Happy Thursday dolls! We’d like to introduce you to our friend, Megan of And here’s to you, Mrs. Robinson! As this week’s Bloggie Bestie she’s here to share a sweet Valentine story with you! Won’t you take a sec and leave her a sweet note? Then pop over to her place where I’m sharing an easy Valentine’s day craft! 😉

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Hello Truly Lovely readers! My name is Megan Robinson and I write over at {And here’s to you, Mrs. Robinson}. I love to have a place where I can go to express my thoughts, share my stories, and hopefully inspire and uplift other women. I like to talk about womanhood, motherhood, marriage and everything in between!

Today I’m excited to talk to you about a fun little holiday coming up: Valentine’s Day! Growing up, I thought Valentine’s Day was kind of lame. I mean, if you didn’t have a boy to celebrate with then what.was.the.point. So instead I always told people that I was celebrating Arizona’s birthday since Arizona is the coolest place evaaahhhhh! And they bought it. I was quirky so it worked. 

Flash forward: I’m in college dating this supa-cute boy and we’re getting serious. He had planned some pretty awesome Valentine’s Day dates and was totally restoring my faith in the holiday. Then one time we decided to visit Arizona to celebrate its birthday in style, and what do you know, the cute boy proposes to me on Valentine’s Day!  I will be honest. I totally thought it would be so cheesy to get engaged on Valentine’s. But in that precious moment, it was just the perfect way to celebrate the day of love {and Arizona’s birthday} that I could ask for. 

Now February 14th is not just a day filled with tons of chocolate and conversation hearts to me. It’s not even about the beautiful state abundant with saguaro cacti. To me, February 14th is the day that I said “yes” to a uncertain future filled with lots of love and lots of faith. It was the beginning of a life I didn’t even know I wanted until I was with my now husband.

I didn’t know what I was saying yes to 4 years ago. How could you ever know what the future holds? But knowing what I know now, I would say yes again in a heartbeat. {In all it’s cheesiness, it is the truth :)}

Thank you for letting me share my little Valentine’s Day love story with you guys today and thank you to Kassi and Kayli for doing this fun blog swap! I hope you all will stop by my place and say hello when you get a chance, I would love to meet you! 🙂

Happy Arizona’s Birthday!
😉

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How fun to be able to celebrate your engage-iverseray every Valentine’s Day!!! Thanks for sharing with us Megan!!!
Your turn friends!!! Do you have a special Valentine’s day story???

Hello there lovelies!
Today let’s meet our first Bloggie Bestie of 2013!!
Paula of Beauty Through Imperfection!
Today she’s here to share her 8 Tips for Saving at the Grocery Store! With the New Year in full swing, who doesn’t want to know how to save money, am I right?!?! Take it away Paula!!!
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Hi! I’m Paula and I blog over at Beauty Through Imperfection. First of all, I am so thankful to Kassi and Kayli for the opportunity to be bloggie besties! I think this is SUCH a fun idea!

A little about me/my blog; I have been married to my bestest friend for 4 years! We met when we were both 18, and decided to get married 35 days later! (crazy, I know! but it works for us!) We have 2 adorable kiddos; Little Man (2 years) and the Princess (5 months).

 

I’m a SAHM, and I’m really thankful that we are able to work it out so I can stay home with the kiddos! I haven’t always been able to stay home, so I really appreciate it now that I’m able to. We are currently living in a 2 bedroom 3rd story apartment(!) and saving all our pennies for a house. I love writing, but the main purpose of the blog is to encourage other moms/wives! You can find funny stories, heartfelt lessons, “oops” moments from my imperfect life & lots more on the blog.

Today, I wanted to share with you a few things that I’ve discovered that can help to save money when grocery shopping! I hope some of these tips are helpful for you!

1. Half your meat – Most recipes can easily be altered to use less meat. I do this with most of the casseroles I cook, and they usually don’t have to be ‘edited’ in any other way. Instead of using 1 pound of beef or what not I use a half pound and save the other half for the next night’s recipe. The flavor is still nice and meat-y and we save a lot of $ every week this way!

2. Bake your own bread – This is not something that I’m currently doing, but I’ve done it in the past and it saved us a lot of money every month. Bread can be expensive, especially depending on what type you buy! We buy bread for a bit over $2 a loaf, but I could bake my own for about 50 cents a loaf. BIG difference, and can make a huge impact on your grocery budget if your family really likes bread! (my boys LOVE it!) I used this recipe when I was doing it. It’s an easy and fast recipe that makes really yummy bread! You don’t even have to worry about kneading the dough!

3. Meatless meal – Do one meal a week without meat. Meat makes up a majority of the cost for most meals, so even just doing 1 meatless meal a week could save you a lot in the long run. Do a meal like beans & rice, meatless spaghetti/Alfredo noodles, a lot of fresh veggies/potatoes (Baked) or even breakfast tacos. So many options to save a ton of $ every week!

4. Shop sales – Only buy produce that is on sale. Familiarize yourself with the average price of fruits/veggies that you like and shop accordingly. We eat fruit and veggies by the season, and sometimes I will change our menu to plan around an extremely cheap veggie I found in the store. Plan to be flexible if there are good deals on ingredients to something that you know how to make.

5. DON’T shop aisle end caps – You know those “great deals” on the end caps of aisles? You are just walking by and then you see something and think “oh yeah, I need that!” and so you grab one and keep going? I don’t know why we automatically assume it’s a great deal if it is on the end, but I’ve noticed that most of the time it is not. Many times it’s an awful deal and if you go search for that item actually on an isle you can find the same thing (different brand) at a much lower price. So when you see something you are forgetting, go and find the product where it is normally located in order to find the best price.

6. Buy “off” brand – Do I even need to say this one? Don’t always buy name brand. Be willing to experiment with the off brand stuff, and you will end up saving a lot of money. Target brand (up & up) diapers are amazing, and they are half the price of name brand. Walmart whales (equivalent of goldfish) are actually better in my opinion, but they are much cheaper. There are so many great products that are not name brand, be willing to try and see what your family likes.

7. Stock up when there are sales – If something that you use regularly is on sale, buy as much of it as your budget will allow. This month chicken was half the price it usually is, so I stocked up and filled our freezer! We will be eating mainly chicken meals for at least the next month (depending on how long the sale lasts), but we are also saving a LOT of money.

8. Buy some treats – Okay this may sound counter productive but hear me out. Find a healthy limit to “treat” food (ice cream etc) and stick to it. If you cut out all of the special foods you will end up splurging by going out to an ice cream parlor or hitting up the grocery store another time in the week to pick something up (and we all know it is impossible to go to the grocery store and leave with just one item). I keep our treats/junk food limited to 1. We can only have one sweet/sugary/’treat’ in the house at a time. I will not buy more than one a week and I will not buy any more until the first is GONE. Meaning if it lasts longer than a week, I won’t buy anything else ‘special’ the next time I’m shopping. This keep us disciplined, healthy, on budget and enables us to enjoy special desserts and treats a few times a week.

These are just a few of the things that we do to save $ each month. I hope they help you as well!

Thanks again to Kassi and Kayli for the opportunity to share!

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I don’t know about you, but there are several tips here I know I can use to save money the next time I’m grocery shopping!!!
Thanks so much to Paula for sharing her tips with us! Won’t you take a minute to jump over and tell her hello at her place?
I’m sharing a guest post there as we speak!

AND if you’re interested in being the NEXT Bloggie Bestie, learn more about it here, then shoot me an email!

1.     I am a Christian. Jesus saved my soul at the age of 16!

2.     My nick name is “Dee Dee” and almost everyone I know calls me that….except for my hubby.

3.     At the start of my weight loss journey, I weighed in at 213 lbs.! But now, I’m down to 195.6! 🙂

4.     I am married to the Love of my Life and Best Friend.

5.     My mother, the sweetest most special woman I’ve ever known, died to colon cancer almost 3 years ago.

6.     I am the youngest of 7 children!

7.     The Lord has blessed me with 2 beautiful babies, a boy and a girl.

8.     We make many homemade solutions like cleaners, detergent, and baby wipes at home instead of buying them.

9.     We have two cute, but annoying dogs named Bear and Kody. One is a pug, the other is a Pomeranian. Both were adopted.

10.    I am a lover of all things cute and stylish!

Hi there lovelies! 
We would like to introduce you to…
Myranda of Pretty Living PDX!!
She is just a complete sweetheart… and she has a uh…. interesting post to share with you….
haha. Read on!
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Hello Truly Lovelies, my name is Myranda and I blog over at Pretty Living PDX, I am so happy to be the Bloggie Bestie this week here on Truly Lovely! On my blog you will find post about my weight loss, my family, and our everyday life. I am a mom of 3 and wife to 1 and we live with my parents, needless to say our house can get very interesting!

I am embarrassed to say that my toilet has not been cleaned in a couple of months er weeks… between full-time classes, 3 little girls, a blog and household needs such as eating, the cleaning has been placed on the back burner.

I have been looking for all natural cleaning solutions, so we can avoid using too many chemicals in our house.I have asthma and so does my daughter, so I want to cut down on cleaning fumes.

Naturally when I need to find anything I head on over to , because undoubtedly it has been pinned by one of my lovely friends. I recently found a recipe for cleaning toilets that only involves 2 ingredients, white vinegar and baking soda, so I was all in!

*Pour 1 cup vinegar into toilet bowl, let sit for 30 minutes (mine was more like 45)

*Come back, dip toilet brush in toilet (to get wet)

*Sprinkle some baking soda on brush

*Scrub the toilet bowl (inside)- Keep sprinkling brush with baking soda until it is gone- I used about 1/2 cup

If you don’t care for the scent of vinegar, you can sprinkle a few drops of essential oils into the baking soda and mix. I don’t LOVE the smell of vinegar, but it dissipates very quickly.

Next on my list to try are:

I hope you will come visit me at Pretty Living PDX!

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Pictures of a toilet on Truly Lovely?? I know right!?! haha. But a clean toilet is LOVELY, don’t you think? 😉
Thanks for sharing with us today Myranda!
And for being the Bloggie Bestie this week! I’m over at her place sharing my first Halloween post of 2012!
Hope you’ll pop over and say hello!

We have a BRAND new Bloggie Bestie to introduce you to today!
Larissa of Papa is a Preacher!!

We owe her a BIG thank you too, because she was kind enough to switch with another Bestie we had scheduled that had an emergency and couldn’t do it today. SO THANKS LARISSA!!!

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Hello Truly Lovely readers! First of all I’d like to thank Truly Lovely for giving me this wonderful opportunity and honor to share a little something with their readers.

My name is Larissa. I blog over at Papa is a Preacher, and today I have a simple and fun DIY project to share with you all. As do many (if not most) girls, I absolutely love hair accessories. Headbands, clips, flowers, you name it!

Recently I found a very easy way to make my very own inexpensive hair clips! Basically what we’ll be doing is giving regular bobby pins and hair clip tic tacs a little sprucing up and personalizing them a little bit. I had a couple of old tic tacs that were beginning to lose their paint and look their age. This was a great way to cover them up and still be able to use them!

Here’s what you need, and how to make your very own hair accessories:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See? I told you it was super simple! I had lots of fun putting these together and they’re so versatile! You can make one to match any outfit and have lots of fun making different combinations.

How cute are those sweet hair pretties! Thanks so much for the tutorial Larissa!!! Hope you dolls will stop by her place and see the post I’m sharing today! You know me… It’s another EASY craft! 😉

Hey there pretties! Today we’d like to introduce to our friend,
Ashley of After Nine to Five!
She’s a large ad sponsor at Truly Lovely this month and a founding member of the RevolutionizeHer community!
I’ll be sharing at her place over this weekend, so I’ll share that link once it goes up. Until then… here’s miss Ashley!

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Hey everyone!

I’m Ashley from over at After Nine To Five and today I wanted to share one of my favorite you’d-never-know-it-was-really-healthy foods: PB2.

PB2 is something I stumbled upon by accident earlier this year and I really wish I had sooner. It’s an all natural powdered peanut butter with no preservatives, sweeteners, or artificial flavoring. It has 85% less calories than normal peanut butter and it’s incredibly versatile. All you have to do is add water to it to form a peanut butter like consistency and you’re done. The chocolate PB2 is even better!

One of my favorite recipes to make with it is a peanut butter banana smoothie. It’s good for breakfast (tons of protein), works as a healthy and filling snack, and is even a delicious dessert. It’s also ridiculously easy so it’s pretty much a win-win situation all around.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup milk (we used vanilla flavored soy milk)
• 1 frozen banana
• 2 tbsp

Directions

Freeze the banana until it’s solid. This helps replace the texture that ice cubes would add.

Chop the peeled banana up into quarters and throw in a blender.

Add milk and PB2.

Blend until desired consistency and enjoy!

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Thanks to Ashley for sharing this healthy treat!!!
Hope you leave her some bloggie love below and then click over to her place where you’ll find blogging tips, more fun ideas and a whole lot of encouragement! 🙂

Have a fun afternoon lovelies!!!

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We understand girl! Happens to the best of us! ha!! Thanks for being the Bloggie Bestie this week!
Hope you dolls will leave Esther a little bloggie love and then click over to her place where I’m sharing a little something something today. 😉

Hello there friends! 
Today we are excited to introduce you to Tina of Tico & Tina, this week’s Bloggie Bestie and current XL sponsor on Truly Lovely! I’m over at their place as we speak sharing a post, so I do hope you’ll come by and say hello and browse around all the fun things going on over there!!!
Here’s Tina…..

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I’m honored to be exchanging posts with Truly Lovely today as bloggie besties 🙂 Kassi has been helping us out on the summer project we’re currently on the road with, and we’re so thankful for her!

Since we decided to get back into blogging, and put more effort into it at the beginning of the year, it’s been a little bit of a trial and error trying to find our way into our blog identity. We’d blogged back in the day after getting married, wanting to document our lives and because I liked writing anyway, you know, the usual, LOL. But life got busy and we stopped completely for several years because I felt guilty spending time on it.

When I turned 30 last year I decided that it was time to stop feeling guilty for giving myself time to do something that mattered to me. And strangely, I soon found myself on a journey of self-discovery. I felt like I already understood myself fairly well and was at least sort of confident in my 20s, but as I started writing again I began to realize that there were so many areas in which I just really wasn’t fully alive and I decided that 29 years was quite long enough to live like that. I decided I was not going to keep waiting for someone else to validate me, not hide the creative parts of me anymore because I didn’t feel good enough.

I’ve since run across quite a few women who have said they somehow just started knowing themselves and being more confident in their 30s, too. I don’t think 30 is a magical number or anything, I think you can decide at any age to let enough be enough, let go of the fear of being vulnerable, of your insecurities, and just start taking one step at a time, putting one foot in front of the other… I think you’ll be amazed at what you’ll discover on that adventure. I know it’s been a wild ride for me, and I only wish I had started sooner.

The funny thing is, it’s nowhere near as difficult as you imagine it to be. Sure, there are moments of discomfort and uncertainty, but one little step at a time is certainly ok, even better if you have someone to walk with you! Personally, I try to follow where I believe God is leading me, and a lot of the time I can barely see the path, so it’s kind of like I’m moving forward with my hands outstretched trying not to trip over anything. But I know that he is faithful to hold me up when I’m keeping my eyes on him, and I cling to that faithfulness.

As we’ve walked this path together as a family, our vision has become much more honed and part of our passion is helping others to hone their vision as well, which we do in a business capacity through our creative solutions company, Kaleidoscope International. As we’ve gone through so many transitions in the last couple of years, the most major being this year as we cut the ties and embarked on a nerve-wracking journey of total self-employment, we’ve realized that the main thing we want to be known for is “Embracing the Journey”. We want to live with a mindset of adventure and appreciate the ups and downs for what they are, building blocks and opportunities to learn and grow. It’s rarely easy, but it is good.

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So fun and brave these peeps are!!! Thank you Tina for sharing your heart with us today!
You can find Tico & Tina pretty much all over the web…. 😉
* Blog * BlankCanvas Tour * * * *

Have a lovely Thursday dolls! 

Hello lovelies!!!
We’d like to introduce you to Paige of The Creative Paige today!!!
She’s here to share a few of the thrifty projects she’s worked on recently.
Take it away Paige!!!!

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I’m Paige and I’m so excited to be here at Truly Lovely as a Bloggie Bestie!

I love finding cheap ways to make things look great and you’ll find that and a lot more over at my blog, The Creative Paige. Today Kassi is over there sharing a delicious new recipe that you should definitely check out.

Today, I hope to inspire you to run out and scour your closest thrift store because, I’ll admit it, I love thrift stores. There’s something so exciting about finding a great item in the midst of everyone’s junk.

And, of course, I love the price.

Recently I’ve been finding some fabulous items at local thrift stores. Unfortunately, I was so excited when I got them home that I forgot to take before pictures! So, you all get to see the awesome “afters” and have to trust me that the “befores” were pretty rough.

Here are a few of my most recent treasures:

Broken Mirror w/shelf —> Children’s Art Display

This was a pine frame with a broken mirror in it. I got it at an antique mall on clearance (because the mirror had a huge crack through it). We (very carefully) took the broken mirror out and discarded it. Then, I spray painted it, white washed and sanded until I got a weathered blue color. I attached wire to the back using the brackets that used to hold the mirror in and bought mini clothespins from Hobby Lobby. Now, we have a perfect spot to showcase our boys’ artwork in their playroom. The pegs serve as a great place for dress up items.

 

Outdated Photo Board —> Chic Mail Station

We have been looking for a place to stick current bills for a while and I stumbled across a hanging cork board with a small bin below it at Goodwill. It cost me $2.99! It was a slightly boring cherry wood color with beige fabric. I took it apart, spray painted it with Soft Yellow Rustoleum, covered the cork board with chevron fabric from Hobby Lobby and ouila! I love it more than I could have even imagined! Now it seems too cute to put nasty ol’ bills in…

 

Old Mirror —> Trendy Striped Mirror

This beauty cost me $3 at Goodwill on a 50% off Saturday and it was tucked behind lots of other frames. I knew when I saw it, I could do something cool with it. I painted it with white craft paint, then taped off the diagonal stripes and spray painted it yellow.

 

Dirty Wall Cabinet —> Who knows?

This is my next project! I got it at Savers for $6 and am not quite sure what I’m going to do with it. I know it is going to go in our downstairs bathroom to hold toilet paper and other necessities. I can’t decide if I should go bold (like aqua) or do something more classic (like white). The good thing is, I can always paint it again if I absolutely hate it.

Hope you enjoyed seeing some of my favorite thrift store makeovers – and I hope you feel inspired to do some of your own. You can always stop by and share your discoveries at my weekly Link Party – the Creative Genius Link Party every weekend!

Thanks, Kassi and Kayli, for letting me steal your spotlight for today!

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Thanks so much to sweet Paige for sharing her fun projects with us today!!! I NEED a chic mail station in my house ASAP! Hope you’re having a lovely Thursday friends!

Interested in being the next Bloggie Bestie??? Learn more here.