THE WINNER IS......

I did the Random Number entry and it came up with Lucky #13!!!

The winner of my $25 Gift Certificate is...... AMANDA K from The Grass Isn't Always Green!!!
Amanda picked the Target Gift Certificate. Please email me your address, Amanda so I can get this out to you.

Thanks to everyone who entered! I can not believe I got over 300 entries!

UMBRELLAS

I love the rain. Maybe one reason is because I love umbrellas. I have several of them and I'm always looking at them when I run across them in the stores.

I have one dog that loves to go play in the rain. As soon as it starts to come down he runs out the doggy door and tries to catch the rain drops.

My other dog hates the rain. He will do everything he can to stay out of the rain. I think I need to get him a doggy umbrella.

Don't laugh! They make them. They attach to the leach and your dog can stay dry as you go for a walk or it does it's business.

OK, well if you don't want an umbrella for a dog, how about an umbrella with dogs on it?

This green one with black trim is very pretty. I would buy it if I came across it in the stores.

Here is a great umbrella for men. They won't even have to ask for directions because they will have a map right with them.

Hate the rain? Well this one would be perfect for you. When you look up you will only see sunny blue skies with puffy white clouds.

This one creeps me out. It looks like it's snake skin.

Even the handle looks like a snake head. I'll pass on this one.

Can't wait for spring to get here? Then this one is for you. Pretty flowers blooming everywhere.

I remember these! I had one as a kid. I liked how they come down over your head so if it's windy you are still kept dry.

Oh I would love to have this one! I could day dream about Paris all the time!

This one is different. I like the pretty colors and how it looks like stain glass windows.

This is nice. I love the different style of the handle.

Can't decide which color you want to carry? Well how about this one then.

This one is great! It's almost like a piece of art work.

This one is a girly girls umbrella.

For the butterfly lover.

How about pretending you are a little garden fairy hiding under a pretty flower.

This one reminds of the saying "It's raining cats and dogs".

I like this one! Love the color combo and I adore cherries.

There really are so many different types of umbrellas. It's no wonder why I love them.

How about you? What kind of umbrella do you carry?

Don't forget to enter my giveaway drawing below, if you have not already signed up. It's the last day to enter.

THEY'RE BAAAAAACK!

Girl Scout cookies that is. Yes, it's that time of year again when the little Brownies and Girl Scouts will be knocking on your door as they sell those boxes of cookies they are famous for.
Thin Mints! Yummy! I love to eat these frozen.

Tagalongs ~ a crispy cookie with a layer of peanut butter and then dipped in chocolate.

Trafoils ~ These are great with a cup of tea. They are a shortbread cookie.

Chocolate chip. Now who doesn't love a good chocolate chip cookie?

Samoa cookies are my favorite! They taste more like a candy bar to me then a cookie. Yummy cookie topped with caramel and coconut that is drizzled with chocolate. I could eat a whole box of these and not bat an eye.

Lemon Chalet Creams. If you like citrus flavor, you will love these.

Dulce de Leche ~ This one is new this year. It's full of rich caramel chips and drizzled with added caramel.

Do-si-dos ~ These are a crispy crunchy oatmeal cookie with a peanut butter filling.

I don't think it matters what kind of cookie you get. They are all good. But, the best part about them is the money goes to help fund trips and activities for the girls.

Girl Scouts is a wonderful place for girls to form friends, learn new things and have fun. All the while, staying safe and being taught high morals.

I hope when a little girl knocks at your door or you see a booth set up outside the stores near you, you will stop and get at least one box. Even if you don't want the cookies you can still buy one. Then donate the cookies back to the troop to resell and make additional money.

Trinity is a brownie so I of course will be buying my boxes from her. I'll allow myself one cookie a day and keep the rest in the freezer to enjoy in the months to come.

Oh my! Those cookie pictures came out so big! I have no idea why. Guess it's the calorie monster tempting all of us. LOL

GIVEAWAY TIME ~ $25 GIFT CERTIFICATE TO YOUR CHOICE

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED!!!

THE WINNER IS AMANDA K AT THE GRASS ISN'T ALWAYS GREEN BLOG. Congrats Amanda. Please email your address to me so I can get this out to you. There is a Bloggy Giveaway Carnival going on. Go to http://www.donttryit.com/bloggy_giveaways/2009/01/bloggy-giveaways-quarterly-carnival-jan09.html to check out all the giveaways.
Just be sure that you have a lot of time because there are so many to sign up for.

I thought it would be fun to join in the fun so I'm giving away a $25.00 gift certificate to either TJ Maxx, Target, Marshalls or Michaels. You can pick which one you want.

To enter there are no tricks or hoops to jump through. Just leave a message on this post only! If you do not have a blog I will need you to leave your email address. If I can not reach you I will have to pick another winner.

This giveaway will be open until Jan 30th Midnight CA time. The winner will be announced Jan 31th.

Good luck!

TIPS TO STAY MOTIVATED

Well another week has passed us by and it's time for A BETTER ME post.

I'm not sure what is going on but, this past week seems to have been a hard one for most of us. Most either didn't have a weight loss or if they did it was a small one they are not happy with. Some even had a slight gain.

I got several emails where the disappointment and even anger came through loud and clear.

So I thought today we should talk about ways to stay motivated.

First of all whenever we say the word "diet" a since of dread comes upon us. We think of all the food we can't have any more. How many times have you heard "I can't have that, I'm on a diet".

We feel deprived when we say we are on a diet. Sometimes we feel like we might as well not go somewhere because after all "being on a diet means you can't eat and that takes the fun out of going out".

Some times we feel like we are being "punished" when we are on a diet. Saying things like "I can't have that. I'm on a diet" with the same tone as a child would tell their friend "I can't go to the movies. I'm on restriction".

I've never heard anyone say "I'm so excited! I'm on a diet!". Have you?

So, rather then thinking you are "on a diet" how about thinking that you are treating your body with the love and respect it deserves.

When you go on a diet you will lose weight. But, if you just eat healthy until you lose weight and you think of a diet as a temporary way of eating you will end up putting all the weight back on.

Of course that is not what you want to do. So get off that diet! Get on a healthy eating plan.

Give yourself permission to eat ANYTHING you want. Just do so in a limited way. If you want chocolate, have it. Have that one piece of creamy wonderful chocolate. Get the good kind of chocolate. Your favorite kind. Enjoy the taste, the texture and smell of one perfect piece of chocolate.

Just be sure to stop at one piece. It's much easier to know that you have that one lovely piece of chocolate to look forward to then to think you will never eat another piece again.

I find it's also a wonderful motivator to watch some of the TV shows where someone is losing weight. There are several of those shows on now. Like Ruby & The Biggest Loser.

When we see other people doing it we get the feeling we can do it too. The truth is... WE CAN DO IT!

Also, reading about success stories is a great way to stay motivated. You can get magazines like Weight Watchers. They have great success stories in there. Or, go on line. Type in weight loss success stories into Google and you will come up with a ton of great stories.

Also, remember how far you have come. Maybe you didn't lose one week. That's OK. You lost the weeks before!

I also like to go look at uncooked hamburger meat. It makes me think of what we would look like if we took our skin off. Bumpy, fatty flesh. YUCK!

So look at what a pound of hamburger looks like. Or even 1/4 of a pound. Then think about that being removed from your body. That is what you lost! That is a wonderful thing!

We need to change the way we are thinking about things. Make a list of all the reasons you want to lose weight and get healthy. Then read it when you are feeling in a slump.

Call a friend or write in your journal when you feel like eating everything in the house.

Stop and think about why are you feeling like giving up. Most likely the thing you are feeling really has nothing to do with eating. Are you upset with someone? Feeling lonely? Angry? Whatever it is, deal with the issue in a way that does not have to do with eating to stuff that feeling inside.

Go for a walk to calm down. Take a bubble bath to relax. Put music on and dance if you are mad.

I would love to hear ideas on what you plan to do to stay motivated. We all need to have a plan so we are not caught by surprise when our motivation is lacking.

Don't forget you can always email me or one of the other ladies on A BETTER ME for a pick me up.

LATEST THRIFT STORE FINDS

I went to Goodwill the other day and came home with a few treasures. I thought I would share them with you.

I found this darling cherub. She was up at the cashier area. I thought someone had put her there to hold her but I was excited when I found out she had not been spoken for.

She is made out of painted wood. She will be perfect for the bird cage garden I'm going to make.

I also found this cute little Valentine's Day tea pot. I thought it would be fun to use if I ever do a Valentine's Day tea party.

I may have a small one with just Trinity and one of her friends. I thought it would be darling to serve little sandwiches cut out in the shape of hearts. Some yummy fresh strawberries, that are now out in the stands on the corners. Then have little cupcakes with pink icing and hearts on them.

I was thrilled when I found this silver tray. It was tarnished but not super bad. I liked the way it looked and was going to keep it that way until I noticed the mark on the bottom.

I ended up looking it up on the Internet and almost screamed when I found out this was a sterling silver tray and not just plated. Wow! Talk about a bargain! I only paid $2.99 for it and it's worth WAY more then that.

Since it was real silver, I quickly polished it up and now it's shinny and looks new again.

The last thing I found was this old china cake plate. I love the flowers on it. It doesn't say but I think they are hand painted.

All in all it was a wonderful day for the thrift store.

CHEEP VALENTINE'S DAY DECORATING

We have this table that is the first thing you see when you walk in our house. I decided it would be kind of fun to decorate it for every holiday.

But, I didn't want to spend much money so I search around the house to see what I can come up with.


I had this Vintage book that I had found at a thrift store awhile ago. It is red so of course it's perfect for Valentine's Day. So out it came. Along with a vintage white pot I have that is filled with shells. I just added a few little glittered hearts to it.

I picked up red candles for only 39 cents at Michaels that I put in the white holders I already had.

While at Michaels I picked up these four letters to spell LOVE. I was going to paint them red and glitter them up but I liked them just white. They were only $1.29 each.

Three more of the little glitter hearts bring in a bit of red.

I had the lace heart and the rusty key. So I just added a bit of red ribbon that I had. I thought it gave the "Key to my heart" look.

I added some red cinnamon candy hearts to one of my jars and I tied some red ribbon and added another glitter heart to it.

Table is finished and I hardly spent any money. I think it was around $5.00.

Now when people walk in they can get a little Valentine's Day cheer.

I've already decided what I'm going to do for St. Patrick's Day and Easter too. You'll have to wait to see those though.

DIPPIN' DOTS

Have you ever had Dippin' Dots before? If not, you are in for a treat when you do.

Dippin' Dots is ice cream like you have never had before.




Rather then a scoop of ice cream you get tons of little dots of ice cream.

The way Dippin' Dots are made is they are flash frozen.

Most ice cream is made by pouring the ice cream mixture into a machine that will stir the ice cream around and around. The mixture freezes as it touches the sides of the machine that is very cold. Then it get stirred more and a scraper pulls off the frozen area and then more of the mixture freezes. This goes on and on until all the mixture has been frozen.

You get a nice creamy frozen mixture...ice cream as we all know it.

Well with Dippin' Dots the mixture gets poured into a container that is so cold it freezes each and every drop of the mixture as soon as it enters it. So your "ice cream" is not all mixed together. It's a bunch of tiny dots.

You can't get Dippin' Dots at the grocery store. They need to be kept frozen at a colder temperature then most grocery store freezers.

They can be found at some malls, amusement parks and are even popping up in some special vending machines.

Dippin' Dots come in many different flavors just like regular ice cream.

They do melt but much slower then normal ice cream. Though when you put them in your mouth they don't seem to be super cold like you would think they would be.

I like them. But regular ice cream just can't be beat. What do you think?