Chi's and Coupons

So girls, this past weekend I experienced a life-changing moment. Now, I'm not pregnant (although I was recently asked, ugh), we're not moving, and I'm still jobless. Ha. In all of my 26 years here on this wide green Earth, I have never been the proud owner of a Chi flat iron. Until now!


Whoo-hoo! I purchased this beauty on sale at JCPenney, and can't believe I'm just now entering the Chi world. Wow!Their sale flyer even had a coupon, so I got it for way less than the original retail price. I was pumped to say the least. I have the thickest hair known to man, and it used to seriously take me over an hour to straighten my hair to get it looking even halfway decent. This baby slashes the time at least in half! I couldn't be more happy with my latest beauty purchase! :)

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On another note, I recently attended my first COUPONING CLASS! (It was a weekend of firsts for me, ok?) I know surely you have heard of this little show:

Source

I've been trying to dabble in couponing for a while now, and I guess with this little show it's caught my attention just like the rest of America. Major box stores such as a Kroger and Wal-Mart have even changed their store coupon policies as a result of this show. Anywho, this class was hosted by my cousin's sister in law, and they went over the basics and showed some of the deals they had recently gotten and how much they paid vs how much they saved. Who doesn't want to save some money in this day and age!? Huh? Hello, is anyone there? Now, I love a good deal and clipping coupons, but you will NEVER see me clear a store's shelf just because something is cheap or *free.* I can't tell you how many times I've checked a favorite coupon website to see a good deal, gone to said store, and the product mentioned be COMPLETELY OUT OF STOCK. It's so aggravating! This was a Christian-based couponing class, and they stressed thinking "of your neighbor"and only taking what you NEED. If you've ever seen the TLC show you see the stockpiles that some of these crazy people have. Who honestly needs 500 rolls of toilet paper, or 30 bottles of mustard? Let's get real here people! I thought I'd list a few of my favorite couponing websites for those of you who are interested in saving some money and finding the deals! :) (You'll thank me later!)

Trust me, after you get that first good deal by using the sales and a coupon, you'll be hooked!

Mrs. Bees' Favorite Coupon Websites:

www.stockpilingmoms.com

www.krazycouponlady.com (recently featured on"Extreme Couponing")

www.southernsavers.com

www.couponmom.com

www.hotcouponworld.com

Just a hint: These websites do all the leg work for you, they scope out the deals for various products, tell you the price, where to find a coupon, and the final price you will pay. Now, coupons are very regional, so these that I have listed work well for Central Kentucky and the surrounding areas. If you live elsewhere, I would search for other websites that may be more beneficial for you!

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Also, I recently found a super cute blog that pulled at my bargain-finding heartstrings:

Miss Lindsey, over at The Bargain Blonde, has all kinds of sweet stuff on finding beauty bargains! She recently wrote a review on ELF $1 False Eyelashes, and I have to say, I am in LOVE with the ELF line of cosmetics! I had tried some of their stuff a looooong time ago, maybe in high school, and had forgotten about it until recently reading several of my favorite bloggies boasting about how great this stuff is. So, what did I do? Of course I ran to Target and grabbed up 5 new items to test out. ELF's line of makeup is mostly $1, $3, and $5 price points.

Hello, Awesomeness~!

I'll let you know what I think in an upcoming post! I'm still playing with all my new ELF goodness!

XOXOXO

PS-I jazzed up the blog a little with new buttons and a new background, lemme know what you think :)

A little DIY Action

So I've always been told "Courtney, you're so crafty!" by friends and family, especially through high school and college. I will admit I love a good craft or three, and I'm a paper & pen junkie, but I'm really just beginning to dip my toes into the whole DIY world. Mr. Bee is pretty darn good at getting his hands dirty and producing wonderful results. Just within the past two weeks, he has constructed a storage building in our backyard for our lawnmower and tools he doesn't frequently use. {*More on that later, this is about MY project!* :)}

Some time ago we were out perusing flea markets and yard sales, and my eyes spied a lovely little footstool. (Yes, we sometimes feel like Grandma and Gramps, looking at flea markets! Mos of the time, we are the younges LOL) My wallet smiled too, because if memory serves correctly, I believe I only shelled out about $5.00-$7.00 for the thing. It's been so long ago that I don't have or just can't find a picture of how she originally looked in all her circa 1992 glory. I will say she had a dark cherry stain and country blue cushion.

Here's a picture of the cushion, a' la Home Interior 1992:

In other words, "it ain't my style!"

So what's a DIY girlie to do? I grabbed a can of spray paint and a yard of much cuter fabric and got to work!

Step 1: PAINT-

My weapon of choice: Krylon Indoor/Outdoor White Gloss. Simple as that. I will say that I had previously painted the legs with a different type of spraypaint, and it was an ugly flat color. So I guess it sort of served as my primer, ha! So really this was my second go-round with getting this footstool back into action!

Step 2: FABRIC-
Next, I began to cover the cushion with my new fabric while I waited on the paint to dry. I completed this project on my front porch while my daughter played nearby. The sky was overcas, so the pics are a little blueish. I basically layed the cushion over my lap and wrapped the fabric around it. I then used Mr. Bee's staple gun to staple the fabric to the bottom of the cushion.

Stapled around the corners:

The newly re-covered cushion with my handy staple gun:

~Voila!~

The finished project:

(So proud I actually started and finished a project, even a small one like this, ha!)

I have the perfect spot for this little jewel...our home office/treadmill room :)

Have a great Wednesday! :)

A Little Bit of Randomness...

So...first of all, let me just say how SHOCKED I am that I am actually blogging while sitting on my front porch! Little Miss is playing in the lava rock and her Radio Flyer wagon, and we actually have a slight breeze blowing!

(photo from Instgram app on my iPad, so if the quality is poor, there's my excuse!)

The past few days in the 'ol Bluegrass have been quite unbearable! The humidity is out of control, people!

Anyway, So excited that "So You Think You Can Dance" is back! This season is going to be amazing! I'm still mourning the finales of my favorite shows (Greys, Vampire Diaries, etc) but I really think that my poor little DVR needs a break!

I'm feeling so blessed at this point to be home with Little Miss, but girls let me tell ya, after working for so many years, and for the past year and a half going to grad school full-time on top of work, this little homebody is getting a little cabin-feverish! LOL My husband would say I'm just never satisfied, and I try to roll my eyes and protest, but he's usually right! (Shhhh!) I'm the girl who LOVES buying a new planner just to mark and scratch all in it! It's definitely been an adjustment so to speak! Especially the whole not being able to run to my favorite stores and buy new pretties, now that we are down to one income! It's a new adventure! ;)

However, I did just recently celebrate my 26th birthday. (Now officially closer to 30 than 20, man I feel old!) I say all that to say this: I got a new pretty! My parents instead of actually buying me a gift, gave me money so that I could buy my own. Now normally, I like to hoard gift cards and whatnot, but with this shopping dry spell, it didn't last long! Bought a DIY project kit at Hobby Lobby, (more on that later!) AND because I am a certified bargainista, I hit up my local TJ Maxx. (LOVE that freakin place!)

And this beauty found her way into my arms and heart:

My newest baby, chillin with the Petunia's I've manage to keep alive for more than a few days...

For months now, maybe even a year, I had been pining for a tan Michael Kors addition to my collection. Howev, after perusing the aisles and not finding what I liked, or anything in my little price range, I decided on the sweet little Cynthia Rowley number seen above! She will be an excellent neutral "go-to" bag!

At least I can enjoy my MK sunglasses:

Night ya'll!

Jewelry Love...

No matter how many pieces I accumulate...I LOVE buying new jewelry!

For our one year anniversary last summer, my wonderful, loving, thoughtful hubby bought me this:

Tiffany & Co. Tiffany Notes Round tag bracelet. It's one of my favorite pieces! As much as I love it dearly, {and him for thinking of it}, it's my ONLY piece of blue heaven at this point in time. I'm all for quality over quantity, but I love buying cheap trendy pieces of jewelry to update my wardrobe. I hate clothes shopping, and I rarely buy any new clothes unless I'm in a certain mood. Instead I use jewelry for updates. I love going to my jewelry box each morning and picking out each piece for the day!

I always wear my watch & wedding set, and most days a ring on my other hand, a bracelet, earrings, and a necklace also. (Wow, listing all of that out sounds like overkill, but most of my jewelry is simple silver.)

I was browsing around on my lunch break today and found these lovelies at various stores:

This multi-strand beauty can be found at Lerner New York for $29.95. I love the black ribbon woven through the chain...

And for a sizzlin' summer evening...Belk: Nine West Bright Things Worn, orginally $95.00, on sale for $71.25. Would be very cute with a maxi dress and other skinny bangles.

I also love big, gaudy cocktail rings...With a larger statement piece, you can leave the rest at home. Too many things and it will be overwhelming...

I thought this was cute from The Limited: $19.50

Next up is a new browsing favorite: All the Rage Online: $27.00

For other recessionistas out there-The following pieces are all $10.00 and under! Found at http://www.alltherageonline.com/

I love these earrings: $9.00

Cute bangles: Also $9.00!

Another pair of very cute and summery earrings; $5.00!!

OK, my virtual shopping trip is over for now...hope you got some cute jewelry ideas for the sweet summertime!

Wedding Season is Upon Us...

It's here! That part of the year that usually begins in May and runs through the end of July, with a spattering in August, September, October and November...Wedding Season! In light of these upcoming joyous occasions, I have compiled a list of "wedding wear" that I think would be super cute...

Shall we begin?

I'll start with this cute little number, found at our lovely friend Ann's:

This little black piece is currently on sale for the low low price of $59.88. It's 100% polyester, dry clean only that was originally $229.00! Talk about a mark down.

Next up is from J. Crew, and is a bit out of my budget at $225.00, but I still loved it...It's listed as a bridesmaid dress, but I thought it would also work for a guest.

Instantly, I was in love with this from White House Black Market. It is currently $148.00

If you're feelin like a haute mama, this adorable dress can be found at Lerner New York & Co. It retails for $56.95.

And for those recessionistas out there, like myself, here's this flirty little floral from none other than Cato! This cute little sheath dress is only $29.99!

Enjoy!

Ooooh, ooooh…pretty for the day!

I’ve noticed that here lately, every actress and “celebrity” around has been sporting cute chic little round pendant necklaces, whether it be on TV, in the movies, etc. And they’ve been gold and silver, all shapes and sizes…I’ve been looking for a pendant necklace like this for forever, and have had no success finding one that I loved. UNTIL TODAY! I had ideally wanted one with Baby A’s initial, or the hubby’s initial, to wear close to my heart. And find I did on one of my favorite sites, Etsy.
I’m seriously considering the following two choices:

They aren't as shiny or "expensive" looking as what I've seen, but I like that you could just throw them on with jeans and cute shirt, and they would look good...And they are sooo inexpensive! The one on top is $20.00 and the one on the bottom with the single initial is only $18.00! What a steal! These are handmade by tinytokendesign

Which one do you like best?

Before & After: Round 1

The most recent room re-do we just finished is our baby girl's nursery! Before, this was basically the "office/catch-all/junk/least-worked-on" room in the entire house...We were more concerned with the more lived in areas of our home...and therefore this pitiful room fell to the back burner, maroon carpet be danged...(Which, as you will see in later posts, was not only in this room, but also the living room, master bedroom, hallway, and guest bedroom...*shudder*) So, you can imagine my immense joy when that hideous excuse for flooring was replaced! Basically, we slapped on some random blue color and threw some curtains on the window and presto! We were officially finished with that room...for at least a year and couple of months...sad, I know...but we had better things to do...like make babies...LOL.

Hideous maroon carpet is barely visible in this picture...but trust me, it's there!

Ahhh...that's better! Pretty pink and light cream walls with a little chair rail...there is nothing paint cannot fix! Not to mention new carpet! (Baseboards are now down, in case you were wondering...)


Her bedding that I just had to have...which was also a *deal* found at TJ Maxx in Cincinnati...Wendy Bellissimo's "Floral Patchwork", which originally retailed for $229.99, and was even on sale at BRU for $129.99...yeah, we paid $79.99 for the set! I love a good deal! It's adorable...I couldn't have lived with myself if I had passed this up..


My mom and I after the shower...we are so blessed! You can kind of see a little more of the room and decor...we've since added more to the walls, etc. I'll post a better picture later...