Weekly Meal Planners or Menus

I took this weekend to spend some time looking at recipes and figuring out what everyone will want to eat this weekend. This month has been a bad budget month since we are over on our monthly budget of $400 on food as well as spending on gas and restaurants. My hubby had to pay out of pocket for a business trip which he is supposed to be reimbursed for but right now, we are $450 out of money. The hotel was $230 for 2 nights and did not have a fridge. We couldn't stock up on groceries and save. We had to eat out which cost us another $150. And let's not mention the gas it took to get to his destination! I think we spent $70 every day on gas for 3 days. We drove 7 hours and over 300 miles. While the weekend event was enjoyable, our wallets are hurting now that rent is due on the 1st and we don't have enough. But hopefully the landlady will let us pay on the 3rd.

I have been checking out everyone's meal planners and while I do like the idea of pre-planning meals, my family does not all agree on one meal. The kids don't like the adult food and while we try to eat healthy, they sometimes just want to eat Ramen noodles or Waffles, even for dinner. Instead of creating one-meal choices per day, I did a restaurant style menu where people can choose what they want to eat based on the ingredients we have. When the item can not be made for the rest of the week, I'll cross it out or mark the Menu to let them know we are out and not running to the store for that until the following week.

I also made a section for Requests. Since this isn't a restaurant, I think it's a good idea that my family can request foods that they want to eat for the following week/weekend. If no requests are made, then I (who shops) gets to choose the menu items.

Here's what it looks like and what we eat on a regular basis.

I strongly believe in eating meat at dinner-time as it fills up everyone's bellies very quickly and the price of meat is pretty reasonable when bought in bulk. I like bulk items! That doesn't mean I like Costco. That's another ball-game. I just shop at my local Fry's (grocery store) and since it's less than a mile from my house, it's super convenient. If their cereal's are buy $5 and save $5, then I buy them. I tend to check out what their 5-for-5 or 10-for-10 deals are since I can stock up for two weeks on many items instead of one week. Things that are usually 10-for-10 are pastas and asian foods, such as Rice boxes. I tend to buy the bag in bulk instead.

All the summer foods (or poolside snacks) can be purchased at the Dollar Store too, such as chips, dips and sodas. I tend to stay away from those until it's 120 degrees outside in Arizona and only have them around when the kids are here (Friday after school to Sunday evening).

If you guys have any recommendations on kids meals besides Mac n Cheese since they are not big on that, leave a comment! It's hard to satisfy them being so picky but they do enjoy the fruits and yogurts. The youngest one won't eat until you put it in front of him; his "busy" schedule just makes him forget to eat. The older one though eats a lot! She is always snacking so I need to come up with affordable snacks, unlike the Fiber One bars or Oats N Honey crackers. Her favorites are now ridiculously expensive so I'm learning to substitute but she's not quite learning to accept the "unbranded" kind. We'll see. Kids are kids.

DIY: Patio Chairs

I really had zero intentions of doing anything outside today when I first woke up; however, the cool wind and not-so-terribly hot sun made for a perfect day to fix up some outside furniture without spending over $20.00 on supplies.

I fortunately had two (2) spray-paints of Rustoleum Flat White to spray my two (cedar wood, I think) bar stools for my outside bar. These bar stools were kind of handed down to us, but if you don't have bar stools and you really want some, Goodwill has great ones as low as $19.99 a piece. They are easy to fix and upgrade. After I had spray-painted the chairs white, I had to run to Home Depot to get an extra white. I was using Rustoleum Flat White. When I realized the chairs were way too bright, I decided to go with a Dark Gray Spray Paint and Navy. I prefer dark gray over light; looks better that way.

I didn't bother sanding or priming, unless you call spray-painting it white first, "priming" because that I did do. I don't see the point in sanding, priming and then sealing. These chairs are not going to last probably another year; this is just temporary. Plus my Black & Decker Sanding charger was stolen out of my garage, so I cannot sand. Any how, I used Acrylic paint that I had in Blue and painted the rest dark gray. The dark gray paint can be used for exterior but I doubt Acrylic can be, which is why I am going to use my Polyurethane Sealer tomorrow (letting the paint seep into the pores of the wood for a good 15 hours) and seal the paint from UV exposure. In Arizona, things go bad very quickly when not protected with any sort of sealant. Usually my chairs are in the shade too so they don't see too many hours of sun, with the exception of mornings.

Here are my end results on my first chair. The second chair will probably be done tomorrow. I think they turned out cute, now I just need to figure out what wonderful fabric I want on my cushions....

The brown cushions will be re-covered at a later date since they obviously don't match but for now, in case my man wants to sit outside tonight, the cushions stay.

Memorial Book Created via Blurb

Hey there,

I have been away from the blogging world because I had a deadline to meet on finishing my book for someone special. I used the site Blurb to create the Memorial Album. My husband's mother passed away March 2nd and I had this little idea to put her life into a book via pictures. I got to know her in a very different way by doing this. My husband does not know I have created this book but he does know I am up to something since I asked all family members to send me their photos of his mother.

His mother passed away due to Parkinson's and while it was diagnosed in late 2010, I could clearly see the changes in her face and posture as early as the '90's. Based on these photos, I truly believe she should have been diagnosed then instead of late 2010; however, she is gone now so I cannot say much. All I know is she lived a good life and had no enemies. She was kind and loved animals. She was even kind to those who weren't so kind to her. She died at age 70 while her twin sister lives on in sorrow.

I created a Memorial Album on Blurb for her twin sister to pay my respects to the family, as I am new, and to insure that the memory lives on. I cannot make it to the Memorial being held in the state she resided in so the least I could do is provide a sentimental gift that would mean the world to only those who knew her and loved her.

My husband will get his own copy on next paycheck. I created 28 pages (that is if you include the hard-cover and two blank pages at the end). Some photos are in color and some in black and white. It took me roughly 30 hours combined to complete the scanning of the images, editing them and sorting them by year. My deadline was Friday but I am two days late - even though the real deadline was the book had to be received before her Memorial Date, May 5th. Mission accomplished. The entire cost of the book was going to be $44 but I found a 15% discount coupon online and was able to only pay $38.94 for a 28-page colored album hard-cover with dust-jacket book.

Why Won't My Printer Print In Red?

I was so close to looking on Craigslist Ads for a used but in working order printer. However, I gave Google a chance and found a YouTube guy who was able to fix his printer by printing. Who'd have thunk that one, huh?! Not me. I did a Nozzle Check and a Head Cleaning twice and the printouts were worse each time! It has been a month or so since I've noticed the printer did not print in blue or red. When I did the nozzle check, blue barely showed up and red, nor yellow showed at all. Only black was working without any issues.

I had no idea until this evening browsing the web and reading how a printer works that all a "head cleaning" really is is a "dump" into some ink reservoire. Once that bucket is full of ink, your printer will shut down, forcing the owner to buy a new printer. At that point, your printer is beyond repairable. This is what companies want you to do, hence why a clean is really a dump. I don't know how much ink I have in this "reservoire dump" but hopefully I am just in the nick of time for saving the printer all-together.

As for how to actually get your printer working right, there's a few super easy steps involved. First of all, I have an Epson Workforce 610 Printer that are notoriously known for FAILING to print in red. I didn't know that either until I myself had issues with the red ink. Other than this super common issue, I love the Epson Workforce. It has done great printing jobs and rarely jams. Also the SD card and scanning function is superb. Gotta love that!

Here is how I fixed my printer in just one hour (but if you don't have the supplies, it may take longer):

1. Print the Nozzle Check only under Maintenance Settings. Do not hit "clean" once the nozzle check is done. 
2. Notice what color is NOT printing. For me, there was no red or yellow ink on the page. There was some blue but it had streaking (where the line is not solid)
3. Make notice of your inks. Are they genuine? I had a spare CYAN ink cartridge that was genuine Epson. I noticed the original one in the cartridge was not genuine and immediately assumed that this was part of the reason my blue was not printing correctly. 
1. Once I had snapped in the new cyan cartridge into it's correct slot, the blue started working again! 
4. Place only genuine cartridges in the ink slots. If you have all OEM versions, trash them. They are not working in your printer; maybe your printer has been designed to unrecognize it... you never know how the Engineers over in Japan think...
5. Open up a Word document. Write the colors you intend on printing. Start with the basic colors. Red, Yellow, Black and Blue. Make the font large, bold and underlined. It helps to clearly see the yellow when your document prints. Go to File > Print but before hitting "okay" on the Print, select your "Printer Properties" button and choose "Best Photo" for printing. It will spill the ink onto the page rather than into an ink reservoire within the printer. 
6. It may take more than one print job to get the ink flowing but it shouldn't take more than three. Get that ink out of the printer and onto the paper. I now have 3 working colors. I just know that when my Magenta comes in (just ordered); it will work again. I know this because the two colors I was using under OEM were Red and Blue. I had a genuine blue one laying around and now used it. Blue is working again. So Magenta / Red is all I need to get the entire printer working again. 
7. Never do a head clean. It just spits junk into your printer. Only commit to a Nozzle Check when things aren't printing well. 

Hope this helps everyone! 

DIY Patio Cushions (Part II) - No Sewing Machine

Yesterday my fabric came in the mail from fabric.com. They ship their fabric on poly mailers which surprised me. I think they purchase those in bundle on eBay since they are super cheap; however, the fabric itself does not look cheap at all! The fabric is beautiful. I will definitely order again. To remind my viewers, I ordered Richloom Solarium Outdoor Fabric. That link shows you the search results for all the choices you have for that brand of outdoor fabric. I ordered the styles in Kiwi and Navy.There are others but I truly love the Richloom Solarium the best because it's designed and pre-sprayed with Scotch Guard or some other equivalent fabric protection spray from UV rays and other weather conditions.

Now let me just tell you, I am probably one of the serious newbies on re-covering old cushions. I have never taken a class or learned previously on my own how to work with fabric, needle and thread. I don't like to spend a lot of money and even at a store like Ross and Marshalls, outdoor cushions were as low as $25 per cushion (minimum $100 for 4 cushions)!!! I spent $35 on 4 yards of fabric (my cushions are pretty much $8.75 each) that I plan to use to cover 4 to 5 cushions. I am estimating to have a small bit of leftover fabric as well for other projects. I think I need another yard; however, in a different fabric design for smaller cushions for back-rests. It would look adorable!

Okay let me tell you how I actually did this project with ZERO experience and NO sewing Machine. (I've owned two but got so frustrated using them since my foot could not control the speed at all and my sewing got out of control... so I prefer to go by hand until I get comfortable with stitch). Baby steps...

Here are my steps:

1. Watch some videos on YouTube about how to cover patio cushions and/or make pillows
2. Buy your fabric: 2 Yards in each Fabric will cover about 3 cushions if they measure 19.5 x 19.5. 
3. Know how much a yard is in fabric. I learned that it's about 36 wide and whatever length the company designates the length. When you order the fabric they will tell you on the listing or description the length is 54" or 64" etc. 
4. When you receive your fabric, get super excited and squeal at how awesomely pretty it is!
5. Use a long quilting needle (its about 2.5 inches in length) so you have firm control over your needle and no issues with breakage on the needle or thread. 
6. Use heavy-duty thread. Use a color that goes well with your fabric because your last seam will have to show the thread. 
7. Lay your cushion over the fabric and re-adjust its position until you feel your fabric will cover the entire cushion. Make sure you have a minimum of an inch on each side of the fabric too for the rounded part of the cushion. You wouldn't want to be short on those sides. 
8. I used a ruler on the backside of the fabric and marked a straight line that I want my thread to run on. I created a second line above that about a centimeter apart for my second lined stitch. I did a straight line all throughout the fabric and then a criss-cross stitch between the two lines. It may be over-stitching but I was worried it wasn't going to be durable enough and fall apart on me. I wanted to do it right the first time. 
9. I had the back-side of the fabric facing me and sewed the two sides together on the lines I had created. I didn't want to have a crooked stitch and it helped to have a place to pinpoint the needle quickly. 
1. On each knot that I had created when running out of thread, I used fabric glue to seal the knot and let it dry for 10 minutes. 
10. On the last open side, I flipped the fabric to the correct side and checked my seams. Then, I stuffed the old cushion inside (did not remove the fabric on that cushion at all since the interior of that cushion had horse hair in it instead of foam... kind of grossed out by that discovery but didn't want to deal with removing all that hair)
11. I folded the fabric about an inch inward (toward the cushion) and held it tight. I began my stitch like that and did one line all the way across first. I went back since I had extra thread and did another line across and tied the thread with my initial knot's excess thread. I knotted it like 5 times. 
12. Again, even on the outside, I had glued together my knots to seal them really well and protect them from breaking. 

Here are the cushions that I used to have. They were green and brown but have faded into a terrible and hideous color. 

Here is my upgraded cushion (and remember, I have zero experience and no sewing machine). It took me a day and a half to complete just one cushion. I know, I know... with a sewing machine, it'd take me a few hours but like I said, I'm not too good with a sewing machine. 

When I'm totally done, I'll upload a picture of all 4 and on their proper chairs. For now, it's back to work... on cushion 2....

My Husband Just Trashed the Patio I Cleaned!!

UGGGGHHHH. I'm livid right now. His one day off he just destroys the really cute sitting area I had made! I spent all day working on it yesterday trying to get ready for summer. I would like to have people over and the kids sit outside. It would be nice to look out and see a NICE yard. Now it's back to it's crappiness view that we had before yesterday. Like are you kidding me?! He's like "What'd I do?!?!!?" and he spent less than 10 minutes moving the crap back into view of the window so everyone can see the awful marble table he also ruined. We bought the marble table 2 years ago slightly chipped on the corners. Now the legs are peeling their original stained color so the table is completely icky. I was going to Craigslist it next week and have it on curb-alert. I probably still will but he just moved it even farther from the side door in the yard so I got to work ten times harder. Last week he had put this disgusting residue paste onto the chipped marble table and all over my drywalls that had holes. It dried looking like SHIT. Even the kids are like... "what is on the wall dad, it looks like poop!!!?!" It's embarrassing how an engineer can destroy things. He didn't even smooth it down so I could just paint over it. It's all clumped together and dried hard as a rock (which was the point) ....

Now I got empty bins, someone else's lawn mower, and more crap outside. I just don't get men. I had cleaned out his garage too and guess what? That looks like shit again. Everything is everywhere, he has no idea how to put anything back into its spot. He just leaves everything a mess. And the weird thing is he wasn't like this before  we got married. He cleaned up things and helped out. Now it's just TV and video games. It is driving me nuts and I just want to cry.

I feel like he keeps ruining all my hard work. I know I don't bring home the money but I keep the house in super-nice condition. And he's home for a weekend or a holiday and the house just gets disorderly. He doesn't even do laundry. He mowes the small patch of grass that we have... that's it. And leaves me the rest to clean up. I'm just sick of it. I can't talk to him about it because I get so upset and angry at him. When we did our front lawn last weekend, he had trimmed a tree but left me ALL the branches to clean up. He would not work on the project with me when we got home. He just said, "Yah! You rock!" and while that's a great compliment, it really sucks cause I waste time cleaning up his messes.

Does anyone else have these husband problems?!?! I just don't get it. Why can't he be CLEAN?! He had an awesome house before me back in Florida and yes, we are renters here in AZ but still. Freakin' aye! Keep it darn clean! And don't move my projects... please!

Patio Updo: Painting the Wooden Swing

I rain out of my Minwax Polyshades "American Chestnut Gloss 475" before I could even get 50% of the swing done; however wanted to post what the difference in shades look like. The swing came with the house and seems firmly planted into the ground. I sanded the cajolla's out of the "legs" of the swing. This is what the swing looked like yesterday... and all the times it's been around not being used....

Yeah, dull, boring, looks about as ugly as the rocks below it. Arizonians love rocks. Ugh! Why?! Oh yea, NO maintenance. But they tend to look kinda ugly and boring. Anyhow, this is what I'm doing today and probably tomorrow if I can get more stain.

The color is much richer and more appealing to the eye. Once the whole bench is done, I think this will look very nice and finally be used! Let's cross our fingers and hope that somebody besides me will sit in it! Now I know to mix the minwax paint too. Ha, oops.