Retail Me Not Strikes Again!

I ran my first half marathon in November. It was brutal but AMAZING!!!! I absolutely loved the entire experience and plan on doing another one in May.

The downside to running so much is that my shoes wear out quickly. Logging 20+ miles a week will do that! I don't like to pay a whole lot for shoes, so I try to wait until they are on sale. I look for a long time and then pounce when I find what I want in the price range I want.

Two days ago I received an email from ShopNewBalance.com (I love NB shoes) about their clearance sale. I went to see what they have in my size and Ta-da *angels sing*! They had a pair of 1224's for $54.99. Regularly priced they are $139.99. That, is the kind of deal I love.

Fast forward to today. I go to check again (because I have my spending money now) and they are still available. I put them in my cart, begin checkout and think to myself  "I'll just check RetailMeNot to see what they have. Maybe there's a coupon code I can use." I found one! 10% off plus free shipping.

$139.99 Regular Price
$54.99 Sale Price
-$5.50 (10%)
+$4.13 Tax
Free Shipping
$53.62 Total

Awesomeness!!! Take a minute or two before you check out to see if you can save some dollars. It is completely worth your time.

Good Things Come...

I know you've heard the adage 'Good things come to those who wait'. In this house, we firmly believe and practice that. Although ours is always 'Good deals always come around again'. Maybe not as proverbial sounding, but the same truth nonetheless.

My good thing finally came!!!!

For three Christmases,  I have kept my eye on the KitchenAid Stand Mixer. You know...THE mixer. I've been watching, getting an idea for what the lowest price seemed to be and what I could get it for used. I wanted the 600 Professional at first, but then thought maybe it was a bit too big. So I watched the 5 quart at the same time.

This year, my amazing hubby bought the mixer of my dreams for my Christmas present!!!!

I am a little weird, in that it's hard for me to appreciate a gift if I feel like it was too expensive. I'm wired different. But Jon, knowing this, was listening to all my scenarios and scored big time!

Kohl's will price match with Amazon.com, so we took a print out of Amazon's 6qt mixer at $279.99 to Customer Service. They promptly price matched it, used my 30% off code (for having a Kohl's account) which brought the price down to $196.00. Out came the rebate receipt for $50 back and on the bottom it tells how the complimentary magazine subscription value can be reimbursed to you as well. After the $74 in rebates, it will be $122!!! Plus I earned $30 in Kohl's cash which will NOT be hard for me spend. 

***Happy Dance Happy Dance***

Merry Christmas!!!

May your day be filled with joy and cheer. May you celebrate the love that God gave us through the birth of His Son on earth. And may your hearts be warmed with the love of your family and friends.

Merry Christmas from the Cavanaughs!

A Giveaway You Don't Want To Miss

I know I've mentioned The Vintage Pearl before...I'm pretty sure they were doing a giveaway! Well, yet again, they are having another giveaway. But this one's more fabulous!

Five (5, cinco) people will win $100 Gift Certificates for TVP!!! Do you know how much I love this giveaway? Enough to blog about it so I get an extra entry.

So head over to The Vintage Pearl and enter their giveaway!

A Great Gift

I love Pinterest. Every time I get on there just to look, I get sucked into a vortex where time is lost. One time I was on there and saw the cutest idea for making s'mores pops. Basically a marshmallow dipped in chocolate and rolled in graham cracker crumbs.

Genius!

And why didn't I think of that?

With it being Christmas, we were busy for nearly 10 days straight. A few of those nights we had people over. I was fretting just a little bit because one night we were having some big eaters over. I needed to make sure there was plenty of food, and I wanted a little something extra for dessert. I was already making apple dumplings.

Well I had made these people s'mores pops (b/c we need 's'more' people like them) to take home and hadn't even used half of my chocolate. But I didn't want to set out more s'mores pops. Stroke of brilliance!

I did everything like normal, but instead of rolling the chocolate dipped marshmallow in graham cracker crumbs, I rolled it in crushed candy cane!

Hello heaven.

I didn't use lollipop sticks for the fact that I didn't want to spend that much. So I used the red & green straws, cut to my desired length.

Here's the cost breakdown:
$1.14 Bag of marshmallows
$1.69 Bag of semi-sweet chocolate
$1.99 Box of 200 straws
$0.99 Box of candy canes- or take 2 from the tree

$5.81 Total. For an insane amount of dipped marshmallows.

Perfect Gift!!!

Three Little Kittens Update

A few months ago I posted about a new project I'm starting called The Three Little Kittens Project. The kids and I are going to collect new mittens and hats throughout the year. When it's Christmastime, we'll give them away!

Well it's Christmastime. And we gave them away.

My plan was to make a mitten tree out of wire. That plan was a bust. I needed something a little less yucky looking. So I waited until the Christmas decorations were out of the attic and my small trees were down.

Let's just say they didn't meet my standards.

This past Saturday, Victory (where Isabella goes to school) had a massive toy giveaway. They were asking for all ages and all kinds of new gifts for the kids. Isabella really wanted to give the mittens and hats to the toy drive. I know the kids that this drive would reach out to, so I was absolutely on board.

In all, we had 14 pair of mittens and 4 hats!!!! They were all sizes from newborn on up. It was excited to watch the kids pick up a pair of mittens when we were out and wonder why we only bought one and who would get it.

A humongous thanks to Becca of Crumbs and Chaos for sending me some hats and mittens!!!

Next year, I'm going for 25 pair of mittens and 10 hats. The kids and I have already decided to give it to the Tulsa Dream Center. It's an outreach of Victory that helps kids have a safe place to go, keeping them off the street. It's amazing.

Have a blessed day!!!!

Free Earrings

I'm currently obsessed with Navy Blue. Today on No More Rack, they have a pair of navy teardrop earrings for FREE with free shipping!!!

Worst case scenario: they end up being teeny tiny and I don't like them.

Best case scenario: I love them!!!

Get them before they're gone!

P.S. They aren't guaranteed before Christmas, so if this is a gift, have a back up for sure.

UPDATE: Holy cow....they're sold out....

Target Coupon

While perusing the ads on various websites, I found that Target has ALOT of things that I'd like to cross off my list for Christmas. I've been tempted many times to sign up for Target's debit card, getting the 5% off every purchase. I haven't given in yet! But around Christmastime, it's much easier to take advantage of every offer.

In order to help you (ok, maybe helping myself too) NOT get the debit card, there's a coupon on Target's Facebook page for $10 Target card with a $50 purchase.

20% is much better than 5%!!!!

Print it quick in case they are limiting the prints. Combine it with Target's coupons and 3 day sale starting tomorrow and you can feel great about getting the most for your money.

Merry Christmas!

The $100 Frame

I always have great ambitions for decorating my house. But sometimes, it's the small things that make a huge impact. It's Christmastime, so we've been decorating! Last year I went to TJ Maxx's after Christmas sale and bought some more Christmas stuff for this year. One item was a glittery sign. I love sparkly stuff.

Very cute, right?! It's on a wall that's about 10 feet long and there's nothing until the Christmas tree about 8 feet away. I felt it just needed a little something. Insert brilliant idea here!

I went to Hobby Lobby to the frame section where all of their picture frames were 50% off. I figured that I'd need a 16x20. Even at 50% off, the cheap frames would be $25. And they looked cheap.

So I went to the clearance section and found a beautiful custom ordered frame that someone cancelled. $27 after the 66% discount. Sweet!!!!

I got it home, had Jon install a tab to hang it, and viola!

That's what it needed. Now it feels right. And the frame I will be using in our room after I get our pictures back from Penney's!

Gosh, Where To Begin

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!!!!

Yes, I know I'm over a week late. It seems to be my theme lately. I'm late. I'm also somewhat disorganized.

Which is precisely why I'll be making my binder soon. I'm on the leadership team for the MOPS group in my city. We meet every other week at the host church and it's a time of refreshing for moms of preschoolers. Our children are well cared for while we are well fed spiritually, mentally and physically. So recently one speaker talked about her binder. Pretty much it's where she puts her life! All the important papers go in it. The planning for the week and month and even year are inside. Piles are diminished. It's a beautiful thing that I'm going to strive to complete soon. 

What have I been up to over the months? Well the most recent accomplishment was finishing my half marathon. Woo-hoo!

This is Brittney and I. It was our first half marathon. I absolutely loved it and will most definitely be doing it again!!!! I have a time to beat after all! The half marathon was Sunday before we left on Tuesday to Iowa for Thanksgiving. It was an insane week.

But never fear. I and my insane life have somewhat returned!!!