The troll under my bed

So I think I've finally come to the conclusion that I'm one of "those" dog ladies, baby talking to her dogs, I can't help it, the chihuahua is too dang cute and well, let's face facts, parenthood of 2 legged critters is not in the cards (that's a bitter pill too swallow), but there it is, warts and all.  I always wondered what turned people into chattering at their animals, and now I'm one of them.  Anyway, back to the dogs.  I have a red heeler (Ruby) that thinks all dirty laundry and tennis shoes belong to her, she doesn't chew on them, she COVETS them and has a collection of them underneath my bed.  It's not unusual to walk into our bedroom and see jeans slowly being sucked underneath the bed like there's an unseen vortex under there.  Not ONLY does Ruby take all of her prized (albeit stinky laundry, err, possessions, and for note, it must be DIRTY laundry, clean doesn't cut it) possessions underneath the bed, she must protect them with all her canine might against the rest of the canines in the house.  And so, if another canine approaches the bedroom, you can usually here a growling from underneath the bed and occassionally she will dart out at the offender with the slyness of an eel. Yes, I have my own little troll underneath the bed, she has all the other canines believing her too,  I have to carry or escort the rest of them to our bedroom at night, they are too afraid of our local troll.

Zebra themed cake turned horse sale

So, occassionally one of my hobbies pays for itself... and I'm not talking that I made stellar amounts of money on the cake itself... this cake ended up making us a horse sale.. it all started with my cakes I post on facebook, mom saw (at the time an old acquaintane) one of my cakes and wanted something similar for her daughter's upcoming birthday...and well let's add some sugar cookies too... so that got them watching my facebook page.  I put on a short video of a horse we had for sale, and well the rest is history...I'll post photos of the new owners and their "new" horse.  It's a funny funny world sometimes!  Anyway, below is her cake (made for 60 people)... hot pink, zebra themed and her old horse on top... the frosting is cream cheese....yummy...I'm gaining a lb. just thinking about that frosting...it's my fav!

Western Themed Cookie Pop Bouquet

Here's a cookie pop bouquet I did for a silent auction, western themed.  I wrapped a $1 glass vase with a handkerchief and tied some twine in a bow.

 Close up of the Wrangler Jeans

 Close up of the snaffle bit (one of my favorites because I put it on a heart shaped cookie)

 This IS my favorite, a trophy buckle!

 A Happy Horse

 Barn and cowboy hat

I'm feeling a bit "OWLISH"....

I've been a bit busy lately, cookies, cake and getting party stuff ready for Kevin's cousin's baby shower.... owl themed.... Below are the cookies...

Below is the cake, lemon with cream cheese filling...

Below is the pillow, most of it handstitched....

My CVS Finds

Well, here's my CVS finds for the week... Out Of Pocket $12.77, here's the run down:

• Wisk Laundry Detergent, buy one get one free... priced at $8.39
• Coupon for $1 off each (I used 2, one for each bottle)
• Total price for each $3.20
• M & M Pretzels on sale 2 for $6.00
• Add $1 off each bag
• Total Price $2.00
• Snickers Eggs .75 Each
• Coupon $1.50 off 2 Holiday Mars Items
• CVS coupon .25 off each egg (I only had 2 coupons)
• Total Price Money Maker $.25 X 2
• Reach Toothbrushes on Clearance for $1.57 (normally $5.99)


• Doggy Stairs Full Price $9.99


• I had a $10 off $50 spent CVS Coupon
• I also had a $10 Gift Card from previous week

I think I did pretty good... I had been wanting the doggie stairs and that put me over my $50 so I could use the $10 off... according to my receipt I saved $53.30

Why didn't I freaking think of this earlier?

Why didn't I think of this earlier?  Thank you TLC for the tv show Extreme Coupons.  Since Kevin and I have been working on our small business, things are um...financially tight...LOL.  It seems we are feast or famine and when we feast we are trying to catch up from our famine...and so the circle goes.  Winter is our slow time, add Christmas and less business and let's say YIKES!  So I happened to see a promo on the tv show Extreme Coupons, dvr'd it and let's just say the rest is his.tory!

So I'm what I would call a small time extreme couponer, I don't leave the store with $1,000's of free product, but I do get enough to last us awhile until our next sale comes around and I find some fab deals, I remember how stressed I would be to walk into the store and just barely afford the essentials.  I can now walk in, get the essentials and then some.  On average I save 40 to 50 percent on our budget.  I spend about 4 hours a week, clipping, printing, and organizing.  I am self taught. Here's some tips I have found along the way:

Facebook keeps me up to date on the latest printable coupons and freebies and deal ideas.  I love "liking" the sites My Frugal Adventures, Extreme Coupon Professors, Coupon Divas and Coupon Mom.

Don't delay in printing a coupon, it might be gone by the time you get back around to it, espeically the high value coupons

Most coupons you can print a max of 2X

When shopping, keep your eyes peeled for promotions.  For example, Malt O Meal had smaller bags of cold cereal on special for $1...I bought 3 and then went home and discovered on their website they had coupons $1 off of 3... I printed all the coupons I could and went back and bought cereal for .77 a bag... what a deal!

When checking out, watch the cashier and your coupons like a hawk, sometimes the coupons don't come off and it's up to you to call it out...

Men cashiers are less apt to scrutinize your coupons and more go with the flow about the whole thing.

I buy 10 newspapers per week, I get 5 papers from 2 different cities (no I don't travel to them, I just pick them up at Walmart), I get my cost back plus some on my first transaction of the week for my newspapers.

When clipping coupons from the same flyer, I dismantle the flyers, stack them together, then I staple them and THEN I cut the coupons out...I then have little coupon books of the same coupon, so I'm not cutting out the same coupon 10X...just once...and it's easy to file in my binder!

Ok enough tips...let's check out my stuff I got for under $1 this week!

Colgate Toothpaste, Walmart is having a stock up promo for .94/tube.  I had a coupon for .50 off 4 oz or larger...making these .54 each!

Colgate Toothbrushes, same promo, coupon was for .40 off, making these .64 each

Kikkoman soy sauce, Walmart regular price $1.74, $1.00 off coupon = .74 each

Blade mens body spray, on clearance at CVS for $1.65 each, I had a 1.85 coupon off of 2, making them .73/each!

Right Guard Deodarnt, on clearance at CVS for $1.14, they were having a promo of buy 2 deodorants and get 2 Extra Care Bucks (coupons good for anything in the CVS store on your next purchase), so they cost me .14 EACH!

Now for the FREEBIES...actually the stores PAID ME TO BUY THESE!



Vaseline Lotion, Walmart price .96 each, coupon of $1 off each... overage of .04!
Speedstick, (my find of the week)!  CVS was having a sale $1.99 each and if you bought $12 in speedstick products they would give you $6 in Extra Care Bucks back... I had coupons for buy one get one free (now I initially thought I was gettng these for $1 each BUT when I checked out my coupon rang up to $3.99, making these not only free, but a $6 MONEY MAKER!)
Not pictured but also free, Snickers Valentines Candy, 2/$1 at Walgreens, Coupon $1 off 2, making them FREE
Scotchbrite sponges... .96 at Walmart, Coupon for $1 off...making them free plus overage of .04!

So these are the deals I found THIS week...  So just in freebies alone I got $53 in product! WOW, that covered the cost of my papers and some... and the left over deodorant I'm going to gift to some college kids we know...

Horse Cake

Ok, so far, this is by far, my favorite cake I've done... Horse related, pink, cute...yeah...so me...this was for my 10 year old lesson client... it's a replica of her horse... she was thrilled with it!