Road trip!

My view, inside & outside the car yesterday as I drove to Austin :-)
Mo Monkey, Mo Monkey, Mo!

Another "job"

Well, I haven't done a great job of keeping up with my blog lately... fail... but I do have various reasons for it :-) One of which I'm actually pretty excited to start talking about & finding more blogs about... extreme couponing!
Yes I am someone that has watched the TLC show Extreme Couponing since it first aired. I remember seeing the first episode and I was immediately hooked on the idea & the show itself. Perhaps I don't want to be that extreme, but I decided this is something I need to start doing. Let's be honest... isn't every 20-something living on some sort of budget? If you're not, that's great & good for you haha but even with money to spend, doesn't it bother you to know you're paying more than you have to be?
Well, it bothers me :-) And as much time as it requires to teach yourself to coupon, I totally see it as worth it!
So the last few weeks I've been clipping & sorting & researching & reviewing stores' ads... I've made a couple of short shopping trips... I'm really just dipping my toes into the water at this point... but I have found some great deals! Check out some of the items I've ended up with :-) I will be happy to give a product & price breakdown a little later, but at this point my laptop is broken & I'm blogging from my cell phone... another hurdle to me blogging every day! But what I can say now is that, on average, I have been saving between 50-60% on these shopping trips, which is great, but still far less savings than I know can be achieved. This is a learning process. Some items I have managed to get completely free!
Are you a couponer? Do you have suggestions or blogs you follow? Do you think I'm nuts for starting this process? Haha I'm curious what you all think! I don't plan on stocking up on items I don't need or will never use... I don't really plan on my stockpile taking over an entire room in my home... but hey, we'll see, right? ;-)

Fun food for the 4th!

Are you hosting a 4th of July party? Or attending one? The 4th just seems to be the ultimate backyard barbecue day of summer, doesn't it? Make it fun with lots of red, white & blue! Don't spend a ton of money on decorations... you can show your patriotic pride with the food you serve. Guests of all ages will enjoy these snacks!

Doughnut Hole "Kabobs", great for brunch!

Rice Krispy Treat "Firecrackers"

Red White & Blue Bundt cake

Various desserts

Firecracker Cupcakes

Fruit Tray

Rice Krispy Treats

Various food ideas

These ideas are so cute! And they're all relatively easy to make! See details about these ideas, including links to the original bloggers, and much more on my pinterest boards! And don't forget to search pinterest for more ideas for tomorrow and other holidays!

Hope everyone has a happy and safe Independence Day. God bless America! And never forget freedom isn't free!

America

America by texassass featuring a stripe dress

Makeup Monday: Summer's here!

Happy Summer!! Today's Makeup Monday is to remind you to change up those makeup looks for the season change! Here's a few makeup artist looks, put together by professionals to save you the time and effort!

Cinnamon Summer

Flirty Fashionista

Radiant Attraction

Simply Glamorous

Get the step-by-step instructions on my website, as well as other summer looks :-)

Happy Friday!

Remember me?

Hey y'all! Remember me? Yeah I'm still alive and I still have a blog... life's just been a little crazy lately!! So my apologies to my, what 3 followers? Ha! :-) But no really, sorry for my neglect, just a lot going on and certain things and people have taken priority lately. But I'm ready to get back in the swing of things! :-) Cheers to Thursday... family dinner time with my second family... see y'all tomorrow!!

Operation Sunscreen 2012

Friends, I am currently participating in another fundraiser, and this one is very near and dear to my heart! Join me in supporting our military men and women by sending them a Sun Protection Care Package! Each package ($30) includes 2 sunscreens to bless one of our brave men or women in Iraq. When you purchase a Sun Protection Care Package, I match it by donating another care package! You are blessing 2 people for the price of 1! I am NOT making any profit on your purchase... this is 100% about our military and making sure they are able to protect themselves in very harsh, hot conditions with countless hours of sun exposure.

This is a tax-deductible charitable donation. All Sun Protection Care Packages will be purchased by me and shipped directly from Mary Kay, Inc. to The Soldier's Angel Foundation (it is soldiersangels.org, sorry the pic below is incorrect with ".com"). You will receive a tax receipt from me with the charity's information.

Mary Kay® Sun Care Sunscreen Broad Spectrum is recommended by the Skin Cancer Foundation, so you can be sure you are sending a quality product. For further information about the sunscreen you are purchasing, and to begin the donation process, please visit my website. Your donation is as easy as a few clicks! Please checkout online with the number of sunscreens you want. Remember, each set is 2 sunscreens, so if you want to donate 1 set ($30 donation) you will enter "2" in the quantity blank; 2 sets ($60) is "4" in the quantity blank; 3 sets ($90) is "6" and so on.

Also, to ensure that your order is designated as a donation and not just a personal sunscreen order, please use code "OP SUN" in the Customer Comments box during checkout. Your tax receipt will be mailed to your billing address unless another address is otherwise noted in the customer comments. (Credit or Debit card will be the only payment accepted for this fundraiser. This is to ensure your payment security by keeping numbers private. Transactions are processed by Propay and at no time am I shown anything more than the last 4 digits of your card)

Should you have any questions, please email me
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for your support! Semper Fi ;-)

My train is leaving the station

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a great weekend! It's back to work for me... after about a week of family time and not much work, it's time to get back in the groove!

I heard this quote the other day and I wrote it down. (Side note: I always keep a pad of paper sitting next to me... I'm one of those people that has tons of post-its and tiny pieces of paper sitting around that say all kinds of random things from reminders to blog ideas to gift ideas for friends & family to shopping lists to quotes)

"Get on the train or get out of the way!"

Right now, I can't even remember what tv show I was watching when I heard this, but it actually made me pause the tv to write it down. When you think about it, it's a really powerful quote, especially when applied to a young business woman. I have dreams and aspirations of how I want my life to be... and eventually you realize those are never just going to happen, you have to make it happen. You have to decide what you want, have it very clear in your head... better yet, put what you want in front of you... make a goal poster, make a collage of pictures of your dream home and dream job and places you want to go... do whatever you have to do to remind yourself every day what you want out of life. This is the slow chugging along part of the train... just go with me here :-)

Once you spend that time and you have your dreams in front of you, it's time to pick up speed! Get your train goin' and don't stop! If you happen to find some inspirational people along the way you want to add to your train, sure, as Lloyd said to Harry, "Pick 'em up!" lol. But don't you dare stop your train for anyone else! When you are your own powerhouse, people will either get on or get out of your way. And your momentum builds.

I'm loving this quote and it's something that I'm truly trying to apply to myself personally and in my business. I have somewhere I want to go and my train is about to take off on a great journey! :-)

What are your dreams? Where do you want to be in 10, 20, 30 years? What do you do every day to get a little closer to those dreams? Keep chuggin'!! ;-)

Lazy days

My week in review... I spent most of it by the pool! Pretty luxurious, huh? ;-) True to itself, Texas weather was fickle fickle fickle! All week it was sunny and then a storm would come through and we'd be surrounded by severe weather. This happened a couple of times. But it was pretty convenient that most of the sun was during the afternoon and most of the storms were during the night. So I was able to catch some rays by the pool and enjoy some beers with my brother. Cozmo had a blast and completely wore himself out in the pool. Last year was his first time to swim, so this year he was still a little hesitant at first. But once he remembered what he was doing, it was hard to get it out of the pool! He's a great swimmer... this year we added in fetching the tennis ball. We have yet to master jumping into the pool (he takes the stairs) and catching the ball as he's jumping in. But hey, he's young and we have time!
I lounged in the lounge chair and broke in the new pool float lounger. We cooked out burgers and ordered pizzas. We sat on the patio and jammed an old boombox. The backyard was my playground this week and it was great to spend quality time with my family that wasn't all in front of the tv :-) Happy weekend and happy summer!!