4 Prizes!!

It's time to give away some free stuff over at Bloggy Giveaways! And while this stuff may look like a random, mis-matched assortment of stuff, I can assure you that careful thought and planning went into my decision on what to give away.

Ok, that last part was a lie! It really IS a random, mis-matched assortment of stuff, but stuff that represents and tells a little about me!

PRIZE #1: Vera Bradley coin purse

This was from the Vera Bradley Outlet sale that came through Atlanta last year. I went with my mom and sister and we basically raided the place! I'm not even a die hard VB fan, but you just COULDN'T pass it up when all of the merchandise was at least 75% off!!

PRIZE #2: $10 Target gift card

'Nuff said!! Target is truly one of my favorite stores! It's actually kind of a sickness for me because a "quick, little" trip turns into a shopping frenzy!

PRIZE #3: Clippies

There are 2 reasons for this prize. The first is that I'm expecting my second niece in just a few short weeks, so I'm gearing up for all things girly! Second, is that I love to do crafts, so I must say that I was pretty impressed with myself with the way these turned out!

PRIZE #4: Post its & notepad

Being a teacher, I love all things school supplies. And these little post its and notepad are the cutest way to remind you to pick up that milk on the way home :)

HOW TO WIN:
I will choose 4 winners! That's right, your odds just got better :) I will choose 1 winner for each prize. All you have to do is leave me a comment about which one you'd like to win. Please make sure to leave an email address too!! Drawing will be held Friday night, Aug. 1 at 9:00 and winners will be posted Saturday morning. Please, US residents only :(

Week in Review

This will not be the most enthralling post unless you like to hear me incessantly go on about my nephew and friends. What can I say? That's my world!

Last Sunday:
After church I went out to eat with my sister, her husband and his sister. Evan was in a mood and didn't exactly want to sit still and eat. One of my tricks is to pull out my camera. He likes getting his picture taken and then look at it. Then Noah wanted to get in on the action. Get ready...these are breathtaking.



Works every time!

Wednesday:
I took Evan to Catch Air. One of those jumpy places. I have to admit that most of the time I have more fun than he does! Although it is definitely a workout! I was worn out! I only got 1 picture because he wanted me to do everything with him.


Thursday:
The Sisterchicks (minus 1) got together for lunch at The Fickle Pickle. It is SOO yummy! Once again the camera trick came in handy as we were waiting for our food.

Here's Georgia and Lydia:

Here's Evan:


He then got up to go and tell Lydia that she didn't smile in her picture, so we tried it again:

So cute!

Random lunch shots:




After lunch we decided to go walk around all the cute shops, so the mommas went to to retrieve strollers while Kristen and I played babysitters. We tried to get some cute pics of us and all the kids actually looking into the camera. You can see how well that turned out!




Off to the shops:


We looked at few very cute stores, but then it was nap time. (For the kids, that is!)

It was a really good day and we missed you Beck!

"Back to School" never looked like this!!!

My friend Jenn over at Delightfully Cliche is having a fabulous contest!!

Go and register for someone who could really use this! Thanks Jenn for your big heart and love for others!

Progress!

So, if you remember, last week I learned how to knit! Here's how it started:


And here's what it looks like today!


It's as big as my hand! I think I might stop and just let it be a potholder! Nah...I've come this far, I'm gonna see it through till the end.

I'll keep ya posted!

Knitting Party

So I think I've officially just crossed over into being OLD. I've learned how to knit!!

The sisterchicks got together last night to eat chinese food, play Wii, and learn how to knit. Here we all are with our yarn and needles ready to go:

Amanda


Mandi

Notice how her yarn and needles match!

Kristen


Mandy


Me


And our teacher, Becky


After a rough start (I'll save you all the messy details!), we finally all got casted on and started knitting. Here's my first row:

This will, in time, become a scarf!

Becky did such a good job teaching us. She was so patient and great at fixing our mess ups! I guess she's used to it being a kindergarten teacher.






Stay tuned in a couple months for our "How-To-Finish-The-Scarf" party!!

Wow!

Last year, I posted about the incredible deal my roommate and I got at Staples.

With both of us being teachers, we try to get bargains anywhere we can for our classrooms. And we struck gold!! Staples had their 1 cent sale.


I got 50 folders and 400 pencils for $1.08! That's almost the same price as ONE item from the Dollar Store! WOW!! Check to see when the sale is coming to your area!!

The Many Faces of Evan

Evan, my almost 3 year old nephew, is ALL boy! So when my sis and I go shopping, it's kind of difficult to keep him entertained. Apparently, he doesn't find 50% off sales as exhilerating as I do, so on this day, I tried a photo session.

Thought you might enjoy:

Happy


Mad


Contemplative



Silly



Bored


Trying on my bracelets


This worked for about 10 minutes. Thankfully, there was a playground which saved the day!

Oh, and I got 2 pairs of shoes :)

Citizenship Test

I came across this little test and thought it would be fun in honor of July 4th. See how well you do on this citizenship test:

Try it here!

Tell me how you did! (I got a 50%. Yikes! To redeem myself, I made a few VERY careless errors. I need to take the advice I give my students: check and double check your answers!!)

My Ties to Billy Graham

I just found out I went to the same school as Billy Graham!! I got my alumni magazine from my college and the first article was so interesting to me! I never knew this little piece of history.

Please click on the picture and read the article. (It's short!)

Movies

I just watched 4 movies in 3 days! Only a teacher in the summer can do that :) Here's a quick run down:

Get Smart

I absolutely LOVED this movie!! I have never seen the original TV show, but that certainly didn't keep me from enjoying it. It was very funny, CLEAN, and surprisingly romantic. I highly recommend it!!

Fool's Gold

I was so excited to see this one. I love romantic comedies and um...hello?!?! Matthew McConaughey!!!!!!! It was more of an adventure than a romantic comedy, but it was still really good. It starts out a little slow, but picks up later on. The redeeming value of this movie is that MM does have his shirt off most of the time :)

Click

This one really surprised me! I hadn't heard great reviews about it and actually, because of this rewards program I belong to at the video store, found out I was entitled to a free non-new release, so I quickly went back to the videos and randomly picked it up. I really liked it! It has a great message about enjoying your life and not wanting to "fast-forward" through it. It obviously has some funny parts (Adam Sandler's in it...need I say more??) but it also has some surprisingly sweet and endearing parts.

The Ron Clark Story

This was, by far, my favorite! I have wanted to see this for a long time. As a teacher, I always find teacher type movies so inspiring. We had the privilege of hearing Ron Clark speak when he came to one of our in-service days. He is truly an out of this world teacher! He has devoted his life to helping kids with "untapped potential". This movie will give you chills. It will reaffirm that teachers really can, and his case, DO make a difference. One interesting thing he told us that didn't make it into the movie was that he made his students learn the names of every cafeteria worker AND greet them as they came through the cafe line! This movie will NOT disappoint!

Next time you're at the local video store, pick one of these up and tell me what you think!

Steal of a Deal!

What girl doesn't love to have fun with make up?! But let's face it... make up can be expensive, even the drugstore stuff!

Well, my roommate introduced me to this cool website that has make up for $1. Not a typo my friend...a dollar make up!

E.L.F.. They have all kinds of make up, nail polish, brushes, and more. Some of the stuff is a little more than a dollar, but most all of the make up is ONE DOLLAR!!

The only downer is that it takes a while to get your order. They said because of the high demand, it takes a while to process your order. My order took several weeks. But if you're not in a hurry...order away!

Here's a couple of the things I got and LOVED them:

I know it looks like it's spilling out, but that's just part of the packaging.



Go and have fun :)

Cake Construction

Back by popular demand: the construction of a cake! OK, really only 1 person requested this, but I know you're all dying to know.

I recently had to make a cake for a birthday party. I started the cake on Friday by baking each layer.


The top layer was chocolate and the bottom was vanilla cake. I like to put a cookie sheet under the cakes to prevent any spillage.

See!! It works!


Typically, I have some batter left over so I get to make little treats for myself :)


I let them cool overnight. The next day, I start with a crumb coating. A layer of thin frosting just enough to cover the cakes. It doesn't matter what it look likes.


Then it's time for a second coating to hide all the crumbs. I have to be honest, this is the hardest part for me. What makes it so hard is to get it so smooth! How DO they do that?!


Then they both go into the fridge to harden up the icing.

Next it's time to decorate!

I started with fondant rolled into little balls to outline the cake. Then I decided to try something new. I used candy discs typically used to melt and pour into candy molds. I randomly spaced them around the bottom layer.

Then for the top layer, I made stripes.


Then the whole cake goes into the fridge until it's time to go.

I wish I had pictures of this next part because it is the funniest part of the whole process. The transportation! This cake gave me a first. When it was time to load up, it decided to POUR down rain! The cake doesn't fit in a box, so I basically just hold it in my lap. My sister came to pick me up and had to hold an umbrella over me as I got in the car with the cake. And wouldn't ya know after we pulled out of the neighborhood, it stopped raining.

Finally got to the party and put the finishing touches on top. The candles.


The neatest thing at the party were the cups!

If you can't read it, it says: I stole this cup from Dave's 30th birthday party"

How clever?!