BatH and Body Works Sale!!

Bath and Body Works is Having a great sale online and in their stores. I recently purchased some great items. I will Have to show you my Haul. ;)
Today I'm talking about their sale online.
They Have select 3 wick Candles on sale right now for $9 (Today only) & $11!!

Here are a few I am thinking of purchasing:


All three of these are $9 each!



These three are $11 each.

The real standouts for me are the Mahogany Teakwood and the Pineapple Mango. They both smell divine.
Mahogany Teakwood smells like a mens Cologne, YUM! I think I will Have this scent in my bedroom.
Pineapple Mango smells like, well Pineapples and summer. It's Very fresh and awakening. I love it.
I'll keep you updated on my purchases. I would love to know what you purchase too.
They Have these Cute aprons on sale for $16.75 as well. There are many other discounts going on there so Check it out.

And Here is an online Coupon Code you Can use at Checkout for 20% off: Beaches13

Enjoy!

*I am not affiliated with Bath and Body Works. I purchased all my items just like every regular Consumer. 

Awkward space? Switch it around.

My living room is a basic rectangle. It's a fairly large rectangle and it has a fireplace on one whole side of the room. I really wish I had a normal fireplace but it's there for now. It makes placing furniture a bit difficult. I have a sectional as well. It is huge. My kids, my husband and I love it. There is a place for everyone to sit comfortably. This sectional adds to the difficulty in arranging the living room. Then we have a 55" TV. It is also huge and we have a large TV stand to accommodate it. 

-A very old picture of our living room. (Please ignore the red curtains.) 

    So, that being said there are some major factors that go in to this living room situation. I've been fairly happy with the arrangement until recently. I would like to add some more furniture to the space, like a side table and a leather chair, maybe a floor lamp and another table. Well, that was not possible with the existing layout and I was tired of having the TV and the back of the couch face our front door. It was not a pretty focal point. 

(Another old pic) See what I mean by the layout? I felt this was so much wasted space on the right. 

After spending hours on Pinterest, I figured where I wanted the TV and our buffet to go. I basically was going to switch them. It just didn't make sense for our large TV to be on the smallest wall. I didn't know how I was going to arrange the couch but I would just wing it and figure it out after I moved the TV. My lovely husband moved everything for me, even though he liked the living room as is. :)

(Please excuse the sippy cup on the couch.)

    I loved how it turned out and I started playing with the sectional to see where to put it. Oddly enough, the sectional looked great where it originally was...just needed to be flipped backwards so it was facing the front door. This whole configuration has made the biggest difference. Our living room is so open now and the kids have so much more space to play. I am not done with the wall the TV is on so I'm not going to post pictures until I do a few things first. 
Until then, here is a picture of the small wall that now houses the buffet. I hope this post inspires you to take some chances in your living room and maybe look at things a little differently. Sometimes it helps to just wing it. 

Enjoy!

Custom Vinyl lettering

Hi everyone, 

I'm sorry I have been MIA for a little while but I went on vacation recently. I am back in to the swing of things and calling attention to a new obsession. 

If you have seen my full kitchen you might have noticed some lettering above my sink that says Bon appetit. 

You might have seen a Millennium Falcon in my son's room as well. 

It seems over the past year or so more places to put vinyl have come out of the wood work. Like....on your front door:

Emily from Jones Design Company blog, one of my favorites actually hand painted these numbers on her door but I've purchased vinyl numbers to go on mine. You can also put "Welcome" I always think that's a nice touch. Ocasionally Groupdealz.com has some available for a good price, which is where I purchased mine. The deal is over but you can take a look at it: Here

I am also loving house numbers on the mailbox as well. I've already put some on my mailbox and I have to say it adds a little something. Here is one I found on Etsy that is super cute. 

You can buy it from this Vendor at a great price too. $6!

I don't know about you but I am loving this trend in home decor. I love personalizing my space and this just takes it up a notch. So, if you are looking for a way to decorate your door, mailbox or a blank wall think about vinyl lettering. And it's not like a tattoo. You can always peel it off and start over. 

Enjoy!

How I lost 11 lbs in 3 weeks

Let me just say, I have completely converted to counting calories. When I was younger, I thought it was a ridiculous idea to have to count everything you eat and write it down and do math when you're supposed to be stuffing your face. I had been hearing buzz about My Fitness Pal and took a look at it a few months ago and wasn't impressed so I set up my account and just left it. Three weeks ago I decided to take another look at how it worked out. It said I needed to eat 1,200 calories a day in order to lose weight. I decided to give it a whirl and typed in the diary section what I ate that day. I continued to do it the next day, and the next day and so on. It was so simple. Every time I sat down to eat I grabbed my phone and just typed in what I ate. I started to realize what things were really fatty in my diet and how I could eat a smaller portion of it or exclude it all together. Since then I have lost 11 lbs...in 3 weeks. I lost 5 lbs each week and then 1 lb the following week. It starting to slow down now...losing weight I mean. But I feel healthier and I know what foods I don't feel guilty about eating and others I have cut out completely. I haven't exercised at all either.

Like the Ramen noodles I liked are 460 calories a package, and I thought I was eating light!! Do you have a Raising Canes near you? Well, I have like 3 and their 3 Finger Combo is 792 calories!! Those chicken tenders are not that worth it to me. My Mom had me look up food for her too and couldn't believe her Pei Wei Pad Thai Chicken was 720 calories.
To me, the proof is in the pudding. I started counting and watching what I ate and a few things happened: I started portion control, I'm not eating certain "not worth it" foods & I am losing weight and feeling great. And all of this is because of an app.
Trust me, I am as surprised as you are. If you are lazy, don't want to try that hard to lose weight and don't mind altering you diet a very small amount then this app is for you. I just made a few rules for myself: I am completely honest with the food I eat no matter how many calories it is, I stick to the 1,200 diet pretty well....some days I have been over a little bit...I think the most was 188 calories but it was no skin off my back. I no longer feel guilty for eating candy or ice cream they are planned. It's actually very liberating. I eat almost exactly what I did before just in slightly smaller amounts ( two slices of Dominos pizza instead of three). I try and drink more water since that curbs my appetite and I don't snack as much either because I'm not as hungry.

It's only been a little over three weeks but I really feel like this is the "diet" for me. I really feel this is more of a lifestyle choice than actually a diet because I really don't do without. Well, if you have any questions on this or want to know what I eat I would be glad to share it with you. I hope if you are struggling with loosing weight you will give this app a trial. It's so simple. There are so many other things to this app as well.
 I would like to lose another 19 lbs but I am going to be patient and just stick to this for awhile. Gosh, I used to be so overwhelmed with how much weight I wanted to lose but I have 11 down and 19 to go. It's sounds so much more doable now.Let me know if you have started this or start using this app and what you think of it.

Enjoy!

*I am not affiliated with My Fitness Pal. I have not received anything from their company.
Note: please consult with your doctor before changing anything in your diet. I was 30 lbs overweight results may vary depending on your situation.

A little Boy's Mustache Bash

My son turned one recently and so we invited the grandparents and the great-grandparents over to celebrate a fun little mustache bash. I had always thought my son's first b-day would be a Star Wars themed one (hence the nursery theme). After some debate I thought that it would be best to save that one for later when he can really enjoy it. I finally decided on throwing him a Mustache Bash after I saw These Plates! 

I loved the colors too. They are so easy to decorate with. Plus, when he looks back on pictures of his first birthday he won't be embarrassed. 

Here are a few pictures of the day:

I made this tassel garland using this tutorial. It was very informative and easy. It is the least expensive decoration with the biggest impact. I love it. I clipped pictures on the garland of his past year. Wow, the time has flown. I had a little trouble finding the foil paper, it's very expensive online. I found mine at Party City. Don't buy one from Etsy, make your own. It only cost be about $5 to make. I already had some blue twine lying around and the rest was just time to make it. 

I had pretzel sticks, cheeseballs, popcorn from a gourmet popcorn place and rootbeer! I tried to pick out what every guy would like to snack on. I do think they were a big hit, especially the popcorn. YUM! The popcorn bags are just regular brown paper lunch bags cut half way down and then I drew mustaches on them with a black marker, so easy. 

I went a little crazy with decorating the kitchen. I picked out four of my husband's old work shirts and buttoned them up around the chairs and tied the arms in the back. It looked so cute. I them hung up a small tassel garland to go behind the birthday boy for extra cute pictures. I put some of my husband's ties on the chandelier and the hooks on the back of our fireplace. Add a dash of balloons and some cake and we were ready for a party! 

I love the shirts on the chairs. I am glad my husband had a few old shirts he could give me. Some icing did get on a few of them. :)

We had some clear cups to put other drinks like sprite, water and ginger ale in. I found these reusable cup clings at Party City. They had a small mustache section. I kept them for another occasion. It was a lot easier for people to find their cup too.  

Without further ado.....Here is the cake!! I love it. I saw a picture on Pinterest of a cake with a cupcake on top and I thought it was perfect. I ordered this from a very nice woman who bakes cakes out of her kitchen. I found her through a mutual friend on Facebook and checked out her WEBSITE and fell in love with everything on there. I e-mailed her a picture from Pinterest that I liked; sent her the invitations I made for the party and she came up with this. I LOVE IT! If you are in the Dallas area you should check Christie out. Oh and the cake was so decadent and delicious. 

His name was written on top and we pulled off the cupcake for him to blow out the candle and eat. Then the adults could eat the rest of the cake without any little fingers getting in to it. 

(The tray is from Ikea, just in case you were wondering. )

The Birthday Boy! Can you count how many ones are in this picture? I went a little overboard, but you only have your first birthday once!

Here are some of the images that inspired this birthday party:

Most of my ideas came from Pinterest.  Follow ME on Pinterest! That's probably the best way to see what I am up to. 

Enjoy!

A New Website I Love

The other week I did a post on Pinterest. I really do think you can get a ton of great ideas from that website. I used to scour through magazines trying to find something I liked but now I can just search them on Pinterst. I love it.
Well, I think I have come across another website that will be just as useful.

Stalk This

It allows you to download a tab in your internet window and whenever you come across something online that you would like to keep track of to see if it goes on sale....you just hit the button and Stalk it! You can put items in folders much like Pinterest and refer back to them. It sends you alerts when a paticular item has gone on sale and you can even put a percentage on how much it goes on sale to alert you, as well as a price. I LOVE IT! I always had to keep tabs on items I was wanting to purchase. Oh, I better go back to that website to see if that holiday stuff went on sale yet. Then I would forget and it would be all sold out. On this site you can keep everything in one place and keep track. I have even made a list of gift ideas! You can also see what your favorite people are checking on as well.
You can look at my stuff under the name CourtneyBlushes

HOW TO

STALK

1

Shop your

favorite online

stores.

2

Find a product you

like and stalk it —

save it to your list.

 3

When it goes

on sale we'll let

you know.

             

PS. I am not affiliated with stalkthis.com and I have not received any kind of compensation or "gifts". I simply found a website I thought was a good idea and wanted to share it with you.

Enjoy!

Kids Birthdays!

I am so busy planning my kids Birthdays right now. My son's birthday is this Sunday and so we are having a small party for him (Blog post about this next week!). My daughter's birthday is in June and I already have her presents and most of the Birthday decor done. I haven't decided on the cake yet though. Doesn't everything revolve around the cake? I don't know about you but that's where I start most of the time. I have been pinning like a mad woman too on Pinterest. Follow me on Pinterest HERE

If you go to my Babies folder that's where I pin all the birthday stuff. I pretty much pin on Pinterest everyday. I am addicted. :) 

Here are a few of the things I am loving at the moment. 

 

I am making both of my children tassel garlands for their birthdays. We will see how they turn out though. I also found a great baker that did some of the cakes and cookies above. I can't wait to show you what she comes up with this weekend. 

I hope you have a great week. 

Enjoy!