I love a deal (No.6)

Rowan has been in need of bigger church shoes for a while.  After looking at Target and Old Navy and coming up empty handed, I headed over to Payless.  I was happy to see they were having their bogo sale.  However, I wasn't thrilled with their selection, or their prices to be perfectly honest.  I have gotten shoes for cheaper- that I like better- at Target, but they were pretty picked over on this particular day, and I needed shoes!  After finding a pair that would work for church I headed up to the cash register.  They were part of another sale, and didn't apply with the bogo, so I was only getting one pair.  The cashier was busy, so I meanered back to the shoes, and that is when I saw the $5  price tag on a pair of shoes I hadn't seen previously.  Were they church shoes, no.  Would they work well enough, heck yes!  Especially for $5!  One problem.  They were a size 8 and after Rowan had his foot measured he was apparently needing an 8 1/2-9.  Hmmm.  What to do?  Call another store!  Lucky for me, the Shopko down the street had a size 9 and they were now on hold for me.  We went straight there and  I handed over my $5.  These shoes were marked so low because they were last years model.  They originally retailed for $25.  Needless to say, I am pretty happy with my latest sweet deal!  I love a bargain!

I love a deal (No.5)

My master bath needed new hand towels.  Originally I only had one in there, and it looked silly all alone on the big rod from which it hung.  It was a plain khaki color- the same color as our bath towels.  It was boring.  The plan was to get two new hand towels that could bring some interest to the bathroom.  I headed to Bed Bath and Beyond armed with my 20% off coupon, but assumed I would still end up finding something cheaper at Ross.  Imagine my surprise when I stumbled across these beauties that were on the clearance table.  Originally like $12 or $14 EACH, now marked down to less than $2!  Yeah baby.  Scored two of these for less than $4 bucks!  I was thrilled.  They were exactly what I had in mind.  I love a good deal.

The Forgotten Garden

I can't say I have been doing a lot of crafting, but we have been getting some house projects done and I have finally found some time to read again.  Seriously, I can't remember the last time I picked up a book and read it cover to cover.  It had been a long time, that is for sure.  This month I stumbled across this book, and, after reading the reviews, decided it would be the perfect book to get me back into reading.  Two words, LOVED IT.  Totally my kind of book.  It was the kind of book that made me feel guilty because every spare second I had I would race up to my room, crawl into bed, and read.  I am sure my husband was glad when I finished it- didn't take long- six days tops.  I liked this one so much that I went and picked up another by the same author immediately afterwards.  It hasn't been as great, but it is still intriguing.  Anyways, just wanted to share incase any of you are in search of some reading material.  

Brunch Party.

I hosted a wee little shin dig at my house a week ago.  Having been in the church nursery pretty much since I moved in nine or so months ago, (I got released a few Sunday's ago) I was still getting around to meeting people who were taller than 3 feet in height.  I figured the best way to really meet the young moms in my ward was to jump in with both feet and invite them over to my house.  I am all for using food for bribery, so I decided to host a brunch.  I thought about all the young moms I had seen at church, but knew very little, or not at all, and began spreading the word about having a get together at my house.    I was happy that so many of them were all on board and eager to have a girl's get together.  About a week or so before the event I hand delivered the invites I had made along with a mini loaf of banana bread.  I got my banana bread recipe from Shelley at House of Smiths.  Go here if you want the recipe.

The night before the party I was up past my bedtime.  Not that I have an early bedtime, but my attempt to get some of the cooking and decorating done the night before the 11am brunch kept me up until at least two.  I think at 2 am I just stopped looking at the clock.  It was a smart move though, cause even with all the prep I did Friday night, I was still running around like a mad woman Saturday morning.  

Here is the table all set and ready for guests to arrive.  On the menu; this breakfast casserole and these cinnamon rolls, recipes courtesy of the girls over at Our Best Bites.  Fruit kabobs and Oreo pops- Oreos on a stick dipped in white chocolate.  Two of the girls helped out by bringing some pita chips with hummus, and chocolate chip bars.  Is it just me, or is brunch food the best?

For table decor I didn't go too crazy.  I put the cinnamon rolls on my cake stand, the fruit and Oreo pops on some huge black and white plates I got from Pier One when I got married.  For some pops of color I  put some lemon and limes in vase, as well as some flowers from the dollar store.  I also got free "bee happy" printable from Sprik Space.  They offer lots of free prints, and I plan to get more, but I thought the "bee happy" one was a nice touch for the table.  Go here to see all the free prints they have!  Their prints come in a variety of colors, but I thought the turquoise would look great with the color scheme I went with for the party.  The white frame I already had, so that was a cheap decoration that is now sitting in my craft room.  I also made a bunting banner.  Also a free decoration.  More on that later.  

A closeup of the Oreo pops.  Easy to make, and yummy to eat.  I had all of the girls take a couple of these on their way out.  Great party favors, and can easily be made to match party colors by dying the chocolate, getting the right color of sprinkles, and by tying it with your choice of colored ribbon.  

Another fun thing I did was borrow my friends mustaches on a stick for pictures.  Here's the group of girls- minus Melanie and Andrea who had left by this point.  And below are all their mustache mugshots.

I had a lot of fun planning and putting together this whole brunch.  It was definitely worth the time and effort.  I got lucky with a ward full of fun girls, and I look forward to more parties and good times with them in the future.  

I love a deal (No.4)

On Jon's day off last week I was able to run some errands by myself, and while I was out I decided to stop at Savers and see if I could find any diamonds in the rough.  And oh baby did I score some gems!  Not only do I love everything I got, but the fact that each thing I grabbed was 50% off made it all the sweeter.  (For those of you who aren't familiar with thrifting at Savers, every day a certain color tag is 50% off, and it just so happened that everything I picked had a blue tag, which happened to be the color that was 50% off- woohoo!)  Anyways, take a peek at my fun finds.

Fun brown mirror.  Will most likely paint it, but first I have to decide which room to put it in!

The second I walked in the door at Savers I saw this, and I was in love.  Loved the color, the shape, and unique design.  I plan to make a liner for it so I can put some of Rowan's random toys in it.  It's the perfect color for his room too, so not only will it be functional, but it will match the rest of his decor.  Functional and good looking, gotta love that.

Don't knock this tarnished silver beauty.  A little silver polish and she'll be good as new.  Perfect for throwing some craft supplies in, or on top of a dresser to be a catch all.  And truth be told, I actually don't mind the tarnish.  It's imperfectly beautiful!

SO there you have it.  My latest thrift store finds.  Oh, and I got all of this for $6 + tax.  Not too shabby, right?  Happy hunting everyone!

I love a deal (No.3)

Love at first sight.  I spotted these beauties at a ma and pop furniture shop last week, and when the guy offered them both to me for $20 I couldn't resist!  (He normally charges $25 each!)  Well, luckily Jon couldn't resist my puppy dog eyes, and he gave me the go ahead to get them.  I felt pretty cool when I spotted an almost identical lamp to the one on the right in a home tour of Amy Ferstenau's house.  I think she's hip and cool, and her house is pretty bodacious,  so seeing that we both had the same lamp made me feel cool for 2.5 seconds.  I am trying to figure out what to do for shades.  I might buy a cheap white one and recover it for the lamp on the left.  Finding the right shade for the one on the right could be trickier.  I can't wait to use these beauties, but for now they are tucked away safely so Rowan doesn't break them.

I love a deal (No. 2)

I don't buy a lot of clothes for myself.  However, a recent trip to Target (love) brought me face to face with the most lovely yellow top. Dainty and feminine. Oh and it has the perfect detailing on the cap sleeves. I loved it instantly. I caved and pulled out the credit card, but not before stopping by the shoes. That is when I discovered these grey jeweled beauties. Sure they are a size a half too small, but at $6.24 I am willing to squeeze my foot into them. And technically they are only one size too small because I normally buy my flats a half size smaller than the rest of my shoes. I have never been so excited for Sunday. I am dreaming of my yellow and grey ensemble until then!

I love a deal (No.1)

Look what someone is getting for Valentine's Day. At $1.98 I couldn't resist. And I wasn't going to spend more than that because who knows if my little one is even going to keep them on. Thanks for the sweet deal Target. I love you.

Book Review.

Two words: LOVED IT.

Oh, and my two year old enjoyed it too. He loved all the animals, and I loved all the talk about poop and pee. Another favorite book around our house is Walter the Farting Dog. Yeah, that is how we roll around here. I might as well be Beavis, and Jon, Butthead.

Thrift Shop Goodies.

Hubby and I had a sporadic thrift shop morning Saturday. We wanted to spend time together as a family before he had to work but we didn't want to just sit in the house. On my way home from the gym I passed several garage sales so I suggested we go see if we could find anything worthy of coming home with us. Unfortunately the garage sales didn't have much. You have to hit those things early in the morning. However, I did find some goodies at our local thrift stores.

Found this milk glass container at Savers. The $5 price tag was a bit steep for me but I loved the container and envisioned it at many future parties holding yummy treats or as an everyday functioning utensil holder. Glad I got it, I love it.

These two pairs of shoes for Rowan. Love them. $3 each. Happy with them, especially after Rowan looked so adorable in them Sunday in his church attire.

4 pages.

Click on image to enlarge.

These are my most recently completed pages. Trying to play catch up with all of Rowan's old pictures!

For anyone who is interested in any specific kit or embellishment that I used on any of these pages, just leave a comment/question. It was a long day and I am too tired to look stuff up, but for the most part all of the products I use come from one of the following sites:

Shabby Princess (lots of FREE downloads)

Sweet Shoppe (probably my favorite site for kits)

Designer Digitals (I like the word art & templates they have)

You guessed it, more scrapping.

I used this KIT from HERE, and other random embellishments from HERE.

This is one of the first photos we took of Rowan after getting home from the hospital. I guess you could call it "Rowan's first photoshoot with daddy." Jon took a gazillion of these, but Rowan snored through the whole thing.

Scrapping nonstop.

I know, this blog is quickly becoming a "scrap blog," but I swear one of these days I just wont feel like doing it for a little while, and then regular posting will resume. Until then, you're just going to have to deal with it.

I used the kit - WHERE THE HEART IS - from HERE. The template is from HERE. Word art from HERE.

I have been trying to get the "important" pictures scrapped first. Here's what I came up with for the day Rowan was blessed. I think I like it. I guess I am just concerned it might be too cluttered. I generally like to keep my pages relatively simple. Opinions? Did I go overboard? Should I remove some embellishments?

Scrapping the past.

This LO was made with a kit designed by Lauren Reid. I can't find the kit HERE, which is where I got it. Since that time however, Lauren Reid has moved on, and now designs for THIS SITE. They don't carry the kit either. What I am saying is, your S.O.L. Do checkout Lauren's stuff though, it's all cute.

I have made it a goal to get a page done while Rowan is napping or after he's gone to bed for the night. These are about the only times I can squeeze it in, so I'm happy to say I got another page done today! (Obviously) If I can keep it up, I just might be able to get caught up. It's amazing how many pictures one takes of their first born. (I'm pretty sure our 2nd will have a boat load as well, especially if it's a girl. And no, we are not expecting.) Luckily the camera happy days aren't as out of control as they use to be. At least now when I take pictures I can stop at two or three shots of the same thing. That was not the case in the beginning. Well, it's only 10:17 pm, and since Jon and I are night owls, I might get another page started before hitting the hay.

I'm on a roll!

Really, me getting this many scrapbook pages done in less then a week is a miracle. Maybe I'll have a 100 pages done by the time Winkflash has it's next flat book rate! (They just had a sale, so I think I have got a while.)
This LO was made with THIS KIT. It's all about love, and since we just had Valentine's Day it's coming in quite handy when it comes to scrapping my VD pics. Anyways, I am pleased with how this page turned out. On to the next!

More scrapping.

I know, you're probably getting sick and tired of just seeing my scrapbook pages. I just had to post this for my mom. She was getting after me because she hadn't seen any pictures of her grandson recently. So this post will hopefully appease my mother. (Mom, click on page to see it better.)
This LO was made with a variety of kits and elements I have, but all of it came from THIS SHOP. It's a good one, probably my favorite place to shop for digital scrapbooking stuff. Ask if you have any specific questions about where certain embellishments came from, but the majority came from THIS KIT.

Anyways, stay tuned because I promise tomorrow I am posting on something not related to scrapping!

Christmas Day scrapped!

THIS is the kit I used to make these pages. Best of all, it's FREE from HERE.

I am so glad I finally have these two pages done! I am not a fan of scrapping 12X24 pages. I prefer working with one page and 1-4 pictures. If you are a digital scrapbooker and have not gone HERE for some really cute FREE downloads, then you have to get your butt over there!

Scrapping again.

LO created with this KIT, from this SHOP.

I go on scrapping hiatuses, and I just got done with one. I am once again trying to find the time to scrap a few pages a week. Not easy considering how long it takes me to complete one page. I am very picky, and generally never love the layouts I come up with. A while back I had decided that I just needed to throw all my pictures into a blurb book, or something similar, and call it good. With how many pictures I have and the rate it takes me to scrap one page, I just figured I would never get caught up, so I might as well give-up. But I can't! I just love the look of scrapped pages so much more. So here I am again vowing to do better, to play some major catch up, and hopefully stay caught up. It might be possible since I have noticed that I don't take nearly as many pictures of Rowan as I use to, but I still have a good years worth of pictures to get into layouts. Wish me luck, I am going to need lots of it!

Project completed: Plush Alpha Magnets.

I think he likes them! He enjoyed squishing the letters and then ripping them all off the fridge.

I thought THIS TUTORIAL was so cute that I immediately started making a set for Rowan. Heaven knows I have enough scrap material to do so, girlish, but non the less, it would do the trick. It's not like my 16 month old cares (at this point) what colors I use. I found some cotton batting amongst my mother-in-law's craft supplies (SCORE!) so the only thing I had to buy to complete this project was a strip of magnetic tape, which only cost me .59 cents! Hooray for cheap (cute) projects. Be sure to make a set for some special little person in your life.

Project underway.

Stacks of mismatched fabric adorn my kitchen table. It's a happy sight. Does anyone else love fabric like I do? Do you wander the isles at JoAnns and wish for a yard in each print? If so, you're my kind of gal.

Ready & waiting to be sewn.

By George, I might actually finish a project this week! Check back at the end of the week to see what I've been up to. Here's a hint, ABC it's easy as 123...
OK, gotta go, I have a date with my sewing machine.