Thrift Store Treasure

Today I ran by my neighborhood thrift store looking for some odds and ends. While searching through the frames and wooden shelves I came across a bag that had a wooden giraffe in it. With closer inspection I discovered that it was handmade giraffe bank. The poor thing had fallen apart and was in desperate need of a makeover.

Recently one of my good friends had a little girl and they decorated her nursery with pink giraffes. Wahlah! My creative gears started turning.  Overall the bank was in good shape, just needed some TLC and she would look brand new. Plus she was only 99 cents!

As soon as I got home I started working on her. I wiped her down, sanded some rough spots, and took a dive in my paint box. I came up with a perfect hot pink and decided on white for the spots.

After several coats of pink I finally had a "well duh!" moment and realized if I primed her she would cover better. And of course she did. So once I got the base coat on and her reassembled everything else came together quickly. I added brown to her feet, horns, and tail, adorable white spots, and a pink heart to show she was made with love. Plus I dropped in a couple of coins to help get the savings started.

I think she turned out great and I know my friend is going to LOVE her! (I'm almost tempted to keep her myself) There is nothing like taking something old and forgotten and turning it into something new and shiny.

Happy Thrifting!

Getting Organized

Today Ryan sent me a link in an email called 30 Green How- To's from the re-nest website. I'm constantly looking for new ideas to be creative and Ryan had proved to be a very reliable source for passing on good ideas. The link he sent me was really neat with a lot of great tricks on how to reuse things around your house. But as I looked through all the different links one really caught my eye. Within this list was a link called "How to pare down your stuff". I like to refer to myself as an organized pack rat. Although I like to keep stuff and store it way for the long winter, its all pretty much organized and I'm not afraid to get rid of unless stuff. I currently have a room in my house that has become our catch all and it is completely out of control. My goal this week is to regain that control and to reorganize it so that it is usable and clean! So its time to dust off my organizing tip and tools and put them to good use.

Here are some of my own tips to getting organized:

1. Season Change Cleaning: Every change of season when I'm sifting my clothes from summer to winter I pull out the clothes I didn't wear for the entire season. If I didn't wear it chances are I don't need it. Unless its in bad condition I always donate my stuff to our local thrift store.

2. Old for the New: I love purses! I have lots of purses, but every time I get a new purse I get rid of another one. You can apply this idea to any area of your life where you have excess.

3. Containers and Labels: I use baskets, Rubbermaid's, and canvas boxes to hold a lot of my different odds and ins, and I label them so that I know whats what and where to find what I'm looking for.

4. Birds of a Feather Stay Together: When organizing my cabinets and pantry I keep all the items in family groups. Meaning can veggies all together, beans all together, can tomatoes all together. In the cabinet I sort foods by type of meal. I have 3 shelves on the bottom shelf are breakfast foods, baby food, and snacks, middle shelf is designated to side dishes, dinner type foods, and prepackaged meals, and my top shelf is baking needs such as cake mixes, corn meal, and baking powder.

5. Filing Folders: For papers that are important I have two filing folders. Sorted by type I keep all instruction booklets, warranties, Vet papers, and so on in these folders so when I need them I know right were they are without having to sift through piles and piles of papers. This has proved to be very handy with some of Riley's things that we have needed instructions on how to disassemble or when the universal remote needs to be reprogrammed.

And here are some additional tips for Getting Organized from the professionals:

Top 10 organizing tips from Chez Larsson

HGTV Organization

Simplify 101

Header designed by Ryan Saul

Sweet Sunshine Trail Mix

Thanks to my amazing husband I am on my first ever health kick. I am a true southern woman... God fearing and "It's always better fried!", but unfortunately that last motto doesn't fit into the lifestyle I want anymore. Please don't misunderstand I plan to stay southern to the bone, I've just got to do it a little bit healthier.

So to go a long with this new lifestyle I've been trying to find ways to make everyday meals healthier. Snacks have proved to be the toughest area so far. It is a lot easier to grab a bag of chips or M&Ms, but that's not going to help my cause. My latest snack creation is Sweet Sunshine Trail Mix. Great for movie night, afternoon snack or even a day out on the trails.

Sweet Sunshine Trail Mix

3 cups kettle corn

3/4 cup Kashi Honey Sunshine cereal

1/4 cup dried fruit bits

1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Mix altogether and Enjoy!

Serves 4

serving size 1 cup

136 calories per serving

Cafe de Saul Pumpkin Spice Latte

As the days get shorter and weather gets cooler there is one thing that comes to mind that makes my heart sing... IT'S FALL! Fall is my favorite season for lots of reasons, but the one that inspired this post is the one and only Pumpkin Spice Latte! Every year I look forward to Starbucks releasing this wonderful drink and I can't wait to get my hands on one. However this year I decided that I wanted to save money and calories and that there had to be a better way to get my precious pumpkin latte. After a bit of research and experiments I have formed my own pumpkin spiced latte recipe that is low fat and easy to make at your own home. All you need is a few ingredients, a stove and a coffee maker. And wallah the pumpkin spiced latte is all yours!

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup milk *

2 tbsp sugar or 1 1/2 tsp splenda (three packets)

1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 cup double strength coffee

whipped cream *

pinch of pumpkin pie spice

1) make 2 cups of coffee using 2 scoops of ground coffee

2) in a small pot mix together vanilla extract, milk, sugar or splenda, and pumpkin pie spice over medium heat. As milk mixture warms whisk until frothy and hot.

3) in coffee mug pour one cup of coffee and then add all of milk mixture.

4) top with whipped cream and sprinkle with pumpkin pie spice

5) Drink and Enjoy!

*i used smart balance non-fat milk 1cup= 110 cal.

non-fat whipped cream 2 tbsp= 5 cal

three splenda packets

totaling: 115 calories!!

Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte= 380 calories

Photography by Ryan Saul

As many of you already know I have a very talented husband. He is a gifted designer, extremely creative, and an amazing photographer. His skill in photography has bloomed into a wonderful gift. He has taken beautiful pictures of many of our friends and family, and is always wanting to take my picture. I unfortunately don't particularly enjoy my picture being taken, but last night the mood struck me! At around 11:30 last night I came up to Ryan who already had the look of "I'm getting sleepy" and said "wanna take some pictures?" Because my husband knows me well, he knew this chance may not come around again for some time so he said of course and was off setting up lights and all of his fancy equipment. Mean while I proceeded to "beautify" myself. To my surprise I really got into it and had a great time! After several hours of flashes and clicks we collected a good amount of pictures worth keeping. To my surprise (not at all to his ability but to my photogenic"ness") there were several beautiful pictures, that he and I were very proud of.

Today he spent some time correcting light balance, and working his magic and created these wonderful pictures that I am proud to call "ME!" So the clever soul that I am... I came up with a perfect name for his photographs, Backdoor Photography, for the simple fact that all of these pictures were taken in our garage right outside our backdoor. Whether he keeps the name is yet to be seen, but for now it works.

So thank you Ryan for making me feel beautiful and confident, and for loving me so completely!