Tax Time Means New Furniture....and a CSN Giveaway!

This giveaway is now closed! Congrats to Tanya @ Miller Racing Family!!
I know not everyone loves tax return time...but when you have more than a few kiddos and some great deductions, tax time isn't too bad! I actually love that we usually get a pretty big chunk of money around this time of the year. Jason on the other hand hates that we overpay the government throughout the year and basically give them interest free use of our money.

Because we almost always get a refund check, this is also the time of year when we do a little shopping for things we wouldn't normally buy during the rest of the year. I got my embroidery machine and my DSLR camera {Jason got a welding machine one year} after refund checks:) The top thing on Jason's list this year is a new TV. He has all kinds of technical reasons for wanting one...I'm just excited that a new TV equal the possibility of new furniture. I'm thinking we may just have to replace the old console table under our TV for a new LCD TV stand. Because if he gets a bigger TV, I will probably need a bigger table to make sure things in the living room look even:)

I hopped over to check out all the great TV stands that csnstores.com has and found these beauties:

Now I'm sure that if any of you have filed your taxes you know that there is a delay because of some technical/political mumbo jumbo. We filed our taxes a few weeks ago and they told us it could be toward the middle or end of February before we get our refund...so for now that new TV stand is on hold!

BUT I have great news for one of you because CSN Stores is partnering with me again to give away a $45 gift certificate to any of the their 200 plus stores:)

To enter:Mandatory entry: Head over to csnstore.com, come back here and tell me what you would spend the $45 gift certificate on.  For another entry, tell me if you LOVE or HATE tax time:)
For another entry, follow my blog and leave me a comment telling me that you do.
For another entry, follow me on twitter, and leave a comment telling me that you do.
For another entry, tweet about this giveaway and include @SUPERMOM_Kelli and a link http://tinyurl.com/4unmcrz to this giveaway in the tweet.
For FIVE extra entries, subscribe to my blog via feedburner...click on the icon in the right sidebar by the facebook and twitter icons. Make sure to leave 5 separate comments.
Please be sure to leave a comment for each thing that you do. This giveaway will end next Sunday, February 13th at 12:00 am. I will use random.org to pick a winner! Good Luck and thanks for entering!

Love Note in a Pancake!

I saw this really cute idea HERE a few weeks ago, and I knew it would be perfect for a fun Valentine's Day breakfast...or maybe even breakfast for dinner. While Henry and Grant were at school, Eli and I tested out the "recipe" and had a fun pancake lunch:) 

To make the Love Note in my pancakes, I added some red food coloring to a little bit of the pancake batter and my little helper stirred it up.

Then I put the colored batter into my squeeze bottles.

Here's a little tip....don't leave your opened squeeze bottle of red batter near your "helper"! They might just dump it all out and then you will have to remix your colored batter...and someone will be eating a giant red pancake for lunch.

I squeezed out the design on my griddle and let it cook for about a minute.

 Then I filled in the rest of the pancake with the un-colored batter, cooked it a few minutes {until the top is all bubbly}, and flipped it.

You can make shapes or letter....I even think some of the sayings from Conversation Hearts would be adorable! Just make sure to write all the letters backwards because they are reversed when you flip the pancake over:)

This is such an easy and fun way to serve up a plate full of love notes to your family {in the form of pancakes}!

Blog Swap with Stacy from Not JUST a Housewife!

Today I'm over at Not JUST a Housewife....and you get the pleasure of meeting the awesome Stacy! After you "ooh" and "aah" over all of Stacy's awesome-ness {I mean seriously check out that stenciled ceiling}, hop over and say "HI" to me too:) And don't forget my SUPER cute Valentine Dish Towels giveaway ends tonight, so get in those extra entries!

Hi! I'm Stacy from Not JUST A Housewife and I am so excited to be swapping with Kelli today!!! I just recently found her site and fell in love! She has so many cute ideas. So thanks Kelli for letting me post here today :)

I am a stay at home mom to 4 little boys and I love it! It can be challenging being a stay at home mom and keeping my sanity though. Creating things and sharing them on my blog helps.Here are some of the things you can find on my blog.

I refinished this antique desk. You should see what it looked like before! I have a tutorial on how I did it HERE.

I needed more lighting in my front room but my hubby was unemployed at the time and I had zero budget for one. So I made this one out of scrap wood left over from other projects. Then I hand painted one of my designs on a lamp shade I had. I did have to buy a $10.00 lamp kit but I think it was worth the splurge! See the complete tutorial HERE.

With 4 busy boys I am always looking for fun activities to do with my kids. They love this felt face activity! I cut out a bunch of different noses, different eyes, mouths, etc and they can make their own faces however they want over and over. See how to make them HERE.

If I can't find the right fabric I just paint my own!

See how I fixed up our old bathroom for around $75.00!

I also recently stenciled my entire bedroom ceiling. It took 4 days because I had 49 million interuptions, but it was worth it. I love waking up to a pretty ceiling! You can see more picture and how I did it HERE. There is also a tutorial on how I made the Chandelier HERE

 

I host a linky party on Tuesdays called Show me what ya got! So come party with me on Tuesdays :)

I have an etsy shop called The Housewife Boutique, too. I recently added a ton of necklaces, hair clips and headbands.

You can visit my shop by clicking HERE.

I also sometimes chat about "mom" things like BABY WEIGHT, bad days, traditions, cleaning, etc. So come and visit me sometime at Not JUST A Housewife :)