Countdown to the Holidays! Chow Down

Christmas is coming, Christmas is coming!

We all have extra shopping to do in December, let's help ease the burden and chow down! I challenge you to do less (regular) grocery shopping in December. Eat what you have, go 'freezer diving', get creative, and save some money!

I have the habit of putting  leftover sauce into the freezer. Plus I usually stock up on the meat that's on sale for half price at my store. I know I have another half a bag of black beans, plus a few 'cans' in the freezer. And I REALLY need to finish that box of rice I bought... too long ago.

Is your food storage in a similar state? Will you accept the Challenge?

Chow Down Challenge:

1. Wait as long as possible to go grocery shopping this month and buy as little as possible. (I'm talking about regular grocery shopping, not Christmas Dinner.)
2. Use up what you already have. Get creative. Dig to the bottom of the freezer and the back of the pantry.
3. Save some money.

Thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Love,
Valerie :D

Please comment or send your questions to me on the Homemaking Diva Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/HomemakingDiva or by email at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Countdown to the Holidays! - How's it Coming?

Less than a month before Christmas. Really?!?! How's it coming?

I have my Advent calendar ready to go. It's a fabric one with pockets that you re-fill each year. I added candies and little notes in each pocket and it is waiting patiently on my crafting table for December first.

Baking is done. Well, part of it anyways. I probably will end up doing some more baking on my own, but all the baking I 'have to' do for my traditional Christmas is ready and waiting. I hauled baking stuff over to my sister's on three of the last 6 Thursdays and we baked... well two of those days I mostly just entertained my nephew (who was being clingy but oh-so-cute) which allowed her to bake. We have gotten together for the past few years to do our Christmas baking to have the 'goodies' we grew up with.

Shopping is started. My friend, her mother, and her niece had a craft show at the beginning of the month. I brought my husband along and we made a good start to our Christmas shopping. Stockings are done except for one more thing, his parents and two friends are done except for some baking I'll add later. That just leaves the 'kidlets' (our nieces and nephews) who get Veggie Tales movies, his brother and sister-in-law who needs more brainstorming, and each other.

Crafting is not really started yet... I know, I know! But I still have time. I have the fabric for the stockings, one is washed but the other isn't. And DH still doesn't know what he wants on his, but I can do mine first, that's OK. I need to just 'suck it up' and wash the fabric in the evening instead of waiting for the weekend (our electricity rates are hiked up the rest of the time). Adding that to my list now :)

Thankfully the only thing I put on my crafting list are the stockings, advent calendar (done! - I made the little notes cute with scrapbooking punches), and these mirror ornaments I saw on Pinterest. I figure I can do them for $2-$3. (Scroll down about halfway on the link.) Mini mirrors from the dollar store glued to Christmas tree ornament hooks and placed on the INSIDE of your tree. It's supposed to make it more sparkly. I already have glue, so this should be an easy mini-project once I pick up the stuff.

How's your Christmas progress coming? Is there something you need to take of your list to be realistic?

Thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Love,
Valerie :D

Please comment or send your questions to me on the Homemaking Diva Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/HomemakingDiva or by email at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Countdown to the Holidays! Feeling Crafty!

Happy Halloween everyone!

First off, I need to share my favorite Halloween tip with you before I forget:

COUNT the kiddies! Do it however you want - make a tally chart, count how many bags of chips are left and compare to how many you bought (don't forget to account for the ones you ate). Do whatever works for you, but count them. Write the number down and somewhere logical (I have a page in my holiday binder that I made up with cute, free Halloween graphics). Then next year you have a good idea of how many kids will be coming and how much candy to buy (plus extra for you). No need to steal from your kids' haul or get egged for being stingy :)

I hope you're all ready for the festivities tonight. My candy has been sitting by the door since we bought it, waiting patiently for tonight. I'll pull out my HUGE mixing bowl and pour the candy in and I'm all set!

I know it's still early, but now is the time to think about Christmas crafting, if you do any, or want to start. PLEASE don't over-burden yourself. Don't plan to make everyone on your list a cool afghan and then beat yourself up because you couldn't finish. Sit down and think about how much time you realistically have. Not how much time you'd have if no one ever got sick, had an appointment, or a flat tire that took up some of your time. Realistic time. Then cut it in half. Really. You don't want to over-burden yourself. Decide what you can do in THAT amount of time (half of your realistic time). Maybe make something small for several people or something big for one person. Start thinking about what you will make and pick up any materials you need so you can get started by next week to keep the pressure off.

I'm still learning to sew, so for me, this year all I'm committing to is stockings. I'm going to make us our own stockings. We've been using ones we just 'happened to have', but I want us to have OURS. I'm still having trouble deciding if I want to go 'classic' or 'fun' with them. But I have decided I want to do 2 or 3 coordinating fabrics mixing and matching for both stockings. So his will be made from fabric A and decorated with fabrics B and C and mine will be made from fabric B and decorated with fabrics A and C... make sense? Fat quarters should be the perfect size. I laid my stocking over a folded fat quarter, and there's lots of space for a seam allowance and extra decorating fabric. Now we just need to get to the fabric store :)

My sister and started our Christmas baking last week. We're doing 3 days over 6 weeks spreading it out and sharing ingredients. We made the freezable stuff first and will save the icing for the last day. We'll be finishing up on November 22nd, if plans don't change. Now THAT'S a stress-free holiday. I'll probably do more baking on my own, just because I can, but I'll have my Christmas 'necessities' done and no pressure on anything else.


Thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Love,
Valerie :D

Please comment or send your questions to me on the Homemaking Diva Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/HomemakingDiva or by email at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Countdown the the Holidays! Treats, no Tricks!

First of all, I am NOT saying Halloween is a holiday. It isn't. But it IS part of the busy-ness of the Holiday Season :)

I'm not big on Halloween at my place. I buy candy and turn on the outdoor lights and that's my prep. BUT for those of you who are going to be dressing up or have kids who will be dressing up, now is the time.

Sit down TODAY (if you haven't already). And decide what you will be, and ask your kids what they want to be. Then, decide if you're making or buying costumes (or if you already have something that could work). If you're making it, get started as soon as possible. If you're buying, you'll still want to head out fairly soon so there's some selection and you're not rushed.

Now is a good time to add the Halloween treats to your grocery list, too!

And remember, have fun!

Thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Love,
Valerie :D

Please comment or send your questions to me on the Homemaking Diva Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/HomemakingDiva or by email at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Countdown to the Holidays! - Use it or Lose it!

OK Canadians!

If you still have turkey dinner leftovers in your fridge, this is your warning. You want to finish up what you can for dinner tonight and then freeze or throw out the rest. Tomorrow is officially cootie-ville! :)

I had turkey dinner leftovers for lunch, and we'll be having some more for dinner. I've asked my husband to 'do' the turkey today (get the meat off the bones) and I'll be starting bone broth in the crock cooker when he's done and chopping the meat and freezing in baggies for other meals.

Thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Love,
Valerie :D

Please comment or send your questions to me on the Homemaking Diva Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/HomemakingDiva or by email at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Countdown to the Holidays - Are you Ready?

Well, tomorrow is Turkey Day for me. Doing what I can now to make tomorrow easier.

I made the marshmallow salad (family tradition, NEEDS to be made 1 day ahead) and the white bean dip (from Saving Dinner, CAN be made a day ahead), I also chopped up a large cucumber, carrot, some celery, and a yellow bell pepper, and put them in a large zipplerware (ziploc + tupperware = zipplerware) container covered in water in the fridge. They're for dipping in the white bean dip, I'll fish them out with a slotted spoon tomorrow :)

That's three things ready and done. I also washed all the dishes and did a 15 minute tidy. Now I can relax, play with my sewing stuff, read, and hang out with my husband. (Which are great things to do on a holiday weekend!)

Tomorrow, I'm making the garlic smashed red potatoes in the morning, and having them on keep warm in my crock cooker all day (with a little butter over the top). Plus I'll cut my bread for stuffing before we leave to pick up my in-laws.

Sometime around noon will be time to preheat the oven, make the stuffing, and prep the bird. When the turkey's halfway done (or so) I'll make the pumpkin pie and pop it in the oven, too.

Gravy and the green beans are the only things that'll need to be done last-minute and they're both pretty easy.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Love,
Valerie :D

Please comment or send your questions to me on the Homemaking Diva Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/HomemakingDiva or by email at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Countdown to the Holidays! - Thanksgiving Prep

Hello everyone!

Since I'm making Turkey Dinner for my in-laws on Monday, I'm trying to spread my prep work out so I'm just doing a little each day.

Today I turned my turkey over (hoping this will help it thaw more evenly) in the fridge. I went over my recipes again and pulled out the rest of the ingredients I needed out of the freezer so they will be thawed in time.

I got out my turkey roasting pan (which I pretty much only use for Thanksgiving and Christmas) and washed it along with the rest of the dishes. DH put the dishwasher on for me, and I'm having my normal laundry day.

I'll also have a '15 minute tidy' later on, to baby-step the whole 'cleaning the house for company' thing. It's not too bad, just needs some touch ups. :)

It's cool and rainy today, maybe I'll do some baking, too. We'll see.

Are you getting ready for the big day?

Thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Love,
Valerie :D

Please comment or send your questions to me on the Homemaking Diva Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/HomemakingDiva or by email at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Coundown to the Holidays! Getting it Together

Well, they DID actually have turkeys in stock yesterday morning, yay! So now I have two. One is defrosting in my fridge for Thanksgiving and the other is waiting patiently in my chest freezer for Christmas.

If you're cooking a turkey this year, it's time to get it thawing :) And  while you're putting the turkey in the fridge, you might want to clean it out. Not clean-wash, clean-declutter. Well, you can clean-wash if you want to. I'll be cleaning out my fridge today to make room for Thanksgiving.


While I was in town yesterday I also picked up bread at Westons - so much cheaper than the grocery store. They bake the name-brand bread and deliver to the grocery stores. What the stores don't sell the day of, gets returned, and I can get one-day-older bread at the Westons thrift store for less than half price! I was nice and grabbed two squished loaves as part of my purchase - they can be for stuffing.

Today is Thanksgiving grocery day for me. I'm going to look at my Thanksgiving Planner and pull the recipes for the dishes I picked. Then I'll check the fridge, freezers and pantry for what I already have and make a grocery list for what I don't, then it's off the the store! Shouldn't be too much. I already did a 'normal' grocery trip. This is just holiday 'touch-up'.



Thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Love,
Valerie :D

Please comment or send your questions to me on the Homemaking Diva Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/HomemakingDiva or by email at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Countdown to the Holidays! Planning for Sanity

Thanksgiving is going to be here soon, so I'm doing my best to be prepared. Hopefully by the time you read this, I will have purchased my turkeys. I am bound and determined to find some at a good price, so I will be going to Walmart for a THIRD time, first thing at opening this morning (I'm writing this last night). You'd think Walmart would realize that they should stock up on items that are on at a really good price; I mean, if you keep running out of the turkeys that are on sale, maybe you should start ordering MORE?? Maybe?

Sorry. Rant over :)

I did sit down and finalize my Thanksgiving menu and update my planner page.

• White Bean Dip and Veggies
• Turkey
• Stuffing
• Gravy
• Garlicky Smashed Red Potatoes
• Nutmeg Green Beans
• Marshmallow Salad (family tradition)
• Pumpkin Pie with Whipped Cream

I've got the basics covered and a bit of my weird upbringing thrown in. The plan is to make the dip, chop the veggies, and make the marshmallow salad on Sunday. And the pumpkin pie can be baking somewhere around when the turkey's half done.

My favorite trick (and one you'll love too!) is to make the mashed potatoes (whatever kind you like at your place) EARLY. Then put it in the crock cooker with a little butter over the top on 'keep warm' until dinnertime. One less thing to do later. Just be sure to test run your crock pot first (you can make a potato chowder if you want afterwards) you don't want scorched potatoes on the big day! I got that tip from Leanne Ely who got it from Flylady.

I've got a few things to do each day from Thursday to Monday (including tidying the house in babysteps) so I'm not doing everything at once. Sounds like a plan to me!

Thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Love,
Valerie :D

Please comment or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Countdown to the Holidays! The Turkey Hunt

 It's October! Can you believe it? Neither can I! But it is, nonetheless.

October is time to officially kick off your holiday planning. And I'm not just talking about Christmas. There's Thanksgiving (and even Halloween) thrown into the mix, too. (Plus Hanukkah, or whatever else you celebrate at the end of the year.)

Head's up, Canadians! You have just one week until Thanksgiving! Turkeys are on sale, pick one up ASAP. Ninety-nine cents a pound for a frozen turkey is a good price. If you can afford it, pick up two and you have Christmas dinner handled also! That's my plan. I'm heading to town tonight. There are two stores that have turkeys on for ninety-seven cents a pound, so I'm picking up two turkeys. One for Thanksgiving and one for Christmas.

Later this week, I'll do the rest of the groceries. But I don't want to be going to 7 grocery stores the last weekday before Christmas hunting for turkeys EVER again! (That's what happened last year - boo!)

I like to keep my holiday meals simple and make up a 5-day plan (or so) I just recycle and tweak the last one, most of the time. I spread the meal prep and house cleaning over 5 days and then I only have a little bit to do each day. That'll be the job for tomorrow.

Thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Love,
Valerie :D

 Please comment here or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Homemaking Diva Routines Two

More work in the kitchen! How are your dishes doing? I hope you're doing well and aren't too overwhelmed. Next step: Having food ready to cook.

Now, I work for Saving Dinner, so I do have a bias with them, but they ARE really good in and of themselves, and I am NOT getting paid to promote them here :) So if you don't know WHAT to make for dinner, we sell all kinds of plans for you that give you the recipes and the categorized shopping lists to make life just that much easier :) But that's only part of what I'm talking about today.

Today what I really want to talk to you about is setting up routines to get your food planned, into the house, and out of the freezer.

Planning meals: This doesn't have to be complicated. Look at what's on sale (to keep it simple, try sticking to just one store), think about what you and yours like to eat, and see what matches. And don't forget to check what's already in your cupboards, fridge and freezer. Think breakfast, lunch, and dinner. List a few things, see what you need to buy, and make your list. If you're just starting out, you can do just a couple days, I like to do a week at a time.

Grocery shopping: You've made your list, you've checked it twice, it's time to head to the store. The. Store. Singular. That's right. Actually, you can do whatever you want, I don't have any Homemaking Diva Police (yet) to come and fine you if you go to multiple stores, but hear me out. Every store has a sale every week, most stores will have everything on sale at different times. I do all of my grocery shopping at one store, yes chicken is on sale at another store this week and I eat chicken, but chicken was on sale at my store a couple weeks ago and it will be on sale at my store again. To me, multiple stores are not worth the hassle. Plus, since I only go to the one store, I made my grocery list to fit my store, so I know which aisle everything is in, plus I'm familiar with my store, so I can get in and out quickly.

Today and Tomorrow, Everyday: Remember my chicken sale example? Well, chicken was on sale a couple weeks ago at my store, and I bought it then... actually I stocked up. And that means that if I want to eat chicken THIS week, I have to thaw it out because it's in the freezer. So, everyday need to think about what's for dinner today and what's for dinner tomorrow. When I think about today I consider if there's any extra prep work that needs to be done early (marinating, crock cooker), and I need to pull meat out of the freezer for tomorrow.

You routines to build:
Everyday, think about what's for dinner today, and do any preparations you need to. And have meat in the fridge for tomorrow's dinner so it's not frozen when you need it.
Weekly, plan your meals, make your list, and go shopping!

Thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Love,
Valerie :D

Please comment or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Homemaking Diva Routines

Last time, I told you that routines help you know everything will get it's turn and allow you to relax. Let's talk about how to set up some great Homemaking Diva Routines.

Start SMALL; Rome wasn't built in a day. If you go too hard, too fast, you'll just crash and burn. Babysteps are KEY here. Choose one or two small things that you can work on and then work on them consistently. That is your goal. Two small things, consistently. After a few weeks (not 15 minutes, not 1 day, a few weeks) of doing your two small things consistently, you can add a third small thing, and your babysteps can grow. But only slowly. If you go too fast, you will get overwhelmed and you will stop.

I like to start in the kitchen (but I do work for Saving Dinner, so I may be slightly biased). In any case, everyone needs to eat, and eating tends to require a little cooking, and both eating and cooking tend to create some dirty dishes. (Now, you can start anywhere you want, this is just a good example, feel free to start with the laundry or clearing your desk, or whatever works best for you.) If you decide to start in the kitchen like I usually do (yes, I am not perfect and I have started more than once), there are two simple things in the kitchen: washing dishes, and having food ready to cook.

Washing dishes: PLEASE don't wash all the dishes for 2 hours straight if you are far behind. We're starting small, remember? If you have a dishwasher, empty any clean dishes, put those away, fill the dishwasher up again and turn it on (even if it's not quite full), then do ONE load of dishes at the sink. You're letting the dishwasher do most of the work, and you're making progress. That is IT for day one dishes. Day two, empty the dishwasher, put away the dishes you washed by hand, and wash one more load at the sink. From now on, the dishwasher gets emptied within 24 hours of when it was turned on. Preferably closer to 12 hours. Part of emptying the dishwasher is putting any waiting dirty dishes into it. Also, whenever you're starting to run low on something that is in the dishwasher, run the dishwasher (we tend to run out of spoons first). Incorporate one load of handwash dishes a day plus checking on the dishwasher into your new daily routine.

I find now, that I'm mostly caught up, I'm just doing one small handwash load of dishes on weekdays. Plus it's a LOT easier to wash more 'recently dirty' dishes than 2 week old spaghetti pots :)

We'll talk more about having food ready to cook next time!


Thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Love,
Valerie :D

Please comment or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Homemaking Diva Habits

How do you become a 'Homemaking Diva', and more importantly, how do you succeed at being a Homemaking Diva? It's easier than you think!

Step one: CARE. Being a Homemaking Diva means literally that: Making a Home. A Home is not where you live. That's your house or apartment (or wherever you are) a home is more personal. It's the happy feeling associated with being in your house, not because of what is there, but because of WHO is there. I love my husband. And one of my major goals is to make our house a calm home for us to live in together.

Step two: ROUTINES. I don't know about you, but I find it very difficult to relax when there's a lot of things that need doing. I'll be sitting beside my husband watching a DVD and my mind will be racing through various tasks that I 'should' have done that day or that need to be done soon. When I'm on a routine and I know I did a decent amount of 'Diva-ing' today and I will get around to everything in it's turn, I feel better about it and I can relax. We'll talk more about routines next time :)

Step three: RECHARGE. It's the old airplane analogy. The flight attendant will always tell you to put your own oxygen mask on first before trying to help anyone else. If you are burnt out, you're of no use to anyone. Take care of yourself so you can take care of others. If you care about making a home for your family and if you have good routines in place, you can take a break and recharge without guilt, and know that your routines will keep things from falling through the cracks.


Thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Love,
Valerie :D

Please comment or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Clear and Free!

Well, after my last post I got to work. I cleared some space in the spare room downstairs that is going to be storage and a guest room eventually. Then I started to declutter up in my dressing room (also crafting room). DH was wondering what I was doing as I took load after load of stuff downstairs.

I did not just move my junk. I decluttered a bunch of stuff, put several things in more logical places, and even took my beautiful angel candle holder OUT of the box and put it on display in our front entry. Admission - it's been in the box since we got it.... but I'm using it now!

I took care to only put things downstairs that made sense to be there for storage: The luggage, extra pillows and blankets, 'decor' items not currently in rotation, and containers (nice boxes, empty plastic totes...).

The plan is to build my sewing table (cool idea I have from pinterest using bookshelves) in the middle of the room, so I moved what was left towards the walls. I grabbed my Rubba Sweepa and pulled up a bunch of hair :S Then I vacuumed really well.

I pulled out one of the bookshelves to build and discovered that it's a two person job, so it's going to have to wait a bit.

For now I'm enjoying my accomplishment. In the near future I'll have the table and start learning to sew!


Thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Love,
Valerie :D

Please comment or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

The Snowball is Melting!

Yep! That's right. The snowball is melting! Not so much because I've been accomplishing it (I HAVE done a bunch, and DH actually went through half a closet.) but because I'm lowering my expectations... I set the bar way too high on that one.

The original idea was to completely declutter/ rearrange half the house with the final step being setting up my craft room. The problem is, most of the stuff isn't mine. So I need to wait for days when he's off and I think of it and we feel like it. Few and far between, but we are making progress. But since I am NOT just going to throw out all DH's stuff - that's not nice, I need a new plan. (You can read more about the snowball here.)

So the new plan is 'Do what I can'. What a concept! I can't declutter DH's stuff for him while he's at work, but I can move some of it  over now that he has partially moved into his office. That will make enough space for me to move the luggage and a few other things out of my dressing room so that I can declutter my stuff and then set up my crafting area.

No worries, we will still be doing the DH decluttering, but now there's no pressure and I don't feel like I won't be able to work on learning to sew for months and months.

Wish me luck, I'm diving in!

Thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Love,
Valerie :D

Please comment or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Do You Post-it?

Are you one of those people with stickies all over your desk and computer screen?

I used to be. Now I'm trying a system I'm making up that uses the stickies. Full disclosure! Not my original idea. I'm actually combining two ideas I saw on Pinterest. (Are you following me? It's in the sidebar.)

I have regular ones that are 2" square or so and small ones that are supposed to be book markers or something they're about 3-4" x 1". BTW, stickies is one place where you want to go brand name. Dollar store ones don't stick for more than 5 seconds.

I use the little ones on my calendar and the big ones in my book. I bought a 'sketchbook' that you're supposed to draw in and I put the stickies inside. Each page (or pair of pages) is for a specific purpose. I have (off the top of my head): Daily, Today, Tomorrow, this week, Monday, Tuesday..., Next Week, this month, monthly, and upcoming.

It's a little intensive as I'm shuffling stickies all the time, but not really. The Monday, Tuesday... pages stay 98% the same, each sticky on those pages is something that needs to be done on that day every week. Something that needs to be done THIS Friday would go on the this week page (or the tomorrow page now), not the Friday page.

About once a week, I flip around and move stuff up from the 'long term' pages, but day-to-day I'm looking at the today page and the 'Thursday' page (or whatever day it is).

I also have pages with themes that I use to corral ideas. For example, when I have an idea for a lesson, I write it on a sticky and put it on that page. Last week, when I needed to brainstorm, I just opened to that page, looked through my stickies and was able to put together another year's content!

This is a new system and I'm still figuring out the kinks, but I really like it so far

What do you think?

Thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Love,
Valerie :D

Please comment or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Five Ways to Save Money - In the Bathroom

Nobody wants to light five dollar bills on fire, so here are some helpful hints to save some money:

1. Soap is soap: This one is directly 'stolen' from Flylady, the idea is that you don't need a different kind of soap for every single thing. Leftover shampoo, conditioner, hand soap, etc. can be used for cleaning the sinks, tubs and toilets. I keep bottles of hand soap and laundry detergent when they're "empty", add some water, shake it around and use that to 'swish my toilet (with a brush and some elbow grease).
2. Don't buy shaving cream: This one's for the ladies. Use shampoo or conditioner to shave your legs. I've been using conditioner to shave my legs for about a year now, and it works perfectly fine. The only difference I notice in the shower is that it's much easier to fit everything on those little shelves with one less bottle. You can use the same as you use on your hair, buy cheap stuff especially for this purpose, or use up a shampoo you didn't like.
3. Don't buy makeup remover: I paid $10.49 plus tax for a 125mL little bottle of L'Oreal makeup remover. Can we say expensive? NOW, I use Johnson's head-to-toe baby wash. A 444mL bottle runs somewhere around $7.00 plus, I water it down. I fill my L'Oreal bottle about 1/3 full, and top it off with water, shake and I'm ready to go. If it's safe for baby's eyes, why not mine? (Plus I have semi-sensitive skin, and no problems).
4. Use what you have: This always applies. We all have those stashes of "nice" creams and stuff for "special" occasions. Go ahead and use them. You are special all on your own, you don't need an occasion. 
5. Try cheap: Touch and go with this one. I've done the cheap-o Q-tips and was not impressed, so I only buy brand name for them. But I buy the cheaper "Daisy" razors, no name cotton balls and cotton pads. If it's something you use a lot, buy a small package of a cheaper version or brand and see if it'll work for you.

Thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Love,
Valerie :D

Please comment or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Frugal Hospitality

Some of you may remember last time I told you that I was going to try and be especially frugal for the next while as we just invested in a sectional.

On Sunday, we decided to invite my in-laws over after church. This is frugal for us because we often end up going to a restaurant for lunch. But that meant I needed to figure out what to make. :)

Brunch is always a delicious and frugal choice. It doesn't get much cheaper than eggs and toast. Especially since I get my bread from Westons for 99 cents! (They're the bakery that makes the bread for the grocery stores. Whatever the grocery store doesn't sell gets returned to Westons and sold in their 'thrift store'. Bottom line, the bread is one day older and a heck of a lot cheaper. I go when I can and get some for now and some for the freezer.)

I almost made lasagna for dinner, but that meant buying a ricotta, and the day ended up being way too hot to turn on the oven. I decided to make burgers. I originally didn't want to because I'd just pulled the ground beef from the freezer and knew it would be VERY cold on my hand mixing it up later. But then my brain clicked and I decided to let Todo do it. Todo is my stand mixer... we named it that because it's shape reminds us of two droids from Star Wars, one of which is called TODO-360. (Yes, I'm weird.)

But aside from the fact that I've named my stand mixer, it really IS handy and makes a good burger. I used the Basil Burgers recipe from my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook and the regular 'blade' in the stand mixer. Want to know ANOTHER ground meat trick? Doesn't matter if it's meatballs, meatloaf, burgers, or something else. Mix all the 'stuff' together first, THEN add the ground meat. Everything goes together faster and more evenly.

So we had burgers for dinner, and I had everything on hand for them. Score more frugal points!

We all enjoyed each others' company and tried out the new sectional while watching some episodes from Shark Week :)

None of it cost me a cent!


Thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!


Love,

Valerie :D

Please comment or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

It's HERE!

Our new sectional was delivered this morning. It's our first major investment piece, built to last but expensive. It's our splurge from DH's bonus, but still... spending that much makes me want to amp up my frugal-ness, at least for a while. :)

Here are some frugal ideas:

• Don't buy new until you've used the old. We have several pieces that we've bought but not put together yet. A couple bookshelves, my bistro set that I got for $5 (Thank God for Canadian Tire Money), mini-blinds that need to be installed, painting that needs to be done (just some touch-ups here and there). So the house doesn't get anything else, at least until we've put together and used these things. And yes, we're working on it - I put together  my new desk chair on the weekend.
• Eat out of the freezer. I'm all stocked up, I buy a club pack or two of the meat that's half price most weeks, so I have lots in the freezer. Last night I made Frittata, because I already had everything I needed for it.
• Do a project, for 'something to do'. There's not much in the way of entertainment where I live, at least not that I'm interested in. Movies, restaurants, and shopping is 95% of it. Next time we're 'bored' and looking for something to do, time to work on a project! Build that bookshelf, clean the fish tank, work on setting up the guest room (currently storage room).
• Watch the movies you have. We're into movies, and we like to buy new ones a fair bit, but there's a medium-sized pile of movies we haven't watched since we bought them. We need to watch them before we buy more.

What are your frugal ideas?

So anyway, thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Please comment or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Have great day!

Valerie :D

Playing Ketchup

No tomatoes here! 'Playing ketchup'  'playing catch-up'. It's what I've been calling it since... high school. If I needed to catch up in a class (because of a trip or whatever, usually a concert band event) I'd write 'ketchup' in my agenda. And I still use that term today :)

Life happens, we get busy, and then the city decides to 'clean' the water mains resulting in lack of useable water.... and the dishes and other chores pile up. Time for ketchup!

Saturday is usually laundry day over here (because our electric rates get jacked up when you WANT to use electricity... but that's another story). So today, I decided I need to get things done.

Having a messy kitchen stresses me out. Weird, but true. So today, after breakfast (where I actually had to wash a pan before I could make pancakes :S) I put on a load of laundry and started in on the dishes.

I try to strategize when I do dishes, do you do that? I did the two china plates first, then I did my hard plastic cutting board, so I could 'protect' the china from other things piling on too much pressure with the cutting board. I like to clean the 'cleaner' things first, so I purposefully left the spaghetti sauce pan until right before I wanted to change the water in the sink. Because I had so many dishes to do, I used my large cutting boards to kind of make the walls of my drying rack higher (putting them right on the sides) and I even put a bunch of oven safe stuff in the oven to dry (then I turn on the oven at the lowest heat setting, just for 15 minutes or so, then turn it off again and leave it closed - speed dry!). I piled the plastic things high in the rack, playing tetris as I went and fitting in as much as I could. Eventually I had to stop and clear off part of the counter, so I could lay out some dish towels for the rest of the dishes (I had a LOT). Plus I flipped the laundry a couple times in there, also...

When I was finally done the dishes (except for two of the mason jars I picked up at a yard sale that need to be bleached), I took the coffee maker and coffeepot apart, wiped them down cleaned them out, put them back together, and it's now on it's second vinegar water cycle. Decided I should use the hot vinegar water for something, so I'm filling those two jars with it and will probably go clean the bathroom sinks with more of it.

This was an accomplishment for me, and it probably took less than an hour an a half to get it all done. I even called DH upstairs to see what I did and he was sweet enough to be impressed and give me some praise :)

The laundry just beeped at me. I'm going to go fold the laundry, use up the hot vinegar water for something productive, start a plain water cycle in the coffeemaker, to rinse it out, and start a new load of laundry. Then I can relax, until I get beeped at again!


So anyway, thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Please comment or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Have great day!

Valerie :D

Rhubarb anyone?

In my world summer equals rhubarb and blueberries. We've always had a rhubarb patch and blueberries grow wild around here, so .... :)

Yesterday was a little cool, so I decided it was a good day to bake! I made the first rhubarb pie of the season.... Mmmmm hello, summer!

I guess I was in the mood to experiment. Instead of following the recipe exactly, I decided to check how much rhubarb actually fits in a pie. (I love my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, but the pies always seem to be full to overflowing.) Guess what? 2 to 2 1/2 cups fits nicely in a Tenderflake crust - not the 6 cups called for in the recipe! (Yes, I cheat, but it's yummy and fast!) Made a note of THAT. Next time, I think I'll divide the whole recipe down to 1/3 or 1/2 of what it says. Last night I only changed the rhubarb. Turned out well, DH had no complaints! :D

While I was experimenting, and since I had picked more rhubarb, I decided to try making rhubarb stew in the crock cooker! Now I've been eating this since I was knee high to a grasshopper, and I've only ever made it in the microwave - not good, I know! (Plus it's boiled over in the microwave too many times.) My sister found a good stovetop recipe that she uses. So I coarsely chopped the rest of the rhubarb, put about 1/2 cup of water in the bottom of the crock, and poured some sugar over the top (no measurements... sorry). If you haven't had this before, you'll need way more sugar than I do, you can add to taste at the end, or in your bowl even. Crocked it on low for 2 hours, opening to stir a few times (I was pretty paranoid about it burning or something). And it turned out perfect! It was more liquidy than normal, so next time I'll put in less water, but it doesn't effect the taste - rhubarb stew is very forgiving.

I've been keeping an eye on the blueberry bushes in the backyard (heck yeah!) and neighbourhood... soon!

So anyway, thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Please comment or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Have great day!

Valerie :D

Summer Fun!

The weather is beautiful, and I'm slipping into a more relaxed routine. Yay!

We 'baby-sat' a dog for 2 weeks while friends were in Finland, and because she's a little... excitable,  I kept all the 'extra' doors closed. One great habit I established was LEAVING my home office and closing the door for my lunch break and when I'm done for the day. Doesn't sound like much, but I used to spend my 'lunches' on facebook. And while I do still go on facebook several times a day, I also need to get off my butt, because I sit a LOT (for work and for play, then there's driving, watching tv...)

Anyways. I've found taking a real lunch break is beneficial to me. Getting up, standing for a bit, and getting one or two things done around the house is great. I've been getting outside, starting to do a little gardening.

I've also started doing 'spa dishes' again. I have two pairs of cotton gloves. (One I got for about $4 at a drug store, the other about $1.50 at a dollar store.) I take my rings off, put on hand cream, put on the cotton gloves, then put on the rubber gloves and do the dishes! It's great for the skin (especially with the heat of the water amplifying things) and if I do it consistently, it should save me some money on rubber gloves - My one fingernail always seems to wear a hole... now with the extra layer, the gloves should last longer. Taking care of myself, taking care of my family, and being frugal!

How is your journey towards balance going?


So anyway, thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Please comment or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Have great day!

Valerie :D

Selfish, In a Good Way

I'm adding myself back into the equation!

No I don't think the world revolves around me, but it was my birthday on Thursday, so what better month to be nice to myself?

This is not having a spa day and letting the kitchen pile up. This is taking a little time for hobbies and taking care of myself. Too often, I put myself last, and while I shouldn't be first, I should be in the top three.

My ideas for the month are simple things like actually making an appointment with the eye doctor because I've been noticing things getting a little blurry; getting a haircut (trim) because it's been a while and the split ends are bugging me. And fun things, like actually taking time to scrapbook at home and working through the learning to sew book I have.

Even practical things like knocking out a bunch of home small things I've been procrastinating on (I know I'll feel so much better as each is done); figuring out some systems for my new position at work; and staying caught up on the dishes.

...

There! I just got up for 5 minutes (less, actually) and got the bananas that were past their prime (WELL past) peeled and into the freezer. It's nice not to have to look at them ;)

These are the kind of small things that I don't bother doing and then every time I walk into that room I get bombarded with all the little things that need to be done. This month, I'm doing them!


So anyway, thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Please comment or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Have great day!

Valerie :D

A Clear Space

I mentioned last time that  I was focusing on finding balance this year. And step one is a clear desk. Well, today, it's clear! I took about an hour this morning and put things away, decluttered, dusted, filed, dusted,... And now I have some nice space surrounding me.

It really is a big change. The plan is to keep it clear, and put things away as I'm done with them. The really big factor to all this is keeping a list of things I need to do and putting the object away, instead of plopping the object on my desk as a 'reminder'. And then following through with taking care of the things on my list. (That's the kicker!)

I've been trying to figure out how to establish routines when my schedule is so odd... it can make your head spin, if you're not careful. Night shift, day shift, DH having days off when I still have to work, crazy Mondays, laundry marathons based on hydro rates.... erg! So no straight-up, you-always-do-this-on-Tuesday-at-10am-type routines. Balance.

Balance..... balance.... wherefore art thou, balance? I am seeking you. :D

I need to stop thinking of my life as a calendar, and try and think more as a pie-chart. I'm going to work on that and see how it goes... a pie chart visual of my day in balance. :D


So anyway, thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Please comment or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Have great day!

Valerie :D

Finding Balance

It's January, and many people are making resolutions. I'm not making a resolution per se, but I'd like to  take this time to reflect and set some goals.

My main goal for 2012 is Finding Balance. And that's a huge undertaking, but I have a whole year (actually the rest of my life) to work on it. Balance isn't a destination. It's a journey. You can never really be done. It's something to consider everyday. If I have a wonderfully balanced day today, that does not guarantee me a balanced day tomorrow.

I need to seek this balance so I can love the life I have and live the life I love.

So my overall goal for the year is to find balance - between work, home, DH, and play. For January I'm working on clearing my desk (by Friday) and keeping it clear. I spend a LOT of time here at my desk, so having clear space really will make a clear mind :)

Today I have worked on clearing my desk, started a goals binder/control journal/thingy-whats-it and I do see progress, and that's always a good thing.

So anyway, thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Please comment or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Have great day!

Valerie :D