One Hundred Dollars a Month - Page 1496 of 2143 - I am your typical housewife living in high maintenance suburbia. I have a handsome husband, 2 kids and a flock of pet chickens. I try and feed my family with $100 a month. With the help of coupons, gardening and bartering I am able to squeeze the most out of our grocery budget and still manage to have a little fun along the way.

Easy Crafts for Kids – Wooden Gnomes

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By Mavis Butterfield on August 13, 2013 · 5 Comments

These are the gnomes that we made with the kids at St. Jude on our trip. Minus the sewing, the kids were able to do these all by themselves. We had so much fun making them with the kiddos, I thought I would share how to make them with you. They would make a perfect rainy day activity, don’t you think?

Supplies You’ll Need:

Water colors
Wood dolls
Paint brushes
Felt
Needle and thread
Sharpie marker {fine or medium tip}
Cup of water {for the water paints}
Q-tip

Directions:

Start by painting the base of the wood dolls different colors.

Then, using your sharpie, add dots for eyes and buttons on the dolls. Dab a little red water color with a q-tip to make rosy cheeks on the gnome.

Cut out 3″ x 5″ triangles out of the felt. {I made a pattern, just to simplify things.}

Fold the felt triangle in half and sew along the long side of the triangle. Place the hat on the gnome and you’re finished.

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Graceland: Elvis’ Home is Awesome

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By Mavis Butterfield on August 13, 2013 · Leave a Comment

Yesterday we went to Graceland! I’ve kinda always been fascinated with Elvis Presley because he’s was so brilliant & quirky {plus the dude sold over a billion records worldwide and that’s just impressive}. So obviously when we started making plans to head on our epic road trip to Memphis, we had to head to Graceland. I mean he’s The King. And he’s awesome.

First of all the estate itself is massive at 13 acres+ {Sheesh. Can you even image mowing that lawn. The Handsome Husband would have a heart attack!}. And then the house is a freakin rad mansion {it has twenty-three rooms, including eight bedrooms and bathrooms. And just like the HH would not want to mow that lawn, I’d pass out cleaning the interior} and a museum too.

It’s also a National Historic Landmark and gets over 600,000+ visitors every year. I could go on and on about how cool Graceland is, but I’ll let our pictures do the talking. Here are my top 10 favorite things at Graceland {in no particular order}:

1. The Front Gate: It’s probably the most famous thing about the estate and I totally get why. It’s a wrought-iron gate shaped like a book of sheet music with huge green colored musical notes and a silhouette of Elvis. Pretty impressive!

2. The Meditation Garden: Well, it’s a garden, so clearly I’m going to love it. Elvis, his parents Gladys and Vernon Presley, and his grandmother are all buried there. There’s also a memorial gravestone for Presley’s twin brother, Jesse Garon {he was stillborn, so sadly Elvis never knew him}.

3. The Entry: The entryway contains four Temple of the Winds columns and two large lions perched on both sides. Clearly Elvis knew how to make a statement.

4. The Jungle Room: One of Elvis’ favorite rooms is inspired by one of his favorite places to vacation: Hawaii. It has a very Polynesian feel with really cool carved wood and even a waterfall! Best part? The faux fur upholstery and green shag carpet!

5. The Racquetball Building: It was once an actual racquetball court, but now it houses a large display of Elvis’ awards, honors and accomplishments. Holee Cow he was a big deal. There are also a couple of his stage costumes, including the very famous American Eagle jumpsuit. It was neat to see those costumes up close & personal.

6. Mansion Foyer: It has a 15-foot wide white sofa. Need I say more.

7. The Dining Room: The dining room was where Elvis and his family would enjoy down-home Southern cooking for their evening meals. And probably where hundreds of those famous Peanut Butter, Bacon and Banana sandwiches were consumed!

8. The Stained Glass: It kinda wraps around the front door and all along the entryway windows. Very unique.

9. The Staircase: I mostly loved this because it holds such mystery. It leads to a curtained off 2nd floor that only family is allowed to access. Upstairs is also the bathroom where he supposedly died, which leads me to #10…

10. Elvis’ Ghost: Okay so we obviously didn’t get a picture of this {we’d be millionaires if we had!}, but there’s still a part of me that believes the rumor that he didn’t die in his bathroom at Graceland of a heart attack. What do you think? Any conspiracy theories?

Yep, Graceland was pretty cool, but I have to admit I thought someone would certainly, “Thank us. Thank us very much,” as we left. 😉

~Mavis

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St. Jude Garden and Kay Kafe

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By Mavis Butterfield on August 13, 2013 · 5 Comments

Well, we did it!

What started off as a crazy idea turned into reality when we met Chef Miles at the St. Jude Garden yesterday in Memphis, Tennessee. We were able to donate enough gnomes so that each one of the 59 garden boxes would be able to have at least one gnome placed in it. How cool is that?

Chef Miles, who prepares food for the Kay Kafe gave us a tour of the gardens and talked to us about the types of vegetables they grow at the St. Jude garden {squash, beans, tomatoes, greens, herbs} with the help of volunteers. Thanks to my buddies at Botanical Interests Seed Company we were able to pass along a HUGE seed box of seeds {250+ packets} to Chef Miles for next years garden. Garden gnomes, seeds and money, sounds like the perfect combination if you ask me.

In case you didn’t know already, at St. Jude the faculty, staff and patients not only get to enjoy the fresh produce from the St. Jude garden, but the cafe tries to make sure all the food served in the Kay Kafe is locally sourced and comes from within 150 miles of the hospital.

We were not only able to visit the gardens, but we were also to spend time with some of the patients and make a gnome craft, as well as get a private tour and visit the Danny Thomas Pavilion. Because of privacy reasons we did not take any photos but I can tell you we were all very impressed with the facility, the kids and the whole experience. It was a wonderful once in a lifetime experience.

A BIG thank you to everyone who donated a gnome, made a cash donation or wished us well on our journey. It was really a once in a lifetime journey and I am just so glad we were able to help.

I’ll write more later, but I wanted to share the pictures with you asap.

Peace Out Girl Scouts, see you back in a bit.

Mavis

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Piggly Wiggly: The Coolest Grocery Store Ever

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By Mavis Butterfield on August 12, 2013 · 13 Comments

Besides the fact that it’s the coolest named grocery store ever, pretty much all of the modern conveniences you take for granted when at the grocery store today are because of the Piggly Wiggly.

Piggly Wiggly was the first true self-service grocery store. It was founded way back in 1916 in Memphis, Tennessee and before it came along, you would wait in a long line & then hand your shopping list to a cashier. Then wait around some more while they filled the order for you {like Olivia Walton did at Ike Godsey’s store}. Then wait around even longer while they checked you out. Grocery shopping already feels like it takes FOR-EVER sometimes. I can’t even image. Pretty much in debt to those Piggly Wiggly folks!

In case you didn’t know, Piggly Wiggly was the first to:

provide checkout stands
price mark every item in the store
provide shopping carts for customers, starting in 1937
feature a full line of nationally advertised brands
use refrigerated cases to keep produce fresher longer
put employees in uniforms for cleaner, more sanitary food handling
standardize product location, so customers who know the location of their favorite products in their local store knew where they were in every store
franchise independent grocers to operate under the self-service method

The success of Piggly Wiggly was phenomenal {at its peak the company operated 2,660 stores!} so much so that other independent and chain grocery stores changed to self-service in the 1920s and 1930s. While there are only about 600 Piggly Wigglys remaining, we were lucky enough to find one on our road trip! I mean you can’t exactly say you’ve fully experienced the South until you’ve shopped at a Piggly Wiggly, right?! A Piggly Wiggly is as Southern as sweet tea, grits and lightin’ bugs.

Now Amberlina’s husband was a cart boy at a Piggly Wiggly many years ago, so he gave us the lowdown. First lesson: a shopping cart is not called a shopping cart. It’s called a buggy. Who knew? Second lesson: Soda is called Coke. Like if you walk into the store looking for Sprite, you’d ask where the Coke aisle was, not the soda aisle. He also said that no one knows how the original owner came up with the name Piggly Wiggly. Turns out he’s right. I Googled it & Clarence Saunders, the founder, would never say where he got the name from. Odd.

All in all, it seemed like any other grocery store on the inside. But just knowing you’re in a store called Piggly Wiggly makes it that much more awesome.

This post may contain affiliate links. These affiliate links help support this site. For more information, please see my disclosure policy. Thank you for supporting One Hundred Dollars a Month.