Homemade Chicken Pot Pie: Easier Than You Think

Chicken Pot Pie

All time favorite at my house.

Make Dog Treats At Home: Natural, Quick and Easy

Delicious Dog Treats Using Stuff On Hand 

The other night I was making a chicken pot pie from a chicken I had boiled earlier in the day.

I needed the broth to boil my potatoes and carrots in, it creates a richer flavor in the pie.

Well, you know how you get that chicken stuff that floats to the top of the broth.

Stuff that I skim off and toss. 

I thought to myself, "why are you throwing this away?, your dogs would love it"

as they were swarming around me.

It was like a light bulb went off. 

Make some dog treats with it!

I finished draining it and put that chicken stuff in a bowl.

Walked to the pantry and grabbed some good stuff for them.

I ended up grabbing oatmeal, Flaxseed meal and pumpkin seed meal.

Mix it all to a consistency that looked like it would bake well.

I happen to notice a half eaten apple that someone just left on the counter.

Wasn't that sweet of them.

So I grated it up and put it on top of the dough.

I used a round cake pan lined with parchment paper and 

pushed the mixture around the pan to a thin layer.

Baked it with the pot pie at 375 degrees.

When it looked and felt crisp, I took it out to cool.

After it cooled I was able to break into pieces.

The dogs loved it.

I love treating my doggies.

My hubby jokes that our dogs eat better than we do.

Really its because they don't complain about my cooking :)

These were so easy to make and were done at the same time of the pie.

Which was a bonus.  Dogs were happy and I loved having a treat for them.

I wanted to share this not really because of the recipe but because of the easiness of 

making use of what we have and not being wasteful.

My Dog Treats Ingredients were:

Chicken pieces (residue) and broth

Oatmeal

Flaxseed meal

Pumpkin seed meal

apple pieces.

Desk Remade: From EWW to New

A couple months ago my son asked me for a desk for his room.  Sounds easy enough.  Not really.  It needed to be a certain size, so that it didn't seem overbearing for his small room.  Shopping online got a little overwhelming none of them seemed to fit the bill without being over $300.  My son grew inpatient.  One Saturday I found a desk that was the right size, but it was pink and white.  Then I noticed the desk was wood and pressed cardboard.  The desk was $15, I debated and debated wondering can I make this into something.  The only reason I went for it was the price and it really was the right dimensions.  Here is before.......

and after....

Thrifty Thanksgiving Table: Dollar Store DIY

Thanksgiving 

I love Thanksgiving.  

The smells in the house, the fall colors in the house and

having family around. 

This year I tasked each kiddo with cooking one item.  

I love getting them involved.  I have found they eat better when they help.

DECORATING THE TABLE

Decorating the table is always an attention grabber.

This year all I bought were some fake leaves and votives from the Dollar Tree.

summer deals on flowers

So excited...

I needed to run to Lowe's to pick up some spray paint and 

couldn't help but check out the clearance plants in the plant dept.

They had carts of $1 plants. YAY!

I snatched me up a cart and loaded it.

So next time you are passing Lowe's try to stop in and check their clearance.

You might just go home with a cart full of flowers for $11.

What an impact you can make at your house for $11.

Secret to sparkly dishes..... Vinegar

 

Vinegar. 

Simply the cheapest and multi purpose item out there.

It's AWESOME!!!

I get mine at Costco, I go through it pretty fast.

There are so many ways to use vinegar, but the one I wanted to share with you is for the dishwasher.

We put a old coffee cup in the bottom rack of our dishwasher and fill it

up with vinegar every time we run the dishwasher.

It took about a month and I was starting to question wether is was working or not.

Let's face it that is a lot of vinegar to use if it is not going to work.  But one day,

it was a load of beautiful sparkly dishes like on TV.  I wanted to note, I do use it with the dishwasher tabs.

The other day I didn't have any vinegar.  Can you believe I ran out.

So I did a couple  loads without it.  My daughter was unloading the dishes and asked,

"Mom why do the dishes have this filmy stuff on them?" UGH.

Lesson learned, it works.  We have hard water, the vinegar helps keep the lime down.

This week I started using it in every load of my washing machine. 

We will see how that goes.

Flea market madness in Warrenton, TX

 Twice a year in Warrenton, TX

They hold miles of flea markets. When you first get there you are overwhelmed.

I have only been twice and I still don't think I understand

how to navigate through the thousands of vendors.

I have managed to convince my husband to tag along every time.

I love having him with me because he helps me to see where I can put something

or does it have potential, there is less impulse spending that way.

Vintage Doors Become Backdrop for Our Bedroom

I finally finished those doors that we picked up at a flea market. 

I got to say I love how they turned out.

I sanded them and touched up some of the paint and sanded again.

My awesome husband figured out how to put them together.

Then I found the perfect wreath at Target.

Have I ever told you? That I absolutely LOVE Boxwoods.

With the wreath the whole thing cost $140.00.

How to Make A Belly Band for Male Dogs

So my male dog is notorious for marking.

No matter how much I let him out, I find a spot.

It drives me crazy. I stumbled upon a 

site that showed belly bands and I thought hey that 

might help. They are reasonably priced but I thought I 

would try to make my own.  So I went to my fabric stash

and had at it.  The following is what I did.

Amazing tip for your Paint Brush

Here is a helpful tip when you paint!

When you are painting and have to stop and wait for it to dry between coats.

 First, I don't like waiting. Second, I don't want to clean the brush. 

Just to wait an hour or two in between coats.

Here is the tip.....

Put the brush in a bag (like a plastic grocery bag) and put it in the refrigerator. Then pull it out when you are ready to paint. It comes out fresh and no hard bristles.  I Love this tip!!!

My daughter shared that with me.

When I find something that makes things a little more simpler I love sharing those tips.

Next time you paint have a bag handy :)

Baby Shower On A Budget

 This is my oldest, Katie.  She is having her first baby.  A little boy.  Together we worked on her shower so she also has photos on her blog, Old Burlap & Lace.  I know that parties can get expensive and sometimes break the budget.  We tried to find ways to be creative, have  fun and still maintain a budget.  With the help of pinterest and our heads here is what we did.  

Refinishing a shelf

So I decided to do 2 projects this weekend. We have had such beautiful weather this week I just has to start a project.
I enlisted the help if my 15 year old son. He loves to help. He loves having a task. He did a great job of sanding this shelf, that I am wanting to use in our bedroom.

Decorating for a dollar!

I love Saturday mornings!
Just because it is Saturday, but also it is my day to go to yard sales. It is my shopping fix. I was able to decorate my kitchen window for a dollar. Yay!
You never know what you will find.....

Cleaning tip - battle soap scum

 I was scouring the internet for cheap cleaning tips the other day. With 3 kids and a husband forgetting to wipe down the shower it can build up fast. To be honest it is just hard to keep up with cleaning it. I have a hard time paying a lot for those expensive soap. Scum products and I haven't found one I just LOVE.

Flea market days Marburger farms

I have heard about how wonderful the flea market is at Marburger farms. It is only twice a year, so the pressure to go was on.
It was miles of flea markets! A little overwhelming but such an experience.
The only thing is kids poop out fast.
Here are the pictures of our time there.
Of course I had to get a pumpkin! Ah so cute.

Vintage Doors

Stay tuned...... See what will become of these wonderful doors.

Beauty tip from a household item

So my daughter shared with me that Jennifer Anniston puts Vaseline around her eyes at night. I don't know if she really does but I tried it and I love the results! I want to share this with everyone, it's something everyone can afford. I always knew Vaseline was multi purpose. Go ahead try it tonight.

The Dresser Make Over

The Dresser Make Over

Before

After

My parents gave me this dresser and nightstand, 16 yrs ago.

I wanted something different, but felt that the pieces had character

and sentimental value. And now that our house had wood 

walls I had all the motivation I needed.  

I need a pillow; Let's see what I can make!

So here's the material I found in my stash.  An old shirt, a skirt and three pillow cases.  I knew I wanted a bird on my pillow, so my wonderful husband sketched one out for me.

Wicker Coffee Table Project

Exciting find; I see so much potential with this coffee table.  Someone was throwing this wicker table
away and my son brought it home and said, "do you want this?" I said,"oh, thank you, so much". I just knew it would be perfect on the front porch with a glass of tea sitting on it.