Target Finds

Happy Wednesday! I went to Target way too many times. Like a ridiculous amount. I've even gone to two Targets in one day (several times during the week). However, I have been saving a lot of money by using the Cartwheel app, price matching, and finding things on sale so I guess it's not so bad.

The month is almost over so I thought I would share a few of my favorite finds at Target including one that wasn't my favorite.

1. UBRANDS Frameless Dry Erase Weekly Planner Board

I mentioned before that I have been wanting to meal plan and decided to get a small weekly planner board for my fridge. I love that I can also use this for other things as well such as reminding my family what plans we have for the week. The board is magnetic and also came with a dry erase marker. The marker has an eraser on the top which is perfect. It also had an additional magnet so that you can pin notes.

I couldn't find a link to the board that I purchased, but you can purchase a similar one here.

2. Simply Balanced Cranberry Citrus Sparkling Water

Of all the things that I have purchased this month, this was the only thing that was not my favorite. I have been trying to decrease the amount of soda I drink so I thought I would try some sparkling water. Maybe I'm just used to the taste of soda, but I just can't stand the taste of sparkling water. If you drink sparkling water, do you have a favorite brand or flavor? Do you mix it with any juice?

3. Skinny Dipped Dark Chocolate Cocoa Covered Almonds

These were so good. I loved the almond and chocolate combo. I'm not a big fan of dark chocolate, but this was delicious. I was surprised that I didn't eat the entire bag in one sitting. I've been eating these as a treat. They are a bit pricy, but luckily I was able to find them on sale and I combined the sale with an offer on the Cartwheel app.

4. Dove Foaming Hand Wash - Lavender & Yogurt

I love foaming hand wash soaps. I've been a fan of Dove for a while and was excited when I found out that they made some foaming hand wash soaps. I tried the lavender and yogurt scent and loved it. The scent is not too strong, but smells so good. A little goes a long way so you don't have to worry about using too much.

What are your favorite Target Finds?

Thanks for visiting!

Until next time...

10 Things That Made Me Happy This Week

Happy Friday! Today I'm linking up with Charlotte, Lindsay, and Beth for their weekly grateful and happy list link up.

1. Girl Scouts Thin Mints cookies

2. Chick-fil-A

3. Phone upgrade

4. Watching the boys play with Raphael

5. Paying off debt

6. Saving money

7. Coming up with new ideas

8. Catching up on shows

9. Finding time to read

10. Lemonade

What made you happy this week?

Thanks for visiting!

Until next time...

First Post on Atlanta Area Moms Blog

Happy Thursday! Today I am over at the Atlanta Area Moms blog with my first post as a contributor. I'm sharing some of my favorite spots in my city. Feel free to check out my post and let me know what you think.

Thanks for visiting!

Until next time...

10 Things That Made Me Happy This Week

Happy Friday! Today I'm linking up with Charlotte, Lindsay, and Beth for their weekly grateful and happy list link up.

1. New clothes

2. Smoothies

3. Valentine's Day treats

4. My boys

5. Amazing deals and coupons

6. Elevation by Stephen King

7. Decluttering

8. Getting more sleep

9. Getting stuff done early

10. Me time

What made you happy this week?

Thanks for visiting!

Until next time...

If You and I Had Coffee

Happy Tuesday! How are we in the second week of February? January lasted forever and February is just flying by.

It's the second Tuesday of the month and today I'm joining Lecy for a little coffee chat.

If you and I had coffee...

We'd meet somewhere new. I have been wanting to go to new restaurants and explore my city so it would be fun to find some new coffee shops.

If you and I had coffee...

I'd ask you what book you are currently reading. I'd tell you that I just started reading Elevation by Stephen King. So far it's pretty good. If you ask me for a book recommendation, I'd tell you to read Art Matters by Neil Gaiman. I've said it before and I'll say it again...for such a quick read, it was incredibly powerful.

If you and I had coffee...

I'd tell you that I'm over winter. I'm also over Mother Nature teasing us with warm weather one day and then it goes back to being so cold. Seriously, how in the world was it 78 degrees a few days ago and then the next day it was about 40 degrees?

If you and I had coffee...

I'd tell you that I am so excited to be going to an event this Saturday, but I'm also really nervous. I've been having to convince myself not to cancel my plans for that evening because I really do want to go. I'm such an introvert and am not really big on going to parties and events especially when I know that I probably won't know many people. I know this event is going to be fun and it will be a great way to network, but I'm a little anxious about it. I've been stressing about what I'm going to wear as well as what I should bring. Speaking of what am I going to wear to the event, what do you think I should wear?

If you and I had coffee...

I'd tell you that I'm working a lot more on my writing and I have been journaling a lot too. I'm hoping to publish some pieces in various platforms like Medium and a few other online sites. I have also been considering submitting to some magazines like Holl & Lane magazine.

If you and I had coffee...

I'd tell you that even though I'm not a big fan of Valentine's Day, I'm excited to celebrate it with my boys and John. This will be Raphael's first Valentine's Day and I bought him something cute to wear. I also got the boys and John gifts. John and I aren't really big on celebrating that day even though he did propose to me on Valentine's Day. Since we have kids, we love celebrating as many holidays as we can. Holidays with kids are just always so much better. We are not planning to go out for Valentine's Day so I think we're going to decorate some cookies or cupcakes and watch a movie at home.

If you and I had coffee...

I'd tell you that I'm still excited for the rest of the year. There are so many good things that are going to come in the upcoming months and I just can't wait. New opportunities are presenting themselves and the changes look like they are going to be amazing!

What would you tell me?

Thanks for visiting!

Until next time...

Photo by Nathan Dumloa on Unsplash

Currently Mini Notebook

Happy Monday. One of my goals this year is to use up a lot of my scrapbooking and craft stash instead of buying new things. Another goal that I set is to continue to make art and work on projects as much as possible.

Every week or so I have been going through my stash and have been picking out different supplies that I can use to work on a new (or in progress) project. A couple of weeks ago, I found a two pack mini notebook set in my stash that I had for a long time so I decided to make a little Currently mini notebook.

I kept this project very simple and documented everyday for a week. I used labels and then stamped the day of the week on the label. I also stamped the date and then journaled. I added washi tape to the bottom of the pages and a couple of pages have a sticker or two. Each page took about 5-10 minutes to make and was so easy to complete. This was such a fun project to work on.

Below are the photos of my completed Currently mini notebook.

I'm really happy with how this project turned out. I plan on making some more little projects like this with my scrapbooking stash. Hopefully making projects like this will help me use up my stash.

Supplies Used:

• Heidi Swapp mini book

• Washi tape

• Studio Calico labels

• Micron Pen

• Heidi Swapp Date Stamp

• Versafine Stamp Set - Onyx Black

• Freckled Fawn embellishment

• Rukristin Stamp Sets (Days of the Week and Currently Stamp Sets)

• Rukristin Journaling Card

Thanks for visiting!

Until next time...

10 Things That Made Me Happy This Week

Happy Friday! Today I'm linking up with Charlotte, Lindsay, and Beth for their weekly grateful and happy list link up.

1. Premama smoothie from Smoothie King

2. Naps

3. My boys

4. Raphael's smile

5. Warm weather (it was in the 78 degrees yesterday!!)

6. Chiropractor appointments

7. Blogging

8. Happy mail from Studio Calico

9. Visiting Michael at school for breakfast

10. Catching up on shows

What made you happy this week?

Thanks for visiting!

Until next time...

What I Read in January

Happy Wednesday! One of my goals this year is to read at least 1 book per month. I think this monthly book series and book review posts will help me keep track of the challenge as well as motivate me to keep reading. Last month, I accomplished my reading goal. I also read quite a few blog posts as well. You may notice that I included some blog posts from December. I decided to include blog posts that I read in that month as well since I never made a post about what I read in December.

Below is the book that I read as well as the blog posts that I loved.

Must Read

Art Matters by Neil Gaiman (illustrated by Chris Riddell)

This book was absolutely amazing! I absolutely love Gaiman and his work so I was not surprised that I loved this book. It's a quick read and I read it in one day while I was at the hair salon. This may sound weird, but after reading this book, I actually hugged it. It was just that good.

Art Matters is a collection of four essays that addresses the importance of reading and writing. I loved every single essay. I especially loved Credo and Why Our Future Depends on Libraries, Reading, and Daydreaming. These essays were previously published, but I had never read them so I was very happy to read these. Even if you have read these essays before, I think they are worth reading again.

In Credo, Gaiman talks about freedom of speech and ideas. I loved learning about how Gaiman started writing in Make Good Art. Making a Chair is more of a poem than an essay, but it was also really great.

The illustrations by Chris Riddell were perfect! Gaiman's words and Riddells' illustrations mixed well and I hope they work together soon.

Do yourself a favor and read this book. Buy it from a bookstore or borrow it from your local library. It. Is. Worth. It.

Blog Posts I Loved in December

I loved this post by Neely. It's good to see that I am not the only one who doesn't adjust our schedule for others.

This post on patience and raising kind children.

A Woman's Place is in the House article in Elle Magazine.

Part 1 and Part 2 of Taylor's (from The Daily Tay) Christmas story.

Blog Posts I Loved In January

I loved these photos that Kat took on her trip to the catacombs of Paris. Visiting the catacombs of Paris is on my bucket list!

I loved reading Ali Edwards' post on documenting an evening during this time of year. The last two sentences on her post are so true.

What do stay-at-home moms do all day?

If you want to be a writer, you have to be a reader first by Austin Kleon

What did you read in January?

Thanks for visiting!

Until next time...

February Goals

Happy Tuesday! Oh my goodness! Can you believe it's February? Honestly, January felt like the longest month ever. I had so much fun celebrating my birthday all month long, but I'm actually glad that the month is over. So much went on during that month and I think I may have to just post a little recap on the month. Maybe I should write monthly recaps for the blog. What do you think?

Well, let me get back on track. I have a feeling I was going to just keep rambling. Since it's a new month, it's time to share my new goals for February. Before we get to those new goals, let's recap on my goals for January.

Recap of January Goals

• Read 1 book: This was a success! I read Neil Gaiman's Art Matters and I absolutely loved it. I'll have a review of the book posted on the blog in a couple of days. I almost finished reading Friday Black on the last day of January (I only had about 10 pages left), but I ended up finishing the book around 1 or 2 am on February 1st. Raphael was sick for a few days and the week was just incredibly busy so I didn't get much time to read.

• Clean out the trunk of my car: Technically I didn't clean out the trunk of my car...John actually did. I still consider this a pass because we have been trying to do this for such a long time. I've been doing a good job at keeping the trunk clean.

• Try 1 new recipe: I'm considering this a pass. John made some fluffernutters a few days ago and they were good. Apparently, they are very popular in Massachusetts. I'm from New York and had never heard of them. There are a few ways to make them and they are very easy to make. Check out this recipe here.

• Start a new workout routine: This was a fail. With the car accident, being sick, and then the kids getting sick as well...starting a workout routine was not on the top of my list. Does it count that I'm constantly running after the boys and am on the go all the time?

• Make art every day: I'm not sure whether to consider this a pass or a fail. I'm currently participating in an art challenge called The Painted Diaries by Riet. I'm supposed to make art every single day for the challenge, but I have missed a few days. However, I am happy with the amount that I have made this month even if the art was not part of the challenge. I even started a new art class and completed an assignment. I'll be sharing about Riet's art challenge as well as the art class that I started in a post soon.

February Goals

• Read 1 book

• Try 2 new recipes

• Start a new workout routine

• Make art every day

What are your goals for February?

Thanks for visiting!

Until next time...


Photo by Emma Matthews on Unsplash

TBB Asks: Relationships Edition

Happy Monday! Today I'm linking up with The Blended Blog for TBB Asks. TBB Asks is a monthly questionnaire link up series.

1. Who is your oldest friend/how did you meet? I still have some childhood friends...even though we haven't seen each other in over a decade. We mainly keep in contact via social media, but we still obviously consider each other friends. Stacy, Fannis, and Janeiry are just a few of my childhood friends. I also have a some friends (Mechell, Melissa, and Trenell) that I met from my old job and we also keep in contact via social media, but we do text/call one another. 

Random fact: I honestly have to do a better job at actually seeing my friends. I miss my friends and one of my goals is to actually see them a little more this year. 

2. Tell us about circle of support. Who are your people? My mami, John, and my friends. 

3. How did you meet your partner? I met John at work. He even proposed to me at our job.

4. How is Valentine's Day celebrated in your home? We're not really into Valentine's Day. We don't go out to dinner or do anything really big and fancy. We prefer to stay home and have dinner there. We also still give each other a small gift. The holiday still holds a special place in our hearts because John proposed to me on Valentine's Day at work. 

Since we have kids, we do give the boys a little gift and treats. I honestly think that holidays are so much more fun now that we have kids. It's so fun to see how excited the boys are during holidays.

5. What is your love language? I've heard people mention love language, but never actually knew what in the world they meant. I took a quiz online and apparently my love language is quality time. I think the result of the quiz was accurate. I love spending time with my loved ones.

6. Do you prefer receiving flowers or chocolates? I actually love both. However, I am horrible at keeping flowers and plants alive so it would probably be best to just get me chocolates.

7. What is the most meaningful gift you have ever received or have given? I've received a lot of meaningful gifts. Most of these gifts were handmade. I love handmade gifts because it shows that the person who made it, really took their time and made a lot of effort to make the gift.

Thanks for visiting!

Until next time...

10 Things That Made Me Happy This Week

Happy Friday! Today I'm linking up with Charlotte, Lindsay, and Beth for their weekly grateful and happy list link up.

1. Snow day (more like a rainy day lol)

2. Sleeping in

3. Warm blankets and pajamas

4. Chicken noodle soup

5. Valentine's Day donuts

6. Coffee

7. You by Nicole Bus

8. New book purchase (The View from the Cheap Seats by Neil Gaiman)

9. Breakfast sandwiches

10. Tuesday

What made you happy this week?

Thanks for visiting!

Until next time...