Elf On The Shelf has Arrived

Good morning! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! If you follow on Instagram  then you would have seen our yummy "thanksgiving" Photo

 


We had so much yummy food! We ate way too much and were full for days to come! I am sure that was the case for most people!







You might have also saw that we had a special guest join us for Thanksgiving! This is our elf, my kids named him Mr. Elf and call him Elfie every so often! Now if you are new to Elf on The Shelf, here are some things you should remember before starting. 
If you have not purchased one, make sure you purchase it without your children around! They need to think that the elf was sent by Santa, from the North Pole! Also you want to remind your kids the first few days that they are not supposed to move or touch the elf! If the kids move or touch him/her, then the elf will loose his magic and not be able to fly back to the north pole to report to Santa! Get creative with where the elf will be when he comes back each night! For the month of December I will post lots of photos on instagram and the blog with what our elf is up to! 

Elfie was so excited to do some "Black Friday" shopping that he made a big mess of all the adds! The kids thought it was funny!

One day they woke up and noticed Elfie was hanging out on the music stand! We think he was going to play guitar! 

 Over the weekend we put our New Christmas tree up, and started decorating all around the house! I am in love with my tree decor, you will see it better in the next photo where Elfie is hiding out in the tree!

Elfie moved into the kitchen one day! On our window I have a few paint samples and a jar of small brushes. The kids could not find him in his usual room (living room) and when they went in for breakfast they noticed that he was sitting on top of the paints with a paint brush! (You could get really creative and leave a message in paint/marker from your elf!)

 I was telling my kids that our house might fly away while they were sleeping! They thought I was crazy until I explained that we would have so much "magic" in our house that night! My son lost a tooth, so we had a visit from the tooth fairy and from our elf all in one night!

 
  Come back soon to see more photos of what Elfie is doing! Hopefully he wont make too big of a mess our get into too much trouble in the next few days!  Until then stay warm, this was a photo I took at my son's bus stop. It was cold and snowy! I came home to enjoy a nice hot cup of coffee and stay warm watching movies with my daughter! 

Amazing Bathroom Makeover

Hey everyone! How is your Pre-Thanksgiving planning going? Anyone doing any traveling or black Friday shopping? We will be staying home and having a relaxed week doing fun things with the kids! But before I take some time away from the computer, I wanted to share our Amazing Bathroom Makeover with everyone! I do not have any before photos as it was started before I was able to get the photos! I promise I have already taken before photos of the second bathroom we are working on, and you will be so shocked when its finished! As many of you know we are paying of debt, and we also do lots of budgeting! This bathroom was paid for with CASH only and took a very long time to finish, because we did not want to add any more to our debt! At the end of the post I will share paint color, and links to where things were purchased! 

 

 

All the work done in this bathroom make over was done by my hubby! All the decorating and color choices was done by me! :)

Towels purchased HERE

Bath Mats purchased  HERE

Shower curtain purchased HERE

Sink and Vanitey purchased HERE

Toilet purchased HERE

Medicine cabinet purchased  HERE

Lights purchased (similar) HERE

Paint color is HERE

Please leave me a comment with what you think of our new bathroom! I absolutely love it! When we take a shower now we often joke that it feels like we are in a hotel, and it so nice, we could just hang out in that room all day!

 

Where did the Year go + Free Christmas Planner Printable

Good Morning everyone! How was everyone's Halloween? If you follow me on instagram you probably saw I had a pretty princess and a zombie on Halloween! I am sitting here drinking some coffee (yeah I know I said I gave it up...but I just couldn't...I love it too much) asking myself "Where did the year go"? This year is almost over...and it is almost Christmas time! I am already going a little crazy trying to make sure I get everything done this month so I can relax a little more next month! I have already started some DIY Christmas gifts, and shopping for my kids! I think the hardest part about this time of year is that really soon my kids will both be a year older! 

In an effort to make my holiday run a little smoother I created a Christmas Planner printable to help me keep track of a few things! If you are interested in printing one for yourself I have included it in this blog post! 

**This is for personal use only** 
If you decide to use this printable I would love it if you tag me on instagram, or share a photo of it in use on our facebook pages! 

You can find all of our Social Media outlets HERE

 

Christmas Planner.pdf

Step 1 - How to Sell - with What I Do All Day

Good Morning Everyone! Are you ready to learn how you can make some quick money from home, selling the things you no longer need? After an overwhelming amount of interest in this topic I decide I would walk everyone through some steps! First off are you apart of our "How to Sell" Group on Facebook? 

 If not click HERE and request to join! 

This page will be the quickest way to ask me questions, post photos and share ideas! 

Step # 1 

Where do you plan on selling? 

If you have never sold online before I would suggest starting with Facebook pages/groups! It is always nice to put a face to the person you are selling to, and usually my items sell faster on those pages. I also sell on Craigslist and eBay which I will go into further soon! 

If you are not already a part of a selling group/page you need to find one! Below is a photo of me "searching" for a selling group or page on Facebook. As you can see I put my town "Pueblo" and a list of selling pages show up. My personal favorite is the Pueblo Online Auction/For Sale page (I also admin this page) 

Everyone in the group is local, and it is for "auction style" selling ONLY! If you can find a local page like this I would recommend you join it right away! If not you can join a regular for sale page in your town. 

Join a few and figure out which top 2 you would like to sell on. 

  

 You might find a set of Rules and Guidelines in the Facebook pages you join. Learn those rules and do your best to follow them! Trust me you do not want to be removed from these pages, the people on these pages are willing to pay you for your unwanted things! 

Think of all that $$ you can make if you follow the rules

 

Maybe Facebook is not your thing, no worries you can start with Craigslist! You will want to go to Craigslist and find your state, then find your town.  Click around and see how things work on this page.

 

At a later date I will go into more detail about how to sell on eBay. For now we will cover the basic pages you can sell on. Get comfortable with selling on these pages and master the tips I give to you before branching out to eBay. Trust me, if you have never sold on eBay save yourself the stress and start on Facebook and or Craigslist! If for some reason you can not find a selling page on Facebook for your town, you can always create one, and add your friends! If you do that refer to the rules and guidelines above for one of the pages I am in. You will want those in a page you create! Once you have found a page or two that you want to start selling on meet back here for the next step!

Curb Appeal

Hey everyone! Hope you had a relaxing weekend! Today I wanted to share some ideas on "Curb Appeal"! I often wonder what I can do to make my home look better from the outside! Everyone has their own style and taste, so this may not fit what you would like! My good friend Christina is the queen of DIY! I swear she is always doing something new and it usually is a DIY! If you can not teal she shares the same love for the color aqua/teal! The photos above are all DIY projects she got done over this summer! When she told me she was going to spray paint those tires for her back yard...all I thought was "Oh Good God" I honestly saw tacky in my head! But when I saw them in person, I was in love with the way they came out! I really thought they were going to be bright neon colors...but they are more of pale earth tones! Once her plants started growing from them it really added to the look! She also cut a big whole out of an old chair she had in her garage! She spray painted that and added a pot with another plant! As you can see she spray painted a milk can the same color as the chair! When you drive up to her house you see random "pops" of color and they all mix well together! Hopefully her ideas will inspire others to find something they love and and put a little twist on it and add your own personal touch to your home for some extra "curb appeal"!

Planner Addicts Photo A Day Challenge - September 2013

Never did I Ever think I would join a Planner Addicts Group! I did not know there were so many people out there that love using a planner! Ya know I tried the whole digital planner, and I did not like it...I used my I phone, Apps, the Calendar on my phone...nothing ever worked as much as paper! When I became a Mom of 2 I knew I need a way to keep everything organized! This will be the third year I have used a planner! It has helped so much, I am able to keep track of both my kids, me, my hubby, and bills all on this one planner! Its like my life! If I lost it...Well lets not talk about that...because it would be bad if I lost it! 

First off If you are not following me on Instagram you should....I post a ton of things that you will not always see on the blog or Facebook....Go  HERE  to follow!

A Bowl Full Of Lemons was hosting a Month Long Challenge for all the Planner Addicts out there! Of course I joined in on that madness! You can see more about it HERE!

Warning- This whole post is photos of MY Planner!

Day 1 - The Cover 

I just love the color!

 

Day 2- In My Bag

Fits just perfect!

Day 3 - Fountain of Pens

I do not have many in this photo, you will see more soon!

 Day 4 - Current Day 

No Brainer I am showing the 4th Day Wednesday!

Day 5- Wishy Washi 

Got this cute set of Wasi Tape at Target

Day 6- On The Go 

Yep I even take it with me when I leave! 

Day 7 - Workspace 

One place I get some work done!

Day 8 - Sticky 

Lots of Post It Notes, hey that is sticky!

 

Day 9 - Favorite Essentials

I love my pens for color coding, and those little circle stickers make nice reminders

 

Day 10- Lists 

I make lots of Lists...usually 1 or More a DAY!

 

Day 11- Sections 

I added my own

 

Day 12- Month at a Glance 

Look How Busy I am! 

 

Day 13- Selfie 

Yep, That's me! Better believe I did my hair and make up good that day!

 

Day 14- Stuffed Full 

I try to keep mine ...Not Stuffed

  

Day 15 - Leaning Tower of Planners 

These are not all Planners but they all get used daily!

 

Day 16- Supplies 

I think this is one of my favorite photos for this challenge...it just looks so fun!

 

Day 17 - Creative 

Yep I made me a Mom Card

 

Day 18 - By my Drink 

Love that Life Factory bottle! And it matches my planner!

 

Day 19 - Planner Caddy 

Found this caddy at Walmart for 75 cents, What a good deal!

 

Day 20- Hand Writing

Its not always this nice! 

 

Day 21- Color Code 

Everything has its own color!

 

Day 22- Post its and Flags 

I use post its to do monthly goals

 

Day 23- To Do

A list of things To Do

 

Day 24- Brand New

Got these cute Stickers for Halloween at the Dollar Store

 

Day 25-Pockets

Just one pocket and it holds bills to be paid

 

Day 26-Pen Case 

I put my Pens in the clear case that came with my planner

 

Day 27- Planner Charms 

I actually use this charm for a key...I need to find one for my planner

 

Day 28- On the Shelf 

Day 29 - Love 

I love my single hole punch, I can easily add my own things to my planner with it

Day 30 - Wide Open 

Wide open and ready to Start October!

Well there ya go, now you know what my planner is all about! Do you use a planner? Drop me a comment and tell me how you keep your life organized! :)

Want to join in on another planner challenge similar to this one Click HERE