Pictures From Las Vegas

I wanted to post these pictures with the previous post, but couldn't figure out how to upload pictures from my phone to the blog. I'm sure there's a way, but I'm still stumbling around sometimes.

I hope you enjoy these pictures! The first one was taken from the plane on the way into Las Vegas, probably over New Mexico or Arizona.

This was our dinner at Wolfgang Puck's Postrio. When we got our food, it looked so good, I forgot to take a picture. By the way, this is taken inside the Venetian Hotel. It's a cool area of cobblestone "streets", a canal, shops, and patio dining, complete with a painted "sky".

Dessert that night= chocolate mousse from a Italian bakery.

This was from my dinner alone; chips and really good salsa!

Followed by potato taquitos (yum!) with pico de gallo, and guacamole!

Breakfast our last morning in Vegas. One order of Nutella crepes, and one order of Bananas Foster crepes, split between the two of us. Wow!

And that's all I have for now! We've been having a great time in Texas! I have two knitting projects almost finished, so hopefully I'll be showing those later this week.

Guess where I am??

I am sitting here in the wonderful city of Las Vegas!! Actually, I don't find it wonderful, except for the fact that I am here with my husband, who has business meetings, and the fact that I have no kids with me, so it is truly a vacation! I am alternately enjoying the quiet of my room and the quiet of sitting in the sun by the pool! It's a nice break from the day-to-day stuff and the cold of Virginia.
The girls are with their grandparents in Texas, and they're having a blast! I'm torn between missing them and all their cuteness, and enjoying the freedom to do whatever I please! It's been fun to read and knit without interruption. I will be very glad to see them in a couple days!
Hopefully I will have one or two finished projects to show after knitting for a few days!
Although Weldon has had meetings to attend, we've still had time together. We had all day Sunday, which was rather interesting. After checking in to the hotel and getting breakfast, we caught a taxi to a nearby rock climbing gym. On the way there, we saw a Jamba Juice (which we can't get in VA), so when we finished climbing, we thought we'd just walk down the street to Jamba before catching a bus or taxi back. Well.... Just down the street was actually four miles!! We were a little off in our calculation of how far we had driven after seeing the Jamba Juice!
We called a taxi, and came back to the hotel, took showers and naps and then ate dinner. Mmm, good Mexican food at Pink Taco!!
Yesterday we had breakfast together, then I went back to the room and knitted for a while. Weldon had meetings, so I grabbed a sandwich for lunch, then sat by the pool and read a book.
He was done around 4:30, so we caught a shuttle to the strip, and had dinner at Wolfgang Puck's Postrio. It was so good: pork schnitzel, Austrian roasted potatoes, tomatoes with oil and vinegar, and rustic bread! I wish I had taken a picture!
Dessert was a chocolate mousse and iced coffee from a little bakery.
Then we saw the Phantom of the Opera, which was really cool, and walked two miles back to our hotel and crashed!
I think tonight we're going to have dinner at P.F Chang's and then come back and read for a while. It's fun to eat out on an expense account; you don't have to worry quite as much about where you eat!!

Free Stuff!

Back in December, I signed up for a card to Bath & Body Works that would get me a free gift every month. Unfortunately, they're not accepting any more registrations, or I would post that info here.

I will share what I got today, though! If you take your card in on any Thursday of the month, you get a free gift. I was expecting something really small, but I thought, "oh, well, it's free! Can't hurt to go get it!"
I was very surprised when the girl told me I could get a free hand soap, a free pocket-sized hand sanitizer, and a hand sanitizer holder! And I didn't have to spend anything to get it! Here's what I walked out with, without pulling out my wallet:

I like this! Can more places do this??

No-Spend Challenge

This is mainly a challenge for my husband and I, but anyone is welcome to join in. Our goal for the next several months is to spend as little as possible. In addition, we want to avoid bringing more "stuff" into our house.
We will continue to pay our bills, while trying to lower the ones that we can control. We still want to give to ministry and others in need, hopefully lowering other areas will leave us more to give.
I am trying to lower my grocery bill, and stay under budget. In a couple months, we are going to join a CSA for produce, eggs, cheese and meat, and make that our main supply of food. I will still have to shop for a few things, but our goal is to eat what we get from the CSA, and not much more.

We are going to lower our eating-out budget, and try to eat out only where we have a coupon, restaurant.com certificate, or gift card.

Outside of bills, giving, food, gas (we're not going to stop driving), and occasionally eating out, there's not much else we need.

We don't need clothes right now, and when we do we will get rid of some to make room for the new. And when we do buy clothes or shoes, we will try to use "extra" money for those. I don't think gift cards will count as spending money, because it's not coming out of our bank account.
I have plenty of fabric and craft supplies and projects that are unfinished to keep me busy for a while. I can make some clothes for the girls and myself, and finish projects around the house before buying new stuff. I would also like to try re-making some clothes. I've seen some really cute stuff on other blogs!

As part of this, I am challenging myself to find free stuff on craigslist and actually follow through on picking it up. I am notorious for seeing something, and not going to get it! The other day I got a can of unopened formula for free! That's $12 I didn't have to spend! Yay! What else can I get??

Does anyone else have any interest in joining? I'm excited to see how long and how well we can do this!

A Few More Things Cleaned Out

Well, this week has not been the most fruitful of my de-cluttering weeks, but I did do a little. A couple times, I would open a closet, survey the contents, and then close the door. I just wasn't in the mood.
Despite that, I did go through 3 closets (linen/storage), and get rid of a few things. One closet holds cleaning stuff, vacuum and lesser used appliances like my crockpot, so I didn't really get rid of anything, just rearranged.
So, out of 3 closets and the laundry room, I cleaned out these things:

20 pieces of trash
15 give away
12 to try to sell

total: 47 items

One of my projects for today is to list some things on craigslist. I've also got a pile of things to list on eBay, but that will have to wait, as we are going out of town next weekend. Hopefully I can make a little money for the trip!

Hamburger Bun Recipe

I started making these a few years ago, when my husband's favorite hamburger buns, King's Hawaiian, were no longer available. They are again on grocery store shelves, but in a smaller package for the same cost. So I'll stick with making these!


King's Hawaiian Hamburger Buns
3 eggs
1 cup pineapple juice
1 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teas. ginger
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 stick margarine, melted
6 cups plain flour
2 packages yeast

Beat eggs; add pineapple juice, water, sugar, ginger, vanilla and melted margarine. Put 3 cups flour in a large mixing bowl. Add egg mixture and stir until well mixed. Sprinkle in yeast, 1 package at a time, mixing well. Gradually add other 3 cups flour. Batter will be hard to mix with spoon. You may have to use your hand. Make sure it's mixed well.

Leave batter in bowl and cover with cloth and place in warm place. Let rise 1 hour. Remove from bowl and knead in 1/2 cup flour. Knead about 10 times.

Divide into equal parts and shape into large, flat rolls. Place on a greased baking sheet. Cover and place in warm place and let rise about 1/2 hour. Bake at 350 F for 18 to 20 minutes.

It's been so long since I've made this, I can't remember how many hamburger buns this makes. I'm going to guess about 16-20? Let me know if you make these how many you get!

This recipe can also be made into dinner rolls or loaves. The original source for this recipe called for making it into 3 loaves.

**The picture is not mine...I didn't have a picture, so I found the closest one on Google Images.**

Homemade Laundry Detergent

I've been making my own laundry detergent for several months now, but have changed recipes, and just today I figured up how much it costs me to make a batch. So now I'm ready to share it with you!
Here is a link to the first detergent I used. I really liked it, but it used several different ingredients, so I didn't feel like it was saving me money. Also, my youngest daughter has eczema, so I needed to find a fragrance-free version. Here is what I ended up with:

Laundry Detergent

1/2 bar soap (any kind; I use Dove Unscented bath soap)
2 cups water
1/4 cup washing soda
1/2 cup borax



Grate the 1/2 bar of soap.


Place grated soap in a saucepan with 2 cups water. Heat on medium-low until soap is dissolved. This doesn't take very long.

Add washing soda and borax; stir until mixed. Transfer to a gallon container, and fill with water. Let sit overnight. Mixture will be thick and gloopy. Shake before using.
Use roughly 1/2 cup per load.

*I have used this right away, without letting it sit overnight, and while it is more runny, it doesn't affect the cleaning power.
*I think this lasts me about a month.

Below is a price breakdown:
Soap: 50 cents
washing soda: 10 cents
Borax: 10 cents
water: basically free!

So, 70 cents for a gallon of laundry detergent! I can handle that. And it only takes a few minutes a month to make it!