Sweet Valentines Ideas

I have been loving all of the fun Valentines treats I've seen around the web. Here is a sample of some of my favorites.

I love love love these iPod Valentines, they are my new favorites. Found Here.

Cute felt fortune cookies filled with kisses. Found on My Petite Purse.

I love these cute Lollipop Topiaries found on one of the cutest blogs, Remodelaholic.

Cute little candy shaped cakes. I love how these look! Found Here.

I love these strawberry roses, I would enjoy these far more than real roses. Found Here.
Cute little Cupid cupcakes, found Here.

Here is a cute heart shaped layered jello. I don't really like jello but I do enjoy a good layered jello every once and a while. Found Here.

A Valentine's Tree

My mom gave me a little white Christmas Tree this year that she was just going to throw away. We used it during Christmas as another decoration and then put it away. Then I saw on someones blog (I wish I could remember who! Update: It was Laurel's cute tree that I saw, you can find it Here) that they created a Valentine's Tree out of their little white one. Why didn't I think of that?? So here is my first Valentines Decoration of the year.

I was going to make my decorations but then I went to Michale's and found these cute little hearts on sale. The only problem was that they only had red, which really isn't a problem if you have some glitter and Mod Podge.


I just did a layer of Mod Podge (has it always been Mod Podge, I thought it was Modge Podge) and sprinkled the glitter on. Then I cut some ribbon and stuck it to the top of the heart.


Ta Da, pretty cute.


The finished Valentine's Tree. Now I just need to find some little gifts to go under it.



Penny Pinching Party
Blue Cricket Design
Creations by Kara

Menu Plan 18th Week

Click Here for my favorite recipe from last week. A delicious, juicy, cheap, easy, crockpot rotisserie chicken.

This week I planned my menu and went to the store yesterday for all of the ingredients. Hopefully that will make it easier to actually go through with the menu.

I'm always trying to find new recipes that are meatless and easy, I've found one more this week that I'm going to try called Lentil Tacos. I saw this in the menu of a great blog called The Saved Quarter, the name got me interested so I looked up a recipe to try out.

This week most of the meals are meatless, I think this will make for a easy, money saving week.

Monday: Lentil Tacos
Tuesday: No-Bake Mac and Cheese
Wednesday: Ham Fried Rice and Scallion Pancakes
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Soup
Saturday: Date Night
Sunday: Cheese Enchiladas

cheap healthy fast easy frugal recipes food meatless dinner
easy recipes food recipes cooking recipes healthy recipes crockpot recipes slowcooker quick and
For more menus visit I'm an Organize Junkie.

Grab My Button

I now have a button! For all of you that have a blog, grab my button! I think it's pretty cute. If you have any question on how to add it just ask!




<center><a href="http://favoritesandthings.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i393.photobucket.com/albums/pp18/katabbottie/KatiesBird.jpg" /></a></center>

Shade Warehouse Sale

If you love Shade clothing this is a great time to buy! The selection is often more limited but I'm always able to find some great basics for cheap!

Slow Cooker Rotisserie Chicken

Bad picture, I may have accidentally put the chicken in the crockpot upside down. Maybe you wont read this if I make it small.....?

I am always on the lookout for good crockpot meals. I love my crockpot, I love throwing everything together in the morning and knowing dinner is done. I found this recipe on a recipe swap forum and I knew I had to try it.

For my small family I only used 2 potatoes and a hand full of carrots which was definitely enough, I only had french cut green beans so that's what I used but next time I will use the other ones. I thought the chicken would dry since you don't add any liquid but it was falling off the bone. You can also use the leftover chicken anyway you want the next day.

Slow Cooker Rotisserie Chicken

1 whole chicken


3-4 medium Potatoes

1/2 bag baby carrots


1 can green beans, drained

1/2 bag of carrots

Salt/Pepper, spices and herbs to your taste

Put all veggies in bottom of the crockpot, season veggies, place the chicken (washed and patted dry) on top. Season with salt, pepper, any herb you like, and set crockpot on high for 1 hour, then turn to low for 9 hours.

I'm linking this recipe to Crockpot Wednesday.

Jane Austen Ruined My Life

I finished my second Readers Choice Book a few days ago titled Jane Austen Ruined My Life by Beth Pattillo. Here is the synopsis from Good Reads.

English professor Emma Grant has always done everything just the way her minister father told her she should -- a respectable marriage, a teaching job at a good college, and plans for the requisite two children. Life was prodigiously good, as her favorite author Jane Austen might say, until the day Emma finds her husband in bed with another woman. Suddenly, all her romantic notions a la Austen are exposed for the foolish dreams they are.

Denied tenure in the wake of the scandal and left penniless by the ensuing divorce, Emma packs up what few worldly possessions she has left and heads to England on a quest to find the missing letters of Jane Austen. Locating the elusive letters, however, isn't as straightforward as Emma hoped. The owner of the letters proves coy about her prize possessions, sending Emma on a series of Austen-related tasks that bring her closer and closer to the truth, but the sudden reappearance of Emma's first love makes everything more complicated.

In the end, Emma learns that doing the right thing has very little to do with other people's expectations and everything to do with her own beliefs. Laced with fictional excerpts from the missing letters, Jane Austen Ruined My Life is the story of a woman betrayed who uncovers the deeper meaning of loyalty.

Here is my review:

The title and cover of this book really drew me in, I thought it would be something fun and light to read. In the end I thought it was pretty good. Not great but I didn't hate it. I'm not much of a Jane Austen fan, I never read any of her books (although most of them are on my list for this year) but I have seen the movies. This book is about a professors that knows everything about her life so it was kind of interesting to get a little of that personal information.

This book also has a small amount of mystery as the main character runs around England finding clues to piece together more information about Jane Austen. It also has a little romance on the side, which I always enjoy.

What this book really did was make me crave to go to England, it has always been a dream of mine and the details in this book made me wish to go even more.

Target Diaper Deal

Here is a great deal for Target if you need more diapers:

$3 off Huggies Pure and Natural Diapers Click Here
PLUS
$2.50 off Huggies Pure and Natural Click Here

That makes them $5.50 off one package! I know I need some more diapers and I love how soft these ones feel.

Save on Groceries at Coupons.com! Click Here

New Blog Design

Do you like my new blog design? I've been working on it for a little while and I really like it. If' you're reading this post through a reader come check it out, let me know what you think.

Free Cereal Coupon

I have a really hard time eating breakfast. I don't like eating a big meal right when I wake up; my body just doesn't like that. My husband is the complete opposite, he would have a huge breakfast every morning with pancakes, bacon, eggs, hash browns.... the whole thing.

Since I don't really like breakfast, I've always just eaten some toast and fruit or something small but my hubby has suffered. I felt bad buying him the real sugary cereal, but he doesn't really like the healthy stuff. So I was very excited when I heard that General Mills would be reducing sugar and making their cereals healthier.

This week General Mills announced a commitment to further reduce sugar in cereals advertised to kids under 12 to single digit grams of sugar per serving. The company has already been reducing sugar in cereals while increasing key nutrients, such as calcium and vitamin D, and providing whole grain.

Did you know that ready-to-eat cereal eaters consume less fat, less cholesterol and more fiber than non-cereal eaters? Cereals also deliver important vitamins, minerals and other essential nutrients, making cereal a top source of key nutrients in childrens' diets.

Other cereal benefits:

• Ready-to-eat cereals, including pre-sweetened cereals, account for only 5% of sugar in childrens' diets.

• Ready-to-eat cereal is the No. 1 source of whole grains in a child’s diet today.

• More frequent cereal eaters tend to have healthier body weights and lower Body Mass Index measures.

One thing I like to do is give Addie a bowl of dry sugar cereal when she wants a treat. She loves the taste and she feels like she is getting a candy or a cookie. I love that it still has some fiber, vitamins and other nutrients.

Now for the deals:

You can get a coupon for $1 off a box of General Mills Cereal by clicking Here.

This information, coupon and my free cereal coupons was all provided by General Mills and MyBlogSparks. For more information about MyBlogSpark click Here.