Christina Leaman

Guest Post June 4, 2012

Guest Post: Tales of the Scotts

While I’m away unpacking boxes this week, I’ve asked a few of my blogger friends to take the reins for me and share a little of themselves with you. I hope you enjoy. Pop over to Facebook when you have a chance. I’ll be uploading pics all week, giving you a snapshot of our move. Today’s post is brought to you by Eva at Tales of the Scotts. When she says we’ve known each other since Kindergarten, she’s not kidding. Here’s proof:I’m on the left, looking at the camera. Eva is on the right. It was “Come as A Book Character” Day at school.Hi Scrappy Readers! I’m so happy to be with you today and super excited for Christina and her hubs on the purchase of their new home! What an exciting time for them! Well, I’m Eva and I blog over at Tales of the Scotts. There you’ll find funny stories about…

Uncategorized June 2, 2012

Quick Moving Update

Hey y’all. Sorry it’s kind of quiet around here. Hubby and I are pushing hard to get this move done, but we are painfully behind and it’s starting to wear on us big time. As I type this, it’s about one in the morning on Saturday and we’re scheduled to move in eleven hours. Right now, The Hubs is taking an hour or so (I’ll probably let him sleep a bit longer than that) nap while I continue to pack and then we’ll switch. I’m afraid if we both sleep we may not get it all done or we’ll sleep too long.Anyway, next week is filled with wonderful guest posts from several fabulous ladies with fantastic blogs, while I unpack boxes and clean…and clean…and clean. I cannot unsee the things I have seen in our new house. Let’s just leave it at that. Have a great weekend and I will…

Uncategorized May 30, 2012

My Memories Digital Scrapbooking Software GIVEAWAY!

Hey guys! I am so excited today! Do you know why? No, it’s not the fact that I’m moving in, um, four days (yikes!), it’s because I get to give one lucky reader the gift of memory keeping with My Memories Digital Scrapbooking! Anyone familiar with this blog knows I am a scrapbooking hoarder enthusiast. I’m kind of obsessed with paper crafting (and paper…). But I have a confession to make. For awhile now, I’ve been harboring the desire to betray my stash start digital scrapbooking, so I was insanely excited when Liz from My Memories contacted me about a product review. No really, if it hadn’t been incredibly late at night, I probably would have screamed. I settled for a “squee” on Facebook. Here’s proof:Told ya.Anyway, back to the matter at hand. I’m pretty passionate about my scrapbooking and I am always trying to encourage others to try it, but even…

Menu Planning May 29, 2012

Blog Resources for Home Cooks & May Menu Week 5

Hey y’all! Happy Memorial Day (It’s still Memorial Day on the west coast!) Sorry this post is so late. It’s a big, big week here at our house. Can you guess why? 😉 Y’all our apartment is a wreck. Boxes everywhere and it’s going to get worse before it gets better. Oy. So much packing. Anywho, back to you dear reader. Today I’m going to share a couple of my favorite go to cooking blogs that have helped me a lot in my quest to become a home cook. Let’s get started, OK? OK!Eat at Home is one of my favorite food blogs. Tiffany truly cares about eating at home and avoiding the fast food lane. She’s passionate about it. All of her recipes are simple, easy to follow and kid and hubby approved! We use some of her seasoned salt recipes (Uh, she makes her *own* and they are fantastic.) all the…

Menu Planning May 25, 2012

Leftover Makeovers

This is Part 9 in a series on Menu Planning on a Budget. If you’ve missed anything, start HERE.Hello everyone!Today we’re talking about what to do with all of those leftovers and I thought I’d do something a little different. I’ll start by giving you links to a couple of my favorite leftovers recipes and tell you how we handle them in our menu planning, but then…I want your leftovers recipes! That’s right…yours! I thought I’d do a fun impromptu link party. Don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be a new post. Dig around in those archives! Easy as pie (leftover pie?).Don’t have a blog? No sweat. Leave a comment and share what you do to make sure you aren’t wasting all that tastiness. I’ll feature my favorites this weekend. (It’ll give me something to do when I’m cross eyed from looking at boxes…help a girl out.)OK so first up, I’m going…

Menu Planning May 23, 2012

Fast Food at Home

Hey guys! Today I wanted to talk with you about what to do when that craving for fast food hits. Tell me you get an occasional hankerin’ for Taco Bell, too? While we’re trying (and succeeding!) to cut back on our food budget, we still get the occasional craving for junk. I don’t mind it occasionally, but we were doing it far too much. Rather than going cold turkey, I decided to embrace it and counter it at the same time. Here are my tips for satisfying that junk food craving:1. Have It Anyway – OK so first up, I’m not going to lie to you: we still run through or order take out on occasion. I don’t believe in giving it up entirely. Everything in moderation, I say. But here’s the thing: We plan for it. I build it into our menu plan so we don’t feel deprived of our fun and…

Cleaning May 22, 2012

How to Get Smoke Out of Clothing

Hi guys! I just wanted to share a quick laundry tip with you today. A few years ago, just before we moved in together, The Hubs had a house fire and lost pretty much everything. What clothes he could salvage smelled…well, not so nice. At the time, it wasn’t in the budget to replace everything so I had to salvage what I could. I wanted to save his clothing so he’d at least have more than one set (that he was washing nightly – I felt so bad for him!) until we could get out and get him some new things. So, I did what any nerdy girlfriend would do. I did a little research online and discovered an awesome way to get rid of the nasty, sooty smoke and ick. Check it out: You’ll need some Arm & Hammer powder laundry detergent in “Free” and a giant jug of distilled white…

Menu Planning May 21, 2012

Slow Cooker Cooking & May Menu Week 4

This is Part 7 in an ongoing series on menu planning. If you’ve missed anything, please click HERE.I am really excited about today’s segment. I am absolutely in love with my slow cooker. I have a Crock Pot brand slow cooker and it works like a champ. Honestly, I’m already looking to get the next size up since I use it so often and want to make larger quantities for freezing.If you are a busy mom and wife, I cannot recommend slow cooking strongly enough. In about 15 minutes in the morning, you can pop in all the ingredients for dinner, turn your slow cooker on and come home to dinner all ready for you hours later! It is awesome.OK enough gushing. Let’s get down to business. I thought I’d share with you some of my favorite slow cooker cookbooks and a few tips to get you started and maybe…

Menu Planning May 18, 2012

Freezer Cooking

This is PART 6 in an ongoing series on menu planning. If you’ve missed anything, please click HERE. Happy Friday everyone! Are you still with me on this Menu Planning thing? I hope so! Today is an easy one…Freezer Cooking.The comment I most often hear when I discuss freezer cooking is “Oh I don’t have time for that. It takes so much time!”Well, no disrespect meant to any of those people, but – wrong!Do you have time to cook one meal? I hope you just said yes. If not, then go feed your family! They’re hungry!;)I’m sure most of you said yes. The good news is that if you have time to make one meal – you can totally be a freezer cook.Here’s my secret. Ready? Double your recipe.Yep. Really. It’s that simple. I’m not asking you to spend your weekend in the kitchen. I told you, I like to keep things…

Menu Planning May 17, 2012

Must Have Kitchen Tools for the Menu Planner

This is PART 5 in a series. If you’ve missed anything, please click HERE to be taken to the beginning.You guys are so awesome and so patient! This week is insanely busy over here at Casa Scrappy. Posts have been delayed a bit, but I’m still happily churning them out. Thanks for standing by.Today, I wanted to share with you a few of my favorite kitchen tools that I use all the time. They range from the cheap to the expensive, but I really do think all of them are perfect for the home cook. Let’s get started, shall we?1. 12″ Lodge Cast Iron Skillet $33.95 (I got mine at Target for around $30.)It may not be the most trendy cookware available, but it is a Southern staple. I grew up watching my mother’s cast iron skillet get blacker and blacker over time. Did you know it doesn’t come looking…