Literature is my Utopia

I must admit that I have been watching a little to much tv lately and neglecting my reading. Netflix makes it so hard on me :) I haven't posted about my latest intrigues lately so I thought I would let you know what I have been reading.

Let's just go ahead and get this out of the way... I have completely fallen in love with the Fifty Shades Trilogy!! It was suggested several months ago in my Book Club and since then we dedicated not one but two of our monthly meetings to the discussion of these books. I have always enjoyed reading romance but this gave us just a little more dirt! If you don't like romance (and a lot of it) this might not be the series for you. BUT if you do...please, do yourself a favor.

Thanks to a dear friend I have discovered that I can get lots and lots of great books for fairly cheap or free on my nook. This has been a great little discovery as before I was purchasing several books a month at full cover price. Here are a few of those that I have enjoyed and all for under $4 total!

A sweet little read for sure! I enjoyed the book so much that I am sure to read more from Elizabeth Camden. A very G rated romance!! This one was FREE on the day that I downloaded it on my nook.

Four novels for $3.99?? Yes, please!! I adore vampires and Samantha Moon's story was unlike any other. I loved J.R. Rain's view on vampirism.

I just finished up Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter. Very interesting indeed. I have always enjoyed mixing fact with fiction and I loved the ending. This was suggested by my brother in law who knows my obsession with vamps. We must see the movie soon :)

This is the first time that I have read Aiden James. So far so good. There are quite a bit of details and fairly fast moving plot. It is not my favorite view on the world of vampires but definitely worth the $2.99.

Here is what's next. Another suggested read from my Book Club gals. It is highly recommended if you loved 50 Shades. I can't wait to dig into this one!

Sweet Summertime :)

I have seriously neglected my blog as of late. I will blame it on the sweet summertime. Summer keeps me and my family so busy. Being in Alabama we have a fairly long period of mild to hot weather. I know that summer has just now officially started but for me as soon as he weather gets in the 80s we are in business. It is my favorite of all seasons and the hotter it is the better I like it. Here are some pictures of our summer so far.

Wyatt acting silly after we washed the back porch and planted the flowers. Of course we had to play in the water a little while we were working.

Wyatt and Pa ready to start the parade

Our town has a great rodeo every May. The week before the event has many fun events for everyone to enjoy. The Rodeo Parade kicks it off and is by far my favorite event. Some of the streets in town are shut down and anyone who wants to ride their horse is welcome to fall in line. The lineup is lead by our local sherriff who has made the rodeo event so great over the years.

Wearing Pa's hat before the Rodeo Parade

We were asked to carry the Grand Marshall

For the last couple of years I have been taking Wy's picture on my great grandparent's tombstone. We usually decorate the cemetary around Mother's Day every year. Taking this picture allows me to include them in his life and offers me a chance to see how he grows from year to year.

A bathroom ReDo

This was a lot bigger deal than I thought it would be when I started. I took step by step pictures as I worked so I will be sharing that process with you soon.

The new color....more coming soon!

Just about the time I get ready to take a dip in the pool I notice a pretty big tear in the liner. Yuck! So our Memorial Day weekend was spent in our backyard with our pool out of commision. At least Wyatt was able to enjoy his "baby pool" while me and Nick roasted on the sideline.

Sweetie enjoys the outdoors so much. I am happy to say that she is still bouncing around with the best of them at 11 and a half years old.

Our new liner installed and filling up

We take the good with the bad and in this case it is VERY GOOD! I must admit that I was upset when our old liner developed a hole, especially when I saw the price tag on a new liner. But I must be honest. There was a little part of me jumping up and down when Nick brought the liner samples in to pick out a new one. I love the deep blue color and it fits perfectly.

We are enjoying these hot summer days

Wyatt floating along

I have even found some time for a few summer projects. Now that I am no longer obligated to design flowers day in and day out I find contentment in the few that I make. Here is a wreath that I made for my front door. The watermelon is a burlap hanger that a friend of mine made for me. I love all of the red!

One of the two wreaths hanging on my side entry. We enclosed the garage area a few years ago and installed a set of french doors. This is our most frequent entryway and I keep wreaths hanging on the doors to welcome our guests. I plan on posting a wreath tutorial on this soon.

Hand made gift tags

My latest project that I am very proud of. These gift tags are so much fun to make.

Of course there has been a little work involved this summer. Here are a few items I have been busy making for our sweet little customers. Check out Dream A Little Dream for more information on these pieces. We love what we do!!

Sorry for the long post but I just wanted to update the blog on our busy summer so far. I am looking forward to a hot weekend by the pool and even spending some time with my best girls.

He Arose!

I am a little late in the week with this post but I wanted to share our Easter with you. We had a wonderful, busy Easter weekend! I love Easter and I am not ashamed to admit that new Easter attire is about 90 percent of the reason why...LOL!!! I am only about half way kidding :) There are other contributing factors of course. I enjoy the food, the family and the egg hunts. I love going to church on Easter Sunday.

My weekend began with a Friday night dinner at Texas Roadhouse (a family favorite) and a last minute trip to the mall to complete Nick's and Wyatt's outfits. We had a great evening out and found pretty much everything that we needed. The only damper on the evening was that after two attempts I still didn't get Wyatt to get his picture made with the Easter Bunny. BOO! I tried, tried, tried to convince him to sit in his lap but it was no use. He ended up telling Nick that it was a "monster bunny" and he was afraid. He does have a point I guess. He is a 6 foot plus bunny.

Saturday morning me and Wyatt got hair cuts and by that afternoon we were ready for the first hunt. We enjoyed having supper at my aunt's with my side of the family followed by Wyatt and his cousins, Chandler and Merritt combing the yard for eggs. After the hunt we came home and Nick was called into work for a few hours. I spent the evening finishing my dress and purse while Wyatt played outside.

Sunday morning we attended church and spent the afternoon with Nick's side of the family where we had lunch and Wyatt hunted eggs once again. It was a lovely day finished off by a quiet supper at home.

I will leave you with some pictures and some of the lyrics from a hymn that I love :) I hope you had a great Easter weekend!

Up from the grave he arose;

with a mighty triumph o'er his foes;

he arose a victor from the dark domain,

and he lives forever, with his saints to reign.

He arose! He arose! Hallelujah!

Christ arose!

Literature is my Utopia

Ahhhh... how I love my books! Lately it is my Nook but you get the picture :) Here is what is currently consuming me...

I stared the Stephanie Plum Series back before Christmas. I love, love, love them so far. I did go and see "One For the Money" on opening weekend. It was fabulous! Katherine Heigl was perfect for the part and they stuck to the script...which is always a good thing.

I just finished this one..

Believe it or not...it was my first Nicholas Sparks. I know, I know..I should have read some of his books sooner. I do own a couple that are sitting on my shelf. I just can't stand the heartache! This one was great and not at all heartbreaking. If you have not read this you really should. It is a great Nicholas Sparks "starter" book. I can't wait to see The Lucky One in theaters. I just hope they do it justice.

Next on my list...

I am headed back to the wonderful world of Mercy Thompson. Mercy is a mechanic by day and surrounded by the supernatural by night. I was introduced to this series by a friend and I really enjoy visiting Mercy from time to time. Silver Borne is the fifth in this series. I can't wait!!!

Will We Ever Grow Up???

Saturday I went solo to a child's birthday party and I must admit...I had a lovely time :) Both Wyatt and Nick were sick at the end of this past week so they stayed at home to cut down the risk of spreading germs or having a coughing relapse. Since it was at the home of one of my best friends and the majority of my other girlfriends would be there, I simply couldn't miss the opportunity to see them.

I love birthday parties!! Who doesn't? And as far as I am concerned...the bigger the better. It is the perfect opportunity to eat to much of the stuff I am not supposed to eat, laugh and talk and enjoy seeing and visiting with some of my favorite folks. My friends and I love taking crazy pictures together. It has become one of our favorite pastimes. So when one of them suggested that we all go down the big blow up slide in a "train" fashion we were all on board.

Even though we are technically adults we do enjoy a good blow up slide. We do have the good manners to wait until some of the party guests have thinned out before pushing our own kids aside and showing them how it's done. Saturday was no exception. As soon as we could, four of us (just enough for a good train) were climbing up that ladder to get to the top of that slide. The cameras were entrusted to the right people and we were ready.

What happened next is not for the faint of heart. Amanda and Lora were at the top of the slide followed closely by me and Amelia. All of a sudden the slide starts to lean...oh NO!! I thought to myself...is the slide tilting?? Then I felt it lean a little more..uh oh. I hear Lora say, "go back down, go back down." But by then we were to far up to go back down. One wrong move and we are going over. That is when the air started going out. As the slide collapses around us and Amanda is almost buried alive we sit in a puddle of humiliation as the cameras around us FLASH..FLASH..FLASH. We are four grown women sitting on the ground, laughing uncontrollably as one of the children starts to cry.

The good news is that one of the hubbys deflated the slide to get us down and we didn't actually cause the thing to deflate (thank goodness). They were able to blow it back up so the kids were able to play. The bad news is we didn't get our train picture and we were photographed relentlessly in our humiliation. We are fondly referring to it as the Epic Slide Fail of 2012.

Here we are going up

...and it begins to tilt

and collapses on us

I was laughing so hard I was crying!

No more pictures!

Ooopppssss!

Rules were made to be broken!

Living Frugal

I have recently went through a little change of heart when it comes to money. I am not sure if it is my age or maybe because we have Wyatt now. Whatever the reason, I have become somewhat of a penny pincher. I am not crazy like some of the folks on tv. I am not an extreme couponer, a hoarder or a cheapskate. I just enjoy saving money on things when I can.

I started couponing a couple of years ago and got pretty good at it. I managed to cut my grocery bill in half. I did great for about a year and between Publix and CVS I was really doing great! Both of these stores suddenly changed coupon policies and made it a lot harder to score the deals that I was accustomed to getting.

I must admit that I got pretty disgusted with them and with the amount of work that I was doing and still not getting the great deals that I was getting before. By this time Dream A Little Dream was in full swing and I was unreasonably busy so I started slipping. I couldn't detect it at first but as the weeks started ticking by I noticed a difference in my checking account. We absolutely didn't have as much money! I could tell that something in our budget was costing us more. I immediately knew the answer. I had previously been spending about $50 a week on groceries and that figure jumped up at least by half. I told Nick one evening that I have got to start couponing again.

I jumped back in pretty quick. Anyone who has done any couponing knows that it does take about a month or so to get back on track and get the pantry restocked. I am proud to say that I am currently spending about $60 a week on groceries. That includes meat, toiletries and the occasional pack of pull ups. My newest goal is to get it back down to $50 per week. I am doing great considering how strict the coupon policy is now compared to when I started. I have decided to give CVS another try and see what I can get there to help my cause. We shall see :)

Another change that I made beginning last summer was very challenging. I opted to run my dryer as little as possible. That means that I have put the Amish made clothing rack that my daddy bought me to good use. I have also learned from The Fly Lady that if you will simply do one load a day the laundry will not back up on you. That theory works great with my no dryer policy. I don't get burnt out by washing and hanging everything in one day and my clothes have plenty of time to dry before the next load comes along.

After incorporating this method for a couple of months, I could definitely tell a difference in my electric bill. I usually have at least one electric bill that is very close to $400 during the summer months (we have a pool). But not this past summer! I have managed to keep our bill pretty close to affordable for almost a year now. At times it was even reasonable. I have also adjusted the thermostat and the dishwasher so we are that much more "energy efficient."

I have set a few "financial goals" for our family this year and I must say that I am doing pretty good at seeing them through. I hope to meet these goals this year and get more money in my savings. I find great comfort in watching my "emergency fund" grow. I also enjoy saving on the day to day things so we can enjoy a few luxuries as well.

It's A Twister!!!

Our little town was once again touched by a tornado this past Friday morning. After the horrible destruction of last year's April tornadoes I think we are all a little on edge, and rightly so. I for one go into a hot panic as soon as I hear those sirens go off! I immediately think about my husband who is usually working right in the middle of the storms and my friends and family who are scattered across the county.

The east side of Limestone County took a hard hit yet again as well as our neighboring Madison County.

Photos taken by WHNT News Channel 19

There were a few homes in the area and surrounding areas that were also hit last April as well. Some were still under construction from the last storm.

I know that material things do not compare to "what money cannot buy" but to me loosing my home would be the next worse thing. Our homes that we live in from day to day that house all of our memories and where all of our belongings are to be gone in just a moment would be devastating. Over the past year so many of our neighbors have lost everything, including many irreplaceable things such as pictures and family heirlooms. Please say a special prayer for these people and be thankful to have your home.

I certainly am.

These storms made the national news and I was not at all surprised to see a news story on the Yahoo homepage over the weekend.

Nick (who is a lineman with Athens Electric Department) and his co workers worked long, long hours this weekend. By Sunday evening they had power restored to all of those that was possible. I am proud of the work that they did this past weekend and last year as well.

Is it really called work when it is this fun???

As previously stated, I am fortunate enough to work at home. I am the co owner of a small clothing line called Dream A Little Dream. My cousin Carla and I work daily in our little shop right in my back yard. Oh the joy of walking to work!! We specialize in hand made clothing and accessories for children. We are blessed with an abundance of friends and family that support us. We enjoy advertising and selling on both Facebook and Etsy. We also have many local customers who we love seeing from time to time around town and at local craft/trunk shows. Everything created in our shop is born out of love and laughter. We have so much fun working together. Our family is very close by and we enjoy daily visitors at our shop.

Here is our sweet logo. Carla designed it and a fellow Etsy seller tweeked it for just the right look. We absolutely love it.

Merritt modeling our Simply White Peasant Dress on the beach last summer

Our Dream Girl wearing triple ruffle denim pants and Just a Little Lace peasant top

Merritt and Wyatt (best frienemies) modeling our Sandollar tees

One of our most favorite items to make is the One Of A Kind dress. Time only allows a select few and we either auction them off on our Facebook fanpage or use them as a promotional item in a Giveaway. Here are a few of those precious jewels that are so personal to us.

Please feel free to join our fanpage or browse through our Etsy shop!!

http://www.facebook.com/DreamALittleDreamClothing

http://www.etsy.com/shop/dreamalittledream10