The countdown is over...

I hope you have a Blessed Christmas 

with your family & friends!

Are you ready?

Are you ready for Christmas!? We only have 5 days left. This is what I've been doing tonight. I'm wrapping the last few gifts while watching Lifetime [it's so addicting!!!] and drinking my favorite tea.

My mom calls it "Friendship Tea". She used to make it for all of our teachers as gifts for Christmas. I look forward to cooler weather every year so I can make it. I wanted to share the SUPER EASY recipe with all of you. Most of it you might even have in your pantry already! Go ahead go make it.... then tell me what you think!

Friendship Tea

34 oz. Tang

1 1/3 cup of instant tea

3 cups sugar

1/2 cup of lemonade mix

1 Tablespoon cinnamon

1 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Mix above all together.

Mix 1-2 Tablespoons tea mixture in a cup of boiling water. 

Now sit back, relax and enjoy!

Let the countdown begin....

I have been such a horrible blogger! It's been so long since my last post. Happy "late" Thanksgiving everyone!!!! I hope you had a very blessed day with your family and friends. I know I sure did. Thanksgiving is hands down my favorite holiday. It always has been. Don't get me wrong I love Christmas too but, there is something about gathering with family and friends for absolutely no reason other than to eat delicious food and be thankful for each other and the many blessing in our lives. So, with that said the first year I went out of town with my [at the time] boyfriends family to celebrate Thanksgiving with his grandparents....it was actually very hard for me to not be with my family. But, over the years I have realized if I couldn't be with my family on Thanksgiving I honestly couldn't think of better people to spend it with. It's not very often that a girl marries a man she adores AND adores his ENTIRE family too! That is definitely what I was thankful for this Thanksgiving! What about you? What were you thankful for this year? Yeah, I know Thanksgiving was over weeks ago but, it's never the wrong time to remind yourself what you are thankful for! Right!?

Last year I jumped on the "wake up at 3AM to go shopping on black Friday" ban wagon. I got some pretty good deals and did a lot of my Christmas shopping. So, I decided to go again this year. I was so happy when I heard they were opening at 12AM. I didn't have to go to sleep and then wake up 2 or 3 hours later. I just didn't go to sleep. Well...apparently EVERYONE else was excited too. My husband, sister in law, father in law and I all went to Target. This is what the line looked like...

Hold on.....it gets worse......

This line wrapped around the side of the building. It was CRAZY! So, instead of standing in line we decided to go in Best Buy next door [which had no line to get in. I know I was shocked too] to kill some time until we could into Target. We finally got into Target and shopped a little. We head towards the line to check out and this is what we see.....

The line weaved in and out of the isles all the way back to the back of the store. We looked at what we had in our basket and instantly decided nothing was THAT GREAT of a deal to stand in that line. So, we put our things back and headed home. What a waste of a trip!! I hope you all had better luck!

Once we got back home from being out of town I was SO excited to start decorating for Christmas. Well, if I'm being honest I sort of started before we left [ooops!]  

That's my husband making a goofy face because I made him stop working to take a picture. How are your decorations coming!? Are you ready for Christmas!? Let the countdown begin..... 16 days!!! 

Organization feels so good

I love lazy Sunday mornings!

Have you ever heard of Erin Condren? A few weeks ago I had never heard of her! But, thanks to my wonderful friend Kellianne I now know all about ErinCondren.com. She has all sorts of personalized goodies from Christmas cards to iphone covers. I instantly fell in love with her "life planner". But, what held me back? The price! It was $50.00. I just couldn't see myself paying that much for a planner [no matter how adorable it is]. Again, thanks to Kellianne for introducing me to plum district. It is a lot like groupon or living social. Plum District has deals often for ErinCondren.com. The deal was pay $25.00 and get $50.00. So, I ended up only having to pay $25.00 for the planner [MUCH better!]

On Friday morning the door bell rang and I opened the door and found this beautiful package....

 "enjoy" the box said. Thank you very much I sure will!!

I was so excited about this planner!! If you have never seen one of these you are probably wondering what the big deal is....well let me show you....

 Yes, those are tabs! You can easily flip to the month that you need.

 At the beginning of each month there is still a full monthly calendar. But, also each week is broken down and each day has a "morning", "day" and "night" section so you have plenty of room to write all of your plans or to do's for the day.

She also sent me these fun sticker labels for free. Aren't they adorable!? 

This is probably my favorite part! At the back of the planner there is a folder for you to put things and a zipper bag to put coupons, grocery list or anything that you can think of. Isn't that fabulous? I am always just shoving my grocery list in my purse somewhere and then I get to the store and have to pretty much empty out my purse in the grocery cart to find the darn thing. Not anymore!

I have always been a "planner" type person. I am obsessed with making lists just so I can cross it off when I am done. There is nothing like that satisfaction of crossing something off my list! Anyone feel me? My husband makes fun of me. He just doesn't get it.

So, I am sure you are in love now too. So, go on over to Erin Condren and look around. They have so many adorable options for the cover of the planner [I'm just obsessed with the color pink and the chevron print]. If a planner isn't really your thing, she has tons of adorable personalized things [they would all make great Christmas gifts too]. Who doesn't love something with their name on it?!

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

A few of my favorite things...

There are things we all use everyday that we are in love/obsessed with. Some of these things we might even feel like we can't live with out it don't want to live without it. Here are a few of those things for me....

If you have not yet experienced Pinterest, I urge you to! After being introduced to this virtual pinboard by my sister Abby, I was very quickly obsessed! Any one else have a hundred websites bookmarked on their computer and hundreds of pictures saved!? Yup, that was me. Just by clicking a simple button I can easily "pin" it to the board of my choice and go back to that website/tutorial at anytime. Pure genius! I sure would like to meet the person who invented Pinterest!

This coffee machine is literally what gets me out of bed every morning! I turn it on, put a little k-cup inside [my personal fav is Gloria Jean's Hazelnut] and press what size cup I want and then BAM....the most delicious cup of coffee I have ever had is ready in less than 30 seconds. Not only is it super delicious and fast but, there is no mess! There is no coffee filter to clean out. You just take the little k-cup out and toss it in the trash. The ONLY downside I can find is that the k-cups can get a little expensive if you go through them fast. But, in my house I am the only coffee drinker and I only have one cup a day. Plus, I never go to starbucks anymore. Seriously I don't! That's how good this machine is. So, if you do not have one you should really look into it! I bought mine at Bed Bath & Beyond and used the 20% off coupon.

I have always been a candle person. I love when the smell of a candle fills the whole house! Maybe it was because my mom always had candles lit. Candles make it feel more like home to me. But, there is a downside to candles. There has been so many times I have lit my favorite candle and then 30 minutes later needed to leave the house. So, I would have to blow out the candle before the top layer completely liquefied. I HATE that because you totally mess up the candle and how it will burn from there on out. This is why I have fallen in love with Scentsy. They have SO many wonderful scents to choose from. And it lasts a million times longer [yeah, that's right a million longer] than a candle. The wax you use are called "bricks" and they are $20 for a pack. I have half of my brick pack in my warmer right now and have had it in there for months [I am not lying]. I turn my warmer on almost everyday and it still smells great! If I turn my warmer on and then need to leave the house, I just easily turn it back off. Nothing is messed up or ruined! Also, I have gone to bed before and left one on all night and when I woke up it still smelled wonderful and still wasn't super hot to the touch. And..... if that is not enough, I just recently found out that the wax from your old candles can be used in the warmer. I have a slight obsession with the scent "Diva" from the Tyler Candle Company. But, I just found out that when my candle gets too low to burn I can get an exacto knife and get out the wax and put it into my Scentsy warmer. Now really yall.....who doesn't want one of these!?! Take a look at their website. They have so many cute warmers that will match anyone's decor. Also, if you want to order anything let me know I have a friend that sells it.  :)

So, these are a few of my favorite things. I would love to hear what some of yours are!

So Very Excited!

In my first post I mentioned that I was going to be selling some of my things at a store and that I would share more information on that later. Well, later is now! I have rented a small space in a store called Purple Patty. Purple Patty was previously a store named "Antiques" in the Township Square Shopping Center. But, just recently she has moved her store across the parking lot [next door to Latte Tots] into a much bigger space. Purple Patty is more antiques and collectables but, with her bigger space she was able to rent out space to other vendors. I am very excited to say, I am one of her new vendors! I will be moving my stuff in next week and our tentative grand opening is next Thursday the 17th. Here is a preview of a few things I will be selling at the store....

I hope you can stop by the store sometime!

It's beginning to feel a lot like....

I realize that it's only November. But, it's hard not to get in the Christmas spirit when every store you go into already has all of their Christmas decorations and goodies out. So, after leaving Hobby Lobby last week feeling very festive and in the Christmas mood....I went home and starting thinking/researching a Christmas wreath for our front door. {I have a small obsession with wreaths lately} I found a few that I loved but, wanted to attempt to make it myself. So, back to hobby lobby I went. When I got to Hobby Lobby, I was very happy to find out that all Christmas decorations and crafts were 50% off. You gotta love Hob Lob!!

Instead of doing other things around the house today {laundry, cleaning, school work}   I decided I would attempt to make the wreath. This is how it came out....

Don't worry I did not leave it on my front door. I just put it there for the picture. I will put it away until after Thanksgiving. Seeing it in the pictures makes me want to tweak a few things... maybe add the letter "J" in the middle to personalize it. But, overall I am pretty happy with the finished product! I am tossing around the idea of adding this to the Plum Berry Creek facebook page. What do you think I should do?

Showing the love!

Just incase you didn't notice...my blog has a new look. When I first decided to start a blog I was so excited to make it look fun and cute. But, I soon realized how hard that was to do. I found a few sites that had free blog layouts (which is what I had before this layout) but, it looked totally different from our Plum Berry Creek "logo" on facebook. So, I started my search for a custom blog layout. For those who have never looked into that, let me just tell you it can get pretty very expensive! Then I came across this lady who sold custom layouts on Etsy for a VERY good price. She was so fantastic to work with. She let me have a say the whole entire way and did not finish until I was 100% happy. So, for any of you out there that might be looking for a "new look" for your blog or know someone that is, you should definitely look into Three Little Birdies .

On a different note. The last couple days the weather has gotten cooler and it is really starting to feel like Fall. So, I'm going to leave you with a few pictures of my favorite Fall decorating ideas.

Happy Fall Yall!!

I love Sundays!

Hello everyone out there! First of all I would like to apologize for being MIA for a week. Having a blog, launching the Plum Berry Creek Facebook Page, and keeping up with school has been more to handle than I had expected. I have been super busy this week. This week we had 3 orders placed and one of those orders was for multiple things. Please don't misunderstand me when I say busy, because it was a wonderful kind of busy! Second of all, I would like to thank you for all of the nice comments on facebook. We really appreciate all of the love and support we have been getting.

I spent my Saturday with my sister, brother in law and their kids at craft shows and shopping the cute shops in downtown Richmond. We had so much fun! This is my favorite time of the year. The weather is so wonderful and there is always something fun like this to do.

How adorable are all these shops? I could have spent a week shopping here. 

This weekend coming up is the annual Sugar Plum Market. I have actually never been, so I am very excited to go this year and see all of the fabulous vendors. Then on Saturday, myself, my sisters and our mom are all getting up VERY early and driving to Canton for the day. I have never been here either but, have heard how fantastic it is. It's going to be a long day, but I couldn't be more excited about going. Have any of you ever been to the Sugar Plum Market or Canton? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Happy Monday!

I had a pretty busy weekend. My sister, Amanda and I threw a baby shower for a friend on Saturday.  On Sunday, I finished taking pictures and pricing products for my facebook page (that I finally launched) and also for the store that I have rented a space in (details to come on that). This summer I have been busy working on products and dreaming of the day I would finally put my stuff out there. Yesterday when I finished the facebook page and all that was left was to publish it and finally let everyone see I have to be honest....I was mortified! This has only been an "idea" in my head and now all of the sudden it felt very real. My things would be out there to be seen and more importantly judged! (eeeek) But, then I realized that if I am not willing to take chances then my dreams will never come true. So, I did it! Please visit my facebook page and browse through my products and tell me what you think.



Plum Berry Creek Facebook Link