4th of July Fun- Food, Favor, or Decor Ideas!!

I'm feeling crafty.....

We have some friends and family coming down to our second home this weekend aka the river house aka my little heaven to celebrate our wonderful freedom!

I want to challenge myself to do something crafty and fun this week as a little party favor for people coming or a yummy treat or even just a little festive decor!
It's not going to be a big party or anything special just a few close friends that I would like to show a little love for coming down.

Here's where you come into play! I need some ideas!!!

My mom and I tried to make this last year for the 4th of July

Let's just say it did not look like this one... After photo documenting the entire process (to blog about...) and my mom and I being so excited about making this cake, we ended up throwing it in the trash (literally) and just making a plain chocolate cake.

So I do not want to try and attempt anything to this affect again... I know I am not a baker and I am OK with that!!!

Here are some things I found that look fabulous and fairly easy:


Chocolate Covered Strawberries


Red White and Blue Ice Pops



The Red White and Blue popcorn looks fairly easy?



I would love to make these as party favors, this might be the kid coming out in me...



This sign makes my heart so happy!!! If only I would of started planning this out a little sooner...



Chocolate Pretzels... Are on my level of do-able!



If we had kids... We WOULD be doing this!!!



If I was going somewhere that I would dress up/cute.. I would love to be wearing this but since I stay in my swim suit 80% of the day, I won't be wearing this.


Soo have any of you ladies made anything fun for this weekend or made anything in the past you would like to share?

Feel free to comment and share :)

Hope everyone has a fun Fourth of July doing whatever brings you happiness and don't forget of those who help us have our freedom!!

Images used: Pinterest and Google Images

Do You Pintrest?

I caved....

Over the past few months I have heard the site mentioned and seen various fabulous boards posted on blogs and other social media but I kept telling myself that I did not need to join and fall into the trap of looking at another site daily (I used to look at my blogger daily.. That has been neglected the past few months,) but after finding myself checking out the site more often I decided to give in..

Thanks to MJ over at Teaching In Heels, I got my invite to follow and quickly got signed up!

In case you aren't familiar, here' s a quick overview of what it is:
Pintrest is a web-based place to bookmark all of your favorite images all in one place. You can create different folders for things you may be looking for or for things you want to remember.

Some boards I'm looking forward to creating:
Crafts
Teaching
Wedding Ideas
Fun Girl Time Ideas
Fashion
Beauty
Gift Ideas
and much more....

So are you "Pinning"?
I'm not sure how it all works yet but I know you have to be 'invited' so if you are interested in starting leave me a comment and I'll send you an invite (once I figure out how to...ha.)

Coupon Saving...Help!

I would like to do this: Save Money

By doing this: Easy Coupon Clipping

Without having to do this: Being A Crazy Coupon Lady (w/o being obsessed...)

Without having to do this: Spending Hours/Too Much Time Browsing Online

And Be Able To Do This: Walk Out Of Target The Store Proud Of My Purchases


To sum it up.. I want to know the in's and out's of the coupon world these days. As I mentioned above, I do not want to spend a lot of time, effort, or money just to get the coupons. I do not want to spend hours googling each item I want or use a lot of ink to print all the unnecessary coupons and I also do not want to sign up for a million websites in order to receive their coupons.

I have one website I like going to weekly, it's very organized and updated often. If I know I am going to a certain store, I will check her website to see if she has that stores coupon for the week. I might be a little ashamed to say this but... I have her site book marked and easily accessible, I have looked into the grocery coupon section and it just makes my head spin...
Mommy Saves Big Printable Coupons

So what is the trick my blog friends? How do I save $ without spending too much time etc doing so. What's your trick? What website do you use?

PS- Another thing I hear of people doing is buying a cheaper brand (one they normally don't use) just to use a coupon or they buy way too many of one item just to save.. I don't want to do that either :)

PSS- I might be a little obsessed with Target..

Blog Dashboard: Subcategory

I might be wishing this and there might really be a way to do it.. But I really wish that the google blog dashboard had a sub-category section!!!!!
I would like to be able to break up the blogs I follow into different categories, for instance: I would like to have a 'friends section with people I am close with/personally know' a 'wedding idea section' a 'fellow teachers and teaching inspirations section' etc. Although I enjoy reading all of the blogs I follow, I don't have time to get around to them all everyday but yet there are a select few I enjoy reading every time I get on but yet my dashboard is so full that I get half way thru it and ready to log off... I know you might be saying well delete the ones you don't read, but that's the whole point, I don't want to get rid of any of them but yet I don't have time to look at all the fabulous wedding blogs I follow everyday... Does that make sense?

So if any of you lovely ladies know of a way you can separate out the blogs you follow, please share!!

Asking for Prayers... For my Bubba

Without going into too much detail I would like to ask for any extra prayers and thoughts you wouldn't mind sending my families way.
If you know me personally, you know my brother's situations.. If you don't know me personally, well you can read here..

It seems as though it's a continuous cycle over the years.. About every 6-7 months "all hell breaks loose" and something has to happen rather it be medically, emotionally, legally, physically, etc. something bad happens with my poor innocent brother. Although I want to so bad cause it's weighing on my heavy heart to get it all out, I do not want to publicly go into details about anything.
I'm not one to put my business in the open nor am I one to ask for much of anybody but I'm desperate for some extra thoughts and prayers.

Thank You ahead of time