Motivate Me Monday #42

May the force be with you!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

from Yoda, Darth Vader, Anakin, Luke and Padme!

Show me what you have be doing this week!

CSN Stores Review

Even though I can't believe it, Christmas is on it's way!!! And it's time to start thinking about doing some Christmas shopping. Where I live, we don't have much shopping and the nearest city that does have good shopping is 4 hours away. That means that I had to do my shopping here or online. A lot of times I go online, so what better place to go, then somewhere that has everything, like CSN Stores.

With their 200+ stores, I'm sure that you can find something for everyone on your Christmas list. Plus they have really low shipping, so that's a huge plus too.

Here are a few things that I would love to buy for people on my Christmas list! :)

I love all of the bar stools and if I were on my list, I would get some :)

Wildon Home Derby Bar Stool

I just love the look of this one and it would look great in my kitchen!

What kid wouldn't love this?

Planetarium Play Tent

My boys would just love playing in this tent!

Wooden Blocks

Kitchen appliances are always fun to get!!

Green Blender

Love it!

It's time to start your Christmas shopping, so head over to CSN Stores and see what you can find for your family!

And the winner is..............

I was never contacted by the other winner, so the new winner is.....

#21 Ranae Broadhead who said "follower of Keeping It Simple". Congrats Ranae, please shoot me an email at kaysiscrafts@gmail.com in the next 48 hours.

Motivate Me Monday #41

Get your FREE 8x10 Photo Canvas here

It's time to party!!

Scrapbook Thursday

One of my favorite things about scrapbooking is being able to describe my child through pictures and journaling. I know that in a couple of years I'm going to forget what he is like right now and I don't want to. My youngest boy is obsessed with buttons, all kinds of them. Mostly on remotes, computers and tv but he would push any button if he could. So I wanted to make a page that reminded me of that, so of course I used buttons!

I distressed each side on the squares and then added buttons, super easy!

Whatever Wednesday: Paver Pumpkin

When I saw this idea, I immediately knew that I wanted to do it!! So simple and easy but so cute!! I had one problem though, our hardware store in town didn't have the pavers that I needed. Luckily, I found some at a garage sale, I was so excited!! I immediately painted one that day!

I just used orange and brown spray paint and tied some raffia

(I have a lot of this stuff and really need to get rid of it!)

Tutorial Tuesday: Taco Soup

Now that it is getting a little bit cooler, it's time to start cooking up nice warm meals. October seems like the month of chili and chili cook offs, so I thought that I share a recipe for taco soup. It's so easy, if you can brown hamburger and open a can, then you can make this meal!!

What you will need:

1 pound hamburger

1/3 onion chopped

1 can Rotel

1 15 oz can tomato sauce

1 can diced tomatoes

1 can corn (drained)

1 can kidney beans (drained)

1 package taco seasoning

1) Brown the hamburger and onions and then drain

2) Add the rest of the ingredients and then simmer for 20 minutes

That's it! Super easy and super good!

Serve with cheese and tortilla chips

FREE Photo Canvas!!

Yes, that's what I said, FREE!!!! I know that we all LOVE free things, so you have to go check this out!! Photo Canvas is offering a free 8x10 canvas, all you have to do is pay shipping and handling.

With the holidays coming, this is a great gift idea!! They are super cute and who wouldn't love one?!?!

8x10 too small for you? Well then upgrade to a larger size, you will get $55 off any size, what a steal!!

Click here and get started on making your own photo canvas!!

Lemons and Lace Giveaway (closed)

Today I am so excited to tell about my new sponsor Camille from Lemons and Lace.

She has a lot of cute things at in her etsy shop!
Adorable skirts
Pink rose clip

Reversible bag

She has a lot more too!!

Camille has been nice enough to give one of you a $15 credit to her shop, how awesome is that!

So to enter this giveaway:

Mandatory:

1) Go to Lemons and Lace, look around and tell me what you would get

extra entries:

2) Be or become a follower of Camille's blog and tell me that you are

3) Like Camille's shop on facebook and tell me that you did

4) Be or become a follower of Keeping It Simple

Please leave a separate comment for each entry!

This giveaway will be open until Monday, October 25th at 12:00pm cst. Good luck!

Camille is also doing a special this month, enter the code "halloween" and get a 15% discount for the month of October!!!

Motivate me Monday #40

Sponsor of the Week: Lemons and Lace

An etsy shop with all of your girlie needs! Cute headbands and more!

There were a ton of great links this week!!! It was so fun going through all of them in the middle of the night when I couldn't sleep, due to contractions and moving baby. :)

Here are a few of my favorites

Alysha from How does She? made some awesome Halloween decorations with candy corn!

Crystal from Crystal's Craft Spot made this fun dry erase board, you can draw in the faces, how fun is that?!

Jenny from Embellishing Life made this fun tags with the tag you get off of bread, awesome!

Lindy from Cottage Hill made this simple fall art, love it!

Aimee from Sprik Space made this wall art using a door mat!

Annalea from Make It Give It made this awesome loop with clothes pins, I love the look of it!!

If you've been featured, grab a button!

Now onto the party

Bring on the crafts!!

Scrapbook Thursday

Sometimes when I scrapbook, I like to describe what my child is like that particular age. It just happened that I did this with my first son at 18 months. I like it so much that I decided to do it with all of my kids. I do the exact same layout with different colors. The title of this page is "Keyne is...." and then using adjectives I describe what kind of boy his is. Of course some are very generic, like adorable, fun, happy but then some are very specific to him, like excitable, daring and cautious.
Here are the little pockets. I actually got out my embossing gun (first time in 1 year!) and embossed the pocket.

Whatever Wednesday: Spider Wreath

This past weekend I decided that it was time to change my wreath and make a Halloween one. All I did was wrap orange yarn around a Styrofoam ring and then added spiders. I love the spider hanging in the center :)

Tutorial Tuesday: Dryer Duct Pumpkin

I was so excited when I saw this idea a couple weeks back. I was excited because it is super cute and we had just replaced out dryer duct, so I had some left over and didn't have to go out a buy one!! So this past weekend I decided that it would be a fun craft to do with my kids.

This is how you make it:

1) Cut a piece of dryer duct. When I cut it I made my into a circle and then added a couple of inches (just to make sure).

2) Using a hot glue fun, I glued the duct into a circle

3) Paint your duct. I let my boys paint it with brushes, just for fun. But I would not paint it like this, it would take forever!

So after they painted for 15 minutes, I took out the spray paint

4) Add a stick and raffia. My one son didn't want raffia on his...

So cute and easy!!

Motivate Me Monday #39

Sponsor of the week: A Splash Of Elegance

You can find some beautiful jewelry there!!

Show me some cuteness!!

CSN Stores Review: Puzzles

All of us with kids know how important puzzles are in learning and playing. So when you are going to buy one, you want it to be a good one! One that will hold up to lots of playing. I'm sure that all of our kids have at one point played with a Melissa and Doug wooden puzzle. They are amazing!!

They are tough. We have had one for about four years and it is still in great condition, much better than my cheap one that I bought that the plastic is coming off. They are chunky so at any age they can play with them! They are so fun, my boys have played with them for hours! And best of all, they are a toy that is educational and you know when your child plays with it, they are learning!!

So when I got the opportunity to review a product from CSN Stores, I decided that I wanted to get something for my 1 year old for Christmas. I was blown away by how many Melissa and Doug puzzles they had. They have 100s! I had a hard time choosing because they all looked so awesome! So I decided to get some that the pieces don't come out (so he doesn't lose them).

Hinges puzzle

Magnetic Counting Puzzle

Vehicle Puzzle

Matching Blocks

I'm so excited to see my little boy open these and play with them!!! I know that he is going to love them and that they are going to last a long time!!

My experience with CSN Stores was great! The website is so easy to find what you are looking for. I just put in the search box "Melissa and Doug Puzzle" and I was able to look through all of them. It was so fun looking through all of the fun toys that they had to offer. Of course there were a ton that I would love to get my boys for Christmas!

I'm so amazed by how quick I got the puzzles too. I ordered them on a Friday afternoon and they were shipped that night! I was impressed!!

Scrapbook Thursday

I'm really trying to get caught up on scrapbooking before this baby comes, it's not coming very well though. I would much rather do any other craft than just sit down and scrapbook for some reason. I was able to do a couple of pages done though.

Here is a layout that I did for my son's first day of school.

I have an awesome spiral punch, so used that. I inked the edges and then distressed it with my thumb. I used markers to stamp the apples

I made this little "chalkboard" by using a white stamp pad on black paper.

Whatever Wednesday: Halloween Decoration

You all probably know that I like simple and cheap crafts that don't take a lot of time or space. Well here is another one! :)

Way back in February I decided to use some gift boxes for a decoration. Then every holiday I just decorate different gift boxes and change them out.

Here are my Halloween ones. They are super simple. I just used some paper that I bought in the Target dollar bins (I love those!).

When there isn't a holiday around, this is what they usually look like

Tutorial Tuesday: Fall Decoration

Fall has been here for a couple of weeks, but in Kansas we are finally getting the cooler weather! I'm so glad because being 8 months pregnant in 90+ weather is not fun!!!

So here is another part of my fall decoration I have in on my piano.

I switch the blocks and what is inside the hurricanes each season

(I already have a plan involving a snowman in the vase for winter :D).

I made the hurricanes using this tutorial.

Instead of using a candle stick for the bottom, I actually used a sundae dish and turned it upside down.

This is how I made the candles in the middle.

1) I took the long glass candles. Mine had some paper on it already, so I had to take that off.

2) Using some cute fall fabric, I hemmed the edges and cut it to the appropriate size

3) I put a layer of mod podge directly on the glass and wrapped the fabric around the candle

4) I then put another layer of mod podge over the fabric

5) I then tied a ribbon it for some color. I actually glued it on so I wouldn't have to keep trying it over and over again

6) I added some rocks into the bottom of the vase and then put the candle in.