popcorn
1 Lucky Charms Cereal Bars
1 Campbells Chili
1 Angel Soft Toilet Paper

Spent $41.11
Saved: $38.43 or 44%