Housewifery GIVEAWAY (Winner Announced!)

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I drew the winner using Random.org's True Random Number Generator, and I even took a screen shot of it on my iPad, but for some reason I had difficulty uploading it. So you'll just have to take my word for it..

Congratulations goes to EMILY D. for winning this fabulous gift bag from Housewifery!

To claim your prize, please contact me at crapdidijustsaythatoutloudATgmailDOTCOM by monday.

(Or I'll have to pick another winner.)

Thanks for everyone who participated in the drawing, this was super fun and I'm hoping to do more giveaways in the future!

And don't forget to check out Housewifery on Etsy for some seriously divine-smelling and all-natural soaps.

A gift bag similar to this one is also available as a Mother's Day Special on the site, so go treat all your moms out there!

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Well, here's an exciting first for this blog!

I am super pumped and honored to be doing a sponsored giveaway from my friend Heidi's Etsy shop, Housewifery!

Her shop (click the link here to check it out on Etsy) sells totally homemade soaps, lotion bars, and lip balms.

She started the shop a few years ago to sell her homemade goods, after she ended her long search to find quality soap that didn't include tons of harmful ingredients, by just making her own.

When I first met her through a friend of a friend of another friend, at my other friend's sister's pool party, she gave me a sample of her Rosemary Mint soap and I just stared at her in awe. 

She..MAKES soap? And it's natural? And smells like heaven? And it's CUTE?

Who on earth was this woman?

I had found a homemaking goddess and I wanted to follow her around everywhere she went.

Which is kind of what I've been trying to do ever since.

Alright, enough about my creepy tendencies (how do I always end up there?), back to the giveaway..

So, what we have here in this fun rosette drawstring bag is:

- a Pink Grapefruit Soap Bar 

Made from coconut oil, olive oil, all-vegetable shortening, and pink grapefruit essential oil

- a Hard Lotion Bar

Made from beeswax, shea butter, and coconut oil

- a Mint Lip Balm

Made from beeswax, shea butter, coconut oil, and peppermint essential oil

I LOVE all of these products! 

The soap is incredible and smells DIVINE.

 The hard lotion bar is fantastic for dry skin (in my case you could call it scaly, lizard-esque skin), and as you rub it on, the heat from your body melts it and makes it go on really easily. So cool.

 And the lip balm BLEW MY MIND when I used it for the first time. 

(Which is either a testament to how lame my day-to-day life is, or how awesome this lip balm is....let me get back to you about that one..)

And people, as luck (and some planning) would have it, we are right around the corner from MOTHERS DAY!

My FAVORITE day of the year!

A whole day to sit back, relax, sip mimosas, while your husband reads you hand-written poetry of his love and appreciation for work and your clean, happy children fan you with palm leaves.

Oh, and there's also free unicorn rides.

Just kidding.

I'm pretty sure last year I had a cold and my kid took a huge dump in the bathtub.

Awesome.

Ok, but in spite of the reality that a mom's job isn't one of those gigs you can ever really get a break from, it is special to have a day to celebrate being a mother, and/or our own mothers.

And how great of a gift would this be for Mother's Day?

It's unique, it's charming, it's thoughtful, and it says 'Thanks for being my mom. Sorry about all those times I crapped in the tub.'

 I mean... you can't even find a card that says that!

To Enter to Win the Giveaway leave a comment here on this post saying WHO this fancy little bag of goodies would go to!

Mother Dearest? Daughter? Girlfriend? Sister? BFF? Mailman? Keep it all to your sassy self?

(I totally won't judge you. I mean, I would probably keep it. It's like a spa day in a bag for crying out loud..)

I'll pick the winner using Random.org, this upcoming Friday morning.

Probably after my third cup of coffee and once I've caught up on the latest episode of Scandal.

In the meantime, don't forget to check out all of her amazing products on Housewifery on Etsy and 'like' her Facebook Page.

Good luck!

My Favorite Things: March

Heeeey.

Remember me? ...Elise?
I'm the one you writes on here once or twice a year?

I complain about poop and the cold weather a lot, ring a bell? ..No?

I can't blame you.
IT'S BEEN TOO LONG.

I'll get into making excuses for my laziness in a bit here, but first I'll update you on how last month was for us.

1.) I (kind of) redecorated my living room.

Here is what my living room used to look like.

And honestly, considering how it it looked when we first moved in, it's really not that bad.

But in spite of the gradual progress it made over a year, I had never been totally happy with it. 

My pretty blue wall was very un-pretty and awkward and naked and sad and my frame collage never came together like I wanted it to.

(Please don't laugh at my lack of any sort of eye or skill in the field of decorating)

(...Ok, you can laugh. I would too.)

It all lacked energy and pizazz, and for a room that I pretty much spend ALL of my time in, the way it looked made me grumpy and frustrated every time I noticed it. 

And because I'm CLEARLY a little slow in this department, I had a hard time figuring out what kind of changes I could make that wouldn't involve spending tons of money or burning the place down and starting over. 

But somehow the inspiration hit, the way inspiration does, and once I decided to add red accents to my blue/green/brown palette of colors, it kind of all came together in my mind and I went for it.

Here's how it looks now.

(Except imagine a naked toddler sitting on the couch covered in crumbs because she's gnawing on a graham cracker like a flippin' beaver. Oh and a chubby baby, who's also naked, rolling around in his own spit-up on the floor. That's a more accurate visual for you.)

Anywho, I am just loving the changes I made!

I obviously moved most all of my wall decor around, except the clock, which was desperately needed. And I went out and bought that new throw pillow, which is really what ties everything together.

Oh and then I picked up some wooden letters at Michael's, and painted them, to have a pretty, framed 'Live' in the collage.

So in spite of the inevitable crumbs and spit-up everywhere, this is honestly the first time since living here that I've thoroughly enjoyed and been proud of the way my living room looks.

AND IT ONLY TOOK ME A YEAR AND A HALF.

Don't be like me.

2.) Our bedroom renovation is done!

Ok, well technically like 90% done.

Luke still needs to lay carpet on the stairs and I have some decorating loose ends, but once those are done, Ill put a post up, with lots of pretty pictures.

But we've been sleeping up there again for about a month now, which has been phenomenal.

3.) My family is still alive!

Ok, so technically nothing really happened that put them in immediate danger, per se, but considering that march was our 5th month being stuck inside on account of either freezing or snowy weather, I consider it nothing short of a success that none of us ended up rocking in a corner with a helmet and a drool cup.

We still took Vienna out whenever we could, and she always made the best of it.

(And looked fabulous doing it.)

And my men are still as happy and handsome as ever.
Although Bo could use a little sun, his complexion is looking a little mayonnaise-ish.
(I don't know where he got that from..)
 *cough*

Ok, so March was clearly alarmingly uneventful. When the most exciting thing we did was make it out of the whole thing alive...thats a pretty bad sign.

But April has so far been better, and I even have an exciting new event for the blog in the next week (consider it a 'Sorry For Disappearing' present).. a GIVEAWAY!
So stay tuned, people...