Attention Bloggers!

Here's a giveaway for a free Blog Makeover:
(Four Makeovers Available)


Designer Blogs
(BTW, Click Here for the Link)
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Good Luck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Loyd Collection
Anne, Mike, Annelise & Michael

The Loyd Collection has been Custom Published.....

Well Kinda....I ordered some stationary, address labels and stickers and the deal was definitely too slick to pass!



Check out the link from slickdeals.net right HERE!



(The lines are from my computer...I will post the real deal when the are delivered in the mail~)

I am so excited to share my great finds. I plan to send out cards to family in the very near future! They will receive extra customization by yours truly soon!

If you would like your own celebrity stationary....here's the dirt:
When checking out add the code "MADNESS" and like magic 70% is deducted from clearance items! If you are a high roller (unlike thrifty old me) and splurge on some non-sale items, use code "HOME3".

It's my understanding that the deal is going on until January 12th but hurry over so you view the best pickings!

Oh and last but not least.....

FREE SHIPPING!!!

Did I mention that I only spent $13 and some change for all three items!

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Happy Shopping!
The Loyd Collection
Anne, Mike, Annelise & Michael

A Word from the Wise

Wisdom Teeth....

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Third molar teeth (commonly referred to as wisdom teeth) consist of the mandibular and maxillary third molars; they usually appear between the ages of 17 and 25.^[1] They are called wise teeth because they usually come in when a person is between age 17 and 25 or older—old enough to have supposedly gained some wisdom.^[2] Most adults have four wisdom teeth, but it is possible to have more or fewer. Absence of one or more wisdom teeth is an example of hypodontia. Any extra teeth are referred to as supernumerary teeth.^[3][4] Wisdom teeth commonly affect other teeth as they develop, becoming impacted or "coming in sideways".^[5]extracted when this occurs. Humans are gradually losing their wisdom teeth, with some individuals having them congenitally absent.^[6]

Yes, I still had my wisdom teeth up until yesterday at 26 years old but I should note that my loving husband still has all of his wisdom teeth and for the sake of his privacy we won't mention his age.


For those of you that don't know us...it's way too old to keep them!

Enough about him and more about my wisdom...just kidding. I have to say that the experience was not as bad as I anticipated and the only down fall is that I could not eat the strawberry strudel that we picked up at Fresh & Easy the night before. (Hmmm....I wonder if I could freeze a piece).

So the diet right now is ice cream. Thanks to one of the firm's associates and his wonderfully talented wife, I have plenty of hot fudge to top my treat with. Unfortunately, I am forced to have it lukewarm but it is still as good as last year!

And yes...here is some wisdom from the wisdom less...don't lick your fingers after getting your wisdom teeth removed....it's the same concept as don't use a straw....why because it hurts! Take my advice.
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Happy Tuesday!
The Loyd Collection
Anne, Mike, Annelise & Michael

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas....

And a Happy New Year!!! I am looking forward to 2010 and am working on an extensive TO DO list and TO CHANGE list both decoratively and personally.



I know much time has passed since I last posted and lots has taken place since then. Christmas is over and I am already working on the new. I am making a pledge to faithfully blog each day!!!!

(Let's me honest...at least a few more times than I usually do during the week!)

For your enjoying pleasure (or displeasure) here's a little bit of what we have been doing in the meantime:
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1) Christmas Tree Makeovers

Several seasons ago, my pal Heather & I battled the shopping wars of the after Thanksgiving Sales and one of the stores we targeted was Jo-Ann's for these lovely trees:
Over the years the paint chipped and I never removed the "extra" glue the factory graciously supplied me with.

Despite their imperfections, I believe these babies price tickets were $19.99 a tree (if my memory if not mistaken...Heather feel free to correct me if I am wrong ;). At that time, it was a steal! A.k.a. a smoking deal!!!


I covered these hostages and got to work with my spray paint gun and a can of Rust-Oleum Flat Black on my "professional paint station".

And a couple coats later, they were transformed. I think they match our house better if I don't say so myself.




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2) Shopping...But Not for Stockings!

I hit Cost Plus World Market to take advantage of their great ad coupons and to my surprise, our store was stocked with plenty of $1 stockings.
(get it...stocked with stockings....)




To hang these socks, I reused a ribbon that was on one of the furniture sets we bought for Annelise @ PB Kids.
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3) Christmas!

On Christmas Eve we baked cookies and put them out with a glass of milk for Santa. The kids scurried to bed at a unseen speeds and were out like a light in seconds.

On Christmas morning, Annelise was up at the crack of dawn and was astonished the presents she viewed from the top of the stairs. With persistence, she was successful in pulling Mike and I out of bed.

Annelise was in total awe and kept screaming "oh my gosh Santa" in delight!

And the fire station kept our little firefighter entranced for hours!

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4) Setting the Table

2009 was the first year that I actually put in some effort with setting the table. For some reason I did not have the passion for it that I do now.

The only new additions to the table were the place mats and napkins from Dillards.

This high class tableware only cost a pretty penny...well maybe a little more but darn close....

Place Mats only $2.40 ea. & Napkins only $1.80 ea.

Hopefully next year I will have something a little more elaborate and will invest a little more craft and thought!
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5) Clean-Up

No pictures to show for this but trust me, my house was a complete disaster after the in-laws came to visit and eat Christmas dinner.

My hubby & I were up into the wee hours of the night picking up the wrappings, washing dishes, doing laundry & wiping down counters.

Fortunately, we decided not to wash the floors before the company came so we would have clean floors for longer than an evening ;)
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Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays & Happy New Year
from Anne, Mike, Annelise & Michael @
The Loyd Collection

Deck the Halls....

Christmas is almost here and we just finished the last of the decorating. Our shopping is pretty much finished and there are only a couple more things to buy for the kids' stockings!

Last weekend we hung the garland on the stairs.
We skipped this "project" last year so remembering what connected where and how was a bit of a chore.

A couple years ago I had finally completed my garland set with my purchases at the after Christmas sale at Target. I am way to cheap to pay full price so I had used some make shift garland that I paid a couple dollars for at Michael's in the past.

We affixed the garland with zip ties. Instead of wrapping the ties directly on the banister, we used strips of bubble wrap the protect the wood. Then we tied ribbons over the ties and bubble wrap and who could tell.

100th Post!

So this is my 100th post and I should have something special but I don't! I will celebrate soon with a giveaway after the holidays! I have to admit that I am already have too much on my plate these days!

Last night, I put together some little signs for Secret Santa @ work. I had already gotten her a scarf but want to add a couple little things to it as well.


I started with some signs similar to this one from Dollar Tree, which cost a $1 (if you didn't guess).


I got busy painting the signs with black craft paint using a foam brush.






While the paint was drying, I broke open my new cricket cartridge that I absolutely scored from cricitmachine.com for about $18 and some change. I did have to pay for shipping for for two, the shipping was about $6! Well worth it

The same cartridge was going for about $50 at Hobby Lobby when I eye spied it about a month ago.

I cut stencils on the cricut and applied the stencil with white craft paint.

After the stencil work dried, I brushed a very light amount of black craft paint over the design to give it an aged look.

And voila!

Shopping for a Two Year Old is Hard to Do!

Little Michael is at that in between age. He is 2 little for many of the "cool" toys and 2 big for the baby toys!



When Annelise was 2, we bought her a Power Wheels Jeep that sat in our garage for the last 2 years. I still think Michael would love a Lightening McQueen Power Wheels but Mike is convinced that he is 2 little to drive and he will be just fine as a passenger in the Jeep!

So this will be the year of houses. Annelise is getting a dollhouse....and Michael will be getting a firehouse!

Shhhhhh....Can You Keep a Secret?

We....I mean Santa Claus....just began Christmas shopping for the kids and I am so excited about what they are getting this year!

Since my husband and his daily news programs remind me that this is the worst economy since the Great Depression, I cashed out my Amex points for gift cards. The options are limited to high end out-of-my budget stores so I went with my favorite...did you guess Pottery Barn? (BTW, did you know Amex does e-certificates for PB? I didn't even have to wait for them to come in the mail!!!)

I tried something different with Annelise because 1. she is way beyond her four years of age and 2. too smart for her own good on almost every occasion. I suggested that we needed to go shopping online and in the mall before we visited Santa and so she knows exactly what she is going to ask for when she has her moment with him.

Of course, we searched the PBK site together (after I'd already looked about five times before, cashed out my points and I already had my mind made up on what to get her). My plan was in place and I had been warming her up to the idea of a dollhouse in conversation. It was easy because every little girl wants one!
(Okay...so we used my computer but you get it, right?)

Due to the fact that Annelise is practically me 22 years ago, she immediately chose the same one I did on her own....(Sigh of relief)

We headed off to mall because Annelise needed to make sure that this was the exact dollhouse she was going to ask Santa for and she needed to deliver the message to him in person...And did I mention I was in serious need of a shopping fix and online shopping just does not have the same effect?

At our mall, the PB Kids store does not have it's own entrance from the outside so we were forced to walk through PB. I loaded up on catalogs and drooled as my husband drug me over to PB Kids. In those few moments, I retained plenty of inspiration for future projects and had reference materials.

My little Annelise loved the PB store too...she was oooing and ahhhhing. She's the apple of my eye ;)

We did make it to PB Kids and I was reliving my childhood. Annelise was drawn to the Westport Dollhouse and claimed it as her own. I was surprised with how larger it was in person than I thought it would be from the internet pictures.

The Westport was an easy transaction to make as Annelise was glued to the display with my husband. Plus I had money left to spend on my gift card so my Amex was thanking me!

Fortunately, PB Kids is high class and they make deliveries to your trunk in the dark of the night. Annelise thought we were getting a barbecue grill for Grandma and Grandpa. She had absolutely no idea and was excited that we were getting them a grill for Christmas....

The code word for her dollhouse is now BBQ Grill.

My in-laws do already have a grill so we will be telling her that we changed our mind on that grill later on.

Did I mention that furniture for this house is ala cart and it comes to more than the actual house itself. I have suggested that the in-laws get some accessories for this "bbq grill" and I will be cashing out more points when then post in the next couple days!

Stay tuned for Little Michael's big gift!

It's All in the Packaging

I just received my Bebe.com order in the mail from using the $10 off $10.01 promo code that I stumbled upon recently and to top it off there was free shipping!



There was quite a bit to choose from but I just ordered a couple pairs of panties and out of pocket spent about $6. But the best part of all, was the packaging! They came in a cute little box, wrapped in brown and pink polka dotted tissue paper and sealed with gold.

The deal is still on plus Bebe has added a 30% coupon that can be stacked! Plus shipped to you at no cost! Here's the codes:

1) 30% Off Code
UNWRAP30

2) $10 Off Code
SURPRISE

3) Free Shipping
No Code Necessary

But hurry, the $10 off Code Expires 12/11 & the 30% Code Expires 12/13

Here's the link!

Where Does the Time Go?

I just realized that today is Wednesday! I am not quite sure where the time is going and how it came to be December 9th already.

Did I mention that I have not completed decorating for Christmas and had great plans for the mall Santa visit before the crowds started? That all went out the window when Michael was too sick first. The following week, Annelise and I were sick. Thereafter, my husband was sick and now Michael is sick again!
I have been doing laundry like mad, picking up the house constantly and yet my house is still a disaster.

Last night I was able to fit in half of Julie and Julia and I finished the rest tonight before I had to run the rental back before I was charged for another night. After all, I did rent the movie with a free promo code so what would be the point of paying for the second night?

Hopefully I will have won the lottery tonight and can craft my days away~If that fails, I guess I will just have to wait for the weekend to come!