Friday Favorite: Go Between

I couldn't resist posting about something dental related this week.  Afterall, it's a pretty big part of my life!  This has got to be my absolute favorite dental floss:  Johnson & Johnson Reach Gentle Gum Care Woven Floss!  It's not waxed, is gentle on the gums and really gets teeth clean in between!  Not everyone can use it (Teeth are too tight together sometimes or there are just too many rough edges from lots of dental work.), but I at least try it on every patient that sits down in my chair!

No, this is not a stamping or crafting product at all, but hey, if you don't like it, you might be able to use it like baker's twine!  :)  Just an idea.

"Floss the ones you wish to keep!"

(There.  I'll climb down off my soapbox now.)

Friday Favorite: Calm

I've always had a thing for fountains.  I think it started back when DH and I took yearly vacations in the beautiful state of Tennessee (pre-children).  There, we went hiking through the Smoky Mountains where there is an abundance of running streams and gorgeous waterfalls.  Just the sound of water trickling over rocks makes me relax.  I bought the fountain in the photo above several years ago and it's still a favorite!  DS1 is taking an interest in it now too, but more for the water and rocks.  :)  Oh, and the power cord.  Boys...

Friday Favorite: What a Steal!

I discovered this great site via Facebook and thought I'd share!  I've found some very nice steals there recently!  :)

Friday Favorite: Smile!

I don't know when it started, but I have a thing for smilies.  :)  Most notes I write to people have at least one drawn on them.  I guess I figure most people can use a smile in their lives, even if it's hand drawn on a piece of paper!  Love those little circles of happiness!  :)  A DF of mine actually found some bright yellow, foil wrapped chocolate smiles for me once (there's one in the photo above) and that just totally made my day!  I share them with my DS's when they complete their chore lists for the day.  I think they're catching on to my smiley addiction...

Friday Favorite: Got Mud?

Our back door has seen its fair share of mud lately!  DS1 & DS2 seem to be drawn to a big area of dirt at the corner of our house.  It's a place where we will eventually do some landscaping, but for now, it's their play spot.  Add water and you've got a mud pond!  I don't mind until they come happily waltzing through the back door with feet, legs and hands still covered in the gooey stuff!  Good thing this ole lady is a pro at intercepting!  :)  I'm working on getting them to at least stop and visit the hose on their way to the back door for a pre-rinse!  Boys and mud are a glorious thing.  Carpet and mud are not.

That said, here is my most recent fabulous find (Thanks, Unity Stamp Co!):

Friday Favorite: Java

A hot cup of coffee mid-morning is one thing I can't seem to give up.  I've been trying to cut back on the caffeine, though.  Lately, I've been mixing just a tiny bit of this Eight O'clock Hazelnut into my decaf. (also Eight O'clock) and it's delicious!  I'm not big on flavored coffees, but this is just the right amount of extra for me!  Hazelnut or vanilla have always been two flavors I don't mind (as long as they're not in the form of the sugary syrups).  DH and I have tried different coffees over time and have found we really like this brand!  No more Folgers.  I do like getting some organic coffee from a local coffee shop once in a while, but I usually pick some of this up when I'm grocery shopping since it means one less stop on my errand list!

Friday Favorite: It's All in the Mug!

What is it about a coffee or tea cup that either makes or breaks a good cup of coffee (or tea)?  For me, the cup has to be one I can wrap my fingers three quarters the way around (not too bulky) and light weight!  My DH, on the other hand, likes something tall and slender.  My parents and some of my friends like the big, sturdy, wide mugs.  It's all personal preference!

On our trip last weekend, my younger brother handed me a little insulated mug while I was trying to get my three little guys ready for Sunday morning church, knowing full well I wanted my coffee, but with somewhat of a guarantee it would remain fairly warm through the whole process.  (This same brother used to torment me by pulling my braids...hard!...when we were little just to get my goat!)  This little act of kindness made me smile and, afterward, I realized it was the perfect coffee cup for a mother!  I like it's a light weight, 12 oz. size and the fact that it's insulated.  How many times do you think I get distracted from my coffee in a morning?!  :)  No more microwaving for me!  Yay!

Stainless Double Walled Mug

Friday Favorite: SMASH!

I am super duper excited about my summer journaling project that's about to begin!  I've ordered two additional SMASH albums for my two oldest boys and will be following along with the Big Picture Classes Kidding Around 2 class that begins June 23!  So excited!  Did I already say that?!  :)

If you think you'd like to join in the fun, Rebekah has an entire SMASH kit up for grabs as blog candy!

Friday Favorite: Queen of the UFO's

(A.K.A.  Unfinished Objects)

Parenthood seems to have given me a sort of disorganized multi-tasking characteristic that I'm not the most proud of.  Yes, I have a lot to do as a parent, but I wish I was better at focusing and accomplishing more than I do in the course of a day, even the course of a week!  Maybe I'm a bit unrealistic when it comes to the expectations I have of myself as Queen of the Castle, but I can dream, right?!  :)
Last weekend, when my DF and I spent the day at Archiver's, I rounded a corner in the store and came across this bag:

I laughed and knew I had to have it!  It's just perfect!

As I'm typing this, I'm also in the middle of meal planning for a holiday weekend of company.  :)  My grocery list is getting made and then I need to make a grocery store run (hopefully beating the Memorial Day weekend crowd), while picking up some much needed pictures from the developer.  However, my DH has offered to pick up the pictures on his way home from the lumber yard.  Maybe that's the key to motherhood...delegation?!  I'm workin' on it.

**DON'T FORGET!!**    There's blog candy to be won!  :)
 

Friday Favorite: Chocolate Heaven

Thinking about what I was going to share as a favorite today, I suddenly realized that I haven't mentioned anything about chocolate, my daily vitamin!  :)  I've been trying to live in moderation in the chocolate world, but sometimes you just have to jump into the deep end and enjoy the creamy, melt-in-your-mouth goodness of an entire candy bar!  Recently, I stumbled across a new candy bar that may have become my new favorite!  I've always favored the 100 Grand bar with its rice crispy and caramel filling, but Milky Way has shoved that favorite aside, I'm afraid!  Introducing the new Simply Caramel bar!  One word:  YUM!

Friday Favorite: Shiny Mirrors

I grew up with Watkins products. My aunt and uncle got my parents started on them and that was that. I still love their quality spices, vanillas and extracts and use them regularly in my cooking.

More recently, they've added some new products to their cleaning product line and I decided to give their window cleaner a try as I've been wanting to find something other than Windex to clean with. I purchased the Aloe and Green Tea scent and I really like it! Wow!

I also tried the lavendar scent and, while I did like it, this aloe and green tea is my favorite!

Friday Favorite: Envelope Deals

I love to find a good deal on things that I use regularly.  I happened upon this website this week and got my order in one day!  What service!  To get the best deal, you need to buy in bulk, but I use up my envelopes pretty quickly these days!  I ordered white and red ones this time.  There are more colors to choose from, but I'm waiting until Halloween and other occasions before I order others.  I have limited space in my craft room, you know!  :)

Friday Favorite: Hydration

I love it when I actually succeed at drinking plenty of water in a day's time.  Unfortunately, I many times just plain forget to drink enough!  Problem solved.  I found this great insulated cup last week at a local store on sale for a great price and have been drinking my water faithfully ever since!

The selling features:

1.  The straw.  There's something about drinking out a straw that makes any beverage go down that much faster!  Am I the only one that notices this?

2.  The color.  When it comes to healthy things, I'm big into blues and greens.  There was no blue available (my first choice), so I picked this green color.

3.  It's see through.  I like seeing my progress.  If my water is more than half gone, I drink the rest all at once just so I can refill it!  :)

Friday Favorite: Be Inspired.

I need inspiration when it comes to scrapbooking.  I think once or twice a year I get serious about the whole scrapbooking process and really crank out some pages, but the rest of the year my scrapping days are easily counted on one hand.  Two if I'm lucky.  I want to change that this year.  I love the scrapbooking process:   the creativity, the reliving of memories, the nitty gritty details that go down on paper.  I always fall back on the ole, "I'm so busy!  I've got so many other responsibilities to juggle!" excuse.  Really, that's all it is...an excuse.  It's more a matter of managing myself, not my time.  I can find the time.  That much is obvious to me.  Changing my ole habits is another story.

This week, I discovered some scrapbooking inspiration that I am absolutely excited about!  Something that I can definitely see myself following along with!  I've started a creativity binder for my craft projects and my plan is going into action.  Today.

Here's the montly inspirational prompt site that I'm going to be following:

For planning my projects, I found a printable worksheet here!

Friday Favorite: Twine

I discovered baker's twine recently.  I love the look of it, but I've only used it on one card so far.  I think I'll be using it on more cards soon, though, because I now have a little package of several different colors staring at me from my stash!  :)

Friday Favorite: Paper Trays

I have tried a few things to organize my cardstock the past few years.  I use mainly the 8.5 x 11 size at this point.

Here's what I've tried:

File drawers:  Wasn't me.  I'm a visual person.

Plastic magazine holder type containers by Cropper Hopper:  Didn't work so well.  I found the bottom of the container bent the cardstock because of the pieces of plastic that are folded together inside.

Vertical paper storage cubes by JetMax (found at Michaels):  Was okay, but I found that since it was more for 12 x 12 sized paper/cardstock, my 8.5 x 11 got pushed to the back.  I was trying to fit color groups into one slot and they'd get all jumbled up and the scraps that I had just got lost.  *note:  I keep very small scraps in a little basket organized in clear envelopes by individual colors.

After looking around for other ideas, I gave in and ordered some of these stackable paper trays:

Each color now has its own slot.  I'm not digging through other colors to find what I want and I can see what I need to reorder with a quick glance!  For this girl that thrives on organization, I'm extremely happy!  They aren't exactly cheap, but I'm paying for them by purging some of my craft room things onto Ebay!  :)  Out with the old.  In with the new.  Gotta love spring cleaning!

Friday Favorite: It's Raining Buckets!

I love brightly colored metal buckets for organizing around the house!  This time of year I see all kinds of buckets trying to get my attention in the stores because of Easter.  Target has quite a few in their dollar section right now!  What fun!  I picked up 3 more today!  They are so fun for those little items in the house that need a place to reside, but don't belong in a drawer!  I'm a visual person, so having things out where I can see them (and where I can be reminded that I own them...) is a good thing!  If our roof ever leaks, we'll be prepared.  LOL!  Really, I do not own that many!  :)

Friday Favorite: It's a Kit Thing

These days, I'm all for craft kits.  They're time savers, let me tell ya, and with three little ones roaming the house, I love time savers!  I'm working on a scrapbook kit for 2011, called Project Life by Becky Higgins.  I'm having so much fun taking pictures and documenting our family's daily life!  The whole family likes to get the album out from time to time and see what I've taken pictures of and what I've journaled!  Each weekend, I do the previous week's journaling and organize, edit and upload the photos to WalMart (my only decent local option) whenever I've got a handful to print and will be running errands.  How easy is that?!  Makes the historian component of motherhood that much easier!

Friday Favorite: Kitchen Helpers

It's the little things that make such a big difference for me.  I had a 30% off coupon for Kohls that was good for the last seven days and I couldn't resist grabbing a couple more packages of these wonderful microfiber cloths while shopping their clearance racks this week!  The package says they are actually dish towels, but I think they may be mislabeled because they are the size of the washcloths I bought some time ago!  They stay soft and wipe things up so nicely!  I won't buy another regular wash cloth again!  Here is the link on the Kohls website if you've been looking for new washcloths!  :)

Friday Favorite: Picture Addiction

I'll admit it.  I love pictures.  Up until a couple years ago, though, I had all my pictures stored in their original store envelopes, not in any particular order.  I came across the book called, Photo Freedom and was instantly hooked on the concept!  Today, I am proud to say that my pictures are organized and ready to scrapbook whenever I have the time and energy!  Don't worry, I am limiting myself to fifteen of these albums.  When they are full, I must either purge or scrapbook!  :)  Thanks, Stacy Julian!