GroupDealz

There seems to be a plethora of new daily deals sites lately. I've joined several Groupon, Livingsocial, DealPulp, and Eversave to name a few. Although I have bought a few things from these sites, my favorite deals site is one I found in the past couple of months through Make it and Love it. It's called GroupDealz and mainly features homemade things...things you would often find on etsy, but at discounted prices. I've only bought one item, but believe me there have been several that have been tempting!

Here's what I purchased several weeks ago:

Chalkboard vinyl labels

I've been wanting labels for my canisters for awhile. Even tried hand painting something on there, but didn't like how it turned out. (Plus it scraped off with the gentlest bump!) I love that I can change up the wording or colors and even take the vinyl off all together when I feel the urge. They came in the mail days after ordering and I didn't have to pay shipping! (Some of the deals you pay shipping, others are free, but they are all detailed with exactly how much you'll end up paying.)

Here's a couple of resent deals that I LOVED:

Linen Ruffle Necklaces from Pretty Things By Meg - $12 regular $20

(Yesterday's deal, but I believe its still available.)

3 pairs of Rosette earrings (your choice of color) from Oh So Sweet Petite - $10 regular $20

(Today's deal. I would totally be going for these if my ears were still pierced!)

I'm all for supporting small businesses and I love handcrafted items. Many of the items I've seen would be great gifts for Christmas or birthday's. If 3 people purchase from my link I will get $5 off a deal, but that wasn't my main motivation. (Most of the referral programs are actually a lot better than this!) I really like supporting small businesses and I've really liked some of the items I'm seeing. Hope you enjoy looking at the deals, maybe getting inspiration for a creation of your own or finding the "perfect" gift for someone on your list.

P.S. Most of the sites I mentioned do give you $5 to $10 to spend on your first deal when you sign up! Plus I do get a little myself when you purchase your first deal if you go through my link.(Shameless plug!) The extra $'s off have made for some pretty sweet deals! I was even able to purchase one deal for free after the $'s off! It's like using coupons on-line.  Here's the links again: groupon, livingsocial, eversave, dealpulp and GroupDealz. I know there are lots of these site out there and the number seems to grow every day. If you have one you really like I'd love to hear about it!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I just love Valentine's Day...not because of the roses and chocolates and other commercialized aspects, but because it's a special day to express love to my loved ones. My parents always made a big deal of the holiday growing up and over the years its become my favorite holiday.

This year I decided to make some nifty little suckers I found in the back of the Family Fun magazine. As soon as I saw it I knew I need to make them for our 5 year old Sunday school class. Only problem is they need mini candy canes and I saw it several weeks after Christmas. BUT I found some for .37 on clearance! Perfect for frugal natured me!! I just love how they turned out.

I will say that the recipe said to form the candy canes into hearts and put in 235 degree oven on parchment for 10 minutes. Well, this is what happened when I did that.

Not exactly what I was looking for. Very, Very thin and brittle. I found that putting them in a 225 degree oven for 3-5 minutes gave me the results I was looking for. I also used dark chocolate candy melts instead of oil and chocolate chips, simply because I didn't have chocolate chips and I was in a store where I could get the candy melts with a coupon really inexpensively!

This year as we were discussing what to do on Valentine's Day Roderick said he wanted to have a slumber party under the stars.  So that's just what we did.  I'm sure you are thinking HUH?? It's February, wasn't that a little cold?? Well no because we put a few glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling, blew up our queen size mattress and watched movies together in our living room. Oh, and ate popcorn made on the stove with a whirley-pop. (My Valentine's day gift to my love. He had popcorn made with one at a friends house and couldn't get over how great the popcorn was.) Now we are spending some time at the library with my husband studying and me on the computer. Hey, at least we are together!

  

I also had to share these adorable slippers my friend gave me for Valentine's Day! They are beyond soft and so comfy! 

 I'm linking up to

 

 Today's color was red!

Laundry Redo {January's Project}

Our laundry is more of a hallway than a room. I've always covered it with a shower curtain to hide the "mess." Yes it was organized with clear baskets and it even had things hung up on the wall, but it definitely didn't make me happy. Now it makes me very happy and I have yet to close the curtain, because I want to see it!

Here's the only before picture I could find....

 blurry and only a partial picture from almost 4 years ago when we first moved in. I guess I was too embarrassed to take the full view picture.

Here it is now!

 Most of the fabric was purchased several months ago for another project, but I just had to use it in here. I think there is still enough to complete the project it was meant for as well. We'll see when I actually get around to doing it. I was also able to use several fabrics in my "prize stash" from Jonquils and Ladybugs! Love it when things work out like that!

The Embroidery hoops were definitely inspired by Sara at one of my favorite blogs Sara's Art House.

This hoop was inspired by something I found on etsy, which I can no longer find so it must have sold. Loved and remembered it even though it'd been months and tried to duplicate it! They had sewn on the pennants, but I was too lazy to get out the sewing machine, so I glued them on instead.

The fabric wreath is inspired by Sara's Art House again. Such an inspirational blog!

First painting of the year. Complete with a fabric flower that was inspired by...yep Sara again!

I also created a fabric bunting using fabric, rope and this wonderful "paint on" tacky glue I found. Perfect solution for this project and several others in this room!

 

One of my final projects was to cover this box with fabric again using that wonderful tacky glue in a jar. I loved the box, but it just didn't go with the colors any more. Add fabric and tada, perfect match to my theme and a great hiding place for the butter knives we use to open the lent trap. {We love the washer and dryer we were given even if they do have dents, are missing knobs and have a broken lent trap. They still do the job well and the price was ideal. FREE! We keep wondering when they will give out, but they worked well for almost 4 years now.}

Only problem is the shower curtain "cover" definitely no longer fits the theme. I've thought of taking it down since I love looking at the new decor, but there might be a time when I still want to use it so its staying for now. At least when it pulled closed it matches the rest of the kitchen.

The whole project cost less than $20! I used coupons on several of the items including the rope, that wonderful tacky glue, the styrofoam for the fabric wreath and the embroidery hoops. Plus a lot of it was stuff we already had. Most of the money was spent on the basket. Could have been cheaper though... right after I purchased the baskets I found this very inspirational blog Make it and Love it with these lovely boxes made out of cardboard.

I totally would have made these had I not already bought the others. I am loving this blog and I have a feeling you will see some of her projects in the coming months. LOVE, LOVE her style... spent a good couple of hours browsing her blog the other day and didn't even hit all the fun projects! Love all the sewing projects. I really need to stop being lazy and get it out!! Better add that to my 2011 goals! Even though I didn't actually do any of her projects, I'd have to say that the Make it and Love it blog was definitely inspirational in this redo!

Now I'm off to take care of my poor husband who has come down with a nasty flu. At least I'll be able to wash away all the germs in my happy "room."

2010 Christmas Tour

I love joining Nester's annual Christmas Tour every year. This year I don't have as much  decor done as I usually do. Here's my previous year's post 2008 & 2009 if you want to see decor in every room.

Well, without further ado here's our Christmas decor so far... I may do more, but I may not. Simplicity is nice sometimes!

 

I love the polka dots, red, and lime. It makes me happy and I often find myself staring at it! I also find I have loads of pictures of it!!

 

 

 

 

 

The reason for the season! What a wonderful gift God gave us... His perfect Son who came to pay our great debt and give us Salvation! 

The stocking are hung on the bookshelf with care....

Made this wreath with supplies from the dollar store, ribbon that was on my present from my mother-in-law last year and a lovely ornament from my mom! (cost all of $2 to make!) Here's where I got the idea from Nester.  Looks much better in person, I promise!

 

Another wreath from the dollar store. This one cost a little more as it took about 4 bags of peppermints. I loved this one much better...not sure I like the shape or the green showing through, but it will stick around at least for this year.   

 

Hope you enjoyed the tour of our home at Christmas time. If you are not coming from there go check out Nester's links...there's a lot of beautiful homes this year!

A Colonial Christmas

The church gym was transformed last weekend into a Colonial wonderland. We have some really creative  and talented ladies! They even covered the poles in "brick."

26 different ladies decorated tables complete with china and favors. So many different idea. Here are a few of my favorites....although, it was really hard to only pick a few.

 



My project was getting all these wonderful cookies together with their recipes. Every lady now has a wonderful collection of 20 different Christmas cookie/treat recipes!

So many great giveaways. Lots of great gifts were handed out, but the best was the "giveaway table." Yep...the whole table went to one lucky lady.

The focus was on fostering gospel relationships among our ladies. Each lady was encouraged to invite their friends and family. We had over 50 guests! Our pastor's wife gave a wonderful gospel centered challenge. I know of a couple of ladies that accepted the Lord as their Savior as a result of the event! Certainly made all the work totally worth it!

May your focus be on Christ and the gospel message this season!