I Love My Plexus Slim!

Today is a great day! I signed up to receive Plexus Slim products and I cannot wait until they get here. I have previously used Plexus products and they are amazing! I really do not know how these are not more popular than they are. Plexus is a company with their customers health in mind. If you are looking for a natural way to lose weight and get back the energy you are lacking, then you should really give these products a try. If you are skeptical, I challenge you to "google" Plexus Slim and tell me what you find. These are not just weight loss products. They are products that help a number of health issues. Plexus offers its customers a 60 Day Money Back Guarantee if you are not pleased. Let me tell you....you WILL be pleased!

Christmas at Zulily

Christmas In August!

Head on over to Zulily today and browse endless Christmas decor, party supplies, bakeware, and much more! Christmas is by far my absolute favorite holiday. It takes me back to my childhood and all the wonderful memories I have of it. I make it a point to pass that joy along to my children so they can also have memories of the holidays that make them smile. Christmas comes but once a year, so make it memorable! If you don't already have a Zulily account, it is super easy to sign up and they offer great deals that are always well below listed prices on all kinds of brands.

My Review of Hillshire Farm American Craft Links.

I recently was chosen by BzzAgent to review Hillshire Farm American Craft links for free. They currently offer three flavors: Smoky Bourbon, Jalapeno & Cheddar, and Garlic & Onion. I purchased a package of the Jalapeno & Cheddar flavor as well as a package of the Garlic & Onion. I can honestly tell you that these were the juiciest sausage links I have EVER eaten! My husband grilled them on the barbeque and they came out perfect! We ate them on a bin with some sauteed mushrooms, bell peppers, and onions and boy were they delicious! My kids even liked them....and wanted seconds, surprisingly! What I love about the sausage links is they are so big and filled with such flavor that you just can't stop eating them. I would definitely recommend these to anyone who loves to grill and loves sausage links. They came out perfectly grilled and still were juicy! If you plan on having a barbeque, birthday party, or any kind of gathering, I know these will be a big hit!

I received some compensation for this review.

Centrum® Flavor Burst® Multivitamin Chews

Centrum® Flavor Burst® Multivitamin Chews

I recently received a free sample of these from Smiley360. In return, I agreed to give my honest opinion of them. These vitamins do taste good. I tried two different flavors and liked them both (Grape and Pineapple). The only cons I found to these vitamins were that they were a little too hard and also the directions suggest to take 4 vitamins a day. I, personally think that is a lot for a vitamin. The vitamins weren't very chewy, but rather hard to chew. I did like the overall taste of these vitamins and think they are a great alternative for people who dislike swallowing pills. Click here for a free sample.

*I received compensation for this review.

Enter to win a Goosebumps Haunted Hollywood all expense paid Vacation! I am crazy for sweepstakes of all sorts and found myself the lucky winter of the Scotch Brite photo contest earlier this year. There is no harm in entering and you just may win!

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Emergen-C®

Emergen-C®

Hey guys! I want to tell you about this wonderful site called Smiley360 that lets you try products for free and rate them. It is very similar to my previous post about BzzAgent. I had only been signed up for a week with Smiley360 when I was approved for my first campaign for Emergen-C. I was so excited when I received it in the mail. It included five different flavors of Emergen-C. The cranberry-pomegranate and raspberry flavors were my favorites! After trying out the flavors, I shared my opinion of the product on Facebook, Twitter, on the Smiley360 website, and in person. I was really happy with Emergen-C and I love the fact that there are sites like Smiley360 that give people the opportunity to try out products. Sign-up is free and easy.

*I have received compensation for this post and my reviews.

Try BzzAgent!

Just a few days ago, I signed up for BzzAgent.com. It is a really neat website that gives you the opportunity to try out products that you love and give your honest opinion. You fill out surveys which determine your general interests, and you are scored on how much you participate. You can link your BzzAgent account to your Facebook, Twitter, store loyalty card, or personal blog..... and the more you share with your online community about BzzAgent, the more your score improves. The higher your score, the more likely you are to receive products (campaigns) to test out and share with others. It costs nothing, and it's a fun way to fill up your time!

 Oh yeah.....and the "Bzz" is pronounced "buzz". 

Try BzzAgent Today!

Free Samples Anyone?

Click here for Free Samples

Do you ever wonder where people get all their free samples? Well, Free Finds takes the guesswork out of it. They hunt for all the latest free samples and freebies and pass them on to you!!! 

Blueberry Crumb Coffee Cake

I love sweet things. I mean really love sweet things. Candy, cakes, smoothies, ice cream, chocolate, etc. There are only a handful of people I know who don't care for sugary goodness. I am not one of them, With that being said....when my husband asked me to make him a blueberry crumb coffee cake one day, I was more than happy to oblige. I am a baker. Okay, not by profession but I do love to bake. I can't cook to save my life. Or my husband's life, or even my kids' for that matter. But baking is something I can do fairly well, without killing everyone who consumes my finished product. I had never baked a crumb cake before this. In fact, I had never even baked with blueberries before this. Well, it turned out scrumptious! It looked pretty, too! I will share with you the recipe that I used. I don't think I will use another recipe, or even try one out. This one was perfect! 

Blueberry Crumb Coffee Cake

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 stick Butter

1 Tablespoon (additional) Butter

3/4 cups Sugar

1  Egg

1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

2 cups All-purpose Flour

2-1/4 teaspoons Baking Powder

1/2 teaspoon Salt

3/4 cups Whole Milk

2 cups Fresh Blueberries

CRUMB TOPPING:

3/4 sticks Butter

1/2 cup Sugar

1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon

1/2 cup Flour

1/4 teaspoon Salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 13 inch pan.

Combine flour, baking powder, and a salt. Stir and set aside.

Cream 1/2 stick plus 1 tablespoon butter with cinnamon and sugar. Add egg and mix until combined. Add vanilla and mix. Add flour mixture and milk alternately until totally incorporated. Do not overbeat. Stir in blueberries until evenly distributed.

Pour in batter.

In a separate bowl, combine topping ingredients and cut together using two knives or a pastry cutter. Sprinkle over the top of the cake.

Bake cake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until golden brown. Sprinkle topping with granulated sugar.

Hair Bow Tutorial

Woohooo!! Today was a fabulous and very productive day! I was able to whip out a few headbands and hair bows and I even snapped some photos while I was making one of the hair bows. So here is a quick tutorial of one of my favorite hair bows to make. It is so easy and so simple to make. I have made countless of these for my little girl in many different colors and sizes. I can never seem to find ones I actually like enough to buy at the store. It's so much more fun to walk into the craft store and have endless supplies of ribbon to choose from. My ribbon collection really has gotten out of hand. I mean REALLY! Everywhere I look, I see spools of ribbon that have somehow managed to sneak away from their large number of counterparts. Anyways, you get the point! Ribbon is cheap and gives you the opportunity to make something that is truly unique. If you haven't made one of these before, and you have some extra ribbon lying around the house, give it a try and just see how easy it is!

Cut four, 4 inch strips of ribbon.

Next, make inward slits on both ends of the ribbon. Then heat-seal with  lighter to keep the ends from fraying.

Cut out a 9 1/2 inch strip of any pattern ribbon of your choice. Just make sure it is skinnier than the first ribbon you cut. Once it is cut, hot-glue it into a Figure 8. With the remaining four strips of ribbon, pinch them together in the center to form a "gathered look" and hot glue it so that they look like the picture above.

Next, glue the four strips together like this.

Now you can hot-glue the Figure 8 strip to the top of the four ribbons.

Lastly, you will need to cut out a 1 inch strip of ribbon the circle around the bow to completely cover the center. I chose to add an alligator clip to the back and clipped it onto a crocheted headband. 

Please feel free to send me a picture of yours! I love to see all the unique creativity!

Halloween Is Over!

Okay, I know I've been REALLY bad about blogging lately. It seems there are really not enough hours in the day to do all things I want to do. On my days off, I have about 2 hours while my youngest is napping to have some 'me time' before my other two get home from school. I have come to the conclusion many, many moons ago that 2 hours just isn't long enough. I have been working a lot, crafting a lot, and baking not so much! I made some candy apples a few weeks ago that turned out really good. It was my first time ever making candy apples and I found the recipe on Pinterest. Ha....where else?? I also baked some Halloween cookies and my kids helped me decorate them. Being as Halloween was yesterday, I figured it was still okay to post the pictures.  I think everyone in my house adore sugar cookies so I think it's safe to say that they were a hit. I hope everyone had a fun-filled Halloween because the holidays are just beginning!

Honey Lemon Facial Scrub

Woohoo!!! Who doesn't love a clean face? Well, I just whipped up a batch of my own honey lemon face scrub. It took about 3-4 minutes to make and the finished product smells so good! I had planned on making this so earlier today I made a trip to Goodwill to look for some little containers with lids so I could store it in. I only found two but they will work just fine. 

Here are the ingredients I used:

1/2 cup Organic sugar

Juice from 1/2 of Organic lemon

1 Tablespoon Organic Olive Oil

1 Tablespoon Organic Honey

First combine the lemon juice and olive oil. Stir until blended completely. Then add in honey and continue stirring. Lastly, add in the sugar. You can add more or less, depending on how you want the texture of your scrub to be. For mine I added about an extra tablespoon or two. 

To use: Apply to fingers and scrub with gentle, circular motions for at least one minute. At this point you can rinse it off or you can leave it on for 5-10 minutes before rinsing. You can really smell the honey in this scrub so just don't be tempted to eat it!  :) 

The ingredients in this scrub make it ideal for those with acne-prone skin. Sugar cleans pores and removes dead skin cells. Lemon evens out skin tone and tightens pores while the honey helps prevent future breakouts. 

There are many other scrubs I would like to try but I have found this one to work quite well for my skin type. It works great for a morning or evening scrub. No matter what time of the day you choose to use it, your face will thank you and you will surely notice how soft it leaves your skin feeling!

No-Grate DIY Laundry Detergent

After reading numerous blogs and seeing endless pins on Pinterest, I finally decided to make my own laundry detergent. Most of the ingredients were the same. Some of the formulas called for more or less of certain things. I was mostly seeing posts on powdered laundry soap. Years ago, before I met my husband, I faithfully bought powdered detergent. Granted, it was definitely messier than liquid but I liked the way it cleaned and for whatever reason, I had it stuck into my head that it worked better than its liquid counterpart. Well, after meeting my husband I changed my tune! He only used liquid and after giving it a try I was eating my words, if you will. So for the last 10+ years I have only bought liquid. 
I kept seeing pins on Pinterest for homemade laundry detergents. I really loved the idea of making my own and thought it would be a neat thing to try. Even if I didn't like it what was there to lose?? Except maybe the $8 of ingredients I would need to buy. 
Well, I went to Wal-Mart one night and picked up everything I needed to make the liquid version. I even bought 2 bottles of Sunny D orange drink so I could use the empty bottles to store my homemade concoction in. 
After making a couple batches already, I have to say that I will most definitely be making this for a very long time. It is so cheap to make, it works well, and the clothes come out clean and smelling fresh! What more could a penny-pinching mom ask for?

Here is the formula I used for mine. I had found others online but this is what worked best for me. 

1/4 cup Washing Soda

1/4 cup Borax

4 Tablespoons Dawn Dish Detergent

Essential Oil (optional)

Put all 3 ingredients into a one gallon jug. Pour 4 cups of boiling water into the jug and gently shake all the ingredients together until completely dissolved.

Let liquid cool and then fill to the top with cold water. Be aware that adding the cold water will make a lot of bubbles at the top so it may take a few minutes to fill it up to the top. Just be patient and go slowly. Once you have filled the jug with cold water, give it a few good shakes to mix everything up. You will also need to shake it before each use.

This formula will be watery and that's okay! It's supposed to be. It is also low-sudsing so it is safe to use in HE washers.

The great thing about the Dawn dish detergent is that it comes in different scents. I personally think Dawn is the best dish detergent because it works quickly at cutting out the grease. You can also add some drops of essence oil after you have finished making your mixture. I used the Original Dawn blue dish soap and added about 8 drops of violet essence oil and it smells clean and fresh!

 I even found some free label templates online and printed them out! :-) I think it adds a nice touch to the whole DIY thing!

Turquoise and Black Headband

I had a few extra minutes earlier so this is a headband I threw together pretty quickly. My daughter wears mostly pink, but she does have a few outfits that are other colors. I made this one to match a little Smurf shirt my husband bought her.
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Summer Has Finally Arrived!

Hello everyone! Summer seems like it has finally arrived here and we really have been enjoying it! I have been spending a lot of time outside enjoying the gorgeous sunshine. So have the kids. I practically have to pry them from the outside just to come back in the house. I've even been able to get the hubby to spend some time outside in the sunshine. He is not too fond of warm weather, and would prefer much more for it to be 20 degrees and snowing. Summers here are very short so you really have to take full advantage of them when they are here. It is June 25th today and it finally hit the 80's!!!
So, I have made a couple new hair pieces for my little girl. They are both made from ribbon, just slightly different from each other. I went to Michael's today and grabbed some more ribbon. All their ribbon is "half off" right now so I kind of indulged! But here are the two that I made.....I hope you like them! If you have any questions on how I made them, please ask and I will be more than happy to give you a step-by-step tutorial.

Boutique Style Hair Bows

Just Another Fabric Headband

     It seems that making headbands and hair clips is addicting! Whenever I have a free minute I always get out my crafting supplies and work on something new. I love how easy (and inexpensive) it is to make something to match my daughter's clothing. I only wish I would have started this when she was a baby, considering how much $$ I spent at the stores!

     It is almost midnight at my house, it is pouring rain outside, and I work in the morning.....yet, I can't help but want to get out my crafting box and start something new. I am going to hold back, though or I will be a walking zombie come 5:30am. 

     I did make my little darling a headband today to match a lime green dress that I ordered her online. She is normally a "pink and pastel" girl but lime green is such a fun Summertime color! 

Rolled Fabric Headband

I recently bought my daughter an adorable new dress. The only problem was that she didn't have a hair accessory to match. I decided to make a headband from rolled fabric which I purchased from Wal-Mart. You can use any old fabric that you have laying around, or even denim works great also.


Here is the dress:

Here is the headband:

Here is a fabric flower I made this morning. The fabric I used was 20 inches long x 3 inches wide. I folded it once lengthwise so that the underside of the fabric would not show.I used a needle and thread to stitch it to give it the ruffley look, and also placed a pearl embellishment onto the center. It took me about 5 minutes from start to finish.     

Yesterday I went to Michael's and found this adorable crocheted flower. I bought some pink headband elastic and hot-glued it on. Then I glued on the center embellishment. This headband is very simple looking, but that's what makes it so cute!!! I may add some small rhinestones or pearls around the edges of the flower - still haven't decided yet!

DIY Wall Letters

Now, out of all the projects I have done, I think this one was probably the most fun. It also gives you so much room to be creative and add your own personal touch. There really are so many different things you can do to decorate these, both for a boy's and girl's room. I made these letters for my oldest daughter's room. She wanted them to be girly, but not too over-the-top. I had been browsing websites and saw similar ones selling for $10 and up for each letter. I almost certainly was not going to pay $50 for something that I could make myself for a lot more inexpensive! Pottery Barn sells some adorable ones, but they didn't really have what I was looking for. That's when....DING DING!!! I decided to make them myself!!
The letters, however, I did not make. I bought them at Michael's for $1.99 per letter. I already had acrylic paint which is what I used to paint them. I did buy some glitter dust, which was $1 for a small packet, but was plenty for what I was using it for. I also purchased from Michael's some pink scrapbooking flowers ($2.99) to add on each of the letters. I won't go into details on the steps I did to make this, as it is pretty self-explanatory. But please feel free to comment if you have any questions that I may answer. I hope you have fun with this project and if you are making them for your little one, have them help out too! 


TOOLS NEEDED:
*Pre-cut letters (any size)
*Acrylic paint
*Glitter
*Small craft paint brushes and/or sponges
*Embellishments of your choice
*Hot glue gun
*Velcro for wall hanging or some nails and a hammer