Friday, August 31, 2012

Friday Letters

I have seen some other bloggers do a weekly letter thing...not sure if this is a link-up but I gotta do one 'cause I need to vent!!

Dear Security Guard,  
Yes, I am aware there is a parking lot next to the school.  Are you aware that there are only 8 spots?  That is why I, along with several other cars, parked in the field.  The same field that people have been parking in all week.  The one that doesn't have a "No Parking" sign anywhere.  Oh, that was only allowed on the first day of school??  Interesting.  Again, I did not see a sign (or a memo) about that.  So you can pretty much suck it.
-e-

Dear Manager of Forever 21,
It's funny that you posted a "Please do not shop this rack" sign on the two racks in the store that had the best stuff.  Don't worry, I didn't shop it and I probably won't come back there for awhile either.
-e-

Dear  Throat,
 What is your problem?  Don't you know I am going out of town this weekend?  Why are you hurting??  I am going to gargle Listerine every 30 minutes to kill whatever the hell is going on back there so get ready.
-e-

Dear Facebook Friends,
I could really care less about your political opinions.  I'm hiding everyone (don't care what party you're voting for) who posts 24/7 about politics until after the election.
-e-

 Dear People Bitching About That Show Stars Earn Stripes,
Yes, it is sooo horrible (sarcasm!) that these celebrities are doing a show to earn money for charity.  I'm guessing you donate lots of money every year to all the charities that will be getting at a minimum $20,000, right?  Didn't think so.  As a military wife, I am disgusted by you.  To the celebs, thank you.  I hope people are watching this show and remembering that every.single.day members of the military (US and others) are dying and getting injured in Afghanistan and I hope maybe some of them will donate to the causes that the celebs are representing.
-e-

Dear People Reading This,
I know there are a couple of ya!! :)  Thanks for letting me vent.  I hope you have a great Labor Day Weekend!!
-e-

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Recyclebank

If you haven't signed up for Recyclebank, go do it now...here!!!

They currently are doing the EcoAcademy...super easy way to earn a lot of points (and learn a few things while you're at it).

They also have added
 and
 to their Rewards Catalog.  As most of you know, these usually cost $20+ for a year subscription...so taking 10 minutes out of the day to earn points for them seems like a pretty good deal to me! :)

-e-

Monday, August 27, 2012

Short trip to FL & an Emma Stone outfit

Good Morning!

Well, I got both of my kids off to school this morning. My daughter started 5th grade and my son is in Pre-K.  He has never been to daycare or preschool so it should be interesting!  He did not cry or anything so that's good.  Several other boys were sobbing and/or screaming for their moms and my son looked at me, covered his ears and said, "It's too loud here!"  HAHA.

This past weekend we took a short trip down to Jacksonville to see some family.
We spent most of the day at Neptune Beach.
Husband and son in the ocean.  
My daughter, niece and nephew.

The current was soooo strong and the surfers (first time ever seeing surfers there) were managing to catch some decent waves all because of the storm (Isaac) that was then in the Caribbean.

If you have never been to downtown Jacksonville, it smells like coffee 24/7 thanks to Maxwell House being produced in the city.  Smells soooo good.
We didn't explore too much, but we did go to the big fountain across the river from Jacksonville Landing:
Husband and me

We also grabbed dinner at the Pizza Palace in the San Marco area.  Very cute little area with shops, restaurants and bars. 
Anyone ever been to Jacksonville?  Got any recommendations for my next trip down there??

Now to Emma Stone.  How cute is this outfit???
 via
Loveeeee it!!

Have a great day y'all!!
-Erika-

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Texas Trip

The fam and I recently took a two week trip to Texas to visit family...
We made a little pit stop in Destin because I'd never been:
 Husband w/ the kids.
 We were literally there for an hour playing in the water and then took off towards New Orleans.
The next day, we met up with my husband's sister and her family
 This is one of the few vacay pics I made it into since I'm usually the one taking the pics.
We visited the Downtown Aquarium in Houston..
  They have a few rides outside... Though they did not measure him, they said my 4 year old was tall enough to ride this ride:

 He looooved it...It's the kind that takes you up, drops you a little, sends you back up, drops you a little more... I think he ended up riding it at least 3 times.
We also got some more baby holding in:
 Husband and I with my sweet nephew
We spent most of our time hanging with family and watching the Olympics.... 
I did get a little shopping in with Tasha when I was up in Dallas which is always fun...especially b/c it ends with cupcakes at Sprinkles and then french fries from Wendy's or McD's. :)

Heading out for meet the teacher at my kids' school...
-Erika-

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Fall 2012 Trend: Burgundy

The September Issues are killing me!!!  I am excited for all the fall fashion even though I live in the South and won't be able to wear most of it until late October (we're usually still at the beach working on our tans in Oct!!).

One of the colors that is everywhere is burgundy.  If you're looking to add some to your fall wardrobe, here are some cute things:
 via

Are you loving burgundy for fall?  How will you wear it?

-e-

Friday, August 10, 2012

Fall Trend:Owls

Thanks to Burberry Prorsum, owls are going to be all the rage this fall...
 via

If you're not looking to spend $295 plus though, here are some cheaper owl tops and accessories:

If you have a kiddo, you can always dress her as an owl for Halloween:

What do you think of the owl trend?  Yay or nay?
-e-

Make a Cute Magnet or Corkboard!

Hello Pink and Green Mom readers! This is actually Natasha writing this. Erika asked me to be a guest blogger today and I was so excited! And, yes, I am the Natasha that was Erika's blogging partner that she lost to couponing. :) That is completely true, too, btw! Not too long after we started this blog I got into the couponing fad bigtime and literally spent all of my free time on that. Erika still makes fun of me sometimes, but she gets a nice bag of goodies every time she visits!

Anyways, I recently decided that I missed the blogging world, but I was never very good at the personal blog. I could never think of anything fun to post. What can I say, I'm just too boring! So I decided to start a blog about my other love - geek culture - because I am a total geek at heart. I also really enjoy crafts so I've posted a few geeky crafts (but they can easily be converted to really cute non-geek things). So Erika asked me to post one of my crafts on here. Today I'm going to show you the magnet board that I made. This is SO easy to make and you can do it so many different ways. I chose to make a superhero magnet board with Flash magnets.


Supplies – fabric, a frame, a piece of scrap metal (or you can use a cookie sheet if you can find one that is flat. They often have these at the dollar stores) or a piece of cork, glue gun, magnets and glitter foam paper.

Step 1 – If you’re using cork, measure out the correct size for your frame and cut it.

Step 2 - Wrap your fabric around the frame and glue it down to the backside of your metal or cork like this:



Step 3 – Place in frame. You’ll probably want to save and reuse the backing that came with the frame so the back is more attractive, but if it’s too tight you can leave it off – no one will be seeing it, anyway!

That’s it for the board! Ridiculously easy. The magnets take a little more time but they are a lot of fun to make.

Magnets: 

Supplies – glitter foam paper (you can find it at any craft store usually around the children’s craft supplies), magnets (again any craft store for about $2 a bag).

Step 1 – Decide what shapes you want to make your magnets. If you are good at drawing, you can draw on the back of your glitter paper. I am not good at freestyle so I did a search online for “Flash Symbol” and printed one out that I could trace.

Step 2 – Cut out your shapes.

Step 3 – Adhere magnets to the back. The magnets that I purchased had sticky backs or you can glue them on.


That's it! If you have kids then this is great because they have so many licensed fabrics at all the fabric stores - Marvel, Hello Kitty, Disney and so much more. But they also have so many cute fabrics that I love such as chevron patterns and polka dots. Plus, you can do any frame you like and just really make it to your own style. 

Well, I hope that you enjoyed my guest post! If you'd like to check out my new blog it is called Wild for Wednesdays . I've already informed Erika that she will be guest blogging for me sometime in the near future, so look for that! She may not be a total geek like myself, but I know she likes a few geeky things here and there, so I'm going to bring the geek out of her!