Fab Friday!! 12/5/14

LOL!!  Have a groovy weekend!

Pink Peppermint Christmas Cookies Recipe

Pink Peppermint Christmas Cookies!

The best part of the cookie exchange was I got to taste these wonderful cookies!  I love chocolate so I was excited!  But to my surprise it had a peppermint flavor to them.  OH YUM!  The tin was adorable too!

Be sure to stop by Midwestern Moms to snag this recipe and pin it for later use!

I will be making these for the upcoming Holiday!

Thank you, Devon!

OH MY YUM!!! Sugar Cookies

My favorite bloggers and I decided to exchange cookies this year!  This recipe for Sugar Cookies is the one I chose because it is near and dear to my heart.  It's an old family recipe that has been made by my Mom, Aunt, Grandmother, Great Grandmother and now being made by my Sister and myself!

3 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 cup butter
1 pint buttermilk
7 cups flour
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 heaping teaspoons baking powder with the flour
4 level teaspoons baking soda in the buttermilk

Cream butter and sugar; add other ingredients and mix well; alternating the flour and milk.  Drop by large tablespoons on a cookie sheet.  Bake at 375 about 10 minutes (brown around the edges).

Decorate with red and green sugar crystals or frost them after they cool.  YUMMY!

The Erin Condren Life Planner

So I have taken the plunge.  I did it.  I've been looking (drooling) at the Erin Condren life planner for over a year now.  When I was looking for an editorial calendar for my blog I looked at these but couldn't justify the price for blog use only.  But I came back to them recently and I decided to get one.  Not really for my blog but just for my life in general.  As you can see from the above picture, the presentation of this planner is so pretty!  I love the design of the box and tissue paper inside tells me I'm about to open an awesome product.  The picture on the far left is the cover I chose and my name.  The bands and markers are sold separately.

I'm so glad I did it!  I am in love!  No really...I am.  It sounds strange, but I love all things stationary and this thing is pretty sweet.  It may seem like an ordinary planner but it's not.

Target has cute stuff for planners!

 I've had fun buying things for my planner (don't tell my husband!).  I've found cute stuff at Target, Michael's, AC Moore and Hobby Lobby.  Etsy shops make cute stickers and accessories too!

My planner buddy is AWESOME!

In the EC (Erin Condren) world of planners, you can join facebook groups.  These women are so creative and I get inspiration from them.  You can also sign up for a planner buddy (like pen-pal in the OLD days LOL).  My planner buddy is from New York and she sent me a box full of goodies!  I was in shock.

My first week with my life planner

There is definitely a technique.  I know this sounds cRaZy to all that do not get the planner thing.  There are so many ways to decorate.  I like to use mine as a creative outlet.  I use the note pages in the back as an art journal.

My favorite song lyrics

My favorite Bible verses

Another picture of my planner - like my OMG sticker?  hehe

My doodle of a girl jumping for joy

So you see, this is more than just a calendar.  I hope you enjoyed this sneak peak in to my life planner!  If you are interested in getting yourself one, use my referral link!  You get $10 off your first purchase and I also get $10 on a future purchase!  SCHWEET!

Click HERE to order one of your own!







PS:  This is not a sponsored post by Erin Condren - I used my own money to purchase my Life Planner and all accessories for it - all thoughts and opinions are my own!  I love this planner so much that I wanted to share with you all.  If you use my referral link (as mentioned above) you will receive $10 off your first purchase and I will also receive $10 on a future purchase.  Happy shopping!

Fab Friday!! 10/10/14

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Have a groovy weekend!

Finish This! 21st edition

I've missed a couple of these over the past month....But I'm back!  And as always I am linking up through these lovely ladies:

Nicole @ Three 31 http://nicoleandkevin.wordpress.com/

Lisa @ Coastlined http://lisadenoia.com/

Jen @ The Arizona Russums http://www.theazrussums.com/

Becky @ The Java Mama http://www.thejavamama.com/

Let's get to it!

I can change the world by:  This is a HUGE statement.  I honestly do not know the answer to this.  But perhaps I could share something I saw a few days ago on a Church sign:  "A kind word could change someones entire day".  THIS I feel could change the world if we all did this.  I am also a believer of smiling at people.  :)

The best career advice I ever received:  "Fake it till you make it"  YEP!  I remember someone telling me this when I gave real estate a try a few years back.  I was struggling with having to know all this information and I will never forget them saying that.  The thought behind that statement would be kind of like being confident even if you are unsure of yourself.  And boy was I ever unsure of myself.

I first fell in love:   When I was about 15!!  SO YOUNG!  Then again when my daughter was born.  

Now it's your turn!  How would you answer these?

Prompts for WEEK 41– October 15
I feel like a bad-ass when
One thing that always cheers me up
The quote I live by

Fall is upon us!

(**This post may contain affiliate links, which means that at no cost to you, I receive a small commission if you make a purchase using the provided links**)

OK...seriously!!!  It's October ALREADY?  This can not be.  I blinked and summer was over.  :::sad face:::  Where I live, it wasn't very "hot" this summer, so it really feels like we didn't have one.  We had a lot of rain.  blah.  But here we are.  And I've been missing from my blog for almost a month!  A lot has happened so I thought I would catch you up with some words and pictures.  :)

So excited to attend Bloggy Bootcamp in Philadelphia!

On September 5 & 6th I was very excited to attend the Women Get Social / Bloggy Bootcamp!  I learned a lot and met tons of fellow bloggers!  What a weekend!  My brain is still swimming with all the information they gave us.

Penn's Landing - Philadelphia PA

After Bloggy Bootcamp, hubby picked me up and we stayed in the city for the evening.  Walked around Penn's Landing and had dinner on the Moshulu boat pictured above.  We had a wonderful time!

Beautiful Cape May NJ

Then hubby and I took a long weekend trip to Cape May, NJ.  We love this little sea-side town!  And I got to be near my therapist (AKA:  the ocean).  There is so much history in this little Victorian town.  I highly recommend reading the book "Historic Cape May New Jersey, The summer city by the sea" by Emil R. Salvini.  Wonderfully written and very informative.

boardwalk fun!!

And I can not go to the Jersey Shore with out visiting the boardwalk where I grew up going to!  Ocean City!  Lots of fun things to do there!  And it is a wonderful family oriented place.

My Heather-Feather and me!

The following weekend, my baby-girl moved out on her own!  I am sad and happy for her all at the same time.  Here we are sharing breakfast together a week after she moved out.  HA!

Beautiful farm land & tree colors around our development

It seems as though the color changes are happening so quick.  Every time I look at the trees they are more and more changed.

My project

Then comes some home improvement time.  My weekend project was painting the front door.  The old color is on the left, new color on the right.  It looks fabulous!

Such an improvement!

While I was painting the door, hubby and a friend were taking the shutters off our house and painting them.  That is no joke!  Up the ladder to take them off, down the ladder to paint, let dry, climb back up the ladder to put them back on.  Glad it wasn't me.  LOL

Old color on top, new color on the bottom

BOOM!  There's the finished project!  YAY!

Then we followed that up with fall decorating this weekend.  I love fall, but I do not like what it brings.....old man winter.  YUCK!  But we had fun decorating the front porch.

We had fun picking out our decorations

Pretty colors!

LOVE the outside orange lights

So while I feel bad for neglecting my blog over the past month, I had fun being busy doing family stuff. I am back and my goal for October is to get back to writing 2-3 times a week. 

What have YOU been up to?  Did you decorate for fall?  Tell me in the comments!

Fab Friday!! 9/12/14

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I do....I really really do.

Have a groovy weekend!

4 signs that you should make a career change...

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LOL The thought has crossed my mind......my career has been weighing very heavy on my mind lately.  I'm 44 and feel like I'm going nowhere.  I've been at the same company for almost 25 years (with a 9 month break in there somewhere to try my hand at real estate).  So where am I going?  I don't know.  The unknown is freaky.  So I've come up with 4 signs that might give you a hint that it's time....time for a change.

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You day-dream about what kind of adult beverage you're going to have when you get home......OH YES!  This is so me lately.  I think about it often.  It takes the edge off, you know?  Helps me forget the days happenings and relax.  C'mon!  Who doesn't like an adult beverage????  (OK OK, maybe not every night of the week....)

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You start to finish the sentences of the people calling you......  Yep, I do that sometimes.  People will call in and they sometimes are confused, not sure what they mean, or just really don't know what they are talking about.  It takes a lot of patience to sit there and listen to them ramble.  Sometimes I help them out.....LOL

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You do not speak on the phone outside of your job...... Ohhhhh yea....totally me again. Seriously....text me...do not call.  LOL  Growing up (ask my Mommy!!) I used to L-O-V-E being on the phone.  I had all my friend's phone numbers memorized.  I would yap on the phone till my Mom told me it was time to get off.  Now?  I rarely answer my cell phone.  Just the thought of talking sometimes makes me cringe.  Guess that is what happens after 25 years of yacking on the phone for a living.  Sad, but true.  So if I talk to you on the phone.....consider yourself lucky!  :)

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You start to express your opinions to management more.....  Well...this might be your personality normally.  But for me, I usually do not do this.  However, lately I find myself expressing myself more and more.  Maybe I'm just getting older, or beginning not to really care what they think of me.  The above "someecard" is funny to me....I say we are treated like mushrooms all the time.  LOL!


So there you have my 4 signs.  Can you relate to these?  Tell me in the comments!