Last-Minute Gift Ideas $5-$10

I wanted to share a few last-minute gift ideas that are inexpensive, useful, easy to find, and quick to pull together!!!

Soup Mugs and Soup Mix - about $6.00-$7.00 (I paid $5.50)

I gave a set of soup containers and my fave Bear Creek Chicken Noodle Soup to all the ladies at the office where I get my allergy shots.  It was a hit!!! They loved it!!  Originally I was going to purchase these soup mugs from Target for $6.99...until I found some at Dollar Tree for $1.00!!!! They had pink, blue, and green, and from what I could tell, they are a pretty good quality (I hope so, at least!!!). You could also use ceramic ones and any soup of your choice, of course!

Gift Cards - $5.00 or $10.00

When in doubt, just get a GIFT CARD!!!!!!  Our local Kroger grocery store had Amazon gift cards in 3-packs of $10.00.  These were great for the bus driver, dance teacher, and gym/art teachers!  You can purchase Starbucks cards in almost any increment.  I used to feel silly giving gift cards because the person would know how much I spent.  But now, I don't care!!!!  They can get what they want and it's so easy!!!

Bath & Body Works Hand Soaps - $2.50-$5.00

I find that the hand soaps are better than lotion or other bath products because the scent isn't too strong, so you can't go wrong with any of the options. Also, unlike lotions, they will actually get used up to the end!!!  I often throw away old body sprays and other products like that because I have half the bottle left a couple years later. It goes bad and has to be trashed. Not the case with the soaps!!

Any kind of Kits - $2.00-$10.00

Any little kits full of useful items are always appreciated! You can put them together yourself!

1-Purse Kit: A cute zipper pouch or pencil case filled with mints, gum, and chocolates

2-Car Kit: A plastic shoebox filled with wipes, snacks, nail files, tissues, etc. 

3-Mom Kit: A clear zipper bag with Band-Aids, Neosporin, Tylenol, hand sanitizer, Shout wipes, floss, disposable toothbrushes, etc.

4-Craft Kit: A photo box filled with glitter, washi tape, gel pens, stickers, note cards, etc.

5-Baking Kit: A loaf pan filled with the dry ingredients for pumpkin bread or banana bread

 Hope this helps with your last-minute shopping!!!
:)Jamie

This is not a sponsored post.  All ideas are my own personal opinion.
Star background by etsy.com/shop/Prettygrafikdesign.

Buying New Furniture

(Un)Happy Tax Day, my friends!  I was an Accounting major in college and considered doing taxes for a living.....um.....well, I kinda had a change of heart along the way!!!! More about my life story later!  Today I want to share about our recent experience of buying new furniture for our family room.

Our home was built in the late 90's with lots of honey oak, berber carpet, brass fixtures, etc.  So we are slowly updating and changing (as the budget allows).  As much as I'd love to immediately start sanding and painting every inch of trim and builtins and moulding to a beautiful, fresh white....we have decided to wait.  We think it's better to have a professional do it, and it IS NOT CHEAP!!!  There are higher priority needs, which leads me to the title of this post: Buying New Furniture.

We had purchased our previous family room furniture when we got married almost 12 years ago.  It was sooooo comfortable and deep and large, just perfect for our previous home that had a big great room.  But it was stained, worn, difficult to keep clean, and pulling apart underneath the cushions.  And we were so over the swirly pattern, giant ottoman, and broken side tables!! Time for a change. Here it is, just days before the new set arrived:

SOFA & LOVESEAT:
For the sofa and loveseat, we decided on something different, something durable, a little less cushy (yet still comfy), but easier to clean.  It's the Pembroke from La-Z-Boy. Who knew La-Z-Boy made other furniture besides recliners?!!!!  The best part is the spill & scratch resistant leather-looking upholstery.  We chose the Renew fabric, which is actually fabric adhered to leather, so it has the warmth and softness of fabric, but the clean look of leather {and much cheaper than leather!!}. We also selected the brushed nickel nail heads.

CHAIR & OTTOMANS:

For the chair, we chose a fabric upholstery with a fun, more modern design to tie in with the paint and decor.  The ottomans (which convert to trays) are a nice, soft fabric, same as the pillows.

DESIGN:

Oh, and I forgot to mention that La-Z-Boy sent a designer to our house for free to help with selecting everything!!!  She created a design board for us at our final meeting, which made the whole dilemma of "choices" much easier!!! I am horrible at interior design and decor, so I have a huge appreciation for any help in this area!!!

SIDE TABLES:

These must be discontinued from La-Z-Boy (or at least their website), but here they are on Amazon.

At first, I had a little buyer's remorse because the sofa and loveseat were so very different than our previous ones.  I couldn't get over that they were not as big and cushy.  But now that I've had a chance to sit on them more, I can definitely say they are comfortable.  Almost like memory foam in that they take a few seconds to conform to your body.  And I'm LOVING that I can take a cloth to wipe them off!! (We moved the old furniture into the living room, so it's still around if I want to escape from the TV and craziness and rest for a bit!!!)

The lamps are new too. Found them online at World Market.

We tried to tie in the dark espresso colors from our kitchen cabinets into this room.  Next up will be pulling up this old berber carpet and laying down some wood floors!!!!!!!! :):):)

Note: This is not a sponsored post.  All reviews and opinions are my own based on my own experience.

Free Printable Holiday Shopping Planner

Can you believe it's already time to start thinking about shopping for the holidays???!!! As I'm typing this, snow flurries are falling here in central Ohio!!!  Here is a printable shopping tracking sheet you can use to track all those special people, gifts and amounts:

created by

5 Fall Must-Haves!

It's (almost officially) FALL!!!!  You'd think it's been Fall for many weeks based on the retail frenzy of Autumn decor, Halloween candy, and the major clearance of everything Summer!!!!

So here are five of my faves for Fall...

Oooooohhh!!  I LOVE these new nail colors from Mary Kay!!!! MK does not sell nail polish as part of their regular line, so I'm always excited when they bring out some new shades in a limited-edition. I have Night Diamond on my nails now.

This season, they have the beautiful Sapphire Noir and Night Diamond

I swear there's a vacuum inside Bath & Body Works that sucks me into that store!!! And the force is even stronger when the Fall products are out!!!  These are my fave scents right now: Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin and Pumpkin Caramel Latte...

Once I make the first pumpkin bread of the season in our house, we have a continuous inventory of it all the way through December!!!  Even now as I'm sitting here typing this, I'm remembering that we cut the last few pieces off of a loaf at breakfast this morning.  Gotta get baking this afternoon!!!

Click HERE for my recipe, modified from one I found online a few years back.

I still haven't found this in my local grocery store yet....but I'm expecting to see it soon!!!!!! My love of pumpkin never gets old including multiple cups of pumpkin flavored coffee!  I recommend following @pumpkinita on Instagram....great photos of all things pumpkin!  The pic of pumpkin Coca-Cola (in Las Vegas apparently) really caught my attention!!

My faves:

Express Low-Rise Skinny

Macy's INC Skinny Jeans Shadow Grey Wash

Kohl's Rock & Republic Kassandra Faded Bootcut

Forever 21 Polka Dot Skinny Jeans - 3 color options

Speaking of jeans, I think I have some online shopping to do;)

BIG LOTS - Who Knew?!!!

Woweee!!!!!!  I had no idea that Big Lots was the place to get scrapbooking supplies!!!!  I'm not a "scrapbooker," but I use the paper, stickers and other supplies for projects at church or girls scouts or at home.  I went into Big Lots for the big 20% OFF THE WHOLE STORE sale yesterday and I was shocked at everything I found for a Daisies project that our troop will be making tomorrow (decorations for the Hoedown Dance!!!).

6x6 inch pad of papers only $2.40 (regularly only $3)

I used my Cricut machine to cut out these flower shapes and cowboy boots!

I needed country western stickers and couldn't believe they were there!!!  There are 2 sheets of the puffy western stickers and one random sheet of snowflake stickers included in this pack.  Only $1.60 (and a great reg price of only $2)!!!!

I was looking for bandanas and couldn't find them, but instead found these 18x21" fabric pieces that will work just as great for only $0.80!!!

I'm not even sure I will need these giant glitter stickers for tomorrow's project, but I couldn't pass them up at only $$2.40! 

Next was this pack of stickers and stencils.  I just needed the little gem stickers, but didn't mind getting the whole pack....$1.60

So cute!!!!

Lastly were these plastic cups.  I will post the pic of the final project after the girls finish it tomorrow, but these cups should be wonderful for the idea I have in mind. $2.00 each!!!!!! Yay Big Lots!!!!!

Target Clearance Haul

Oh my gosh I love snatching stuff on clearance at Target!!!! Especially when it's something I was going there for specifically and there it is....for half the price I was expecting to pay!!!!

1. First is this ADORABLE mini binder!!!  I was looking for one to coordinate with a printable calendar set that I'm working on (sneak peek below), and this is perfect.  It was regularly $5.99 and I got it for $4.18.  They had 8.5x11 ones too that were just as cute, and I may have to go back and get a couple before they're gone!!

2. Boys long sleeved striped tops for only $3.50!!! These are still $7.00 on Target.com, so each store must have their own clearance items, and I was so excited to get these for Mason. I got the gray one like below, yellow and orange.

Circo® Boys' Long-Sleeve Tee - Assorted

3.  A top for myself, very similar to the boys ones for only $3.60. These are on clearance at Target.com for $10.20, so I got another great deal! I'm not normally to drawn to plain t-shirt style tops, but lately I have discovered that with some cute jewelry or a scarf, a top like this can look great! I wore it yesterday with a vest similar to this one.

Women's Ultimate Long Sleeve Ultimate Crew Tee

4. Lastly were these Post-it filing tabs.  I needed these for my calendar binder too.  The clearance price was $1.88 and the original price was $3.79!!!

Shopping Trip: Disappointment turned Delight!

My most recent shopping trip to the Mall included a trip to my fave department store Macy's.  My husband and I both went with the kids, so I felt rushed as usual.  I went to the ladies departments, where are the merchandise is sorted by brand/designer and I was sooooo disappointed!!!  I had some gift cards from Christmas to use, and I needed some new tops for the winter.  One word....okay two words: Big Disappointment!!!!  Since when has the ladies department turned into the old ladies department?  No cute tops, nothing in the clearance, boring jeans (not to mention they have none in my size), so I stormed out of there to find the rest of the family (at Chick-Fil-A eating milkshakes!!).

Then it hit me.  Go back to Macy's to the JUNIORS department!!!!  Of course!!!  So on the way out, we stopped there, and wooohooooo!!!!!  I found fabulous stuff!!  I'm 34 years old, so I usually feel embarrassed shopping in that area, but the clothes are so much more fabulous!  Well, maybe the quality isn't, but they cost less, they're much more stylish, and they fit me better too!

In addition to the ladies department at Macy's, I've also been very disappointed lately with Gap, Old Navy, and even Kohl's (although they're a little better), places I used to shop at very regularly.  They're too preppy, boring, and plain Jane.  However, I'm very happy with Express, where I used to shop all the time in my early 20s.  They have kept with a stylish, age-appropriate, and even sparkly selection of items that I love!