Five Things Friday!

 

 

Hello Everyone!

I'm back for another round of Five Things Friday.  This is what I'm loving this week: 

{ONE} How To Get Away With Murder.  I don't know if you guys have been watching this show or not but I certainly have! And I am loving it.  Even though I'm a Registered Respiratory Therapist, I also have a degree in biopsychology and criminal justice so I find anything and everything to do with crime and psychology super interesting.  If your not watching this show I suggest you set your PVR and catch up! This season is going to be good.

 {TWO} Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.  So there's a lot of hype about this book/movie recently and it's totally justified! I read this book when it first came out and have also read a few other books by Gillian Flynn and they're all great but this one was my favorite.  It's dark and suspenseful and the twists just keep coming! I also love Ben Affleck so I was really excited to see the movie.  It didn't disappoint! Go... read the book and then see the movie! Purchase the book here.

 {THREE} Christopher Kon Piper Zip Wallet.  I L.O.V.E wallets.  I used to head right to the wallet section any time I entered a store.  This is the last wallet I bought...a year and a half ago! It's my absolute favorite and I highly recommend it.  It's got lots of card holder slots and a middle compartment for holding any extras.  The leather is exceptionally soft and the quality is excellent.  The price tag was absolutely worth it, especially since I waited and bought mine when my local store had one on auction and the entire payment went to mental health programming which I'm a HUGE supporter of!

 {FOUR} EOS Lip balm.  This is my favorite lip balm.  I first discovered it at my local beauty store and have been seeking out new scents/flavors ever since.  I found this pack at Costco for 8.99! I'm headed to the states in a few weeks and am on the lookout for some exclusives that they tend to get down there.  I'll be hinting to Santa for them!

{FIVE} NukNuk Slippers.  These are my favorite kind of slippers and I am never seen without them on my feet when I'm home.  I've been wearing this kind of slipper everyday for about 4 years now.  They're so comfortable and warm! I've even accidentally worn them out in public before.  Thankfully, with a flare leg jean they kinda just look like clogs or UGGs.  I'm on my second pair now and I have been lucky enough to find them every fall for $24.99 at Costco.  I am pretty hard on them and they hold up really well.  My parents just bought my a new pair as part of my birthday gift so I think that might have been a hint that it's time to retire the pair I'm currently wearing.
 

500 Follower Giveaway on Instagram

Hello Everyone!

I made it to 500 fabulous followers on Instagram and I wanted to celebrate by doing a giveaway! Come find me here and learn how to enter! Thanks for all the love!
-Heather

Grandma`s Favorite Dishcloth

Hi everyone!
I`m back today with one of my all time favorite knitting patterns.  It was one of the very first things that I learned to knit and is super simple to make and very useful.  These are the best dishcloths, hands down! I vary the size of needle I use to change up the size of the dishcloth. 

It`s often referred to as {Grandma's Favorite Dishcloth} and I've provided the pattern I use below!

Materials:
> Size 6-9 US Needles (I prefer size 8 and I also prefer Bamboo needles.  They're a bit pricier to purchase but I find yarn slides over them very easily and they are nice and light)
> Cotton Yarn (I like Bernat brand yarn, the smallest ball will get you one dishcloth with a bit of yarn leftover).
> Darning Needles

Pattern:

Cast on 4 stitches.
Row 1: Knit 4 stitches
Row 2: Knit 2, yarn over, knit to end of row.  Repeat row 2 until you have 45 stitches on your needle.
Row 3: Knit 1, knit 2 together, yarn over, knit 2 together, knit to end of row.  Repeat row 3 until you have 4 stitches left on your needle.  Bind off and enjoy!

Once you learn how to knit these your friends and family will be bugging you to knit them all the time! They make great housewarming or hostess gifts.  I often wait for holiday themed yarn or colors and give them as part of a gift too. 

What's currently on my needles! A Halloween dishcloth for my mama.  Shhh it's a surprise! 


This is the yarn that I prefer for my dishcloths.  They also come in larger sized balls as well.
 

 
 
Have you tried this pattern? I'd love to see your results if you have!

Tea Station

Hello everyone!

I'm a huge tea drinker and have accumulated quite the collection over the past two years.  I was storing my tea in a storage cupboard in the kitchen and found myself forgetting about it.  As they say, "out of sight, out of mind."  I truly enjoy drinking it and wanted to do something about it.  I didn't want to willy-nilly store the canisters and bags of tea on the counter so I spent some time on Pinterest and think I've found a great solution. 

This is what I started with:

It was a HOT MESS! I didn't even know what kinds of tea I had and it was totally not accessible.

 

I ended up buying a metal basket from Michaels for $19.99 (minus 40% of course!).  The basket had a chalkboard front which I loved. For now I decided to leave it the bare metal but it can very easily be spray painted any color.  I'm thinking about picking a color soon but can't seem to decide so I've added it to my "to ponder" list. 

 

To complete the tea station/organization project I got out everything that I would need for the perfect cup of tea.  David's Tea (which is where I buy all my tea from) sells these awesome colored tins for tea storage.  If you buy 100g of a kind of tea you get a silver tin for free or you can buy the colored ones individually. 

 

Since I like to reuse my colored tins I didn't want to label them with one of the large labels that come with the tea.  I used washi instead! It served the purpose and means that my tins can easily be washed, reused and relabeled.

 

These are the silver tins that are free with 100g purchase.  They come prelabelled with the kind of tea you bought and steeping instructions. 

 

Tea measuring spoons!

 

Tea bags! I have a travel mug from Davids Tea that I use for work but I like to use these bags when I'm home since I'm usually only making one cup of tea at a time. 

 

After I gathered everything I needed, I corralled it into my new bin! I was able to fit 8 of the tea tins, two spoons and the box of tea bags in this bin.  It's situated on my counter next to our Keurig and coffee stand which is the perfect cue for me in the mornings.  It's not too large so I didn't have to compromise any counted space. 

 

View from the top:

 

 I'm loving the final product and find it super easy to switch out tea tins as needed.  I'm not forgetting about my tea anymore! How do you store your coffee/tea?  Do you have a coffee or tea station in your kitchen?

 
 

 
 

Five Things Friday!

I'm back with another round of Five Things Friday!

At the start of this week I was working like crazy but I've had the last few days off and have done nothing but relax.  I honestly haven't moved off of the couch for the last two days and it's been wonderful!

{One} David's Tea Herbal Sweet Apple Cider Tea.  It's fall.  The leaves are changing, the weather is getting colder and it's the perfect time to curl up on the couch with a good book and a steaming cup of tea.  And what better kind than apple cider tea.  This is from David's Tea Fall Collection.  We don't have a David's Tea in my area so last week my husband and I made the trek to the closest one an hour and a half away.  Needless to say I stocked up on tea and was very happy to find out that my local mall is getting a store this month!!! I'm in tea-heaven.  Now if only I can get my hands on the advent calendar this year! Find my new favorite tea here.

{Two} Martha Stewart Avery Adhesive Metal Bookplates.  I LOVE the Martha Stewart Collection that is sold at Staples.  However, it is being phased out and every time I go to any of my local stores the inventory is seriously lacking. Thankfully, my local store did have these little gems which were perfect for my recent labeling craze.  I picked up these bookplates to use on the edges of our home binders.  We have several that we use (financial, manuals, work, household) and I wanted to be able to tell them apart without having to open them up every time.  I placed these babies on the spine and inserted a label made from my new label maker and they look fabulous.  You can check out how it turned out on my Instagram.   And find the bookplates here. 

{Three} Urban Decay Naked Basics 2 Palette.  Like I said, we drove an hour and a half to go shopping last week... it was my birthday.  They have a Sephora there and I have been lusting over this palette for quite some time.  Husband picked it up for me for my birthday and I love it already.  It's perfect for traveling because of the compact size and basic shades.  I have the larger Naked Palettes and I use them a lot for everyday use.  We're planning a Christmas shopping trip next month and it'll be nice to take this with me.  It fits perfectly in my travel makeup bag! Good job husband! Did I mention he also bought me a lady-friendly shovel for my birthday?!?! Find the palette here.

{Four} Bananagrams! This is seriously the best game ever.  We play it at work on night shifts if its a slow night (shhhhhh! I work at the hospital.  NEVER say it's a slow night!).  It's a multi-player word game that is very fast and enjoyable.  Everyone builds their own crosswords.  There is no turns, everyone plays at the same time.  It's a race to the finish and I love it! My husband and I have been playing a lot lately and we even challenged ourselves to themed puzzles.  One night we only spelled words associated with Harry Potter.  It's loads of fun and you can find it here!

{Five} Neighbours on DVD and BluRay.  My husband and I saw this in theatres and we picked it up the day it was released.  We don`t have children yet but both of us can totally picture us as the young couple having their first child in this movie trying to compete with a frat house as neighbours.  It was hilarious and if you haven`t seen it yet you should! Beware of the rating as there is mature content.  Did I mention that Zac Efron is shirtless for a great deal of the movie? Bonus! Buy it here!

Weekly Budget/Cash System

Hello everyone!
I'm back again and this time I'm sharing a makeover of our weekly financial organization.  We follow a budget in our household and find that withdrawing cash every payday helps us stay on track financially and keeps us more accountable for our purchases. 

We have a couple of categories that we withdraw cash for:
1. Grocery Money
2. Spending Money
3. Gas Money
4. Date Money

We divide the cash up between the categories based on our budget and have historically kept the cash in labeled envelopes.  They were hideous and I was finally tired of looking at them! Worst of all, they were the re-sealing kind so every time we put cash in or took it out they ripped and ripped and ripped. 

 

So I decided to take a few minutes, do something really simple, and make a change! I picked up a small accordion file folder from the Target Dollar Spot for $1.00.  They didn't have any bright colored ones, only white, so naturally I had to spice it up a bit! 

 

The file folder came with labels so I labeled all the categories we needed and stuck them to the sections (with a lot of trouble! Those things are sticky.  One wrong move and you were screwed!)

 

 

 

After I labelled the sections I decided to add some color to the front with washi to make it more appealing.

The final product! It's been working so much better for us so far and was such a simple change to make but really made a huge difference in trying to fight with an ugly, re-sealing envelope every time we wanted to add/take some cash!

 

 

 

Do you budget with cash?  How do you organize it? I'd love to know!

Five Things Friday!

Hey everyone,
I'm back with another round of Five Things Friday! This is what I'm loving this week. 

{ONE}.  APPLES.  Everything apples.  Fall is my favorite season and this time of year I love anything and everything that has to do with apples.  Apple pie, apple scented candles, apple crumble, apple picking, caramel apple cheesecake.  This list goes on and on.  We're planning to go apple picking next weekend and I can't wait.  It's always such a fun time with family and we end up eating about 10 lbs of apples afterwards. 

{TWO} TooFaced Better Than Sex Mascara.  TooFaced is one of my favorite makeup brands and I have been trying to get my hands on this stuff for months.  My local beauty store was sold out and had a waiting list for the longest time.  I finally got my hands on some of this last week and let me just say, it's amazing.  Look for a review on the blog soon.  In the meantime, purchase yours here. 

{THREE}.  Smoke's Poutinerie. I have been hearing rave reviews of this restaurant for quite some time but our closest one is over an hour away.  Last week we happened to be close by and just HAD to stop in.  I'm not a poutine lover but my husband is.  All the poutine choices start out with your basic poutine (fries, gravy and cheese-curds) and you can pick options from there.  I got the double pork (bacon and pulled pork) and my husband had the bacon cheeseburger (cheese-sauce, bacon and hamburger).  I have to say, I LOVED it.  It's not something that I could eat all the time but it was delicious.  If you're close by, go! Here is there website.  Check out the menu and locations!

{FOUR}. Every Time I Think of You by Tracey Garvis-Graves.  This is one of my favorite authors and I'm so excited to see a new book from her.  Check out my blog-blast about her new book and purchase your copy here. 

{FIVE}.  GREEN BAY PACKERS.  Football season started while I was taking a break from the blog.  We're a Packers family.  Bring on the Cheesehead, chili, Lambeau Leaps, Green and Gold and the drool-worthy Clay Matthews.