: Foundation Friday :: 52 weeks of blessing :

It's Friday, it's Friday, it's Friday! And to boot, it's SUNNY!!! I don't have much time to blab on and on, but I wanted to share with you my no. 52 & no. 51 blessings...just for ideas for y'all in case you want to join in {please let me know if you do join in!}

No. 52 :: package of tulips in an old peach jar, with a starbucks via attached to it -- easy peasy and so cute! Total cost: $4.50
No. 51 :: box of peppermint tea w/ a sleeve of ginger cookies & card a lovely little treat for a friend to enjoy once the kiddies are in bed! Total cost: $2.00
So as I was setting out to bless somebody else, we ended up being blessed by this sweet little package that was dropped off...a Starbucks card for moi and two chocolate suckers for each boy. Wow, how blessed did I feel!??! SO blessed! Thank you Auntie C!
We were downtown yesterday afternoon to pick something up and while we were in the parking lot Cole said to me; "mama, you just have to take my picture under the 4 - cause I won't be 4 for very much yonger" -- bah ha ha! But it's true, so I did take a photo; he's such a gem! I've got carpets to clean, coffee to drink, windows to clean {thanks to Mr. Sun} and a coffee date tonight, couldn't think of a better way to start the weekend off!
{XoXo}

: It's FEBRUARY! :

In posting my salted caramel corn recipe yesterday I completely ignored the fact that's it's February -- ha ha --oh well!

We're not big Valentines celebrators, yes we do the typical cards&candies to friends and Mr. L and I plan a date night out in and around {but not on} Valentines day.

However, I've found since the boys have been in school all these little "Hallmark Holiday's" are really quite the big deal! So we did some crafting yesterday and turned our little house into a fully decorated Valentines home..well maybe not SO decorated to some, but to me the little perk of pink is quite the injection of color in my little beige, white & gray world ;)
Here's the few places we decorated
My little shelf above the phone and my lap top in the kitchenThat's it for the V-day decor, I have a super cute frame I made with scrabble letters, but I can't seem to find it -- ha ha, not quite as organized as I would like to be in this new house!

And last but not least, the winner of Tuesday's giveaway is....drum roll please....
Congratulations K - I'll send it out to you via snail mail!
{ps. each of you had your names put in a hat and the winner was chosen randomly from my little 4 year olds hand ;) we play fair around these parts}

Now I'm off to see if I can find the rest of my Valentines decor that's still missing and maybe organize a room or two...should be a good day! I love Thursday's they are one of my few "home" days and I plan to make the most of it!

*Oh! And I have yet to deliver my little blessing for this weeks "52 weeks of blessing" so tomorrow I'll share that with you as well as what I did last week :) -- Now go bless the socks off someone, you know you want to!*

{XoXo}

: What I LOVE Wednesday :

Ahhh, it's Wednesday - mid point in the week & if I've made it this far I can make it through to the rest of the week with the promise of a great weekend!

Don't have many items that "I LOVE" so I'm going to share with you are recipe that I LOVE -- I was getting ready for a girls night out a couple weeks ago and I was making up goodie bags for everyone -- you know grown up goodie bags ;)

I included a water bottle, straw, bag of 1 cent candies & a cup of caramel corn...but not just any caramel corn, SALTED caramel corn...and boy oh boy was it delish!

So I can't help but share this SIMPLE & DELISH recipe. I don't often take the time to make caramel corn because of just that; it takes TIME! So I was happy when I found a recipe that didn't require time in a pot on the stove and in and out of the oven.

So here's the recipe:

Pop 6 cups popcorn, can be air popped or microwavable {if it is microwaveable popcorn, should be consumed within 12 hours...I'm sure this won't be an issue!}

Combine in microwaveable bowl for 3 minutes on high {until bubbling}
1/2 cup butter {1 cube}
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup corn syrup {or honey would do fine too}

Add below ingredients to above ingredients once boiled -- let that bubble away and DO NOT try and taste it, you'll be sorry ;)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking soda

Ensure your popcorn is in a HUGE bowl and pour caramel over popcorn, mix well then once it's almost set I take my sea salt {aprox. 1 tsp}and sprinkle a light dusting...this turns a relatively sweet snack into the perfect combination of salty&sweet!

{this is the sea salt I use}
FYI :: This is a soft caramel corn, not hard, if you would like it to be less chewy put on a cookie sheet and place in oven @ 200 F for 1 hour.

And finally lay on a cookie sheet and let cool for 1 hour. Then ENJOY & share it with someone! They will be thankful you did!

Don't forget to enter the draw -- that is if you want some new earrings&music -- who doesn't!?!?

Have a beautiful Wednesday Lovelies!
{XoXo}

: Good Morning Tuesday! :

Today is my random day Tuesday post...really, are Tuesday's not the most random day!?!? It's not the beginning of the week, it's not the mid point of the week, nothing really to look forward to and yet, it is still another day that just goes on!

I woke up to being side-swiped by a friend via an email, that didn't help with my "pot hole" incident the other day...oy vey! Anyway, dust off and get up -- all is resolved now but geepers!

So here's the excitement for the day...I continually wonder what women carry in their purses. Most of the time my purse is rather big {lovingly called by Mr. L as my "black hole"} --- It's my life line, my helper and usually comes through in a pinch - ha ha - I'm kidding but I really do love my purse ;)

So here you go...my purse in all it's glory and junk!



I also found a few other random things when I was going through my purse and I'm going to give those away ::: Why not!?! It's Tuesday and it's kinda blah outside!

These super cute acrylic rose bud earrings made by nicolerobertsdesign :: She's a friend of mine and she's super talented & creative, check her out!
And I just so happened to have an extra cd from the cd release party we attended over the weekend ::: Ugh, these guys are SO talented -- can't wait to share this with one of you! {click here to take a little listen} They are heading out on tour today - Best of luck guys! *Here are the rules to win these two fabulous items, just leave a note and tell me why you think you deserve these two awesome delightfully wonderful items and "like" each of them on facebook here: NicoleRobertsDesign & here TheLeftBand you have till Thursday {another kinda weird day} to enter!*

Now I'm off to finish up cutting out these
I found these super cute printable ones on pinterest {ugh, do you know how much I LOVE that site!}

Okay, better get out of this little office and get something done since yesterday was such a write-off!

If you haven't already visited my seesters site to enter her give-away, you better do it now, you only have 24 hours left!

Ta-Ta for today!
{XoXo}

: Whew! :

What a weekend! Holy smokes --we were living a full {and fun} life this weekend. First we started off by having friends over for dinner on Friday night, always a nice way to start the weekend! And I got fresh flowers to boot!

Then Saturday I headed up to Cypress with this beautiful lady for some snow shoeing fun
Here is the group of us headed up the mountain, what a work out and a beautiful sight - can't wait to go back and do it again!
My snow shoes & crazy socks
Hollyburn lodge -- such a peaceful little getaway
Then that night we pretended we were kid-less young married's and headed into town to see "The Left" at their cd release party. What a blast we had! Olga & Me
Eric
Rich & Linds they were our car pool buddies and boy did we have a blast! CarlUs :: Poor Mr. L had a bit of shock from the flash being so bright, haha!
Sunday we went to church and then just rested in the afternoon. I hit a bit of a "pot hole" in the street of my life and was kind of a disaster last night...it wasn't pretty, but this morning after praying and putting another process into action I'm back on the road. A nice little note from Mr. L also helps to make me feel that much better!
THEN {as if that wasn't enough!} this morning the school next to our church {where Cole attends Preschool} was locked down due to a gun sighting. So I got to spend an extra 2 hours waiting in a nearby parking lot waiting to fetch my child {and a few extras} -- Here's the road blocked off
Here's the media coverage with the police Sergeant reporting on the situation
Here are the safe little buddies with one of the police on duty at the church
So, most of our weekend was great: dinner with friends, snow shoeing, the left, however, feeling like I had hit a pot hole in the road and then basically writing off today wasn't the greatest, but that's life and there is always tomorrow to make up for today!

I'm off to prepare dinner & get in some form of exercise!

Happy Monday Lovelies!
{XoXo}