Bath and Body Works

One of my favorite shops in the mall has always been Bath and Body Works.  Unfortunately since my shopping days have come to a major slow down I haven't been to my favorite store in some time.  

Years I think.  :(

Anyhoo, while I was doing some online window shopping yesterday I noticed that they were having one of their good sales.  Buy any three body products, and get three free.  I called up my husband and asked him very nicely if he wouldn't mind if we did a little lotion shopping today.  To my surprise (although not really, he usually don't care what I purchase) he said sure.  Whoop, whoop!! That's all I needed to hear, 

so off we went to the mall. 

It was like being three years old and stepping into Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, 

boy have I missed this store.

I purchased five body butter's, one body lotion and I had a coupon for one free mini, which I chose the vanilla body mist.  On top of that, the nice lady at the counter gave me a 20% off my entire purchase coupon. 

My total at the register came to $88 and some change, but we only paid $34 for all of it.  What a great deal. That my dear readers is my favorite way to shop!!

Has anyone else had a great deals this week?  Any good deals going on right now that I probably don't know about? I would love to hear about them.

Have a great weekend!!!

Secret Sister Gift Ideas

For the last few weeks at my church the ladies including myself have been participating in a fun activity where we draw another lady's name and become their secret sister for the next six weeks.  Each week we bring a $5 gift for our secret sister and at the end of six weeks we have a reveal luncheon where we bring a $10 gift and reveal who we are to our secret sister.  It's really just a fun way to get to know different ladies at our church.   We do this every year, and every year I look forward to it.  Not because of the gifts I get (though I do love that part too) but because it's so much fun to get creative and think of a great gifts under $5-10, either homemade or store bought.  Some ideas I found for homemade gift giving are below. 

Just click on the link for the tutorials.  

I LOVE the idea of having a bunch of these, maybe one for each day of the week.  :)

Crafty Staci Blog

   These bookmarks are so pretty.

Country Living

                                                What a pretty bracelet, I want one :)

Sew.Craft.Create Blog

 YUMMY!!!!

Country Living

So those are my favorite picks for homemade gift ideas.  I cant wait to show everyone the tutorial for the gift I have made for my secret sister for the big reveal in a week or so.

My Fall Bucket List

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I love Fall time.  I love the crisp cool air, the smell of the leaves, the way the trees turn orange and brown, I really love how we finally get a small break from this Texas heat.    I love everything about fall.  Even though its still August I know Fall is just around the corner, and I want to be ready for it. This year I wanted to make sure that my family and I get all the benefits of Fall, have as much fun as we can.  I don't know about y'all but here in Texas fall does not seem to last very long.  It seems to me that it's gone in a blink of an eye, which is why I decided to make a fall bucket list.  I'm sure that we

won't get it all done

 but who knows maybe we will.

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Here she is

Spend the day at the pumpkin patch

Bake my first homemade pumpkin pie

Make loaded Carmel apples

Fall fest

Go to freight fest at six flags

Make pumpkin crafts

Help the kids make pine cone bird feeders

Decorate the house for Halloween

Host a Halloween dinner

Have a scary movie night with the kids (Hocus Pocus scary, not Friday the 13th scary)

Bake mini pies with the kids and pass them out at Daddy's Fire Station

Take time to smell the fresh crisp air

Enjoy the wonderful Fall season!!

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Its not too much, and I do plan on doing a few more Fallish crafts. 

Is anyone else super excited about Fall or are you still trying to hang on to summer for as long as you can???

Homemade Ketchup

I am completely utterly obsessed with condiments.  If I am craving a food item more than likely it's because I'm really craving whatever condiment I plan on drowning that particular food in.  With steak it's A-1 sauce, with shrimp it's cocktail sauce, with sushi it's the wasabi I crave.  But nothing, I mean nothing tickles my fancy more than ketchup.  Yup I'm in love with the red stuff.  I can seriously guzzle an entire bottle of it in less than a week.  Unfortunately I know how bad this stuff is for me, so not too long ago I reached out to my buddies on Facebook curious to know what I could do about my unhealthy addiction.  

My sweet sister in law must understand my fascination with the stuff because instead of telling me to switch to another condiment she gave me a recipe to make my own.  I seriously never thought about doing this, of course I figured it would be too difficult. 

Nope.  Not difficult at all.  I actually like the idea of being able to add more or less of something to adjust it to my own liking.  And because there is no fructose corn syrup I believe it to be healthier too. Here is the recipe she gave me. 

1 6 oz can of tomato paste

2 tbsp of Splenda or three packets

3/4 cup of water

1/2 cup of vinegar

1/4 tsp of onion powder

1/8 tsp of garlic powder

Whisk all ingredients together then simmer for ten minutes.  Let cool before placing in the refrigerator, can be stored up to four months. 

I also added a little black pepper and cayenne pepper to mine and used stevia instead of Splenda. 

Turned out great!!!  Thank you sister in law!! 
Linking up to:
The Dedicated House
Raising Oranges
diy Home Sweet Home

My Crutch

Well as much as I hate writing this post because I feel like I defiantly failed, keeping things on here real I should let everyone know that my 100 day vegan plan did not go so well for me.  

At first I did really well, for the first two weeks I ate no meat or dairy.  Unfortunately I got bored of eating the same stuff every single day.  I knew I needed to think of other foods to make, other recipes that would be easy to throw together but I never did.  

Food is an addiction to me, many years ago I gave up smoking.  I was addicted to smoking and once I gave it up I turned to food, creating my new addiction.  Its been really hard having an addictive personality especially when I have a lot of stress going on.  I'm not making any excuses for myself just trying to figure out why I'm having such a hard time.  I really do want to get to that point where I am able to go completely vegan but maybe for now I need to take small steps to eventually get there.  I admire those who are quickly able to take this step, heck I admire those who don't need to use food a a crutch.  Right now, I think I just need to get over this addiction and then go from there.  

Goodwill Transformation: Nightstand Organizer

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A while back I made my monthly trip to the local Goodwill store in Mesquite TX and picked up a few items.  One of the items I picked up was this plastic mail organizer for $2.  I figured for $2 I could think of something to do with it. 

But alas it sat and waited patiently while I worked on other projects, the whole time trying to think of what color I wanted it to be.  At first I thought red would be nice, I think every room should have a little pop of red or yellow.  But then the more I thought about it, the more I really liked the idea of just spray painting it white. 

I like how the white brightens it up more, and brings out the flower details.

I like the way it turned out, and it's really amazing what a coat of white spray paint can do for something. 

I even found the perfect use for it.  My iPad fits perfectly inside, and I can add various other items I need on my bedside table. 

Later on if I get a wild hair up my bottom I can change the color to red or yellow, or maybe even navy.  The possibilities are endless. 

What color do you think would make it better???  I would love some advice.

I'm linking up to 

The Dedicated House

Our Disney World Vacation

We were so blessed to have been given the opportunity to take our children to the "happiest place on earth" this past week.  We were double blessed to have been given the opportunity to also share our vacation with my parents, my husband's mother, our niece Ty, and our nephew Kasen.

We did everything that a Family would typically do on their first trip to Disney World.

We stayed in a Disney hotel, (or in our case, cabin)

We rode most of the rides that we could fit into our 8 days

We wore Mickey Mouse ears

We got autographs from Disney Characters

We ate breakfast with Alice, Mary Poppins, and the Mad Hatter

We took the boat, the monorail, and the bus for our transportation to almost everywhere

We visited the nearest beach

We took pictures in front of every attraction

We went to all the shows

Kissed Minnie Mouse (I think Mickey may have some competition)

And we walked more than we ever thought we could in a single day.  Seriously folks, I thought my legs were going to fall off along with many other body parts.

But we survived our first trip to Disney World in the hottest month of the year, with five kids, two mother in laws and a father in law.

Would I change anything?? 

Nope.

Happy Weekend!!!!