Favorites Friday: Ready for Summer

Happy Friday everyone! It is starting to feel like summer over here and I'm loving many things that help me get in the summer mood- games, wine, movies, un-healthy food and tiki torches to keep the buggies away. Enjoy!

1. Confectioner's Angel Cake Sweet Chardonnay wine: A friend of mine last weekend had a wine tasting Memorial Day party and she picked this bottle up, just for me, she said. She knew I adored sweet wines, so this was right up my ally. I LOVED it. So good! I recommend it to anyone who likes Moscato wines or sweet wines in general. Lovely!

2. Zombie Dice: Another friend had a get together last weekend for his birthday, just playing various board, card, and dice games. This was one of them. So simple to learn and play, it quickly has become a favorite. I had played it once before, but for some reason, I enjoyed it much more this time around. So easy to learn and lots of fun!

3. X-Men: Days of Future Past: Saw this on the Friday of opening weekend- and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It had the best of both worlds: X-men in the future AND the past. I really enjoyed Quicksilver (before the movie, I would of laughed at myself for saying it- as I thought his getup was a little lame), but he had the absolute best scenes. He totally stole the movie. Many thumbs up X-men! I'm looking forward to future ones.

4. Little Caesar's Crazy Bread: When I lived in Florida many moons ago (lived there from birth to age 12) I used to beg my parents to get Little Caesar's- primarily for the crazy bread. When I found out that a branch was opening up in my neighborhood, I jumped at the chance to resurrect my childhood favorite. Opening weekend of the branch, I ordered a batch of crazy bread, 2 hot-and-ready pizzas and a 2-liter of diet soda. The pizza was eh, but the crazy bread was just as good as I remembered. Next time I might just order the crazy bread, and forget the pizza. haha

5. Kauai Bamboo Tiki Torches: Since we re-did our backyard, tiki torches have become my obsession. I don't know what it is, but they just do the trick to add lighting outdoors, keep some bugs away, and set the fun mood of our backyard. I'm so ready for the summer to get into full swing, so we can enjoy our backyard to the fullest!

I hope you are having a great Friday! I have soooo much planned this weekend, so I'm looking forward to having a fun weekend filled with the summer sun.
Have a great day!
-M

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Thrifty Thursday: A few additions to my wardrobe

This past weekend a friend was in desperate need of black clothing items and fun accessories, as she is now in beauty school- and that's the dress code- all black. We decided to go thrifty shopping at Ross, DSW and the Goodwill (since it was a Sunday and the other 2 favorite thrift shops are closed those days). She scored some great deals to meet her needs and I picked up a few items I was in desparate need of (I really needed short-sleeved or nice tank tops for work, brown dress shoes and black boots that I could wear with leggings/tights). Here's some of my scores of that day. ;)

DSW: $30.47 total

Brown Oxford heels: Paid $16.48 (DSW price before 70% clearance percentage off- $54.94, and the original shoe price before DSW- $70)

Black heeled work boots: Paid $13.99 (DSW price before 80% clearance percentage off-$69.94, and the original shoe price before DSW- $90!)

TJMaxx: $39.98 total

 Tan maxi skirt: Paid $24.99 (original price $48)

Gray scoop short-sleeved top: Paid $14.99 (original price $48)

Goodwill: $6.13 total

Red tank with silk flowers: $2.63

Blue and gray layered tank: $3.50

Overall total between the 3 shops:  $76.58

It's not the absolute cheapest I've been on clothes/shoes, but I got everything that I was in desperate need of in my wardrobe (especially for clothes for work) and spent less than $100! I was most proud of my DSW shoe purchase- When your bill is $30.47 and the bottom of your receipt says "You Saved $129.53!"- that's what made me know it was a great purchase!

On a non-clothing thrifty savings, one of the sushi places near my husband's work has 1/2 off sushi rolls for their grand opening- Perfect for takeout!

What are some great deals you've scored lately? I'd love to hear some of YOUR thrifty finds!

Happy Thrifty Thursday!

-M

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Favorites Friday: Being creative, inspired and feeling good

Happy Friday everyone. I hope you all are having a wonderful day. I personally am a little sad that it is raining outside (I wanted to go for a walk) but I'm excited for a fun weekend of outdoor games and bbq-ing that we have planned.

Here are some recent favorites of mine that I wanted to share with you.

1. Young Justice: A friend suggested this to my hubs and I. We found the first season on Netflix- marathon watched all the episodes and are moving on to season 2, which we had to be a little more creative to track down the episodes. ;P For a show that was on the Cartoon Network and meant for kids/teens- it has some great writing, comedy and animation. I kind of love Superboy in this- even if he is a little emo.

2. After Effects CC: I had started using AE when I was in college, when working on my minor in animation. It was always a program that had its quirks but I liked how well it integrated with Photoshop. This version is no different. They've certainly made some upgrades to AE in the past few years, and I welcome it with open arms. Animating layers is so much easier with programs like After Effects.

3. Spicy Tuna Sushi Rolls: I have started to become a fan of sushi rolls since moving to a house that has a sushi place down the street a few blocks. Hubs and I try to make it a habit to try a new roll once in a while, but the spicy tuna roll will, and has always, been my favorite, since I've grown to love the taste of sushi (which has only really been in the past few years).

4. Plasti-Dip Spray: When working to try and revamp my crown for my Aurora costume to be chrome looking, I found a tutorial on Cosplay that used this stuff to make fun-foam spray-paintable. It is weird stuff- gives a rubber/plastic-y layer on whatever you paint it with. But it served its purpose well. It makes the item a little stiffer- but not extremely- I could still bend the necklace to a shape I wanted (so it still has some of the flexible fun foam underneath).

Here's the old and new crown/necklace (photos by Candace Bandjough Park):

I coated the yellow fun foam crown I made and necklace with a few layers of slightly watered down modge-podge. After it was dry, I covered it with the Plasti-dip (a few coats). Then once it was dry after that- I spray painted the chrome gold. Tada!

5. Aquafina Flavor Splash: While killing some time between rehearsal I stopped by the 7-11 to get a snack and beverage- I saw a 2 for 1 deal with these drinks. I like water with a little flavor, so this was right up my ally- gotta love zero calories drinks. It has a good flavor, for flavored water. haha. ;)

So I hope your weekend is a blast and filled with fun activities. What do you have planned for the weekend? I'd love to hear what ya'll are doing these days!
Have a great Friday!
-M

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Getting crafty with it: Recent Papercrafting adventures

Back in April I went on a Stampin Up! getaway weekend with my mom, hosted by the fabulous Jill Hilliard. I have to say, it was so much fun!

She left us each cute little "pillow gifts" and had daily make-and-takes, that made the whole weekend a blast!
I also go SOOO much done that weekend.

One of the day's pillow gifts- this was filled with buttons!

Another pillow gift: this adorable little box had candy in it. (Not pictured- the last day's pillow gift- ADORABLE Mini coffee cups)

Not only did I create all my Mother's Day and Father's Day cards for the year (will post those after their holidays have passed, as I know my mom's a follower-hehe), but I finished up my Project Life pages for my Wedding Album. (Yes, I know we got married almost 6 years ago, but it just took me THAT long to get my butt in gear to use up all the spare photos I had been given and were taken by friends and family (not just the pro-photographer)). Doing project life pages to mix in with my tradition pages for my wedding album was a perfect idea, I must say. I did so many pages for that, I'll spare you the massive amount of Project Life layouts, as most there wasn't much to them other than the photos and wedding card inserts.

I also created a LOT of cards to increase my card stash, which was getting WAY low. These cards are all designs I created myself, for various occasions.

One of the cards I created during the getaway, with a new set I got from my mom. This stamp set was also part of a swap with my mom- I had to use the stamp set for a card to give to her and one for myself.

Detail shot- this is one of my favorite cards, not gonna lie!

The "Smile" was a card in one of my Project Life packs. Stamp soda bottle- Stampin Up!

The monkey and congratulations are Stampin Up!

This was also for the swap with my mom- she gives me something I have to use in a card- I make one card for her, one for myself. She gave me the cute little baby clothesline diecut and the large stamped image.The hello baby sentiment is Stampin Up!

One of my other favorite cards I created during this getaway. The celebrate a sweet birthday sentiment tag is Stampin Up! (stamped it on pink, then stamped again on white and just cut the white oval out).

close up detail.

Stampin Up! sentiment, flower with bracket and diecut border, as well as the butterfly punches.

Close up detail

Happy Birthday sentiment and bicycle- Stampin Up! as well as butterfly punch.

And yes, I started on some Christmas cards. I am aiming to get more created before December, if I can help it.

After the weekend was over, I was so inspired and so happy with trying some new techniques and products, that I just HAD to convince some of my buds to make some cards with me.
So, this past weekend, after an afternoon of "Once Upon a Time at Barnes & Nobles" event, dressed as storybook characters, a few friends came over and we got crafty with it. (*insert Will Smith's "Getting Jiggy With It" background music, lol)
Here are some of the cards we created over the weekend (each of the gals did slightly different variations of each card, using different colors and patterns of their choice, and on the one card- different sentiments/images).

I took what I learned in the one class, and recreated it with different colors!

I used a mix of washi tape, 2 different stamp sets by Papertrey Inks, and embossing folder to make this cutie.

Took my previous card I created during the getaway and recreated it with different colors and a different cake setup.

Composition book update!

Another variation of that one card.

Just used up some of the scraps to make this simple manly b-day card.

same setup as the one card, just different colors.

I had a blast in both these papercrafting adventures, and right now I'm actually starting to get excited about papercrafting again. Now to just find the time to create more, among all the other things I have to do (work, housework, yardwork, rehearsal, etc.).
*fingers crossed I can get some crafting in later this weekend*
-M

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