Be My Valentine?

As you probably know, I have a Pinterest addiction. I believe that any of life's problems have a solution that can be found on Pinterest. So naturally, I get my valentine inspiration from Pinterest. A few weeks back I found this image pinned:

found at Six Sisters Stuff

I was immediately inspired to purchase the mini Haribo bears (which Leesa and I discovered one day when we were Shopkicking at Target. (More on Shopkick in a future post) and to create my own tag which would say "I Love You Bear-y Much."

Original design by myself

I slaved over this design for about an hour and a half, trying to make it perfect. I finally came up with what we have here. My goal was to design this scalloped circle and to use my Silhouette Cameo to cut it out. I made the design, then the tricky part was getting my Silhouette to work with me. I just got this machine for Christmas and with all that I've had going on with holidays, two weddings, moving, and starting my new life, I was not able to use it much. To date, this is the second project I have done using the Silhouette. The first was vinyl letters to go on my flour and sugar canisters.

I have attached to this post a free printable that you can download and use for Valentine's. I also am going to include the .studio file for those of you who have a silhouette and may want to use your print and cut feature to make these otherwise impossible for anyone but my mother to cut out scalloped tags.

CLICK HERE to download your Silhouette Cut File for this printable

  I Love You Bear-y Much by  

I am so excited to get to share my very first free printable with the world! Hope you enjoy!

Please share any questions or comments you have in the comments section! I love hearing from you, my loyal readers :)

One more thing, if you want to stay up to date on when I have a new post go like my Facebook fan page HERE. I will make a post to that page every time a new blog comes up and if you like me you'll see it come up on your news feed!

COUPON QUEEN!

I promised more on me couponing and here you get it!

So out here in Utah County where I live there are tons of grocery stores and tons of sales and tons of opportunities to coupon like a beast! If you know anything about me then you know that it is one of my life dreams to do an extreme couponing trip. So I have been getting myself into the habit of using coupons

One of the first purchases I knew I had to make was for a printer, which I got a steal on might I add. I got this printer which was the "Printer of the Week" when I bought it so it was on sale for $129. My fabulous mother had a reward certificate that was about to expire from Office Depot for approx. $22, so I had that discount taken off and ended up paying bout $115 after taxes. I'd say for a printer that was $199 originally I did dang good. The printer also works with my iPhone and iPad to print wirelessley as well as with my laptop. Often I'll be in the living room on my laptop and send things to print them come back to my room and find a pile of papers by the printer.

One of the things I have printed most often is online printable coupons. I have printed coupons from coupons.com and used several of them. Last week I got a steal on DiGiorno pizzas. They were on sale for $4.50 each at Wal-Mart. I had a coupon for buy 2 get 1 free. So of course I bought my pizzas and got my free one... I essentially got 3 DiGiorno pizzas for $9 plus tax.

I guess you can call me...

We also got a deal on the newspaper. I think we pay about $2 a week for the paper really just to get the coupons and the ads. Neither Ashley nor I have read the paper as of yet.

I now leave you with a couple of my favorite couponing/deal finder blogs that I follow:

• Couponing to Disney
• Money Saving Mom
• Retailmenot.com for online shopping codes

And I ask you my dear readers, what are your favorite blogs or websites to find deals?

Sandwich Night

For the last year or so I have had a weekly tradition that I keep up with my mom. We call it ...

SANDWICH NIGHT

It has always been on Wednesday night which also is youth night at church. When I still lived back home since my father is Bishop and my mother had church duties on Wednesday nights me and her were always left on our own to forage for food. Typically any other night of the week my father is the cook. I always had meals ready for me, even when I took them for granted and went out with friends for B Dubs (Buffalo Wild Wings for those who don't know) or for buffalo breadsticks at Tommy's (sensing a pattern here?).

Wednesdays typically did not have a hot meal cooked because my father was up at church until 9-ish at night. So back to sandwich night. What did it consist of you ask? Oh it is simple. We would go to a sandwich place, pick up a sandwich, sometimes we ate there, other times we took it home. Subway was never one of the sandwich places. Probably because we often went there for lunch. Some of the spots we frequented were:

• Firehouse Subs
• Jimmy John's
• Quiznos
• Chili's (when we were feeling fancy and actually wanted a burger... which is kind of like a sandwich)

This tradition is one that we are trying to keep up even with me living halfway across the country in a different time zone. 

Tonight I will try a new sandwich joint that is here in Orem. Which 'Wich? Ever since I first saw it I have wanted to try it. And try it I will. Sorry Mommy, that you don't have "Which 'Wich?" so we can eat sandwiches from the same place, but you do understand, don't you?

Super Bowl Sunday

So I know I talk a lot about how I just moved out to Utah from Louisiana, but it is a huge part of my life right now. Anyway, this past Sunday was Super Bowl Sunday as I'm sure everyone already knows because even if you hate the ads, and football, you are down for some delicious Super Bowl snacks. I happen to be one of those people that enjoys the game, loves watching ads (all year round, not just during the Super Bowl), and loves the food.

This year I wasn't able to have my traditional Super Bowl party with my old roommates aka. parents. We used to always make chicken wings in a myriad of flavors, I always enjoyed when my dad made homemade buffalo sauce. Ya'll it's so much better than anything you could get out of a bottle. We would also make quesadillas and sometimes have a sweet treat, like a brownie. This year was different though, I didn't have my fammie to cook for me. I did receive a call a couple of days before inviting me over to a friend's aunt's house. This friend is someone that I met back in Louisiana. His parents are in the same ward as my parents so he actually lived there over the Summer and Christmas break.

I was glad to have something to do because I have very limited friends at the moment. I didn't even really mind having to drive an hour to get there. I knew that I could not show up empty handed so I thought and thought on what I could bring and someone recommended I bring a king cake. I really just learned how to make a king cake a few weeks ago, but I have been on fire! I made my first king cake then a couple days later made two to give away to family. Then I took a king cake hiatus for about a week and a half and decided I wanted to make one for a friend, turns out she wanted to learn how to make a king cake so I went over and helped her on her first king cakes. (She made two, and they were cream cheese filled which was heavenly!) So, I decided that a king cake for the Utah natives would be a fabulous idea. Plus the Super Bowl was in New Orleans and it's Mardi Gras back home. They loved it! And I felt like they loved having me over, which of course made me feel good.

I also brought with me a dip that I made. It was a buffalo chicken dip. I found the recipe in the coupons (more on me couponing later). It was quite delish. In fact I have some left over and  I think I will go have some right now. You can get the recipe here on my yumprint page.

I have a few questions before I go. Leave your answers in the comments!

• What was your favorite Super Bowl ad?
• Have you heard of or had king cake before? If yes, what is your favorite filling?

This concludes my post for today, check back for some more content. Miss you!

lOvE,

FranklyBecca

Happy Mardi Gras Y'all!

It was alittle over a week ago when myself and my roommate were craving a king cake something wicked. And just so you know, king cake is one of those things, like blue bell ice cream that are impossible to find out here in Utah. Yeah, my native Louisianan is completely hanging out right now, but I'm not ashamed of it ever. I actually wish my Southern drawl was a little more pronounced. I had one lady say that she couldn't hear anything, which of course scared me and made me want to immerse myself in southern accents so I don't lose what little bit I thought I had.

Anyway, back to the king cake, my friend Michael had a king cake recipe on his blog that he and his family has had much success with. I'm gonna say I am a decent baker, but anything with a dough freaks me out, and I am all about DIY so I asked Michael if he would come over and teach me how to make it. As with any other dough I have attempted, it was surprisingly easy.

I meant to take more pictures during the king cake making process, but I was so eager to start, I forgot...

The finished product, and I do say it was the very best king cake I have ever had in my life.

What else have I been up to? Well a lot.

Let's rewind a little, like back to when I got here to Utah because I have some photos I want to share.

My first encounter with snow in Utah and I am wearing flip-flops. How very naive of me.

I met Rhonda the T-rex. She was duct taped up because she apparently had been trying to eat R2-D2

Ashley and I got crafty and made these fabric covered letters.

Samantha and I went to the Sundance Film Festival and who did we see???

JOSEPH FREAKING GORDON-LEVITT!!!

Paparazzi ain't got nothin' on me!

I tried to copycat buffalo breadsticks from Tommy's Pizza... They were good, but not quite as good as Tommy's.

 I made these vinyl labels using my new Silhouette (which I don't know how/when to use).

I made a yarn wrapped wreath (never again).

I also made two more king cakes for family.

I taught myself to sew! I made two birds that look kinda the same, but have different bellies. And I made this little owl rice bag. I even made up the pattern for said owl. And attempted applique, which my mother says is some advanced stuff.

I made a delicious stir-fry. Feel free to be jealous of my mad skills.

And finally, I leave you with this. Yes, that is a broken char sitting under their tire. And yes, there is a note on it. The note read: "Please do not move this chair, it is keeping my car from rolling back." And that folks introduces you to my ghetto neighbors! They since moved the chair to sit outside their door and the note ended up on our welcome mat. I picked it up and kept it as a memento to go in my smashbook someday.

This concludes my post for the day. I hope you enjoyed it! Also, in case you were wondering, I still don't have a job. I have put in applications basically everyday. I have gone on one interview that I think went well, and the job would be really great on the job experience to go on my resume. So cross your fingers/keep me in your thoughts/keep me in your prayers/wish me well/etc.

Love you!