My first try at "The Grocery Game"

Tonight was my first try at "The Grocery Game" and I'm thrilled with the results! (and so is my wallet)  For those of you who haven't heard of it, "The Grocery Game" is a website that a woman created to help other people save money on groceries.  She created this huge database that keeps track of all the coupons and sales the happen at the major grocery stores.  Each week all you have to do is clip the coupons out of the L.A. Times or other major paper, and hold on to your coupon mailings.  On the weekends, "the list" is published which tells you what is on sale for that week. At Ralphs where I shop, the sales happen on Sunday,  Monday and Tuesday.  The list is color coded. Blue means it's time to stock up on an item because it's at the lowest price. Green means that you can get the item for free. And Black means that the item is on sale, but you should only buy it if you need it or want a treat.  That information, combined with the coupons that she tells you to use, add up to huge savings. And the philosophy is that you would only buy items when they are on sale, stock pile those items, and then go to your own pantry to go shopping once you need the item.  Tonight was my first time trying out this system and I was so happy to see how much I saved!  The bill would have been 106 dollars, and I paid 53!!!!!!  I'm a grocery game convert now and will definitely be using it to save money from now on. :-)

Trip to Paso Robles

Chad and I took a trip to Paso Robles this weekend to visit his parents and we had a very nice time. It had been a while since we had been up there and it was great to see them and catch up on everything that's been going on. As a little sidenote- my camera has been "on the fritz" lately and we were able to pick up a new one on our way up there at Best Buy. I got the Canon Powershot SD1100 IS - Digital Elph and these pics are some of the first I took with the camera. I've been very happy with the results so far.

This is their dog Skipper and he is such a little bundle of energy. He provided much entertainment during the weekend. :-)

This is Skipper posing for me with his favorite toy ball.

We went out to dinner here the first night we were there and it was very tasty!

The pretty foliage around their house.

We went over to the stables near the house and made some horse friends while we were there. This one liked Chad a lot and was licking his hand. :-)

Another horse friend posing for the camera.

My camera was on "kids and pets" mode when it caught this horse's tongue mid-lick. :-)

This horse also liked Chad a lot. :-)

And he liked Chad's shirt even better... we think he thought it was food.

A sneaky hiding horse. :-)

Lake Nacimiento- near the house.

All in all we had a wonderful time and look forward to our next trip.

Santa Anita Derby Day

Today was Derby day at Santa Anita Park and my mom and I went to cheer on our favorite Kentucky Derby Contenders. The Santa Anita Derby is one of the most important races to determine which horses get to race in the Kentucky Derby.  It was a slightly overcast day which made it pretty comfortable with the huge crowds.  We got seats in the Club House Loge area which is now my favorite area at Santa Anita.  We really enjoyed  it and had a great day.  The favorites to win were Colonel John and El Gato Malo.  Colonel John, ridden by Corey Nakatani, ended up winning followed by Bob Black Jack and Coast Guard.  We got a wonderful spot at the walking ring before the race started and as you can see, I had some fun taking pictures. :-)

Fans waiting at the walking ring

NBC Commentator

A very young owner standing on her horse's number

Corey Nakatani on Colonel John

Richard Migloire on Bob Black Jack

Yankee Bravo 

A Jumpy El Gato Malo with rider David Flores and Trainer Craig Dollase

The Sea of Humanity ready to watch the Derby

The Start of the Derby

This is so cute!!

This is so darling. It's amazing that she knows all the words!

Dollar Day at Santa Anita

It was a beautiful 80 degree day at Santa Anita this past Saturday and it was also Dollar Day which meant that admission, programs, hot-dogs and drinks were all one dollar. That made for an inexpensive and fun way to spend a Saturday. I really enjoy seeing the race horses up close and all the fun and excitement that goes along with a day at the track. I'm not a big better and rarely win much money (for me it's more about the fun of watching the horses), but this day was different for me. I won about 50 dollars throughout the day just betting little amounts on races and winning about 4 of them. So I came home with more than I left with which is always a good thing. :-) I wanted to share some pictures of the day because it's such a picturesque venue.

My First Quilt that isn't a wall hanging :-)

I have been keeping this quilt a secret because I was making it for my brother, Steve (for his birthday), and I didn't want him to know. It was so hard to not blog about the progress but well worth it for the surprise factor. :-) This is my first quilt that is larger than a wall hanging and I'm so excited that it turned out looking like a quilt! My mom helped me a great deal (and Dad too- thanks for the help with taping it to the floor) and my parents were so nice to let me take over their living room with all the quilting debris and accouterments. I learned a lot while making this one and now I'm itching to start another. This one might have to be secret too though... hmm. :-) Also, thanks to my wonderful husband Chad for helping me pick "manly" colors for the quilt, and for putting up with my late night sewing and all the threads scattered throughout the apartment. He supports me so much in my new quilting hobby. :-) (And everything I do for that matter.)

West Coast Bash

We went to the West Coast Bash at Six Flags Magic Mountain today and had a fabulous time. It was a completely new experience for us and we were so glad we went.   This website called themeparkreview organizes trips and events for theme park and roller coaster enthusiasts all over the world.  We were lucky to get to join in on an event because the park is only 25 mins from our apartment and we have season passes this year. Thanks Mom and Dad!  

   The first cool thing was they had something called ERT which means you get to ride the rides when the park isn't open. You basically just walk in and get on and ride. They had 4 rides operating so we went on Tatsu and  Superman- my two favorites. yay!  One thing I noticed is that these were some serious roller coaster people. We rode Tatsu and no one was  screaming at all.  Well, except me.  It was like they were just taking it all in. Pretty interesting. It was soooo fun to not have to wait in line!  When the park opened there still weren't very many people there and we were able to ride 7 roller coasters before lunch! That's like what one would hope to accomplish in a full day at a park. The only side effect we noticed from that though was that our bodies got a little tired out pretty fast so we had to rest a little bit.  (We aren't teenagers anymore. )  

   We had lunch at the picnic pavillion with all the other theme park review peeps and we were so tired from the time change and getting up early, that we headed home after that. But we had gotten in all the fun rides already so we felt great.  We came home and took naps. (Once again, we aren't teenagers anymore).  :-)  Next time we would love to stay the full day and take the backstage tours and do the evening ERT too. Thanks theme park review!

I'm a Quilter!

I am so excited because I started and finished my first quilt yesterday!  It is a small quilt- only 21"x21" so it was a good one to start with. It took me about 9 hours to finish the whole thing.  I had a great time sewing it and even enjoyed the hand finishing part of putting the binding on the edges. I did prick my hands about a dozen times during that process though. :-) Here are some pictures of the finished quilt and the walking foot that I used to do the final quilting (stitching all the layers together)

A kid in a sewing machine shop

The final piece of my quilting puzzle arrived in my hands yesterday. A brand new Viking Emerald 118. The Viking brand comes highly recommended by several quilting and sewing friends and there just happened to be a Viking Dealer 2 blocks from my office. The dealer is called the Sewing Arts Center and everyone there sews on Vikings. They also offer a free class to learn the machine, and an extended warranty. It didn't take long for them to show me several in my price range, and I decided on the 118 because of the extra stitch features, needle threader (which is awesome by the way), and the height that the foot lifts up to (to fit quilts under it). The sales person gave me a discount so I paid the price that the 116 (one step down) would normally go for. The box had been opened at the factory so that's why I got the discount. But the salesperson explained that it was probably to teach someone how to thread the machine.

Anyway, I am so excited to start sewing on it and spent the evening learning the machine, threading it, and experimenting with stitch length and tension. I can't wait to work on my project!

A New Adventure

In a quest to find a new hobby that I can do in the evenings, I decided to embark on some uncharted territory for me and learn to quilt.  eeek! :-)  I'm very excited about the prospect of being able to make functional artistic items for my family and friends, and I hope that I'm able to produce some fun things.  I picked up "Quilting For Dummies" and read that yesterday and today and found it to be very informative.  It describes everything in a simple way that non-sewing people like myself can understand.   The extent of my sewing is two sets of curtains and some shoe bags in Jr High. :-)  After reading that I headed for Joann's to get supplies and fabric. I had picked out a design from the dummies book called "Pastel Nine-Patch Wall Hanging". Doesn't sound so exciting but it's pretty and small enough for my first try at quilting. I've included some pictures of the fabric I picked out after I had washed and ironed it like a good quilter.