Lush

I have discovered a fantastic beauty store called LUSH.  All of their products are handmade and some are also veagan. You may thinking there is no money saving tips in this store but you might be surprised. My two favorite products are their face masks and Bath bombs.

Their face masks are under $6 and can be used up to 3 weeks. They come in a variety of different formulas and smell delicious!


Their bubble bath bars are $10 and under and can be used 2-3x (depending on the size) You just break a piece off and it colors your water and releases bubbles or natural oils. It is great if you only have 10 minutes of pampering time.

Definitely check them out! http://www.lushusa.com/shop/

Trying something new

I am not great at keeping up on the trends but while I was reading my O magazine I saw an article that blue nail polish was a hot color for this spring. Now this is not something I would have normally tried but I am trying to embrace a spirit of trying new things so I did. I found a $2 blue nail polish at Target and used it last night. The result? I love it! It is fun and with the gloomy weather here, I am excited to have some color in my life!
If you feel like you are stuck in rut of routine I would highly recommend trying something out of your comfort zone. For me it was blue nail polish, and I love the result!

Highlights from St. Patrick's Day

Here is our day in pictures:

Braydon's Pot O' Gold surprise.

Opening up his goodies.

Yep, another book.

I tried to get a picture of the shirt but he keeps moving.

Having fish and chips for dinner.

Waiting and waiting.

We were all very hungry by the time our food came. It was a busy night! It was great when we did get it.

Grandpa and Braydon did some coloring to pass the time.

Pot of Gold

I love the Pottery Barn Kids mail/treat bags for the different seasons so I decided to make my own for St. Patrick's Day. Since my Dad's side is Irish this holiday is big deal.
I had some scrap gray felt that I folded in half and cut out the shape of  kettle. I then sewed a zigzag stitch in gold on the two sides that were open leaving the top rim open. I then sewed a strip of the felt to the back as tie so that I could attach it to chair. After all the pieces were sewn I put gold glitter glue on the front and cut out a shamrock from scrap green fabric.  I think it turned out pretty cute for a first attempt and took a total of 30 minutes from start to finish.
I plan to gather things from the Target dollar section and dollar tree tomorrow to fill his "pot of gold" with. I am also hoping to find gold coins that I can use a leprechaun trail from his room to the his high chair. I will post a final picture after St. Patrick's Day.

Here is picture of the finished pot unfilled. If you have older kids it would be fun to have shamrocks, gold coins, glitter glue and even stickers available for them to decorate their own "pot of gold".

Baby Blanket

My Grandma, Braydon's Nona, made my sisters and I special quilts when we were born. Mine had a yellow border and theirs had a  blue border. Each were comprised of different squares of baby objects/shapes that she had sewn on and then embroidered our name at the bottom.  Before Braydon was born she started his squares but never finished it. She gave the squares to me at my baby shower and asked me to complete it. Well, over a year later I finally got around to it. I tried making more squares with shapes but mine turned out awful! It is more difficult then I realized to sew a zig zag stitch around a duck! So instead I found some cute fabric I had and made matching squares and found some other fabric to make the backing. This quilt/blanket is no where near as nice as what my Grandma made me, but it is a nice combination of Nona and me that Braydon can keep. I might even attempt to sew his name and birthdate at the bottom. That is a project for a year from now.

Our Mardi Gras Party

Here are some pictures from our Mardi Gras Party. It was a wild one! We didn't get a chance to try out the Mardi Gras bead dough because Braydon wasn't feeling well, but we will in the future. I hope you all had a great Fat Tuesday as well!

Our table decorations. We decorated the masks we printed with ribbon and used Easter grass and purple flowers for something extra.

We tied paper napkins with scrap purple and green ribbon.

One of our masks.

Another flower arrangement.

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All of us enjoying stuffed Bell Peppers. Not traditional Mardi Gras food but what my Dad, the Birthday Boy, requested.

My attempt at a King Cake. It was delicious. We hid a peanut instead of a plastic baby. No one found it. I guess I'm hosting again next year :)

My Dad blowing out the candles on the King Cake. Kind of  blurry.

Here is some history behind the Mardi Gras Colors and the King Cake.
Here is the website I found the information from:
http://www.mardigrasneworleans.com/kingcakes.html
http://www.mardigrasneworleans.com/mgcolors.html

The Meaning and Origin of Purple, Green, and Gold in Mardi Gras

Rex selected the official Mardi Gras colors in 1872. The 1892 Rex Parade theme Symbolism of Colors gave meaning to the colors: purple represents justice; green, faith; and gold, power.
It's interesting to note that our Mardi Gras colors influenced the choice of school colors for arch rivals Louisiana State University and Tulane University.
When LSU was deciding on its colors, the shops in New Orleans had stocked up on purple, green, and gold material for the Mardi Gras season. LSU decided upon purple and gold, and bought much of it. Tulane bought much of the only remaining color -- green! (Their colors are blue and green.)
Remember to wear the Mardi Gras colors of purple, green and gold during Mardi Gras whenever you're not in costume!

MARDI GRAS KING CAKES

History behind the King Cake...
As part of our Christian faith, the coming of the wise men bearing gifts to the Christ Child is celebrated twelve days after Christmas. We refer to this as the Feast of the Epiphany or Little Christmas on the Twelfth Night. This is a time of celebration, exchanging gifts and feasting. Today, the tradition continues as people all over the world gather for festive Twelfth Night celebrations. A popular custom was and still is the baking of a special cake in honor of the three kings called "A King's Cake."
Inside every cake is a tiny baby (generally plastic now, but sometimes this baby might be made of porcelain or even gold). The tradition of having King Cake Parties has evolved through time, and the person who receives the slice of cake with the baby is asked to continue the festivities by hosting the next King Cake party.
Originally, King Cakes were a simple ring of dough with a small amount of decoration. Today's King Cakes are much more festive. After the rich Danish dough is braided and baked, the "baby" is inserted. The top of the ring or oval cake is then covered with delicious sugar toppings in the traditional Mardi Gras colors of purple, green and gold.
In more recent years, some bakeries have been creative with stuffing and topping their cakes with different flavors of cream cheese and fruit fillings.
January 6, the Twelfth Night after Christmas, is also the day our Mardi Gras season begins. Mardi Gras Day is always 47 days prior to Easter Sunday (Fat Tuesday is always the day before Ash Wednesday).
So, in Louisiana especially, Mardi Gras season and King Cakes go hand in hand with literally hundreds of thousands of King Cakes consumed at parties and office lunch rooms every year.
Ordering King Cakes over the internet has now become an annual tradition by consumers all around the world - and many of our bakers offer them year round. After all, you can't have a Mardi Gras party without a King Cake!

Mardi Gras Activities for Kids

http://www.gulf-shores-real-estate.com/images/mardi-gras/printable-masks-exit-realty.pdf

There are some great masks you can print out on card stock or paste onto cardboard. I am using for decorations for our Mardi Gras Party tonight but you could also attach them to a stick and have kids decorate and use them too!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/king-cake-recipe2/index.html

This is a great receipe for King Cake from the Food Network.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Making-Your-Own-Mardi-Gras-Beads&id=321977

Here is a how to and recipe for making Mardi Gras beads with kids.

I will post pictures from our own Mardi Gras Party tomorrow. Until then, Happy Fat Tuesday!

EBay Sucess!

So my addiction has continued to EBay.  I have been loyally following diaper bags, waiting until the last moment to pounce on a prize object just to be outbid over and over again!
Well, I was out of town this weekend for my cousins 3rd Birthday (Happy Birthday Gracie :) ) so I set my max bid on two items fully expecting to be out bid and try and again when I got home. To my surprise I won them both!

Here are my treasured prizes :)




Optic signature Coach diaper bag

 




Petunia Pickle Bottom Diaper Bay New with Tags



Success is so sweet! Now onto Toddler Bedding!

 

My addiction to Ebay

So I just discovered EBay and it is the devil! I am so so so addicted! I am trying to get a coach diaper bag/lap top bag for way cheap so I can use it after Braydon is grown as a purse but the girls bidding on these items are cut throat! I have lost time after time at the last moment. I am still hopeful and determined to stay with in my budget but once the adrenaline starts pumping in the last 5 minutes it takes all my self control not to just outbid the other girls and claim my victory! I know I must sound totally crazy. But I can honestly say I am an EBay junkie now.