I Freakin did it Friday #17 and a Kindle Fire Giveaway

I'm very exited to be joining some great bloggers in a fantastic giveaway for Christmas! Check it out and then join the Party!

'Twas the month before Christmas And all throughout blog land Were patterns and recipes, Ornaments and cake stands. Your favorite bloggers Were busy as could be Making projects and tutorials For all to see. Then we got an idea For something to do To make the holidays brighter For one of you All year round You bring us such joy Why not give one reader A special Christmas "toy?" We thought and we thought Till our brains were quite tired Then it came to us, "A Kindle Fire!" We all joined together, Now today is the day So get in your entries For this special giveaway!

Reindeer on my Mantle from a Robert Stanley Craft Kit

A few weeks ago I was in the Hob Lob and came across a kit to make a cute sleigh and reindeer. Now I am all about crafting things I have seen but sometime you just need to not re-invent the wheel! It was $12.99 and with a 40% off coupon need I say more. Here is what the kit came with.

So I got out the glue gun and when to gluing them you glue one reindeer to the front and one to the back of each stick.

Christmas Gifts for Kids with ADHD and Sensory Processing Disorder

As a mom with ADHD parenting a kid with ADHD life is a challenge. When it comes to Christmas I always try to put a few gift in that are fun but that will help with our issues. I wanted to share a few of the ones that we have found to be great!

Having Fun with Online Auctions and a Gift for You!

Have you met Sir Wendell Wattington? Sir Wendell resides in Palo-Alto, California and runs the worlds most entertaining live marketplace, Top Hatter. Now stay with me because at the end of this Sir Wendell has an early Christmas present for you!

A Thanksgiving Birth and I Freakin' Did it Friday #16

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! 

I hope you had a wonderful holiday.

I love Thanksgiving and it is so special to me since my first son was born on Thanksgiving day! I awoke that morning at about 5am. I went to the bathroom and as I walked away from the toilet my water broke. I just stood there perplexed. My husband says, "Are you OK?" I said "Well either I just peed on myself or my water broke"....."Well honey since you just flushed the toilet from peeing I would assume that's your water" I know it's one of the only times I can remember my husband has had more logic than me. I really just could not wrap my head around the fact that I was in labor.
He was 2 weeks early. My MIL said there was no way I would go into labor on Thanksgiving day and that we just needed to plan to come to there house. Jinx! So the doc, Chris and I watched the Macy's Parade from Labor and Delivery. Everyone was there in the waiting room and the Grandmothers were both along for the ride.

Turkeys Done, Now it's Time to Shake Your Tail feather!

Thank you to Ubisoft for sponsoring this post. Please click here to learn more about Ubisoft. I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective. #UbiChamps

Delightful Deets Celebration Giveaway

I am so excited for Jen over at Delightful Deets, she is celebrating having 1000 followers and is having a massive giveaway. Enter the one I am in below and go visit her to enter the others.

Taush O.-Life After I Do Any Custom or Pre-made Banner 

Kayla-Inspired Kreations Bundle of Christmas Cards 

Jen-My Adventures Through Mommyhood $20 Target Gift Card 

Leslie-xo leslieanne Winner's Choice of a Hat 

Kelley-Miss Information Large Ad Space & $15 Starbucks Gift Card 

Jen-Rushing for Bagels Large Ad Space 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Chocolate Chess Pie

Chocolate Chess Pie is one of my favorite pies at the holidays. When I was in elementary school my Mother worked at Rich's department store. They had a bakery and Mom would always order one of these pies at the holidays. It is so rich and creamy with a crunchy top layer.

Leather Bracelets - Guest Post Spoonful of Imagination

Hey everyone, I can't wait to introduce you to Erica from Spoonful of Imagination! I first met her at the Country Living Fair last month. We are both Atlanta Bloggers. She is a total sweetheart and I know you will love this craft she has to share with you!

Hi!  My name is Erica and I blog at Spoonful of Imagination.  I have been blogging for about four years, but I have just re-branded with this new site.  I’d love for you to come check it out!  I am so excited to be in this blog world, and I can’t thank Kelley enough for inviting me to do a guest post with you all! 

My husband, Matt, and I have been married for eight years and we have two boys and a little girl.  We have started home schooling this year and are loving it.  I love to write about the places we go, things we do, and the creations I make in the midst of it all. I feel like if you add a spoonful of imagination into every area of your journey, it will be a more beautiful life. 

Today I have a quick craft to share with you. 

With the Holidays coming rapidly, I think this leather bracelet would make a great gift and there is so much versatility with how you can finish them off.  Let’s begin the process, and I will show you more of what I mean.

I got a 1/8 of a yard of leather for $1.24 at Hobby Lobby with a package of snaps for my needed materials.

I first began by cutting two 3”x 9” strips of leather.

I then turned the fabric inside out, so the pretty sides of the material were touching and did the following steps.

After, I had the basic leather strip, I simply measured how tight I would want the bracelet to be, and added one of my snaps in the desired area. 

I love this chunky, fun bracelet.  I think it looks amazing just plain by itself, but it would also be very cute embellished with a little button or flower that you could pick up at a craft store.

I decided to embroider a simple heart on the center of my bracelet.  I love the simplicity but fun of this accessory.

This amount of material was enough to make five bracelets!  I think that makes each bracelet cost about $0.50 (by the time you add leather with snaps cost).  I literally did this in about thirty minutes.  It was so quick and easy! You should give it a try! Fabric glue would probably work if you didn’t want to break out a sewing machine. 

I hope you enjoyed this craft and will come visit me at my site, spoonfulofimagination.com.  Every Friday I spotlight a craft project and throughout the rest of the week I share other fun posts of crafts and family adventures.  My greatest hope is that people leave my blog “imagining the possibilities!”

I Freakin' Did it Friday #15

Wow what a week, it's wind down to Thanksgiving here. Today we had Matthew's thanksgiving lunch at preschool and tomorrow is Grandparents day at Garrett's school. Both boys will be off all week next week. I have seriously been trying to bake some pie for 2 days now! Not gonna get done now till Friday night or Sunday. Saturday we have Garrett's Birthday and we are going on a tour of the REAL FBI! So excited.

So last weeks most viewed link was from one of the sweetest bloggers I know, Christine at the DIY Dreamer who shared with us her Indoor Product Photography Tips!

I LOVE CHRISTMAS, every year we are visited by our elves Dude and Tommy. I look forward to this way of torturing having fun with my children in the name of Christmas every year. They act better that month than any other. I just had to share Happiest Mom on the Blog's Over 70 Elf on the Shelf Ideas.

This week I asked on Facebook what your favorite pie was for Thanksgiving, one that came up often was Buttermilk Pie and here is a great recipe from Cupcake-n-Bake.

If you are looking for something cute to give the kids for dessert these Reeses Peanut Butter Turkeys  from Kitchen Fun With My 3 Sons are tooooooo cute!

Annie One Can Cook shared her heartfelt story of soldiers and how you can help bring a little holiday cheer to those who serve to selflessly to keep us all safe. Operation Christmas is such an easy thing to do and would be a great family project for your kids!

I remember the first time I experience Mrs. Prindles Apples when I was in College. They were sold at Needless Markup. They were wonderful and Call Me PMc showed how to make these Outrageous Candy Apples and the best way to melt chocolate.

Storybook Reality  shared a soup I can't wait to try with 2 of my favorite ingredients Chicken Avocado Soup. It has been in the mid 40's this week in Atlanta so I am craving some soup recipes!

Wanna Be Well App

Last week I shared with you some of my favorite iphone apps. This week I was introduced to a new one that is really full of great information. In my 40 something quest to get healthier I have been looking into ways to do that. There is soooooooo much info out there on vitamins and supplements it is mind boggling and confusing. In addition we are heading into that crazy holiday season and I want to stay as well as possible.
Introducing Life Supplemented's Wanna Be Well app. It's Free!

This great app gives you a personal wellness coach that you get to choose and dress how you like! Then when you visit him you can tap on him and make him do exercises. Daily my coach gives me a new tip like, Brown rice is a good source of fiber-rich grains, Create a delicious rice dish today! If you take your coaches suggestion he might give you a trophy. You can find out if you are an Alpha WELL or an OhWELL by taking a fun interactive quiz which will give you a series of questions and will make suggestions to you about getting healthier based on your answers. The best part is being able set reminders to take your supplements at certain times of the day or to go buy more you are almost out! For someone like me, with ADHD, this is fantastic as I very often forget! I hope in the future they will let you schedule reminders for other medicines you are taking as well!
There is also an extensive resource center that give you all kinds of info on which supplements to take and why. You can even look recommendations up by ailment. I looked up stress and it recommended vitamin C, tyrosine or Rhodiola as well as working out.
This app was created as an extension of the website Life Supplemented. If you don't have an iphone you can get some of the information I have shared with you from the app on the website. There is a blog called The Supplemental that provides advice on healthy diets, exercise and supplements form an expert panel to inspire you to make smart choices. Finally there is the Supplement Resource Center which has a ton of articles and info to help you make an informed decision about dietary supplements. It is so hard this time of year to stay well and keep healthy with all the eating and parties so see if this app helps you and give it a try! When you do they will donate $1 for every download up to $13,500 to provide vitamins to undernourished children to prevent mortality through Vitamin Angels.


“I wrote this blog post while participating in a blog tour by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Life…supplemented. As a thank you for participating, I received a $25 promotional item, and a $25 donation was made on my behalf to Vitamin Angels.”

Giving the Gift of Life - From the Donors Side

As many of you might know from reading my blog I am Catholic. We have a women's breakfast that meets once a month called Magnificat. A Magnificat is your walk with the Lord. In August Cristina, Chris' kidney Donor, was asked to give her Magnificat. Yesterday I shared with you my story. Today is her story.  Her's is a walk through infertility, adoption, being a military spouse after 9-11,and a kidney donor. Since we became friends we have shared in many journeys together, adoption, the births of 4 boys, her husband going to Afghanistan for 14 months, and Chris' illness.

You can click below to listen to the live You Tube video or the audio file and enjoy her inspirational story. The You Tube video has some background noise but is great. It last's about an hour but is one of the best hours you will ever spend.

Getting the Gift of Life - Our Story

Today is a special day in our lives. It is a day we think is as important as any birthday or holiday. It is the 2nd anniversary of the day my husband received a 2nd chance to live. I am excited to share this story with you and hope you will read it all, It is long but a 9 year journey cannot be told in 2 paragraphs.

In September of 2003 I was 8 months pregnant with our first child and 2 hours away from home on a business trip. My husband called to say he was having cramping in his legs and could not walk. He had put some all natural joint relief cream on his legs our friend Cristina gave us and now had tiny purple spots on them which he thought was an allergic reaction. He was on his way to the Doctor and would call me after.
The next call that came would set us on a roller coaster that we will never get off of. His doctor said he had no idea what that was and that he was admitting Chris into the hospital for testing. Knowing that heart disease ran in his family this was our immediate fear. They ran some tests as I headed back to Atlanta to be with him. That evening we saw 5 different doctors, including an infectious disease specialist. Let me tell you when you have 5 different doctors looking at you with a quizzical look and an INFECTIOUS disease guy come in you are completely FREAKED! We called a few friends to ask for prayers and one of them was Jenn, a pediatric nurse. We explained to her the symptoms and she said, "Oh that sounds like HSP, but it's very rare in adults" little did we know that statement would be the common thread of our new venture.
Sure enough is was Henoch–Schönlein purpura or HSP. Chris contracted it from a bad case of a common ailment, strep throat. He was placed on extremely high doses of steroids which made him bloat and pretty much obliterated his immune system making him susceptible to any virus or illness around. 

Alphabet Photography Art A Great Gift

Every year I rack my brain trying to find the perfect gift. Something that says I care or I have thought about you. Sometimes I get it right sometimes not. This year I have found a wonderful gift idea that you can customize for each person you give it to.

I Freakin' Did it Friday #14

We are almost to Thanksgiving which also means my son Garrett's 9th Birthday! I am so excited for him we get to go on a tour of the real FBI! Thanks to all who linked up last week. Last weeks party was almost 100 links! I so enjoyed seeing most of them. Honestly I did not get a chance to comment on a lot of them but I did at least try to visit to see them and give you some page view love!

The most viewed link last week was Crystelle Boutique's November Vintage Poster from Harpers Bazaar. You can go print yours sans Crystelle's blog name to hang up this holiday season. This would be very cool Mod Podged on wood and roughed up with sandpaper.

Thanksgiving Side Dishs

I can't believe it's about to be Thanksgiving!  Every year I like to throw in a new recipe. I decided to give this one a dry run. Veggies are always a hard topic in our house and might I just say that brussel sprouts get a really bad rap! I had them at a local restaurant and fell in love with them. I wanted to recreate this dish.

Get Rid of Fruit Flies with Vinegar

The other day my friend Mary Katherine was asking if anyone knew how to get rid of fruit flies? I remembered a trick I heard a long time ago and decided to try it. Apparently we had attracted quite a few of them from some bananas and a long buried peach!

You take a very shallow dish and put apple cider vinegar almost to the top. You then put in a little liquid dish soap. The flies are attracted to the smell of the vinegar and the dish soap breaks the surface of it. The flies fall in and drown. I had to do it 3 days in a row to get rid of our flies. All those little black dots are dead flies! I was shocked and elated it worked because trying to chase these buggers with a fly swatter was not working. The best part is that it is not harmful to my family and I had it all in my pantry anyway.

My Favorite iPhone Apps

In September Jilly over at Hi! It's Jilly did a list of apps she wanted to try for her new iPhone. Today I am going to share some of my faves.

My friend Cheryl introduced me to My Fitness Pal, it is great for looking up the calorie content of food. I must admit I am not the best at entering everything but I do depend on it when I am out and about and have to eat fast food in a pinch

I Freakin' Did it Friday #13

Welcome to I Freakin did it Friday #13 appropriate for the Friday after Halloween! We had a fun Halloween with our friends the Zakis' and Garrett's friend Jackson. They all looked so cute. The pics I got were bad, I know what kind of blogger am I? so let's just get onto the party!

This weeks most viewed link was something all mom's of boys are trying to coral, Lego Manuals. 2 Little Superheroes shared her Lego Binder. She includes a great binder cover free printable.

Some of my faves for the week were this Thanksgiving Craft from Sarah Dawn Designs I love the colors she used