Team Francks

Things I Love Thursday

1. Being back in my own bed... Buddy and I have been in Utah for a couple of weeks (which explains the lack o' blogging).  I love being with family but its always nice to come home too!

2.  Getting my hair done... fresh highlights and waxed eyebrows make me a very happy girl!

3.  Celebrating Mother's Day and being mama to this sweet little man.  For Mother's day Joey made "a mountain of nachos" and a "tower of cupcakes" for my Mother's day dinner... creative and fun!

 

 

4. Taking pictures for a friend that is graduating with her Master's tomorrow... I'm by no means a photographer and it was about to rain on us so we were really rushed... but fun to get out and celebrate a sweet friend.

 

5.  A HUGE sale on such cute cute digital scrapbooking stuff... check it out!

 

Happy Thursday!!!

Things I Love Thursday: Thanksgiving Edition

1.  My new table. I love love love this table.  I've been looking for this table my whole life... ok really like a few years... but when I saw it I knew it was to be mine.... the table of my dreams.

I wanted a square or circle table.  Square or circle allows for better conversation... too hard to talk to everyone at a rectangle table.  Found it on sweet clearance at Sam's club.  Love love love it!!

2. My favorite Thanksgiving prints... hanging on my dining room wall.  Have I told of you of my deep deep love of all things Norman Rockwell?  Thanks to cheap prints at All Posters and half off frames at Hobby Lobby my dining room looks all festive and Thanksgiving-y.

3.  Decorated porches that make me happy.

4. An awesome Thanksgiving with fabulous friends... this year we're celebrating five years of Thanksgiving dinners together!  After too much food we all left and went to another friends house for games and Dessert.  I so love Thanksgiving and our traditions! 

 

5.  My husband and son.  My extended family.  A free country.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ.  And more blessings than I know how to count.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!!

 

 

Things I Love Thursday

1.  Pumpkin Hershey Kisses... so so good... hard to find though... after searching several stores I finally found them at Target... and bought five bags just in case I couldn't find them again. 

2.  Streaming Netflix on my Wii... oh wait, have I already mentioned that one a million times?  It has saved my sanity many a late night while working.  This week while working I've watched When In Rome, Yentl and the first season of Veronica Mars... and yes, I realize I'm so lucky to be able to work from home... it's definitely not easy... but such a blessing.

3.  A teddy bear picnic in the park... It's finally getting nippy enough for a jacket now and then.

4.  Buddy loves all things lined up.  And that includes the "pompoms" (pumpkins)... It doesn't matter that I arrange them on my porch and bench (a million times a week!)... if he's around they end up in a straight line in the driveway.  He's so cute.  I just want to snuggle and kiss his cheeks 24/7.

5.  These Thanksgiving Prints... free to download.  Mine are being printed as we speak and will be hanging in my house by tomorrow.  Love them!

Thanks to Liberty for the links... you can find them here and here.  I love when others share their talents and I get to have their cool creations in my house!

 

Things I Love Thursday (three days late)

1.  It's October... hip hip hoooooooray!  Pumpkin Patch, Halloween Parties, Ghost and Goblins... My favorite month of the entire year! 

2.  My baby turned two this weekend... pretend you don't hear me sobbing.  We kept it super low key this year... balloons, a couple of gifts and homemade Mac & Cheese for dinner.   Love you little man!

3.  General Conference... an opportunity twice a year to listen to the leaders of our Church.  We try to make it a special weekend... I usually make cinnamon rolls and other yummy things to make the house smell good and then we snuggle in and enjoy the talks.  It's one of my favorite weekends of the year!

4.  I'm kind of addicted to spray paint right now.  No surface is safe.  Buddy and I went outside to wait for Joey to come home and next thing I knew I had a can of spray paint in my hand and was painting my bench.

This bench looked horrible... weathered and worn from sitting in the backyard for so many years... and now its a yummy chocolate brown.  Hoooray for spray paint on clearance at Hobby Lobby!  It's not the greatest picture.. but you get the idea!

5.  You know I have a major love of all things photo books... Lisa Bearnson (who I really really like) started a new "book club"... a different photo book each month.  Hooooooray!

The October one just came out... holy freakin' cuteness!  I absolutely love it!  The theme is the "Sights, Sounds and Smells of October".... a whole cute easy photo book on the month of October...  I loooooooooooooooooooove it!  Can't wait to have it sitting on my shelf.  You can check it out here.

 

Things I Love Thursday (on Friday... which has now somehow turned in to Saturday)

1.  An evening spent at the park having a picnic and feeding the ducks for Family Home Evening.  Time very well spent with my favoritest people.

 

 

2. Just Between Friends Sale... a national consignment sale that happens twice a year all over the country...

This weekend is our Fall sale.  Last night I hauled off a van worth of stuff to be sold... I make 65% off each of my items that sale and they do the hard work!  If I want the stuff back that doesn't sale I can either go pick it up after the sale is over or I can have it donated to our local women's crisis center. Because I'm a consignor I also get a pass to shop the sale early.  At the spring sale I made almost $150 and scored some sweet deals on clothes for Little Buddy.  It's a win win win for everyone!

I'll admit I was teary for a couple of hours about parting with Buddy's swing... I know its just plastic and metal and I trip over it every time I walk through the garage...  but it marks the end of his infant years and that makes me sad. I was able to let it go but not without a call to my mom first to have her validate my sadness :)

** And it took me so long to get this dang thing posted that I have since been shopping... My friend was a consignor this year too so we went shopping together at the early sale.... excited about our loot!

3. Pink polka dot rain boots... seriously can my life get any better?  These were the score of the century from my sister Emma.... her loss was my gain. I LOVE THEM!!!!! And lucky me, its been raining this weekend!

 

p.s. And yes, I wear them in public. 

p.p.s.  Check out Target's website... they have a million different rain boots.  I heart Target... but I think that goes without saying.

5.  Paper Shredding... with Joey in school, me working from home and all mail we get the paper around this place stacks up fast... I hate piles of papers... Lucky for me our local UPS store does paper shredding for .50 cents a pound...some might say it's frivolous to pay somebody to shred your stuff... to me I say its money well spent!

Once a month I take this bin to the UPS store and they take care of the clutter.  Hooooray!

4.  Homemade Zuppa Tuscana Soup... the yummy soup you get at Olive Garden... its my second favoritest soup in the whole wide world.  And a rainy day calls for a big pot of it.

Ingredients

• 1 package Italian sausage
• 2 potatoes, cut into 1/4-inch slices (I add six potatoes)
• 3/4 cup chopped onion
• 6 slices bacon (I use Hormel Bacon Pieces not to be confused with bacon bits)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 2 cups kale - washed, dried, and shredded (I buy this in the produce section at Walmart or Albertson)
• 2 tablespoons chicken bouillon powder
• 1 quart water
• 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream (I usually add a cup for good measure!)

Directions

1. Brown and drain the sausage.
2. Place onions and bacon in a large saucepan and cook over medium heat until onions are almost clear.
3. Remove bacon and crumble. Set aside. (Ignore this step if you use Hormel Bacon pieces)
   
4. Add garlic to the onions and cook an additional 1 minute. Add chicken base, water, and potatoes, simmer 15 minutes.
5. Add crumbled bacon, sausage, kale, and cream. Simmer 4 minutes and serve.

Soo soo yummy!  Happy weekend!

Things I Love Thursday

1.  Coming home after being gone for a long time.  I love it when we're all together underneath the same roof.

 

2.  These cute handcrafted chickens that I got for my birthday from my mom and sister.  So cute... I've been wanting them for years!  I'm not sure they'll stay in the window but for now they seem content there.

P.S. are you so jealous of my gold blinds??

3.  This soup magazine... I have a major crush on soups.  I love this magazine because its tried and true recipes submitted from women all over the country... and there's notes on each recipe about why they love it.  It will be getting much love this fall. (this is the 2009 issue... I couldn't find the 2010 cover online... look for it at Walmart, Costco, etc)

4.  My new glasses... my friend told me about this cool website that has glasses starting at $8...  I couldn't decide on which frames so I ended up buying five pairs.... you can never have to many pairs of glasses, right?  I got some sassy Zebra and Leopard print that I haven't dared wear in public yet.  Their prices and customer service are great!  

My five pairs:

 

These are my black frames... Buddy doesn't quite grasp the concept of self portraits yet.  Do you love his cute bed hair?  He's yummy.

5. Scentsy Halloween Warmers.... ahhhhhhhh.... so in love!  Can I please have one of each??

 

 

Things I Love Thursday

1.  Jumping in Puddles

2.  This new Fall Scentsy warmer.... love it!

3.  This Halloween Magazine... it's got such fun decoration and party ideas!  Is anyone else super excited that the Halloween season is just around the corner?

 

4.  Auntie Carrie... she's one of our favoritest people in the whole wide world.

 

5.  This incredibly cute BYU watch band (just in time for football season!) that my bff Liberty made me... everybody should be so lucky to have a Liberty in their life!