These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

With only SIX shopping days left, I thought I'd give you a few ideas of what to get for your favoritest BFF :o)

My number one must-have this time of the year is coffee!  I can't get enough of waking up to the smell of my coffee already brewed for me.  I drag myself out of my bed just for that first sip.  I love, love, love it and can't get enough of it!  My coffee maker is like a third child to me.  She's fabulous!  

Obviously you need a super cute mug to drink your cup 'o joe, right?  Why buy any mug when you can paint a beautiful one yourself?  I painted mine at Bisque It Pottery Painting Studio.  

My coffee of choice is from the good people at Kroger.  I actually put the Private Selection Gourmet Chocolate Raspberry coffee on my Christmas list this year!  SO good!

Because I sip on my coffee all day long, I like to bring it to work in my Stanley Thermos.  This puppy keeps it hot all day long!

  

 

Even though I don't think I'll reach my goal of 40 books read this year, I haven't stopped reading!  For the bookworm on your list, you can NOT go wrong with Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series.  I may or may not have number 17 under my tree :o)

Another great series is James Patterson's Alex Cross series.  I'm working my way through number nine right now and can't wait to read the rest!

 

I remember in eighth grade my friend and I would wear the same sweatshirt every single Thursday!  I SO wish I had that sweatshirt still... It was white with a photo of the cast of Friends on it.  That show was the best on TV from 1994 to 2004.  I never missed an episode!  I love that they are now playing reruns on Nick :o)  Obviously I own all of the seasons on DVD!  Any season would make a great gift for your friend! 

Number one on my CD list this year is Train's Save Me San Francisco, but you can't go wrong with any of Train's CDs or another favorite, Colbie Caillat.  Also a new favorite, Bruno Mars... *sigh*

  

If it is jewelry you are looking for, the Add-A-Pearl necklace is the neatest thing!  You start with a single pearl on a chain.  Then, you can give the gift of a single pearl at any occasion!  Mike got me a starter necklace on our wedding day and has been adding a pearl for each anniversary.  I love it!

 

Now, for the kiddos!  You all know that my kids adore the Disney Princesses.  Right now, their favorite in the princess department are the My First Disney Princess dolls.  J totes Tiana around with her while Taylor loves on Ariel.

As for movie recommendations from the girls, we are all about the prehistoric creatures in our house!  Jaden loves The Land Before Time: The Great Longneck Migration and Taylor, well, she has a slight obsession with a certain purple dinosaur.

 

My kiddos are almost as obsessed with reading as I am.  Jaden is deep into the Magic Tree House chapter books.  She loves having them read to her and she even understands and remembers them!  But, one book that will always have a special place on our shelf is Hallmark's recordable story, All the Ways I Love You.  This book is special to us because it is read to the girls by Grandma Ina.  They will be able to have her read to them whenever they want! 

 

Now, I haven't talked to him about his, but if I were to guess what would be at the top of Mike's favorite things, I would say a Blue-ray player.  This boy is obsessed with movies!  Right now we are working our way through True Blood season one.  He also likes a good action or horror movie. 

 

Another great gift for your man is the Xbox 360 with Kinect.  Mike has one and loves it!  I think it's pretty cool, too ;o)  Creepy, but cool.

There you have it!  Our favorite things :o)  Hopefully this will help you buy for even the hardest person on your list!

This post also marks my 700th post! 

Because it is the season of giving, I'm giving away one (actually a bunch) of my favorite things... not listed in this post!  It's a super secret surprise though because one or two people that may or may not read my blog may or may not be getting one for Christmas! 

To enter my giveaway, just comment below, telling me what is tops on your list for Santa this year!  Be sure to leave your email address so I can contact you if you win!!

Giveaway ends on Christmas Eve.  Winner will be announced sometime after Christmas :o)

Have a Merry Christmas!!

Thanks for reading :o)

Taco Pizza Squares

Ingredients:

• 2 tubes (13.8 oz. each) refrigerated pizza crust
• 1 can (8 oz.) pizza sauce
• 2 c. seasoned taco meat
• 2 med. tomatoes, seeded and chopped
• 2 c. shredded mozzarella cheese
• Shredded lettuce
• Sour cream

1. Unroll pizza dough and place in a 15"x9"x1" baking pan.
2. Spread with pizza sauce; top with taco meat, tomatoes, and cheese.
3. Bake at 400°F for 15-20 minutes or until crust is golden brown.
4. Top with shredded lettuce and sour cream, if desired.

Makes 8-10 servings.

NOTE: I halved this recipe, using one crust in a 9"x13" baking pan. It turned out great and was perfect for a family of four (we had leftovers because half of our family of four prefers mac 'n cheese!)  ¡Delicioso!

I'm sharing this with my favorite linky parties!

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Last week, I teamed up with Cutting Edge Stencils and offered one lucky reader a stencil of her choice, valued up to $50.  Random.org helped me out and out of the 24 readers to enter the contest, the winner is...

 

Congratulations!!

Family Room Renovation!

Well, I crossed a biggie off of my New Years Resolution List: #3: Get my freakin' family room ceiling fixed!  Not only did we fix the ceiling, we completely redid the entire room!  As you know, we are looking to put our house on the market this spring.  Our family room was in need of a major face lift!

You've heard the story before... We had skylights, they leaked (in 18 different spots), we had them removed (5½ years ago), and have been not looking up since.  Take a look for yourself:

Not only did we have a leaky ceiling, we also have had some settling issues.  The family room in an addition to the house (that was added prior to us buying it). Before it existed, there was a window on the wall that now showcases the fireplace.  The window was filled, but with years of settling, the cracks started to appear.

Also, we had about a half inch gap between the baseboards and the floor.

It was also a clutter zone!  Our family room was our main room.  We all lived in it!  The girls had their toys, we had our crap... we loved the heck out of that room!

It was time for a change.  Obviously, my source for inspiration came from none other than Pinterest!

So, we packed up our crap and lived like hoarders for a weekend.

Our precious space was ready for her makeover!

Our handyman came bright and early one Saturday morning and answered our prayers :o)

Dad and Gramps helped my with the new paint job...

...And then came the fun!

I teamed up with Cutting Edge Stencils to create a dynamite focal wall!  They provided me with the Rose Damask stencil, along with all of the tools and instructions I would need.

The instructions were super clear and left no room for error.  The stencil pattern was cut so it was easy to line up and create an amazing design.  It came with a clip-on level so I didn't have to mess with eyeballing or having someone else hold a level to the wall.

If you are looking to create a focal wall, or even a statement throughout the entire room, I highly recommend Cutting Edge Stencils!  They shipped my stencil to me incredibly fast, too!  I even went online and watched a couple of tutorial videos so I was more familiar with the process. 


Seriously, so easy!  My only beef was that it took a lot of time.  Because of the drastic color difference, I wanted to make sure I had a good solid color.  I had to give each stencil two coats.  It took me an average of seven minutes to do one section.  As you will see in my "after" pics, I had a LOT of sections!  If you can afford it, I highly recommend buying two of the same stencil so you can move a little faster.  Also, the clean up was simple but a pain in the butt.  If I didn't clean the stencil off every so often, it would start to stick to the wall, leaving behind chunks.  Like I said though, cleaning the stencil was easy.  If I was going to clean it and use it immediately afterwards, I just rinsed it off, dried it, and went on with my stenciling.  If I was done for the night, I let the paint dry on the stencil and just peeled it off the next day.  Easy, but a pain.

So, what do you think of the finished product?

We are so happy with our new room!  I couldn't love it more :o)  I had originally planned on doing a wood slat design over the fireplace but decided against it after the stenciled wall was done.

I want to thank Kerry at Cutting Edge Stencils for providing me with the stencil used for my wall.  I will definitely be purchasing another one when we move to our new home because not only was it super easy to do, it looks amazing!

 

Guess what?!  Cutting Edge Stencils has offered to give away one stencil of any value up to $50 to one of my readers!  You can choose your favorite from their site and they will ship it to you for free!  How awesome is that?  All you have to do to win is visit http://www.cuttingedgestencils.com/ and comment below, telling me which stencil is your favorite!  I'll pick a random winner on Friday, Dec. 9th.  Be sure to leave your email address in the comments too!  You can earn extra entries by blogging about this giveaway and posting it to Facebook.  Just leave separate comments telling me you did so!  Facebook friends: You don't need a Blogger ID to comment.  Just comment as anonymous and leave me your name and email address in the comment.