Love is in the Air

Our friends Kyle and Michelle finally made the big leap and got engaged several weeks ago, and they are now in the full force of wedding planning. Much like Jesse and me, they had dated for years before Kyle popped the question, so this is a very exciting time for them!  We are thrilled that they will be tying the knot soon (very soon), and we are privileged enough to be part of their big day as members of the bridal party.

Monday I did an engagement "photo shoot" for them, and I had a blast doing it.  It was so fun posing them and directing the "shoot" I almost felt like a real photographer. :)  And they were such troopers with all my ideas.  I'm so glad I could capture a few moments for them to represent their time at Auburn together.  I just wanted to share a couple of them, because frankly I impressed myself.  :)  Now, by no means do I claim to be professional, but for my first time I thought they weren't too shabby.

(Check out that bling!)

Congrats Kyle and Michelle!

Replacements

I don't know about you, but I have a thing against the makeup aisle. There are way too many products staring back at me, and it becomes a little overwhelming when you have no idea what that shade in the bottle is going to wind up looking on you.  And in case y'all didn't know, I am white. And just because they call the color of foundation "fair" doesn't mean it is light enough for my skin tone.

What I look for in a foundation is good coverage.  I like a thicker liquid foundation that I know will cover my blemishes and even out my skin tone. For some reason my skin seems to absorb most foundations, so I've searched for one that will last pretty much all day without reapplication. These requirements left me at the department store makeup counter, and I walked away with a fabulous foundation from Estee Lauder (shade: Bone).

It really does stay in place all day and I loved that it has a little SPF.  The staying power of this foundation led me to also purchase the Double Wear eyeliner (in Coffee), and it was just as wonderful.  It goes on so smoothly and doesn't smudge or run during the day.

I love these two products, but their price tag (foundation $35, eyeliner $20!) made me feel like I left a little piece of myself at the makeup counter. So I've been on the hunt to find a more budget-friendly option, and I'm glad to announce I've finally found replacements for both!

 (insert drum roll here)

Revlon Colorstay Foundation (in Ivory) for $10 and CoverGirl's Liquiline Blast Eyeliner (in Brown Blaze) for $7.50.

The foundation lasts for approximately the same amount of time as the Double Wear with equal coverage, and the CG Eyeliner is amazing.  It goes on smooth and easy- you barely have to touch your lid to apply it!

So, if you are in the market for new makeup, I highly recommend these!

What are your favorite makeup products?

DIY Laundry Detergent

...or show I say washing powders?  

Whatever you call 'em, I made some today, and I think it's gonna work out pretty well!

Since my dishwasher detergent failed, I have some of the basic ingredients for laundry detergent leftover, so I thought I'd try my hand at it and see how it goes.  I found a few recipes through Pinterest and decided that most of them have pretty simple ratios, so I just decided to wing it and combine my favorite recipes. 

Here's what I used:

(all of these items can be found on the laundry aisle)

Cost?

Washing Soda $3.24, Borax $3.38, Fels-Naptha bar &0.97, OxyClean $6.99 (I got mine for 2.99 with Register Rewards at Walgreens)

You are only supposed to only use 2 tablespoons of this stuff per load (!!!), so each batch can wash 40+ loads of laundry.

I spent a little over 10 bucks, and can probably make at least 5 batches from the powdered ingredients.

So with a few additional bars of Fels-Naptha, that's around $14 for 200 loads of laundry!

It will not suds up like "normal" detergent, and it doesn't have a strong scent.  If you want extra scent, you can add Purex Crystals (which will also be a bonus fabric softener) or Downy Unstopables. I probably will do this - just didn't have it on hand today.

First, I grated the bar of Fels-Naptha.

(Jesse paid me no attention while I was in the process of grating. He only saw the end result, and thought it was cheese. Good thing he didn't taste it!)

Then, I added a cup off all three other ingredients.

Stirred to combine.

I've used it twice so far today and it seems to work great. It even removed stains that I was a little skeptical of.

Today has been a cleaning day.

I love Saturday cleaning.

Clean sheets.

Clean comforter.

Clean kitchen.

Clean dog bed.

Clean floors.

Clean bathroom.

Soon to be clean clothes.

:)

Dinner with Friends

Last night we had dinner with Kyle & Michelle at Cock of the Walk in Opelika.  It's a restaurant we've been meaning to go to since we've been in Auburn, but we always forget about it.  Thanks to a craving for fried catfish, Kyle brilliantly mentioned Cock of the Walk, so onward we drove.  The restaurant is an experience of it's own, and we were pretty impressed with our food! 

They have two peacocks you can visit and feed.

And Jesse was quite the duck charmer. :)

You get to eat out of these tin pie-plate shaped pans and drink out of cute little metal cups with handles.

And they have this delicious cornbread that they flip in the air from a mini cast iron skillet!

 Great food with great friends!

A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned

Let's talk money today.  If you know me at all, you know that I love a good deal - aka saving money, not spending it!  I will confess to clipping coupons and even to the fact that I have a binder to keep all of my coupons organized in that I take to the store with me. (Yep... I'm that girl in the check out line.)  But, shame and embarrassment aside, clipping coupons and scouting out deals has saved us a good bit of money in the little time that I've done it.

Now, I realize that couponing takes a fair amount of time, and not everyone can make the commitment to keeping up with lots of coupons and organizing a binder periodically, but I will say that once you get started, it is pretty easy to maintain.  However, if you have seen the TLC show "Extreme Couponers" you know just how crazy people can get with coupons.  They spend every waking moment searching for deals and coupons, and I find that ridiculous.  But I won't go into detail about that hear.  (Jesse may beg to differ at the fact the I made this comment, but I promise I am not an extreme couponer!)

My point of this post is to share a few websites and tips with you that I find useful. 
> How do I find deals? I let other people do most of the work for me. My favorite website to check is hip2save.com.  This is run by a lady named Collin and her gang of deal-seekers.  It is one of the best websites to go to for current deals and coupons.  I don't know how they know about all the deals, but they do a great job updating the site many times a day with new deals or coupons to print. Other websites that have been suggested to me are iamthatlady.com and southernsavers.com.  I check these occasionally.
> These websites I have mentioned are ones that I trust not to post anything sketchy or suspicious on.  When you click the deals they post, you will be transferred to another website. There are lots of freebies you can sign up to receive from different websites to try their product.  Even though I trust the deal websites mentioned, but I do use common sense and proceed with caution when entering my personal information to outside sites.  Usually a name, address, and email are required to receive a trial/freebie.  Sometimes a phone number (usually entering 000-000-0000 works).  I have a separate email account that I use for things such as this so that my real inbox is not loaded with junk.

What kind of freebies have I received?

Most are trial sized samples.  I've gotten toothpaste, dog food, Burts Bees chapstick and lotion, an Xacto blade, and laundry detergent samples to name a few random ones.

Lots of times these will also come with coupons for that product = double score!

These are my general rules for coupons:
1)  I print or clip any coupon that I think I might use.  (Better to keep it just in case and wind up throwing it away, than not have it and miss a really good deal.)
2) I print coupons from the websites mentioned above and clip them from the Sunday paper.  However, I only buy a paper when I know there are coupons inside that make it worth buying the paper and saving on the products. Hip2save.com does a "Coupon Review" every Saturday to let you know what coupons may be in your local paper. I always look through the paper before buying to make sure the coupons I want are in my paper because sometimes they may just be sent to certain regions.
3)  I only use coupons on products that I normally buy or that I would like to try.  I do not use every coupon I clip just because I have it.  If I have a coupon for Depends, I do not need Depends, and therefore do not even bother with the coupon. :)   Sometimes a really great deal may pop up where I can get something I don't normally buy for really cheap (or free!).  For instance, we normally buy cheapo Ivory soap, but I came across a good deal on Olay soap (thanks to those websites mentioned above).

3 2-packs of Olay soap at $2.57 each = $7.71

savings due to 3 $2.00 per item coupons = $6.00

total spent for 6 bars = $1.71 (woop woop!)

3) I do not use all my coupons as soon as they are clipped/printed.  I hold onto them for a little while, in case there is a store deal to match them with.  Such as this deal on Right Guard deodorant (the kind Jesse already uses):  Walgreens had Right Guard on sale for buy one (at $4.58) and get one free.  I happened to have 2 coupons that were $2.00 off when you purchase 2.  Here's the breakdown:

4 deodorants at $4.58 each = 18.32

savings due to BOGO sale = 9.16

savings due to coupons = 4.00

final cost for all four items = 5.16

cost per item = 1.29

(I realize there are 5 deodorants in this photo... one of them came from another BOGO+coupon deal. So Jesse will not need deodorant for a long time!)

4)  Coupons are going to be for name brand items.  So sometimes they are not worth it to me to use. For example, we don't mind using Great Value brand toilet paper.  If I have a coupon for Charmin that does not make the same amount of toilet paper cheaper than buying Great Value, then I don't bother using it.  I would rather pay less for Great Value than getting a few cents off of Charmin.  But that's just our own preference. If you would rather have Charmin, go ahead and grab it and save a little money while getting a product you love!

5)  The best deals are not going to be found in Walmart.  I had to learn to face this fact. I used Walmart as my one-stop-shop because they do usually have the lowest price for just about everything. But I absolutely hate shopping at Walmart.  It seems they are often times out of the product I want, or do not have the price displayed (which makes me really angry, because they have also removed those handy price-scanners that used to be throughout the store).  And don't get me started on the lack of cashiers. Stepping off my soapbox and back to couponing.... they are not going to have BOGO deals, which leads to the best savings.  Ideally, you want to stack coupons with store deals to get the best deal.  These are going to be more prevalent at stores like Winn-Dixie, Publix, Kroger, Walgreens, CVS, and even Dollar General.

There are many more in depth rules to couponing (such as store policy, etc.), but these are just what I consider the general basics.  If you have any questions, please post them in the comments section and I'll get back to you.

Weekend Round-up

This weekend was one of many wedding weekends that we will have this year.  One of 5 to be exact (as of now).  Today was friends Lamar & Megan, next up my sister & Jeff, followed by Kyle & Michelle, then Jesse's cousin Marc, and last but not least friends Jarrod & Jennifer!  And May will be our 1 year anniversary.  So this is definitely a year filled with lots of love and happiness, and we're only in March!  

Here are today's newlyweds:

It was a perfect, sunny day for a wedding, and everything was absolutely beautiful.  Just take a look at her gorgeous dress:

And I'm so, SO glad I got to visit with this lady while there:

She was sweet enough to snap these for us:

On another note, I became owner of this little accessory:

Now there's no messin' with me. :)

Even Maggie had a great time this weekend. She loves being in Luverne at Gene & Marilyn's house were she can run free.  Doesn't she look like such a happy dog?

Hello Sunshine!

 Just a few snippets of God's beautiful creations that He's let us enjoy lately.

These are just weeds that will have to be mowed down soon, but they are so pretty all together. :)

What's for Dinner Tonight?

The hubs can cook! Check it out:

And it was every bit as delicious as it looks!

Now Open

This could be addicting.

Busy, Busy Weekend

This past weekend was quite eventful.  Friday, we visited our friends Gabe and Stephanie.  Stephanie is an awesome hair stylist, and they just recently renovated their guest house into her own salon!  I'm so excited for her to have her own place. That means we can go hang out and get pampered at the same time!  Pampering included... cookies, coffee, a wonderful head message from Brianna while she washes your hair, and excellent service from Stephanie (of course).  Oh, and I can't forget the message chair (the one Jesse spend 45 minutes in).  It is amazing!  You will just have to go and check it all out for yourself if you live close by.  Visit Stephanie at Bellissimo Salon:

This is the only shot of the decor I took of the salon.  I should have took more. Stephanie did a great job designing everything and turning into an awesome looking salon!

Yep... that's me getting a little color!  Nothing drastic... you probably can't even tell if you saw me.  She just added a little more golden/strawberry blonde back into my hair to brighten it up again.  This was my first time ever getting any color, and I like the subtle change.  I'm rarely brave enough in the salon to just jump into change. :)  (Thanks Stephanie for being so patient with me and my hair changes! Look how much you've talked me into... in the past few years...lol.)

Jesse getting a much needed haircut.  Stephanie is the BEST at cutting his curly hair!

Trying out the hair dryer in the massage chair. Ha!

We spent Saturday in Birmingham on our second hunt for a place to live with friends Hannah & Adam.  We think we might have found the place.  We definitely found one we like, but we have to wait until closer to May to know which floor plans are available.  While in Birmingham, we couldn't resist these...

...and they were fresh and hot, right off the "assembly" (?) line.  I've never had Krispy Kreme so fresh.  They were literally melt-in-your-mouth delicious!  There weren't very many of those left by the time we made it back to Auburn.