I SAY; Thanksgiving Edition

.... pies, candles and lattes are the best use of pumpkin!

.... Thanksgiving is the perfect excuse to let your diet off the hook.

.... there's nothing wrong with giant blow up turkeys during a parade.

.... setting the perfect table is a great excuse to buy new stuff for the holiday!

.... adding your family traditions and mixing them with your Hubby's is a perfect way to make your own memories and traditions.
.... anything you can monogram or personalize for the Holidays....do it!

.... getting the family all dressed up to take that "perfect" photo is a must!
..... being Thankful all year round is really what it's all about, not just on Thanksgiving!

photo credits: www.marthastewart.com

Thanksgiving: Setting the Table

Setting the Perfect Table:

Two rules to remember:

1. Utensils are placed in the order of use.
2. Forks go to the left of the plate, and knives and spoons go to the right.

And, I say make it your own add your own flair with pretty plates, stemware and table cloths. You can also add your own decor touches to make it perfect for your guests. Place cards are also a really fun and creative way to dress up your table and make it more personal!

Free Tip of the Week: Cute Necklaces

I found these cute necklaces from Tiny Tags Designs today, they have a bunch of really pretty necklaces that you can personalize and make your own. I love how pretty and dainty these are. They have different designs for all the ladies in your life, I just happen to find a few cute "Mommy" ones that I'd like to get. These are my top 3 choices from the site:

Initial Necklace

$40

Comes with 2 different fonts you can choose for it

Birthstone Print Necklace

$45

+ $10 for the birthstone personalization

I like this one cause you can really personalize this one, and add more disks as you have more children.

2 Disk Monogram Necklace

$45

This one is really cute too, I like the idea of having one for the name and one for the birth date.

I just can't decided which one I like best, what do you think?

Here's my free tip:

Get 20% off at checkout when you use the code: USWEEKLY

Happy Shopping! Let me know if you pick one of these gems up!

Best Dog Toy:

I've pretty much searched high and low for the best dog toys to keep Bentley busy, and give him something to play with. He's had everything from Tennis balls, rope toys and plastic ones. He destroys them all! He can't help it, he finds a way to bite through the plastic ones, rip the knots out of the rope toys and get shreds of rope everywhere.

But, I found this Kong Dog Toy when he was just a puppy at the Vet when I brought him in for his neutering surgery. We've tried other toys and this is the only one that has lasted and he can't destroy.

They come in lots of different sizes according to dog breed and size!

Here's the best think (I think) about them, is that you can fill them with treats to keep your dogs busy and happy for hours. Or as long as it takes them to get to the treats out!
They also sell this special treat stuff that you can buy at any pet store, I bought this once when he was a puppy and I haven't again. I feel like it's kinda expensive so we like to use peanut butter instead. Check with your vet about foods to fill the toy with if you aren't sure.

Starting the Day:

I have a few devotional books that I rotate between and read. Here's what I love about all 3 of these books; the format is daily. No matter what day, week, or year you pick these up you can start reading. I like devos that are daily, I feel they work best for me. They give a reference point and I like that.

Here's my #1 tip for starting a devotional life: Find what works best for you. You can talk to others about what they do but, in the end you have to find what works best for you.

For example; my Husband is a morning devo guy. The type that gets up before work prays and does his devos. I am not a morning person, I am not at my best in the AM. So I do my devos and pray mid morning over coffee usually around 10 am. I feel more awake at this time and it's just better for me. There's no right or wrong way, just find what works for you best and start.

Here's a few of my fave devotionals to read:

New Day, New You

by Joyce Meyer

I bought this devo a couple years back at a Women's Retreat. And I've been loving it ever since, I like her writing and perspective.

My Utmost for His Highest

by Oswald Chambers

This is a classic, given to me by my Grandmother. She reads this daily, and has for years. She gave this to me while I was in college. And even though my version is King James and older I still love it. I love his thoughts, and what this book brings to the table.

The Message Remix: Solo

My Husband picked up this devo this year, and he really loves it. I like it for the fresh and modern take on scripture. I like mixing this in with the older staples.

What are some of your favorite devo books?

Dress up your Dresser

We found this dresser for Baby G's room on Craigslist, we've been looking for a dresser for her room for sometime now and I always check sites like Craigslist for furniture first before we buy something new at the store. It's an IKEA piece that retails for $179, we got it for $50! I'm beyond excited, and it's less than two years old and in great condition.

Originally, we wanted to get a dresser that we could paint black and makeover, but once we saw this piece we decided that we liked the white and it looked perfect with all the other white furniture in the room.

But we knew we wanted to re purpose it a little bit, so here's what we did:

Here's the dresser before:

And here's our little transformation:

We bought these new acrylic knobs from Target and replaced the old dark bronze ones. And I added paper to line the drawers that was similar to the bedding fabric.

Here's what you'll need to line drawers:

-Double Sided tape

- fabric, wrapping paper or shelf lining paper (I used a roll of wrapping paper I found for $2 at Target)

- Scissors

- Level and Tape Measure

Here's what you do:

- Measure the dimensions of your drawer, and using a level to make sure your lines are straight mark off your dimensions on the back side of the paper.

- Cut and repeat for as many draws as you may have.

- Then place the double sided tape in to your paper or fabric and secure it to the drawer shelf.

- Ta-dah! You're done!

What do you think?

I think the dresser looks awesome, and I love the way it looks in the room.

The Bump Fairy: 21 weeks