cottagesweetcottage-Al-Jazeera-America

Have you seen the Salad in a Jar frenzy on Pinterest?    Many times I buy salad makings and then never assemble them due to time laziness and then the ingredients go bad.  I bought a head of romaine, a cucumber, some baby tomatoes and green peppers for an easy Salad in a Jar.  I plan on adding some crunchy nuts and cheese when the hubs and I eat dinner together later on.   I'd really like

I loved the convenience of individual water bottles purchased in bulk but I knew the cost was busting our budget.  In the past I'd also find multiple bottles opened and half empty around the house~ not good!    I knew my dollar would stretch alot longer if I purchased cheaper.
This led to a little price comparison when I went to Food4Less last night with the hubs.


Recently I purchased a

I've finally got all stocked up with the 5 things neccesary for my daily Swish and Sparkle in each bathroom.  I was getting a little tired of carrying the cleaning supplies from upstairs bathroom to guest bathroom to basement bathroom so streamlining is putting a great smile on my face since it makes everything so much easier!   Oh~  and I found the small spray bottles at a beauty supply store

I'm on a tight budget but there are a few things that a girl's gotta do.  One of them is have matching hangers in all of our closets.  In my opinion it's worth EVERY dime!  I can't stand having wire, flocked, dry cleaner castoffs and all of that jazz all tangled up inside of my closet.  

(By the way, you can take a look at my closet here if you interested!)  



Funny thing is we never realize

I finally figured out that I can add a 'blogger' follower gadget instead of a Google Plus followers gadget to my sidebar at right so if you'd like to follow me that option is available!  



My blog is still under construction and the sidebar still needs a bit of help but I'm liking what I see so far.  Maybe another week or so before things are (hopefully) perfect!  



We're having our first

This week I'm grateful for~  

Love.  

Valentined Day has come and gone.  

I'm so thankful that we don't need a holiday to encourage us to share and show our love for one another.

It's just there.  Unassuming and yet, always there. 



This week I enjoyed~ 

Getting in the kitchen and baking some homemade bread and pizza.

There's just something about making from scratch, kneading the dough

I recently saw Elaine's recipe over at Sunny Simple Life for Pizza Dough and gave it a whirl this morning for our Saturday Lunch/Brunch/Dinner.  It was delish!  The crust baked out evenly and was very soft~  just the way I like it.  I was able to get two large pizzas and used two 13 by 9 cookie sheets. 





For the sauce I mixed up 2 cans of tomato sauce and added some Italian Seasoning, Onion

Happy Valentines Day~!



I hope you have a wonderful day planned with the ones that you love!



In thinking of Relationships,  it's easy to have expectations  of what we seemingly desire a relationship to be like instead of just enjoying the relationship we are in. 

It's so easy to walk away dissapointed in our marriages when we see impossible expectations all around us.  Isn't it so much

We're trying to save money wherever we possibly can and I decided to write down all of the ways I've been trying to be frugal~  aaanddd...here they are.  I've put a *** by all the ones we are implementing and hopefully soon more will be added.  This is an ongoing work and we always want to try new things!  If you have any other ideas please comment~  I'd love to hear them!  





Cut your

This soup was born out of a head of broccoli that was in the fridge needing to be used quickly! 

It is so much more tastier AND healthier than the cream soups you will find at a local restaurant. 

It also packs more punch in fiber and has so much more broccoli in it! 

I hope to try this with cawliflower in the future.  I've tried my best to come up with measurements on this but it's a

This bread takes about 30 minutes to prepare and to clean up not including the rise and bake time.

  It’s very easy to put together.



5 ½ cup bread flour (I use regular and never go over 5 cups of flower)

1 ½ tsp salt
 
2-4 Tbsp sugar

1 ½ Tbsp yeast
 
1 ½ Tbsp oil
 
2 cups water at 120 degrees




In bowl add warm water and yeast. Let yeast sit in water till yeast is proofed~ about

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

What strikes me most about this scripture is man's dependance on the Lord.

Without Him we have no breath.

No life.

Nothing.

Nada.

Without Him we are just a lump of clay.

Dirt.

That can be quite a humiliating thought... that we are like that dirt

I tried my hand at making homemade Glass Cleaner last week.  I've just started using it and find that it doesn't 'dry' as fast as a commercial cleaner would so I added more alcohol to remedy that. 









Empty gallon jug (Mine is an recycled OJ container)

Ammonia

Isopropyl rubbing alcohol


Dawn

dish detergent (not shown) 




Fill the empty gallon jug 1/2 full of water.Fill the half

I've had this brewing in my mind and heart for a while...  How much should 'organizing' cost? 

I've seen many bloggers and vloggers go 'all out' in organizing and spend a TON of money on getting their house in order.  While that might be fine for them,  I just don't have the expendable money to buy hundreds of dollars in organizer doo~dads even though honestly I'd LOVE to!     Sometimes it

Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.  -Psalm 51:8



Haven't we all known sorrow?  Who hasn't fell on bad times?  Those difficult times can be a turning point in our faith.   We can either grow from those experiences and be thankful or we can become bitter at life, those around us, and at a God who is still merciful in the midst of all of our

We have limited space underneath our kitchen sink so bringing the most used cleaning items to the front is definitely helpful for a quick wipedown of the sink or a swish and swipe of the bathroom! 

I found an old tension hanger in the basement (that we're cleaning out!) and decided to put it to work. I've put the spray bottles hanging on the rod making more room for other things to be within