Aldi Feature: Cranberry Almond Chicken Salad

This is another Aldi product that I love.

I also like the regular chicken salad, but this one recently appeared in the store.  If you are a fan of a little sweet in your chicken salad (like me), this is definitely for you.  Just like the regular chicken salad, this one is all white meat chicken.  The cranberries and almonds gives it just the right bit of sweet and crunchy.  The price is also fantastic at under $5 for two pounds.  If I were to buy that much chicken salad at the deli counter of my local grocery store it would be more than twice that much.  This is perfect for a special little something for your lunch.  It's a treat I like to give myself on Saturday after being good all week!

Real Life Just Fab Boots

I joined Just Fab about eight months ago after seeing an ad on Facebook that promised no pair of shoes was priced over $39.95 and that if you bought one pair at regular price, the second pair was half price.  Intrigued, I promptly visited their website only to be disappointed that there were no real life shoes on the site.

Real life shoes?  That's what I said.  I know, I know - I see women wearing heels in real life often.  All I can say to that is, I don't know how they do it.  I can wear low heels all day at work but am usually sorry that I did at the end of the day.  I have LOTS of pairs of high heels, but they are NOT for my every day real life in which I actually have to DO things that consist of work.  They are for church or weddings or a rare date night with my husband.  There were lots of high heeled shoes and boots at Just Fab, but if I'm going to spend $40 on shoes, I need to get more wear out of them than that.

About three weeks ago, I got an e-mail from Just Fab.  They noticed I had registered for an account but had never purchased anything.  They offered me a sweeter deal - my first pair for $19.95 and free shipping.  Okay, now I was sure I could find something.  I was tickled to see this pair of lace up boots.

These types of lace up boots had been popular when I was in high school and college.  Apparently, they are back.  I have seen them in many fashion layouts this fall.  I felt eighteen again.  Well, not really.  But that's okay.  Eighteen wasn't the greatest for me anyway.  I did love these boots, though.

 They can be worn cuffed down like this or laced up all the way which makes them versatile.  They were perfect for a day at the pumpkin patch today and comfortable.  Real life shoes. 

Kim       

A Wreath for All Seasons

I saw several initial wreaths on Pinterest that inspired me to make one of my own.  Some of the wreaths I saw were selling for quite a bit of money on Etsy sites.  There really wasn't that much to them.  I decided to give it a go myself.  I had a grapevine wreath I had found at Dollar Tree, a wooden letter H that I bought at Hobby Lobby for 40% off thanks to my handy cell phone coupon app, and some fabric daisies that I thought would be nice for June.  I painted the H a cream color, wired it on, and stuck the daisies through the wreath.

I was pretty happy with the results especially since I got the job done for under $10. Then it occurred to me, I could keep changing this throughout the year.  I bought another H, painted it red, and found some red, white, and blue roses for July.  Total price for the changes - about $6.

Next up was August.  At my house, it's all about sunflowers in August.  This was a simple re-do.  I used the same letter from June and bought one of these huge burlap sunflowers for about $4.

With September came apples...same red letter from July and some plastic apples on the branch.

 

 

 

For October, I was thinking plastic pumpkins, but I ran across some fabric flowers at Dollar Tree that I really liked.  I had never thought about how nice purple is with orange, but I really like the way this turned out.  I went with these fall flowers instead and painted over the cream H with some orange craft paint I already had.  Total cost for the revamp - $3.

I may or may not change the wreath for November.  A lot of my October decorations for my house also work for November.  I have some pumpkins I switch out with turkeys and pilgrims.  This version would be fine for November, but I may find something I like better.  Another plus with this system is that I don't have to find storage for five (so far) different wreaths!  I have a box that I'm keeping all the monthly doodads in.  Next year, I'll just stick them back on.  Perfect!

Please take a minute to follow my blog!  I'm just getting started!

Kim

Aldi Feature : Beaumont Pumpkin Spice Coffee

I am not a big fan of flavored coffees.  The majority of the time, I can't even tell the difference in the flavor.  With a lot of flavored coffees it's more about the smell than the taste in my opinion.  During my weekly Friday trip to Aldi I came upon this:

I am so ready for fall.  This has been one of the hottest back to school years in my teaching career.  The idea of a pumpkin flavored coffee said "fall" to me.  I thought if I made this, it might magically trigger the weather to what it should be in October.  When I brewed a pot of this coffee this morning, I could definitely smell the pumpkin spice.  What surprised me was that I could also see and taste the difference in this coffee.  It was a beautiful amber colored brown as I poured it into my cup.  I added my stevia and creamer (both from Aldi incidentally) and tasted it.  It was ahhhh-mazing!  Even my husband, who loves his standard coffee, liked it.  What a great fall treat!  Best of all?  Only $4.99 for the bag!  I think I'll be picking up a few of these for some autumn-themed gift baskets as well.  Kim

Thrift Store Thursday: Brown Zebra

I bought this skirt this summer for $3 at my local thrift store.  I am such a sucker for animal print: leopard, zebra, python, tiger - just about anything you'd find at the zoo.  I also picked up a brown Anne Klein top at for $3 to go with it.  Then I started looking at different fashion blogs and realized how boring this combo was.

My eight year old son took this picture.  I was laughing at something he said.  Also, take note of the photobombing black pug to the left.

 

 

I never realized how safe I play it with combinations I put together until I started looking at these other blogs.  I decided to try something I never would have even considered before and paired this skirt with a dark chambray shirt.

 

How did I never think of this before?

 

Kim