Grocery IQ Review

So yesterday I finally put my grocery shopping list on the Grocery IQ app on my iPhone to take shopping with me and now I am kicking myself for waiting so damn long. I have had it on my phone since the day I got it, almost a year ago, and on my iTouch before then. Silly me just never took the time to actually use it. Boy am I glad I did. It did take quite a bit of time to get the list entered yesterday and the hubs was making fun of me for taking longer to get ready to go to the store than it would take to actually do the shopping, but it was great once I got to the store. I also used the coupon options to print coupons to my wireless printer, no wireless printer?? No worries you can simply email them to yourself and print from your computer.

I used the scan option to put in a few groceries that we buy often and still had the packages for currently in the house, what a GREAT feature. It was quick and easy to use and found everything I scanned in the pantry. There were a couple of items that I had a hard time finding, like the Red Bell Pepper, I didn't realize that I had to go to Pepper and find the variety in the list. I was also a tad confused with the weight vs. package option as I thought I could put in 28 oz in weight, which is only in pounds, but there is an option to change the package size under canned, bagged and boxed items. Now that I know this it will be easier to change things next time I go shopping! And because I have no added a ton of stuff to my favorites, entering them in next time will be much faster, although I am hoping they soon add a "search" option to the favorites section.

I loved how I was able to make two separate lists, one for Costco and one for the Commissary (military grocery store). When I was unable to find something at Costco I was able to quickly move it from one list to the other, as I went to Costco first and then headed to the Commissary to finish up. I also loved the fact that as I checked things off my list they moved to the bottom of the page so I didn't have to scroll through them when seeing what else I needed to shop for.

All in all shopping with Grocery IQ rather than a paper an pen list was a great experience. I still need to learn how to move the aisles around to match my store, but I figured I would save that for my next shopping trip. Looking forward to using this program over and over and over again.

Thank you GROCERY IQ!!!!!! You can find it HERE for only 99 cents!!

Menus and Shopping Lists

I may not have talked about this on my blog before but every pay period I write a menu for the 14-16 days until the next payday, write my grocery list up and head to the store. I do this because it saves me time and it saves my family a lot of money. Not only does it help me to not want to go out to eat every other day but it prevents me from making small grocery trips that end with a $50-$80 bill. So my goal from now on is to share my menu with my blogger friends! The menu is totally flexible although I do try to use the meals with fresh produce in them first for obvious reasons. So for the next two weeks we will be having:

Spicy Tangerine Beef - Weight Watchers in 20 Minutes Cookbook
Olive Gardens Chicken Gnocchi Soup - www.recipezarr.com
Homemade Pizza - www.ourbestbites.com
Italian Bean Soup - Weight Watchers All Time Favorites Cookbook
Mexican Chicken Soup - My friend Kelly shared this with me
Hunan Chicken - Weight Watchers All Time Favorites Cookbook
Tacos
Leftovers
Sweet and Sour Pineapple chicken - Weight Watchers in 20 minutes Cookbook
Spaghetti
Steak with Asparagus and Pea Risotto - Weight Watchers All Time Favorites Cookbook
Sloppy Joes - Weight Watchers All Time Favorites Cookbook
BBQ Pork Sammies - Weight Watchers All Time Favorites Cookbook - with Baked Beans
Leftovers
Meat Loaf - Weight Watchers All Time Favorites Cookbook - with mashed potatoes

You may notice a weight watchers theme here, it's because yes I am trying to lose weight. I am down 10.7 lbs in just 30 days. I have 30 more lbs to go so until then the whole family will be eating meals that I can count points for. In the past I have cooked for the family and eaten a frozen dinner myself. This works for a period of time and I eventually fall off the wagon and gain most if not all the weight back. So this time I am trying to change how we eat as a family and learn about portion control as well as counting my points. I hope and pray this time I can take it off and keep it off.

Right now I am off to put my grocery list in my iphone using Grocery IQ so I can head to the grocery store and get my shopping done!! If you have an iphone and have never seen the app you should check it out.

Leave comments if you would also like to start seeing my grocery lists ;) If I have enough interest I will start writing those up as well. Heck I can probably even email it to myself from Grocery IQ and copy/paste it here ;)

Dismembered Swine

So I will be the first to admit that I have issues when it comes to starting a project and then not finishing it, so my goal for this year is to finish at least 1 project a month that I started some time ago. I started this here swine in December with the intention of finishing it right away...yeah that so didn't happen. But as you can see from the pictures above and below he is well on his way to being done!! I hope to auction him off to raise money for the Breast Cancer 3 Day I will be participating in this coming October. Hopefully I will have him done by the 31st to keep up with my goal...

Can't wait to show him off in his finished state. He is the very first completed project from Susan B. Anderson's Itty-Bitty Toys...and there are so many others I want to start from that book but soooo many things on my 1/2 done list that need to be completed. Sigh...if only there were 24 more hours in the day one could dedicate solely to crafts.

Not Me! Monday

It's been awhile since I have posted and I am forever reading MckMama's Not Me! Monday's and I thought I would share in the fun!

I have never gone into the apple store, or any other store for that reason and pulled the military card to have them fix something for free, nope not me. I have also never washed and dried all the laundry only to leave it unfolded so that when my kids asked to earn Wii time they would have something to do that I despise, nope not me! I have also never left my 2 year old in pajamas for 4 days in a row because I hate to do said laundry, no...not me. (but I did change his pajamas each night so at least he had clean ones for the next day) ;)

Because They Tug on My Heart Strings....

When I saw this pattern preview by Susan B. Anderson posted on the Spud and Chloe blog I knew instantly that I had to make them for Lippy Lou and Lynner for Valentine's Day. Normally we don't give the kids gifts on Valentine's Day but after I saw these I knew I just had to! So after waiting what felt like WEEKS, even tho it was only days I got started as soon as the pattern was released.

It took me only 4 days to complete both hats, although if I was able to sit and just knit straight it would have only taken me about 1.5 hrs each to knit them. They are so squishy soft and I am planning on making a few more to auction off for my 3 Day Walk in the next few weeks.

Now that I have knit the girls something for V-day I am going to have to come up with something to make for The Fish, Ky Guy on the other hand has expressed that he doesn't want me to knit him anything...silly 12 yr old boys! Perhaps The Fish will get this adorable Zebra Puppet from The Itty-Bitty Knits book.

And speaking of patterns a friend of mine, Kathryn Oates of Tot Toppers, is donating 50% of all proceeds from the sales of 11 of her knitting patterns on Ravelry. For more information check out her blog at http://www.tottoppers.com/2010/01/help-for-haiti.html

Helping Those in Haiti

An old friend of mine, Corrigan Clay, and his wife Shelley live and work in Haiti at an orphanage and run The ApParent Project and have been affected by the recent earthquakes. So this weekend from RIGHT NOW until Monday January 18th at midnight I will be donating 25% of all sales on my Etsy Store and Ebay, to their cause. If you are interested in hearing more about the ApParent Project please click the link above.

Latest Knit Hat

I had the pleasure of test knitting this cute little hat and it turned out great, although a little too small for The Fish so I will be gifting it to my friend's son, Owen. Yes I mean YOUR son Cherry! The only kicker is we need to get together so you can have it, along with those binky leashes that have been sitting on craft table for a couple of months...

Anywho this hat was knit in Spud and Chloe Sweater yarn with Rootbeer and Toast, so yes it looks good enough to eat! The pattern can be found HERE on Ravelry, and the good news is it's FREE! It is a rib knit that alternates with the color changes and has a ton of stretch, just not enough to fit The Fish, Pattern says size small will stretch to 22" and The Fish's head measures 20" so I would suggest going up a size... Overall it was a quick knit that I will definitely do again!

PJ's and Attitudes....

I was finally able to finish the girls PJ sets I have been working on for months. I put them on the back burner to make dishcloths and other Christmas gifts and such. They were so excited to finally be able to wear them and clean out the old! The only problem was they had some serious attitude issues when taking pictures...so here is the best we did....

All of the tops were purchased at Old Navy and either left alone or altered. I had fun making them match some of the jammies and others well I just wanted to be done with the project so they stayed plain, but the girls are begging me to add something fun so that might come later. The pictures did turn out ok in the end but let me tell you it was a fight to get them to pose for me yesterday which they are normally camera hogs! Guess we all have our bad days... Now on to the next project....

Repurposed Dresses

My girls absolutely loved this dress, they each had one and they wore them any chance they got, I was forever making sure they were in the wash! They would beg me to wear them more than one day in a row and often times did wear them more than once a week. So when they no longer fit you can imagine how sad Lippy Lou and Lynner were. I took one look at them and KNEW just what to do! So I turned them into these!!!

Lynner



Lippy Lou



I felt like I had to include this one as it is a typical expression on the Lynner's face....especially when it comes to Lippy Lou's goofiness.

They were cute dresses, and held up VERY well. I found them at Target one winter after Christmas for around $4 each. So cute new skirts for both girls for FREE! I will admit the material was a pain in the butt to work with, but the look on their faces when they were done was oh so worth it! These have been on the back burner for MONTHS and I am so glad to say they are done, as are a few more back burner projects to be seen soon!