Eat out...Eat cheap!!

First I'll start by saying we are probably the worse about eating out...I mean we eat at home most of the time but once it comes to the weekend we don't want to deal with the kitchen so we go out. It's bad, I know, but I'm stuck at home most of the time anyway and that hour or two out for dinner frees me a little and I'm not adding to my schedule by making another meal.

With that said, we eat as cheap as we can. It's rare that we spend over $35 even at a sit down restaurant. If it's fast food we keep it between $15-20. Here's a few rules/tips I follow.

1. go where you have coupons to. many many places have coupons off 2 entrees, or bogo's off cheeseburgers, etc. Use them! they come in the mail for a reason.

2. Got kids? find out who has free or .99 kids meals. Here Carlos O'Kelly's is Tuesday night ($1.99 mugaritas!!) and Applebee's is Wednesday night. 

3. Get the most amount of food you can for the cheapest price. Use that dollar menu. You don't need a big mac, a cheeseburger will satisfy you just fine! We buy a 20piece nugget and split it between kids, then they have applesauce or something as a side when we get home. 

4. Share adult meals. In reality 1 meal should feed 2 adults. The proportions at restaurants are generally blown out of proportion (hahaha I made a funny!!) We actually usually buy 3 meals and share between the 6 of us, get the kids a milk and usually get a water for ourselves. 

Using a few of these tips we actually had the cheapest bill a table of 6 has probably ever had at Red Lobster (endless shrimp days don't count) the other night. We bought one appetizer of mozzarella sticks, 2 adult meals, 4 milks, a soda, and water...$43!!! We had a $4 off coupon so that helped. And we had leftovers!!!...of course we forgot them on the table and I didn't realize it till hours later.  

But seriously, if we can make our RED LOBSTER bill that cheap with our big family, anyone can. There's no reason not to spoil yourself once in awhile with a pricey dinner, find the savings and use them.

Happy EATING :)

Open for Business

Last night after lots of debating, learning new tricks and tips to add to the arsenal of mental notes I already have in my "photography" brain folder, I decided to post an add on Craigslist advertising my photography business. I'm by no means a professional, I'm definitely still considering myself and amateur and just wanting to put my name out there. In less than 12 hours I got a phone call from a local golf course looking to use my work as an advertisement on their score cards. After a few phone calls to check out the legitimacy Josh and I decided this was a smart move. I will be placed as their featured photographer!! I'm pretty stoked and maybe they picked me because I'm new and they knew I'd jump on the opportunity to get my name out there...I dont know. But for $400 I kind of held back for a few hours. I wasn't sure this was worth the money, and still am not 100% sure, but they are currently advertising 40,000 golfers a year, 40,000x5 hours of golf=200,000 of advertising, I can deal with it. Best part is I can pay in payments!! I'm ecstatic and over joyed by the opportunity and the possibility that soon I'll have a decent amount of income coming in to my house. It'll be a lot of hard work, I realize this, but I'm ok with it. A job isn't supposed to be easy.
I've opened up a facebook page for my followers (the whole 6 of you right now) to follow if you'd like https://www.facebook.com/pages/Navillus-Photography/504492819596887?bookmark_t=page

I'm currently offering $50 mini sessions to start building a bigger portfolio. So its a great time to get a few new family portraits at a great price. You also get a cd with edited pics and copyright! Check it out, bring your friends!!

Below are some pictures I took using umbrella's and flash this weekend, courtesy of my mother and sister in laws who have been amazing in helping me with my journey into the photography world. I'm debating whether its worth buying them or just umbrella lights or a few soft boxes....oh decisions.

Peanut Butter chocolate Slimfast bars

I love Slimfast. It may be old school weightloss, but it's yummy IMO. However I get tired of drinking shakes and hate to spend money on the bars all the time. So after looking at a few recipes I came up with my own bars. Here's your super easy, 2 minute recipe.

2cups whole oats
4scoops Chocolate Slimfast (use any flavor of chocolate you want)
1/3 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1/2 cup of natural peanut butter


Mix ingredients in large bowl (I used my hands, it was much easier). Line an 8x8 pan with parchment paper and press mixture into bottoms of pan. Sit in fridge for 45 min and cut into 8 pieces. Great for a quick snack or have two for a meal.

Crochet 4 leaf clover

Excuse the rough draft and tell me if you need a better explanation. I just made this up after searching for a perfect clover that wasn't too big for what I want it for. These will make cute embellishments or you could connect multiple clovers for a cute St. Patty's Day garland.


Need a size h hook and worsted weight yarn.

Magic loop, ch.1 5hdc in loop join with slst.

Row2: chain 4, slst all in first hdc. Slst in next st, ch 4, slst in same stitch(repeat 2x), slst in next stitch,( ch8. 2sc in second chain from hook, 2sc in next chain, 1sc in next 5 chains), slst. Do not join.

Row 3: in loop formed by ch4 (2sc, hdc, 2dc,hdc,sc,hdc, 2dc,hdc, 2sc) repeat3x. slst to first sc in this row.

Finish off. Leave a tail if you plan to use as an embellishment.

Snow Storm!!!

I'm actually semi-excited to see a downpour of snow over the next 24 hours. Most people aren't. Most people are mad they canceled school. Most people don't think it will snow that much. And Most people are idiots. Then you get those of us who PREP for the snow storm. Our main need was flashlights...just in case. We have one flash light and the ones on our phones, which if electricity goes out we don't have car charges so that won't do us any good after a day or so. The likely hood of no electricity is slim, but I've seen it happen due to snow and it sucked!! However, my kids will quickly learn what life without the Wii, Xbox, or Playstation is like. (spoiled brats!)

But back to the main subject. Here's how we prepped, because we're cool people who do that sort of thing. First we packed kiddos up and headed to Wally World, the store that has everything right seemed a legit place to be. Here's what we bought...

4 awesome glow stick/flashlights which are ultimately for the kids
Bread (which we were lucky there was any left, apparently everyone thinks its Armageddon)
Candy (lots of it because... well, lets face it, who knows when you'll need candy in your life)
Milk (@ 2.48 a gallon I might say)
Sunchips(@1.96 so we bought 4 bags :))
batteries (duh)
breaded greenbeans that you bake and are amazing and cheap (I think they are called crispers? frozen section, they're yummy but not enough in one box for our family)
bagels
peanut butter captain crunch (NECESSARY!)
Bubbles (for pinterest idea I'll post about)
and random other items I can't think of. But for the most part, nothing anyone really needs to be prepared for the storm....We do have quite a bit in the house as it is so I guess we didn't need to buy too much but our grocery list looks pretty pathetic to the outsider and I have to laugh at it. oooooh yea, and we bought beer. Leinenkugals Holiday something or another bundle. Beer is essential when stuck at home forever with 4 kids right?! of course it is!
Anyhow, if you'd like to have more ideas on how to prep for a storm...don't follow me, I'm terrible at it :)

I'm in Lincoln, Nebraska...right on the edge of that 10-12"/8-10" line. I don't doubt we'll see that much at all. The weather men aren't that far off!

Simple crochet nb hat pattern

This is my pattern, mine only, Im sure there are similar ones out there but this is my tried and true pattern. I don't care if you use it, sell things from it, what have you but would love some sort of acknowledgement or shout out once in a great while :)

Materials:
I hook
worsted weight yarn

gauge: 13 hdc in 4"

ch. 4, slip stitch to join.

Rnd1: ch 1. 9hdc in circle, slst in first hdc
Rnd2: ch1. 1hdc in same space, 2 hdc in next stitch and next 7stitches
Rnd3: ch1. 1hdc in same st, *2 hdc in next, 1 hdc in next*, repeat around
Rnd 4: ch1. 1hdc in same st, 1 hdc in next, *2hdc in next stitch, 1hdc in next 2* repeat around
Rnd5: ch1. 1hdc in same st, 1hdc in next 2 stitches, *2hdc in next st. 1hdc in next 3* repeat around
Rnd 6ch1. 1hdc in same st. 1 hdc all stitches around

Rnd 7-13: repeat row 6

Finish off with yarn needle. Slide remaining yarn through stitches so it is hidden and trim off close to your hat.

Voila!! Your finished!

(P.S. feel free to ask me any questions. This is the first pattern I've written down so I may have missed something. Keep in mind that you may not always end off with a perfect round, that's ok, having odd stitches will do that)

Bus-nass

About 85% of all my sales come directly from Facebook, whether it be custom orders or from sales I host, so I've decided I'm done with Etsy, a place where I can get lost in the crowd among thousands of other people selling the same exact thing but maybe in a different color. I don't think this is a fix all nor do I expect to suddenly clear out my closets (which I desperately want to happen) but I am tired of paying another site to not sell what I can not sell all on my own :) This whole "running my own business" thing is a daunting task. I spend so much time making things and most of them don't sell. Instead someone may want something similar but not exactly the same. Which I don't mind at all, I'm happy for the sale. However I don't like when I have piles of items slowly stacking up in my closet. I need to get rid of some stuff so I can make new stuff to sit around on the shelves for this next year! lol

Anyhow, here's the link to my page, again. www.facebook.com/navilluscreations. Find the album titled "FOR SALE" (practical title huh?) and start shopping. Here's a preview of whats currently listed until I find more stuff to list.