Places To Go - Old Home Supply

Have y'all ever been to this store?  If not, you are missing out...and I mean big time.  My husband and I made a trip to this awesome store a couple of months ago.  I didn't want to leave.  I could have spent hours upon hours in this place.  It's called Old Home Supply and it's located at 1801 College Avenue in Fort Worth.

They have all kinds of architectural antiques.  Everything is salvaged, y'all.  That's like the best thing ever.

They have GORGEOUS antique chandeliers:

They have antique doors, old cabinet hardware.  They even have old pictures.  There's something about old pictures that just draw me in and give me warm and fuzzy feelings.  I could have spent about a month looking at their old pictures.

I fell in love with this picture.

They even have old boat motors.  You need an old boat motor?  Go to Old Home Supply because they have a few of them.

Check out this old newspaper bag.  I think that's a trumpet hanging above it and an oil can below it.  See what I mean?  You can find all kinds of things at Old Home Supply.

They have tons of light switches and fixtures.  It's amazing how many different kinds of hardware and things they have.

I'd be kind of nervous to turn the lights off and on with this switch.

One of my favorite things I saw there was this little pig:

I think someone is playing a cruel joke on us grammar nazis.

And last but not least, I thought this banjo was just about the most awesome thing ever:
 

Old Home Supply is an amazing place.  Go there and check it out and buy you something awesome.  Buy me something awesome too if you want...won't hurt my feelings none.

Oh, yeah.  They're having a launch party this Friday, March 28th from 6:00 - 9:00.  They'll have live music, food & drinks, and upcycled treasures.  They'll also be having a silent auction.  Click this link for more information.

Pick Your Plum - Cute Umbrellas

Have y'all noticed that little square over there to the right?  The Pick Your Plum box?  They have some really neat deals every day, but I thought today's deal was really cute.  It's umbrellas that look like little animals, or princesses, or superheroes, or rock stars for your kiddos - adorable!!  They even have a polka-dotted one for the big kids like us - yay!  They're $8.99 a piece and ship for $4.99. 

U.S. of Awesome T-Shirt Review and GIVEAWAY!!

Y'all, I am so excited about this that I think I could do cartwheels...and maybe even a front handspring, and for this 40-year-old heavily-endowed mama, that's saying something!

I first found out about U.S.of Awesome from a great food blog called Whipped (y'all ought to check that blog out too if you get a chance.)  The great people at U.S. of Awesome sent me a shirt to review and I'm in love with it.  It's got Abraham Lincoln on the front of it, y'all!  See...

I'm going to be stylin' and profilin' on the 4th!

Here's a picture of me in my U.S. of Awesome shirt and a special visitor:

I got this guy and a buddy of his at a yard sale the other day.

U.S. of Awesome shirts are really top-quality, 100% cotton.  They have womens, mens, kids & babies t-shirts.  The best part about them to me is they're MADE IN THE USA!  Go here to check out all the styles they have.  Their designs celebrate patriotism and Americana and aim to kindle the flames of the American spirit.  Can't get much better than that now, can ya?

And, y'all, the nice folks at U.S. of Awesome are giving away a t-shirt of your choice to one of Fort Worth Mama's readers!  You can pick this one:

Or this one:

Or this one:

You can pick whatever style you like and whatever size you need.  I wish that more styles came in XL, but I really do love the one I got with Abe Lincoln on it.  Please remember that they are 100% cotton.  Mine shrunk just a little bit after I washed it on cold and dried it.  Remember that when you're ordering.

Want to win a U.S. of Awesome t-shirt?  Please leave me a comment below and tell me why or how you think the American spirit is alive and well.  What makes you proud to be an American?  Also tell us what style shirt you'd choose if you won.  

After you've left me a comment on the blog, then use the cool Rafflecopter and let me know you left me a comment.  You can also earn extra entries by liking Fort Worth Mama and/or U.S. of Awesome on Facebook and following either or both of us on Twitter.  Giveaway starts today July 1 and ends July 10, 2013 @ midnight Central Standard Time.  I'll pick a winner July 10th via random.org. 



a Rafflecopter giveaway

 
Good Luck!

Disclaimer:   The opinions expressed above are 100% my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Cool Nail Polish

Have y'all seen this cool nail polish?  It's really neat.  It goes on one color and then when you get in the sun, it changes colors. 

It's called Del Sol.  My sister bought a bottle of it while she was in California and my mother bought a bottle of it when she was on a cruise.  The only place I can find it around here is online.  There's quite a few different colors to choose from.

When my sister first told me about it, I was really excited because I love color-changing things - I used to be infatuated with mood lipstick and mood rings when I was a little girl.  I'm a dork... I'm cool with that.

Polka Dot Design - For All Your Party Needs

Have y'all ever heard of Polka Dot Design?  Well, if you haven't, you're missing out.  They have top-quality stationery items such as birthday party invitations:

Personalized note cards:

Party supplies, such as flag straws:

Personalized recipe cards (gotta get me some of those):

Cool note pads that would make great teacher gifts:

Awesome envelope wraps (they wrap around the side of the envelope and you write the address of the person you're writing to on the front and your address will be printed on the back - really neat idea.)

And they have these cool, little personalized stickers you can use to stick on your Christmas packages:

 They also have personalized iPhone 4/4s cases:

And these really neat, totally customizable and interchangeable Lucite trays:

Polka Dot Design has so much to offer that I could stay on their website for hours.  Their website is so easy to navigate.  They make shopping for things easy.  For example, say you want to order that cute Lucite Let's BBQ tray up there - you click the link to the tray and then listed on that same page will be a list of other things you might need to order, like the kissing pigs BBQ invitation.

Everything Polka Dot Design offers is so modern and chic.  I have fallen in love with some of their designs and the different color combinations they have to offer.

You want to know one of the reasons I really love Polka Dot Design?  Because they're based right here in Fort Worth.  Can't get much better than that.

Oh, wait...maybe you can.

Want to know one of the other reasons why I really love Polka Dot Design?  Because they're offering Fort Worth Mama readers an exclusive 30% discount.  Isn't that awesome?  Who's your Mama?  Just use the code FORTWORTHMAMA30 at checkout.  Also, right now they're offering a $5 flat shipping rate.  Sounds like a great time to order to me.

Thank you, Polka Dot Design.

Back To School Sale @ The Mercantile

The Historic Camp Bowie Mercantile is having a mall wide Back To School (yikes - already???) Sale starting Tuesday, July 31.  You can save anywhere from 10 to 50% off.  The sale ends Saturday, August 4th.

Go have lunch at the beautiful Rose Garden Tea Room and then browse around the mall.  You're sure to find something you can't live without. 

Be sure and check out the booth immediately to your right when you walk in the front door.  The person who rents that booth is ...well, she's awesome and she has excellent taste!

Patriotic Wreath

I saw this gorgeous wreath on Pinterest a while back and I just had to make it.  It was super easy to make and cheap too.  The most expensive thing was the foam wreath and I think that cost me $5.99.  You could probably find one a lot cheaper than that and use a coupon at Joann's or Michael's or Hobby Lobby.

I suggest you cut all the felt pieces out with one of those rotary cutters.  I started cutting the felt like this - each strip individually then turning and cutting the strips:

 

That took a while.  So I wised up and starting cutting them like this:

Which made it go a lot faster - hello!

My only suggestion would be to mark your foam wreath as to where you want the red, the white, and the blue.  I wanted my blue to butt up to white, so I had to do some finagling at the end to make it come out that way.  If I had marked the wreath beforehand, it would have been a lot easier. 

Also, the instructions said to use cardstock and punch out stars using a punch.  This homegirl does not have a star punch, so I just decided to use some of the white felt to represent the star.

Turned out pretty, don't you think?  God bless America.

Recipe To Try - M & M Cookies

Me love cookies.  But I have a problem...I have been searching high and low for a good cookie recipe and haven't been able to find one.  I wanted to find a cookie recipe that made the cookies crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside - one that doesn't turn out as hard as a rock like usual!  I think I found it.

The original recipe can be found here.  I've tweaked the recipe just a tiny, tiny bit just by adding more M&M's to the mix and by baking the cookies longer since I was using an insulated cookie sheet.   

Here it is:

Ingredients

• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 cup shortening
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups candy-coated milk chocolate pieces (about)

Directions

1. In a large bowl, mix sugar, eggs, shortening, and vanilla thoroughly. Add flour, salt, and baking soda to creamed mixture. Blend well. Add 1 cup of M&M candies (or more or less).
2. Drop dough by teaspoonful onto cookie sheet. Slightly push a few candies on top of each dough ball with remaining candies.
3. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 9 to 11 minutes.  If using insulated cookies sheet, bake for 14 minutes.

This recipe doesn't seem much different than any other cookie recipe I've tried.  The only thing different is the shortening instead of butter.  Maybe shortening is like a magical ingredient or something.  

One hint I learned from this recipe is to stick a few M & M's on top of the dough after you drop them onto the cookie sheet.  That way you have nice, pretty M&M's showing on top of the cookie after they're baked.

Nom nom nom nom.

End Of School Year Party Treats On A Budget

End of School Year Party Treat

I'm no Martha Stewart, y'all, so please bear with me.  I needed to come up with an end-of-school-year treat for my kindergartener's classmates.  We're on a tight, tight budget because my husband (who is the sole breadwinner in this family) is on strike for the 5th week.  Anyway, who doesn't like homemade cookies?  You must be crazy if you don't.

I found this printable at this cute website.  I printed out two pages of those and cut all the circles out with a pair of scissors because this homegirl does not own a circle cutter!  I bought cute treat bags from Walmart.  I wish now that I had bought just clear treat bags because the pretty cookies would have been decoration enough.  But anywho, I bought the decorated bags and the kiddies will just have to deal with it!

I cut out some paper the same width as the treat bag, glued the circle I'd cut out earlier on it and stuck a cookie in the bag and folded the piece of paper over the treat bag and stapled it.  I had my daughter write her name on each one so her classmates' mamas would know what an awesome cook and supermom I was her classmates would know who they were from.

I thought they turned out pretty dang cute and the cookies are delicious.  I'll bring you the recipe for the cookies tomorrow.

End of School Year Party Treats

Happy Mother's Day!

Since I will be basking in all things motherhood tomorrow, I thought I'd pass this along while I could.  Always try to remember this:

And if you keep this glass filled with wine, it will help you to keep calm!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY, LADIES!!!

You Want How Much For That Mother's Day Card?

I was grocery shopping yesterday and I decided to look at Mother's Day cards.  I needed to buy one for my mom and my mother-in-law.  After searching what seemed like a hundred years, I finally found the perfect one for my mother.  It was just a plain 'ol Hallmark card.  It didn't have any 3d special effects - it didn't sing at you when you opened it - it didn't have anything attached to it.  It was just a plain, old card.

I put it in my buggy and decided I better flip it over to see how much it was.  When I saw the price I almost fell the heck out right there on the floor.  I said, I'm coming, Lizabeth.  Lawd, help me.  Does Hallmark think I'm some kind of fish-eyed fool?  Do you know how much that dang card cost????  $5.59!!!! 

So, Mom and MIL, y'all are getting some homemade cards from us this year.  I think those are more meaningful.  They are to me!

So save some money and make your own cards.  And if you really want to make your mamas happy, you can buy them some of this instead - it's delish!! 

Wimberley Valley Sweet Red - Good 'ol Texas Wine

You can all gather round with a glass of this sweet Texas wine and propose a toast to Hallmark this Mother's Day.  What you propose is up to you. 

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY, Y'ALL!!!

Teacher Appreciation Gift

So this was my attempt at a teacher appreciation gift.  I had the best of intentions - I really did.  Here goes:

I found this saying here about teachers planting seeds.  There was no printable so I had to figure out how to do that myself.  You can copy it if you want since it's so fabulous - ha ha!  Here's what I came up with:

 

Next I put some seeds in a ziplock baggie and stapled that to another piece of paper I printed out about what kind of plant it was.  I just copied the information from Burpee and tried to make it look prettier.

 Then I took some double-sided tape and taped the two pieces of paper together.

Next, my daughter painted this pot.

I wrote a little note to my daughter's teacher (using my daughter's words) on the water-catcher dealybopper.

Names have been covered up to protect the innocent

 I took the plant that was grown from some of these very seeds and potted half of the plant into this pot.  Then I poked some holes in the papers I taped together and stuck some jute twine through it and tied all that to the pot.  I had to put a few dabs of hot glue on the twine to keep it from slipping.

Wouldn't it be simply grand if I had a picture of the final product?  That would be awesome, right?  Well, just imagine it looked something like this only less toddlerlike:

A certain ding-ding forgot to take a picture of the final product.

Wouldn't it be all cherries and roses if that was the end of the story?  Ahh, but it's not.  Enter this chick:  

This chick who totally had a cat party all up in that plant last night and destroyed it and made it look like this:

So thank the Lord up above that I originally only potted half that plant and there was another half still left on the porch.  I repotted it this morning before my sunshine left for school - that way she won't be giving her teacher something that looked worse than that Charlie Brown Christmas tree Sam the cat left us with this morning. Yay, me!

Barefoot Baby Sandals - Great Gift For Baby Girl

Barefoot Baby Sandals by BlushBashful Studio

Are these not the cutest things ever?  I think they're just adorable.  And at $12.95 a pair, I think they make an awesome gift.  They're called Barefoot Baby Sandals and you can buy them from BlushBashful Studio through Etsy.  They can even make you some to order.  Adorbs!!