Happy Thanksgiving and Pre-Black Friday!

Happy Thanksgiving! I have much to be thankful for… especially my two lil’ bambinos. I know I’m a sleep-deprived workaholic whose brain never stops… BUT – at the end of the day, I have my health and my family to be grateful for.

I always start off Thanksgiving morning with the Black Friday ads… heehee. But once the kids are done with breakfast, we then set up the Christmas tree! YAY. Let me state right now for the record that: I. LOVE. THE. HOLIDAYS.  My daughter has been pretty excited as well. She helped my mom with the tree over at her house. So this morning, she was all about it! She made sure we wore some fun holiday headbands and she was very helpful with getting the lil’ guy into the mood as well. I usually do a silver/red ornament look on the tree… but this year I’m feeling the Turquoise. In any case, my tree ALWAYS has disco balls as the main ornament style. I just can’t get away from them. Of all the styles that I see… I always gravitate to the disco balls. Must be the EDMer in me. It allows me to still be in touch with the side of me that would still dance the night away if I had the energy and youth to still do it. HAHAHA. Anyhow…. sorry for the trip down memory lane tangent. In any case, we got the tree up and I’m in the holiday spirit! After the kids finished putting all the ornaments up themselves… I went back and spread it all out a little more evenly during naptime. Hehe. Obviously, due to some height restrictions, my son found it more feasible to put multiple ornaments on the same branch.

On another note… I was ecstatic about my first Black Friday deal today: $5 banner from Staples! These are normally $24.99! So I went ahead and designed three of them for the three birthday parties I’m hosting next year (my two kids and my mom’s big 60th shin-digg). It really helps to know ahead the themes and always have a chunk of my brain dedicated to keeping eye on on things related to those parties throughout the year. By the time we approach the party date – all the decor and goody bag stuff is taken care of. But yeah… $5 banner. 3ft x 1.6ft. Not bad! Whoooo. I’m a happy camper! What a good deal. And of course…. with any online shopping – gotta go through Ebates first! Staples was getting 4% cash back on Ebates today, then I used my Chase Ink business Credit Card which gets me another 5% cash back in rewards.  Happy! Happy!

Whew. I better get to bed. Need to wake up in 4.5 hours to roam the mall and outlets for some fun Black Friday wandering. I already shop for Xmas all year long so most of my list is done. Tomorrow will mostly be for finishing up some people and random purchases on impulse. HA!

Handprint Art!

Schedule Series: 3 Months

Ahhhh…. 3 months…. this is where you see the light: Sleeping through the night has been achieved!

DIY: 50’s Poodle Skirt

I got a little flyer from my daughter’s preschool last week – they are going to be doing a 50’s themed week coming up and had some suggestions for the kids to get dressed up. So I took it to Pinterest and found this handy-dandy blog post! Then headed to Walmart to buy my supplies.

Supplies: I ended up buying 1.5 yrds of a light fleece like fabric for $3.98 total. I lucked out! They had an applique of a poodle all ready to go for $2.97! Then  found some sparkly ribbon for $0.97 a spool.

I followed the guidelines from the blog, but changed up the measurements for my 4yr old. I wanted her to have a 12 inch skirt… so my square ended up being a total of 32″x32″. The inner circle I cut out for the waist measured 3 inches along one side to make a full 12 inch circle. We used a hot-glue gun to glue down the applique and the ribbon leash, then sewed some leftover velcro I had for the open side of the skirt (to make it more adjustable.

One thing I love about this Fall: Mommy & Me Michael Kors Boots!

And Michael Kors while we’re at it! FYI: Marshalls sells Michael Kors Kids boots for about $24.99. A damn steal if you ask me. Especially since the boots will last my daughter the whole season. AND… the pair on the right that I got for myself? Well, those are Michael Kors Kids boots too! Turns out the MK Kids boots in size 5 is equivalent to a Womens size 6.5. Holla!

Check out how my daughter rocked her boots during our holiday photo session: damn I love her.

Where am I November 1st?

TARGET! Bright and early. Yup. Find me at Target EVERY November 1st.

This morning, I told my daughter I was going to the store to get her next costume. I asked her what she wanted. She said Ariel. So I was on a mission. A tough mission too, because that is a very specific request. Oh my! I was sooooo in luck. The second Target I went to had ONE Ariel costume out of all the costumes there. It was a size too big, but can totally be sewn up. Anyhow, it was a $40 “deluxe” kinda costume….. But – half off… it actually rung up as $17.50. Then I had a Target Mobile app coupon for $5 off…. and then used my Target RedCard for another 5% off. Ended up getting it for somewhere around $12.83. HOLLA! My daughter was ecstatic when she saw it! If in any case she decides not to be Ariel next year, it still serves as a great “dress up” outfit for her collection.

I ended up going to 3 different Targets that day. heehee. I couldn’t resist. I mean, they each have different things. The first one I went to is my closest local one, smaller, so I like to go there first since its not as crowded. There, I picked up the carving sets (I’m particularly excited about the Hello Kitty one and a super large scooping spoon to gut the pumpkin), black plastic cups for next years birthday party and some Halloween T-shirts for the kids. The second location was where I picked up Ariel and a bunch of cute superhero beanies for my son. I also was able to get the goody bags and some misc toys for the kids classrooms next year. The third location though was one of the larger ones in town and had a ton of Halloween stuff still. I scored some superhero costumes for my son and…. drum roll…. and TON of paper towels. Score. I always have a hard time getting the paper towels the day after Xmas – The hardcore ol’ ladies always beat me to it. But for some reason… no one was swooping them up today. Amateurs! I took nearly everything that was on the shelf for my mom and I. hahahahaha. They came out to $0.75 a roll – cheaper than Costco! And with 2 kids, our house goes through paper towels pretty quickly.

I was thinking ahead as I shopped… keeping in mind that we had two themed birthday parties next year (Disney and Robot) – so I was constantly on the lookout for things related to that. All in all, I’d say I had a successful Day-After-Halloween! My lil’ shopping buddy did good too. Rewarded ourselves with some Jamba Juice after!