nursery

The hubs made these shelves inspired by Pottery Barn

WWYD

Thinking of changing our kitchen to this:

What do you think of the fridge there? That's my big hold up.

It's that time of year to spread the special cheer!

Alright it's that time of year! Nov 1st makes my skin tingle, my eyes water and well, and my heart swell!  It means Christmas tunes are crankin' and I'm holding back on decorating the house with red, green, and snowmen!!!

Last year we missed the boat on sending out Christmas cards because our little peanut was due right about then and so I figured I'd send out Birth Announcements instead..... Yea that didn't happen because in my post-baby fog I okay'd a misprinted announcement, and since the pics were from a pricey photog I couldn't get them fixed or reprinted.

THIS YEAR I'M NOT MAKING THE SAME MISTAKE!!

I'm taking the cards into my own hands!  I'm going to order from Shutterfly, who I've used in the past and never had issues with, they are high quality, ship quick, and have great customer service. And if I make any editing mistakes (which I won't) I can afford to reorder because their prices are so great!

So my plan for this Christmas is to take a picture of little man in one of two ways:

a) With his santa pjs bottoms to camera looking up a decorated mantel/fireplace looking for Santa.  (Too cute right?) If that's the pic I capture I will use this card layout from Shutterfly: I love that it's actually a card that you can open. I also love it's simplicity.

Find this card here:

b) The other picture I'm going to try to get is one of little man with a big red bow, cloth diaper, and all tangled up (safely) in Christmas lights.  If that's the picture I capture I'll use this card.  This one is not a card that opens, but if you know me you know I'm obsessed with snowflakes! And I love the crisp colors of this card.

Find this card here:

So how much are these cards? Well............ If you're a blogger you can contact Shutterfly by using this link:

Blog and get your own cards free!

and get 50 free! Yes free! 

I have used Shutterfly for several orders in the past.  We had our open house party in 08 and those Biscuit inspired invites were created with Shutterfly  The shipping is always super fast and the quality is top notch. I hope you enjoy Shutterfly as much as I do!

My next Shutterfly order is going to be Thank You cards for little man's first birthday party, which is right before Christmas (eek, how'd that happen!)

I had his birthday invite pictures taken this weekend and we'll be using this shot:

And this card, found here. It goes perfect with his (my) Raggedy Andy theme!

Get snappin thos pics!

Deal of the Day

Can you smell fall coming?  I can! Well possibly because I went to the mall today to find Wee Andrew some fall clothing....... and as I was walking by guess which store loured me in...

Yankee Candle!
All the fall smells enticed me, as well as the big sale signs. Then I remembered....... I FORGOT MY COUPON!!!

I had a $10 off of $25 coupon from the mail...........I told the store clerk, and she brought me out a coupon for $15 off of $45. Close enough I guess!

So I purchased the following sale items: 4 tumblers: 2/20 and 5 $1 votives.  Total bill: $30 Not too shabby.




Did I mention the tumblers were gifts?  I purchased late fall/Christmas scents so that I could gift these in the upcoming gift season.  That means I got 4 Christmas gifts for $25.

Then the very wonderful clerk asked me if I got their emails....... Nope.  She said if you sign up online you receive a $10 of $25 purchase!  Woohoo!  So I'm using both my email accounts to get this deal and I'm going to head back in for more Christmas gifts.

http://www.yankeecandle.com/cgi-bin/ycbvp/retail.jsp

Leftover Pizza Friday

Hot wing pizza!

Yum!
This week I made buffalo wings, broccoli, and rice. I hate messy wings, so when I make wings it's boneless chicken tenders.

So here's what I did with my leftovers this week!

Pillsbury pizza crust (still some from my coupons)
Ranch dressing as the sauce (see tip below)
Shredded buffalo tenders (Leftover)
Cut up broccoli (Leftover)
Shredded cheese


(picture from allrecipes)
I learned a tip for making a great pizza. As a teenager I worked next to a pizza place and dated one of the "pizza boys" so I picked up a few lifelong tips........... the most important one being:

DO NOT OVER SAUCE YOUR PIZZA!!

You know your ice cream scoop?  Use that as your measurement! You don't need much more than that if any at all! This will help keep your pizza crust crispy and the flavor of the sauce not over powering.

Fail but try again (#2)

Frozen week was a FAIL.......... why? because I chose the last week of the month and this is when most of my coupon's expired, and my goal was to NOT grocery shop at all.............. I ended up at the store spending $100 because some of the coupons of things I "needed" were going to expire.

I know my rule is, don't buy it just because you have a coupon for it, but I didn't use ALL of my coupons, I only used SOME! LOL. For example, we use lots of chicken broth and I had a coupon for canned chicken broth. Was I cooking with it this week? No, but I don't want to be cooking with it next week and paying full price!

So RULE change (this is a learning process)  ............. frozen meal week will be week 1 of the month, not the last week!  This way the last week I can use the coupons that are near expiring and not waste them!

8 months old!

I love my momma!

And I love Celtic! (soccer that is)

Weeman sure is growing!

So embarrassing mom!

I really look like a toddler here!

This is how the rain makes my hair!

Almost crawling!