Happy Friday friends!
I'm linking up with Narci, Andrea and Erika today and sharing some of my favorite things from the week. This week is kind of all about TIPS! When I started compiling my list, I realized several of the things are actually "tips" about random stuff, so there you go :).
Hope you have fun plans this weekend...see you Monday!
Tip #1, if you're stressed or need to relax...just color ;).
For Christmas, my grandmother gave all of the girls in our family adult coloring books...and they are so fun and weirdly relaxing. Fast forward to this week and my friends at Erin Condren sent me one of their new coloring books and a set of their colored pencils. Score!
These would make fun gifts too. If you need me today, I'll be coloring.
Coloring books here.
Colored pencils here.
Wow! On Monday, I offered a $100 Container Store gift card for your best piece of spring cleaning advice and I've had over 700 entries! And friends, I've read them all and they are all SO GOOD! Some of you ladies are on the same page and have offered the same advice...here's what I found to be most popular and/or my favorites:
1. Open the windows! So many of you suggested this as motivation for a good old fashioned spring cleaning.
2. Listen to fun, upbeat music OR to a podcast.
3. Use black trash bags for getting rid of your kids' stuff (so they can't see through it!).
4. Have plenty of Magic Erasers on hand.
5. Reward yourself when you're finished (like with a piece of something yummy or buy yourself something small).
6. Clean one room at a time and carry a list with you so that you know you did everything in that room.
7. Wine. Lots of wine. ;)
8. Use a damp cloth instead of a duster so that dust is getting in the air.
9. Use baby oil on stubborn grease spots (like in your microwave).
10. Buy yourself some new cleaning supplies the day before to help motivate you.
To see all of the comments/tips/suggestions and ideas. click here. And if you have more ideas, please feel free to comment and leave them! Loved this so much!!
And...the winner of our $100 Container Store gift card is...
ASHLEY PETTIET!
Congratulations Ashley! I emailed you this morning. Please email me back to claim your prize!
Okay, I don't want to be overly dramatic here...but this next tip is life changing. #imbeingserious #willchangeyourlife
In November, I decided to try the Walmart grocery pickup. And it's like the best thing that's ever happened to me. So...not all Walmarts do this, you need to look online to see if one by you does. Here's what happens, you go online and place an order (you can order everything from food to scissors to baking dishes...you know...whatever you need from Walmart) and then you schedule a pickup time and pay for your stuff. On the day of your pickup, you drive to Walmart, park in a designated spot and call them from your car...see...
(I removed my Walmart's phone number...because I'm not sure it needed to be out there.)
...this is me on Monday in my spot. I pull in, I call, they bring my order to my car and load it for me AND IT'S FREE.
Yes. This is free.
(And no, this post is not brought to you by Walmart...I just love it THAT MUCH!)
Now...I am pretty picky about meat, produce, cheese and bread...so, I still run by my gourmet style grocery store once a week to grab those items (but now, the trip is only like 10 minutes instead of an hour!). The rest of my stuff (detergent, paper towels, pull ups, nail polish remover, cereal, canned food, yogurt, boxed food, bottled water, dry pasta, cake mixes, etc) is ordered online and then placed in my car on my pick up day.
Life.
Changing.
Just imagine how lovely this would have been when I had two babies? Goodness! I used to haul my two babies to the grocery store and then try to stack food around them in the shopping cart...this would have been so nice back then!
Here are some random observations that I've made over the last six months:
1. I am buying less because there is no impulse buying when you shop online.
2. I always time them and it usually takes 4 to 6 minutes from the time I pull in to the time I pull out. Now, if you go the day before Thanksgiving or on a Sunday afternoon, it will take longer. The longest I've ever waited was about 20 minutes and that's only happened once. It's almost always under five.
3. They do a great job with substitutions (and always point out what was substituted), but if you're not happy with your substitution they'll take it off your bill right there.
4. You can go back and edit/change/add or even delete your order up until about 1:00 AM the day of pickup.
5. I typically start my list at the beginning of the week and then edit it as the week goes on.
6. You can "favorite" items to make shopping so simple. I can pull up my "favorites" list and quickly add things to my shopping list.
7. And it's free. Yes. There is no charge for this service.
So...there is my Walmart love. I'm going to be honest...I was never a Walmart fan (I'm a Target girl!) until this started. Now, I'm a super fan.
On Wednesday, I linked up with The Pleated Poppy again for What I Wore Wednesday and noticed something about a few of my tops...
...they're both Nordstrom Essentials? Do you know what that is? Someone had to point it out to me once before. Each month, Nordstrom gathers a list of their essentials for the month and then shows you how to wear them (sometimes together). It's a fun little way to see what's in season. So like right now, they have their April Essentials up and my tops are both on that list!
Of course my basic tee is an essential, right?! I love me a good stripe but it comes in solid colors too! It comes in 23 different colors! TWENTY THREE!
And then my blue top (which I'm totally in love with!) is also on the April Essentials list this month and it comes in 10 colors! Eeks!
Some months, the essentials repeat, so it's handy if you look at it from time to time, because you can get other ways to wear what you might already own. Like this tee that I bought last fall...
...it's this basic little top that I bought and wore under all of my fall scarves :). It was an essential then and still is now!
Here are a few other essentials...
And bonus! My black jeans that I'm wearing all the time (note I'm wearing them in both my fall picture and in my spring picture!) are 30% off right now!
Yes!
Look at how many times I wore them just on What I Wore Wednesday...
Love my black jeans!
To see everything from What I Wore Wednesday, click here.
And my last tip is that you should make this recipe...
I had been saving this recipe until June but after Tuesday's "A Day in the Life" post, I had so many requests for the recipe, that I bumped it up to today.
This recipe is so simple to make! Your family and friends will love it this weekend!
Okay, those are my favorite things (and tips!) from this week.
Happy Friday friends!
xoxo