Family, Adventures, and Gadgets Collide

Have I told you how much I despise cold weather? No? Well, I much prefer 100 degree temps over 50 degrees ANY day! This is why living in Texas is perfect for me. Well almost perfect. Someday when the hubby and I retire, we may find us a little beach hut to live in during the winter months. That way on the rare occasion when it does snow , we'll have somewhere warm to go hibernate! And since I LoVe warm weather, the fact that spring is in the air makes me HAPPY! Something else that reeeaaallllllyyy makes me happy ... That's right, I participated in Life as Lori's " Spring Fling " and am so HAPPY with my surprises. Don't you just LoVe surprises?!! Deb, from Sweet Tea , and I were paired up for the spring gift swap fun. I enjoyed getting to know Deb by stalking browsing her blog. She's a FUN gal! Go check out her blog and see the surprises I sent her. But first, check out the goodies I received! This is me opening my package. Don't you just Lo...

Who doesn't LoVe a good BOOK? Who doesn't LoVe a good, FREE BOOK?!! I'm hoping to be a lucky winner and receive a FREE BOOK from Finesse Your Nest's give away.

Don't you just love surprises? I certainly do! I received this BeAuTiFuL surprise from a sweet colleague. Are you asking yourself why am I (meaning me not you, dear reader) deserving of this little beauty? Don't feel bad, I wondered the same thing. I really didn't do anything special. My friend was creating her classroom website and I provided her some guidance. (Remember, I LoVe technology and gadgets!) Anywhoo, as a little "thank you," she created this lovely little dish soap dispenser. (She let me in on the little secret to this beauty. She took the cross off of a necklace that she will never wear and glued it to the glass soap dispenser bottle from WalMart.) It was also her idea to put the blue Dawn dish soap in the bottle too! LoVe how it looks! Now are you ready for another surprise? I am hoping to be the winner of this little lovely! You could earn a chance to win it too. Go on over to Tatertots and Jello's blog . Just don't win MY watch! He...

Since we just had our final Christmas gift exchange on Sunday, I decided it's not too late to share the gifts I whipped up on a whim. I always have the hardest time trying to figure out Christmas gifts for all of my cousins' children (without breaking the bank of course!). So the last two years I decided to make them something small and pair it with a small ($10) gift card to Target. This year I made each of them a simple monogram picture frame. (Please pardon the quality of the pictures. I forgot to take them with my camera, and the lighting didn't go well with my phone.)   The two "K"s went to a set of sisters (10 and 7) and the three black and red coordinating frames went to my favorite cousin, for her kids of course. (Okay, so I intentionally used colors that I knew my cousin would like and figured that all three of her kids' frames would end up in her room anyways. Is that wrong?) ;-) I bought the frames in a set of 13 various sized frames for $...

I love this time of year: baking yummy goodies, spending time with family, listening to holiday music, giving presents, and one of my all time faves is to "pretty up" the gifts before giving them to others. You have to admit, handing out pretty packages makes the giver feel proud and the receiver feel SpEcIaL. I especially enjoyed fancying ( I know, not a real word) up the gifts this year using my Cricut! The possibilities are endless!!! Enjoy this mini-video from Animoto  that I created with the pics of my specially wrapped presents! MeRrY CHRISTmas!!!