Five on Friday - August 14, 2015

It's the weekend!  Woot Woot!!  Some much needed down time is just one wake up away!  Eric and I decided to get up at 3:15 am on Thursday morning to view the meteor shower and my body hasn't quite recovered.  It was totally worth getting up though.  Seeing stars shoot across the sky is just something I will never be able to see enough of.  Saturday morning you'll find me laying in bed, reading and relaxing - for a bit anyway. Then I really need to get my tush up and get busy around here.  I have some organization projects that I have been putting off that needs to take shape this weekend.

Before all that fun, here's my five on Friday for this week.

1.  Thermos 10 Ounce Funtainer
With the kids heading back to school, are you looking for some way to send their favorite lunch cuisine with them?  This item may help.  The Thermos 10 ounce funtainer food jar will keep things cold for 7 hours and hot for 5.  With a wide mouth, it's easy to fill, serve from and clean.  This may be just the thing to send soup, mac and cheese or cold fruit with them.  Not a Frozen fan?  Don't worry -- it comes in 26 designs.  Superman is one of them.

Click HERE to purchase

2.  LivingPlug Inlet Energy Saving USB Wall Outlet
This gadget definitely deserves your attention.  I saw this in my Better Homes and Garden magazine this month and couldn't stop thinking about what a great thing this would be for someone returning to college.  Actually, it would be so handy for lots of people.  Here's the description straight from the magazine:  "The Living Plug turns an outlet into a device-charging, energy-saving, kidproof socket.  Just plug it in and enjoy three AC/DC receptacles, a USB port, and an on/off button.  Turn it into decor with customizable faceplates."  I'm thinking I need one (or more).

Click HERE to purchase

3.  Ann Taylor Pearlized Hinge Bangle
This beauty is on sale for under $20 - okay, it's $19.98, but that IS less than $20.  You can get yours by clicking HERE.  It's never to early to start thinking about Christmas presents, or stash one away for a birthday gift, or just flat out buy it for yourself.  By the way, we only have 132 more shopping days until Christmas.

4.  Ed Sheeran's New Tattoo

Have you seen Ed Sheeran's new tattoo?  Well, here it is.  It's big and it's bold and it's getting very mixed reviews.  It's no secret that I love Ed Sheeran.  As a matter of fact, I'm flying to Dallas over Labor Day for his concert there.  Side story - my friend, Debbie, gifted me this trip for helping her with her daughter's wedding.  Best thank you gift EVER!!  But back to Ed's tattoo -- I'm not loving it.  I guess if we're ever alone together he'll have to sing to me with his shirt on so I don't have to look at it.

5.  So true...

Enjoy the weekend everybody!  We're off to see Oklahoma at the Muny tonight.  The weather is supposed to be great and we're looking forward to enjoying the final show of the season.  Sunday I have a get together with the girls.  Hope to see you back here on Monday for a recap.

Linking up with:

Rebecca at XOXO Rebecca

Jennie at The Diary of a Real Housewife

Amy at The Farmer's Wife

Amanda at Meet At The Barre

Erika at Little Bit of Everything

Hill Collection

Simply Sweet Home
High Five for Friday
5 on Friday 
The Jenny Evolution
The New Mrs. Adventure
The Evolution of Mom
This post contained affiliate links.  I may receive a small commission if you click on the link and purchase.  Thanks!

What's That Smell?!?

Welcome to Thinking Out Loud Thursday with X-tremely V and me!  So glad you stopped by!  If you're a blogger, I hope you link up below.  We'd love to get to know you.

Last Saturday we created a problem.  Eric and I hopped out of bed early to head to my home town.  Evaluating the length of our grass and the upcoming activities we had going on, we knew we were going to have to mow the lawn before leaving.  That meant we had to start the law mowers early (so, so sorry neighbors and no, this isn't the problem I'm referring to!).

Eric uses the rider and I use the push mower.  I push for good reason - I am flat out dangerous on the rider.  Like the time I flipped the mower over on top of me.  But I digress - that's a story for another day.  With us cutting at the crack of dawn, the grass was wet.

Well, we quickly cut through the yard, put the mowers away and headed out of town.  The problem happened when we got home.  The wet grass had baked in the heat of the summer day under the mowers in the garage and the smell was atrocious!  Eric had quite the job in front of him hosing down the stinky mowers and getting that odor out of the garage.  Luckily for us, the smell hadn't permeated the entire house.

All of that brings me to today's post -- I'm thinking out loud about a couple of products I love to smell.  You know, the ones that you want to just close your eyes and take a big breath in so the scent moves slowly through your body and makes a smile spread over your face.

One of the things I love is the day cream I use.  Acure Day Cream has the wonderful scent of citrus.  When I put it on in the morning after washing my face, I try to pause and enjoy the smell as it fills my senses.  Ahhhhh.  Just thinking about it makes me relax a little bit.  Love this stuff!  Does your morning lotion start your day off right?

During the day, when I need a scent fix I turn to my Skeem Perfume Roller.  My favorite scent - Flower Market.  Pop this little baby out of your purse, give it a little roll on your wrist and you are good to go.  Or if you're single and you see a cute guy heading your way, let him get a little whiff of this on your wrist and you probably have him hooked.

Before going to bed, I love to hit the pillows and sheets with a spray of my homemade lavender spray that I blogged about HERE last August.  So easy to make and so enjoyable to smell.  At the end of a long day, it's wonderful to lay your head back against the pillows and inhale this relaxing scent.  Here's the recipe again in case you missed it the first time around.

Lavender Spray

2 cups distilled water

1 oz. (2 tablespoons) vodka or rubbing alcohol

1/2 - 3/4 teaspoon lavender oil (depending on how strong you like your spray)

So there's my favorite scents morning, noon and night.  What are some of your favorites?

Now it's your turn -- what are you thinking out loud about today?  Link up to Thinking Out Loud Thursday with me and Vanessa at X-tremely Vanessa . The rules are simple.  Link back to me and Vanessa in your post and add your favorite post(s) below.  Super easy!  Tell all your friends to link up too.  The more the merrier.  We'd love for you to follow us too!  #ThinkingOutLoudThursdays

Enjoy more Thoughts for Thursday at

Home of Malones

East Coast Chic

A Handful of Everything
Hodges Podges
Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop
All Life's Little Adventures

The Deliberate Mom
This is How We Roll

This post contained affiliate links.  I may receive a small commission if you click on the link and purchase.  Thanks!

Weekending - Fun Going Home

Oh my -- I hope you had as much fun this weekend as I did!  As a matter of fact, my fun is still happening because I'm on vacation until Wednesday.  Gotta love that!!

Let's start with Friday night.  Eric and I decided to sneak in one more restaurant off the Downtown Restaurant Week list.  We picked Blondie's Coffee and Wine Bar, located at 1301 Washington Avenue, and it proved to be an excellent choice.  Blondie's Wine and Coffee bar isn't typically open for dinner, but they were making an exception for restaurant week. This was our first time dining here, but definitely not our last.  From the minute I walked in, I was thinking about everyone I would like to bring through their front door.  The atmosphere is so inviting you want to just sit down and stay awhile.

Since it was Friday night and all, I decided to enjoy a cocktail.  Picked the Blonde Ambition Maritini - YUM!  The server dropped off a cheese board full of popovers, cheeses, fruit spreads, honeycomb and nuts for us to enjoy while we made our dinner selection.  Oh.My.Goodness!  I could have just eaten that and been totally happy,  But, of course, we didn't stop there.  We went on to enjoy a granola and fresh berry salad, crab cake Benedict, steak and eggs and topped it all off with their signature Blondie with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce.  It was wonderful!

Saturday morning we rolled out of bed early to mow the grass before heading to my home town of New Florence, Missouri for the 134th annual Old Settler's Picnic.  If you saw my post from Friday (HERE), you got to see some of the things on agenda: cake walk, kids games, bingo, greased pig contest.  It's all old fashion fun stuff!

The Men's Lions Club has run the food stand and my dad has fried fish for their famous fish sandwiches for as long as I can remember.  It made my heart happy this year to walk in the kitchen and see my husband and son helping him.

Here's my brother, Ernie, enjoying one:

My nephew, Kayden, cleaned up at the kids games.  He had so much fun digging in straw for coins and running a race carrying an egg on a spoon.

Kayden also enjoyed being in the greased pig contest.  Yes, that's a lot of mud and kids running around in it trying to catch a pig that has been slicked up with some dishwashing liquid.

What do you do with a kid this muddy?

You let the fire department spray off the mud!

My mom, Kayla, Ian and I played lots and lots of bingo.

One of the best things about going home for this event is connecting with friends.  This is my friend Jackie.  We have been friends for over 40 years.  I know, we don't look old enough to be friends for that long! lol

My nephew, Landon, threw a ping pong ball into a glass bowl until he won this prize!

After a full day of fun, we loaded up to come home and brought Landon with us.

Sunday's plans got juggled a bit because of the cloudy, rain threatening weather in the morning.  Instead of picking peaches, we decided to head straight to the indoor theater to avoid the chance of getting soaked in the rain.  Mission Impossible - Rogue Nation was chosen.  We grabbed Ian and off we went.  We all really enjoyed it!

After the movie, we met up with Kayla at Maggiano's.  After eating, we tried out my new selfie stick.  Might need some more practice!

Sunday night we ventured to the Missouri Botanical Gardens to take in the Lantern Festival.  There was a Chinese Acrobat show before the lanterns were lit.  The show is running until August 23.  If you're in the area, definitely worth seeing!

Landon is with us for a few days and we're doing some fun things around St. Louis.  Going to catch the polar bear exhibit at the zoo and visit Grant's Farm.  We're also hoping to go to the drive in if the rain stays away.  Stayed tuned for the updates!

Check out what others were up to this weekend.

Champagne and Suburbs

B Loved Boston

I Should Be Mopping the Floor

Life of Meg

More Pieces of Me
Bella and the City
Oak and Oats
A Cute Angle
The Quinntessential Mommy
How To Get Organized At Home

Five on Friday - August 7, 2015

We've made it to Friday!  Ready for a weekend?  I know I sure am!  This has been a fun week.  It is Downtown Restaurant Week in St. Louis and we've been fortunate enough to eat at two establishments.  There were so many great places to choose from I think I could have easily dined out every night.

This weekend we're headed back to my home town for the Old Settlers Picnic.  It's always so much fun.  Just peek at what's on the agenda:

Notice this is the 134th year for this event.  One hundred and thirty four YEARS.  Not many events survive that long.  Can't wait to get there and see so many friends.  Before I head out, here's my five for this week.

1.  Kate Spade Purse
I am in love with this cute little Kate Spade purse.  It comes in two colors:  Clock Tower (cream) and Guava (shown).  Even the names of the available colors is adorable!  It's on sale right now at Nordstrom's and I can't stop thinking about it.  Think I should pull the trigger and buy it?

2.  Glass Markers

Have you seen these adorable metallic wine glass markers?!?  These babies can write on any of your glass, plastic or glazed ceramic drinking vessels.  Think how cute it would be to jot a note on a wine bottle you are giving as a gift!  Best part, it washes off with a sponge or in the dishwasher.  I'm thinking this would make an excellent hostess gift too.  

Click HERE to purchase

3.  Fantastic Four Movie

Something tells me with my nephew visiting us for a few days, we will be seeing this movie.  Fine by me!  It releases today and I'm sure it will be a big hit at the box office.  I should probably buy our tickets in advance so I don't have a very disappointed guy on my hands if the time we want is sold out. This Marvel adventure is about four young outsiders who "acquire amazing abilities after a trip to an alternate universe changes their physical forms in unforeseen ways."  Do you have plans to see it?

4.  Back to School Photo Props

It's back to school time and those first day pictures are coming.  Be ready with some cool back to school photo props.  Trust me, it's a whole lot easier to figure out what grade your child was in when looking back years from now if they are holding a sign that tells you.  Plan ahead.  There are cool ones all over Pinterest.  One of my favorites is this one from inkhappi.com.  

5.  Here's a fun thing to do....

Hope everyone has a great weekend!  I'll be back on Monday to recap mine.  Oh hey, just a reminder -- if you are in Missouri over the weekend, it's the Back To School Sales Tax Holiday August 7-9, 2015.  Things like computers, clothes, shoes, school supplies will have no Missouri sales tax added on to the purchase.  Happy shopping!

Linking up with:

Rebecca at XOXO Rebecca

Jennie at The Diary of a Real Housewife

Amy at The Farmer's Wife

Amanda at Meet At The Barre

Erika at Little Bit of Everything

Hill Collection

Simply Sweet Home
High Five for Friday
5 on Friday 
The Jenny Evolution
The New Mrs. Adventure
The Evolution of Mom
This post contained affiliate links.  I may receive a small commission if you click on the link and purchase.  Thanks!

Thinking Out Loud Thursday - Summer's Ending

Welcome to Thinking Out Loud Thursday with X-tremely V and me!  So glad you stopped by!  If you're a blogger, I hope you link up below.  I'd love to get to know you.

Like I'm sure many of you, I'm thinking how fast this summer has sped by.  I mean, here we are in August already!  June, July -- where did you go and why did you have to go there so fast?!?  Now I'm feeling the pressure to wrap up my summer to-do list before Fall comes knocking on the door.

One of the things I wanted to do this summer was have my nephew, Landon, visit for a few days.  He starts school very soon (eeks! - like next Thursday) so Saturday I'll be picking him up and bringing him home with me.  So excited to be able to look at the world through a 12 year old again for a few days!

With school starting for so many kiddos, it makes me remember when Ian was young and the first day of school was approaching.  We had to start paying closer attention to bedtimes and wake up routines.  Anyone doing that now with their kids?

Long gone for me are the days of shopping for new school supplies and clothes.  Buying all the crayons, markers and notebooks was something Ian and I truly enjoyed doing together and it was usually topped off with a trip for ice cream.  Which brings me to another thing I'm thinking out loud about today -- school supplies and how many children walk in on the first day with nothing.

Well, there's an organization in St. Louis helping to put a stop to that!  Since opening in 2002, KidSmart has distributed over $38 million in free school supplies to 129,000 local kids in need.  That's a lot of kids guys!  And a lot of grateful teachers!



KidSmart is having a school supply drive the entire month of August called Push for Pencils.  Taking the words straight from KidSmart:

KidSmart’s Push for Pencils, the largest drive of its kind in Missouri, is a community-wide school supply drive which takes place each August. The movement is grassroots and includes more than 150 participating businesses, 50,000+ employees and individuals throughout our community. Each year, 500,000 essential school supplies are collected, and then directly distributed, to tens of thousand of local children through the KidSmart Free Educational Supply Store. More than 90,000 local, school-aged children live in poverty and often attend school without basic supplies. Supporters of this campaign believe that every child deserves a chance to have the learning tools and educational experiences they need to succeed in school and thus throughout life.

If you're interested in donating, please click HERE.  You can also find out a lot more about this organization on their website.

If you're not from the St. Louis area, my guess is there is something similar in your part of the world.  Please consider picking up an extra pack of pencils or box of crayons for the little ones who need them.   You never know how this small gesture could change someone's life.

Now it's your turn -- what are you thinking out loud about today?  Link up to Thinking Out Loud Thursday with me and Vanessa at X-tremely Vanessa . The rules are simple.  Link back to me and Vanessa in your post and add your favorite post(s) below.  Super easy!  Tell all your friends to link up too.  The more the merrier.  We'd love for you to follow us too!  #ThinkingOutLoudThursdays

Enjoy more Thoughts for Thursday at

Home of Malones

East Coast Chic

A Handful of Everything
Hodges Podges
Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop
All Life's Little Adventures

The Deliberate Mom
This is How We Roll

Let's Have a Little Baby Shower

If you read my weekending blog (HERE), you know I hosted a baby shower this past Sunday.  The shower was in honor of my upcoming nephew that I can not wait to meet!  Little Liam should be making his arrival in mid September, but if he decided to show up a little early we won't be disappointed.

Carina, the beautiful mommy-to-be, chose a nautical theme for the baby so I decided to carry that into the shower decorations.  There were so many adorable things out there!  Deciding on using an anchor as the focal point, I went to town pulling together the decorations I wanted to make.

I have to say, without my Silhouette Cameo things would not be as easy to whip up.  I made the banners, cupcake toppers and garland all by cutting designs and gluing the cut paper together.  It amazes me what a little paper will do for a party!  If you're a crafter and don't have a Silhouette, I would HIGHLY recommend you think about getting one.  Such a wonderful tool to have!!

A specific place for guests who bring a card is always a great idea.  You don't want those cards getting misplaced among the other bags and gifts.  It's super simple to grab a glass container and designate it for cards.

Paper placements were purchased from HERE and a die cut anchor was glued on the corner.  How cute are these?!?  Seriously, this entire project for 30 place mats was under $10.  Again, thank you Silhouette.

Another little touch that I love to do is put stickers on the bottom of Hershey Kisses.  People always think they are so cute and they make great treats to have for the guests to munch on.  I purchase the printable stickers from Etsy, printed them on sticker paper and cut them with a circle punch.  Again, super simple and not very expensive to pull off.

See that blue anchor backdrop behind the food table?  Guess what that is.  It's a roll of wrapping paper attached to the wall with double stick masking tape.  Such an easy, inexpensive thing to do.

Games can be so fun at showers!  I purchased some printable ones from Etsy with cute little anchors on them and placed them on decorated clip boards.  We were lucky at this shower to have tables for everyone to sit at, but that's not always the case.  The clip boards are wonderful to use if you're having a shower where people are sitting around without anything to write on.  It can be a little difficult to fill out the game cards on your lap.  If you need some of these cute little clip boards, they can be purchased HERE.

Don't you love getting a little favor when you go to a party?  Well, of course you do.  Who doesn't?  For Carina's shower I purchased printable personal stickers that fit on Bath & Body's small hand sanitizers.  They turned out so adorable.

It was a fun Sunday afternoon and I want to say a special thank you to my daughter-in-law, Kayla, for helping me.  Also my brother, mom and nephews, Mason and Landon, for helping set up.  Okay Liam -- the party is over.  It's time for you to get here so we can meet you!

Let's see what others are up to this Wednesday.

Crafty Wife
Moonlight & Mason Jars Link Party
Creative Spark Link Party
What's Up Wednesday
Home of Malones
Pennies Into Pearls
Simply Sweet Home
This post contained affiliate links.  I may receive a small commission if you click on the link and purchase.  Thanks!