Tip Time!

Have a pastry cutter? It is an excellent tool for getting hamburger meat "taco perfect"... I have also used it to "shred" chicken.

This next tip is something my mom has done for as long as I can remember. Reuse candle jars! This is so easy! I love it because not only do I get to burn a yummy candle, but when it's gone, I get a cute jar.

All I do is soak the jar and the remaining wax in HOT soapy water. I usually leave it to soak overnight and then in the morning gently lift out the wax with a butterknife. It should come right out. Give it a good scrubbin', soak it again, pop it in the dishwasher, bleach it, whatever you feel is necessary.

These are my favorites these days- Paula Deen. (I get mine at Wal-Mart.)

This next one is so adorable, very vintage farmhouse and it also came from Wal-Mart, so it's CHEAP!

Also, I "invested" in a $4.oo candle warmer and anytime you get to the bottom of the candle or you lose the wick (GRR) you can stretch the last bit of it with these things. I sometimes prefer the warmer, because it's stronger and it makes the candle last longer.

just a thought...

These are evil...and must be stopped...

I can thank my Daddy for sending me these all the way from Florida. He just knew I would love them. Sweet and salty? Crazy good. Seriously, the madness must be stopped.

Spring Cleaning

I'm still here, I promise! I have been busy, busy, busy Spring Cleaning. (Actually catching up on last Summer, and Winter...)

If you feel moved to do the same, this is a great post to help you get started. The entire site is really motivating and inspiring!

I also enjoyed this little post for further motivation ;) "I must prepare my heart before the Lord for the day, otherwise I will get caught in my own sinfulness and selfishness"... so true!

And, better late than never, here are some highlights of our St. Paddy's Day! I didn't get a pic of the Rainbow Cake, but it turned out great and didn't last long!!

I have a secret...

I've had a few comments come my way (from the blogosphere and the other) about how I find time to keep up with blogging and posting on a regular basis. I came across this post and wanted to share, because I do not post every day, either! I get on my little kicks or find time when my two loves are in bed! Mommy at the computer with a toddler? I think NOT!

First Trip to the Library and Some Bidness...

We had so much fun! This was and still is one of my favorite things to do, so it was so touching and exciting that she enjoyed it, too. Maybe I'm weird, but I love everything about a library. The quietness, the smell, the sound of a library book being opened.. that crunchy sound is one of my all time favorite sounds ;)

Now for the 'bidness':

Ok, first of all I want to say thank you all so much for the sweetest comments I have been getting lately about my new layout. Wow. You girls are sooooo nice! Second of all, I promised myself I wouldn't even think about doing a Mr. Linky until I had at least 30 followers.. and I have 29! Yayy, I am so excited!

Which brings me to my point...Could you guys do me a favor and let me know if you would participate in the following Mr. Linkys:

1. FREE FUN- how you and your family have free or nearly free fun. (Things I have posted in the past would be the park, etc.)

2. MOMMY'S PLAYLIST- what music you are listening to, and what it means to you, how it speaks to you...that sort of thing.

3. HIGH/LOW- I really enjoyed this on my old blog, it would be the best and worst part of your week.

4. MOMMY GETS REAL- haha.. I have been thinking about this one alot lately. I want to pick your brains. How often do you really wash your sheets, clean your windows, vaccum under the couch cushions.. you get the idea. This would be really fun and interesting! (At least to me..) This could also be secrets that you keep from others, like the time I found out my great grandmother's sacred cheesecake recipe came from a box...

Any and all of these would be posted here with a Mr. Linky for you to link to your site and we would all benefit by generating more "traffic" (I call it friends) to our blogs! I have more in mind, but this is just a start...

I'll be judging by your feedback if I should wait or go ahead and start! Thank you so much girls, you make blogging all that much more fun, and you all rock!

I did it.

I'm a "facebooker" now. I've been asked about having one and seen lots of posts on this topic for a while now, so I finally accepted an upteenth invitation. I'm pretty much a myspace girl, so we will see how it goes..so far I'm kinda liking it :)

Like I need another reason to get online, lol.

If you have an account and want to add me just go here, or if you are more of a myspace kinda girl, like me, you can go here. Just tell me you read my blog and I'll add you. Hope to see you there!

Activities for Kids

Did you know that Michaels Arts and Craft stores hold free activities for kids?

A week ago the kids got to make their own Valentine's Day cards (for free) and then got to take them home. My sister in law got some great pics, and they were all too good not to share! It wasn't too crowded and I let Monkey loose...

This is my little sister, Hanlee, working her marker magic...

I am loving our profiles here :)

You can check out their website and I strongly recommend signing up for the Knack. It's free to do and you'll be notified of upcoming activities, store sales, and coupons. (I get a new coupon every week!) Plus, the site offers tons of projects.

I can't post the finished product, because Daddy might be reading ;)

After the festivities, the girls "did" lunch...

25 Random Things about Me...

Trina posted this and I'm totally game, so here goes!

25. I've never had a broken bone or stitches or anything like that. 24. I used to have an eyebrow piercing.. whhhhaaaat. lol
23. I don't want to even be in the same room as mayonaise.
22. My two favorite numbers are 75 and 90. As in % OFF! ahh yehh :).
21. When I was little and it was yard work day, I hated it. I prefered to be inside organizing. Go figure. I compulsively organized my dad's tape collection and the tupperware cabinet.
20. I was a legal assistant for 5 years WITHOUT college.. ;)
19. I first kissed my hubbie when I was 14 years old.
18. I love the smell of burning leaves, burning trash, even gasoline...lol
17. I very rarely remember my dreams....
16. ...Except for a recurring dream I had as a kid about the dude from Beetlejuice and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. I dreamed he was after me. Imagine my surprise when I found out he was arrested for doing not nice things to children. CREEEPY.
15. As a rule, my house is clean and tidy, but for the life of me, I cannot keep my vehicle clean...inside or out.
14. Two pushes and my daughter was here :)
13. I was sick EVERY DAY of my pregnancy even down to the last hour or so during labor. I mean, sickety-sick, sick.
12. I'm pretty good under stress and pressure and if I have a meltdown, it's usually waaay before the actual event takes place.
11. Anytime something or someone won't die in a movie, no matter what they try to do, it completely freaks me out. I can't breathe.
10. If a song is too sad, I won't listen to it. It goes on my mental "no-no" list. Seriously. I will leave a store if its playing and it's on 'my list'. Like the time Home by Michael Buble was playing in Hallmark? I like ran out of there. If I don't, it will be in my head for weeks and I'll be really down.
9. I can be really weird with pain. Like when I got my nose ring or my ears pierced.. I needed to be told it was all over, because I didn't know.. and I thought my tattoos hurt worse than giving birth. I know the contractions hurt, but I was still thinking, this is it?
8. I've never had steak and I. don't. want. to. I associate big hunks of red meat with cows and flies and hair. Ew. IF I have a hamburger, I want it so thin you can see through it, lol.
7. Almost every other sentence to my daughter is "I love you". My husband and I are the same way. We tell each other we love each other even if I'm just running to the store or he hops in the shower. I love it.
6. I am deathly afraid of knives and I won't use 'em. If it can't be cut with scissors or chopped or processed, etc., I'm not cooking it.
5. I am very particular with the way I organize my daughter's toys. Blocks go with blocks, dress up stuff with dress up stuff and so on.. Toys thrown in a toy box would keep me up at night. Seriously.
4. I do not like blatant copy cats. Makes me furious. I wish I could take it as flattery, but I just can't. ugh..
3. I've said this before on my old blog, but you can gauge my mood by my toes. If I'm scared, I crunch 'em. If I'm uncomfortable, they are up in the air. Man, am I weird or what, lol.
2. I am obsessed with vintage homemaking. The cocktail dresses, house dresses, dinner parties.. just the pride women had in homemaking and entertaining.. I collect vintage cookbooks and home magazines and I have vintage ads in my laundry room and sometimes I wish it were those days again and women were expected to do those things..
1. I love my name.

Hehe, now that you know all my weirdo quirks, it's your turn!

Attention Rub-On-aholics...

Are you like me and have an unnatural obsession love rub-ons? Our Big Lots has them for A DOLLAR. They were in the photo album aisle! They had ones that were even better than Hobby Lobby and Michael's selections, if you can believe that! They also had scrapbook paper pads for $2 and $5, as opposed to the ones I eyeball at Michaels for $15.. so go check it out!

Swagbucks.com

I wanted to take a quick second to tell you about Swagbucks.com. It is super easy. Use it instead of your normal search engine, such as Google.com, or Yahoo.com, and earn points to get prizes.

Say you are searching online for recipes. Instead of "google-ing" 'recipes', simply search through Swagbucks.com, and earn points! That's ALL there is to it! No strings, nothing annoying, no spam, etc.

I use it exclusively and sometimes earn one or up to five points PER search. I have only been using it for a little over a month and if I wanted to cash in right now, here are just some of the things I could get:

- $10 Barnes and Noble Gift Card
- $15 i-Tunes Gift Card
- A variety of concert merchandise, Play Station 2 memory card, controllers, and games, tons of DVDS, Target, Macy's, and Disney.com gift cards.. I could keep going!

(I am saving my points for a Wii Fit..hehe..)

Oh, and so I don't forget it about using it, I changed my homepage to Swagbucks.com. You will love it!

New Veggie Tales Movie

The Gospel Music Channel is promoting the premiere of "Abe and the Amazing Promise", the newest Veggie Tales movie, which is set to air on Saturday, February 7th, at 9am and again at 2pm Eastern Time. AND... leading up to the premiere there will be a 2 week run of all the classic Veggie Tales cartoons every morning at 9am (ET) starting Monday, January 26th!

We are huge Veggie Tale fans in this house so I thought I'd spread the word.. I will be definitely setting the DVR!

Help a sista out!

Everyone wants a cute blog layout, right? But, you don't wanna pay an arm and leg for blog candy? Well, I'm sure you have heard of Cutest Blog on the Block... not only are the layouts absolutely adorable, but they are FREE! Lately, they have been having major troubles with their server. (I know this because I want one of their layouts some kinda bad and I keep checking the site, only to see that it's continually down.) So, this morning I checked it again to find that, with no hope in sight, they have to change servers. This costs them money.. so because they offer these layouts to us for free, could you take a quick minute to donate $1 to help with the costs? I did and I think it's the least we can do to say "thanks" for this free service she offers. Thanks girls!

Here's the link: Cutest Blog on the Block

Watch those Christmas Markdowns!

I found these Christmas wreaths marked down like 80% at T.J. Maxx. Not bad for a buck a piece. Upon closer inspection and with a spark of creativity I thought, "hey, these would be perfect for Valentine's Day!"

So, I took these bad boys home and removed all the snowflakes. I'm thinkin' a little ribbon, a little sumphin, sumphin. We'll see... I'll be sure and post what I come up with.. Sure beats the Valentine's Day wreaths I'd been eyeballing at Michaels for $30.00!