I J'adore FREE stuff!!

Well who doesn't really? Especially when it's stuff you can actually use or have wanted to try but have never been able to convince yourself to buck up and buy the item.

CONFESSION TIME!! I'm pretty cheap, like Goodwill is my favorite store cheap. And when it comes to trying something new I generally end up chickening out because of the fear of spending money on something I might hate. Having a VERY cheap husband don't help...BELIEVE ME!

So when I opened my J'adore Voxbox I was super excited to see a great mix of items.

Here is what I found...

A clay mask by Boots Beauty

1lb bag of Hershey's Kisses

John Frieda's Frizz Ease (3 day Straight Spray)

Kiss "Looks so Natural Lashes"

Red Rose Teas

Vaseline Mens Spray Lotion

Here is what I thought...

I was very excited about the BOOTS Beauty mask. Masks are things I almost never buy. The stuff came spilling out of the container like soup...not very mask like. I shook it up and it seemed to get a bit more thicker. Then everything continued as expected, smooth it on, let it dry, rinse it off...you know the drill. Until I looked in the mirror...MY FACE WAS RED!! And it stayed red until I covered it with makeup. Sorry but I'm not going to give it a second chance. 

YUM YUM NUM NUM...all that needs to be said about all the yummy Hershey's Kisses. Very Valentines Day with all the cute colors! 

I have know about John Frieda's Frizz Ease stuff for years. I grew up seeing my sister use their products but wasn't really sure if they worked. I mean, I have some crazy hair and I never thought the product would really live up to what is says when trying to battle my hair. I'm pleased to say it rocks!! The small sample size has been working great for me for weeks now. I'm def going to buy this once I run out. 

CONFESSION TIME!! I'm scared of the fake eye lashes from Kiss...I have yet to try them. I do plan to but I'm pretty sure I will mess them up with my lack of skills. My eyes might end up being glued together. 

The Red Rose Tea was something I didn't think would be all that ground breaking. But their sleek packaging was def intriguing. Then I tried the Caramel flavored sample I received and OMG YUM!! Never had caramel tea before but I'm in love! 

Lastly let's talk about Vaseline lotion. Besides the shock of the cold lotion hitting your skin, you can never go wrong when it comes to Vaseline's lotion. I still have some from another Voxbox that I keep in my car for lotion emergencies. I love these products! 

CONFESSION TIME!! I did not share the Vaseline lotion with my husband. I don't care if it was made for men. I'm going to keep it for myself!!! Just don't tell my husband! 

Thank you Influester for another opportunity to try out some new products!!! 

INFLUENSTER

GIVEAWAY!!!

I wanted to support some women out there that got the courage to start their own businesses. Please check out the video for all the details! But here is a list of all the cool things you can win if you enter!

1. Vinyl Decal for a Kitchenaid Mixer from Etsy shop BrookleeCreations
2. Vintage hand sewn eye glass case from Etsy shop AuntMayme'sAttic
3. Caring Box from Etsy Shop The Idea Box Kids
4. Avon bath and body gift set and tinted chapstick from Avon Consultant Tamara
5. Custom made necklace from ME!

I'm gonna keep it short and sweet but please go enter!!

Closes FEB 14, 2014


CLICK HERE TO WATCH AND ENTER

Pintober Has Hit The Nation!

That's right ladies, forget stocking up on bottled water and canned goods, Pintober wants your oven, your hot glue guns, and your fabric scrapes!!

As the rest of the world idly passes into the next month the Blogger and Youtube community prepares their calendars, their shoppings lists, and of course their craft rooms for PINTOBER!

This momma is no different. Though I will admit I will be bringing my own schedule and flare to the meme. I will be ragging into battle against Pinterest pins blindly, unsure of what may lie ahead of me, will it be a #win or #fail?

Now lets get real, I pretty freaking busy. I keep the dust bunnies at bay, and the milk spills from rotting away in the carpet padding, I feed the hungry males of the household, and I have two paying jobs as well. So, committing to 31 Days of...lets be honest...highly probable crafting FAILS, doesn't exactly speak to me as a great way to spend my Birthday month. So let me be real with you, I'm NOT going to do 31 pins. Instead I will do one every other day for a grand total of 16 (if you start on Oct 1st). Here is my favorite part >> At the Start of each new week (a Sunday or Monday) the pin subject will be ADULT BEVERAGES!!! And yes "all caps" was very necessary there. Most recipes will be more than enough to fuel me through the rest of the weeks adventures with the Pinning Nation!

So please check out my Youtube Channel CaddySw to follow along with my adventure, or check back here for...whatever dribble I spit out. Let's be honest blogging isn't something I am great at, my grammar alone isn't something I should be recommending people to witness. But as I like to say, DEAL WITH IT!

So, are you going to join the madness?

A Few Of My Favorite Things

It's been a while and after just waking up on the couch from a short nap I thought "My Favorite Things" would be a fun topic for a quick post.

(In no particular order)

That feeling when you are consciously aware that you are falling asleep
Sleep
My bed
Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs (NOT the Christmas trees, or hearts, I swear they taste different)
Movies
Junk food while watching a movie
Junk food.
Super sour candy
Holding hands
Candle light
Baseball!!
Eating peanuts at a baseball game
Art
Monet
Gift Shops
Ice Cream
Popsicles
Accessories- purses, jewelry, scarves
Home Decor
Candy Stores
Candy.
Surprises!!!
Meaningful/thoughtful gifts
Dancing
Being unapologetically ME!

I think I will do something like this more often. Maybe a "Bucket List"  or "My bad habits" LOL!

<3 ya!

Back to Reality...My Orphaned Family

If you haven't followed my YT Channel from the beginning you might have missed some info about my life along the way. No biggie I will fill you in!

My husband and I have one son, a dog, and we own a house in need of LOTS of repairs. We moved to our current state and home when our son was 1month old, into a town where we knew 0 people, and had 0 support. Thankfully our families came to help us unpack but then as always they all had to get back to their own lives and drive many, many, many hours away.

I have to say life as a Mom is totally different than what I thought it would be like. I guess in my vision I always would have a support system of great friends and family to help me out. The place we were living while I was pregnant was GREAT!! I had an amazing support system, even though the closest family members were 7hrs away. So moving into a new state, new town and not having a friend for miles was HAAAARRRRDDD!!

Now 2 1/2 yrs later and it's still hard. Yes, we have friends but one thing you will learn is that if your friends all have family in the area, they really don't know how to sympathize with you. I mean don't get me wrong my friends are great but when all you have are friends you lean on them a lot, but since they don't need to lean on you so much you sometimes get left in the dust while they go off doing other things. Sometimes it's like being in 5th grade and you're jealous cause your best friend has other friends besides you. We have become the orphaned family of this small community, with invitations to friend's family holiday functions so we aren't alone on Easter, etc. Which is great don't get me wrong, just not like the life I envisioned for us as a family.

My family is great, they really are. They live further than my husbands family but they visit a ton. It's amazing how much lighter and better I feel while they are here. I start to think "I could live like this" and then BAM it's Sunday and it's time to say "good bye." That Monday is the "case of the monday's" times 100. My son is a mess cause he misses his grandparents and I am just sad, depressed even, from the realization that it's time to go back to reality. Let's not forget the horrible guilt of not being able to give my son the family time I had as a kid.

My parents just visited for the weekend to help with our current home project. They travel sooo far and we put them to work. But seeing as we do most of the work alone, on the weekends, and it takes FOREVER, we were overjoyed with the help. But all good things must come to an end...

I will spend the next few days trying to think of a way to get us closer to family, only to realize it would have to at least be a 1-2 year plan and well that isn't as fast as TOMORROW! So, I will drink my cup of coffee, eat a big fat chocolate chip (eating my feelings) cookie and start the laundry.


To all you Moms and Dads out there doing it w/ a very small support system, I've got your back! **HUGS**

The Irrational Thoughts of a Loving Mother

My husband and I headed off to Menards this morning to look at flooring while our son went to our neighbor's house. We don't get a lot of help since we don't have any family in the area, so we were pretty excited about being able to really take our time and go over our options. We left Menards after just over an hour with carpeting and hardwood flooring picked out!!! I couldn't help but suggest we get a little treat at Burger King before heading home. Our son loves to ask "can I have a bite" for just about everything we are eating, it was thrilling to eat a bit of junk and not have to worry about being a bad example for food choices.

We weren't home long before it was already nap time. My son sure put up a fight today...well I guess I shouldn't say that. My son is amazing about going to sleep, his way of "fighting it" is a bit of whining and then quietly playing in his bed instead of sleeping. He did eventually sleep and so did the rest of us!!

About 3hrs later I awoke to a very dark, very quiet house! It was past 5pm and everyone was still asleep. My thoughts always lead to "is he still breathing?" I can't help it!!! Becoming a parent has really shown me how scary life can be. Knowing people everyday experience loss doesn't really help. As a young adult you think "it won't happen to me" but as an adult I know very well "it CAN happen to you."

So what did I do? I braved the creaky door and check in on him! Sure we still have a baby monitor plugged in but at times you just can't hear his breathing and I figured I would just go straight to the source. Besides, he had already slept long enough, though I don't believe in waking a child, I wasn't going to worry to much if it did happen.

I'm happy to announce he was quietly sleeping like the little darling snuggle bug that he is!

Am I irrational? Yeah, maybe a little...but maybe that is just want makes me a great mom! Or that's what I like to tell myself.  :-)

Naturally Clean...or Confused?

You hear it here, you hear it there, you hear it everywhere, "GO NATURAL!". Well, if it was easy as heading to Walmart, finding the cheapest disinfectant wipes on the shelf and heading off the the checkout counter I think we would all be answering that call with open arms, and so would our bank accounts. But like many things in life "going natural" takes a bit of time, research, and at times money.

Well, don't get discouraged! I'm here to guide you through.

You wouldn't decide to go vegan and start out by throwing out all the food in your house, and then heading to the store. So, don't think you can exchange your current ways for more natural all in one day either.

Make a plan! Sit down and think about your daily life and find one area that you want to focus on making more natural. Research that area and slowly start making a shopping list. Try out a few new things each month until you are pleased with your changes. Once it becomes natural to you and a part of your normal life then it's time to tackle another area in your life (if you so choose).

One common area to "go natural" is in home cleaning. We could all head out and find some stores that offer a line or two of natural cleaning products and be done...but your budget might not like it, and what have your really learned? Instead, head off to the bookstore and look for The Naturally Clean Home by Karyn Siegel-Maier. This book is FULL of recipes for cleaning your home. Almost all of them have repeat ingredients making it very cost efficient. Buy some of the most used items and you can makes almost everything in the book! It's full of great information on Essential Oils and herbs. It's very easy to read and flip through, making it a quick educational read.

From doing your laundry to getting out rust stains, this book will be your beginner "Going Natural" guide.

Please check out my Youtube Channel Caddysw every Tuesday for some great DIY Natural Cleaning Recipes.

Start clipping coupons for Vinegar!

Good luck!