Coconut Oil Giveaway-Winner Update!

You may remember my insane excitement regarding my very first giveaway last month, well my lovely winner, Rachel D., sent me a couple pictures of how she's using her prize! If you don't remember, the prize was an entire quart of Tropical Traditions Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil! That stuff is the bomb! I add it to so much of my cooking and even feed it to my dogs to maintain their health!

Rachel made this yummy popcorn with her coconut oil!

Mmm!

I want to dig in too! It looks so delicious! The recipe is quick and easy...I'll post it tomorrow!

Rachel works with doTERRA essential oils company so be sure to check out her website! I have personally only bought and used Young Living essential oils but I have been wanting to experience other companies as well. Hint hint! Keep your ears...er...eyes...open for another potential review and giveaway in the near future!!!

What would you have made if you won? If you use essential oils, what's your favorite brand and why? What oil would you love to win?

Till next time,

Catherine

Have you entered yet?

Only a few more days of my very first giveaway contest!!!

Click HERE now and go enter!

I mean it, go!

Let's be honest, I've got a little teeny-tiny blog going on here...you've got a pretty darn good chance of winning! Not so with most of those other freebie contests out there! Not to mention you can earn up to 8 entries!

Ok I'll give you the link again. My very first giveaway contest ever that I'm so excited about! Can you tell I'm still a bit too excited about this thing? Indulge me...go enter it!

Have you entered???

Till next time,
Catherine

DIY: FREE Printable Kitchen Art

While perusing the wonders of Pinterest one day, I came across this post from Over The Big Moon with these adorable FREE printables for cute kitchen art! I pinned the link of course and kept the idea in the back of my mind for when I found some cute 8x10 frames. 

I searched at a few thrift stores and Goodwill hoping to find something good but I didn't see any two that matches and still had their glass. 

Fortunately I found these lovely white frames at Michael's on sale for about $4 each! They were 50% off and then I had a coupon! Score! The original "Be Grateful" print was sort of a blue-green but I wanted a shade of orange that matched the "Roll With It" picture. I like to stick with a green/orange theme to our kitchen. My husband in all his graphic design wisdom, showed me how to fix it on Photoshop and I got the exact color I wanted! Then all I did was print these pictures out on regular printer paper and slipped them into the frames. 

With the help of the ever wonderful Command strips we got them up! 

Cute, right? I can't get over how much I love them! Total I probably spent $12. $4 for each frame and I believe the Command strips were about $4 as well. I think it was a $12 well spent. Every time I walk into the kitchen it makes me smile. It's sweet and simple and it's a nice touch of color to brighten those plain walls!

What color(s) do you like for your kitchen?

Till next time,

Catherine

DIY: From Carboard Tube to Cute Gift Box!

From this:

(via)

To this: 

It is super easy and cute! Wanna know the best part? It's free! I say free assuming that even the most beginner crafters like myself have various ribbon and pieces of scrapbook paper lying around. Families throw hundreds of these away every year! Why not save a few and make something useful out of them? Not to mention, when birthdays and Christmas come around, you're always looking for a small box for the little gifts like jewelry and money! I got the original idea from the blog Sweet Charli. 

Gather your supplies:

• Clean cardboard tubes
• Ribbon
• Twine or pretty string
• Scrapbook paper
• Hot glue gun/glue or tape
• Scissors
• Tissue paper

 Directions:

Fold one end of your cardboard tube in. Think like you're trying to close one of those paper coin rolls from the bank. 

Fold in the other half. Secure it down with hot glue or tape. When you've got that locked down, wrap your gift in a small amount of tissue paper and stick it inside. Fold and secure the open end of the tube the same way as the first one. 

Now decorate them however you wish! I used an extra piece of scrapbooking paper from another project  and wrapped it around, securing it with hot glue. I also used a small length of ribbon my husband had saved from a gift he received. The man knows me. 

For this one I used a thicker piece of the same scrapbook paper and different ribbon. I just switched the directions of the ribbon and paper from the previous box. If you don't want it to be as obvious that it's a cardboard tube, just wrap the whole thing in scrapbook paper. Chances are people won't even notice! Generally people are more focused on what's inside! 

I love this idea because the possibilities of design and decoration are endless! You can even bust out that Bedazzler you've been dying to use! ;-) 

Are you the crazy one in the family who snatches up all the empty gift bags and tissue paper after Christmas? I know I am! No sense in throwing away good bags and tissue paper that can be reused! What are some other unique ways that you like to wrap gifts?

Till next time,

Catherine

Good Mail Day

Such a nice sight to see when I opened my little mailbox today!  Two new postcards from Postcrossing and a full size freebie of Hill's Science Diet Veggie Chips dog treats!

I love freebies and when I signed up for this I didn't expect a full sized bag! Science Diet treats aren't cheap! Needless to say, the pups love them! Sweet potatoes and carrots are two of their favorite veggies! I'm not sure where I first heard about the giveaway but it was probably either Hip2Save or FabuLESSlyFrugal. 

My Postcrossing postcards were from Germany and China. So cool! I need to send more soon. If you're not familiar with it, Postcrossing is kind of like simplified pen pals. Remember back when you were 11 and had a pen pal in Montana that you found in the Tiger Beat magazine? Don't lie...you did. 

My postcard from Germany. The sender lives along the Rhine River in a small town. The postcard is of old Berlin.

This odd postcard is from China. The sender wrote that I have three wishes from the lamp of God. The "lamp of God" kind of scares me a bit!! I'm not sure what's worse, it's lips or it's "tail" or it's gigantic belly button. Why on earth is it holding an umbrella with it's proper pinky out? So many questions. 

Anyways.

Postcrossing is just sending postcards but you register them online and you can see a visual map of where your cards have gone, and where ones you have received have come from. It's really cool! You should check it out! Plus, you can specify whether or not you'd like to continue communicating and become pen pals with your postcard sender/recipient. So far I have sent 5 postcards, received 3 and am continuing correspondance with my first postcard recipient from Germany! It's really cool, I enjoy it so far!

Did you ever have pen pals? Where was the furthest your letters traveled? I used to have pen pals in Italy and Spain! I also had ones in the United States as well. 

Till next time,

Catherine