Crafting deal of the day!

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If you check Southern Savers regularly like I do, then you already know this and can disregard this post.

But, Craftsy.com is offering a slew of free classes today (5/18). If you don't have much time to enjoy the class today... don't fret! You have unlimited access to the class!

I went with the class titled "Design and Sew an A Line Skirt" by Deborah Moebes.

I can't wait to watch the class and make my first skirt ever. Let me know what class you sign up for and how you liked it.

Chocolate Chocolate Cake - Hershey's

My husband just celebrated his 29th birthday a few days ago. His mom has always made his birthday cake and birthday dinner. This year I told him that I wanted to do both. That was until he said that he wanted gizzards for dinner (ew). So, I changed my request to making just the cake. His mom always makes him a chocolate cake with chocolate icing.

This gave me the opportunity to make a cake from scratch for the first time ever! It was a huge success. This cake comes out very moist and not too sweet. I opted to sub the vegetable oil with coconut oil for the first time as well. I was a little nervous to do this but no issue, couldn't even taste the coconut.  The ingredients also call for dark chocolate cocoa. I didn't have this on hand so I just used regular cocoa.

The recipe comes from the Hershey's website.  I know, I know... not so creative of me. Hey, maybe one day I will make up my own recipe :)

Cake Ingredients

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 3/4 cup Hershey's Cocoa (dark or not)
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil (or melted coconut oil)
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two round cake pans or one 13x9 pan.

2. Stir together all the dry ingredients. 

3. Add the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Beat for two minutes on medium speed.

4. Stir in the boiling water. Don't freak out at this point, the batter will be thin!

5. Bake for 30-35 minutes for the round cake pans and 35-40 minutes for the rectangle pan. 

6. Let the cake cool for 10 minutes before removing from the pan and setting on wire rack. 

7. Make sure you let the cake cool completely, and then ice.

Icing Ingredients

• 6 tbsp. butter; softened
• 2 2/3 cups of powered sugar
• 1/2 cup Hershey's cocoa
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

1. Beat the butter in a medium bowl.

2. Add the powered sugar and coca alternately with the milk. Beat until a smooth consistency (you may have to add a little extra milk).

3. Stir in the vanilla. 

And I want to apologize for the awful picture of the cake. It is more than 1/2 eaten in this shot. Oh well, it was just too good to wait for a picture :)

Fabric for Master Bedroom

My husband and I bought our first home in 2005 and we have yet to decorate our master bedroom. Sad, I know. But, we recently just down sized our bed from a king to a queen. Bad side: I don't have as much room to sleep. Good side: I have an excuse now to buy new bed sheets/comforter and curtains to coordinate!
After shopping online and in every store known to man kind, I just haven't found what I really wanted for our room. I have resorted to making my own curtains and pillows. I looked up tutorial videos on YouTube and it seems pretty easy. I am even going to try sewing black-out fabric onto the curtain panels. We will see how that turns out.
My husband and I FINALLY agreed on a fabric to use. At first I was wanting to go with a shade of green, but there just wasn't anything out there that we both liked that was under $10 a yard (I know, I'm cheap). Luckily Fabric.com is having a sale of 20% off their Premier Prints brand. I like a lot of the different fabric choices from that company. So, this is what we agreed on... drum roll please...

Yaaaaaaay! It's called Suzani Chocolate/Natural by Premier Prints. I can't wait to make my pillows and curtains. And it was on sale for only $5.98/yd!! You know that I will post them as soon as they are done.

**And a quick money saving tip: You can actually buy fabric from fabric.com through Amazon.com. The prices are the same but shipping is only $1 compared to $7 if you order directly off of fabric.com 's website. You're welcome :)**

David's 1st Birthday Party!

Today we celebrated my little boys 1st birthday! I know everyone says it, but the first year really did fly by so fast. I have cherished every moment with him so far.

I decided to go with a whale theme for his party. Unfortunately, there is nothing out there to purchase with whales on it. Apparently it isn't a real popular theme. So, thanks to my friend Bethany's (over at dwellingsbydevore.com) silhouette, I was able to make a banner, cupcake toppers and stickers for the plates and cups.

And I'm sure you have seen this cake all over Pinterest. I thought it was a great idea to do in place of a regular cake and icing for baby. It is just a seedless watermelon cut into the shape of a cake and then topped with other kinds of fruits. I used strawberries, kiwi and mandarins. David's favorite fruit is watermelon so it was a hit!

He obviously loved it...

Lowes Foods Super Doubles 4/24

Oh how I love super double coupon time! This week you can go to Lowes Foods and they will double any coupon that has a face value of $2 or less. Meaning, if you have a $2 coupon they will double it to $4!

I made my grocery list by using Southern Savers website. I encourage you to go to that website to learn how to coupon so that you can do just as well with your shopping trip. :)

Today I was able to get $88.13 worth of groceries for only $35.01. That is over 50% savings! My goal is to save at least 50% with each coupon visit.

Break down of my purchases:

- Bounty 2 pack paper towels: $3.50 - $1 = $1.50
- Charmin 4 pack Ultra Soft: $3 - $1  = $1
- YoCrunch Yogurt: $2.99 - $1 = $.99 x2
- Trident Gum: $1 - $1 = FREE x2
- Hershey's Bars: $1.19 - $1 = $.19 x4
- DiGiorno Pizza with Breadsticks or Wyngz: $6.99 - $1.50 = $3.99 x3
- Stouffers Large Family sized Ravioli or Lasagna: $9.99 - $1.50 = $6.99 x2
- Cooked Perfect Meatballs: $2.99 - $1 = $.99 x3
- Edys Fruit Bars: $3 - $1 = $1

All of the above deals (minus Bounty, Charmin, DiGiorno and Stouffers) were via Southersavers.com . All coupons used were from the newspaper and none of them were printed. Again, I encourage you to check out the coupon site for daily deals. Please feel free to comment if you have any questions.

Coming soon...

Ok, I'm not dead... I promise! I have several blog entries to come. Here is what you will see in the next few days or so:

1. DIY Growth Chart
2. Baby David's 1st Birthday decorations
3. Baby blanket
4. 4th of July Pillowcase dresses

So keep your eyes peeled! Crafts galore to come! :)

Homemade Yogurt Bites for Baby

I have seen homemade yogurt bites all over Pinterest lately and thought I should try it out. The only snack that we give David right now is Puffs. He eats so many of them that I'm surprised he hasn't already turned into a Puff himself! :)

After doing some research, I found that it is recommended that you give babies organic yogurt made with whole milk. I found tubs of Stonyfield yogurt on sale this week at Lowes Foods. They are organic and made with whole milk, french vanilla flavored.

These are so easy to do! Just spoon your yogurt into a sandwich bag, cut a small piece off of the corner and pipe little circles onto a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet! I popped them into the freezer for just 25-30 minutes. After that, just take them off of the parchment paper with your hands and store them however you'd like. I just put them into a freezer bag and placed them back into the freezer.
I hope that David likes them! If not, I can always just eat them myself :)