NEW!! CAP139 Engraved Square Ring (Sterling Silver)

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

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Just added! The new Sterling Silver Engraved Square Ring! Come check it out HERE! 
It's on sale now! 
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Giveaway @ Sumo's Sweet Stuff

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

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If you'd like a chance to win a $40 gift certificate to Cap Creations, head on over to Sumo's Sweet Stuff. Giveaway going on now!
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Thrifty Weekend Deals

Monday, June 28, 2010

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If you've spent any time here with me, then you know about my love for secondhand, used, thrifty, loveliness! Check out my great finds over the weekend! Just a few this time.

Okay that lamp! I love it! $2.95 and it works bulb and all and, it's old! Not sure if I should paint it .................................................................................or not???
Doesn't it look great on my end table? I do need to do something with that lampshade though. Any suggestions for that?

Globe!

Scale and 2 creamer dishes!
The creamer dishes will one day be home to some paperclips, tacks, rubber bands or something for the office. Which I will be posting about soon cause I need your design/decor ideas for my office.

And the globe and scale are in their temporary spot right here above my computer.

Did you have any great finds this weekend?

Linking up at:
Thrifty Treasures at Southern Hospitality, Coastal Charm, Debbiedoos
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Adoption

Friday, June 25, 2010

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Even if you don't order the Chosen Necklace we will donate 10% of your order total to one of our families if you mention their name upon checkout!

AND

50% of the proceeds from the Worthy of the Prize Chosen Child {Adoption Band} will also be donated! Click here for the band.


Get to know the families and checkout their blogs (links below), you'll find giveaways and other fundraisers going on at some of their blogs! And you'll be touched by their journey to adoption.

Akins Family
akins family
Rob and Nichole have been married for almost 7 years and live in Madison, Alabama. About a year and a half ago they begin to try to conceive a child. Adoption has always been in their hearts and after lots of talking and praying, felt that God is leading them to adoption. There are millions of children all over the world that need and deserve a loving family and they KNOW that they can give a child a great life.

Rob and Nichole have started the adoption process with Catholic Family Services in Alabama and are anxiously awaiting completing their family. "We sincerely appreciate ALL of your help. We ask that you continue to pray for our family and our future baby on this journey to each other."
Visit the Akins Family blog here.

Lovett Family
Lovett Family
Ken and Sarah Lovett are in the process of adopting 2 children from the Ukraine and they need our help raising funds!
Here are a few words from Sarah's heart---
I am married to such an amazing godly man and my best friend, Ken. We are in Kentucky for Ken to attend seminary but we are originally from Alabama. We have been married for three years and over the past several months we have been praying about adding to our family. We now know that God is directing us to adopt two children from the Ukraine. We would love for you to join us on this amazing journey! Did you know that in the world today there are 143 million orphans? They have no family to claim them and no parents to call their own. Many of them age out of the orphanages and become homeless, turning to drugs, suicide, or prostitution. Yet they are not without hope! The Lord cares for the orphans and following God’s call in our life, we desire to give them a home, love, and a family to call their own.

Please join us in praying for the orphans around the world that they would have enough food to eat, for someone to care for them, and for their protection. Please also pray that God would care for and provide for our children while they are in the orphanage in the Ukraine until we are able to go over and bring them home with us. Pray that God would give us wisdom, discernment, and insight as we raise our children.
Visit the Lovett Family blog here.

McLamb Family
McLamb Family
Meet Justin & Tara McLamb of North Carolina! They have been best friends for 8 years, and married for 5. After 5 surgeries and several rounds of fertility treatments, they have been told by the nation's best specialists at Duke and UNC that having their own biological child will be impossible.
After much prayer, Justin and Tara felt led to start the adoption process in January. They are excited to be parents and have been matched with a birth-mother in Oklahoma!! Their little miracle will arrive Nov. 5th, 2010! As you can imagine, the adoption process is not cheap and travel to and from Oklahoma is not included in the adoption fees!
"We are so thankful that we were chosen by God to raise this baby and that we were offered the opportunity to partner with Worthy of the Prize in raising funds and awareness for adoption. We are honored that God would use our situation for a testimony, and we praise Him for friends that have already come to know Him through our journey!"

Brian & Jen
Spence Family
Brian and Jen have been married for seven years. Jen is a dreamer and creative. Brian is practical and patient. God sure knew what He was doing when putting these two together. They really balance each other. Both love the Lord and live to share His love and follow His leading. Family is about love, patience, forgiveness and acceptance. Brian and Jen know that the only way to make a family work (whether a family of two or a family of 10), is for Jesus Christ to be the center of everything.

After several years of trying to start a family the traditional way, God opened Brian and Jen's hearts to the idea of adoption. They began the process in June 2009. And although it is taking longer than they had hoped to save up the money, their resolve has not changed. They know that God has a child just for them---a baby that needs them as mommy and daddy.

Brian and Jen don't exactly know how they will finish paying for the adoption, but they are believing Psalm 145:17-19, "The Lord is righteous in all His ways and kind in all His deeds. The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He will also hear their cry and will save them."
View Brian and Jen's blog here.

Stefanich Family
Stefanich Family
David and I (MacKenzie) have been married for one exciting year :)  We are both elementary school teachers, and so far have 2 pugs in our growing family.  We love the outdoors and love to ride bikes, jog, and go to the beach.  

Since before we were married we always knew adoption would be a part of our family plan.  Once we decided to start a family, we felt so strongly called to adopt, that we knew we had to move on it right away.  We felt like our children could be waiting for us in an orphanage, and if so, there was no way we could wait to adopt.  

While were researching adoption, we saw a video on our adoption agency's website.  It was a video of children in an Ethiopian orphanage.  We didn't even need to discuss it.  After watching that video, we knew our children were waiting for us in Ethiopia.   

David and I hope to adopt 2 children from Ethiopia.  Our true desire is to adopt a sibling group, but we trust that God has a plan for us and our children, and will go through the adoption process again if we adopt only one child this time around.  We are so excited to start our family and cannot wait to meet our children!  Thank you so much for helping to support us through this process.  We appreciate your thoughts and prayers as we go through this amazing adoption journey!
Visit the Stefanich Family blog here.

Summers Family
Summers Family
Meet Matt and Kelly Summers from Texas but living in Corsica working for an international company. They have been married for 3 1/2 years and have a precious little girl Sadie.
"Recently, The Lord asked if we would do something for Him, if we would welcome a little child on his behalf {Mt 18:5} and show sacrificial Love to him as He has to us. He asked if we would let His Love shine through us and this new child to those around us. And he promised that every penny, all the paper work, every court date...All of it would be worth it. He promised that he would be at every obstacle with us, helping us defeat it. And He showed us that by not doing it would cost the child so much more then it could ever cost us. St. Francis of Assisi says it well, "Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible."

We cannot wait to welcome the next child God has planned for us into our family. We realize that Sadie didn't choose us, and these precious {147 million} orphans didn't choose their situation either, and we must "act justly and love mercy and walk humbly with our God." Micah 6:8. Please join us on our journey and help raise awareness for these precious children of God."
Visit the Summers Family blog here.

Young Family
Young Family
Bryan and Kim Young prayed before they met each other for God to bring someone into their lives that they could share their walk with. He answered those prayers in such detail as to not leave His work in question.
"Now the Lord is asking us to share our joy with the fatherless in international adoption. The Lord has made it blatant to us that this is His plan for starting our family. Despite not having the funds to complete something so huge, the Lord has given us confidence that He will provide the means if we go where He asked us to. So rather than running from Ninevah, we are jumping in with our eyes on Him. He has already provided the funds for us to get all of the early fees covered and we entirely trust Him to provide the rest. We have love for a child we do not yet know. We are excited to bring a child home from Ethiopia and spend our lives loving him and teaching him about the Lord."
Visit the Young Family blog here.
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CSN Stores Review Coming Soon

Thursday, June 24, 2010

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Okay by now you are familiar with CSN Stores right? When they contacted me to do another review I couldn't refuse! Seriously they have tons of stuff, of course they do they have over 200 stores! The only problem is choosing which item to review. Do you choose a toy for the kids or maybe something really nice for your home like a new vanity?

So what would you choose? Go check out CSN Stores then come back and let me know!

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Free 8x10 Canvas for Everyone

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

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Hi there! I just wanted to share this with you! I was recently informed that the Canvas People are offering a free 8x10 canvas for everyone. So I uploaded my photo and got one and I just got it last week!

I am pretty impressed! It's pretty cool. The only catch is you do have to pay for shipping which was about $10 for mine but the regular price for the 8x10 is $49.99.
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Shutter Love Tuesday - Father's Love

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

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The theme is Father's Love. Everything you ever need to know about a father's love can be found in this book. Pictured below is Proverbs 4.


Click on over to Shutter Love Tuesday and vote for your favorite photo this week!


ShutterLoveTuesdays
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Summer Learning and Other Plans (Printable)

Monday, June 21, 2010

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What are  your plans for summer while the kids are out of school? My kiddo finished off his first year of school and I must say he did an excellent job learning!

Part of our summer plans include more learning. I want to keep him sharp for next year. There are reading programs around town but they are big bucks and only last about an hour a day. I figured we could set aside an hour or more a day plus all the other stuff we get in like stories and arts/crafts and such.

I went to a local school supply and picked up one reading workbook, the other books and flash cards we already had or were his unfinished workbooks from school. I also have a little one that we are working on numbers, letters, shapes and colors with.
Because it is summer I want to keep this fun and motivate them, so I went to the dollar store and got "prizes" and put prices on them and placed them in a tub (also from the dollar store).

Each day they earn a Smart Buck for learning! And at the end of the week we open up the Smart Shop and they buy prizes with their Smart Bucks! They can save their bucks for bigger items, use them all or even combine them together, the choice is theirs. They love this, my oldest even does the math to see what he'll have at the end of the week, what he'll have if he combines them with this brother and so on.

I have included the Smart Bucks and Smart Shop sign (made with elements from Just So Scrappy) for you to print and use if you like. Click on the images below to enlarge, click on them again to enlarge even more, save it to your computer and print on 8.5 x 11 card stock.
You can cut the bucks out as squares or punch them out with a jumbo punch.

Our other plans include baking, arts and crafts, local library events going on for the summer, we have a local movie theater offering free kid movies 2 days a week and another theater offering $1 kid movies 2 days a week. Swimming, playing, and of course taking it easy and lounging.

So what plans can you offer to our list?

Linking up at:
S- The DIY Showoff, MThe Girl Creative, Sumo's Sweet Stuff,  T- All Thingz Related, Today's Creative Blog, Hope Studios, Reinvented,  W- Blue Cricket Design, Life in the Pitts, Creative Share at Trendy Treehouse
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Fun for Friday

Friday, June 18, 2010

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Happy Friday y'all! Got some fun for ya to get your weekend started off right! Check out this video, I taught them everything they know! ;) Pause the music playing at the bottom of the blog first. Enjoy!

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Giveaway at the Summers

Thursday, June 17, 2010

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Giveaway info coming up but first...

Remember our Chosen necklace? Let me refresh you!
$10 from each Chosen necklace sold will be donated to the adoption agency of a family trying to raise money for their adoption! Learn more about each family here.

The Chosen necklace is now 20% off. Please come by and purchase one and help a family raise the needed funds to get their child. And for any other purchase made, if you mention one of the families in the notes box at checkout they will get 10% of your order total (not including shipping)!



Now about those giveaways! The Summers Family (one of the adoption families) is having 2 giveaways. You could win...

one of these plug in warmers of your choice and a sent block of your choice or ...
"For the Love of Cookies" featured on Rachel Ray or the OH! MY! Chai
CLICK HERE to go enter! So far there are very little entries so go change that will ya? ;)
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I need a lesson!

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

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Can somebody school me in this?
Inform me of their menu items for morning, noon and night. I need to know what you like from here. What is your fave? What should I try? I hear about and see a pinkish colored tea. Right???

I can honestly say that I have been here one time. It was a few years back and I ordered an Iced Mocha and I did not like it. It was way too strong. But I think it's time for a second chance.

I like love Iced Mocha's! My favorite coffee house was called Java Jazz and then they closed and took my heart mocha with them! I have searched for one like theirs and seems there is none to be found. :( As hard as it is I must move on.

So please enlighten me of this place you call Starbucks.
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Shutter Love Tuesday - Smiles

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

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The theme is smiles.
I must say I am really loving Shutter Love Tuesdays. I have tons of photos like this one that I love and now I have a reason to actually post them. Thanks Trendy Treehouse!
Be sure to click on over to Shutter Love Tuesday and vote for your favorite photo this week!



ShutterLoveTuesdays
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Crate Address Planter - Do It Yourself

Monday, June 14, 2010

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One day on the way to the store I found this old crate. It was just sitting there all abandoned and I could see it's potential through the mud and spiderwebs. And it was very sturdy.  I decided to make an address planter with it. What do you think? Keep reading to see how I did it.
Note: I blacked out the street for privacy issues. The full street name is really there.

First things first, clean and paint the crate. I used black but now I'm kinda wishing I would have gone with something more exciting like green or turquoise. I taped off the metal pieces and used spray paint.

Plan the layout by getting the measurements of where the address number and street will fit on the crate. Type out the address on the computer in the proper size (to fit the crate) and print it out on regular paper. Next trim the excess paper off.

Flip the address papers over and cover the back sides with chalk, I used the kids sidewalk chalk.

Tape the address paper to the crate in the correct spot, with the chalk side touching the crate. Trace the outline of the address. I used the tip of a mechanical pencil without the lead.

This will transfer the outline of the address and it will look something like this below.

Using a small paint brush and acrylic craft paint, paint the address. Use the chalk outline as a guide. This did take a bit of time but not as much as I thought it would. I also went back and gave it a second coat. Something you also may want to do when it dries is give it a coat of clear spray paint to seal it.

Line the inside. I used a thick trash bag and a staple gun. I did not cover the bottom. This crate already had those holes which were perfect for drainage.

And here she is!
Thanks for reading! Let me know if you come by. And thank you again son for all your help. Those are his little hands in the photos again.

Linking up at:
S- The DIY Showoff, Under the Table and Dreaming, MThe Girl Creative, MM Party at BNOTP, Making the World Cuter, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Keeping it SimpleT- Coastal Charm, All Thingz Related, Today's Creative Blog, Hope Studios, ReinventedW- Blue Cricket Design, Life in the Pitts, Me and My Bucket, Someday Crafts, My Backyard Eden, Room to Inspire, Creations by Kara, Just a Girl, T- The Shabby Chic Cottage, Life as Lori, Somewhat Simple, Beyond the Picket Fence, Fireflies and JellybeansF- A Few of My Favorite Things, It's FUN to Craft, The Shabby Nest, Fingerprints on the Fridge, Tatertots and Jello, Funky Junk InteriorsS- Along for the Ride, I Heart Naptime
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Friday Fun & Free Charms

Friday, June 11, 2010

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Just some fun stuff for Friday! The lovely Frenchy recently posted this on her blog and I thought I'd share it with you. Because well, I think it's great! Pause the music at the bottom of the blog first.



For all blog friends, get a free Tiny Initial charm with orders placed today and tomorrow only! In the notes box at checkout enter Free Charm Friday and your initial choice! PLEASE NOTE - You will receive the initial charm only, chain and pearl shown in picture are not included.

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Mario Bros. Printable - Bubbles

Thursday, June 10, 2010

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Okay so I also made a Mario Bros. bubble wrapper to go along with the play dough wrapper from yesterday. These bubbles were also found my local Dollar Tree. They are a smaller 3 oz size, but not too small, perfect for our favor bags. And 3 for a buck!
What do you think? Better?

The existing labels came right off. We wrapped these around the bottle and taped at the back. So easy!

And here they are for you! For some unknown reason I was unable to get more on the page. Sorry technical difficulties. Click on the photo below to enlarge then click on it again to enlarge even more, then right click on it and save to your computer and print.



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Mario Bros. Printable - Play Dough Wrapper

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

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Kids! You gotta love 'em! Check out this conversation from last week I had with my son the day before the last day of school. On our way out the door for school!

Son: Mom, Mrs A. said us kids that celebrate our birthdays in the summer, can still have a birthday party in class sometime during the year.

Me: Son! Tomorrow is your last day of school!

Son: But Mom, we can just take a little treat and that's it.

Me: And when are we supposed to do this? Today? Tomorrow? And tomorrow is a half day!

Son: Oooookayyyyyyy. :( Neeeeverrrrrrr minnnnnnd. :(

Me: (Sigh) Let me talk to your teacher and see what she says.

I couldn't say no he looked so bummed. So I talked to teacher and the next morning we took donuts with sprinkles of course. And there I was at the last minute trying to get together favor bags for 23 kids! Good thing the whole family pitched in!

One of the things we put in was play dough. I found these at my local dollar tree. 8 for a buck! We're on a budget here.
I made Mario Bros. wrappers and wrapped them right around the existing label and taped.
What do you think? Not bad for last minute eh?


I've included the wrappers/labels below for you to use! Click on the photo below to enlarge then click on it again to enlarge even more, then right click on it and save to your computer then print. Prints on a full 8.5 x 11 sheet.

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