Friday, January 31, 2014

Friday Five

Happy TGIF guys and dolls!  It's that time again - FINALLY FRIDAY - WOO HOO!!!!!!!!!!!!  How are you?  Do you have any big weekend plans?  Are you a football fan? Will you be watching the Superbowl? Hosting or attending another party somewhere?  We are HUGE football fans but I don't really have a favorite in the Superbowl this year.  However, we will be watching it. Also, I have a bloggy friend who is a MAJOR Seahawks fan so I'll be rooting on the Seahawks for her! :)

On to the linky party:


[ONE - Upcoming Vacations]

[TWO - Spring]

[THREE - Sunshine]

[FOUR - Payday]

[FIVE - Best Friends]

So there you have it - my Favorite Five on Friday this week.  Thanks for stopping by to say hello and please let me know you were here so I can return the favor!  Have a wonderful day and an even better weekend lovies! :)

Lots of love and hugs,

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Finish This Link Up…Week 4

Happy Thursday, guys and dolls!  Hope you are having a great week so far!  I decided today to play along with The Java Mama and others who are linking up with the Finish This Link Up and they are already on Week 4.  I'm not sure why I've not thought to join this linky party before as I love linky parties! :)  So... without further adieu - 




1. I use my “green thumb” to … I don't have a green thumb, unfortunately.  However, my husband does.  That is his therapy - he loves to do all of our landscaping and playing with trees and flower bushes, etc.  He has me choose which ones I'd like to have, but he does all of the transplanting, pruning among other things.  My thumb is so black I even kill ferns and from what I hear that is almost impossible to do! HA!

2. The secret to life is being happy with yourself and who you are first and foremost. There will always be someone out there prettier than you, thinner, richer, etc.  On the flip side of that there will always be someone worse off than you too. Once you realize how good you really have it in life, that's when you will truly be happy and content and find you are in deed a very rich person. :)  Like my baby sister always says - the Good Lord let me wake up again today, so I am doing great! :)  Love her attitude. 
3. I get my money’s worth by looking for great deals.  The hubs and I always go to a Mexican Flea Market about 20 miles from our home every.single.weekend.  We have found some wonderful and very inexpensive pieces there and have brought them home for me to work my magic and refurbish them and turn them into their beautiful selves.  I love to repurpose and refurbish old items and make them new again.  I guess I get that from my parents.  Anything home related, I am all about!  See... here's an example of my latest refurbishment.  What do you think? I love how it turned out personally and it cost me a total of about $20.  That included purchase and paint! :)
4. On a scale of 1 to 10, my level of organization is definitely a 10.  I hate to be unorganized and it makes me nuts when there is clutter around. Unfortunately, my husband is more anal than I am though - which makes us butt heads at times because we both want it our way! HA!
5. A gentleman always treats his lady, among others, with kindness and respect.... no matter what.
6. Handwritten notes are unfortunately a thing of the past.  I wish letters still came in the mail.  I love fun mail days. :)  I don't have any handwritten notes (other than birthday and Christmas cards) from my favorite grandmother who passed many years ago, however, I do have her recipe box that has tons of her favorite recipes in her handwriting, which I cherish tremendously. :)
Well, there you go my friends.  If you'd like to play along, be sure and link up.  Also, let me know you were here and that you are playing along so I can come read your responses as well and check out your blogs! 
Have a wonderful day!  We are on the downhill side of the week thankfully!
Lots of love and hugs,

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

What day is it?!



Lots of love and hugs,

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Weekend Recap

Happy Tuesday my peeps!  This post is running a day behind because, well, frankly, I just didn't have time to finish it last night so I am starting it over today.  I worked late last night because we were anticipating snow, sleet and ice here in the Big city of Houston - alas, the temps stayed way above freezing, so there was none - much to my chagrin as I was really really looking forward to staying home today and playing all day - sigh

Anyway, our weekend was pretty good and fairly low key too.  Both of my boys were sick on Friday, so we stayed in and caught up on our tv shows that we had recorded.  On Saturday my husband and I ran a lot of errands and pretty much hung out at home and did housework, laundry, the usual.  I did a few "refreshing" of items that I will show you later on.  I also had made a jewelry (necklace) hanger, but it didn't work out the way I wanted it to, so we went and bought something different to use instead.  It is much cleaner now around my makeup table! HA!

Here are the two options I went with.  I started out with the first one but it looked like it wouldn't hold them well for long - it was going to be too heavy - especially since I continue to buy cute necklaces - HA!


Final option:

Though I like the top option better, the top option just wouldn't last long like I said.  The second option is much more sturdy and will hold a lot more necklaces - hence, just another reason to go shopping for more! hee hee hee

On Sunday, we just hung out some more at home, ran a few more errands and then laid in bed relaxing watching movies all afternoon.  It was a nice "down" weekend for a change.  Usually we are on the go so much (and out of state too) that we never get down time, so this was a nice change!  

Oh, and of course, it wouldn't be a post without a couple of pictures of my furbabies! I think they love each other - what do you think??? :)

This was after they had played outside ALL day long and had their baths - they were completely tuckered out! 

And our Golden baby absolutely LOVES LOVES LOVES her Bella - notice the arm around her Bella?! :) Bella, on the other hand gets aggravated sometimes because the baby wants to be so close to her ALWAYS - hee hee hee 

What about you?  How was your weekend?  Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Lots of love and hugs,

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Five on Friday

Happy TGIF folks!  Hope you are staying nice and warm where you live.  We got some UNHEARD of weather here in my neck of the woods overnight and into this morning.  ICE, SLEET AND SNOW!!! In TEXAS - Houston to be exact - say whaaaaaaaaattttttt???!!!  Anyway, it took me 2 hours to get to work today due to all of the ice on the bridges and overpasses and the wrecks that it caused.  It wreaked HAVOC on Southeast Texas roads to say the least.  I was really hoping for more so that I could have enjoyed another 3 day weekend at home.  However, me being who I am, I am not one to take advantage of the system, so I slowly made my way to work like a good girl.no matter how much I would have preferred to be home in my nice comfy and warm bed instead.  My poor hubby works at the airport and he had to be at work at 4 a.m. this morning - all that nastiness was still happening outside when he had to leave - poor guy.  However, him being the kind and thoughtful hubby that he is, he scraped the ice off my windshield and pulled my windshield wipers up so I wouldn't have any issues when I left for work later this morning. :)  

Anywho, it is that time of the week again where I join in with Darci and Lauren and play along in their Five on Friday bloggy game.  I always love seeing what everyone has to say and checking out their blogs.  Also, I enjoy meeting and making new bloggy friends too. :)  So.... without further adieu - here are my current favorite Five on Friday:



[ONE]
My sweet, sweet love of mine:
[TWO]
My two sweet furbabies who love each other so much:
 

[THREE]
My mommy and sister - don't know what I'd ever do without them:


 [FOUR]
Great beauty finds:
 
[FIVE]
Yummy salads I made and trying to get back to my healthy self:

I know this is late being posted now, but due to unforseen circumstances, I didn't get a chance until now.  Anyway, hope you're having a fabulous weekend so far!  Thanks for stopping by to say hello and please let me know you were here!

Lots of love and hugs,

Thursday, January 23, 2014

FUN Mail Day and GroopDealz

Happy Thursday guys and gals!  Hope all is well your way.  We are expecting COLD temps tonight with Rain which means our area of Texas is going to be getting freezing rain and possibly snow - what the heck??!!  I'm happy though, because Texas is like Arkansas - they are not prepared like the Northeast and other places in the North - so we don't have snow plows, etc., to clear the roads - which means.... another 3 day weekend for this girl! WOOT WOOT!!!!

Anyway, I wanted to share with you my fun goodies that I got in the mail yesterday. I love fun mail days - don't you?! :)

All of my goodies together:
 Lavender necklace
 Turquoise necklace (though the picture doesn't do it justice with the color)
 inside of my iphone5 wristlet
 outside of iphone5 wristlet

Anyway, I bought all of these off of GroopDealz.com.  Have you ever been to that site?  If not, be sure to check it out.  The necklaces were only like $5.99 or $6.99 plus shipping - made them each about $9.99 and then the wristlet was only $7.99 plus shipping made it $9.99.  Now I don't know about you, but i cannot find these necklaces anywhere for $5.99 or $6.99.  Everywhere I go they are at least $14.99 and that's ON SALE.  Sorry, but to me that is not a sale! Maybe I am cheap - HA!  Nope, I think it's because I am a bargain shopper. :)  And the wristlet is BRIGHT, though you can't tell it here very well.  I'm so excited about that too because I've been hunting for one forever now.  

Well, that's my fun mail day.  What about you?  Have you gotten anything new in lately that you'd like to share?  Or even a bargain website that has goodies like GroopDealz?  Have a great day and try to stay warm!  Thanks for stopping by to say hello and please leave me a comment so I can go check out your website as well.  I always love following and meeting new bloggy friends! :)

Lots of love and hugs,

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Current Favorite Lipsticks

Good morning and happy Hump Day peeps!  How is your week going so far? Great, I hope.  I wanted to share two of my favorite lipsticks that I found this past weekend.  I don't know about you but I have had such an awful time finding a good Red lipstick that would look good on my skin tone and I finally found it.  I can't recall whose blog or Instagram it was on, but I was sure to write it down and go look for it.  Especially once she mentioned that it was a Red that would look good on EVERY skin tone - I knew I had to get it ASAP!! Then, I also read about the new 2014 Color of the Year is Orchid and they had a picture of this lipstick, so I went and bought it too! :)  Anyway, both colors look great on my skin tone and I am very pale because I've not started tanning yet.  

Bare Minerals - Moxie (Color is Fly High) - this is the Orchid Color
Mac Viva Glam 1 - (Color is A73) - this is the Red Color

Also, I don't know about you, but I am a NUT for cute packaging and they both have adorable packaging!



And here are the colors "open" so you can get an idea:


The Red is such a gorgeous color, don't you think?  And the Orchid is the perfect color for Spring! So... tell me - what are your go to colors?  I have a Nude I am buying this weekend, but am always looking for more great colors, so please share your favs!  

Well, I guess I'd better get busy and get to work.  Not a lot going on so far, but I better go hunt something down I suppose.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by to say hi! :)

Lots of love and hugs,

Friday, January 17, 2014

Asbestos: Think Before You Renovate Your Older Home

Happy TGIF my peeps!  I hope you've had an awesome week so far and have a great weekend planned. Luckily, for me, it is a THREE day weekend - WOO HOO!!!!!!!!  I am SO happy about that!  I don't know about you, but I could use the extra day of rest - especially since this was the first full week back after the holidays AND vacation.....  :)

On another note, I was contacted by Rachel Walker who represents MesotheliomaLawyerCenter.org a couple of days ago.  She asked me if I would be willing to share with my readers the seriousness of Asbestos, and I said I would.  She has written a very informative article below that I thought would be interesting and helpful.  Anyway, the article was very well written and very informative.  I hope you will be able to take something away from it, like I have.  So without further adieu:

Asbestos: Think Before You Renovate Your Older Home

For many families who live in older houses, home improvement and renovation projects are often affordable alternatives to moving and buying a new home. Some families like the stability of living in the same neighborhood for many years. Others may have more kids over the years but prefer to upgrade their existing home to accommodate a growing family instead of moving to a larger place. In many cases, some families need to repair or replace aging or damaged areas of a house to keep it in good condition.

If you live in a home that was built before the early 1980s and you’re planning to do a home improvement project, you need to know about the dangers of asbestos exposure. Asbestos is a group of minerals once used extensively as a cheap but effective fire retardant. Asbestos-containing materials (ACMs) are also good thermal and sound insulators. Abundant and inexpensive, asbestos was used in many American construction products for many years until the government linked asbestos exposure to various diseases in the late 1970s. Consequently, most homes built between 1940 and 1980 contain at least one asbestos-derived product.

 According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), asbestos in older homes can be found in a variety of appliances, products, and in different areas of the home, including:

     Furnaces
     Floor vinyl
     Wall and attic insulation
     Wood-burning stoves
     Ceilings
     Water pipes
     Roofing and shingles
     Some paints
     Window caulking and glazing
     Plaster
     Siding material

If you live in a home where asbestos is present, its imperative to understand that as the material ages and becomes worn out, asbestos fibers may become friable and disturbed easily. Keep this in mind before you start tearing down any walls or removing old insulation. However, as long as any ACMs are left undisturbed,  there usually isn’t a reason to worry. Yet, it’s recommended to contact a qualified asbestos professional to be certain that your home contain asbestos. Until then, no renovations or repairs should be made on an older home.

Why Asbestos is So Dangerous

Asbestos contains long, thin fibers that are undetectable to the human eye. These fibers can be easily inhaled unbeknownst to the people who ingested them. Once the fibers are lodged in the body, it’s difficult to remove them. Over time, the fibers can damage the body’s organs, leading to life-threatening diseases such as malignant mesothelioma.

Children in particular are more at risk for ingesting asbestos fibers. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), children breathe more rapidly, have a different lung structure, and tend to consume more fluids than adults. Furthermore, children have more time in which they can be exposed to asbestos. It’s imperative to never let children play around furnaces or roughhouse around any areas in the home that may contain asbestos.

Adults who worked in industries that heavily relied on asbestos prior to regulations are at the highest risk for developing asbestos-related diseases. In fact, since the 1970s, there have been a multitude of asbestos lawsuits after thousands upon thousands of people began to develop asbestosis, malignant mesothelioma, and other illnesses caused by prolonged exposure to asbestos.

For more information on how to locate a state-qualified asbestos professional in your area, contact your local health department. Remember, you should never try to detect asbestos yourself, and you should never start any home renovation projects before determining if your home contains asbestos. For more detailed-information on asbestos, contact the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at 800-CDC-INFO.

Thanks for stopping by - I hope you have a WONDERFUL long weekend.  Tomorrow my day will consist of FINALLY getting my CHRISTmas tree down - don't judge - we were gone for 9 days on vacation, remember??!! LOL  


Lots of love and hugs,

Thursday, January 16, 2014

FREE Valentine Printables

Happy Thursday guys and dolls.  We are finally on the downhill side of the week and I for one couldn't be happier!  A couple of days ago a friend of mine (a bloggy friend as we've yet to meet in person - but I hope we are able to do so soon, as we live only a couple of hours from each other) made some REALLY REALLY CUTE Valentine's Day printables so I thought I would share them here with you.  You are probably already following her blog (she has one of those blogs that everyone wants to follow), but if not - be sure and check her out!  She's adorable and has the cutest family and is an awesome photographer to boot! :)  Her name is Becky and she runs the blog The Java Mama.  Anyway, for those of you who still have small children at home and do the whole Valentine's Day at school thing - here you go....courtesy of Becky! :)

These can be found here

These can be found here

And these she made last year for her son's school:



Again, all are very adorable to say the least! So grab them and make your own so your child can be the hit of the party too! :)  While you're there be sure to check out the rest of her blog.  You will thank me for it - I promise!

Well, guess I'd better get back to work - have a great day everyone and thanks for stopping by to say hello! 

Lots of love and hugs,

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Vitamix - Worth it or Impulse Buy??

Good morning and happy Hump Day!  I hope you are all doing well this week so far.  It's been hard for me to get back into my normal routine after being on vacation for 9 straight days, so I'm still pretty pooped to say the least.  Over the weekend my husband purchased me a Vitamix 6300 in RED and it looks like this:


I was SO excited as I had been wanting a Vitamix for the past 2 years, but couldn't fathom spending that kind of money on a blender.  It has a 7 year warranty, which is a great thing, but now, I'm just not sure if it's really going to be worth the $$$.  Does anyone out there have a Vitamix?  If so, do you actually use it, or does it sit in the cabinet or on a shelf somewhere?  I have wanted it for my juicing, but I'm not able to get the same consistency as the sales rep did at Costco where we got it last weekend.  My juice is either full of pulp and I have to strain it, or it doesn't come out right at all.  I don't want to waste even more money on fruits and veggies by experimenting just to get the right consistency of my juice.  

Help and input would be greatly appreciated.  I would love to hear your thoughts and comments on this subject if you have one.  Again.... worth it... or impulse buy??

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great day!

Lots of love and hugs,

Monday, January 13, 2014

Back from Vacation and back to Reality

Happy Monday, friends!  I hope you had a wonderful week last week while I was gone.  We had a great time and a wonderful family vacation.  I can't wait to share it with you, along with all of the pictures we took. However, at the moment, I am purely exhausted and already at my desk at work, so I must go and tend to that.  I promise to have pictures very soon for you though!  Thanks for stopping by to say hello and I can't wait to catch up on all of your blogs!  Have a great day! :)

Lots of love and hugs,

Friday, January 3, 2014

We are OUTTA here - it's Vacation time baby!!!

Woo hoo!  The countdown is on - just 30 minutes and I am officially on vacation and I.can.not.wait!!!  9 Blissful days of our long overdue Colorado vacation and the fact we have both kids with us (20 years old, each) is even better!  It may be the last one we get as a family of 4 so we are taking FULL advantage - that's for sure! :)  Anyway, thanks for stopping by!  Have a great weekend and a great week ahead!  See you on the flip side! :)

Here's just a taste of where we are heading - doesn't it just look heavenly!!!!! 


Lots of love and hugs,