Professor Pincushion Giveaway

I'm excited about this giveaway from Tova at Professor Pincushion.  This is such a beautiful Pillow Sham and you have a chance to win it.

Visit ProfessorPincushion.com

Here's how to enter for you chance to win:

1. (optional) To become a registered member of professorpincushion.com click HERE. You may be a "Basic (FREE)" or "Premium" member.
2. (optional) Watch the pillow sham video tutorial located here
3. (optional) download the pillow sham pattern here
4. No purchase necessary. Being a premium member does not increase you chances.
5. To be entered into the drawing, all Professor Pincushion usernames that comment on one or more of the following: the pillow sham blog, the pillow sham forum, or the pillow sham video site, will added to the drawing and the winner will be picked at random.
6. Additional ways to enter are via Twitter, or Facebook. Follow on Twitter, and or friend on Facebook to be entered into the random drawing. Current Twitter and Facebook friends are automatically entered.
7. You may comment as many times as you wish but your name will only be added once for a chance to win.
8. The winner will be chosen at random and announced on July 25th, 2011.
9. The winner will be contacted via the e-mail address they provided during registration or social media.

Tova also has tons of great tutorials.

Oh Yeah!!!

 

Our awesome savings from Target today…NO COUPONS!

Oh how I love clearance. 

4 huge beach towels

2 beautiful glass beverage dispensers                          (My honey already put some tea out for me)

A serving tray

13 packs of paper plates 60 ct.

6 – 30 packs of plastic cups

4 little storage buckets

The list goes on!

Look what I found…

He’s loving the new house. 
Unpacking in a new home can be so exciting.  Earlier I posted some before pictures of the new house and am excited to soon share some after pictures.  So much more to unpack but it’s getting there.  After two full days of painting and with the help of the best grandma in the world, we are done with the kitchen and most of the living room.  We spent Thursday and Friday prepping and painting.  The house looked great for our son’s birthday party this weekend.  Of course it’s a work in progress but it’s been lots of fun getting settled in. 

Patriotic Toes

I decided to have a little patriotic fun with my daughter and I’s toes.

76% Savings

So the kids and I took a trip to Fry’s last night.  I did pretty good.  All of this for $43.46.  I missed out on some of the freebies but that's ok, I’ll just check back.  My total savings for this trip was $129.47.  I’m quite happy about it.

Dinner for My Chef

The Chef and I have been craving Asian food lately.  I finally decided to make some since we aren’t aware of many places here.  We sure miss our hot spot back in Cali, Noah’s Hof Brau (yes, it’s Asian food) it was the best.  Eh, homemade is better.
Call what you want but it’s chicken with a side of my own version of fried rice (RAMEN).  Yes, Ramen.  Don’t knock it till you try it.  This is something that I’ve made for years now, it’s easy to make and good.  The chicken on the other hand is something new.  I decided to use some of my favorite Asian sauces as a marinade.  To add a special treat, we tried some of our Pickled Radishes we made a while back. (I’ll post about that a little later)
Dinner was a hit!  My Chef who said, “I wasn’t even that hungry,” had two large servings and so did the kids.  This was quite the tasty dish.  I’ll definitely be making it again.
For the chicken marinade I used:
Oyster sauce, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, a splash of fish sauce, Asian Toasted Sesame salad dressing, honey, Sriracha (I love this stuff), garlic, salt, and pepper.
I marinated the chicken with half the sauce.  Then I made a reduction with the rest to top it with.
For the Fried Ramen I use:
RAMEN (of course), diced carrots, onion, peas, soy sauce, a little oyster sauce, egg, salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
This was the Pickled Radishes. (Post soon to come)  They went well with my dish.

New To Do:

I’m so excited to be able to put some personal touches on the new house.  There was lots of wall paper that we are still in the process of removing.  There was wall paper in the entire kitchen and living room.  There is a border in the kids bedrooms and both restrooms.  Once the walls are ready then on goes the paint.  We’ve picked light gray and a darker gray for the kitchen and living room.  A light gray for the boy’s bedroom (this will go well with whatever theme they choose).  The current options are: Rock and Roll, Skateboarding, and Motorcycles.  I personally like the skateboarding idea.  Their room is currently yellow with a flower border.  As for little miss Haylee’s room, it is currently blue with a lighthouse border.  It will be pink on top, a white border 3/4 down, then green.  white trim and ceiling of course.  Her decor will be owls.  Our bedroom may end up being light gray.  Our decor has always been eclectic, mostly Asian style.  I like to keep things eclectic because we are passionate about so many things.   It works for us.  As for the kids / guest restroom, I’m still undecided.  There is so much to be done. 
Here are some pictures I thought I’d share of what things looked like before.  I will keep you all posted of my progress. 

Before and Current:
Living room and Kitchen
One huge wall in the living room was this blue/gray textured wall paper.  It met up with the multi-colored one.  As you could see we’ve are just getting started here.
Boy’s room… Yeah that can’t stay.
Haylee’s Room
Master Bath
Guest Restroom