ELF - and not the Christmas kind

Well, baking day didn't end up happening yesterday. I was trying to clean the house and the kids were both very clingy yesterday. So I didn't get anything baked. I think we are all so wiped out from losing sleep that we were trying to catch up on our rest in the afternoon.

This weekend, I was excited to head to Target and to see that ELF products are now being carried in the store. If you've never tried or heard of ELF, that stands for Eyes, Lips, Face. I placed my first order through their website. I decided to take advantage of a special they had which ended up with me getting their mini kits for free. It is a great little package that has a number of eye shadows, lip glosses, eye liner pencil, blush etc. I have really enjoyed using this kit, as well as the other eye shadow I purchased.

If you haven't checked out ELF, their makeup is really reasonably priced. A lot of their products are just a $1 a piece. Some of the new products at Target are priced at one dollar and some are a little more. The items that are priced higher are because you'll find multiple items packaged together. When I went over the weekend, I purchased two of the lip glosses and they were $3 for the two. They come in cute round containers with duo color combos. I thought the price was very reasonable for two of them. They also had other packages including one with eye lashes, mascara and some other goodies.

They have a great looking eye lash curler for $1, as well as some awesome looking tweezers. They call them professional tweezers. It is hard to find good tweezers and they look like a nice pair. I will definitely give them a try.

With the holidays coming up, I'd suggest checking out the ELF website, as well as the display at Target. These little gems would make great stocking stuffers. They are also be great if you are looking at doing any mini makeovers on yourself for any holiday parties you might be attending. ELF products are definitely a way to do "chic on the cheap".

Here is a link to the ELF website if you want to check them out. http://www.eyeslipsface.com/elfhome/2SHIP?utm_campaign=brand&utm_medium=CPC&utm_source=Yahoo&utm_content=&utm_term=Elf&YSKCID=1&OVRAW=ELF&OVKEY=elf&OVMTC=standard&OVKWID=224681311021&OVADID=24511128021&OVCAMPGID=5608869521&OVADGRPID=10641771409


BTW, there is a great sale starting today at Gymboree. Circle of Friends members get 30% off their total purchase. So if you need something from Gymboree, you might want to search online to see if you can find one of these coupons. They emailed one to me.

Have a great day in your neck of the woods!

Baking Day

I decided that today I'm going to join in the baking day that Money Saving Mom is sponsoring. She is going to be doing updates and tweeting about her progress using the Twitter hash tag #bakingday. I'm going to be doing the same. I'll share some pictures here on my blog of the finished product(s).

When the weather gets cooler, I love to bake. I decided that I'm going to try and make a pound cake using Paula Deen's recipe. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/mamas-pound-cake-recipe/index.html I want to make this because it is a good recipe to freeze, per Paula, and I thought it would be nice to have something to put in the freezer with the holidays coming up. I'm hopeful that I'll also get a chance to make some pumpkin bread. I love making pumpkin bread in mini loaves. Of course they don't last long. But they look so cute. My favorite thing to do is add golden raisins, pecans and coconut. It really jazzes up the pumpkin bread.

Wish me luck on the baking. Sawyer wasn't feeling well yesterday, so we are keeping our fingers crossed we will have a good day. He hasn't been sleeping well at all at night. We are in a bad phase with that right now. I think he is getting worn out with not sleeping. And it is wearing us out too.

Hope you are having a great day in your neck of the woods!

Sugar Rush

Happy Monday everyone!

Is anyone else feeling the after affects of having so much sugar in a few days? I thought I'd post this picture of Logan at his little birthday party we had for him on Saturday. As you can see, he had no problems digging right in to the birthday cupcake we gave him. The child still has no teeth, but that didn't stop him. LOL

We had a very busy Halloween with having a little celebration for Logan in the morning and then in the evening we had trick or treating and family come over to have a get together. We were in party mode.

With the holidays coming up, if you don't know a mini crock pot, I'd highly suggest going out and buying one. They run ten bucks and they are so worth the money. I just purchased one a few months ago and I'm finding that I use mine a lot. I've found some great recipes to use for the small crock pot.

For Saturday night, we made little smokies in the mini crock pot. It is so easy, just buy a pack of smokies and then add a jar of grape jelly and a jar of chili sauce (can be found near the ketchup). You let all of that melt down for about 2 hours and they are good to go. Now I know this combination doesn't sound appetizing, but I promise they turn out great. My mother in law gave me the recipe a while ago. The smokies are a filling appetizer to serve when you have a crowd coming over. I didn't have any left after the night was over.

I promised I'd post a picture of the kids in their costumes and I'm almost embarrassed to post this picture, but we just had a hard time getting pictures as you can see. Logan was in a foul mood (I called him the p'od pumpkin) and Sawyer wasn't thrilled about riding in the wagon. But once we got started Sawyer had a wonderful time trick or treating and really got into it. Sawyer's costume is a triceratops and I feel like the picture doesn't do it justice. He looked really cute in it. Poor Logan had so much excitement we didn't take him far. I guess he wanted to be at home and wait for the great pumpkin. But over all we had a wonderful Halloween. Now we have to plan for Thanksgiving. I'm sure November will fly by too. October went way too fast.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend. I can't wait to share the holidays here on the blog. I've got some exciting things in the works for the blog, including my blogiversary coming up. So stay tuned. Have a great Monday in your neck of the woods!