party, pork loin, electric knife... oh yea!

I was just so proud of myself for making this pork boston butt tonight for our small group! I was so nervous at first, because Mike wasn't home with me {he seems to be the meat expert} and I had never cook any other meet than ground beef or chicken! I really can't believe that we've been married for over a year and that's all the meat I've cooked!

Here is how I did it:

-I covered the butt in some Lawry's seasoning and balsamic vinegar before I put it in the oven. I added a little bit of water to the dish that I had it in, covered it in tin foil, and put in in the oven for 2 hours on 350 degrees.
-I used my instant meat thermometer {that was a wedding gift that I haven't used yet} to check the butt around 1:30 and it was 160 degrees {I wanted it to be closer around 170}. I actually cut some slits in it, flipped it over and put some more seasoning on it. {That's not necessary, but I wanted all of the sides nice and brown, and the bottom was a little mushier than the other sides}.
- I drained and uncovered the butt for the last 30-20 min in the oven and it turned out perfect!
-I then used my electric knife {another first time use of a wedding gift} to cut all the meat off, I mean, I couldn't believe how much meat was on that bone!!!! I love my knife too, it was so fun and easy to use! As I cut the meat, I put the meat on a separate pan and then put the brown sugar glaze for the final yumminess!

-Then the best part was the brown sugar glaze that I made to go on top of it!
Brown Sugar Glaze:
-2 cups of brown sugar
-2 tbsp of flour
-1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar
- 2 tsp mustard
{I did add a little bit of water too... maybe 1/4 cup}
I put this on simmer on the stove as I was slicing the meat to make it thinner for a perfect glaze.

All this preparation was for our life group halloween costume party at our apt... it was super fun! Here are all the costumes
{some people didn't dress up, so they didn't want to get in the picture.}
{notice Matt in the Gecko costume, he won the "best costume award" for the night}

Mike and I were Captain Hook & Tinkerbell
I got his "pirate set" and my "fairy wings" from the dollar store. Pretty frugal costumes. I cut the tutu I had on off a kid's costume someone let me have, and it was very stretchy to fit me.
Mike also has in his vampire teeth that we all got, April brought everyone treat bags!
{We played games & had a lot of fun}

Roman Goddess{Natalia} Catwoman{April} Tinkerbell{me}

Happy Fall Y'all!

Before I start.... I just wanted to say, I can't believe that it's already October!!!! {so close to graduation!} I'm not normally very "excited about halloween", but this year, I decided to get excited and add a few little decorations around the house! Last year Uncle Ron and Aunt Marla sent us this wall/door hanger {they said that it was Morgan and Ryan who insisted on sending us this} I was looking for it the other day, and I was so excited to find it and hang it up! I added a cute little {BOO!} ribbon to the top of it too!

My mom and I bought pumpkin soap dispensers with some yummy smelling soap from bath&body works last weekend, and she gave me these cute hand towels! Can you tell we love candycorn decorations?

I went to Target {my fav store ever} the other day and they were having a special if you buy 2 bags of M&Ms, you got a free reusable bag! so I did{I had $1 off coupon too, so I got them for a good deal} Plus, I just had to get some little pumpkin hanging lights for our halloween small group party this coming week at our house! I got the orange bucket & cups at a yard sale 2 weeks ago for $.50 when I went with April & Sarah. They were brand new still in the package too!

I also have these hairbows & headbands for sale that {I know} are absolutely adorable!!

http://www.paintbakeandcreate.blogspot.com/

These are pictures of Jack{my nephew} last year at Halloween! He was only 6 months old, {he is growing up so fast!} but these pictures are just so adorable I had to share them again!!!!! I can't wait until this year, Beth has the cutest and coolest costume for him!!!

couponing & crafting

As you probably have been following my tweets, I have been doing pretty good couponing this week! I went to Publix on Monday, and I got some really good deals! I even got some free stuff! The deals were so good that I even had to go back on Tuesday!

Notice my new 2 cute pink reusable bags that I got for free!

{I've started my own collection}

Beth and I went to see how much free stuff we could get, and we sure did! With the sales and the coupons combined, This is what I got for $.43!!!! {Before my coupons & sales my total was $14.and some change, sorry I don't have my receipt right here with me}. Thanks to http://www.southernsavers.com/, I just love being FRUGAL! :)I was in my first craft show with my friend Allison last Friday too! It was so fun! Allison sold some soaps that her & her mom made, and Alli and her friend from work made picture frames that she sold! I of course had my "Paint Bake & Create" things out for sale! I sold my jungle children painting, and I was so excited! I also sold a lot of hairbows & headbands! Here was our setup and the layout of my hairbows! {I had some candy to attract customers} I am in another craft show on November 4th downtown at Roper Hospital 7am-4pm. It's going to be a big one and I'm pretty excited!

visit my blogstore http://www.paintbakeandcreate.blogspot.com/ if you would like to see more of my products! :) Have a great weekend everyone!

Celebrate Jacoby!

Today is Jacoby's 19th birthday!!! wow, we are getting so OLD! I still feel like we are just a bunch of kids. Jacoby is such a fun little brother and I just love him so much. We became really close when I was in high school, and all my friends kept telling me that I had a cool brother, I just saw him as an annoying little middle schooler. Then he started to get cooler and cooler. Now, he's way cooler than me! :) We have had some good memories of driving to school toegther listening to hardcore music and going to shows, we were just so crazy! Jacoby is probably the funniest person I know, and anyone who knows Jacoby can tell you that he has a very FUN personality. I just wanted to write this blog to celebrate Jacoby!

I love you Jacob-baby! :)

This past weekend we had a surprise birthday party for him, and it was pretty fun, especially the part when we couldn't get him to leave the house so that everyone could come over! It was a success though, HE WAS SURPRISED!

Here's a funny video that Jacoby was in this summer when he was interning at Northwood Church. The video was for the summer camp that the youth went to in July. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCCHSheNAks

twin baby girls, shopping, and friends!

The biggest news of the week is that Jenny had her twin baby girls!!!!!!! They are such sweet little miracles, and what a blessing from God!!!! Sadie and Rylan are such beautiful little ones that are already bringing so much JOY to so many people! :) I went to go visit Jenny in the hospital, but I didn't get any good pics, so I'm posting a pic of Jenny and me from this summer when she was pregnant! The girls were completely healthy and absolutely GORGEOUS!!! Jenny is going to be one of the best moms I know! :) She totally rocks, she even brought the girls to church when they weren't even a week old! Go Jenny for getting out of the house! :)

Today I went to Old Navy and I purchased 14 items of clothing all under $5 a piece! I found some amazing deals, and after taking 3 trips to the fitting rooms, I got some good steals! My total bill was $40! I also had a 15% off your entire purchase coupon, thanks to OldNavyweekly.com. I love getting coupons off there! You can't beat that! My favorite items that I go were 2 pairs of yoga pants for $2.50 each!!!!! I will definitely be rockin those at school when I want to wear something comfortable, and hopefully they will inspire me to start working out more.... We'll see how that goes! Here is my clothes piles of everything I bought! :)

I had lunch with some friends this week Carissa and Michelle. Here's some pictures of our fun outing at the mall. I told Christina I would post some pics of Stone! He is just getting so big, and he is going to be such a sweet big brother coming up in November!!! Yay! :)

Carissa' little boy Hunter is SUPER CUTE and I love his sweet CHUNKINESS.

Next, we had the Middle School ALL NIGHTER. It was Crazy fun, and yes, I did stay up all night long.... I was so out of it all night long, so I only took about 5 pictures and none of them really turned out good, and were not good enough to blog about, so I just decided to post this cute picture of my and my friend April. Both of our hubbys are in ministry, and I just love her. This was us last week when a bunch of us went to go get sushi after Groundswell on Wednesday night. We're in small group together and it's awesome! :)

Yesterday after I slept all day to make up for staying up all night from the allnighter I went to my friend's wedding from work, Alex and her new husband Scott. It was a fun wedding, the people I work with at Northwood are so crazy fun. I love it! I wore my new favorite dress too! (Purple just seems to be my color this season!). I took this group pic of all the guests that came to the lingerie party. So fun! :)

I have two weddings coming up this month that I am looking forward to: Kyndal & Jonathan, and Sarah & Billy! Lots of birthdays are coming up too, including Mike's!!!!! Lots of fun in OCTOBER!!!! :)

an update of my BUSY life right now.

This week has been SUPER busy!

I had my first paper due in one of my classes, my first quiz, and I have a paper due tomorrow too... {that I haven't even started on}. It's totally OBVIOUS that I have SENIORITIS! Let's just say I have 89 days until I am a college graduate. {i just can't even believe it}.

I've been selling some bows from my blog store {www.paintbakeandcreate.blogspot.com}

We had 5th quarter{after the Friday night football games} at the church. It went REALLY well, we had a lot of students come after the wando, PCA, and Coastal Christian games. We didn't even get out of the church until 12:45am. Did I mention with about 40 wando football players there, it smelled like a locker room? {gross}

The next morning I was super crazy because I went yard sale shopping with my friends April and Sarah. After not going to sleep until 2am, waking up at 7 wasn't that easy, but TOTALLY worth it! I got just a few things which did include a couple of halloween decorations, and it was fun. Later on that day we planned a girls pedicure day with April, Sarah, Brittany, and myself. It was Sarah's first time getting a pedicure.... I couldn't believe that she had never had one!

But... The most exciting thing that happened this week was Harris Teeter was having TRIPLE COUPONS this week. In preparation, I just had to change my couponing system to the binder system. My friend Carissa {www.carissagraham.com} made one earlier this week, and even though I've been really wanting to transfer all my coupons to a binder, she really inspired me to do it. I borrowed my mom's label maker to create some NEAT & pretty labels for the different sections. I paid right at $10 for the binder, 16 dividers, and 35 pages of the clear 9 pocket coupon holder pages {found in the baseball card section at Walmart}. I labeled my 16 sections as followed: Cereal, Breakfast/Yogurt, Meats, Canned/Boxed goods, Frozen, Refrigerated, Desserts/Baking Goods, Snacks, Other Foods, Laundry/Dishes{soaps}, Drugs, Paper Goods/Household Items, Cleaning, Hygiene, Cosmetics, Store Coupons.

Did I mention that My Coupon binder is PINK?

It's totally Cute! It seemed A LOT easier to shop with the binder too, because you can see all of the coupons. Before, I just had a check file{you can see it in the picture above}. I get all of my coupon news/information through {www.southernsavers.com}

My Harris Teeter trip went REALLY well. I spent $30 and saved $45 and we are well stocked with groceries for at least good 2 weeks. I also went to Publix this week and did coupons, I think I spent $38 and I don't remember how much I saved. But I was really upset that Publix wouldn't take my CVS $5 off $25 purchase. What a bummer. I'm going to try and call and talk to the manager about it this week, because they normally take all competitors coupons.

Oh, When I was in Harris Teeter I did see a lady stare EXTRA long at me with my COUPON BINDER. I thought that was pretty funny. I guess you don't see too many people shopping with a very Large three ring binder filled with coupons. I've only seen one lady shopping at Publix with a the binder system, hers was a HUGE zip up black three ring binder with pink ribbon tied all over it. She was REAL serious.

I also have to say that I LOVE doing my grocery shopping with my amazing husband. He is my human calculator, and he helps me with the whole check-out process because my eyes are glued to the screen as I watch everything ring up right and make sure all of my coupons are being scanned the right way. At harris teeter he also was great because I needed to exchange an item{I grabbed the wrong package of chicken that wasn't B1G1Free} and I needed one more can of frosting for my coupon to work and be tripled. I hate it when I need something, and I can't just leave all my items on the grocery belt while I go get it!!! Mike helps me so much at the grocery store and I LOVE IT! Thanks Mike! :)

my new thing...

If you are interested, please check out my blogstore:

http://www.paintbakeandcreate.blogspot.com/

Tell me what you think! :)

{This is NOT the end to my personal blog... just an addition to myself}