Here’s my look of the week. I tend to gravitate more towards stripes as they are very chic, not too flashy and anyone and everyone tends to comment on them. They grab your attention without saying “too much!”
Grey and silver horizontal stripes
For more information check out my store or go to www.delightfullydoable.jamberrynails.net
Calling all women! Jamberry Nails are by far the best product you could possibly use on your nails. They help with ruined nail beds from the nail salon. Weak and brittle nails. Nails that bend and have no strength. If you are a nail biter these are for you. They of course are great for nails that are in great shape although I don’t know many people whose nails haven’t been ruined some how some way!
As you all know I am an independent consultant for Jamberry nails. My team manager Lisa was painting our kitchen cabinets when we first moved into our home and had amazing results from painting with these nail wraps on.
No need to explain further, the pictures are pretty self explanatory. Take a peek and see.
Yes that’s right, they scrubbed completely clean. She was using an oil based paint as well which if any of you know anything about oil based paint, it’s impossible to get off ANYTHING!
Tried and true these nails continue to surprise me in many ways and this is yet another.
Try them out at www.delightfullydoable.jamberrynails.net
Keep track of time. Shutterfly is a great way to make albums for special occasions or even every years highlights. Here are a couple I’ve created.
All in a year 2012
Our Wedding Album
Honeymoon
I’m a little behind but am just finishing up Cooper’s First Year album as well as All In a Year 2013. You can be as creative as you want or simply let Shutterfly make your album for you. It’s a great way to keep photos as most of us don’t print them out anymore.
The other benefit is Shutterfly offers coupons and deals ALL the time. Groupon has them as well as Shutterfly themselves. You can get up to 50% off albums if you wait for the right coupon. You can also save all your photos online. I do this as I get afraid my computer is going to crash and we don’t currently have an external hard drive. I also have made a couple coffee mugs with photos on them for Fathers Day for my husband and my father. Lots of different projects you can do. :)
This is a fun way to keep family memories entertaining. Hope you all try it out and as we need to remember our families are who we spend the most time with. :)
Costco is great, but there are some things there that simply aren’t a better deal. I am going to help organize your grocery list. I have three stores that are on my list every other week. Come pay day I head out on my shopping extravaganza with my meal plans prepared for two weeks and my grocery list in hand. I will do my big grocery shopping for two weeks at a time and then here and there step a foot into the store within those two weeks for produce.
Costco Deal:
Costco No Deal:
Winco/New Seasons:
Bins:
Trader Joes
If you have enough room in your freezer it’s great to purchase in bulk, but for perishable items that seem to be a better deal will probably go to waste. Frozen snack food such as chicken bakes, ravioli, taquitos and so forth end up being the same price, just bulk items. Stay clear of snack items as you will need to watch your waist line because they seem to be a fabulous price. :) Just because the price seems great, don’t always spend the money cause the pressure to eat it before it goes bad will soon catch up to your jean size. Instead, choose the healthier options such as frozen beans and corn as they taste fresh and not frozen.
Costco honestly has really good deals and I have begun to purchase most my produce from Costco as they have organic deals and mixed greens for $4.99 for triple the size than Wal-Mart for $4.88. You will need to evaluate the amount of produce you go through to make the decision of whether Costco has the best deal without it going to waste. I use Costco primarily and then head to Winco or New Seasons for their bins and Trader Joes for items I love but cant find else where.
Making your grocery list for the meal plans becomes the best, honest way to shop for deals and what you know you need rather than want. I’m so big on my ‘lists’ that I don’t purchase much snack foods. My husband kept commenting on the lack of snack food in our house to the point we made a special trip last night to Costco to purchase snacks he would enjoy. :)
Stick to your lists. I shop every 2 weeks with a couple quick runs for produce to the store within those two weeks. I do this for a couple reasons. If you make your meal plans you keep variety within your dinners rather than getting stuck in those ruts. You also are sticking to your grocery budget and avoid spending more time than we prefer at the market.
Try this method and let me know how it works for you. Especially those of you with kids, I believe you will be amazed how much less time you spend driving to the store with your children.
I had a girlfriend ask me this morning for new activities to do with her 18 month old. She said she feels as though she gets stuck in a rut and the same routine can become challenging for her active little girl.
I decided to compile a list of structured activities that I do with my 18 month old. Here are a few:
Just a few ideas! I used to teach at a Montessori school and engaging the children as young as 9 months made me realize how young children can be in order to comprehend activities that seem beyond their age. Every child is different and every child will learn at their own pace, but engaging them in activities helps you learn what they are soaking in.
The little children at the Montessori school were able to sit at a table and chair for meal time. They knew if they got up their food would be taken from them which reinforced them to stay sitting if they were hungry. We also taught sign language for basic concepts such as: please, thank you, all done, more and eat. I’ve taught this to Cooper and it has been entirely helpful.
The whole concept of Montessori thinking is to engage our children at a young age to do it on their own, ask for help and be creative with their toys and imagination. I agree with parts of the Montessori thinking and think some of the ideas are very productive while others can be, well- shall we say simply not my style. Every parent has to learn what is best for them and their child.
All in all I have noticed that routine can be challenging for our little toddlers when it comes to toys. They want to be played with, learn how to “do what we do,” and have different activities on different days.
My Motivation Began Here…
So, I made candles one Christmas with my girlfriend but after buying all the stuff I realized it was not worth the effort and money put into it. We went to Michaels Craft store and spent roughly $40 each and I believe we only had two candles come out of this project. This project required so much wax for one candle and the price simply wasn’t worth it. The best part was spending time with my girlfriend who I love dearly.
The glass bowl we used to melt the wax was literally impossible to clean. It dries on and leaves a terrible film. Every time I tried to wash the bowl the water would separate from the wax similar to oil and water but almost worse. Halfway through the process of making our own scented candles that were supposed to be AMAZING, I wanted to quit and actually did. The frustration set in and it became more frustrating to me than enjoyable that I gave up quite quickly and we proceeded to watch our Christmas movie and started in on our second craft for the evening. This one was way more enjoyable.
This experience itself should have been a fun joyful holiday moment but turned out to be the biggest pain in the neck. I just wanted my glass bowl clean darn-it-all. :)
I absolutely love Yankee Candles I am a huge fan of them and have them scattered throughout my house. They smell amazing and actually stay true to the smell while burning; they are the one candle that I’ve found that will actually smell the entire room of the sweet aroma.
I buy Yankee Candles for $10 for a large candle and $6 for a small one. I will not pay full price for them as $24.99-29.99 is outrageous in my eyes. Honestly $10 for a large is quite the steal in my book.
I’ve been on a hunt to find a comparable but for a Warmer…
The hunt…
This past summer, my sister had a Scentsy warmer in her bathroom that smelled so fresh, it was amazing. I had heard of Scentsy before but wasn’t sure they would compare to Yankee. With that said, they did measure up and I was utterly surprised. While I had tried other warmers and Bed Bath & Beyond’s scents they truly did not work. They made no effort to smell a room let alone my house. So at that point I was convinced to try Scentsy. I figured something out there had to compete with Yankee candles.
While in Seattle with my Aunt and Uncle two summers ago, they had a cute little fair going on with a lot of booths set up. Our little man was only a matter of weeks old. We took him in the stroller and walked around aimlessly enjoying the summers heat. While exploring we found a vendor selling Scentsy and decided I would take the plunge. Now, my warmer is from Bed Bath & Beyond, but it was more the scents I was worried about. So I bought several different scents and off we went. Here we are just over a year later and I still have one box left. I actually love them so much I haven’t bought a Yankee candle since.
Months Later…
A few months before our move I ran into quite the problem. Now I didn’t realize this at the time, but as of today I finally realized something was wrong. I have been using this warmer from Bed Bath & Beyond and the last two months every time I shut it off my light burnt out. I have gone to Home Depot three times and had a run for my money; they are not cheap ($6.49 for 1 bulb). I was really frustrated when I got the correct light but the watts were definitely way to strong (50Watts). We had a showing and came home and my husband mentioned it smelt of wax. I walked into the house and immediately smelt the wax and walked to the warmer and it reeked. (The goal was to smell the house of beauty not wax) My frustration with this warmer at that point began to grow immensely. I went back and returned the bulbs and bought the correct one, while I had bought this probably a week ago, I went to change the scent today and here we are again, the light doesn’t work. I am finally convinced that something is wrong with my warmer. Three lights in a row should not burn out within a couple weeks. I make a point to turn the light off so I don’t waste the scent at night, but having doing that, my light burns out.
Okay so the saga continues… I purchased a warmer from the store soon after (6 months ago to be exact) and it was Better Homes and Garden. It works, light has never been changed and we are 6 months with this warmer. I decided I would save the wax as I was previously dumping it in the garbage can. Having doing this there still is some scent left but I also realized what an easy way to reuse wax and for super cheap make my own candles.
The Simple Way…
I simply save the containers of the square wax and pour the wax back in. When I am ready to make my candles, I place the wax in the burner and let it melt (saving the mess of using a glass bowl in the microwave) and dump the melted wax into the mason jar after placing the wick in the bottom of the jar first. NOTE: if you want to keep the wick centered in the jar, tape it to an old pencil and lay the pencil over the jar till it hardens again and leaves you with a nice centered wick.
By doing this, you are only paying for a wick if you have the mason jars already. If you don’t have any mason jars you can always make a trip to the dollar store and many times they have cute little jars with or without lids that would work perfect for candle making.
Turning the Negative into Positives…
In the midst of my frustration with my warmer, it was nice to actually be able to make something positive out of this disastrous wax warmer.
Thanks to quitthewick for the pic
To all of you “old” folk who don’t go out anymore on New Years Eve let alone stay up till midnight, we have now become dear friends. I am on the same page as you and enjoy my sleep and a happy baby in the morning for going to bed on time. :) So happy new years eve and I hope you all have a safe holiday!
Now with that said:
We were welcomed home last night to our clean, cold house after being gone for 10 days. There is always a sweet comfort returning home even when you have had the best of times away. Your own bed, pillow, shower, and kitchen can be a place of sweet release.
Upon entering home, our house was a chilly 62 degrees. While the heat was rapidly rising to a balmy 71 degrees we began to settle in and find some snacks within our empty fridge. Cooper raced around the house in glorious bliss as he found all of his little toys scattered around yet left in the same spot he had placed them prior to leaving.
It was a bitter sweet moment coming home while we had enjoyed our 10 days at my parents house in Central Washington. It is always an escape from reality yet a busy time as well. I must say this Christmas was by far the best Christmas I believe we’ve had. Something about coming back to the meaning of what Christmas is all about, serving the homeless and poverty stricken Christmas dinner and spending time with family was exactly what made our Christmas in 2013 the best yet. This was the first year we took time our of our Christmas day to serve dinner at my parents church to those in need. It was the most humbling experience. The 135 plus families we served dinner to and donated gift, clothing and blankets to was exactly what created the best Christmas to date.
Anyway, after returning home last night, I think I forgot to mention that my husband had been sick all day with a nasty stomach bug. The unfortunate thing was we exposed the entire family to this nasty bug, had a 5 hour drive ahead of us with a sick man and a busy little baby with things to do and toys to play with. The rambunctious little man along with the sleepy giant in the passenger seat made the drive quiet long. Luckily we didn’t have to return by a particular time frame; we took our time and stopped now and again along the way.
This morning was our day of relaxation and hoping to gain as much sleep as possible to prevent any more sickies in the house. (IE my son and myself) I believe we helped accomplish this task when all three of us didn’t awake until 9:15 this morning…..New Years Eve. It was glorious. No alarm clock or baby waking us up. It was sweet bliss.
I headed to the kitchen feeling completely refreshed, coffee brewed and baby diaper changed. My husband allowed for my morning to be literally AMAZING! These little things blessed my day immensely; I was grateful. I scoured the fridge tossing out plenty of containers filled with food growing something unappetizing on it. There was quite the stench filling my kitchen sink disposal with this wretched aroma. I began deep cleaning my kitchen and fridge and was feeling so accomplished by this one room. I knew the remainder of the house needed a good wash down as well but it had to wait; one room at a time. I cleaned the cupboard faces, oven, stovetop and scrapped the edges to get any grim and grit away. I proceeded to clean cupboards and countertops until I felt completely satisfied. I ended my kitchen duties with cleaning the microwave. The microwave can be a daunting task as food debris cakes on allowing for deep finger scrubbing which no one enjoys. While I am always amazed at the task at hand, I always seem to put it off as long as possible. This one little tip I will share with you will change microwave cleaning for decades to come….. :)
Tip of the day: Spotless Microwave
In a shallow glass container add 1/2 cups water and 3-4 tablespoons of white vinegar. Heat in the microwave for 1:30 allowing the container to completely cool before removing.
Wipe away the grim and gunk with a washcloth.
The vinegar loosens up the food entirely allowing for a swift wipe away. It is incredible how well it works and how immaculate this appliance becomes.
No more scrubbing and ruined nails and finger tips. :)
New years eve drink of choice: Lemon Ginger Yogi tea
Happy New Years Eve!!!
Hi Y’all! My name is Tiffany Cook, also known as Delightfully Doable. I am a small town girl currently living in the city. I’m a housewife and a mother trying to make my way through life. Welcome to Delightfully Doable; I hope you find many delightfully doable options through my site as well as honesty and truth knowing we are all on this path we call “life” together; delighting in doable circumstances. |
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