Tag: kaella

St. Patrick’s Day Quote Sharpie Mug DIY

by kaella, posted in Uncategorized

Irish Quotesharpie mug

One of my favorite holidays is St. Patty’s Day because there is so much more behind the day besides green beer and dressing in green. This day began as a celebration of Christianity arriving in Ireland with a day of feast. Since the first St. Patty’s Day, this holiday has become one of the most celebrated around the world. It is celebrating the luck of the Irish, the good fortune life has brought into our lives and looking forward to the greatness the future holds for us.

Now, I am not Irish or at least that I know of but my 3 older children are Irish on their father’s side so I have embraced celebrating this holiday for them. I love to make brisket and cabbage with soda bread. I am not a beer drinker but I will do enjoy drinking some Bailey’s Irish Cream in my coffee. Of course, we dress in green and decorate the house in a fun Irish way with shamrocks and rainbows.

I LOVE and collect fun coffee mugs but haven’t found one for my St. Patty’s “special” coffee or one that was affordable (sorry I won’t pay $10-$20 for a cool mug unless its keeping my coffee hot for hours). I decided to take matters into my own hands and make my own Irish inspired mug.

Something else I love is quotes which includes Irish Blessings. I have some Irish Blessings that are displayed in my house year round because they have a special meaning that I cherish. These blessings are so beautiful and inspiring that I wanted one on a mug for the special day for my special coffee.

I grabbed my sharpie markers and bought an affordable, white mug from Walmart to do this Sharpie Irish Mug project. A lot of people prefer to use Sharpie oil-based Paint Markers but regular markers will work just as well and less of a mess for kids to make a mug of their own. The difference in the permanent marker and paint marker is you will want hand wash the permanant marker whereas you can put the paint marker mug in the dishwasher,

I chose “May Your Day Be Touched With A Bit of Irish Luck”which started on one end of the mug and wrapped to the other end. Then I added a shamrock, a rainbow and a pot of gold. I wish y green sharpie would have been brighter but it was still cute.

This is the tricky part… for permanent markers set your mug on a cookie sheet in the oven THEN turn the oven to 350 degrees. Once the oven reaches 350 degrees, bake the mug for 30 minutes. After the 30 minutes, turn the oven off but DO NOT take the mug out of the oven until it is completely cooled so that the mug doesn’t crack from cooling to fast. I usually keep the mug in the oven for at least an hour. For Paint markers, you will want to do the same instructions EXCEPT the oven will be set to 250 degrees for 30-40 minutes depending on how thick you applied the paint.

Now its time to wash your mug, enjoy some special coffee and celebrate St. Patty’s Day!

Do Coupons Really Matter?

by kaella, posted in Couponing and Saving, Uncategorized

Is Couponing Worth It_

For more years than I want to admit, I have been couponing on and off…. though more off then on because I would either forget it was Sunday to buy the papers, I was too lazy to cut the coupons before I went shopping or I would just forget the coupons at home when I was already in the grocery store. Also, I was doubtful that I was really saving any money because I would have to purchase 2 or 3 of a product just to get the $1 off. Well this past week taught me the lesson that I need to learn to be frugal and that there are good coupons and deals if I just pay attention!

 

So we all know of the extreme couponers that have a format to how they coupon and purchase like $200 worth of groceries for $20 (maybe a little extreme but not really if you watch the shows and documentaries). In my mind, those extreme couponers were a little crazy and had too much time on their hands which I didn’t have. Now, I do have the time on my hands and the financial need to cut down on our spending costs so I better start paying attention to what they are doing and copying their money-saving ways.

My lesson from last week is this…. Shoprite (our local go to grocery store for good deals) had Arm & Hammer laundry detergent on sale for $1.99 plus there was a coupon out in the world for a $1 off the detergent which means you can buy the detergent for just $.99! Well that $1 savings could go towards the fresh fruit and veggies that my family devours in a day or less.

Lately, at my go to couponing place, I could have easily purchased 10 bottles for $1 each BUT I only had 1 coupon for regular detergent and 1 coupon for the sensitive skin (Danyella and the new baby). So I ordered (yes I order my groceries which will be a future post) 1 bottle of regular scented detergent and 1 bottle of the sensitive skin detergent and used my coupons. After putting the groceries away, I was kicking myself in the ass about the detergent situation so I waddled my ass around Shoprite to get more of the detergent without the coupons. (insert crying face emoji here haha) I mean with how much our dog sheds, I needed as much detergent as I could get at that price!

 

Lesson learned because we go through detergent so often with a furry puppy. The next place I  have been looking for coupons has been coupons.com because I can easily print of the coupons and why would I need to go over their limit of only printing the coupon 1 time when I don’t usually stock up on things. (BIG MISTAKE AND LESSON LEARNED FOR A FUTURE POST COMING SOON!)

 

Photo Aug 13, 12 15 01 PM

Next lesson on coupons I learned…. I may never become one of those extreme couponers but this morning I got out of bed early (a rarity just ask my boyfriend husband) and went to Wawa to purchase 2 Sunday papers to get those coupons. (“Christina” has found us a hook up to get a set of 10 papers to split and save us the trip and money!)

As I am cutting the coupons from 2 different papers (don’t know why I decided to try 2 different papers but something told me to do it), I find out that not all papers have the same damn coupons! The one paper had more coupons than the other but the other paper had a rebate coupon that doesn’t expire until March of next year. Shit now do I buy 2 of each of those papers? Yes, I do buy the one paper for “Christina” and I and she gets us the hook up for the other paper so we can use all the savings we can get!

This is a bit overwhelming and a little exciting at the same time. I am trying to find other ways to save money before this baby gets here and we have to add baby stuff to the grocery list. Since this is going to be an ongoing challenge for me, I am starting a series on couponing and saving on Sundays. If you have any tips or stories of your own please feel free to comment below.

*Check out how to make your own coupon binder: Create your own Coupon Binder

* Need help learning couponing terms: Couponing Terms with Printable List

**Since, writing this post last year, I have been finding better ways to save with coupons and I can’t wait to share my post this weekend on using these coupons to stockpile so be on the look out!

Dry as the Sahara

by kaella, posted in Uncategorized

Dry As the sahara

For 35, almost 36 years, I have HATED drinking water with a passion! There was just no taste to it, whereas juices, sodas, teas and coffee, all had a taste that I enjoyed. So lets just say, I have spent my entire life overindulging in sweet drinks to attempt to hydrate my body. What a mistake, that I am paying for now!

I have always had dry skin but I really thought it was just the type of skin I have and kept on ignoring my body’s request for pure water, not water mixed with something yummy. You have read about how I lack any energy to do much after I am done working and how I have no control over my increased appetite (especially for something sweet). I mean it just seemed easier to ignore all the signs that I was dehydrating my body and essentially killing it.

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Since challenging myself to get the body I desire, which doesn’t just mean losing the extra pounds I have gained but re-energizing my body and my mind, I have started to do research on what foods and drinks were best for me to partake in. Well the number one thing that was repeated over and over and over…. Drinking water can heal my symptoms!

Drinking water can help with my skin problems, fatigue and lack of energy, joint and muscle aches, IBS problems and so much more but I now have to undo the years of abuse I caused my body by dehydrating it for sooooo long. So I began to research how much water I should be drinking and found a great article that breaks down that each person is different according to weight and activity level. I found out for my 150 pound, low activity body that I need to drink 100 ounces of water everyday. That is alot…. hell I think I drink that much coffee in a day but how am I going to drink that much water??? (to check out the article and chart go to Slender Kitchen’s article!

As I was researching and realizing how much I need to drink these 100 ounces of water, I set out to make a plan. I downloaded WaterMinder on my Iphone so I can input how much water, juice, coffee etc and watch how much more I need to drink to hit my goal. The app will send me reminder notifications to drink water to stay hydrated which is a nice thing because working, running a business, taking care a child, boyfriend, puppy and a house tends to make me forget things easily!

Then I went to Walmart, bought a gallon of water, marked it “DO NOT DRINK” and set it in my fridge so that I can watch my progress of drinking that gallon of water everyday. So far I have averaged half of the gallon everyday so about 60 ounces of water. I won’t lie it has been a struggle to get it down but each day its been a little easier to drink a little more water and a little less sweet things.

I am going to feature a daily post on my Facebook business page with an update on my water intake for 30 days. I am going to record how I am feeling, when I miss my goal and how its been making my body go from the Sahara to an ocean of hydrating water! If you want to follow my journey on my Facebook page Click on Kaella Boutique

Here is a great poster with facts about how water and dehydration affects the body:

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