Nascar Dinner!

Yeah you read that right, Nascar Dinner.  Have you ever made Nascar Dinner?  Well I did the other night!  This is that crazy time of the year when we're busy with holiday preparations and BASKETBALL.  Both of the kids are in the midst of basketball season and we are BUSY.  As a matter of fact this week we have/had games on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.  I KNOW!!  I'm tired just thinking about it.  Most nights boo-boo kitty and I hammer home just to jump in one vehicle and head to the games.

Buddy plays Junior High basketball and those games start at 5:30ish.   Sooooo that leaves no time for Nascar Dinner.  My only hope for Buddy's game nights is a crockpot dinner or....sugar packets.  Since I'm not keen on sugar packets for dinner I usually roll with something in the crock pot.

Now when Baby Girl plays, she is on Varsity and she doesn't start until 7:00.  However, we do like to get there a little early to watch the JV so here's where I gotta be fast.  I got home at 5:10 and dropped the hammer.  I ran in and got to business and it looked (and sounded) a little like this!

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Hahahahha not really but that's how I felt it went in MY mind.  I ran around like a part of a Nascar pit crew and pulled together one of my FAVORITE dinners!!  Theennnnn I fixed my hair and retouched my make up.  We were out the door by 5:44 on the dot (that's 34 minutes peeps).  Now how's THAT for fast?

I totes thought I had a picture of the dinner I made but I don't.  I'll just link you back to the recipe that I know I've shared before.  So QUICK, so EASY and most importantly SO GOOD!!!

Crunchy Beef and Mac

Who else has some good and FAST recipes they can share?  After all I have many more weeks of basketball to come ;)

Black Friday and Long Weekend Recap

I don't know about you but WOW we had a crazy busy weekend this long weekend.  Whew, I finally recovered and was able to pull a post together today.  Let's get to it!

We had a great Thanksgiving Day with family and friends.  It is also possible that we happened to stay up a wee bit too late.  I was supposed to meet my Black Friday girls at 5:00 annnddddd I woke up at 4:54.  Needless to say, I was looking pretty foxy!  I scrambled out the door, we met up and hit the road!  

Truth be told, I really didn't need anything specific on Black Friday but am always in for the fun.....

Once we made our way to Walmart I was STARVING!!!!  What do YOU do when you're starving in Walmart?  I happened to open a bag of Funyuns and put on a biking helmet with flames!!  #yourewelcome

As I said, foxy, right???

Half of the chicks headed to Kohl's while a few of us headed to Lowe's for some VERY important Black Friday deals......LED LIGHT BULBS.

TWENTY light bulbs to be exact.  See, this is what happens when you get old and your kids don't really want anything that's part of the Black Friday scene!!  Oh wait I forgot to mention that I got two turbo packs of TP.  #grownupproblems

Don't you worry though, my girls definitely contributed to the economy that day!!  We finished up the day with some cocktails and food at La Fiesta.

Fast forward to Saturday morning and we were off to hoop it up with the Varsity basketball team in Gibraltar.  Girls kicked butt and we hammered home for THE game of the year.  Michigan vs. Ohio State.  Unfortunately, these guys were officiating :(

However we had a great time watching the game combined with a little house warming party for one of my BFF's with ALL of my BFF's :-)

FINALLY we finished up the weekend with our final Thanksgiving Dinner and my mom and dad's. Here is a little snapshot of my grandpa with all of the great grand-kids!!

Whew, I told you we were busy!!!  Now a little sneak peak at my Christmas table in our breakfast nook.  As I told you before,  the entire table was put together with items from the Dollar Tree.  As soon as we have a night off from basketball, baby girl is going to take PLENTY of pictures!!!

Woof,  what Black Friday deals did you score????

Black Friday! Are you brave enough?

Hello and happy (technically) Thursday!  Yep tomorrow is my Friday and this is how I've been rolling all week.  Some people think that I'm crazy and others are TOTALLY on board and like my thinking.
Soooooo, let's get going.  Black Friday!  Do you brave Black Friday (see I capitalize it because my iPhone capitalizes it every time I type it so if iPhone says to, I do it :P)???
Let's be honest there is nothing that I'm DYING to buy on Black Friday but you wanna know why I brave Black Friday?   I get to roll out at 5 am with my BFF's and we're really in it for the funny sweaters anndddddddddd.......maragaritas, beer and tacos.  DUH!!!!!

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Yeah this was from two years ago.  We literally bought these in Target and walked out and changed into them in the parking lot.  And in case some of  you didn't get it, Conni's head is the elf head.  Bwhwhahahhahaa!!!  #insidejoke

Ok, so onto a few things that I would like to purchase this week.  Yeah only a couple are presents and a couple are presents for me.  

I am on a mission to find this on Friday for one of my nephews.  I saw this and thought of him immediately AND his mom just happened to approve the purchase!

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I also found out that my niece is really into baking these days so this is what I'm looking to score for her on Friday (looks like online for her gift #score)

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Now, onto a couple little things for mama!! 

I absolutely love this shirt from JCPenney and you cannot beat the price!!

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This sweater I am dying for.  I think I'm going to bite the bullet and DO IT.  One of my favorite bloggers was wearing it in her family holiday pictures and it is A-DOR-ABLE!!!!  The price can't be beat either!!

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So, do you brave Black Friday???  What is the #1 item you're searching for this year?  

More Spray Paint Fun!

I'm pretty sure you've noticed by now that I LOVE spray paint.  #captainobvious  I've spray painted more things than I care to admit.
When I was spray painting my vases last weekend I found some glittery blue twigs and berries (yeah I said that!) but they just weren't the right color for the breakfast nook/sunroom.  I went to throw them back in the Christmas tote and then the angels started to sing and the light shone down on my can of Krylon gold spray paint.  Yeah that was a little over dramatic but it was pretty close to that.
Heres how they looked initially.  They are just too bright for the breakfast nook.  The blue in that area is more of a cobalt blue.

So I grabbed my can of spray paint and headed to the garage.

 Here they are after the first coat.  No magic here.  Just aim and spray.

I let them dry for 15 minutes and flipped and sprayed the other side.  #notrocketscience

Final coat here.  Once you've hit both sides you'll be able to see any spots you may have missed.  I just picked them up and hit all the spots that were still showing blue and then laid for the final dry for 30 minutes!!

And I just HAD to share this with you.  I showed you this project last year on the blog and I also talked about it on Full Plate the other day.  I found an even easier way to make a clean line and I'll share that with you in a full post.  However I added glitter spray paint this time and I am IN LOVE!!!!  Isn't is so sparkly and fabulous????  I'm going to do some with polka dots too.  Can't wait to use them over the holidays!!!

Are you as obsessed with spray paint as I am???

High School Homecoming 40th Birthday Party

I have no idea how my main squeeze and I suddenly hit the big 4-0 but we did within three weeks of each other.  My hubby and family and friends threw me a great surprise party the week of my birthday (I'll share another time) but our schedule didn't allow for a surprise party right away for Ryan.  So, we had to wait a month for his surprise.  At that point he probably thought that I was a heartless wife who didn't do anything for his milestone birthday.  Bwhwhahahahaa apparently he doesn't know me very well.  One of my BFF's threw out the idea of a high school homecoming theme and we ran from there.  If there is one thing to know about me and my friends.....we go BIG or go home ;)  I'm talking building a float for the birthday party, THE day of the party.

We also decided to tell everyone to wear their old high school varsity jackets, jerseys, cheerleading uniforms,  class rings, etc.  You cannot even imagine how excited people were to bust out these oldies but goodies.

Now onto the logistics!!  My hubby does not sit still very well and always has to be busy.  So the real trick was keeping him away from the house for 6 hours.  Whew, it was a little touch and go for a while but we pulled off a great surprise.  He was even an hour late, so I guess we were worried for nothing ;)  Enough talking get ready for a picture dump!

Now, who knew that we all still had our mad float building skills???  Look at that 40 in the background!!  One of my BFFs and her girls made that ahead of time and stored it at their house!!!  It was an old door from a chicken coop and the finished product was perfect.
Side Note:  I couldn't find enough orange tissue paper for the sign so I bought napkins and they worked GREAT.  One package of 6 pieces of orange tissue paper was $1.48 and a package of 24 napkins was $0.99.  THAT was a no-brainer.  So if you're going to make a float anytime soon, I recommend that napkins ;)

Come on that dummy and the goal post!!  We're kind of a big deal, right?

The scoreboard was seriously the cherry on top.  There was a lot of blood sweat and tears that went into those individual lights but it was sooooooo worth it.  Really I was sad to have to take it down!

My three loves!!

Family photo time!

Awwwwww this was my FAVORITE picture of my hubby back in the glory days!!  #hottie

Balloon topiaries!!!!  Have you ever made them?  OMG they were so easy and SOOOOOOO cute.  I think they may be right up there with my tissue paper poofs.  Cheap, quick and easy and so festive.

Here's boo-boo kitty recreating THE pose ;)

A group photo of me and my BFF's!!  <3 <3 <3 

Last but CERTAINLY not least a group picture of everybody that busted out their old high school gear (whether it fit or not :P)!!!!

Here are some final pictures of some of the guests <3 <3

Whew, that was a whole lotta pictures.  Thanks for hanging around til the end!!

{DIY} Gold Striped Vase!

Good morning my friends and happy Monday.  That sounded kind of chipper, right?  Good!!  Another weekend that absolutely flew by and we're back to the grind.  I know it's inevitable but I don't have to like it, right?  #ineedavacation

This Saturday was the most peaceful and relaxing Saturday that I've had since.......well, May! #nojoke We did lots of camping this year and if we weren't camping we had some sort of other plans.  So, I was thrilled to have ZERO plans this past Saturday.

What do you think I did all day Saturday?  Started putting up Christmas decorations, DUH!  Oh and I decided to paint some vases.  Soooooo, to make a short story long, let's get down to business.

All you need is a vase, some scotch tape and Krylon gold metallic paint.

I wrapped two pieces of tape around the vase (hard to believe but I just eyeballed...no measuring involved :P)

I took it out in the garage and laid out some card board and got down to business.  Important to note that you don't want to get too wild and crazy with the spray paint.  It is best to take quick short swipes so as to avoid any drips (I tend to be on team ram-rod so I like to go a little crazy at times because I need instant gratification).  This shot right here was my first coast.  I let dry for about 15 minutes and again went back for one more coat.  Again, hold that can about 6 inches away and do short quick passes.  

I could barely wait a half hour but I did.  I removed the tape and voila this beauty emerged.

I am in love with the finished product.  These pictures don't do it justice but it is fabulous!!!

This is just a little sneak peek!  I will have a post later this week that shows how to put together a complete holiday table with only items from The Dollar Tree.  This gold vase will be part of the finished product :-)

Let's see you give this a project a whirl and share your finished products in the comments!!

Hope you survive your Monday.

Me on TV???

I know, scary right?  Hahahahha just kidding.  I didn't swear or ANYTHING.  I was lucky enough to be on Full Plate with Rebecca Regnier yesterday.  I was going to do one segment but when I got there I was told that there were two segments available.  Soooooooo, in my usual fashion, I had brought everything but the kitchen sink and was fully prepared to do plenty of talking.  I was a bit nervous but all my nerves went away once I started talking with Rebecca.  She is fabulous and made me feel at home.  Before you knew it, it was lights, camera, action.....

I talked about different ideas for Thanksgiving and Christmas tables as well as some of my favorite easy (and CHEAP) projects.  I moved pretty quickly through some of the projects but plan to blog all of them over the next couple of weeks.

If you want to tune in, I'll be on 13 ABC THIS Sunday at 12:30.  Sorry if my voice annoys you ;)

Thanks again for having me on Rebecca it was FABULOUS!!

P.S. Special thanks to my mama for helping me drag everything down and to Carrie F. for hooking a sister up!!

My House is Having an Identity Crisis

Yeah so my house doesn't really know what season it is decorated for currently.  I have been slowly pulling out my Christmas decorations (yes I know it isn't Thanksgiving yet, but this is how I roll) as I find them.  Then I put away the Halloween decoration as I replace it with something, well, Christmassy!
I know, I know.  I can hear most of you heavily sighing and rolling your eyes but I LOVE to decorate for Christmas.  Let's be honest, it takes me a couple weeks to even get everything out and put in it's place.  So why not start now?

So to make a short story long, I wanted to finally share some quick pictures of my Halloween decorations that are coming down this week!

This pumpkin was from Home Goods and the black leaves are something I got on clearance from Pottery Barn years ago.

My little Halloween corner on my bar!  I looovveeeee festive napkins!

P.S. Don't eat the cupcakes (Uncle Joe)!! 

Have I ever mentioned that I'm obsessed with snow (glitter in this case) globes.  Loooovveeeee this "boo" globe from Home Goods!

Finally some shots of the fireplace.  Again I got the Halloween jar and owls from Home Goods and more black leaves from Pottery Barn.

P.S. Sorry for the less than stellar pictures.  I took the with my phone ;)

P.S.S. I'm going to shoot a segment for a local TV show this week and I am freaking out.  I'm going to be doing a couple of my holiday projects and tablescape ideas.  I survived throwing a surprise 40th birthday party for my hubby this weekend NOW I can focus on getting ready for Wednesday.   Fingers crossed!!