I've got the pictures to prove it!

Before: After:

Before:

After:

For those of you who know me, you will know that the following things from this weekend almost gave me a panic attack:

-PILES of clothes on the bed

-Cluttered countertops

-A dusty, dirty house

-YARD WORK....I HATE being outside!!!

-Digging in the dirt

-Cleaning out the garage

That just about it sums it up! The piles on our bed were so terrible and we were so exhausted Saturday night, that we actually slept on an air mattress in the office! That's pretty sad! Our house goes on the market tomorrow, yes on April Fool's Day! But, it's no joke! We've been working all weekend to get the yard done and a few minor repairs made. It is coming together! We have worked non-stop all weekend.

Here's a big shocker for those of you who know me well: we actually went to early service on Sunday!! No, not because we got in bed early the night before or because we love getting up early, but because we had a FULL day of house projects! We were even early! It was so nice to have an entire day to work (and to have a nap:)).

I am happy to say, that our house will be ready to go tomorrow! If you know someone who is looking for a move-in ready home WITH a pool, send them our way!!

On a totally unrelated note, here are a few of my favorite things.....

-Real Simple's Last Minute Lasagna...yum! I'll post the recipe later (aka-in a few days or weeks) with my variations.

-Glade's carpet powder in Clean Linen

-Method cleaning products---especially the shower cleaner and all purpose lavender cleaner

-Pulp-free OJ, I usually buy the Market Pantry kind

-Rosemary and Garlic Triscuits

-Mr. Clean Magic Erasers (they do wonders for tile grout!)

-Kashi GoLean Blueberry Waffles w/Market Pantry Light Syrup (I like this one because there is no aspartame)

Now back to the laundry, which did NOT make my "favorite things" list!

Homemade Tortilla Recipe

I usually half this recipe for me and Josh and it makes 8 tortillas.

Homemade Tortillas

4 c. flour
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
4 Tbsp shortening
1 ½ cups warm water

In large bowl, combine dry ingredients. Cut in shortening, a little at a time, until mixture resembles bread crumbs. Stir in water to form a moist workable dough. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead for a few minutes, until smooth and elastic. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 15 minutes. Cut into 12-16 even sized pieces and form each into 1 ½ to 2 inch balls. Roll very thin, using liberal amounts of flour. Turn and stretch the dough several times during rolling. Cook on a dry iron skillet. Turn and press several times w/ a spatula to keep large air bubbles from forming. (several small bubbles will form and turn dark brown)

Happy Easter!

1st up-Random tid bit for ya: The pic above was taken in front of the Pilgrim's Pride chicken factory, on the way home from Gran's. Is it just me or is that a little egotistical to have a HUGE figure of your FACE right off the highway. I got a huge kick out of that! It actually has picnic tables for the employees to eat lunch under. This shows them who's boss! See the person under there, seriously, it's really THAT huge! HAHA!

Long time, no blog! I know! Things have been crazy, but fun around here! I had Spring Break this past week, so I visited Gran last weekend. Josh was at a conference in Dallas, so I drove down to East Texas with my parents. It was a fun trip with lots of GREAT food and family fun! It was a catch up week for me on cleaning house, running errands, etc. I also got to do a shopping day with my mom, which was fun! I did lots of painting this week and got several orders shipped out. So, that has kept me extra busy! Yesterday, Josh and I drove to Tulsa for a daytrip to just shop, eat and be together. We both knew that if we stayed in town, we would want to start working on house repairs and we really just needed some time to ourselves. So, that made for a great Friday! Today I'm painting and baking! My 2 FAVORITE things! I'm planning on making homemade tortillas tonight and using those for quesadillas, as well as making some chocolate cupcakes from scratch! If I follow through, I'll take some pics! I do have to say that I've never made cupcakes from scratch and I really haven't made cupcakes in years (oh yeah, except for Emily's shower:))! So, this could get interesting!

Easter tomorrow will consist of church, eating lunch at Mom and Dad's and watching the LTC kids perform tomorrow night! Boy do I miss those egg hunts!

Happy Easter to all!

And the winner is.....

Using this, the results are now in! The winner is Audrey! Congratulations, Audrey! Email me at aubrey@blessingsandbows.com for info on ordering your FREE custom clipboard and pen set!

Thank you to everyone who participated! I hope to have additional giveaways in the future! For those of you who linked me, don't forget about your 20% discount, now through March 31st. Be sure to check out my Blessings and Bows blog weekly for contests, discounts, and featured artists/crafters who use ribbon in their designs!

Happy Easter!!!

Blessings and Bows One Year Anniversary & GIVEAWAY!!!!

In honor of Blessings and Bows' ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY, I am conducting a special and a giveaway for YOU!

Winner will receive a custom hand-painted clipboard of his/her choice AND a matching pen (one of our new products)! Samples of each are pictured above.

All entrants who add my website and blog to their blog links will receive 15% off their entire Blessings and Bows purchase now through March 31st!

Here's how it works:

1.Check out my BLESSINGS AND BOWS site.

2. Visit this blog and leave a comment telling me which products are your favorite! You can only enter once.

***Please only leave your product comments on my Blessings and Bows blog: blessingsandbows.blogspot.com

3. Blog about my Blessings and Bows giveaway, linking your friends to this blog.

4. After you link me up on your blog post, leave me another comment, telling me that you set up a blog post about the giveaway. That will enable you to be entered twice!!

DEADLINE TO ENTER is Saturday, March 22nd at 10am CST.

Winner will be announced by Saturday afternoon.

I would like to give a huge THANK YOU to all of my friends, family and people I've never met who have supported my Blessings and Bows business this past year! I can't believe it has been a year already!! This has been such a fun adventure! What started out as a plan to make custom gifts for friends' baby showers has turned into a fun business and creative outlet! Thank you to my sweet husband for working with me this past year to develop my logo, website, print media and just overall "branding". He has also been such a huge support daily! Every time I bring a freshly painted frame or clipboard or whatever into the office to show him, instead of just nodding and saying "uh, huh, that's great..." he always gives such positive and constructive feedback! He never acts tired of looking at my products or acts bored with the whole thing. He has just been wonderful! Thank you Josh for everything and for not getting frustrated when I stay up until 3am working on orders!

Thank you to everyone who has supported my business in any way! I look forward to year number 2!!! Be looking for a few new product lines coming your way soon!!!

Black Chairs

FYI-the black chairs from my previous post have found a new home. Stay tuned...I may have more freebies in the future!

The Big Clean Up-Day 1

Dining room before:

Dining room after :( All of this JUNK is going in storage!Kitchen before:

Kitchen after:

Extra room before (while in the process of gutting the closets, etc.)

Extra room after:

Living room before:

Living room after:

We are in the process of getting our house on the market and I had no idea how much junk we've accumulated and how I obviously have too much decor! When you both work from home and have had previous jobs with office space (Josh's old church job and my old teaching job) you have TONS of books, office supplies, random furniture, etc! We rented a storage facility today to hold our excess stuff. Sadly, 30 boxes later, we STILL have a ton of stuff! It was a very productive day, though. Josh got some yard work done, a tree dug up, the roof repaired, etc. I got our ceilings repaired, cleaned out our extra room/closet, staged different rooms, got our front porch cleaned off, etc. It is coming along, gradually!

We'll be ready to list it and sell in a few weeks. If you know anyone who might be interested, email me! We're praying for an easy sell! We're going to miss this house! It's been a good one!

By the way, we are getting rid of the 2 black chairs (chair/loveseat) that are pictured in before pic of the extra room. (The loveseat is pictured slightly folded up against the wall.) They are FREE for anyone who wants to take them. Otherwise they go to the thrift store on Tuesday! Leave me a comment or email me if you're interested. They would make great dorm room furniture. They fold up and can be wiped down for an easy clean! They are black with dark wood arms.

I can't wait to have the whole house done! I'll post pics as the rooms/projects are completed!