Yoplait whips! giveaway winner

Congratulations to commenter 5 (Andrea) who said My favorite is the yoplait whips key lime pie. It's the best! The Key Lime Pie flavor was a favorite of many of you!

Thanks to everyone who entered!

Food Waste Friday

I've been participating in Food Waste Friday with The Frugal Girl for a while now; I go through our fridge (and freezer) on Friday and toss anything that has gone bad. I also take a look at what needs to be used up so that it does not go bad and try to work that into our meals over the next few days. This has really helped us to throw out less food (and so we're actually buying less because we're using what we've already bought!).

Well, its another really good week! My daughter and I finished off some strawberries at breakfast this morning that were getting wrinkly on the outside. I was a little worried that they had gone bad when I pulled them out of the fridge, but only one had a bit of mold.

Despite their wrinkled appearance, they were still quite delicious!

I'm not entirely sure how we have continued to have relatively no food waste each week, since I have not done anything special to prevent waste recently. I think it has just become such a habit to know what needs to be used up each week and work towards using all of our leftovers!

How did you do this week? Any tips for using up leftovers?

Remember the giveaway that ends today at midnight!

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DIY: Wood Refinishing

We're in the process of transitioning our daughter to her "big girl" room so that the nursery will be ready when our baby comes in just a few weeks. My husband's grandfather (Grandad) gave him his desk many years ago. We've had it in our house, but mostly used it as storage in our office. But, since the office is now another bedroom, we needed to find a new home for the desk. I thought it might make a nice dresser in our daughter's new room.

Here is the desk/dresser before:

It has 3 drawers, and the top "drawer" opens up to be the desk part:

It had been well used for many years, so there were plenty of dents, stains, and blemishes, like this one:

I got a spray-on stripper to take the varnish off. I did one side of the desk myself, but I was so thankful for help from my mom on the rest because I have been so tired lately! We got the whole thing stripped and then sanded it down:

After being sanded, the desk looked so different! The orange-y color was the old finish, and the wood underneath was fairly light.

I had some blue paint that I got free from Glidden last year, and I wanted to use this to accent the drawers.

While I painted, my mom put on a dark stain on the rest of the desk:

The last step was to add a varnish to seal everything really well. We did one coat of varnish, let that dry, then used a very fine grain sandpaper before adding a second coat of varnish.

And the finished product!

I LOVE the way it turned out! We painted the walls in my daughter's room yellow, so the blue and the dark wood really add a beautiful accent to the room. One thing I wanted to do to make things a little more special was to get some new knobs. I saw a DIY project some time ago that had white drawer pulls with black numbers on a refinished dresser (I can't find the site now, but I will keep looking to link back to them!), and I really wanted to do something like that. My mom ended up finding these vintage knobs in a shop in Old Ellicott City:

Here's a close up:

I think they are awesome and really just the finishing touch that I wanted for this project! Remember that stain on the inside of the desk? It's totally gone now!

And one more picture, just because I LOVE how this project turned out!

My mom and I have both gotten bit by the refinishing bug now, I think! While it was a lot of work, we ended up with a beautiful piece of furniture that is personalized. I am looking forward to telling my daughter the story about this project, and it will be really special for her to get to use something that was her great-grandfather's. He passed away when she was just a few weeks old, so this will be a way to pass memories down to a new generation!

Yoplait whips! review and giveaway!

I got a fun package in the mail recently courtesy of MyBlogSpark and Yoplait whips! It contained a coupon for a free Yoplait yogurt product as well as these:

(a cooler/tote bag and ice cream pop making set)

If you have been reading this blog for a while, you probably know that I enjoy making my own yogurt, and have done so for some time. But there are times when I've suffered from yogurt burnout...I've gotten bored of my homemade stuff, and through the pregnancy had times when I really craved store bought yogurt. At the top of my list of store bought yogurt is totally Raspberry Mousse by Yoplait whips! So when Yoplait told me that a great way to cool down during the summer heat is to pop a yogurt container in the fridge overnight I was all about it. My Raspberry Mousse yogurt was A-MAZ-ING; an icy and refreshing treat.

I'm all about being thrifty, and homemade yogurt is way more cost effective than the stuff in the store, but I also enjoy indulging every now and then. Yoplait usually has several coupons and sales out there, so while I don't make a habit of buying yogurt at the store, I am by no means a "homemade yogurt only" person!

My daughter and I made good use of the cooler tote bag on a recent picnic, and while I haven't gotten to make the freezer pops yet, they will be used this week!

MyBlogSpark and Yoplait have given me a prize pack just like I have to giveaway! If you would like to enter in this giveaway, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post telling me about your favorite yogurt. Please make sure that your blogger profile has your email address, or leave your email in the comment so that I can contact you if you win!

This giveaway will remain open until midnight on Friday, September 10, at which point a winner will be chosen via random.org.

Disclosure: I was provided with a Yoplait whips! prize pack by MyBlogSpark and Yoplait in return for my honest evaluation and review of the product. All opinions are 100% my own.

Food Waste Friday

I've been participating in Food Waste Friday with The Frugal Girl for a while now; I go through our fridge (and freezer) on Friday and toss anything that has gone bad. I also take a look at what needs to be used up so that it does not go bad and try to work that into our meals over the next few days. This has really helped us to throw out less food (and so we're actually buying less because we're using what we've already bought!).

This week I opened up a cute little jar of strawberry preserves to make a sandwich for my daughter


and discovered this:


MOLD! Yuck! I guess when I was given this jar I must have opened it and then forgot, because it has been sitting in my pantry for several months, just waiting to be used. I am very sad to have to toss it, because it looked like it would have been really tasty jam!

How did you do this week? Any "oopses" like me?

I'm planning to be back blogging this weekend to bring you another sweet giveaway, so be sure to check back! Happy Friday!

Smarty Pants sale gets bigger!

I posted last week about Smarty Pants, the local children's resale store that is sadly going out of business. Smarty Pants has announced that all clothing is now 75% off, and this Saturday you can fill a bag with clothes for just $15! Right now they primarily have summer clothes out on the racks, so this is a great chance to get stocked up for next summer. I was told by the owner that fall clothes will be stocked once the summer ones have moved, probably by the middle of this month.

I stopped by and found some great deals last week, which I thought I would share with you!

A Melissa & Doug magnetic puzzle for $5!

Children's place jeans for $2

A Gap outfit for just $4!

And some very cute summer dresses from Old Navy for $2.50 a piece!

I also found some newborn Carter's onsies...$1.50!

I've been feeling the fatigue of only having a month and a half to go before our baby arrives, but I am planning to keep posting on as regular of a schedule as possible! I've got a few projects that are nearing completion to share with you, as well as another giveaway (hopefully next week!)!!