Crafty Canvas

A few months ago I decided to actually do a project I had pinned on Pinterest ( This was my inspiration). I was very excited to finish it and hang it on my wall in my dining room. Adam and I realized that doing just 1 was going to look funny so I proceeded to do 2 more. Here's a tutorial on the last one I did.

I used:
A blank canvas (I can't remember the exact size but just pick a size that will fit where you need it)
Contact paper
Scissors
Spray Paint (I kill the atmosphere but I love spray paint!)

My wonderful Mom helped me with this project :)

Here we are cutting out letters- we printed them out on regular paper then put the contact paper over it and cut them out

Then I set up the phrase on the canvas

Then took the back off the contact paper and stuck the letters on the canvas

Then Adam and I spray painted the mess out of it (mixture of black and grey)

Then after the pain is dry, peel the letters off the canvas

Then hang and enjoy!

Here's all the canvas' I did for my dining room.

Pretty easy to do and a lot cheaper than going somewhere and buying something.

Super Doubles Success!

As you all know I love to coupon :). Starting today through next Tuesday Harris Teeter is doing their "Super Double" coupon event, the only difference is they're doubling up to $2 instead of the normal $1.98!!

Here's a picture of my haul today:

(I also bought some chicken and hamburger that's not in the picture)

I spent $27.39 and saved $49.92!

Here's a break down:

Chinet plates- Free

2 6pack Propel Zero water- $1 each

Hartz dog treats- on clearance so after coupon they were $.28

Front Porch ice cream pints- $.50 each

Nissin Noodle cups- Free

KC Masterpiece BBQ sauce- Free

Smart Balance milk- Free

Glade Decor- Free

The chicken was on sale

The soups, rotel, seasoning, and hamburger were all regular priced.

Again, if there are any questions I would be happy to answer them and help you save money! I have definitely seen a decrease in my own spending whenever I have to grocery shop so it's totally worth it!

Swagbucks! Free money!

A little over 2 years ago I signed up for a website called Swagbucks (www.swagbucks.com). It's completely free and all you do is use them as your day-to-day search engine instead of google or anything else (swagbucks is powered by bing.com). As you use the search engine you randomly win "swagbucks" that add to your account automatically. An easy way to win is to download the toolbar into your browser and then you can just use the search box easily, I use it to get to basic sites like my email or craigslist or facebook instead of typing the address into the web browser. On fridays they have "mega swagbucks" where you can win more often and higher amounts!

With all the gift cards I've earned I've been able to buy books, shoes, pet supplies, and other things amazon.com has to offer.  I've also saved up the gift cards to use around birthdays and Christmas time to buy gifts for people so that we can save some money and not spend so much out of our own pockets.

There are some things you can do every day just to get some little bucks such as clicking through the "NOSO" on the home page (just skip through 5 ads, type in a phrase, then you get 2 bucks), voting in the daily poll, and checking out if you qualify for surveys. For the surveys, if you qualify, you can get anywhere from 50 to 250 swagbucks for completing one! But the easiest way to win swagbucks is just to use the search engine. You can also play games on their website that will earn you swagbucks and watch Swagbucks TV to earn bucks too!

I've usually been able to average three $5 amazon.com gift cards per month that each cost 450 swagbucks. They also have many other gift cards as well as other prizes to buy, like target gift cards, iTunes giftcards, and many other things. 

My referral link is http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/BLStarlin and if you sign up using that for every search you win swagbucks I get the same amount (up to 1000 swagbucks then it stops) and if you get people to sign up with your referral you get the same thing! Now I know that sounds slightly pyramid scheme-y but it's really not. As long as they sign up using your referral link that's the end of the connection you have and you stop getting swagbucks from their searches once you've received 1000 swagbucks from them.

If you have any questions please feel free to let me know and I can help explain and walk you through it! Like I said it's completely free and I've never received anything unsolicited from them. My mom uses is as do both of my sisters so it's safe :). Like I said, if you have any questions please let me know!

Homemade Chicken Nuggets

I enjoy chicken nuggets and when I found a recipe on Pinterest for them I decided to try it out! (You can find the original recipe here)

Here's what you need:

Chicken breast (I cut up 2 breasts which was plenty!)
1 cup milk
1 large egg
1 1/4 cup flour
2 Tbsp powdered sugar
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp chili powder
Oil for frying (we have a deep fryer so I didn't have to worry about using a pan for frying)

Mix together milk and egg in one bowl
Mix together all dry ingredients in another bowl
Cut up chicken into bite sized pieces

Dip the chicken pieces into the milk/ egg mix, shake off excess, then put into the flour mix and coat well.

I put my deep fryer on 360 and place a handful of pieces at a time into it for 6 minutes. The original recipe calls for frying in a pan 2-3 minutes on each side to make sure it's cooked.

Finished product! (Well, some of it :) ) Because it's fried I served these with some sweet potato fries (not sure if that helps but it made me feel better haha). Serve with a variety of dipping sauces!

We try not to make this too often since it is fried but sometimes chicken nuggets are just what you need!

Triples Success!

I woke up early and headed to Harris Teeter to get my deals with triple coupons!

Here's what I got:

I spent $9.82 and saved $50.24!

All of the hot sauces were free, the 2 dish soaps were free, the floss was free, the 3 bags of Pepperidge Farm cracker chips were .25 each, the box of Trix was .50, the rest was all really cheap.

I may head out and get a few more things as the week goes on but this is my biggest trip.

Preparing for Triple Coupons

I did a post a few weeks ago about Harris Teeter's coupon special event, Super Doubles, starting this Wednesday they are doing their other special event Triple Coupons.

The rules of Triple Coupons are:

1- They will triple coupons up to .99 cents. A .50 cent coupon will be worth $1.50, a .75 coupon will be worth $2.25, etc.
2- They will triple up to 20 coupons per day (you can use more than 20 but they will not triple)
3- You can only use 3 "like" paper coupons and 2 "like" printed coupons
4- You can stack their online digital coupons with paper coupons.

Again, my biggest piece of advice is to let someone else do the work for you! Find some couponing blogs that you like and follow them. I follow Moola Saving Mom and she is by far the best I have ever seen! She sets up lists and tells you what items you can get for free, where to find specific coupons, and which deals are the best. Here's her triples list she's made up so far, it will probably be updated one more time later tonight with all the unadvertised deals she finds.

I've already started my list and gotten a lot of my coupons together so I will be ready to go early in the morning when the store opens! Let me know if there are any questions and I will be more then happy to help anyone out :)

Crafting for my new nephew!

My sister-in-law is having a baby exactly 1 week from today! I am so excited and cannot wait to meet this little boy :). Of course I bought her the typical gifts for her baby shower; diapers, outfit, shoes, etc. But I wanted to make something for him also so I decided on a banner with his name (which I found the idea on Pinterest from the Michael's website here).

Mine looks slightly different since I couldn't find the exact plaques they were suggesting and used different colors.

I first painted the plaques, front, back, and sides.

Then I cut out scrapbook paper to fit on the front of the plaques.

Then I hot glued the letters onto each plaque.

Then I hot glued the plaques onto ribbon and attached a D-ring to the top so she could hang it wherever she wants.

It's so cute and I can't wait to meet little Bryson next week!