Polka-Dotty Place

Friday, February 14, 2014

Happy Valentine's Day!!

We hope your day

is filled with LOVE and SMILES!!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

XOXO

This week flew by for me probably because I'm looking forward to the weekend and have fun plans to celebrate with my Valentine :) Plus it's Olive's 1st Valentine's Day. You better believe that we've been reading Valentine's Day books, wearing lots of red + hearts and giving lots of kisses.

Here are the best parts of my week:

1. I won a contest recently for a gift certificate to Gussy Sews shop. I decided on a fun wristlet and then had it monogrammed. I am excited to throw my wallet and phone in it when I want to run a quick errands sans diaper bag :)

2. I finally gave in and tried this boxed mix for Snickerdoodles and they were AMAZING! My husband loves Snickerdoodles and I've never cared for them so I had never made them. My sister recommended these and I'm dying to go back and buy more at the store. You just add water and butter to the mix and they are delicious! I would have never in a million years thought that I'd love a boxed mix of cookies since I'm such a baked goods snob :)

3. I did a fun DIY project with my daughter for Valentine's day.
It was so easy and I love having her cute hand/foot prints on display.
Here's how I did it.

4. I wanted to plan some fun, inexpensive date night options so I gathered all of our gift cards, coupons and deals and made a list on the refrigerator for reference. So now when we want to have a date night, we don't have to over think things because our options are all clearly listed out. I also wrote out a detailed menu for the next week or so to make dinner selection each night a breeze.

5. Olive is getting busier and busier each day. She's about 8.5 months old and her favorite toys right now are not toys at all. She LOVES her paci leash and the caps to her bottles. She's thinks they are so much fun and she likes to give a sly smile when she's playing with them. Note to self: Don't spend a ton of money on baby toys :)

My Finish This statements for the week:
I celebrate Valentine's Day by...
writing my husband a card, wearing pink and red, dinner out and spending time together.

My heart goes pitter-patter for...
polka-dots!

When looking for romance, my best advice is...
best friends make great husbands.

My favorite love story (real or fiction) is...
Rosalee & Pete from Win a Date with Tad Hamilton

The best relationship/love/dating advice I ever received was...

always talk.

Hope you have a great weekend!!!

Thanks for stopping by.

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Thursday, February 13, 2014

Guest Blogging at Arkansas Women Bloggers Today

Head over to

Arkansas Women Bloggers

today to read my article on

How to be an Encourager

to your spouse, children, family, friends and even strangers!

Sugar & Spice of Everyday Life

+Sugar: We've really been enjoying watching the Olympics even though they seem to be on at slightly odd hours. I've found myself tearing up when they feature certain athletes and their families and love all of the tradition and patriotic festivities. I've also been tearing up when seeing poor pink eye ridden Bob Costas. Someone get that man some eye drops!

-Spice: Our current place has odd heat circulation and our bedroom is always cold. Step into our walk-in closet and you'd think you had just stepped outside. We were remedying this situation with a space heater and it QUIT this week - which makes for a chilly night sleep and extra close cuddles :)

+Sugar: It's the week of Valentine's Day and I've been having lots of fun baking, DIYing and celebrating this month of LOVE with my family. I sent two Valentine care packages and have been spreading the love. I'd also like to bake some treats for my neighbors. Sometimes I chicken out because I don't know them that well and I'm afraid they'll think I'm weird or that they won't want to eat treats from me. I really should just suck it up and spread more love!

-Spice: I've been looking out my windows and missing the mountains this week. I got spoiled with an amazing view in Utah and after 9 years it's kind of strange not seeing them. Plus I'd gotten used to using them to help my navigation around the city. No mountains equals a constantly disoriented me.

+Sugar: We got a new vacuum cleaner. Our old one just wasn't cutting it anymore; it was time to be a grown up and spend far more money than we wanted to on an upgrade. We weren't willing to spend Dyson money on a vacuum but we found a Shark that does a great job. I've been vacuuming daily since Olive spends a lot of time on the floor and since we have to furry felines in our family.

-Spice: We had quite a debacle at Wal-Mart last weekend. It was my idea to use the self check out since the two lines they had open each had 10+ customers with carts full of merchandise in them. It was dinner time and nap time for Olive so we were trying to be quick. We scanned everything, bagged it and tried to wedge it all in our car seat filled cart. Kevin swiped our card, inserted the coupons, payment received flashed on the screen and then everything froze up. An associate came to help and said that we'd have to RESCAN everything because the transaction did not go through. We said the screen said payment was received but he said it was not. We called over a manager and she agreed that we needed to do it all again. The store was packed, I teared up and Olive was crying. We were all ready to go and they wouldn't let us leave with the groceries. Kevin called our credit card company and we had been charged for our purchase. They employees said it didn't matter because we didn't have a receipt. We weren't allowed to leave so I went to stand in a line. People looked at me like I was crazy because all of our groceries were bagged. Kevin went to consult a manager and she said we had to recheck out and that the charge would not go through. Fast forward to mid week and we have two $100+ charges on our credit card and Wal-Mart isn't being helpful about giving us our money back. They said to wait and the first charge will go away but it has yet to be taken care of. So much for living in the Home of Wal-Mart state...

+Sugar: I have been on quite a contest winning streak. I mean I enter contests regularly and NEVER win but for some reason my luck has changed. I won a gift card to a fun, handmade shop, a gift card to an athletic apparel shop and I won the mother of all giveaways to promote my blog on 22 different blogs for two months. Maybe I should head to Vegas with all this luck on my side... I kid, I kid :)

+Sugar: I've been doing a good job of working out regularly. The scale isn't reflecting major changes yet but my jeans are fitting better already. Let's be honest, jeans are a pretty great measuring tool, no? I'm using my "jean-o-meter" to stay motivated to keep fitting into those jeans that have been tucked away for months.

Just a little dose of reality from my house to yours :)

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Baby LOVE Art

I wanted to commemorate Olive's 1st Valentine's Day by doing an art project. I figure anything involving tiny baby hand prints and foot prints would be a winning idea. I've done her hand/foot prints before but it was definitely trickier with an 8 month old :) We stuck with it and it was so much fun!!

Supplies needed:

A canvas panel - Wal-Mart sells this 3 pack for $5.97

glitter - Dollar Tree

wide brush and a sponge brush

pink paint - $.59 at Walmart

a small container to pour paint into - baby food jar

a Bumbo seat is really helpful

paper towels

and a BABY :)

Olive woke up from her nap and I put her in the best painting outfit possible -

a diaper & a headband :)

Then I let her check out the supplies.

She was thrilled to get started!!

I painted her hand first and this proved to be the trickiest part.

Once it was painted she made a fist and refused to open it :(

I distracted her by giving her yogurt bites and she eventually opened her hand.

I pressed the canvas against her hand and then she wiggled.

So her tiny hand print ended up a little swipey but that's real life folks :)

Wash off her hand, feed her more yogurt bites and then pick a foot to paint.

Press the canvas against her foot, clean it and repeat with the other foot.

Her feet were less wiggly in the Bumbo seat so it worked perfectly.

Neither of us ended up with paint on us and we were both smiling at the end.

I painted a cursive L and e to spell out LOVE :)

I did a practice run with the letters to get the shape correct.

We let it dry for a few hours.

Then it was time to add some glitter POLKA DOTS :)

I dipped the end of a marker in the pink paint and covered it in red or pink glitter.

I let it sit for at least an hour and then dumped the excess glitter into the trash can.

Well it was intended for the trash can but ended up all over the floor :(

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What I Wore this Week

Winter in Arkansas is strange. We've had snow, rain and semi warm days all in the past week. I've been wearing lots of layers and scarves to make up for the every changing forecast.
Here are my favorite outfits of the week:

1. Lots of Love
cardigan - J Crew
necklace - Wal-Mart
earrings - Polka-Dotty Place etsy shop
top - Marshalls
skinnies - target
flats - Lucky