Each year I give gifts to the three administrative professionals whom I work with. This year I decided to do a twist on a gift that I gave to my best friend a few years ago when she was having a tough time. This Basket of Sunshine Gift is easy to put together yourself and is relatively inexpensive - each basket cost me less than $20 to put together, and turned out really cute!As you can see, I picked out a bunch of yellow colored treats. I tried to get a variety of drinks, salty and sweet Read more [...]

We live in Minnesota where winter seems to last forever!  It's the beginning of April now and we STILL have snow on the ground along with more projected on the way.  While snow is nice and all, it gets really old when we are 6+ months into it.  Come March, most Minnesotans are just ready for it to go away!  And our family is itching for Spring just like everyone else.So when we get tired and bored with the never ending winter, I have to get creative.   With five bio kids plus any fosters, Read more [...]

Last month, we purchased new furniture. The couch and loveseat came with two beautiful bright yellow throw pillows. I like yellow but, it just doesn't go with my home decor color palette. I spent  A LOT of time on Pinterest searching for fun ideas on how to cover these pillows. End the end, I decided to chalk paint pillowcases for them!I took a painters drop cloth that I had been using prior as a tablecloth. I gave the drop cloth a good wash with hot water with mild soap. Once it Read more [...]

Being from Minnesota, you'd think I'd finally get used to the long winters.  Yet sadly, I don't think I ever will.  In the fall, once it starts dropping to 60 degrees, I'm freezing and quick to dig out my winter coat.  It just seems to take me a few months to get my "winter legs" back.  But at least by this time of year, 40 degrees now feels warm and you'll see people walking around without coats.  (It's even common to spot short sleeves being worn!)  At the end of January, we even had a few Read more [...]

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Review Wire Media for BlindSpotz. All opinions are my own. There is an affiliate link in this post.My very first apartment had heat included in the cost of rent. When we went to move to a new place, we were worried about estimating how much we should budget for utilities. I talked to my dad about it. His advice was to look for a place that had a nice roof, and newer windows. He said some of his worst renting mistakes were renting places that Read more [...]