Goodbye August, Hello Fall!

These pictures didn't get featured in "the Blog". But, I thought they should get their day of fame so here they are.








These are some projects I made for gifts. Fun!

This was actually July, right before the Ham's birthday party. It may look cluttered, but it was SO much cleaner than it's been in 2 years! And, we even got the car in for a week or two!

JC ran new wiring and put up these beautiful new lights, to match the light at our front door. So handy!!!

Here he is, scraping paint. A much bigger job than he thought it would be. He did get primer up before Ham's party...way to make the wife happy!

Here's that matching light. He put this up last summer. I painted the front door this summer and put up a fancy-shmancy Uppercase Living expression!

JC worked hard to bring up all his old toys from MIL's basement. Uncle Aaron kindly put it together for JC, in between our visits.

Look how big that toy is!!!

Les, my cousin and I helped our Gramma organize her sewing and crafts. This is what it looked like after we pulled everything out. We got it all out, packed up and put away in 1/2 a day! I'm bummed I didn't get an "after" pic! We used to help Gramma clean when we were kids, so this was fun for me; brought back lots of fond memories.

And, a couple kitchen projects. To save some money, I stuck 2 bags of beans in the crockpot, filled it with water and left it on low over night. The next day, I let it cool and then drained the beans, reserving the liquid. I measure 2 cups into quart sized freezer bags and added some liquid. Put in the freezer so I could have black beans, quick & easy. I got 7 baggies full, so I figure if a can costs .75¢ and a bag costs $1.15, I easily saved $3. Not much, but that adds up!

Also, for a time saver, I took 4 lbs of ground beef and mixed it with eggs, bread crumbs, ketchup and seasonings. Divided it into quarters and made 2 meatloafs and 10 large meatballs and 20 small meatballs. I wrapped the meatloafs and froze them. I froze the meatballs on the cookie sheet and then transferred them into baggies. Now, I'll have 4, quick and easy meals!