Crowdtap Party

I was chosen to do a party through Crowdtap for the new movie Hotel Transylvania.
There ended up being 13 kids, which was kind of a strange coincidence!

The kids colored  pictures from the downloadable party pack that Crowdtap provided for my party use. They also gave me the idea of doing monster cupcake decorating. So I baked a bunch of cupcakes and let the kids decorate them with candy. They didn't end up looking much like monsters, but the kids had a great time!

Thanks, Crowdtap, for choosing me as a party host!
If you're interested in joining Crowdtap so that you can have a chance to do some of the fun activities they offer, click on the link below. If you have facebook, the sign up process takes only a few seconds!

Crowdtap and Old Navy Sample Share

If you've been reading my blog for long, you know I'm a member of Crowdtap. You've probably also seen my posts about some of the cool opportunities I've been given by Crowdtap and the Old Navy Style Council. 

There was the swimsuit sample share that I blogged about HERE 

and the Bottoms Bonanza that I blogged about HERE.

Well, I was recently chosen again and this sample share was even better!

 

I was chosen for an Old Navy Cardi Party! Now, I'll be honest with you, I have a couple of cardigans that I love, but I've also seen an awfully lot of cardigans that look like an old lady, to me. So I was a bit hesitant. I knew I would be able to bring along 3 friends. For me, choosing friends is always the hardest part (besides choosing between which 2 items I want for free!). I want to make sure the group will be comfortable together, but this time I just picked a couple people randomly. My sister-in-law, Emily, came along. So did my friend Ramona, and my mom. And you know what? We had an awesome time!

I was so excited when the coupons came in the mail a couple days before the party. Not only did we each get a free cardigan, but we also got a free scarf AND a free skirt! Seriously, Old Navy is VERY generous to Crowdtappers.  Here are some of the fun outfits we tried out.

There were a lot more, but here's a little idea. It was so much fun! After we shopped, we went out to eat at Carino's. It was a nice shopping trip and it was so great to be without the kids for a few hours :)

Fresh Pizza Sauce

Every summer I think, we will not buy as many tomato plants next year. But then spring comes around, and I get gardening fever. I go to buy my plants (I used to start my own, but I'm too lazy now) and I see that it's cheaper to buy a 4 pack than it is to buy a single plant. And I like variety! So by the time I pick out some type of cherry tomato, a Roma, an heirloom, and an Early Girl or Big Beef or something, I've already got 16 plants.

16 tomato plants!!!

So I always end up with too many tomatoes.

We eat pizza a lot. Too much, really. But if my hubby had it his way, we would alternate between hamburgers and pizza, and that would basically be it. So our compromise is pizza once a week. I know, that's a ton (we alternate between pepperoni, chicken alfredo, and bbq chicken, but still....).

So I try to kill 2 birds with one stone by using some of those tomatoes for fresh pizza sauce.  And I usually make this times 5 or 6, and then I freeze the extras in ice cube trays. After frozen solid, I put them in a ziploc bag and just pull out as much as I want.

This is the easiest pizza sauce EVER!

1 clove Garlic
1 Tbs. fresh Basil
1 tsp. Salt
pinch of Pepper
1/4 tsp. Sugar
1 tsp. dried Oregano
2 Tbs. Oil (I use Olive)
2 Ripe Tomatoes
Tomato Paste to desired thickness

Blend the garlic and basil in a food processor-- you may have to scrape the sides a couple of times. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend without liquifying.

That's it!

Funny

I saw this on Pinterest, and I had a good chuckle, so I'm sharing it.

Woolite Sample Share for Crowdtap

I had the privilege of being chosen for a sample share event for Woolite Extra Dark Care.

I received 10 samples in the mail, and each one had a $1 off coupon with it, as well.

Woolite Extra Dark Care is formulated for jeans, dark clothing, t-shirts, wool sweaters, you name it. It works great! I loved the way my jeans felt after I ran a load. 

I kept one sample for myself, and then gave my other 9 samples away to family, since we have had a lot of family things going on lately, and I figured that would be the best way to distribute them. So far, I've heard back from a couple family members, and they also loved the way their jeans came out of the wash (no one I have heard from has washed anything else with their sample). The only negative feedback I've heard is that Woolite is kind of expensive, even with the coupon. For some reason, it never seems to go on a good sale, and as couponers, most of my female family members wouldn't pay $10 for 25 loads of laundry. SOOO, if a good sale happened, I bet we would all snatch a bunch up!

If you are interested in becoming a part of Crowdtap, so that you can be eligible for awesome sample shares, parties, and more (all while earning Amazon gift cards and giving money to a charity), visit the following link. The sign-up process is simple and fast, and the earning is so easy!

 

Paper Wreath

I just finished making a wreath, and I LOVE how it turned out.

I basically followed the tutorial you will find HERE, but I used a 12" wreath form, since that's what I had on hand.

For my embellishment, I freehanded cutting out a flower in 2 sizes from a felted sweater that used to be my daughters. I didn't like the way it fit her, but I liked the texture and color, so I felted it and put it away in my fabric drawer. I knew eventually I would find a great craft for it!

I used 6 sheets of 12"x12" scrapbooking paper, but I ended up with about 70 extra loops. You just cut the paper into 1"x4" strips, hot glue them in half, and hot glue them around the wreath form. The tutorial I linked is fabulous!

The only change I made to it was adding a 1" wide strip of paper around the center of the wreath, because you could see my ugly green foam wreath form, and it didn't look too cute.

So there you have it! I love my new wreath!

Praying the Psalms

Okay, I've done terrible on blogging my Psalm prayers.
I apologize. I've been praying them, but some days they are very personal, and other days I just have a hard time finding the time to sit down and write a blog, with my wild 2 year old, and my whiny 1 year old.
And I guess part of it comes from the fact that I'm getting no feedback about it-- is anyone even reading these posts? Because if no one is, then I won't feel guilty for just reading and praying the Psalms, but not blogging them!