Blog - Wannabe Balanced Mom

April 21, 2010 · in Fashion· Giveaways· Life of a Wannabe· My Featured Moments and Blog Awards

I Feel Special Today!!!

Today I was featured by Tatiana @MsBabyPlan. I always feel so special whenever I have the opportunity to be featured on other blogs. Thank you Tatiana, for making my day :)!

Tatiana’s blog is all about her preparation to start her family. She’s recently made the decision to start trying for her first baby, and she plans to share with us her journey towards motherhood. For all those new mothers, or future mothers, you’ll want to visit her blog for sure.

I also wanted to give you more information about the Boutique I was telling you about in my last post. I have the address and hours for you, as well as more pics. As you already know, she has some WAY cute purses. I got my white one, and the maroon one there. I’m giving away this one, so make sure you enter HERE to win.

The address is 5674 S Oakdale Dr. (1740 E)! Open from 11:00-6:00. They are also now offering airbrush tans on Mondays for just $18!

April 18, 2010 · in Fashion· Giveaways· Mom Stuff· Saving Money

Spring Forward

Don’t ya just LOVE spring!!!

I’ve been working my way around the house pursuing the yearly SPRING CLEANING. Cleaned my car out, swept out all the accumulated leaves and dirt in the garage, cleaned the basement, going through old clothes and toys, getting RID of stuff. I feel an overload with STUFF everywhere, toys, gadgets, clothes, ect. SIMPLIFY is the word going through my head as I weed through the piles and piles of unnecessary things we tend to collect over time. It seems like such a daunting task at first, but the results are so refreshing.

A while back I took a friends advice to pack away a huge box of toys for about 6 months or so. It was AMAZING what happened. I pulled out this box as I was packing for our trip, and threw a bunch of the old toys in a suitcase. The excitement my daughter had when I unloaded them on our trip was just priceless. She had completely forgotten about ALL the toys. It gave me that same giddy feeling I get when I save money. We usually buy a few new toys before trips for the kids to have something fun to entertain themselves while in the hotel room, plane ride, or car ride. So, in reality, I DID save money. My husband and I were secretly laughing feeling as though we’d fooled them into thinking we went out and bought them new toys 🙂

I have a new rule that I’ve been following for about a year now. I learned it from Peter Walsch from the TLC show, Clean Sweep. He says, “When you talk about ‘spring-cleaning,’ it really makes it an event rather than a process, I’m much more a fan of the concept that spring-cleaning or organizing is something you have to tackle in a little way every day.”

That is exactly what I’ve been doing over the past year. He advises to get rid of an item every time you buy something new. I’ve found this to be VERY helpful and has kept the clutter to a minimum, in my closet that is, haven’t quite been as diligent when it comes to the toys. We have an older home so unfortunately it didn’t come with many walk in closets. I think its been a good thing though, because I believe that the more space you have, the more stuff you buy to FILL the space. When you have TOO much stuff, you eventually forget about it or where you once placed it, and end up buying the same items over and over. Now each time I buy a new article of clothing I find an old one I don’t wear much anymore and stash it away in a bin. Once the bin is full, I either donate them, give them to my sisters, or I’ve even taken them to PLATO’s CLOSET a few times. I walked away with $40 cash once!!! That was pretty exciting!

So, as I was cleaning out and sifting through everything I realized that I need to start doing this with the toys as well.

I went through the entire house and made groups of toys.

Do you think Lily has enough babies?

I don’t think she’d want this many in REAL life so WHY so many dolls???. It’s totally unnecessary, so I’m getting rid of some and packing up at least half and storing it away for about a year.

hmmmmm, maybe it can be her Christmas this year 🙂

Everytime Sean goes to the store he buys Oliver a new ball. I think he’s got enough now but Sean doesn’t seem to think so 🙂

In the process of my spring cleaning, I came across this purse that I LOVE, bought it last spring, only used it for a few months,

then of course had to buy a new one for the fall 🙂

and now it’s spring again, so I felt like I needed a NEW one.

I spent $90 on the first one, but have come to terms with the fact that it will probably just sit in my closet and never get used again. Changing purses is fun, and I know I’ll keep finding one I like more each season. So, what I thought I’d do, was offer it to one of you! I will make it a giveaway!!! I’ll keep this going until the 1st of May.

By the way, I got the white and maroon purse from this awesome Boutique I love, you can go to my friends facebook page, see pictures of what she has right now, and ask her where the next open house is. She also has tonz of cute clothes, shoes, and accessories.

I got the pink one from Boehme Boutique at the mall. I love that place. Find so many cute things there.

Okay, so, here’s how to enter to win the WHITE purse. (you can find all the icons you need at the top of my page) Leave a comment for one entry, and here’s a list below of things you can do for more chances to win (leave a comment for each thing you do).

Become a follower of this blog
Become a Fan on Facebook
Subscribe to this blog via email (in sidebar)
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to my Youtube channel
Mention this giveaway on your blog, twitter, or facebook.
Or vote for me on top mommy blogs (you can vote once a day and leave a comment each time if you want)

April 12, 2010 · in Home decor and remodeling

Family Room UPDATED

We moved into our home about 4 years ago, and ever since then we’ve been remodeling, working on one room at a time. We’ve just about finished it all, and now have it exactly the way we want it. My advice to you, is….. NEVER do this! Just buy the house the way you want it and steer clear of any major remodeling. It’s no fun living with the mess, or going without a kitchen, or having great big holes in your walls and ceilings. All I can say now, is I’m glad it’s over, and excited to share the finish product with you all.

I’ll show you one room at a time, otherwise you’ll have picture overload if I do it all at once. Here is what it looked like when we moved in. It’s crazy, because this room was actually an indoor pool at one time. The pool still exists under the floor, there is a little secret opening in the floor. Just lift a piece of wood, covered with carpet, and there is a latter there to go down with a light and everything. Kinda creepy, but I’ve decided that it’s pretty nice to have since we’re using it for our food storage 🙂

Here are the after pics, the one on the bottom is the way I decorated it, and the one on the top is Lily’s masterpiece 🙂 It’s the way she prefer’s it I guess.

Here’s the fire place before we tore off the PINK rock, and replaced it with a more updated looking stone, and a rustic mantel.

Here are some pictures of the bar area in the process of covering up the nasty turquoise countertop with some tile.

As well as the back splash

Painted the cabinets black, LOVE it!!!

We also painted the built in book shelf black, added beadboard, and my favorite part, is the ceiling. Before it was just plain boring white, and this made such a difference as far as making the room more cozy.

Now this entertainment center is by far, my favorite piece of furniture. We got this from the Wood Connection for around $3,000. I can’t remember exactly, but I know that it was a great price, especially considering that you can pretty much design it the way you want. Beadboard, or not, any color you want, two toned, knobs, ect. I think this is the best place to find furniture because you can get the right color, shape, measurements, everything. It’s much easier to have them MAKE what you want, instead of searching and searching for just the right piece of furniture.

And here’s a bit of Sean’s touch in the room. The story of these heads requires a whole new post, but basically, it took a little bribing in order for me to agree to this.

And this is what I would like to have in this room 🙂 Isn’t it awesome!!!

April 5, 2010 · in Mom Stuff· Saving Money

Money Saving Monday

The other week I ran into my friend at the grocery store, this is the same friend that I mentioned before, who doesn’t have internet in her home. We had both just begun our shopping so we walked along side each other, talking, while grabbing the groceries we needed. We started in the produce section, and I noticed her just throwing in PILES of fresh fruits and veggies. I was like, are you going to be able to eat all those before they go bad?

She was like, oh yeah, of course! I eat fresh fruits and veggies all day every day.

At that point I became very interested in EVERY thing about her life as a mom. I was like one of those kids who NEVER stop asking questions. I asked her question after question, and she proceeded to tell me all about her daily routine, which you ALL know how obsessed I am with learning how other moms are spending their time.

So, she told me about the NO internet at her house (won’t happen here, no siree), and that she NEVER eats out ( I could never do that either, but I commend her for it), she shops for all her kids clothes and toys every spring at yard sales, and by doing this she saves her family around $30,000 a year. WOW!

She also tries to be pretty green, so as you can see, she doesn’t use many plastic bags to put her produce in. I of course asked her why she wasn’t putting them in bags, and she just said, it’s waistful.

I bet she thought I was a nutcase, as I was so excited, and taking pictures of her grocery cart, asking her all these questions and buying the same stuff as her. Too bad she doesn’t have internet, she could be the one blogging about this, haha. Guess I’ll have to do it for her.

Well, needless to say, I was instantly motivated by her. I ended up just forgetting about my list all together and just copied everything she did, haha. I didn’t buy quite as much as her, but our grocery carts looked pretty similar in the end. She also inspired me to buy some reusable grocery bags.

Then she told me that she was taking Walmart up on their price matching promise. She showed me how she found good deals at other stores and just cut them out for the cashier to see. I checked out at the same time as her, so I was able to price match with her. I LOVE coupons, but have decided that it’s too much work finding all the grocery coupons.

I like this price matching idea because it doesn’t take as much time. She also had a good point when she mentioned that most coupons are for junk food, and she’s mostly buying produce.

YES!!!! I LOVE saving money, there’s just something so satisfying about it. Almost as good as…… Well, maybe not THAT good, I do love me some cold stone cake batter ice cream 🙂. But, the more I can save, the more I have to SPEND!!! 🙂

Anyway, she saved me like $10!!!!! I know it’s not a whole lot, but I was still so excited that I called my husband the second I drove out of the parking lot to tell him the news. “Sean, GUESS WHAT!!!!!, I just saved $10 at the grocery store”. I was so giddy about it, you’d think I had just found $100 bill on the ground. Anyway, as I was leaving I was telling my friend that I wanted to meet her there every week, and I’ll use her price matching cut outs a long with her. She was like, here, I’ll give you the website.

Uh, no, I don’t want the website, I want you to do the work, and I’ll just show up here each week to meet you:) Sound like a plan?

haha, she agreed. Then I thought…..

You know grocery shopping would be a lot more fun and EASIER if we tagged teamed it.

I actually REALLY hate going grocery shopping. I usually wait until the very last minute when we’re just about out of everything in the house except for some canned beans, or rice. Then my husband begins asking, in his subtle way, do “WE” need to go grocery shopping? He’s learned to say “WE” because If not, then he knows he’ll have to hear my long complaint on how hard it is to go grocery shopping with two kids by myself.

I was also over at Rod Works to use my 25% off coupon I received in the mail, and I had a punch card that was full. So I got

this cute candle holder for 76 CENTS!!!!!! What a day right?

haaaaaa, I LOVE it!!!!

And to top it all off, the other day I won ANOTHER giveaway!!!!! Thank you so much Jen @ A Daily Scoop of Chaos I seriously LOVE this girl, and her blog, you HAVE to check her out.

So, I used this Hot Locks doll as part of Lily’s Easter and she LOVED it 🙂

I won this $25 gift card, and some chocolate last month from a giveaway.

GIVEAWAYS are awesome!!!! If you haven’t entered mine yet, then go leave a few comments for your chance to win Marc Jacobs Daisy perfume, HERE.

I hope you all had a great Easter!!!

April 1, 2010 · in Uncategorized

Top 3 Thursday

Tomorrow is FAB Friday, so don’t forget to play along with me. FAB Friday is a day for us all to recognize the positive people in our lives and give them a little shout out. They can be living or not living, famous, or not, friend, or family member. Who ever they are, let’s take this time to appreciate them, and share with others what we love about them, and how they may have inspired us in some way or another. If you choose to play along, here is the button you can grab, and be sure to visit me tomorrow to link up your blog posts.

As you all know, I’ve been working on a goal of getting 400 comments to support the MS cause. Turns out, that goal may have been a little high, so I’m willing to settle for 200 🙂 We’re at 185 right now, so if you haven’t already left a comment, please help support a good cause by leaving a few comments HERE I’m also going to be randomly selecting someone who will win Marc Jacobs Daisy perfume. So here is your last chance to win, go see the details for ways to comment. As soon as we reach that goal, I will donate $50 to the cause, as well as announce the winner of the perfume.

This week the top 3 Thursday question is, What are your 3 favorite names?1. Of course I LOVE the name Lily 🙂2. And Oliver3. I also really love the name Brookelynn. I really want that to be my next daughters name, but not sure if Sean likes it as much as I do. I just think it’s a beautiful name, and my middle name is Lynn, so it would be fun to pass it on in a way 🙂

March 31, 2010 · in Life of a Wannabe· Random Fun Posts

I’m Back!!!

You may not have noticed that I was even gone all last week because I had some scheduled posts ready before I left. Well, anyway, I’m back and feelin refreshed!!! We went on the Mexican Riviera Cruise Marinar of the Sea’s (Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Puerto Villarta). We had an absolute blast. After the cruise was over we stayed in San Diego for a couple of days to visit friends and family and go to Sea World. It was my first time EVER going to Sea World, so it was pretty exciting for me 🙂

Lily loved all the cute towel animals, house keeping made for her each night. I LOVED house keeping, and room service. I wish every day I could have someone bring me all my meals, make up the house, and turn it down each night. What a luxury that was.

Going without my phone and Internet was crazy, but quite refreshing. It was nice having NOTHING to do for a week, just eat, nap, see shows, hang on the beach. Wow! Couldn’t have been better.

Finished off our amazing trip with the most horrifying flight for the SECOND time now!!!! I’ve never been afraid of flying until about 18 months ago when I had a VERY bad experience with turbulence. The only thing that comforted me enough to fly again was the fact that those kinds of flights rarely happen. So what are the odds, that I had to endure this dreadful thing again. We were almost there, and I thought, phew…. I made it!, but just then the pilot warned everyone about the bad wind we were about to hit. So as everyone’s buckling up, and the flight attendants are rushing to their seats, I stopped one of them, hoping for a little reassurance. I said, “is it going to be REALLY bad”???……..sure enough, she replied, “oh yes, it was pretty bad on the earlier flight”. I literally broke down in tears, started sweating, hyperventilating, teeth chattering, and hands shaking. Thankfully the kids were both asleep so they didn’t have to witness their mom being a spaz. Sean was great, and tried to calm me down by distracting me and assuring me that everything was going to be okay.

Well, I’m glad it was a great vacation, because I’m never flying on an airplane again!!!!!!!. Hopefully it will just be like giving birth. Immediately afterwards you think, I’m NEVER going to do this again, but over time you forget about all the pain, and eventually you’re ready to do it all over again 🙂

I Feel Special Today!!!

Spring Forward

Family Room UPDATED

Money Saving Monday

Top 3 Thursday

I’m Back!!!

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