All in Household
While celebrating Christmas with my mom's extended family, I noticed a neat thing my cousin Amy did. In her kitchen, she displayed a napkin from her and her husband's, Jon, wedding. She displayed it in a cute picture frame that matched the colors of their kitchen. It was actually the perfect place for their napkin based on its surroundings and such. I thought it was such a cute idea, I decided to copy it. Check out my copy below.
Brad and I have been Costco members since we were engaged. We joined to buy some of the things we needed for our wedding. We continued to be members because we purchased most of our meats and bulkier items there. Well recently the yearly membership fee went up, and we started to question whether we should make the move to Sam's Club. I loved Costco so much, but it was becoming more expensive for us. Plus it was located on the far end of town, so we had to make a special effort to go there. Sam's Club is much more centrally located. The nail on the coffin for Costco was a coupon book we purchased from a neighbor's child. It contained a coupon for a Sam's Club membership. For joining, you received a $15 gift card. And membership was already cheaper than Costco. So the combo was too much of a deal to pass up. Our philosophy was that we could re-join Costco next year if we hate Sam's.
Brad was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes back in December. He was basically told that he needed to eat more frequently (and better, of course) to better maintain his blood sugar. We were able to adjust to this during December because he was off of work for most of the month. However, when he went back to work, it turned out to be a huge adjustment. We found our method for packing his lunches that we used in the past would not work. It was very last minute and unorganized for the most part. I would pack as many non-perishables as I could in his lunch box, then he would pack all the cold things the next morning. This seems easy enough, but now there was much more he needed to include. Here is what I did:
Over the last week, we have had a few "snow days". In most cases, if there is a chance of snow, schools begin to close. Schools closed Friday, Tuesday, and Wednesday [so far!]. And since Monday was a holiday, they were out of school then too. My husband's work also was cancelled for Friday and Tuesday. Friday was lackluster, and we didn't get any snow. However, Tuesday we did get some. It wasn't a lot by any means, but it was enough to get out and play in for a bit. This was Melody's first opportunity to really play in snow. She seemed to really love it. So much so, she wasn't very happy to come back inside!
Over the summer, I discovered a company called Alabama Bliss. It is a small company back in Muscle Shoals. It is a really unique place. It is a boutique offering clothing and accessories; they have a cafe serving both food specials daily and coffee; they offer grocery delivery; and [what this post is about] they have take home meals that you can cook at home later.
Having a one year old and being a stay at home mom, I have to find ways to clean our house easily and in a short amount of time. Melody follows me around and likes to be right underneath me, so I don't want to spend all day cleaning. I usually clean early in the morning right after she gets up. She is happiest during this time of day, and she will usually play more without being right under me. So this gives me an hour or so a day to clean or do some sort of chore. I can also do some things during her naps, but I usually like to decompress and blog during that time. So below are just three things that I feel have made a huge difference in my household cleaning!
I have always seen the Today Show's Steals and Deals, but I have never found anything I really wanted or could justify buying. Well Brad and I love to buy and make iced coffee. One day they had a steal for a cold brew coffee maker. It was $24 for the coffee maker as well as the travel bottle. The total of those items were $55, so that is quite a bit of savings!
A few years ago I posted a budget spreadsheet template that we have been using regularly. This year I decided to make a change to next year's spreadsheet. I wanted to put all of the entries in one tab instead of individual monthly tabs. I did this so that we had a better view for the entire year if we wanted to view it that way. You can still filter by month if you want to view it that way too. The budget itself is still by month, but you can still view it yearly too. I have been using this new version for September and so far in October, and we have loved it. I wanted to go ahead and share it with you all in case you want to start working on your 2018 budget!
A few years ago I did a post about how I make our monthly menu and grocery lists. A lot about how I do that has not changed, but I did want to update you on how I actually decide on our meals these days. Being a stay at home mom means cooking in a lot more. Having a baby means not traveling and going out as much in general. So I have had to make a few adjustments to my process. The steps are still the same for the most part. I will refer to each of the steps and note any changes I have made to accommodate our new needs.
Recently I decided I wanted to learn how to fold a fitted sheet. Our sheet drawer was getting super junky, and I was having trouble fitting all of our sheets in them. So I did some googling, and I found out how! See below.
Brad and I purchased the Ring doorbell back in August last year. We talked about doing it for awhile, but we wanted to keep looking for that "best" deal. On one of our first dates after having Melody, we decided to make a trip to Costco. I know, I know. You are thinking "Costco for a date?", but hey, we love Costco. AND we were not ready to take Melody to Costco yet. We have obviously taken her since then though!
One thing I have always wanted in our kitchen is under cabinet lighting. One day while visiting Costco, we found a deal on some puck lights. I can't exactly remember how much they cost, but Amazon now sells the exact same ones for $23. They are made by Capstone and come with 6 wireless lights and a remote. We decided to test these out to see if we would really like the lighting. We do love having the lights, and we hope to install something more permanent in the future.
Brad bought me a Silhouette Cameo 3 for Christmas last year. I wanted one for a while, and I was ecstatic when he finally bought me one. I started doing projects almost immediately. As you may have read, a lot of Melody's first birthday was done using my Cameo. Below are some of the projects I have done so far!
When we did our recent bathroom remodel, we ran into a small hazard. After installing the new toilet paper holder onto the side of the cabinet, I noticed that the screws came through the cabinet. So when you would open the cabinet to get a towel out, you could potentially cut your hand on the screw. This was not the case with our previous toilet paper holder. We needed to come up with a solution to this so that we didn't end up with scarred hands!
Our house contains two bathrooms, a master bathroom and a guest bathroom. Our guest bathroom did not necessarily have a theme. We had a lot of red and gold throughout the bathroom. The walls were beige, and we do not use a shower curtain because we have a shower door instead. After having Melody, we decided we wanted to revamp the bathroom to make it kid-friendly. We started looking into decorations and paint colors late February, and we began work at the end of March. While this wasn't a full remodel, we did repaint and redecorate.
I have said this many times, but it is truly so hard to believe our little baby is ONE! I wanted a fun themed birthday party for Melody, but I didn't want to do a theme that she may want to do one day in the future. So Brad and I came up with an ice cream themed party. I personally loved the end result of the party, and it seemed to go over well with our family and friends. Below are some general birthday party pictures. This was a very DIY party, so I plan to post about all of the mini-projects that were involved. I will link them as they are posted, so be on the lookout for those if you are interested!
I have a LOT of door hangers. I am most positive I have one for every holiday and season. I have so many, they have literally just been shoved wherever I can find a space for them. This creates two problems. One, I sometimes forget I even have a door hanger for a specific holiday or season. In that case, I either buy a new one or I never get use out of the one I have. Two, closets become super cluttered. I have even started putting outdoor door hangers on inside doors! Brad had a great idea. He thought we could just hang them on the wall of our garage. We bought nails a few months ago, and we finally implemented the door hanger storage solution a few weeks ago. See the before and after below. Oh, and those aren't even CLOSE to all of the door hangers I have. Those were just the ones outside in the garage. I have quite a few in the closets in our house I need to get!
Infants are tricky when it comes to Easter because they are much more limited on the toys they can play with and the food they can eat. Instead of buying a pre-made basket (although I found some cute ones at Target in their baby section), I decided to make one. I made both Melody and her best friend, Lydia, baskets. Check them out below:
A while back I did a post about toys we like for our 0-4 month old. I decided to do an updated post but with 4-6 month toys. You may notice some similarities, but I think because of their constantly learning brains, they are finding new ways to play with the same old toys. This isn't an all inclusive list. Believe me, Melody has way too many toys, but these are some of the toys that she tends to gravitate towards.
Unlike years' past, I decided not to do a post for each room of our house and the Christmas decor that we did. To be honest, I am most positive all of our decor did not even go up this year. That has been the holiday trend now that I have an infant. So below are the different areas of our home and how we decorated them all for Christmas this year! Enjoy!
