Dog Food

I have two big dogs. They eat a lot of dog food.  I am constantly looking for ways to save money on things I have to buy consistently.  I buy my bread at a discount store, I clip coupons, I search sales fliers... I am a saving freak.  I stock up on things when they are on sale (like when Carrs had a buy two pasta sauces, get two boxes of pasta free, I went pasta crazy....) and dog food is a major expense.  The dog food we buy is $1/lb and I am always on the look out for a sale.  Sunday morning we went to Target to stock up on candy (50% off!) and I wanted to run and check the price on dog food, as I do every time I am there.  Much to my surprise, it wasn't on sale, it was on CLEARANCE! The dog food we buy was 75% off! Why? Well, probably because they are discontinuing the size bag (20lb, which is silly... with large breed dog food, that disappears in a day!) or they are changing the packaging. So that is how I ended up with a truck that looked like this.

After a trip to both Target stores, we wound up with 19 bags of dog food of various sizes (6 of them were about 8 lbs, the rest were 20 lb bags).  The bags that were typically $25 were $6. Amazing. I'm hoping this lasts through the winter...

Apple TV

We have been wanting to invest in Apple TV for a while now.  It is the perfect set up for us to be able to listen to our music on our rockin' surround sound system and subscribe to a few of our favorite TV shows without having to pay for cable. We decided today was going to be the day we took the plunge.  So off we went to MacHaus to purchase our Apple TV.

Then we tried to hook it up. And because our TV is not designed by Apple (WHY?!? I wish everything were designed by Apple!) it decided to be stupid and not recognize the signal.  We have had this problem a little bit with the XBox, but wrongly assumed that it was the XBox (it is, after all, a Microsoft product)... so we tried to fix the TV.  Apparently the company who made our TV is now out of business, so it was a no go on being able to figure out how to fix it.

Weston was bound and determined to have this Apple TV set up tonight. So we headed to Costco and bought a new TV. Now we have a Vizio 37" super fancy TV and an Olevia 37" regular TV sitting in the middle of my living room. The Apple TV works on the new Vizio TV and the picture is crazy good (it is almost 3D... which is a bit weird to watch at first... but now I can't wait for the next episode of The Office.)

We are still trying to figure out all of the ins and outs to the new addition, but I have a feeling the Apple TV and I are going to be good friends. :)

Almost Halloween!!

So tomorrow is Halloween!! Which means it is time for our 2nd Annual Jager Halloween Party! We do shots when trick-or-treaters come and then walk to go neon bowling.  A good time is had by all. I am busily getting ready for the party... cleaning the house, cooking the food, etc. I love Halloween.

Anyway, the real reason for this post is a bit of bragging.  I did some spinning the other night and plied one of my yarns with beads!

I wanted it to look like Christmas lights in the night, and I am very happy with the way it turned out!

Pictures, as promised

My handspun baby sweater. I love it! Plus, it actually fits on a little kid.

My "mustard scarf"... out of Kelsey's handspun yarn. It is merino and silk and amazing... I have been wearing it dog walking and it is very warm!!

A close-up of the button.  I think it is the perfect accent...

My black, white, and red quilt.  Probably my favorite quilt EVER.

This fabric cracks me up... it has knitting abbreviations on it. :)

My Halloween quilt. The quilting on it is amazing. There are teeth in the jack-o-lanterns!

My fall quilt. I thought it was a nice quilt... then I put on the border and it was amazing.

The new shelves in my living room. I'm going to get some flowers to go in the vases... they are the vases from our wedding.

My current spinning. It is superfine merino in pinks and oranges. I really like it and I am getting close to being done with it. I have one bobbin done and this will be the second one that I will ply with. I like spinning large amounts (this was 7 oz total) but it seems to take forever! I think I have spinning ADD!

Alright, so that should tide everyone over for a while. It may be a bit before I get this much done again! Now off to dye some fiber.....

Regis

When I am home, I typically watch Regis and Kelly while eating breakfast.  Today, I was wondering if anyone would notice if Regis actually went crazy. Today, he was talking with Patrick Dempsey of Grey's Anatomy... he kept asking him questions like, "Do doctors actually talk like that about patients?" and "Can you save me if something were to happen to me right now?"... I realize that he PLAYS a doctor on TV. But, really?!? Why would he know what actual doctors talk about when at a hospital?? It just seemed really strange. I was concerned that Regis actually believed that Patrick was a doctor... he might be going insane and no one will notice....

And Kelly was wearing a snuggie.

That is all....

Fiber Notebook!

So now that I have been spinning for a while (actually, only 4 months... but who's counting) I have started to acquire a decent amount of stash fiber and handspun yarn.  And since I have actually been KNITTING with my handspun yarn (ok, only one project so far, but again, who's counting) I have been dreaming of starting a fiber notebook.  I really like handspun yarn (duh!), but I found when I knit the baby sweater, that some of what I loved about it was lost in the knitting. Not that the sweater isn't awesome... because, it is!... it's just that I felt you couldn't see how the two plys of the yarn played together. So I knew I wanted to start a fiber notebook that had samples of the yarns I spun, and pictures of what they became.

Today I stumbled upon this article, and it is my dream notebook!! I am SO inspired, I might start mine tonight! I love the eclectic look of the notebook! I actually even have some blanks notebooks in my house right now that I think will work.  They aren't hard back or even leather bound, but they are very "me" (100% recycled and even green in color). So that is going to be starting soon.  Maybe I will even take pictures and share them on here.  Who knows. And speaking of pictures, I really have been slacking lately. So, here is a list of things that I PROMISE to post pictures of sometime tomorrow.
*My finished scarf
*My finished baby sweater
*The finished pumpkin quilt
*The finished fall quilt
*The finished black and white quilt
*The new shelves in the house

I think that is really all that is going on here.  I have to teach knitting tonight, which is always fun! This group of ladies cracks me up.  A lot of them caught on very quickly, which is always a nice surprise... one of the ladies has been telling everyone she is going to knit them one sock.  Not a pair, just one... because she doesn't think she can make two that match! :) Too funny. Anyway, off to get ready for that... and to start my fiber notebook!

Energy Star

Yesterday our mayor, Dan Sullivan, asked the city to conserve energy for two hours to see how much we could save as a city in case of a problem during the winter. So between the hours of 6-8 PM we were supposed to turn the heat down (to 65*F I believe), not do dishes or laundry, and use the least amount of energy you could.  Most of these things we already do on a daily basis. Our thermostat is set for 58* at night, 60* during the day when we aren't home, 65* when we are home at night. Our hot water heater is set a bit lower than normal, as we don't use it that often and it is 1/3 of our electric bill.... I don't like paying bills.... We probably do laundry once a week and dishes every other day. I realize this is lower than most people, as we only have two people living in the house, but we make a point to only do full loads of both so that we can get the most of our energy usage.

I was at work, so I couldn't actively participate in the energy challenge, but apparently W took it very seriously.  He turned the heat off. And all the power. He wore his head lamp around the house so he could see. And ate a cold sandwich for dinner so he didn't cook.  He is an energy star.

This morning, Frito is super crazy.  He keeps barking at me for apparently no reason.  I'm pretty sure he just wants a treat, but I'm not giving in.  I will, however, walk him. So I am off to do that.