My Love for Reading...

I have loved reading for as long as I can remember. I think my mom inspired me by buying me a new book every week, the bookshelf I had was floor to ceiling full of books! Of course I am doing the same thing for my daughter and she loves reading as well! 

My current reading list:
Unlikely Angel
By Ashley Smith
- I am almost done with this book and so far I am loving it! It's a true story about a mom from the South who was held hostage and she herself wasn't exactly an angel but she was trying to better herself, as you read you feel connected with her and even more if you are a mom.  This book has led me to want to read another book that I've been looking at reading for sometime (The Purpose Driven Life)
The Purpose Driven Life
By Rick Warren
-Just went out and got myself and mother a copy and can't wait to start reading it! You are suppose to read this book with a partner and my mom is choice for a partner for this, it's a great way to connect far away and a great way for us to keep each other reading our devotions each day.
A Child Called It
-I read this book before and I have all the books in the series and I didn't have my copy for a couple years because I loaned it out and didn't get it returned. (this is why I don't loan out books anymore) I went and got another copy and I will read it as soon as I get done with the other too...I need to remind myself of what happened in this first book before reading the others after this. This book is great for people going into social services careers where you may be working with child abuse cases. This child in this story has one of the worse abuse cases ever reported in the state of California. From what I remember in this book it completely disgusted me but it opened my eyes to what some go thru or what some have went thru in their lives and it gave me much empathy for others.*

*You never know what someones situation is and why they may act like they do. I feel it is good to always try to understand others and their ways and not judge them, we are all here on this same earth with something in common we are all humans and we all have our own differences but those differences shouldn't make us hate one another but to add interest to each other lives...I often don't get mad at people when they do things I dislike, I just start to wonder why? why? why? this takes me from the awful place of hating someone and to the place of just figuring them out (likely why I choose my field of study -psychology) some people say they would be scared to work with people who are so called "crazy" well guess what we run into these so called "crazy" people in our everyday life and well they are able to reek much more havoc on our lives than a patient in a mental facility. 

Thrifty Thursdays

My thrifty find for the week was this Laugh and Learn Smart Bounce and Spin, I got it second hand for $3!

Image is from: Click Here

This toy is awesome! MacKenzie loves it! She plays with it off and on all day long! I don't use the video mode with it yet really but she loves just being able to bounce and spin on it!  I think she's more active on it when the video is not on for now, she gets pre-occupied with the video since she doesn't watch television very often. There are two versions of this as far as I know, the other one is a zebra.
The price for one of these new is around $70 and on the island it would cost maybe 20% more. At the very least I got a savings of $67! It was well worth those $3 I spent, it looks brand new too!

BEE MINE

Image from: Click here

I LOVE Valentines Day so much and I love to go all out to make it very special for my family. I have went and got MacKenzie a lovely little dress to wear for the BIG day...and I got her a cute little Valentines Doll. I even got her a little Bumble Bee Car (going with the Bee Mine theme, lol) and of course I've gotten Casey some things but those cannot be blogged about seeing as how he may find out...I'm also hosting a Valentines Day Party for MacKenzie and her friends and a craft event too! I am very excited for this years Valentines Day, I'm so very lucky to be able to spend it with my husband and daughter. I wish my mother could be here too though, this year will be a hard one in one way since my father has passed away. My father made Valentines a big thing too, each year he got me and my mom matching gifts and we went out to eat together...I miss all those special things he did for us.

Other Options for Valentines Mail

Since Pottery Barn isn't selling the chair backer I would like and the only place I can find one is on Ebay for $50 when they were only about $12 last year I set out to find another option, here are the options I've been looking at:

Handmade Chair Backers from Etsy or Ebay for around $12-$20
OR
A mini mailbox decorated for Valentines Day... (this is my favorite solution as of now, just got to decide if I want to order one online or venture out to the craft stores and see if they are selling them)

A Few Reasons Why I love Pottery Barn...

I don't have these yet but I have been looking at them, they are super cute! I love stuff like this with birds on it!

I have this bag but the last style they made before this one it's the same material and color and I love it! I use it to take along all the little stuff I need to have on the playground with my little one...(sunscreen, wipes, sunglasses, and a hat) Everything fits perfectly in this bag!

 

These are just so adorable and I would love to find one for MacKenzie but they aren't making them this year sadly! This image came from: click here

Christmas Gifts...

Well we got all kinds of Christmas gifts this year from toys for MacKenzie to a new purse for mommy and coffee mugs for daddy! These coffee mugs were quite interesting! Soon as they arrived in the mail (sent from my father in law) I just knew they were vintage! I looked at the bottom of the cup and it looked as though I was right so off I went to the information super highway to do some research! Within 5 minutes I had located the information I needed to confirm that yes they were vintage! I found some interesting things out about these little coffee mugs too! The brand of the coffee mugs were Anchor Hocking Fire-King and some of this line was even used on Martha Stewart's cooking show! Here are a few things I found while doing some research:

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Fire-King was originally produced in the 1940s for everyday use, rather than display. It was often sold in bags of flour as a promotional item or was given away at gas stations. Fire-King could also be purchased at local grocery and hardware stores.
Today, Fire-King is an affordable collectible found in antique stores, garage sales, flea markets, and thrift stores, as well as on the Internet. Source

What a neat story that came along with these little coffee mugs! I love the ones we got they are green to match our new kitchen theme! My father in law also got my husband a coffee pot that matches as well! Why do you ask is this a gift for the hubby and not me? Well I'm not a coffee or tea drinker but my husband has been into drinking hot tea lately so it was the perfect gift for him! I too love to see those pretty coffee mugs and the cute tea pot sitting out on my stove though! My daughter even loves the tea pot we had to convince her that her's was more fun! A real tea pot is a bit heavy for a one year old to carry around but she did it until we put it up and reminded her of her own toy tea pot!

New Crafty Projects Photos