February Book of the Month

I really like feel good books. Can you blame me? How can you not love a book (or a pair of books in this case) that just warm your heart?

Be the Miracle and God Never Blinks are both written by Regina Brett, a journalist and cancer survivor. She intertwines stories about her life and the miracles that others have received and been a part of. It’s a lot of positive attitude stuff. I love to listen to these in my car on the way to work. I always seem to be in a better mood when I get there after listening to this in the car. They are quick and easy reads, but they will have a profound impact on your outlook on life. I promise.

I got these from my local library, but you can also purchase them here and here.

Be the Miracle- Regina Brett

God never Blinks- Regina Brett

French Butter Cookies {Foodie Friday}

I told you about my favorite Christmas gift, but that’s not the only baking wonder I got for Christmas. I will probably just keep telling you about all my cool Christmas gifts as we go along. Maybe then I can make Christmas last until July. So I got not one but TWO cookie presses for Christmas. Both are made by Kuhn Rikon, but one was the super huge kind they used to sell at Williams-Sonoma.

Printable Alphabet Bunting Letters

Wow, this is so cute! I think I am going to print one of these off for Caroline’s room, just don’t tell DH, he hates that kind of thing.

View this download via ruffledblog here.

Chandler's Birthday! {Monday Me}

See those cute letters that spell Chandler behind the cake? My friend Brianna and I made them out of paper mache letters from Hobby Lobby. I'm pretty sure the whole project cost less than $10. We bought the letters 40% off and painted them blue. Then we mod podged some Batman comics on them.

We also made the Chandler banner hanging on the front of the table. Here is a close up of that banner:

We also made a sign that said 'Happy Birthday'

Chandler had a great party. He also has a wonderful mama who thought up all the decorating ideas. I just helped with the implementaion.



Baked Doughnuts {Foodie Friday}

Who doesn't love doughnuts? I mean honestly. My only doubt about this was if they would be as good as fried doughnuts. They were. I love how this recipe allows you to make them the night before and just finish them in the morning. I still don't understand how people make yeasty breads for breakfast. It seems at my house things have to rise for twice as long as the recipe actually says. That being said, these could have risen longer, but hey when you're hungry, you're hungry.

Etsy Inspiration

Happy Valentine's Day!!

I hope your day is filled with love and lots of chocolate of course =)

Today I am writing about a project that I did based on something I saw on Etsy.

Call me a copy cat if you want, but I call it thrifty!!

One day when I was surfing the web I came across this print. I was shocked that the seller was charging $24. I thought, ok, maybe that is the cost of the frame, but NO! The matte and the frame have to be purchased separtely. Are you kidding me?! Well I thought this was a cute idea, so I decided to see if I could just do it myself. It was actually easier than I thought. I had some trouble getting the special phrase to rotate and stay where I wanted it to, but once I figured it out, I kind of went overboard.

The one below is for DH and I. I didn't include Caroline's birthday because I wanted it just to be our dates. The pictures look a little blurry, but that's just because I had to print screen them to share them with you! 

 This one is for DH's parents:

This one is for my parents:

What I love about this project is that the colors, dates and text can be easily customized for any event or theme! AND...if you want me to make you one, I'll only charge you $10..lol.

Nobody's Perfect {Monday Me}

It’s no secret that nobody’s perfect, but for some reason we all think that we need to be. I’m guilty of it myself of course. I think I need to keep my house perfectly clean, be a good mom, be a good wife, be a good cook/baker, be skinny, be pretty, be creative. There are so many people around us (or at least me) that continually make me feel like I am not good enough, I'm not strong enough, etc.  It’s all too much. Frankly, I just don’t have the time to deal with it all. Here is how my days usually play out:

6:00 AM- get up and get ready for work

7:00 AM- leave for work

8:00-5:00 PM- work. Boo.

5:45- get home work, play with Caroline while DH gets dinner ready

6:15-6:45- eat dinner

6:45-7:15- do the dishes, clean the kitchen

7:15-7:45- give Caroline a bath and get her jammies on

7:45-8:30- read books, rock, put Caroline to bed

8:30 and on- take a shower, make my lunch, do whatever needs to be done to walk out the door the next day AND find a way to do homework, scrapbook, edit photos, craft. I usually end up in bed somewhere between 10:30 and 11:30.

And you wondered why I was a crazy person!! Remember when I said I usually end up taking a nap? Now you know why. It’s no wonder that the weekends are my favorite time (and pretty much everyone elses). It’s the only time I have to do anything that I WANT to do not just things that I HAVE to do. When I was in middle or high school we did this musical at my church called Livin' on the Edge. It's about a bunch of high school students, so fittingly, there is a song called  'Monday all over again.' I think of it every Sunday night or Monday. It goes like this: "It's Monday all over again, and it feels like the week is never gonna end. It hits me every seven days without warning. It keeps me praying for Saturday morning. It's Monday.."

Loaded Baked Potato Skins {Foodie Friday}

We have a Christmas tradition at my parent's house. Generally on Christmas Eve we make all sorts of appetizers and goodies and crowd into the living room to watch National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

L-O-V-E

Since we're all in the mood for Valentine's Day here is a great idea I saw on Tip Junkie.
Make your own Love Yarn wrapped letters. You can buy these letters at Hobby Lobby and if you use a coupon you can get them for 40% off which means super cheap. Same with the yarn. You will need 3 different colors.  You know I like cheap, so these are right up my alley. I don't really have anywhere in my house where I can even put this, so I probably won't be making it any time soon, but maybe for my next house..

View the tutorial here

Valentine's Day Dinner Party

Check out this Valentine’s Party Designed by Meredith Santucci of MJ Paperie & Party Design and featured on Pizzazzerie.

This party also comes with Valentine’s Day printables so you can have a party of your own!

View the whole party here.

Argyle Valentines Wreath

I’ve been a little bit into yarn lately –you will see another yearn craft for Valentine’s day on Thursday. I love these crafts because they are cute and more importantly CHEAP! There is a whole tutorial on Remodelaholic about how to make one of these. Remember you could easily customize this with other shapes and colors for other holidays. I think a red white and blue one with stars for the 4^th of July would be really cute too.

View the tutorial here.

My Christmas Gift {Monday Me}

I realize that Christmas is now a distant memory for most people, but this year I got an awesome gift (well more than one, but this one won the present of the year award). You may know that DH and I have purchased several rental properties. Since I bake so much now, DH thought that we could trade in our cheapo oven for the Cadillac version. The old oven will be put into one of the rentals. It seemed our oven cooked about 30 degrees under temperature and did a good job of also heating our house. It was to the point that we would avoided turning it on in the summer if at all possible. We started shopping around for Christmas sales and found a great deal on this double oven from Home Depot. We don’t shop at Home Depot and we don’t have any way to transport an oven, so we price matched it at our local home improvement store, Lowe’s, where we spent most of our income. It has two ovens, 5 burners, convection and a host of other features that I probably don’t even know about. The best part about it is that it heats up really quickly and doesn’t heat up the house. We have to store our pans in the bottom part of the oven, but when the upper oven is on, the pans in the bottom oven don’t even get warm! I really love it. I admit I haven’t used both the upper and bottom ovens at the same time yet, but I am planning on baking some chocolate chip cookies and cupcakes this weekend, so I see myself taking advantage of this opportunity.

Soft Pretzels {Foodie Friday}

Growing up we had an Auntie Anne's Pretzel shop in our mall. The smell coming out of that place was so amazing that we had to stop and have one every time we were there. One time we even bought the box mix and made our own at home and they were also very, very good. I have been wanting to make these from scratch FOR.EV.E.R.

Baby Bird Baby Sprinkle

I have been on a big Baby Sprinkle kick for like the last year or so. I just think they are so cute. In my opinion it doesn’t matter how many kids a mamma has, all of them deserve a party, even if it’s a little one. I am sure it has nothing to due with the fact that I really want another one…nah..

View the full party here.

Sweet Shoppe Candy Party

As you probably know I had a ‘Sweet’ party for Caroline’s Birthday back in January. It was nothing like this, cause you all know how cheap I am, but this one was so adorable I just couldn’t resist sharing. This was styled by Kara’s Party ideas. My favorite detail is the bubble gum machine punch dispenser.

I also really like the ric rac / paper and candy necklace bunting. Now that is a lot of candy necklaces..

View all the party details here