Giveaway-Free New “Vintage” Dress from Shabby Apple

One of my most favorite places to drool online is at Shabby Apple. They have the most gorgeous fitting dresses-vintage in style, but modern in cut and in fabric. And-their prices are uber reasonable.

And today, I’m giving away ONE FREE DRESS OF YOUR CHOICE! You can’t beat that with a stick.

If you know anything about me, you know that I love vintage dresses. Take a look at a couple of my favorites:

This one is called “Cut the Cake” and it’s only $84. What?! I would eat cake, icecream and a few other things while wearing this sassy number, believe me.

This little ditty is called “Ever After” and it’s also $84. Yes, I will put you in my closet forever and after. Thank you.

This is called “Moon River” and it’s on sale for only $39. Now, that’s really in my price range. It reminds me of Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Audrey Hepburn and all sorts of other romantic things.

So, here’s how you WIN A FREE DRESS. It’s super simple. Just follow the rules via the Rafflecopter below. First, leave a blog comment (which earns you 2 points) by telling me from this list of dresses-which is your favorite:

1)Snapdragon
2)Heart of Me
3)Dressage
4)Grand National
5)Hackney
6)Admiral
7)Cut the Cake
8)At last
9)My vow to you
10)Maid of honor
11)Together forever
12)Ever after
13)Save the date
14)Moon River
15)Ski Bop
16)Tiber

Tell me in the Rafflecopter give-away thingie that you left me a blog comment  and then-earn more points by liking my page on FB, etc. This give away goes until July 22nd at midnight-so tell all your friends, family members and cats.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good LUCK!

What women think men want….

For twelve-plus years, I’ve been married to my best friend, my soul mate and my confidant. However, “Biceps” is still an enigma. He leaves me guessing. He surprises me. He zigs where I most definitely thought he would zag. And, I still don’t quite “get” him.

I could be dressed up like a robot, adorned with crazy make-up, covered in silver paint and topped with a strainer for a hat-and yet-for some reason, Biceps finds me utterly irresistible.I had to get to the bottom of my puzzling man.

I don’t quite fit the mold when it comes to being a supermodel. What made me irresistible to the most attractive man that I know?

My ponderings begged the question-“What exactly do men want from their women?”.

This is what I’m told I should look like. Well, this with a tiny dog, a fancy car, a ridiculously overpriced purse and an attitude.

However, this is me-in a banana costume, at a party with people I don’t know, toilet papering my husband.

Totally normal. Not exactly glamorous, fabulous or with any spared room for an overpriced purse.
And still, Biceps found me irresistible. So, either the magazines are wrong or my husband is crazy. I had to test my theory.

After careful research, a lengthy and dedicated “home-study”, a litmus test with an uncompromised subject group-the results were in.

(Most) Men don’t care if our shoes match our purses. Heck, they don’t even care if our shoes match our outfits. Wear flip-flops with an evening gown. 9 out of 10 men won’t notice.

(Most) Men don’t worry about our style, or if we’re “in it”. They worry about the fact that we still adore them, can’t live without them, and think they are the cat’s meow. They want to be our heroes-nay our superheroes-if we’ll let them. (Most) men hope to be our knight in shining armor, even if we’ve been married 12 plus years. If we are in sweatpants, an oversized Mustang t-shirt and with our hair up in a bun…it doesn’t matter, as long as we look at them with adoration and tell them how we feel about their strong muscles.

So, keep your liposuction, your lip implants, your “I don’t care, but I do” dress. I’ll stick with kissing my husband passionately each day and doing it with my hair in a bun. It’s so much easier, so much cheaper and so much more enjoyable. Just ask Biceps.

DIY Cement Garden “Hands”

At first, I was a scared little girl when it came to working with cement. It seemed so permanent and could be a colossal waste of time if I screwed it up. Which I do often. Then, I had an epiphany. Cement is no different than cookie dough-other than the whole edibility issue.

So, I opened up the creative floodgates and made a cement hand (or two). This little hand will be perfect holding birdseed, or just adding a little pinache to my flower beds. And it cost almost nothing to make.

Here’s all that you’ll need to make your very own cement hand:
Bucket and access to water
Rubber gloves
Sand/Topping mix
Hand shovel or garden trowel
Cooking oil and paintbrush

Pour a cup or two of the Sand/Topping Mix into a bucket. Add a little water and begin to mix-just like cookie dough!

The cement needs to be the consistency of thick dough. Do a test by pushing a little to the side of the bucket-if it stays in place pretty well, it’s thick enough. If it slumps right back down, you’ll need to add a little more of the Sand/Topping Mix.

Turn a rubber glove inside out and pour a tablespoon into it. Clamp the end of the glove and give it a good shake, until the whole glove is coated inside with oil.

Fill the inside out rubber glove with cement, squeezing it to the tips of each finger.

Prop up the fingers into the desired shape and let dry overnight.

Once the cement hand is completely dry, remove the rubber glove carefully by cutting and removing sections a little at a time.

That’s it-you’re done! Easy as making cookies, wasn’t it?

 

You now have a one of a kind art piece with which to decorate your garden, your fireplace mantle or even use it to hold your business cards at work.

Take that, normalcy!

Crossfit and Bibles

The alarm rang this morning at 4:15am. I hate that blasted thing. I hate alarms and all that they stand for. I want an alarm that makes me coffee and kisses me softly on the cheek while laying a kitten on my lap. Is that too much to ask for?

 

By 6:30am this morning, I had dropped Biceps off, ran 2 miles, went to Crossfit and started my short drive home on the deserted streets. (Save for the few headed towards the donut shop. Naughty, naughty.)

I have been feeling a bit on the downer side lately-which is totally not me. I’m the one that bounces into Crossfit at 5:30am humming a tune and annoying the other participants, I’m sure. Today, I just slipped in the back and got to work, not making eye contact.

And while on round 3 of my last movement of 30 friggin’ box jumps, and as my trainer was yelling at me, I started thinking. When was the last time I even talked to God about how I was feeling? Sure, I’ve been reading His Word, but have I been humble enough to admit to myself, let alone HIM, that I was bummed out and really didn’t know why? It sounded so….girly.

And girly doesn’t come naturally for me. Obviously. (*ps-this is a fake picture. There was some concern the last time I posted this.)

Weird, yes. But girly? Not so much.

So, I came home, brewed some coffee, grabbed my Bible and snuggled up to my dewey garden-which is where I feel the closest to God. And I told Him how I felt and asked Him to give me clarity.

Somewhere between I Peter 1:6 and 7, I realized that these trials are temporary. And I have a hope with Him. And I should quit whining, because really, who wants to see someone crying at Crossfit?

No one, that’s who.

So, just in case you are going through something right now, or you may be a little or a lot bummed out, here’s the scripture that pulled me out of the depths of despair.

“In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith-of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire-may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” I Peter 1:6 & 7