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Frugal Novice

Menu Plan Monday

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Menu Plan Monday

Goooood morning! It technically is morning, since I’m sitting here at midnight writing this. We had a great weekend at a conference, which I’ll tell you more about later, and I got to experience Fogo de Chao for the first time. It is definitely a special occasion kind of place at $45/person, but I’ve wanted to try a Brazilian steakhouse for a long time so we splurged. We planned ahead and didn’t eat much at all today – it was a good thing, because this place provides a lot of food. A lot of HEAVY food. A lot of AMAZING food. I fell in love at the salad bar, with its fresh mozzarella and other cheeses to try, along with prosciutto, roasted peppers, and a variety of other offerings.

Then we got to the main part of the meal. If you’ve never been, here’s how it works: you have a little disc, with one side red and one side green. You keep the disc on red until you’re ready for meat. Then you turn it to green and servers stop by with skewers of different kinds of meat; you’re able to keep trying different kinds of meat until you turn the disc back over. I had bacon-wrapped chicken and filet mignon, pork ribs, and various cuts of sirloin. I have to mention the sides, too – they bring garlic mashed potatoes, polenta cakes, fried bananas (in some sort of cinnamon sauce, it appeared) and these amazing, buttery little rolls. Every bite I ate, I loved. Brian and our friend that went with us had the same opinion, so although it was a pricey meal it was worth it!

I didn’t mean to go off on such a tangent about the meal, but I guess I’m still in awe of how great everything really was! I am also SO stuffed and won’t need to eat breakfast (or lunch either, probably) tomorrow. On to food for the week:

Monday: Paninis and soup – something easy and light sounds good!

Tuesday: Chick-fil-A – surprise, surprise!

Wednesday: Grilled chicken, green beans, and brown rice

Thursday: Pasta with marinara and ground beef, salad, & raw veggies

Friday: Leftovers – we almost always have leftovers with pasta.

Saturday: Chicken stir fry with kung pao sauce, carrots, broccoli, zucchini, and brown rice

Hope you have a great week and good food this week!

Photo & Prompt Challenge: Day 9

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Today’s challenge is:

Your most treasured item

I totally went with the cliche answer, I guess, but it is what I thought of immediately for this post! I love my ring – rings, technically. The middle one is my engagement ring, of course. The bottom is my wedding band, and the top one Brian gave to me for our five year anniversary back in 2008. I got him a watch that year, and he gave me a copy of Jane Austen works. When I opened the book, he had carved out the pages to house the ring. :)  I have the three soldered together to make one ring, and it’s definitely my favorite piece of jewelry!

Friendly Friday March 11

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Welcome to Friendly Friday!

Remember, YOU can host the link list on your blog, too! Just get the InLinkz code and copy it directly into your post. The code is different every week, so be sure to get the new code when hosting Friendly Friday on your blog. Hosting the list is a great way to get even more traffic to your blog and make Friendly Friday more beneficial for everyone.

Thanks for joining the Friendly Friday celebration hosted by Christi at Frugal Novice, Xenia at Thanks, Mail Carrier and Charla at Healthy Home Blog! We invite you to join us every Friday to make more friends in blogville, get more blog followers and follow other great blogs out there.

To join in the Friendly Friday celebration, include your family-friendly link in our list, follow the hostesses in the first 3 spots and then start blog hopping! Visit other blogs on the list and comment to give them some blog love. Then take a minute to follow them through Google Friend Connect – this is a good way to keep up with other blogs, but also lets us show support to each other! Please DO NOT list your giveaways here, links must be to either your homepage or your Friday posting with your blog title. All others will be deleted.

When people comment on your blog and let you know they’re a part of Friendly Friday, return the favor and follow them back. This way everyone gets traffic and followers out of participating, and it’s a win-win situation. We would love for you to also grab our Friendly Friday button and post it on your blog and/or in a post – the more bloggers that find out about Friendly Friday and participate, the better!

Spotlight on Friendly Friday Followers! We love your participation and want to show it! In addition to gaining followers, each week we’ll select three blogs at random and will feature links and a write-up for those blogs in the content of next week’s Friendly Friday post. There are so many seriously wonderful blogs out there, and this will be a great way to highlight some of those each week. Say hello to the lucky chosen 3 for this week (and feel free to stop by and give them a little extra love):

Something that every woman needs is a little inspiration – which is exactly what you’ll find at Praises of a Wife and Mommy. A place to follow along with April’s journeys as a Christian, wife, mother, volunteer, coupon-clipper, and deal finder, you’ll find everything from reasons to be thankful to how to find a great bargain. Come say hello and don’t forget to congratulate her on her upcoming baby boy!

Are you hungry? If not, you sure will be after you see what Denise at Creative Kitchen has cooking! With a passion for using wholesome, real foods while she cooks meals from scratch for her husband and 3 girls, you’ll find a huge list of delicious recipes (including mouth-watering pictures) that you’re going to want to run out and try. Hint: start with the flourless chocolate cake – YUM!

A 23-year-old college student mama, Shakeeta at Life with B & Baby M will make you smile with each of her posts, whether about her dream to be a doula or her steps in working towards greener living. Together with her husband, they have a gorgeous 1-year-old diva of a daughter that is the light of their lives. Now is a great time to stop by, as Shakeeta is finishing up a 30 Days of Me series where you can really get to know this fun mom!

Now that you know about these 3 wonderful blogs, it’s time for you to join in! Add your family-friendly link below and we’ll see you back here every Friday! And don’t forget, you can get the InLinkz code to share the link list on your blog, too.

All three hostesses appreciate followers through GFC and Twitter, and we’ll follow you back – be sure to leave a comment with your URL and/or Twitter username.  Hope everyone has a great weekend!



Photo & Prompt Post: Day 8

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For those of you that aren’t familiar with the challenge, the idea is to post 31 days of photos based on a prompt that is provided. You can also share a story to go along with the photo. I’m on day 8 and today’s challenge is:

A Birthday Celebration

Since C’s 2nd birthday is coming up next month (which seems unreal, by the way) I thought I’d share photos of his 1st birthday. We decided to have a car theme and to do the party as inexpensively as possible.

I made a banner by printing out vehicle shapes that matched his invitation – I put one letter on each shape, then hung them from grosgrain ribbon strung across our window.

The great thing about planning a party around things your child loves is that you probably already have things around the house that will work for decor. We made our centerpiece using a glass container filled with colorful cars:

I made the cake and smash cake. The main cake was a car, which I just carved out the shape of. I did not, however, think about there needing to be space under the car… so we ended up with a low-rider. Whoops! :) Brian thought of using Oreos for the wheels – I thought that was a great idea (and much easier than trying to pipe out convincing looking tires).

The smash cake was a stop sign. It was much easier to do, and I thought it was fun to go along with the theme of the party:

We haven’t figured out what theme he’ll want for this year yet but I can’t wait to get started planning. It’s a lot of fun to create things from scratch and I hope one day the boys will look back on their birthdays with a lot of great memories!

Giveaway WINNERS! Chunky Bling, See Baby Grow, Nanotch

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It’s not often that I have multiple giveaways ending on the same day, but let me tell ya – it was fun seeing FOUR winners’ names pop up!

First, let’s see who the Chunky Bling winner is…

The See Baby Grow winner is…

And the TWO Nanotch winners are…

Congratulations Brandy, Meredith, Wendy & Kristen! Thanks to everyone who entered. If you didn’t win, don’t worry – there are a bunch of giveaways still open to enter over there —-> in my sidebar!

Yala Designs Review & Giveaway

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When I was in elementary school, my best friend had a big patch of bamboo in her back yard. We would attempt to build things with it or hide among the shoots. I never would have dreamed then that bamboo could be used to make beautiful, elegant, incredibly soft linens and clothing. Yala Designs has accomplished just that. The family-owned business started making bedding for adventurers, called the Dream Sack, and now their line has expanded to include clothing for the entire family.

I got the opportunity to review their Kai Boatneck top – a classic silhouette with 3/4 length sleeves and bias trim. I wish there were a way to convey touch through the computer, because to say this fabric is soft is an understatement. I can only imagine how great this would be to sleep in. It’s a thin fabric which seems like it will be especially nice once the summer heat hits, but it would also layer really well with other pieces.

The Yala line is priced similar to what you might expect at the Gap, so it’s not cheap but it’s fairly affordable. The quality is apparent and the shirt I received seems like it will be a long-lasting part of my wardrobe. Their clothing and bedding would make a great gift, too – their products are beautiful and the material is unique.

Yala doesn’t just make beautiful clothing – they’re also eco-friendly, partnering with GreenShipping to make their shipments all carbon neutral. For more on their green practices, read their Planet Yala page.

One lucky reader will win one of Yala’s super-soft scarves (ARV $26-$44)! This contest is open to all U.S. residents. Entries will be accepted until the end of day (midnight CST) March 31.

Mandatory Entry: “Like” Yala Designs on Facebook. I’d love it if you let them know Frugal Novice sent you (that’s not necessary, it’d just be nice!). Once you’ve “liked” Yala, comment here letting me know you’ve done so.

(Only valid after the required entry has been completed)

Please leave a comment for each extra entry – if you blog about this giveaway and get 3 entries, for example, comment 3 times.

Note: Yala Designs provided me with a shirt for review purposes, and is providing a scarf for the giveaway. Any opinions provided in this post are honest and are my own.

Wordy Wednesday 3/9

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I’ve decided not to do a linky with Wordy Wednesday… there are already a million link-ups on Wednesdays. If you participate, or would like to share your Wordless Wednesday post, comment with a link below and I’ll go give you a visit and some comment love!

If you know me, then you know that it’s a big deal for us to have a store-bought cake for a birthday. Brian and I have made cakes together for years and always have a blast doing something creative. This year, though, we had breakfast for dinner and Brian just wanted muffins for dessert to go along with the theme.

This didn’t sit well with J. “But what kind of birthday is Dad going to have?” he asked. He was further distressed when we said we weren’t having a party, that we were going to just celebrate with the four of us.

“Nooo, I think Dad needs a party,” J said. “Maybe Star Wars, you know, with R2D2 and C33333O.”

Then he paused for a minute.

“You know what? I think I might want that for my birthday. I think Dad really wants a dinosaur party with a dinosaur cake.”

I told him we wouldn’t be able to have a party but that we could have a cake. By this time, our week was one of THOSE weeks and I was too tired to even think about making and decorating a cake, so we went off to the grocery store.

No dinosaur cakes in sight. Uh oh! For some reason I had assumed that would be a common cake theme. J was very disappointed, but the lady behind the counter was wonderful and said she could turn one of the “plain” cakes into a dinosaur one for us. Then she promptly stuck two little dinosaur figures in the icing and called it done.

One dinosaur was too tall for the lid, so it got smooshed down into the cake a little. Maybe he was sinking into a tar pit or something. All I know is it made one little boy very happy. The woman asked what we wanted it to say and J chimed out, “Happy Birthday DAD!” and then we were all set to go.

We took the cake home to celebrate with some friends, where two tiny pieces were eaten. J was very proud that Brian got the dinosaur birthday he “needed”, so I guess it was worth the $10.

Photo & Prompt Challenge: Day 7

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For those of you that aren’t familiar with the challenge, the idea is to post 31 days of photos based on a prompt that is provided. You can also share a story to go along with the photo. I’m on day 7 and today’s challenge is:

Something you use every day

I immediately thought of my phone, because it’s pretty much attached to me all day. I decided that’s probably the g0-to answer for a lot of people, so instead I’m writing about my watch.

I love this watch! It’s a brighter teal color than it shows in the photo. Brian got it for me as a birthday present last year, and I think it’s such a fun take on watch design. The top two dots show the hour and minutes. The bottom left shows the day of the week, and the bottom right shows the month and date. So informative, no? I get compliments on this watch every single time I wear it. Brian ordered mine from the MoMA site, but you can find them on Amazon too.

I didn’t wear the watch almost all winter because I don’t like to have something underneath long sleeves, if that makes any sense. I’m a fair-weather watch wearer, I guess. :)

Review: Planners by Erin Condren

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I love to organize. To make lists. To plan. I also love well-designed things, so when I got the chance to review one of Erin Condren’s planners from TinyPrints.com, it was right up my alley. There are a lot of designs to choose from and I really had a hard time choosing just one. Finally, though, I settled on the Candy Lace planner. I love the pattern, don’t you?

Erin’s planners are all personalized, too. Mine has my first and last name on it, but I removed my last name for this post ’cause I’m all private like that. :) Like I said, I love the pattern and the colors – it’s vibrant without being over-the-top. I was a little surprised at the material for the cover; I guess I was envisioning something a little less glossy. The cover seems to be a thick plastic lamination over the printed material, which does give it a good substantial feel – I just couldn’t tell from looking online what the cover material would be like. I love that the inside of both the front and back cover have the pattern printed on them.

The pages of the planner are great. You’ll find bright, cheery color combinations and well-organized calendar/planner layouts. There are monthly pages, year-at-a-glance pages, and of course the day-to-day planner.

I’ve been using the planner for several days now and it works really well for me. The clip that’s included with the planner makes it easy to flip between my week and my month to keep track of what I’ve got going on short-term and longer-term too. Each day is broken down into morning, day, and night, helping provide a visual breakdown of where items on your schedule fall.

The planner includes stickers to help note special events; it includes the standards like appointments and birthdays, but you’re also provided with a sheet of blank stickers so you can make your own. I loved this, because the bright stickers really stand out and would be great to remind yourself of something important on the horizon.

There’s also a pocket to store any loose papers you might accumulate throughout the week. Grocery lists, coupons, business cards, or any other odds and ends would work well to store here.

At the back, there’s a zip loc storage bag to keep other odds and ends. I store my pen and some business cards in it, and the planner even came with some extras in the bag! The labels are great to have on hand for gifts, and it’s a fun touch to have some personalized labels in there too.

The Erin Condren planners would make a wonderful gift for anyone on your list that loves to be organized. There are options available to include photos – you could make one for your mom that includes a photo of the grandkids, for example. These planners are somewhat pricey, usually around $50, but you can often find discount codes that will help shave some of that off. Right now Tiny Prints has a code for 15% off that’s good until March 15 – just enter tp15off to get your savings!

Photo & Prompt Challenge: Day 6

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For those of you that aren’t familiar with the challenge, the idea is to post 31 days of photos based on a prompt that is provided. You can also share a story to go along with the photo. I’m on day 6 (you’re supposed to take the weekends off, I promise I’m not slacking!) and today’s challenge is:

A favorite memory

Hmm, hard one! I have a lot of great memories from my childhood, but no good photos at my fingertips to share with you. My wedding and my children being born are also some of my favorite memories, of course, but I’ve picked a more random one to post today (me, random? I know – you’re shocked).

This photo was taken at our friends’ wedding back in 2008. Now, don’t be jealous, but we got to go to Paris for this wedding. Oh, wait – it was Paris, TX. Seriously, don’t be jealous. :)

We packed up all of our things and made the drive pretty uneventfully; got settled in at our hotel and then headed to the wedding site, held at a little outdoor park/pavilion that was quaint, charming, and beautiful. J was a little restless, so we fed him Cheerios to keep him content – it worked pretty well, too! I also took one of my favorite photos of him while sitting there – this photo makes me smile every time I see it!

So, we’re sitting there relatively happy, and then the wedding procession begins. We stand for the bride to come down the aisle… and J throws up. All over everything. – his clothes, Brian’s clothes, and a little on me (I mercifully missed the brunt of it somehow). And it reeks. I’d never been so thankful for an outdoor wedding before. We cleaned up the best we could and made it through the wedding. After it was over we assessed J and he seemed to be fine – just stinky! No fever, and he was happy, so we decided to head on to the reception and just steer clear of people at the reception. Perfect plan, except then he threw up again, and Brian was the lucky recipient. Again.

J still seemed fine, and for some reason it seemed perfectly logical for us to continue on to the reception. We went through a million baby wipes cleaning up as much as possible, and then went on to have a great rest of the evening (no more throw up… looking back now I think we overstuffed J with Cheerios pre-wedding!). We were cracking up about it all and I remember gaining a new appreciation for my relationship with Brian that night , realizing we really were a team. Things went pretty wrong, and it could’ve been a stressful night. Instead it ended up being something we laughed about (and still do), and a special memory.

My favorite thing about this photo, though? It’s technically our first as a family of four. The night before embarking on this trip, and exactly one week after J turned 1, we got a positive result on a pregnancy test.

 

Sheyna Jewelry Review & Giveaway

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If you watch the Today Show, you may have seen the segment they did recently on sheyna, a jewelry site that provides hand-crafted jewelry, made to order for each customer using high quality gold, silver and stones. You can even create your own custom jewelry to get exactly what you want.

It felt a little like Christmas when I received a package of jewelry to review from Sheyna. Even after just opening the box I got a little giddy – who wouldn’t, seeing these pretty pouches just begging to be opened?

My first pouch contained the Cleopatra Chic earrings – elegant and a little exotic:

Next, I opened some sterling silver wrap bracelets – they’re adjustable and totally something I would pick out for myself. They feel a little bohemian with the modern twist of sterling silver beads incorporated into the design:

The last two pouches I opened contained the Sky and Sea necklace and earrings. My mouth dropped seeing these pieces. The pale beads and delicate gold chain really work well together to create something special, don’t you think?

I haven’t worn gold jewelry in years, and always thought I didn’t like it. Seeing these pieces seriously made me realize I actually do like it, which is saying a lot if you know me!

Sheyna’s pricing has a vast range; when I did a search for pieces under $50, it returned 42 pages of options. Some pieces are pricey, but there are a lot of options for every pocketbook. I think the custom design feature is a great way to design exactly what you want and tailor the price to fit your needs. You could even design jewelry to mimic more expensive designer pieces you’ve seen and liked elsewhere.

The site is sleek and as pretty to look at as its jewelry. You can search by stone type, metal type, and price range. I do wish there were a feature to filter within search results to narrow things down even further. I think the custom creation tools are great – dragging and dropping pieces is a lot of fun, and it’s nice being able to see how the price changes with each addition. I think creating custom jewelry for gifts is a nice, unique twist and a way to give something really special – wouldn’t it be a great Mother’s Day gift? One thing to note is that since every piece is hand crafted, there is a 4 week turnaround time period.

Ready to get started shopping? Be sure and use this discount code for 10% off: JEWEL10 (code expires April 1). You’ll probably also be really excited to know that sheyna has also provided me with a giveaway!

One very lucky reader will win a $100 gift code (one time use) to use at sheyna.com! This contest is open to U.S. and Canadian residents. Entries will be accepted until the end of the day (midnight CST) on Tuesday, March 29.

Mandatory Entry: “Like” Sheyna Jewelry on Facebook. I’d love it if you’d share with them that FrugalNovice.com sent you (not required, though)! Once you’ve liked them, comment on this post letting me know you’ve done so.

(Only valid after the required entry has been completed)

Please leave a comment for each extra entry – if you blog about this giveaway and get 3 entries, for example, comment 3 times.

  • Follow Sheyna Jewelry on Twitter {1 extra entry}
  • Visit sheyna.com and comment telling me one of the pieces you’d buy if you win! {1 extra entry}
  • Share a link to this giveaway on your Facebook wall {2 extra entries}
  • Blog about this giveaway and link it back here {3 extra entries}
  • Follow me through Google Friend Connect – just click “Join this site” over in the sidebar –> {2 extra entries}
  • Subscribe to my RSS feed {2 extra entries}
  • Follow me on Twitter {1 extra entry}
  • “Like” Frugal Novice on Facebook {1 extra entry}
  • Tweet about this giveaway {1 extra entry per tweet; 2 tweets (not back-to-back) per day}

Note: Sheyna provided me with jewelry for review and with the $100 merchandise credit for this giveaway. Any opinions provided in this post are honest and are my own.

 

Financing Your Own Business

Have you ever thought about starting your own business? It’s something I’ve thought about on and off for years. I don’t know if it will ever come to fruition but I’d had several ideas – a shop, a cafe, a bakery, or a design firm. I don’t know much about the business or financing side of things, though – that part would completely intimidate me. Places like Lendio exist to help people like me with small business loans and other financing issues. If I ever do start my own business I guess I’ll have to figure out all the details of getting a business loan and writing a business plan. It’s a lot more fun to think of the creative side of it all, though.

Disclosure: http://cmp.ly/3