31 Days to Clean

Sarah Mae has been one of my favorite bloggers since I began this blogging journey. I have always loved her articles and was so excited when she published her first ebook called, "31 Days to Clean: Having a Martha House the Mary way". And I am sad to say that I have not read it yet! I keep meaning too but it gets set on the back burner. 

Well I'm excited to say that the blogging community is doing a Homemaker's Challenge around this book starting September 1st and I am so excited to begin. 

Head over to the Homemaker's Challenge website to check it out for yourself. 
AND get Sarah Mae's book for half off right now with coupon code: HomemakerThat makes this book $2.50! Oh yeah, go check it out HERE
And there will be a link up every Friday to share how the challenge is going. This is exactly what I need to get motivated! 
*I was compensated for this post in any way, I'm just excited to share!!*

Pictures with the Sisters!

Our family lives about 7-8 hours away from us and I always love when we get to see them! Our sisters came to visit us for a whole week and we had such a great time! I just wanted to share some of our time togther. We went out to Souplantation for dinner one night and took some photos :)

The girls!

Shelise and Jason {My hubby}

Sienna and I <3

Of course we had to fit starbucks in during the weekend :) This was a much needed caffeine break in between shopping! 

I Love my sisters and are so sad they are back home. Praying for the day we live close to each other again!! 

Tea Party

I have been so busy the past few weeks. First we had my two sisters at our house for the weekend for a "Homemakers Weekend" which was simply wonderful! We packed the weekend full of baking, cooking, sewing, chatting, shopping and a beautiful lunch at a tea parlor. It was wonderful! They were with us for the week then our whole family joined us for the next weekend and now our brother is staying with us for a week.

It has been a wonderful time but I have been so busy. I don't think I have gotten a thing done the last 2-3 weeks. But that's okay, we have had some wonderful time! So today I thought I would share some pictures of our wonderful day at the tea parlor.

We got to wear beautiful hats and had a lovely tea time. I can't wait to go again!

I have the most beautiful sisters!

Shelise pouring her tea :)

 Sienna with her tea :)

Everything was so wonderful!

LOVED the hats...I need to get me some of those!

B for our late name: Balmet :)

Okay I am done with picture overload now. We had a wonderful homemaking weekend and I'll share more later of what else we did :)

Rest Assured with Sprint

This post brought to you by Sprint. All opinions are 100% mine.

Smart phone apps are such a wonderful thing and Sprint has yet again rolled out another must have app. This app is available for Android, blackberry and other select phones. The new Sprint Total Equipment Protection App helps to sync contacts, locate a lost phone. lock the phone when for unwanted viewers, sound and alarm and more.  

I know that I always lose track of my phone but with this app I could have an easier time finding it and also rest assured that if someone stole my phone that all my private information is protected! this app would allow the piece of mind to use my android for the things I want without fear of my private information. 

If you are a current Sprint customer than hurry and download it before August 30th and the app disappears! If you need more convincing then check out the sprint HTC Evo with the protection installed.  

 

Also check out this Youtube video demonstrating all the great features. 

Now hurry and get the app before August 30th or all your friends will laugh at your unprotected phone and thieves will grin in glee. Don't leave your phone unprotected, get the app today!  

New way to shop for Jeans

This post brought to you by Express. All opinions are 100% mine.

 I love shopping. I love going to find cute new dresses and cutest tops. However, I hate jean shopping!! I can never find the right fit or ones long enough. That's why I am so excited to show off Express Women's Jeans: women's jeans. 

Express has so many styles and cuts that it's impossible not to find some that you like. From skinny hean to boot cut to capri style, Express has it all and in different colors too! Check out their Express Jean line {for men & women} here and get 15% off your next purchase! Express jeans

My favorite are these barley boot cut jeans: fitted and yet loose :) Love it! 

 

You love them too don't you? Or another pair of express jeans? Well lucky for us, Express is giving away 50 free pairs of their jeans :) Head over here to enter for a chance to win a pair Express giveaway.

And as if you didn't realize but the 70's are coming back. And Express is on top of the latest trends such as with their Flare jeans

 

Which are your favorite jeans this season? You will be hard pressed to find the style you love NOT at Express. Jean shopping has forever changed!

County Fair Cake Competition (Yikes!!)

Okay so last week I sent in my entry form to the L.A. County Fair Cake Decorating contest and competitions!! I am SO excited for this. My first competitions are on August 30th and the contest is on September 24th.

I am so nervous about this but I know that no matter if I place or not I am going to learn a lot and have fun! I couldn't decide which categories to do for the competition so I put down four: Shower, Holiday, Novelty and Special Occasion. All four of these categories are due the same night (yikes!!) so I need to narrow it down to 2 or 3. I will definitely do novelty and special occasion and possibly holiday as well. I'm not sure.

For the novelty cake I am going to do a kitchen theme...you'll see...I'm the most excited about this one!!

For the special occasion cake I am going to do an engagement ring box cake. It's gonna be awesome...if I can make it! :)

I am so excited for this and will be posting pictures as I start this process. We are going to have family at our house for the next 2 weeks and leading up until 2 days before the competition. I have to get to work!!

On September 24th is the "Perfect Reception Cake Contest". Still not sure what I am going to do with that one but I have lots of time.

Have any of you competed in Cake contests or competitions before? Anything I should know ahead of time!!

I Love you Cake

Nothing says Happy Anniversary better than I Love You! I adore this color scheme and love the draping affect. This was my first attempt at draping fondant. I am happy with how it turned out but I know what needs to be better next time :) I need to make the fondant for draping thinner. Overall I'm happy though :)

Yellow and Black Daisy Cake

I love gerbera daisies and I love this color scheme! The cake was born out of the ribbon. We found the ribbon and just knew we had to do a cake with this theme. All marshmallow fondant :)

I Love daisies!

Sweet Sixteen Birthday Cake

Here are some photos of a sweet sixteen cake I was working on. I was experimenting with some different color and flowers combinations. It's covered in all marshmallow fondant.

Some purple-Dont' like as much

Love the pink with the blue

And this one was the winner & my Hubby's favorite. 

Have a great weekend! I will be working on a fun black and yellow daisy cake. I' sure pictures will be coming on Monday :)