Books! We Love Them

Pinned from Kellie Durbin on Pinterest

I live in a family that treasure books. I love it. As a kid when we moved books were packed and carried with the care of fine china. I grew up knowing the value if a good book and to pass the admiration of books on to my own kids. My son is a book lover too, I smile proudly about that. He loves to curl up on my lap like a cat and listen to me read, then "read" it back to me when he declared its his turn. The first "grown up" book I read as a teenager was The Horse Whisper, I still love that book to this day. I love Martha Stewart from reading her books from my Moms book shelves as far back as I can even have memories. The books my Mom put in our home I think helped shape my personality. I have books that are expensive and ones I have bought for $0.25 at a yard sale and I treasure them all the same. As a busy Mom it seems I do not read chapter books as much as I would like to but I do love the kids books I get to read with my son.

I like the The Catalog and The Mountains Crack Up by Jasper Tomkins, not just for the story but the memories of reading it with my family as a kid. There is a value you dont see until you have your own kids how much your parents influence your like or dislike for books. I encourage you to grab a book, sit with your kids and get lost in the story, even if its one you have read hundreds of times lol.

What books are you reading? What books are your kids loving right now?

3 Days Left to Enter $500 DownEast Basics Fall Fashion Pinterest Contest

3 days left to enter the DownEast Basics Pinterest $500 Fall Fashion contest (ends Aug 31)! More details at: http://bit.ly/O7vkYN

To help you get into the fall spirit, DownEast Basics is kicking off their “Fall Back to Basics with DownEast Basics” sweepstakes, our first-ever Pinterest contest! One lucky winner will receive a $500 gift card to help bring in the cooler temperatures with a new, fresh look.

I am off to enter! I love the creativity of a Pinterest contest. Good luck and let me know if you win!

Let's Bake Love! Kitchen Product Ideas

As soon as the weather cools and September is here I turn into a bake a holic! What better way to show someone you love them then with a hug and a serving of a delicious baked goodie right?!? I like to shop Cost Plus World Market for the variety of unique items they carry in store and online.

1. Keep Calm and Bake On Apron When I saw this apron I giggled a little to myself. It really is my attitude. When things are rough keep calm and bake something.  An apron is a great start to a theme to build a kitchen decor around. I love the red!

 

 2. Vintage Measuring Spoons Love these for my kitchen. All bakers know you need good measurements on ingredients. A slight too much or too little of a dry ingredients can throw off the recipe. Why not have your measuring spoons be as beautiful as these.

 

3.  Citrus Colors 3 Piece Mixing Bowl Set - I like the handles and pour spout on these. Makes it easy to pour your mixtures into your baking pans. I love the citrus colors on these, so bright and cheerful.

4. Mini Metal Baking Molds - How cute are these! They make it easy to make a mixture of cute designs for baked goods. I can picture a cute mini cake using these shapes stacked on top of one another frosted with different colors for each layer. Who would not love that!!

5. Cake Pop Baking Pans - These have been on my must make list for a year now. I have been so impressed with the cute ideas and themes I see for these I have to get some to make for the upcoming holidays. I know my son will love them and they make a cute gift.

6. Green Silicone Mini Muffin Cups - I love the color and that are reusable. I like to serve my muffins without the papers on them and its such a waste to use it one and toss it. These are really a "green" solution. They could be used for jello and ice cubes too!

All of those items from World Market would make it much easier to Bake what I love and share with the people I love.

I love to cook, bake, shop and eat, who doesn't right! World Market is hosting a sweepstakes for you to be able to do all that! The Gourmet Getaway Sweepstakes is going on now until 9/21/2012.

Grand Prize package includes:

-A trip for two to to Santa Fe, New Mexico (this is a 5 day Trip for 2 to Santa Fe which includes airfare and hotel)
-Hands on Southwestern Cooking class with Master Chef
-Personally signed glossy cookbook
-Multi-course dinner at the acclaimed Geronimo
-Southwestern Foodie Tour with a cultural kick
-A $1,000 World Market gift card

 
** There will also be 3 runner up prize winners that will each receive a $500 World Market gift card!

**The Gourmet Getaway Sweepstakes runs from August 18, 2012 until September 21, 2012.
**If you share the sweepstakes with 5 of your friends (via FB share or email) you can receive 5 additional bonus entries. This is part of the registration process when entering. Users can also enter daily for more chances to win.

I have found fabulous decorating and gift ideas from World Market online. You can get great ideas by following them too.

World Market Twitter
World Market Facebook
World Market Pinterest

*This shop is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group™, but all my opinions are my own.

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Family Fun with Family Game Night #DipDipHooray #CBias

With fall and back to school just around the corner, that means everyone in my family will be much busier. It also means less time for family togetherness. My five grown children lead busy lives, and frankly so do I.
While I'm sad we don't see as much of each other as we would like, when we are together we like to laugh and enjoy each other's company.

So I decided that before the summer ended, we were going to have a Family Game Night. We have always loved playing games and can get pretty competitive. Our favorite thing to do after Thanksgiving dinner is to get out the board games and play for hours.

I got together with my oldest daughter, her husband and children to have a game night and dinner. My youngest daughter was coming over too, though her boyfriend couldn't make it because he had to work. But she was excited to see her two nephews and her niece. We love playing Monopoly and it can get pretty funny and intense when we play. We love it, and playing games is such a great way to share family time.

I went to Walmart to pick up a few things for our game night. I was trying to think of something we could all have for dinner that would be quick and easy to fix, and that we would all enjoy. Chicken nuggets, of course!
My family and I love Tyson Chicken Nuggets. I love how they make getting together with family and friends at the last moment so easy, and takes the stress out of cooking.

The less time we needed for cooking, the more time we would have for game playing!

While I was at Walmart I had to get french fries to go with the chicken nuggets. We love them together. Our favorite brand is Ore-Ida Seasoned Crinkles. My grandsons adore french fries, and they love dipping then in ketchup. Lately they have been dipping everything in ketchup! I got a 40 oz. bottle of Heinz Ketchup to make sure there was plenty for dipping all those french fries and chicken nuggets.

I also needed to get a new Monopoly game. After years of playing, our old game was getting pretty ragged and a couple of the pieces were missing. A few bananas and a yogurt treat were all I needed to make this family game night fun . #DipDipHooray

Everyone is here and it's time to put in the chicken nuggets and french fries. My grandsons keep asking when  it will be time to eat. Luckily it won't take long. I had forgotten how hungry little boys can get!

It was such a gorgeous evening that we decided to eat dinner and play Monopoly outside on the deck. We were all pretty hungry and the chicken nuggets and french fries were going fast. The boys loved dipping theirs in ketchup of course. I know the game will last much longer that the light out here, so I'm sure we will have to take it inside to finish it.

We stopped playing the game while we were eating. I bought my grandsons some new play-doh to play with after dinner, and hopefully they will be happy doing that.

We are trying to stretch out our beautiful weather before the rain up here in Washington begins. It is perfect weather for our Hasbro Game Night. My daughters were pretty happy eating and dipping too!

We had a lot of fun and a lot of laughs, and I can't wait to do it again. Family game night is a great way to bring your family together and share some quality time. #DipDipHooray

If you and your family love Tyson Chicken Nuggets, Ore-Ida French Fries and Heinz Ketchup like mine does, then be sure to enter the Dip To Play Sweepstakes. At DipToPlay.com you sign into the site and enter the UPC codes from Tyson Chicken Nuggets, Heinz Ketchup, and Ore-Ida products to unlock the games to play. We entered out UPC codes and you can too. You can win a $1000 Hasbro Family Game Night or 1 of the 250 Hasbro Game Prizes. Good Luck I hope you win! You can read the official rules for the sweepstakes at DiptoPlay.com rules.

To see more of the fun games available at Walmart you can read my Google+ story to see my shopping trip at Walmart.

You can connect with the brands of Dip to Play for recipe ideas and more:
Heinz Twitter
Heinz Facebook
Tyson Twitter
Tyson Facebook
Ore-Ida Facebook



*I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ Tyson and Heinz #CBias #SocialFabric All opinions expressed in this post are my own.