For My One In A Minion {Valentine's Day}

With Valentine's Day tomorrow I thought I would share what my sweetheart can look forward to.

We've never been big on Valentine's and usually keep it pretty low key.

I think surprising each other randomly through out the year is much more exciting and special than one day.

I did want to do something but not go over-the-top. I made him this little goodie bag.

I collected some of his favorite treats and made a card. 

I also got him signed up for the "Dollar Shave Club". He's been searching for a new razor so I thought this could be a cool way to try something he might like. 

Drew is all about some micro-brews and craft beer. 

I snagged these earlier in the week since I knew most likely we'd be snowed in.

The "yellow snow IPA" just had to be his!

I also dipped some pretzels in white chocolate, his favorite.

Add some peppermint and festive sprinkles and boom, V-Day treat!

I added some beer nuts to go with the brew, Swedish Fish and Twizzlers then put it all in a red bag.

I'm sure he will like it and enjoy some of his loot this weekend.

Home Tour {living space and master bedroom}

With all this snow and Drew still out of town I've had lots of time on my hands.

I've cleaned till the point I have nothing else to clean.

We got a new camera for Christmas and I hadn't used it yet and with the house all a sparklin' I figured it was as good a time as ever to show you a glimpse into our home!

When you come into our house it is very open which was a huge selling point for us.

The living room, kitchen, and "dinning" area are all open.

The kitchen island is where we spend majority of our time when friends and family are over.

I love the counter space and try to keep it clear when not cooking but the island is a "collect all" for mail, coffee mugs, etc. so I have to make a point to keep it clean.

I got a steal on this table when we first moved in at a local store. It has a leaf can add 4-5 more chairs easily. This is where we host small group and have many family dinners. Most of the time my school stuff is in a chair as well as spread out on one end of the table. In the morning the sunrises over the mountains in the back and makes a beautiful orange glow in the kitchen.

Next to the kitchen is our master bedroom. The ceilings in this room are one of my favorite parts of the house. I try to make this room soft and cozy and "our" space. I'm still on the hunt for some pretty "burlap" style pillows for our bed. I love when a bed has tons of pillows when made!

Then of course the master bath. 

I feel like the his/her sinks are a blessing. I usually get ready by sitting on his side of the sink with my make-up and whatever all over the counter. Then when we are both trying to get ready and brush teeth it is nice having the extra space.

Finally, the tub. I'm embarrassed how little we actually use this. I truly clean it more than we use it. This year I've made a point to use it more and not sure why I haven't more cause every time I get in there I love it.

Of course wouldn't be our home without Copper!

Husband is gone, blog on! {DIY Face Mask}

Well I'm officially snowed in.

Usually I welcome snow with open arms and loud cheers but this time Drew is still out of town for the week for work and it's just me. I don't mind being home by myself but now that I'm snowed in with Copper I'm really missing Drew. I miss waiting for 4:45 to hear his truck pull up and sitting down to dinner each night and I miss just sitting on the couch at night watching re-runs of our favorite shows. 

(*note this was taken at noon, it snowed 6 more hours)

We have almost 4 inches and school let out at 10:00 today and we are off tomorrow and considering it isn't getting above freezing tomorrow I'm guessing we will be off Thursday as well.

With Drew gone I'm keeping dinner simple and the fact that we live on a steep hill and I drive a Mustang means no carry out here. So tonight a grilled cheese hit the spot, so good!

With these crazy cold and super windy days my skin is so dry. 

My face even gets flaked in places and not only is it gross but it is embarrassing to have such noticeably dry skin. I did some Pintrest research and decided to do a quick DIY face mask to scrub my face good.

I used honey, nutmeg, and cinnamon.

Mix one part cinnamon with one part nutmeg and then two parts honey.

I didn't measure anything just went by looks but it filled the bottom of this bowl and then I put it on my freshly cleaned face with my fingers in circular motions. 

The face mask smells like a delicious baked good.

I then wiped clean the mask with a warm wash cloth then a splash of cold water.

I slathered on the lotion and my face feels like silk!

I would recommend this make to anyone with dry skin.

The rest of my evening will consist of unhealthy amounts of Dance Moms (Drew hates that show), Pintrest, possible chick flick, and a yummy glass of red with a piece of Dove on the side. Then of course sleeping in with my fluff ball Copper, seriously what would I do without this dog?! 

Happy Snow Day

How to coupon but less extreme {wife life}

We've all seen the show.

The dedicated ladies who haven't spent any coin on toilet paper or rice in years.

The spend hours a week clipping, sorting, shopping, and saving.

That's great and all but I don't have that time.

Now it is not a secret that teachers don't make a large salary.

I'm okay with that because the job is rewarding in a way that money can't buy.

I feel I can do things, like coupon, to save a few bucks and it makes my salary stretch a little longer.

Let me make it clear that I spend maybe half an hour per week {maybe even less} meal planning and looking how to best take advantage of sales.

I get my coupons from my Mom's and Grandma's Sunday paper. So about once every two weeks I sit down and quickly cut coupons on products that we actually use. At first when I saw save $2.50 or buy one get one free I would want to get it because I had a coupon. But that's not the way to save.

My plan to save us money is by mainly planning our weekly menu based off of sales ads. 

I have a Food City and Ingles within five minutes of my house so sometimes I will see can goods on sale at Food City and meat sales at Ingles and go to both. If I had to use more gas and effort to get these savings then they would not be good deals. We do have a Publix and Target 20 minutes from our house and if I'm that way already I will go shop there but if not I stay more local.

First, now the deals. Our Ingles is more expensive and the produce isn't good but they double coupons and have great meat. So when I can get chicken at $3 a pound I'll buy several and freeze them and that saves money. Or I can double a coupon and get cereal or breakfast bars for .50 then it is worth it.

Our Food City has amazing deals. They often have great sales on name brands that I can use a coupon with. I think the "Food City Brand" is just as good and cost less so it is tempting to want to use my coupon and buy the sale name brand but I have to break it down cost wise. Sometimes it only saves .25 but every bit adds up. It is just taking the time to figure out which is the better deal.

I don't shop at Target for grocery's regularly but I do love it. First, I have the Target Debit Card that saves me 5% instantly, the Cartwheel App, and they let you apply coupons. I think the Market Pantry brand rocks but we hate the meat they have. So again it is taking the 5 minutes to look online and browse the ads. I've got some crazy good deals on K-Cups and we love the bread they have. (usually on sale)

I plan our menu by what we already have and what is on sale.

Like I said above, if I found chicken on sale the week prior and have plenty in the freezer then I look for what is on sale to the store I'm going to and plan from there. 

Sounds time consuming but I promise it is easy. I keep my coupons organized in this $1 Target find that I keep in my purse. 

I sort the coupons into categories such as dry goods, cleaning/paper products, bathroom needs, cold/freezer items, etc. I pull what I know I will use before I go and have them right on hand. If I need to quickly look up something in the store the tabs and sorting I did make it really easy to find.

This saves us about $100 a month.

Not a crazy amount but it is equal to the gas I would put into my car for a month.

Any money saving tips? 

Please share! And follow on Bloglovin and Instagram.

{Wife Life} Marrying Into A Large Family

I want to start by saying how much I love and value my family.

By my family, I mean "my side" and my in-laws. 

I don't like the term in-laws.

In the picture above are most not all of our immediate family.

I have 12 family members in that picture and the rest is all Drew's family. 

Drew has a very large, loving family and I come from a very small, loving family.

Drew and I dated for 4 years or so before getting married and I've known him since I was 15 so I've got to spend lots of time with his family as he has with mine.

I come from a very small family.

We got my mom, dad, Cameron my brother, and my grandma.

I do have several aunts, uncles, and cousins but we don't see each other often.

(maybe twice a year?)

My small family is very quiet, private, and nice.

They enjoy being home and recently bought a camper to enjoy which I'm so excited for them about.

I grew up with this small family enjoying the small things in life and valuing times together.

I don't think I realized how use to this and comfortable I was with it until I got married this past June.

As I said Drew and I dated for 4 years before getting married.

I have read and heard in-law/family horror stories and success stories.

When we got married I think I felt because we have been together that the family part would just come together and I didn't realize the work that would come with this.

  I should have known better because every kind of relationship needs care and this is no exception. 

Drew's family is full of lots of personalities, larger than life of humor, and very open about everything. 

Drew's parents divorced when he was young but they put all differences aside and get along all so well. I have so much respect for this and admire this dynamic. 

The differences with our families goes beyond the obvious that his family is much larger than mine but the personalities and openness are so different that what I grew up with. 

I feel sometimes I struggle with how to balance how to adjust with these differences, even after being together this long. 

The great part of a large family is that the laughs never end and more love to go around. The hard part being that it can be easy to feel left out or hurt. Even though this is unintentional  and I'm know I'm guilty of it too, it makes balancing a large family a challenge for me at times.

With it being a new year I want to make a point to grow with my families and really appreciate and value each and every one of them. I want to really listen to them. Not just hear them, but really listen. Send some random snail mail or something unexpected to let them know I'm thinking about them. I would like to try to spend more time with everyone. I want everyone to know they are important to me. 

How do you adjust and cope with new families in your life?

I'd love to hear your ideas!

Our Weekend

So grateful for this dry and sunny weekend.

It was a tad on the cold side but I'll take it!

Around here it has truly rained {almost} every weekend,

so we welcomed this nice sunshine with open arms!

This weekend was filled with walks and Frisbee with our sweet Copper. 

I think he was needing to get outside as much as we were.

Saturday we went our just Drew and I.

We do dinner often with friends and I love there company but sometime it is nice to just be us. We got dinner at Genghis Grill where you get to build your own stir fry. So yummy!

I made sure to put lots of yummy sea food and the "bean" mix in mine. 

We saw "Lone Survivor" afterwards and it was such a great movie.

Very touching and real-- I would highly recommend this movie! 

Tonight we decided to grill out while we had the chance.

That little dose of being outside this weekend has made me long for spring big time.

I look forward to the days where we can open the windows and eat 90% of our meals outside on the deck again. Plus, grilling out makes for easy kitchen clean up!

And this is what the rest of our evening has looked like.

The Broncos just won so we are happy campers.

Tennessee fans = Peyton Fans

Tomorrow I'm off for MLK Day and looking forward a day full of extra coffee, blogging, and cleaning the house. I truly enjoy the days where I can crank up the music in my pj's and deep clean the house.

#loser

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Jackson Hole

Well after what feels like a two week blur, I'm finally back to work.

After such a busy Christmas week followed by a great trip to Wyoming I must say, it is nice to be home and have a routine again. 

Drew and I with 9 of our close friends packed up to what would be an adventurous flight experience.

If you have seen or heard any news then I'm sure you know what a mess flying, especially around Chicago, has been this past week. Our flight got cancelled 10 hours or so before it left here in Knoxville so we had to scramble to figure something out. We ended up renting a car driving all night to Atlanta to catch an early flight to New Jersey while beating the snow storm then to Jackson. Whew, it was stressful but we finally made it and we had a great time.

We spent three days snowboarding in Wyoming and one in Utah.

Where I don't snowboard that often anymore it really kicked my tail but it is still so fun to be at the top of an enormous mountain and see above the clouds and ride down. 

Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE Tennessee and want nowhere else to call home. If I had a second place that I love, it would be Jackson Hole! So beautiful! 

One of my favorite parts are the unique antler archways they have throughout the town.

Glad to be back home and can't wait to catch up the blog!

Wedding {planning, flowers, decorations}

For the next few weeks I'm going to blog some wedding topics. 

When I was planning our wedding blogs and Pintrest were my go-to places for inspiration. 

Now that I've joined the blog world I thought it would be fun to go back and do some wedding post. 

I found the wedding process simple and overwhelming at the same time.

Simple in the way that I wanted things to be, simple was my vision. But the endless options and efforts made to stay within my budget very overwhelming. I was determined that I wasn't going to blow my budget but do the best I could to stay within it and I'm SOOO glad I did. A wedding is a huge, life changing, wonderful day- no question about that. But it is just that, one day. I didn't want to go crazy spending but try to save as much as possible for our home, honeymoon, and savings that we would enjoy throughout our marriage. If anything I feel is worth splurging on it would hands down be the honeymoon. {a post to come on that}

This is what I kept in mind as planning. Our wedding will be a beautiful day, but our beautiful marriage will be forever. One of the first things I did when planning was sit down {with Mom} and pick out the theme I liked.

I love a rustic style with burlap {okay, I'm obsessed with burlap} and lots of candles for a romantic mood. We really had to work hard to find a venue that was priced reasonably and that we could make this theme work within. Seriously checked out 15 places. We decided on a venue just down the street from where the church is where the service would be-- all in our hometown.

I really owe all decorating credit to my Mom. Once we picked the "theme" she really went with it. Our venue came with the big round mirrors, tall white candle, and glass hurricane so we worked with that. All the little candles were bought individually {yes, individually} by Mom. She bought most of them for .25, .50, or .75 cents over a year's time. Mom found the mini candles at Goodwill, Salvation Army, yard sells, and other thrift like places as well as some antique stores in our hometown. She kept them in boxes in the garage for the year leading up the wedding and the end result was the beautiful, romantic glow I dreamed of. We also bought burlap table cloth runners from a bride that had already had her wedding. These table runners were like brand new and we got them at least 75% off what new one would have cost. When word got out we bought them second hand we had several offers to buy ours so they paid for themselves before we even used them. We also sold majority of the mini candles in bulk to another bride. We did keep several to keep in our house as a special token from our wedding day.

Now flowers. This was something else that I found to be way overpriced but after seeing the flowers in pictures I felt comfortable with the money spent. This was the area that I had a hard time spending on because my thinking was "it's flowers, they are gong to be dried up before I come home from the honeymoon." We went with a local flower lady in town who grows the flowers on her own and creates wonderful arrangements based on the ideas you give her. And she was is a retired teacher, that made me like her even more!

My Mom and I {and Copper, truly I brought him with me} went to meet the flower lady. She asked about my vision and favorite flowers and color preferences. I told her about the candles and the rustic elegance I was going for. As for flowers I love baby's breath, I think it is simple and so elegant. My favorite flower is the hydrangea and I loved the little green berries. Luckily, I learned that larger flowers like hydrangea take up so much space that you get more bang for your buck making them a great choice as well as beautiful. I wasn't set on any particular color, just loved the soft pinks, white, and natural greens within the berries and leaves. The flower lady took some notes and that was about it. We checked in with her here and there but overall was very simple. Since we weren't having a traditional large center piece on tables she used the small clippings to fill small vases and we used small clippings to put in mason jars that filled the lobby. I absolutely loved the flowers and was so happy with the look they gave the reception. 

 My mom even used some of the Baby's Breath to decorate the church pews. This was such a thoughtful touch that was inexpensive and so pretty! {Mom should really be a wedding planner} Paying for arrangements for church seating can cost thousands! Considering we are in the church less than an hour, no way could we spend that. I love that my Mom came up with this idea and it took no time and maybe $30.

Finally, the last of the decorations. Our wedding had a lobby with a pretty vanity and several little "nooks" that were decorated for the wedding to make it more our own. 

This was in the entry way. I painted the $2 silver tray with chalk paint to post our wedding hashtag for guest. 

Other side the entry way, Drew's aunt painted us "Our Love Story" frame for a wedding shower gift and we brought it with us to the reception. The chandler on the bird cage ring was all from yard sells that my Mom found. Also lots of flower clippings in mason jars that happened to come from my Great Grandmother's basement.

 Mom also made this wedding garland our of scrap fabrics and lace. So pretty!

So this is the first wedding post, more to come. My biggest piece of advice for any blushing bride-to-be would be to set a {reasonable} budget, stick with it, and be as flexible as possible when it comes with what you want. {like not specific brands, particular colors,etc.}  Majority of the items that I felt made our wedding so special came from yard sells or were homemade. These items cost so much less than going with something brand new and gave our reception such character!