The Halloween Box...

I am one of those very fortunate people who has a huge, loving, and incredible extended family. One member of that extended family is my Aunt Ginny. Aunt Ginny is a kindergarden teacher and lives in West Virginia. Being that I am in South Carolina, I don't get to see her very often. My two boys are her only great-nephews, and when Walker was born she started a tradition with him. She has since carried on the tradition with both boys every single year. Being that they get so much on their birthdays and Christmas, Aunt Ginny decided to start sending them a Halloween Box of goodies every year. Let me just tell you, she really goes all out for this box. Now that the boys are getting a little older they really look forward to it too. This year's box came last week, and it was packed full of Halloween fun.

They each got their own bag of candy and suckers.


There were Halloween books, decorations, a Halloween stuffed bear, and even a DVD about a pumpkin.

There were also these incredible new Crayola Slick Stix. Leave it to a kindergarden teacher to buy the best crayons ever made. Seriously. If you have kids you must buy them some of these. They color more like markers than crayons, but are not messy and wipe right off. (This is good to know if you have a child like Connor who tries to color your kitchen tile floor blue.)

She even sends me a few goodies, like a Halloween craft and recipe book and this fantastic tablecloth. I am gonna have to have a Halloween party just to use my tablecloth!

So thanks Aunt Ginny for the thoughtful box of goodies, but thank you even more for being such a special Aunt to me and to the boys. You hold a place in my heart that time or distance will never change, and those Slick Stix really are incredible!

An Award...

I got an award from my gal pal Kelly a little while back, and I have been so crazy busy lately that I failed to post it. This award means a lot to me because it is the Kreativ Juice Award and heaven knows I sure try to keep those creative juices flowing!

Thanks so much to Kelly for thinking of me as a creative blogger, but more than that as a friend. I appreciate this so much!

Deals and Steals...

I am gonna post the rest of my deals and steals that I found recently, even though I have not done anything with some of them yet. They are just to exciting not to share.

First up is this fantastic basket of sticks. I found it for $4 and just had to have it. I put it on my dining room table and added some moss covered rocks to the bottom of it for interest. Not a bad looking centerpiece for $4. (And because I know you are going to ask, the rocks are from TJ MAXX from several months ago. I think they were $5.)
Here it is straight from the yardsale:

Minus the raffia and add some rocks:
Total love! It goes so well with my indoor/outdoor rug that is under the table.

Next up, is this great old suitcase. It was marked $3 and I LOVED it. The inside is in great shape, and it still has the address stickers on the outside. Just out of curiosity I googled the name "A. Herenroth" and found an author to a book titled "Russians say it this way ... Ninety-nine Russian idiomatic expressions and their American equivalents" from 1945. Wouldn't it be so cool if this was his suitcase?

I also found a wonderful old antique wire basket for $3 and these jars for .25 cents each.

I hope you also had great luck at the yardsales and can't wait to see all those treasures!

Weight Watchers Wednesday, Week 35

It is Weight Watchers Wednesday, Week 35 and this week I lost 1 lb. for a running total of 36 lbs. Hooray! I keep chugging along and still hope to reach my goal of atleast 52 lbs. by the end of the year which is 1 lb. per week.

I did good on my eating except for on the weekend. Mom and Dad were here and I always have to make her cook a little. French Toast before church Sunday morning was definitely not a weith watchers recipe!

I squeezed in a good amount of exercise last week, but I have not done so well in the past few days. I am gonna have to get back in gear tomorrow. I already have Daisy's leash ready for in the morning!

As for this week's recipe, I am gonna share the "Big Shake". I found this on a Weight Watchers discussion board a while back, and it is great. You can make it and sip on it for a long time. That little trick makes me feel full much longer. This recipe is very versatile, but calls for DaVinci syrup. If you have never tried this stuff, you have not lived! It is available at Wal-Mart in the coffee aisle, and Target carries it too. You can find a larger selection online, and it is a little pricey but worth every cent. I only have Sugar-free Vanilla, but am gonna try German Chocolate Cake next.

3 Point "Big Shake"

1 cup FF milk

2 Tbsp. FF SF Jello Pudding Mix (any flavor as long as it's FF and SF)

10-12 ice cubes

1 tsp. DaVinci Sugar-free Syrup or vanilla extract

3 Tbsp. water (I only do this if the shake is getting too thick for me!!)

Put in blender for at least 2 minutes to chop ice up. Poor into BIG glass and enjoy! It makes somewhere around 3 cups for 3 points. Another variation was to use Cheesecake flavored pudding and I put in 1/2 cup of frozen blueberries. It tastes like a big muffin for 3 points.

I hope all my Weight Watchers buddies had a great week, and I look forward to hearing your progress!

Sassy Pillows...

It is DIY Day at ASPTL and I have missed a couple of weeks, but I am finally gonna get my groove back! I have been in the mood to sew lately, and have jumped on the "ruffle" bandwagon that is going around the blogosphere. Here are a few pillows I whipped up last week:


I think the ruffles make them so stinkin' cute. I especially love the way the Cowboy one turned out. Here it is sitting in Walker's chair in his western room. That quilt behind it was made by my great grandmother. Ok, I'm a LITTLE sentimental. Here is a blue and brown color scheme. I just love this paisley print.
I backed it entirely in the paisley.
And of course a pillow to go in the chair I am working on.

It is also backed in the print material.

Don't you just love a project that is quick and easy? I do. I guess that's why I love to make pillows!

Busy Bee...

I'm still here. I know, it's been a while! Last week when I posted Weight Watchers Wednesday on Saturday I felt terrible for being so behind. Well, this week is over and I have not posted since Tuesday. I will do better. I promise! So, just in case you are curious about what we have been so busy doing, here is a quick update.

Weight Watchers Wednesday... I lost .5 lb. for a running total of 35.2 lbs. Very happy with the progress and at this rate I should be able to hit 52 lbs. by the end of the year (1 lb. a week).

Lonnie got inducted into his high school's Football Hall of Fame on Friday night, and we had company for the weekend. Here are a couple pics from Friday.

Here we are below his plaque.

I was just as proud as a peacock of my hubby. He is a very humble person, but this honor is saved for a select few and he was so honored they chose him.

I went Saturday morning to a huge community yard sale in Bluffton (right outside Hilton Head) with my mother in law and a couple friends. We had a great time and scored some great deals. I'll share those on Tuesday!

I somehow managed to talk Lonnie into helping me with one of my projects this afternoon. While Connor LOVES tools and helping Mom with her projects...
He looks like such a little monkey with his goggles on pushing down his ears!
Lon is not such a fan. He was a good sport about it though, and we managed to get started on my old door transformation. We are trying to turn it into a corner shelf, but when we started cutting it it started falling apart. I guess there is a reason it was free. We are making some progress and I am not one to give up, so I will post about it later this week when I finish it.

I hope you have had a wonderful week and I hope to be catching up with all my blogging soon, so much to share with you!

Deals and Steals...

I have been doing a lot of junking in the past few months, and scored lots of odds and ends but always hesitate to post my finds until I have actually done something with them. (I'm just weird like that.) I'll show you a couple of things this week, and the rest next week. I started off with all of this stuff, for $4.

I spray painted the vase white, and another candleholder I had white, and put those funny globes on top of them. For now they are holding seashells that we got at the beach this year, but they will probably hold candles eventually.

I love them on my beach picture wall in the craft room/office.

The only thing I paid more than .50 for was this basket, and it was $1. It's new home is on Walker's bedside table. It holds all of the library books we have checked out so that they don't get mixed up with the boys' other books.
Originally I was gonna paint it, but decided I liked the chippy red finish and it goes great with Walker's cowboy themed room.

So there you have it, my deals and steals for the week. I am gonna share these over at Reinvented for Trash To Treasure Tuesday and Poppies at Play for Creative Cats. Stop by over there if you have a chance. I am always amazed by other bloggers' creativity!