What Would You Like to See in 2012?

Hi everyone!

Today’s post is more a question to all of you. I am curious to see what kind of posts you would like to see here at The Thrifty Groove in 2012.

I have to be honest with you guys. I could write blog posts all day long. Seriously! I love to write and I rarely run out of things to write about. You wouldn’t believe all the blog posts I have written that have never made it to this blog. That is why I ended up creating a personal private blog a couple of years ago. I can just write and write and write.

The one thing that will always remain the same on this blog is thriftiness! Whether it is finds, alternatives, organizing, recipes, projects or cleaning, everything I do is based around being thrifty.

  I can tell you that for 2012, my keyword for the year is going to be ORGANIZE. I have a very full plate when it comes to all the different things I do on a daily basis. And I see the coming year being totally chaotic if  I am not organized. Some areas in which organization is vital in my opinion are:

• Routines
• Meal Planning
• De-Cluttering (can’t organize clutter)
• Simplifying areas in my life
• Prioritizing
• Keeping on top of our finances.
• Searching out thriftier alternatives.

These are my personal areas to focus on this year. I may or may not do posts about them. I am not sure how many people would be interested in these topics.

But, I really would enjoy knowing what things you like to read about here on The Thrifty Groove! It helps me decided what should be published in this blog or my personal blog.

So, please feel free to tell me your opinions and ideas! I truly appreciate it!

And let me take this moment to wish each and everyone of you a fantastic 2012!!

Thrifty Things Friday #39

Hi everyone!

This is the last TTF party for 2011. Can you believe it! As I posted yesterday, today, feel free to repost a past favorite thrifty find or idea or a brand new thrifty post.

I am posting one of my favorite thrifty tablescape. This wasn’t a post for TTF or my Thrifty Tablescape party. It was originally posted last April. At that point I was so tired of cold and gloomy days and one day the sun was shining so, I grabbed these pretty pink and yellow dishes and did my tablescape.

You can find the original post with lots more pictures here!

I had wanted pink chargers for this table setting  so, I took cheap thrifted chargers and spray painted them pink to match.

I also painted some clearanced plain napkin rings pink and added pretty little flowers on them. And I made the pretty pale pink overlay napkin.

I bought the 23 piece yellow Harkerware set of dishes at the flea market (some are plain yellow and others have white daisies on them) for a grand total of $1.00!

I also made the three tiered serving dish from thrifted china.

The entire table was made up of thrift finds.

It was the first sign of Spring the day I set this table so, the pretty softer colors just made me smile! 

I am not showing any featured posts from last week’s party because I haven’t visited everyone yet (as of when I am writing this post).  

I hope all of you are enjoying the last days of 2011 and reflecting back on the happy and positive things that happened this past year!

I'm joining Whats it Wednesday

Santa Candy

Hi everyone!

I grew up with the custom of Santa bringing candy and leaving it in dishes through out the living room and dining room. This was one of the exciting things we looked forward to as kids. We didn’t have a lot of candy on a regular basis in our house so, this was a huge treat.

Santa brought us some candy as well. And believe me, Santa really tried to use constraint in buying the candy!

There was more but, you get the idea.

Well, after allowing the princess one free for all day on Christmas, we have been letting her have a few pieces each day. Which is hard when she is looking at it all day long. And the bigger problem is Troy and I! LOL In the evening while watching TV, it is way to difficult to resist! And you can easily eat it without even realizing it!

So, now the candy is all in the cookie jar. It’s harder to get to and you are aware of getting it. We all still pick out a few pieces a day but, no longer is it in our face!

Do you have Santa candy and if so, do you leave it out until it is all eaten or do you put it away?

This Week’s Thrifty Things Friday party

Hi everyone!

Wow, this week’s TTF party is the last one for 2011! Where did the year go?

I am sure a lot of us haven’t done much thrifting this past week so, I thought we could open up this week’s TTF party a bit.

Please feel free to share some of your favorite thrift finds or thrifty ideas from the past year with us. Or share some of your Christmas photos with all of us.

If you have some new thrift finds or ideas, of course you are welcome to share them as well.

Feel free to share a past post that made you smile during the 2011 year!

Let’s just have a fun party! The TTF post will be up tomorrow at 4:00. See you there!

New Traditions

Hi everyone!

Wow Christmas 2011 is already past! I hope all of you had a fantastic Christmas day! We did. However, some major changes for us happened. We usually host our International Christmas Dinner on Christmas evening for my parents. We started this tradition when Troy and I first got married. It was our first tradition as a married couple. Well, we never expected that a little princess would come into our lives.

Her first couple of Christmas’s didn’t really effect our Christmas dinner. But, this year, she was totally aware of things and was really into Christmas. And we decided that we did not want to rush through this joyous day just so we could spend the bulk of Christmas day cooking and baking and preparing this elaborate meal. Our focus wanted to be on the princess and creating wonderful memories with her. My parents totally agreed with us.

We all decided that we did not want to give up this fun tradition. So, we are switching our International Christmas Dinner to our International New Year’s Day Dinner.

After “Santa” left and before the Princess woke up.

This Christmas, when we woke up, we enjoyed opening our stocking gifts and relaxed a little then headed over to my mom’s for her Christmas Brunch. After visiting and eating, we headed home and opened our Christmas presents. It was almost an all day affair. We stayed in our pj’s all day and the Princess had a blast with all her fun gifts from Santa.

It was an “Art” full Christmas for the Princess. She wanted all kinds of arts and crafts supplies and was so exited to get her own “art station” (that is what they call it in her class) 

We ended our day by finally getting the very wired but, totally exhausted Princess into bed and then Troy and I watched our favorite Christmas movie and enjoyed some quiet time reflecting the day.

It was as close as you can get to a perfect day here at Casa Chaos.

These next couple of week’s are going to be light posting from me. Lots of things to do and I want to get settled into a New Year. Of course my weekly Thrifty Things Friday Party will still be posted and the upcoming monthly Thrifty Tablescape party will be up for Saturday January 7th!

I hope you all are having a relaxing day today! Thanks for stopping by!

A Gift and Merry Christmas!

Hi everyone!

We get a real tree every year for Christmas. We usually go to a tree farm and cut one down. If you buy a real tree every year, you know how insane the prices have become! This year we had planned on cutting down our own while we were at the cabin. A tree was picked out and then we realized that we also had to close down our trailer for the year and that meant everything had to come out of it. So, our truck was totally packed and there was no room for the tree. Bummer!

While I was out and about, my oldest nephew Zack (19 yrs. old) called me. He asked if we had gotten a Christmas tree yet. I told him that we hadn’t. He said he has one for us, if we want it. Huh? I was puzzled. He explained that his buddy was up north and cut down some trees on his property and brought them back down here for some friends and family. Zack was helping to deliver them and they ended up with a couple left over. So, he thought of us.

Even though our Christmas tree decorations are packed away in storage, we planned to dig them out. After hours of looking we still couldn’t find them. And then the rain started. And I swear, the rain hasn’t stopped for days. Everywhere you look roads are closed due to flooding.

I can’t believe that I finally told Troy, forget about it, I will just pick up some ornaments and be happy with it as it is.

I was talking to my mom and she asked if I had found the Christmas tree ornaments. I told her no and what I planned to do. She told me to go upstairs and go through all the Christmas stuff she wasn’t using. Sure enough, she had a lot of old bulbs that she didn’t use this year.

I ran to the Dollar Tree and just picked up a couple of non-bulb ornaments to add. And of course some candy canes.

And the Princess was given several homemade ornaments at a holiday show she recently went to with Troy.

Then I stopped at a small local Hardware Store and picked through a big basket of individual ornaments that had come off floor display trees that were sold. They had a basket of ornaments for .15 cents each and some for .50 cents each. I bought a few of each.

  I have to tell you, the Christmas tree is my favorite Christmas decoration. If I had absolutely no other holiday decorations up but, had my Christmas tree, I would be okay with that. I know a lot of you must do this, after everyone has gone to bed and the house is dark and quiet, I love to get a cup of tea, curl up and just have the Christmas tree lights on and let my mind wander to Christmas’s past.

I love to see all the beautiful themed trees out there and I like to do some small themed trees myself. However, when it comes to our main Christmas tree, the one with all the presents under it, it will always be a real tree with a mish-mash of ornaments. Because that is the family tree. It tells our life story. I have very few bulbs usually on our tree. Every individual ornament was picked out and has a story behind it. I can literally trace our life through the Christmas ornaments. And each one of them touches my heart.

So, when I couldn’t find our Christmas tree ornaments, I became very sad and kind of depressed. I know, that sounds corny huh? Not having all my regular Christmas decorations was one thing but, to not have my tree ornaments was kind of a final straw thing.

That evening after decorating the tree Zack gave us and using my mom’s old bulbs, the cheap ornaments I picked up and added the silly ornaments that the princess had received as gifts, I prayed for strength. I prayed to the Lord to lighten my heart and to enjoy what I have and see things differently. After about an hour of sitting there in the dark with the Christmas tree glowing I felt tears running down my face. When I looked at the tree I did see family. A tree given to us by an amazing and sweet nephew. He thought of us and took the time to bring a beautiful tree to our home. I saw my brother who is the father of the wonderful young man. The fact that he raised Zack and my 2 other nephews to become loving and caring young men all by himself. I saw my mom with her generous heart sharing some of her past memories with me by giving me the old Christmas bulbs to use. And that sparked all my wonderful childhood Christmas memories that both of my parents gave me. And then I saw the new homemade ornaments that the Princess had received from various vendors at a craft show she went to with Troy to sell our products. They gave them to her because she was so sweet and well behaved. I realized how lucky I am to have this beautiful little soul in my life and to see Christmas through her eyes where everything is a miracle. And I saw my husband who was in a great deal of pain but, spent time out in the cold moving, lifting and shoving things around to try and find the Christmas tree ornaments for me because he knew how much they meant to me.

Yes, this year’s Christmas tree is different. It is a gift from my family. All the people I love with all my heart. Thank you Lord for giving me this amazing gift of Family and Love.

Merry Christmas to each and everyone of you!

Want Your House to Smell Wonderful?

Hi everyone and Merry Christmas Eve!

Today’s little tip is adding wonderful scents to our homes. We, of course, love herbs and the scents of them are so yummy! I will use the odds and ends stems and leaves and just simmer them in a pan on the stove on a regular basis. Nine times out of ten, our house will smell like I am whipping up some fabulous Italian dinner!

Another wonderful way to have a lovely herb scent is to buy potted herbs to keep in your house. This is our Rosemary Christmas tree.

You can pick these up at your local grocery store. And if they have any left, they will be reduced after Christmas. I want to pick up another one.

We will keep it trimmed and use the Rosemary throughout the winter months and then plant it in our yard in the Spring. To keep your plant releasing it’s scent, all you have to do is pet it! That’s what I said, PET your plant! Run your hands up the plant and you will release the natural oils.

We have a small herb garden growing in a window at the princess’s school and the kids just love the fact that they can “pet” their plants.

So enjoy delicious natural scents in your home with a couple of potted herbs!

Christmas Cookies: Messy and Fun!

Hi everyone!

Back when my nephews were just little tots, I started a tradition with them at Christmas. We would set a date and the 3 of them would stay the night with me and we would put Christmas movies on and decorate Christmas Sugar cookies. That is when I discovered how handy cheapo dollar store tablecloths were! On the table and UNDER the table!

Since they are now, 19, 18 and 16, the whole staying the night at Aunt Diann’s and decorating Christmas cookies is quite as fun. However, handing the torch so to speak over to them is fun! So, this year, I made all the stuff for the cookies and made dinner and hauled it all to my brother’s house. My nephews decorated Christmas cookies with the Princess. And she had a blast and so did the boys!

The Princess is finally deciding to use a different color other than blue! Woohoo! That’s me in the background trying to decorate different cookies in different colors as fast as I could so we didn’t have a Blue Christmas! LOL

She really did great decorating. After the first 2 times of licking her fingers clean and then hauling her off to wash her hands, she remembered to use her napkin to wipe off the icing. And Zack and Chris, if you read this, just know that you NEVER quite got the hang of not licking you fingers! LOL  

Yup, Christmas mess is so fun! 

I’m joining:

Tickled Pink

Feathered Nest Friday

Home Sweet Home

Thrifty Things Friday #38

Hi everyone!

Here we are a couple of days away from Christmas 2011! Isn’t that amazing? Time is really moving a break-neck speed to me this year. But, I think that happens every year. The older you get, the faster time moves. It really feels that way to me!

I know everyone is showing Christmas treasures in one form or another right now but, I am going to be the odd man out! LOL

One of the last stores we all visit before we say our goodbyes at the Girls Annual Shopping Trip is Pier 1. We have a Pier 1 near my home but, I don’t go there very often. It’s one of those stores that my credit card keeps jumping out of my purse and wanting to be used! I do check it out every few months for clearance items and have found some really fun things marked down to prices I can handle.

When we stop at Pier, we are generally all done with our Christmas shopping and are ready to splurge a little on ourselves. We scour the aisles for those glorious red clearance stickers! LOL

Back in the summer I had stopped at Pier and spotted these cute ant picnic dishes. I thought they were so much fun but, no way could I afford to just buy them full price. Well, they had 3 left and clearanced to  $1.18 and then 30% off . So, I snatched them up (there is just me, the Hubs and the Princess so, I often buy just 3 dishes). I think they are going to be so much fun this summer!

Don’t you love big tassels? I like to use them in decor and tablescapes. I picked up 4 in 2 different fun summer colors for .89 cents each. I make a lot of my own tassels and I can’t make them for that price!

And I love fun napkin rings. I generally thrift all my napkin rings or make them. There are so many awesome ones out there but, they are expensive! This was a big ‘ol honkin’ splurge for me since I usually buy thrifted napkin rings for $1.00-$2.00 a set. But, they are so fun and colorful and I knew I would not see them at a thrift store or yard sale. So, I forked over the $1.18 a piece clearanced price (original price $6.00 each! yikes!) for these cute beaded bird napkin rings..

So, those were my fun thrifted new finds that were just silly and a gift to myself.

Let’s check out a couple of fun posts from last week!

Over at Lavender Dreams, you have to see what $2.07 can get you!

And check out these sweet angels at Karie’s  Chic Creations

Here is the “I was featured” button!

Now, let’s see what fun things you have to share this week!

Red Cardinals New and Revisit

Hi everyone!

This post is part new and part revisit. Last year I had bought the beautiful cardinal tea set and dishes and did a little tablescape with them. Here are my NEW cardinal finds to go along with last years pretty cardinal dishes and tea set.



A pretty teapot nightlight, and ornament for the tree and the set of salt and pepper shakers.

Now a revisit of last years cardinal pretties!

At the beginning of December, my mom and I headed north for our annual Girl's Shopping Trip. As part of our routine, my mom and I stop at Cracker Barrel on the way up for lunch and more importantly, shopping in the store.

When we were looking around the store, I saw this beautiful Red Cardinal dishes. Oh, I was in love with them! And they were 40% off! Woohoo!! So, I got the 4 piece teapot set, 2 mugs, 2 plates, 2 canape plates and a little teacup ornament. And here they are.

Here is the tea set.








And the pretty dishes.






I started with a gold tablecloth, added a weave looking crimson red place mat and matching napkins. I added a stripe of gold ribbon to the place mats.






I used my winter scene stemware.



A couple of gold votives, my crystal candlesticks with red tapers and a small cloche with my Red Cardinal teacup ornament under it complete this simple table.





Random Pictures.





Now add a little candlelight for pretty shimmer and sparkle.










I really do love this set! I don't plan to store it away until the end of Winter. I think it just right to use throughout the snowy months.

I hope you enjoyed your visit today. I'm joining Tablescape Thursday