Thrift Store Finds

I LOVE to shop at DI. It is an absolute treat for me to go and see what I can find. Other people's junk is my treasure! I love all thrift store and yardsaling is even better. DI is getting kinda pricey, but yardsales! Oh my! Anyway, here are two of my wonderful finds this week. Sorry for the blurry pictures.
This whiteboard calendar was only $3.00. Seriously! All it needed was to have the board cleaned and the bottom needed some tigthening and it was good to go. I am loving it!! We put it up last night and I've already had to change a few things on it. It's also magnetic!! Seriously a great find.

This fun little mirror has me super excited. I found this for $8.00, which normally I may not have paid, but i have been looking for something like this for awhile and honestly, I'm tired of picking up my kids coats. Wheter or not I'll use it to hang coats or fun crafty decor, I don't really know! It was missing 1 hook, so I took one off and headed to Home Depot to try and match it. I ended up buyin all new hooks, but now I am trying to decide whether or not I want to sand it down and paint it black or leav it. My house is a mixture of black, tan and diffrent shades of natural wood, so either way it would work. And then, I'm also considering putting a vinyl saying on the mirror. Not sure exactly what I want to do.

What do you think?? Paint it or leave it? Vinyl or not?? I've also got a few projects going on, and I am hoping to get to them this weekend and post them next week. Keep your fingers crossed for me!!

Wanna Save Some Money?

Then you've got to go and visit this blog!! I found this through facebook. I became friends with a girl from my hometown and this is her blog! It's full of great coupons and saving! There is a fabulous 30% off coupon that you can print out right now and it is good at any Old Navey, Gap or Bannana Republic stores. It's good for 4 day's only, so hurry up and go print it off. It's good starting tomorrow. Spend some time checking out her blog, because she has some great tips on coupons and lot's of ideas for saving money!! That is one of my favorite things to do!

Her blog is full of great tips and lot's of good deals. It's defiently a must see and deserves it's own, daily read!!

St., Patricks Day

Ah, St. Patricks day is upon us! It's a fun little holiday. We've done a few projects this year for some holiday fun! Click here to check out all of our St. Patricks day fun! One of our traditions is to have Corn beef and cabbage for St. Patricks day! We all love it. That was a tradition carried over from my own family. I think this year I will be adding my rainbow cupcakes, for a treat and maybe a green float. Simply use lime sherbet and add some sprite! How fun is that!!! My sister has a tradition of leaving their shoes outside for the leprechauns and they fill the kids shoes with treats. Gold coins and little trinkets. Then those tricky leprechauns hid their shoes and the kids have to find them. Such a cute idea.

Whatever your traditions may be, don't forget to wear your green tomorrow!!!!

5 Daily Reads

Make sure to check back on Monday!

It's giveaway time!

600 posts baby!

Fluffy Shamrock

Cute, huh?? This was something I just came up with. I'm sure it's not very original, but I remember doing similar projects when I was kid.

First, print off the shamrock template. We used crepe paper, because it was easy to cut a lot of pieces into little squares, quickly. You could also use tissue paper.

Wrap your crepe paper around the end of a pencil. Dip the crepe paper into white glue and push down onto the template. Now repeat that step 100 times and you will get a fluffy, green shamrock!

My kiddo's didn't last long on this. If your child is meticulous really likes to do crafts, then it would work for them. Greta is 10 and she finished, but my 7-year-old little boy, didn't. Mandee's little girl Baylee, who is 7, she would have finished it to. It just depends on your child.

Rainbow Streamer

This was one of the easiest projects ever! Simply cut out the center of a paper plate. Let the kids color or decorate the plate rim as they wish.

Attach the crepe paper to the back. I only had 4 colors because that was all that my dollar store had. It would look much better with some purple and orange thrown it, but oh well.

Very easy for preschool age kids! The only thing I did was cut the center out of the plate. Now you have a cute rainbow streamer to help bring in St. Patrick's day!

This is a fun activity that could be adapted for any holiday really. I got this idea from Enchanted Learning.

Kissing the Blarney Stone

I loved this idea! St. Patrick's day is one of those holiday's, that I always wonder what to do for it? You can have a lot of fun with the color green! So we decided to make Blarney stones. And it led into painting little wooden cut outs and that lead to a big mess!! But the kids had a blast.
All we did was find some bigger sized rocks, washed them and painted them in different shades of green. We even broke out the blow dryer to dry them quickly. We decorated them with googly eye's. I have oodles of craft supplies, but this was all the kids wanted to do. I love, love, love the Geico eye's!! That was what my 5-year-old was calling them!

My 2-year-old was the only one who would kiss the Blarney Stone.

Which is awesome, because the girls needs some serious help with her speech!! I thought this was a blast and a great craft for our spring break!!

Button Issues

Okay, so I just went to put our button on my own family blog and it didn't work. I don't know if anyone has tried it today, but I fixed it and now it should work. If your intersted, please grab it on the sidebar. It's pretty stinin' cute!!

5 more Daily Reads

This is really an attempt to get all the blogs I visit in one place. I know I need to get the buttons on the sidebar, but that's a lot of buttons. Anyone have any ideas on that?? I'm contemplating just a list, similiar to what we have. No buttons, as cute as they are!! What do you think?

Also, I made a much cuter button!!! Grab one off the sidebar if your intersted.

The Mortal Instruments

A few day's ago, I posted about this series. I had just finished the first book and was super stoked with it. Let me just say up front, that the books are all FANTASTIC! I thoroughly enjoyed the series. I was so sad to see it end, but it's good it did, because it has been consuming my life the past week.

I put a little note, that as always read a book if your questioning the content of the book, when looking to let your kids read it. I thought this was a great book, but I don't think it's aimed at below 16-year-old readers. I don't. The characters in the book are between 15 to 20 years old. They talk a little bit about sex, but only in passing. There is a couple of make out sessions. But it's pretty clean. They do address homosexuality a bit, but it's not a major part of the story. There is some language, but it's pretty mild. There is a MAJOR and slightly disturbing story line throughout the books, but it gets fixed in the end. You'll know what I am talking about after you finish the first book. I was glad to know that, because it made me a lot less uncomfortable through out the book.
I may have just given something away, but I felt much better after someone let me know that little secret.

The characters in the book are funny, quirky and each one has so many diffrent dimensions to them. Magnus is one of my favorites. He cracks me up. His eccentric clothes and the funny things he say's.

All in all, I loved it. It's a great story. Jace, who is one of the main characters and love interest in the book is my new fictional favorite. Like I said before, Edward, who??

Sloppy Joe's

I love Sloppy Joe's. They are seriously one of the easiest things to make. Especially for big family functions or church functions. And, I'm not a
Mamwhich kinda gal. I like the homemade kind. Super easy and you probably have all the ingredients on hand to make it.
Sloppy Joe's
2 lb. ground beef
onion, chopped
salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste
1/4 cup ketchup
1 tsp. mustard
4 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 Tbsp. barbecue sauce
1 Tbsp. Apple Cider vinegar
2 small cans of tomato sauce

Season hamburger meat and brown with onions. I also like to throw in some dehydrated peppers with mine. Drain grease. Add remaining ingredients and simmer for 10 minutes.

This is a good recipe to play around this. It's the base I use when I make mine, but sometimes we leave the BBQ sauce out and sometimes we don't use as much brown sugar. Just modify it to fit the taste of your family.

Edward, who???

So ladies and gents, this is a book review on a partially read series. Is that weird that I am sharing it with you after I have only read book 1?? Anyway if your a Twilight fan, you'll love The Mortal Instruments series. I've only read the first book, but I read that puppy in under 48 hours. It was that good. I couldn't put it down. Even at 1:30 am on Sunday morning. Book 2 is currently sitting on my table, just waiting for me to crack the cover. I know that once I start, I will have a hard time putting it down.

It's a mix between Twilight and Harry Potter. But spicier. Yes, spicier than Twilight. Okay well maybe not, but the heart throb in this book is Jace. He's a hot, bad boy demon slayer and let me tell ya, he's my new fictional boyfriend. Edward, who??? I'm hopeless, I like that bad boy image. I just hope they cast someone fitting to the part when they make the movie, unlike they did with Edward and Robert Pattinson :(.

Anyway, it's well worth the time to read. There are currently 3 books out, and I hear that she is possibly going to continue the series, but not following these specific characters. Book 1 was so good, I'm pretty sure the rest of the series will be too. If your interested, you can check them out on Amazon. I'll let ya know what I think, when I'm done.

*As alway's read books first before you let your kids read. I'm 1/3 rd of the way through the 2nd book and wow!! I know it's aimed at teens, but I don't know if it's something I would let mine read until they were older teenagers. *

Easy Peasy Cheesecake

Oh so easy!!! Seriously tasty and you probably have the ingredients on hand. And it only takes about 10 minutes to make.

Easy Cheesecake

2 (8 oz.) pkgs. cream cheese softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
1 ready to use graham cracer pie crust

Mix cream cheese, sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer on medium speed utnil well blended. Add eggs, mix until blended. Pour into pie crust. Bake at 350 for 50 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool. Refrigerate for 3 hours.

I made my crust............

1 & 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/3 cup melted butter

Combine the graham cracker crums and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Mix in melted butter. Press into pan until even on all sides. Put the crust in the reezer until the filling is done.

5 Daily Reads (Day 5)

This is the last day of Daily Reads. Hope all of you found some new blogs to follow! Thanks for following us! Have a great weekend!

5 Daily Reads (Day 4)

I hope your enjoying browsing through some of my favorite blogs. These ladies are crafty, inspiring, funny and a joy to read. All of them bring something different to the table. One more day to go. Check back tomorrow for 5 more great blogs!

It's funny how things work. I posted all these buttons over the weekend, and then I just check to make sure they are posting. But head over the Craftaholics Anonymous! She's having a great giveaway today! Oh, darling little girl hats!

These last two ladies are pretty famous and very well loved. Read daily for inpiration and messages of hope and a lot of laughs!

5 Daily Reads (Day 3)

5 Daily Reads (Day 2)

5 Daily Reads

We've had a rough week.

My hubby was playing church ball last Tuesday,

he jumped, landed wrong and broke his L3 in his back!

I've been kinda busy. No crafts at our house right now!

But here are some good reads to keep you busy.

I'll share 5 more each day this week.

These are listed in no particular order.All of these came out of my favorites page on my computer. I use alot of memory for these!Read daily for good laughs and great ideas! These are only 5 of about 30 that are bookmarked!I need to start putting all of them on the blog, but that's alot of buttons. I'm working on it. Until then, go check out just a few of my favorite ladiesWho do you visit everyday?

We Have a Button

We have a button, we have a button, we have a button, hey, hey, hey, HEY! After many hours of trying to figure this out, we have a button. I feel so cool now!! I know it's not a fancy button, but it's a button!! Feel free to grab one! We'd love you forever.

This is the first button I got to work. I will be playing with making some more in the next few day's. So you may see others pop up on the sidebar. I'm looking to makes something that screams Mandee and Brandy. Thanks for your patience.