Food

Friday Flair Link Party // Wocavé Update // Features no. 6

1 · Aug 2, 2013 · 20 Comments

Friday Flair Link Party // Well, well… we've made it to another Friday. This week another package arrived from the folks at Skinny Cow. Mission #2 is set for this Saturday and it's going to be FUN!!

If you missed the beginning of this series, you can see how it all started here. Our first mission was stepping outside our comfort zone and learning about hidden talents we never knew we had. You can see mission #1 here. Mission #1 was a real eye opener and I can't wait to see what's in store for tomorrow! You can follow my Wocavé adventure via Instagram if you are interested in see the action real time!

Now, how about some features from last week's Friday Flair? Once again, so many fun ideas and recipes… Here are some of my favorites!

black bean and roasted corn salad (tidymom) // kitchen chalkboard (anderson & grant) // lemonade stand printable (tatertots & jell-o)

diy nautical canvases (mod podge rocks) // diy adirondack chairs (skip to m lou) // coconut frozen yogurt pops (girl loves glam)

biscoff brownies (heather's french press) // kitchen herb garden (finding home) // lavender honey lemonade (wonky wonderful)

white chocolate biscoff cheesecake (inside brucrew life) // snickers ice cream pops (a pumpkin & a princess) // white chocolate reeses fudge (lil'luna)

peace on earth (endlessly inspired) // strawberry citrus punch (sweet c's designs) // family binder (30 handmade days)

Haley (Life is Sweet) created this amazing Plum Berry Basil Ice Cream for this week's Creative Team post!

Let's get the Friday Flair Link Party Started!

Back to School Shopping with Gordmans // Enter to win $1000

2 · Aug 1, 2013 ·

This post brought to you by Gordmans // I think my kids rank back to school shopping right below Christmas. It's one of their favorites times of the year. Quite frankly it's one of mine too. I always loved going back to school shopping as a kid too. As the Mom it's a little more stressful. It's so fun to help your kiddos come up with some fun new outfits for the first few days of school, however watching the dollar signs add up, can put a little pinch into the fun. This week I had the fun opportunity to learn about a "new to me" store… Gordmans.

Hales a.k.a. Lil'Whip and I headed over to Gordmans armed with $25 to see what we could find. When we first walked in we were greeted with a fun, bright store full of thousands of outfit options. The whole store is packed with current trends at a fraction of the price of department stores. Gordmans prides themselves on delighting the shopper with a BIG selection and even BIGGER discounts in a fun and friendly environment. They have a cute section called Gormans Giggles where the kiddos can have fun while you are shopping in a colorful children's theater. They even have the Grandstand in the men's section where dad can watch sports while you are shopping. That just means so much more time for you to shop!!

It didn't take long before Hales found two shirts that she totally fell in love with.

Both of these shirts were $16.99 a steal of deal if you ask me! The best part… Gordmans has a fabulous new rewards program called gRewards and we racked up points with this purchase for our next shopping trip. For ever dollar spent we earned 1 point once we reach 200 points we earn a $10 reward.

Looking for even better deals at Gormans? You can join their mailing list and learn about all of their fabulous deals and in-store events. They have a whole bunch of fun Back to School events coming up that you won't want to miss!!

Here's how our shopping trip turned out… Hales now has two great tops for the start of school and she is THRILLED!!

Do your kiddos like back to school shopping or is it a dreaded task? Come share for a chance to win $1000 from Gordmans!

Official Rules

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Gordmans. The opinions and text are all mine.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Gordmans.  The opinions and text are all mine.

DIY Polka Dot Notebook for Back to School

2 · Jul 31, 2013 · 10 Comments

This post brought to you by DecoArt // Back to school is right around the corner for my kiddos and it's time to start working on dressing up our school supplies. I am Target's biggest fan and have been since birth, so… A few trips to Target is a must before school starts. I've been loving the Greenroom line of school supplies and found a fun notebook that I thought would look extra special with some gold polka dots!

Doesn't it look extra special now? This is a perfect project for your kiddos to create some fun notebooks for themselves or to create a fun teacher gift for their new teacher. It's super easy, here is what you will need…

Polka Dot Notebook Supplies

Find a fun notebook.

Select a coordinating paint color from the full line of DecoArt paints. I used Americana Multi-Surface Satin in Muted Gold. These paints are available at Michaels, Hobby Lobby, A.C Moore and other fine craft retailers.
Large Foam Paint Brush.
Cardboard diamond that I cut out myself.

Polka Dot Notebook Instructions

Open up your notebook and lay as flat as possible on a protected table.
Use your paint cap a your paint supply, this way you don't have to create any waste. Just pour little bits of paint in the cap and when you are finished, just rinse it out, dry completely and replace on the paint bottle.
Take your large foam paint brush and dip the tip of the handle into the paint lid and load with a small amount of paint. Then using your cardboard diamond as a guide (a trick I learned from one of my contributors Haley from Life is Sweet) carefully place your polka dots.
Let dry over night to ensure that the paint has completely dried. My polka dots were pretty thick so that couldn't see the notebook through the paint so it took a bit for it to dry.

Like I said before, this would be fun for your kiddos or for a teacher gift for the first day of school.

On August 14th I will be sharing this fun printable tag with the Printable Club that you can use to create a super fun teacher gift for your kiddos new teacher.

Pair your polka dot notebook with a coordinating spiral notebook, some fun pencils and a Target gift card and you'll have one happy teacher!!

Disclaimer // This post brought to you by DecoArt. I am a member of the DecoArt Core Blogger Team and did receive product and payment for this post. However, all thoughts, ideas and opinions are my very own!

Plum Berry Basil Ice Cream

1 · Jul 30, 2013 · 3 Comments

A couple years ago my sister in law introduced me to the flavor combination of strawberries and basil. Sounds odd at first, but they compliment each other beautifully! And I recently found a love for a frozen treat put plum and basil together, so when I was assigned to make one of the flavors of homemade ice cream for a family reunion, I knew what I wanted to do! Considering that one of my husband's uncles was hesitant to try it because of the basil, but then asked for the recipe later, I'd say it was a success.

Homemade Plum Berry Basil Ice Cream

Yields: 1 quart

Ingredients:

1 lbs very ripe plums, pitted and chopped, with skins (I used 4 large plums)

7-8 strawberries, sliced

2/3 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)

1/2 cup agave (or 3/4 cup sugar)

2 cups heavy whipping cream

1/3 cup fresh basil, chopped and bruised

In a medium pot, cook the plums and strawberries over medium heat, stirring often. Continue until the fruit softens and the plums start to break down — about 15 minutes. Pour into a heat proof bowl (I used a 9×13" glass pan to cool it down faster), add blueberries, then cover and refrigerate until the mixture is room temperature — about 30 minutes.

Pour the cream in the pot you just used for the fruit, and add the agave (or sugar) and basil, which has been finely chopped and bruised by pressing it with the flat part of the knife to release the oils. Warm the cream mixture over medium-low heat, stirring often. Cook for about 5 minutes (if you use sugar, make sure it has dissolved), then remove from heat to let steep — about 15-20 minutes.

Pour cream mixture through a strainer into the bowl (or 9×13" pan) with the fruit mixture to strain the basil, make sure to press the basil leaves with a wooden spoon to release any extra liquid and as much flavor as possible. And if you really like the basil flavor, like myself, you can put a spoonful of it back in. 🙂 Stir the mixture, then cover and refrigerate, until the ingredients are very cold — 1 to 2 hours, or more.

Pour ice cream into an ice cream machine and freeze/churn until desired consistency. You could serve immediately, or place in a freezer container and freeze for another few hours to harden it up. The lovely fuchsia color comes from the plum!

** If you don't have an ice cream maker, go here for great directions on how to make/freeze ice cream without a machine.

Thank you again for having me Heather! Hope everyone is enjoying an extra sweet summer!

xo,

Haley

Pear & Gorgonzola Pizza // DIY Sillhouettes on Canvas // Tuxedo Zucchini Bread Muffins

Family Selfies… Keeping it Real Folks

0 · Jul 29, 2013 ·

This post brought to you by Clorox // Did you know that National Parents Day is coming up? I for one, would like to nominate myself for the National Parent award. My house is spotless 100% of the time, not a pillow out of place. My children behave like angels at home and in public. They were all potty trained within their first year and never have they ever had any accidents from that point forward. Never have we ever had spilled milk at the dinner table or a dryer lint explosion in laundry room… ok, well the last one did happen… yesterday. So, I may have exaggerated a bit… Let's be honest with ourselves. Life is messy sometimes… Life is silly and together it can be messy fun.

Case in point… my son.

This photo pretty much sums up all of my efforts at potty training the boy. He is far more interested in wearing the toilet seat, than sitting on it an using it as it is intended. Every ounce of me is cringing at all the possible germs that are jumping on board his face at that moment, but rather than jumping up and sterilizing the boy, I took two seconds to document the real story. He'll thank me some day for sure.

I could have a thousand perfect photos of Gage with him looking like a perfect gentleman like this…

Which is nice, or I can tell the real story about when he played Mister Distructo during nap time and emptied out all of the diapers into his bed…

… Instead of taking a nap. Don't even get me started on when he decided to play finger paints, in his bed, with a not so desirable paint medium from inside his diaper. I have to admit, I didn't snap a photo of that one. I had a hard time seeing the silver lining on that fun episode at the time.

He also was so kind to unroll all of the toilet paper for me when I was sick, in bed…

What a kind and thoughtful boy he is. And then there are those days when it's just to hard being three…

The poor boy, it's hard having three big sisters and not being able to get your way all, or any of the time really.

Then there are those precious moments that we never want to forget. Those moments that aren't scripted that quietly tap us on the shoulder, sometime we miss them. Those are the special moments I want to remember forever…

I am so grateful for camera phones and fabulous apps like Instagram that make documenting these moments so easy. I regret to say, I don't have very many of these types of photos of my girls at that age, because I NEVER had a camera in hand when the messy fun was happening. I'm making up for it now… I try and look through the haze a frustrating parent moments to find the silly, the messy and the downright embarrassing at times…

Yea, YOU try shopping with this crew!!

It may not be pretty, or perfect but I'm still down right proud of my family and proud to be a parent.

Tell me about one of your favorite real family moments for a chance to win $500 from Clorox! This National Parents Day, July 28th, Clorox is celebrating real family moments by asking parents to share their #RealFamilySelfies on Instagram. July 24th through July 31st, share your photo by simply uploading it to Instagram with “#RealFamilySelfies” and you could win $500 Visa gift card.

This National Parents Day Clorox is celebrating family moments – you know, those big or small, heart-warming and funny moments that today’s families all encounter – by asking parents to snap a pic and share their #RealFamilySelfies, the moments parents want to remember forever. Selfies capture those spur of the moment feelings and happenings that “official” family portraits may not exactly capture.

This post is brought to you by The Clorox Company. I have partnered with them to spread the word about Clorox's #RealFamilySelfies program. For more information and to view the official rules visit this site. All opinions and stories are my own.

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This post is brought to you by The Clorox Company.  I have partnered with them to spread the word about Clorox's #RealFamilySelfies program.  For more information and to view the official rules visit www.statigr.am/contest/ppgx/celebrate-national-parents-day-with-clorox-by-sharing-realfamilyselfies.  All opinions and stories are my own.

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Polka Dot Notebook Supplies

Polka Dot Notebook Instructions

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