52 Weeks and Money Saving Tip for Keurig Users

Happy Friday Everyone!

This is how I feel!

We've been sweltering all week with this heat wave in Chicago-land.  It is finally going to break for the weekend, and I am so ready for it!  

I have been lazy this week with my 52 Weeks of Kindness.  The best I can come up this week is that I have been kind to myself.  I have geared up my healthy living again.  It is time to start spending some quality time taking care of myself!  Eating well and exercising most days.  I've been taking the little bear to day care on my bicycle.  He loves it and I get a great work out in!  Kindness for both of us!  =)

I am also going to share a little $ saving tip I have discovered this week.  Do any of you use a Keurig Coffee Maker?  I love mine, but I have always felt a bit guilty about all those pods filling up the trash can.  I am the only coffee drinker in my house, and typically I only drink one cup.  So having the convenience of the Keurig one cup maker is a plus I am not willing to give up.

The down side of the whole thing is all the extra trash with all those pods, plus the over all cost.  Seriously, even only making one cup a day I would easily spend $30 a month on coffee pods.  

I have had a reusable filter for my Keurig, but only ever used it for my loose teas.  I had it in my head that with out the paper filter the coffee would not work right.  Let me just say, completely and totally wrong!!!

Not only do the reusable filter work with normal coffee, I think the cup of joe is even better!  Here is the filter I use:

They have fancier ones out there, but really the Solofill one works just fine for me.  I bought 2 of them, so I always have a clean one ready.  Easy to use and makes great coffee, can't complain about that!  Plus now rather than spending $30 a month, I'm back to spending $5 on a can of coffee... or I can get fancy and buy any beans I like and grind my own.  With an extra $25 buck in my pocket a month, the sky is the limit!  haha

So that is my week of kindness, a little for me and a little for you!  Don't forget to head over to My Three Bittles to see how Amber's week went!  Have a great weekend!

Looking to grow your blog? I have Sponsor Spots open this week - priced to fit any budget, including FREE! Hop over to my sponsor page for more details.


 

Entry Way and Play Room Organization Tips

My family has a very serious shoe problem.  If you walked into my house house unannounced (i.e. I did not have time to scramble and hide all the evidence), you would think at least 10 people lived there.  Seriously, there are only 3 of us... and still this is what our front entry way typically looks like:

We are all equally guilty in this mess.  The hubs and I have apparently done an excellent job of passing this bad habit on to the little bear.  All I can say is thank goodness the dog does not wear shoes... I would not even want to think about shoes for her 4 feet!

Clearly the mat system here was not working for us... so off I went to find a new solution.  I started surfing for shoe racks at Target, but then did not really want to spend that much money.  Then I thought I would try Goodwill and see what I could re-purpose.  This was on Sunday morning, and the Goodwill by my house did not open for another 4 hours.  So I decided to try shopping at home and see what I could find!

When I got to my son's play area inspiration hit!  There was a bookcase in there that I had been trying to use for his book storage, but it was not working well.  He's only 3 and getting books on a shelf the right way just seems like too much... at least for my three year old.  Plus he could never find the book he wanted when he wanted it.  hmmmm, my wheels were turning!

I empty the books and toys, and moved the bookcase to the entry way.  It is just the right size for the space, and the shoes!  

That's the same # of shoes, just organized better.  I think it works pretty well, and the best part is that it still looks like this!  This system is working much better.


Of course now I just had a giant pile of books in our play room.  Another sweep of the house turned up a nice sofa table that was not being used in the basement.  I knew I could work with that.  So into the play room it went!

I like the open table better in here any ways.  Being able to shove the toy storage containers under the table saves a lot of space.  Aren't those canvas bins just the cutest?  I love them, and they hold tons of toys! Check them out here:3 Sprouts Storage Bin, Grey

 
My son's books are now all lined up on top of the table.  I used an empty storage container turned on it's side to act as book ends.  My little bear loves the new set up and has been pulling out his books more often! 

All in all, I'd say it was a pretty productive day of organizing.  I'm actually pretty happy that the Goodwill store was not open yet.  It forced me to get creative with items I already had!

Looking to grow your blog? I have Sponsor Spots open this week - priced to fit any budget, including FREE! Hop over to my sponsor page for more details.




 

Do you like the new custom header and sidebar?

I know this will come to a surprise to all, but the other day I was happily surfing on Pinterest.  I happened to stumble upon this:

Something Swanky

At first I thought, oh another picture tutorial... but then I clicked over to the source.  Ashton at Something Swanky has put together the best tutorial on making your own header and navbars!  

Her walk though is easy to follow and great!  I was not even planning to do a re-design, but just reading her post inspired me to try.  I put all of this together in about an hour using My Memories Suite as my photo editor.  

I have always seen these great headers and wondered how they did it.  Seriously, maybe it's just the newbie coming out, but I have been wanting to do something like this since I pretty much started Not Done Growing.  

I'm loving the new design.  It is simple and clean.  I like that my social media buttons are now front and center too.   

Which brings me to another great tip from Something Swanky: the use of Image Map to embed links in your pictures!  Check off another one of those blog things that I have wanted to figure out.  I found the Image Map site to be pretty easy to figure out, but if you need help, Ashton has a tutorial for that too!

I really cannot say enough great things about Something Swanky, and encourage you all to check it out sometimes!

So, what do you think about the new look? 
 

Looking to grow your blog? I have Sponsor Spots open this week - priced to fit any budget, including FREE! Hop over to my sponsor page for more details.



 

Sponsor Spotlight - The Big Megowski

I'd like to take a moment here to highlight one of my Lovely Sponsors for the month - Megan @ The Big Megowski!

Megan is a sweetheart of person with a great sense of her own style and a very open, honest style of writing.  Her posts are always real and always from the heart.  Gotta love a sponsor like that!  =)  

Here are a few of her awesome posts to check out:

Fashion Friday

Bow Ties are COOL

  

Book Wishlist

This is only a small sample of the goodness over at The Big Megowski!  Stop by and check it out when you have a chance.

Winter Wreath Tutorial

This weekend I made a new wreath for my front door. When I took the Christmas one off, I was surprised to find that I did not already have a wintery one to put up.  It was clearly time to get my craft on!

I headed out to JoAnn's and picked up a wreath form, some flowers and feathers, and a roll of remnant fabric.  The whole project took about twenty minutes once I got home!  

Easy Wreath Tutorial    

 

 

Friday's Fab Finds

Happy Friday!  

For today's first Fab find, I have a pretty cool Charity Opportunity from Crate&Barrel:  all purchases made today will benefit Rebuilding Together!

Crate&Barrel: Hearts&Homes Program

The next Fab Find is a set of free Christmas printables from Oh So Amelia!

Oh So Amelia Printables

Finally, in case you missed it,don't forget to check out Part 3 of my Holiday Gift Guide!

Friday's Fab Finds

Happy Friday!

I am still recovering from our vacation last week to Disney World. I have not been the best of bloggers this week!  I promise next week I'll be back to normal.

We had a wonderful time.  My little bear is three and just loved every bit.  He spent the week laughing and dancing with all his buddies - Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Donald.  He does not go any where without a Spider-man shirt on, so most of the crew made sure to shoot some webs in their pictures!

Since it is Friday, I did want to share a fabulous blog that I have been enjoying for a couple of weeks:  Sarah @ A Cat-Like Curiosity.

I found A Cat-Like Curiosity when was lucky enough to win a free ad spot for the month in a giveaway.  Not only did I get to do my first ad, I found a wonderfully informative and helpful blog.  Sarah has plenty of ideas for helping anyone live a more creative and fulfilled life!  Gotta love that! 

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Friday's Fab Find - Charity Miles IPhone/Android App

 
This week's Fab Find is so cool, I wanted to make sure it was not lost in a list a Finds, so it is the only one!  

Charitymiles.org

Do you walk, run, or bike?  If so, by tracking your miles with Charity Miles, you can also help out a charity of your choice at the same time!  Does not get much better than that.

Just choose a charity and press start. As you walk, run or bike, the app tracks your distance and you earn money for your charity. Bikers earn 10¢ per mile; walkers and runners earn 25¢ per mile.

 

Friday's Fab Finds

Happy Friday Friends! 

I have some pretty cool finds for you today:

1 - Jen @ rellas bellas is working with the Mocha Club to better African women's lives.  She is offering a great incentive to donate!

2 - Have you entered the THANKFUL FOR YOU Giveaway I have going on?

3 - Leelou blogs has nifty free printables! 

4 - Shannon over at Imperfectly Perfect has an inspiring article on why we do what we do!


I hope you all have a wonderful and restorative weekend!

Friday's Fab Finds

Happy Friday!

  Here are this week's Finds:

 

1.  Cheryl @ Tidy Mom has 25 great gift ideas all under $25 plus a giveaway!

2.  Let's not forget about those in need on the east coast.  You can dontate to the Hurricane Sandy Relief effort at the American Red Cross.

3.  Jill @ create.craft.love has instructions on how to make a cute set of napkin rings for your holiday table!

4.  Check out this great reminder on why we all need to take breaks @ The Empowered Momma 


Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Friday's Fab Finds



inspiration-driven life

 Sarah over at inspiration-driven life has an wonderful post on knowing our limits and avoiding burnout.  It servers as a good reminder for us all.

Simple Dietitian: Conquering Your Sweet Tooth

Sarah the The Simple Dietitian has a timely article with strategies on how to keep that sweet tooth in line!

My Watermelon Moon Giveaway

Melissa at My Watermelon Moon is sponsoring a giveaway.  You can win a kit to make this advent calendar!






Finally, did you know that Jessica from @ Home Take 2 hosts a Giveaway Central Link party on Tuesdays?  It's a great place to either advertise your giveaway, or to find some great prizes up for grabs!

Friday's Fab Finds

Local Sugar: this fight....

Nicole @ Local Sugar has not only a neat little giveaway, but also a great campaign to help out women with cancer.  Two fab finds in one post!  The giveaway ends today.

My Beautiful, Crazy Life Funtober Giveaway

Hurry this Giveaway ends 10/27!

Breanna @ My Beautiful, Crazy Life has quite the giveaway going on.  Prize grand total is $116.

Naptime Review Giveaway

Julie @ Naptime Review has a $75 Target Gift Card up for grabs!













GivingNSharing: Fall Giveaway Event




Tina @ GivingNSharing has a great givaway going on until Nov 14th!