Liebster Award

Thank you to Meredith for nominating me for a Liebster Award!  It's not technically an award, just something fun to do to get know some other bloggers.  

RULES

1. Link back to the person who nominated you.

2. Write 11 facts about yourself once nominated.

 3. Answer the 11 questions from the person who nominated you.

4. Nominate 11 blogs with 200 or less followers.

5. Create 11 Questions for those bloggers to answer.

11 Facts About Me
1.  I have a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration from Baker College.
2.  I love football and baseball.  I'm a huge fan of my home state teams; the Detroit Lions and the Detroit Tigers.
3.  My fiance and I bought a house in August and we LOVE being home owners.
4.  I'm getting married on June 29, 2013.
5.  We are going to Atlantic City for our honeymoon.
6.  I have the most adorable (I might be a little biased) dog named The Admiral (just Admiral or Ad for short).
7.  I love the beach.  I could spend every day sitting on the beach reading.
8.  I played basketball, softball, and I was a cheerleader all four years of high school.
9.  I usually only shop sale or clearance racks.  I hate paying full price for anything.
10.  When cooking or baking, I have to follow a recipe exactly, or it usually doesn't turn out.
11.  I have one sister that is two years younger than me and she currently lives in Tennessee.

11 Questions from Meredith

1. Favorite Holiday?

Christmas.  I love being with family, and of course all of the yummy food and Christmas cookies!

2. Least favorite chore?

Doing the dishes.  I don't know what I would do without my dishwasher.

3. Favorite book or series?

I love James Patterson books.  I loved his Women's Murder Club series.  I own them all!

4. Online shopping or head to the store?

Depends.  I like the convenience of online shopping, but I usually like to see something in person before I buy it, so I usually head to the store.

5. Dream car?

A black GMC Acadia.  If you would have asked me this what I was about 8, I would have said a purple sparkly convertible with a lightning bolt on the side.  Boy how we change our minds as we get older...

6.What's in a name, reason behind your blog name.

I started this blog while I was engaged and house hunting.  Things were just so crazy in my life at that point, so I decided on "This Crazy Thing Called Life."  I'm still engaged, but we finally bought our house, so at least one part of my life has settled down a little :)

7. What's your go-to snack?

I usually bring a string cheese and some mixed nuts to work, so I snack on those during the day at work.  At home, I don't really snack that much.

8. If you could pick one celebrity to be your BFF, who would it be?

I'm a huge Justin Timberlake lover fan, and since he's married, and I'm getting married, maybe we could just be BFF's since our romantic relationship hasn't happend yet.

9. Most loved piece of clothing/shoes/accessories.

I don't know if I could pick one item.  I love coats/jackets.  And bathing suits.  It's hard to pick just one thing...I'm a girl for crying out loud!

10. Favorite / Most visited store?

I love Kohls.  It's the only store that I have a credit card for.  I also love Target. And Marshalls/TJ Maxx.

11.What are you looking forward to this year?

Getting married!  June 29 will be here before I know it.  And the honeymoon...can't wait for Atlantic City!

My 11 Nominations:

Lindsey @ The Things They Don't

Danielle @ Goodwillista

Amanda @ everyday b&b

Cayli @ Night Chayde

Britt @ True Britt

Ashley @ Cup Of Ash Tea

Erin @ Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost
Jennie @ The Diary of a Real Housewife
Nicole @ Adventures of a Semper Fi Family
Katie @ Dreaming in Lace and Pearls
Jessica @ My Bag of Sunshine


11 Questions:
1.  Why did you start your blog?
2.  What is your dream job?
3.  Do you have any pets?
4.  What is your go-to outfit or accessory?
5.  Who is your favorite band/musician?
6.  What is your favorite place to go on vacation?
7.  What is your favorite movie?
8.  If you could go on a $1,000 shopping spree, where would you go and what would you buy?
9.  Do have any weird or hidden talents?
10.  What is your "signature" dish/meal that you cook?
11.  What was your favorite subject in school?

Weekend Recap: Chicago

In case you missed it, Friday was Admiral's 2nd Birthday!  Kevin and I got him a new football for his birthday.  We dropped him off at my parents on Friday night because Kevin and I were headed for Chicago on Saturday morning.

We went to Chicago to help move Kevin's cousin in to his new apartment.  After a hard day's work (by the boys, not me), we of course headed to Giordano's for the best pizza ever.

We left Chicago Sunday morning, picked up Admiral, and then headed home.  I ended up making some super yummy, super easy, super healthy cookies on Sunday night.

Ingredients:

2 ripe bananas

1 cup quick oats

1/4 cup chopped pecans (or walnuts)

Steps:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. Grease non-stick baking sheet

3.  Mash ripe bananas

4.  Mix in oats, then chopped pecans

5.  Spoon tablespoon size amounts on to baking sheet

6.  Bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees and enjoy!

I told you they were easy!  You could even add some chocolate chips if you wanted.  They are great for a quick breakfast or a yummy snack.

I hope you all had a great weekend.  I'm linking up with Sami to share my weekend recap, and you should too :)

Happy Birthday Admiral!

Admiral is two years old today!  I can’t believe my baby is two already!

I can't believe how fast two years went by.  It seems like just yesterday he was a tiny little puppy.

Kevin and I got Admiral a new football for his birthday because he tore his old one up.  I can't wait to give it to him tonight!

Admiral gets to go to celebrate his birthday weekend with my parents, because Kevin and I are headed to Chicago for the weekend to help his cousin move.

Happy Birthday Admiral!  We love you so much!!

Saw It, Pinned It, Did It: St. Patrick's Day Printable

By now, you may have realized that I have a slight obsession with printables.  If you haven't noticed my obsession, see here, here, and here.  Today is no different.  I'm linking up with Steph and Katie to show off my St. Patrick's Day printable.

Original Pin:

Source: thetomkatstudio.com via Ericka on Pinterest

The pin brings you to a site that has both of the printables shown in two different sizes.  I choose the "Kiss Me" printable because it was a 5x7 and would fit perfectly in my frame.

So, all you do is print it (I always print mine on cardstock), cut it out, and insert in your frame.  Super easy and super cheap holiday decorations!  Here's what mine looks like on display in my living room:

Be sure to check all of the other great SPD ideas from other amazing bloggers!

Wedding Unity Sand

If you're planning a wedding, or even if you aren't, you've probably seen this cute Unity Sand Shadow Box on Pinterest:

Source: mybellewedding.com via Ericka on Pinterest

The first time I saw it, I knew I had to have it.  It was different, and it was something that I would actually keep and display in our home after the wedding.  So, after searching several different sites to see where I could find it the cheapest, I ended up ordering it from My Wedding Reception Ideas for $40.  Shipping was expensive at $13.15, which made the total cost $53.15.  A little expensive, yes, but worth it in my opinion.

Here's what ours looks like:

It comes with the two clear glass sand pouring vases, so the only other thing I had to buy was the sand.  I got my sand from Hobby Lobby when it was 50% off, so they were only $1.50 each.  Our wedding colors are different shades of purple and some white, so I got dark purple and white sand.

Now I just need to figure out where exactly I am going to display the shadow box after the wedding!

- Ericka

Weekend Recap: Fun in the Snow

Finally, a fairly uneventful weekend!  Friday night, Kevin and I did our typical pizza and TV lazy Friday night.  Saturday morning we got ready and dropped Admiral off to get a bath and haircut, then we headed to lunch and to our first marriage counseling appointment (which went pretty well, in case you were wondering).

Admiral was very tired after his bath and haircut.

Saturday night we just hung out at home.  Some of Kevin's family that hadn't seen the house yet stopped over to see it real quick, and then we just relaxed for the rest of the night.

Sunday morning I went grocery shopping and then had a very productive day at home.  I think I did about 48 loads of laundry (or like 6, same thing), and I worked on cleaning out our office.  Our office has also been our "catch-all" room since we moved in.  We just put all of the boxes in there and have slowly been unpacking them.  I made some progress on Sunday, but we still have a long way to go.

Since the weather was so nice on Sunday, we decided to spend some time outside playing with Admiral, and we decided to build a snowman!  The snowman doesn't have any arms, because Admiral loves sticks and he would have just taken the arms off and ran way with them.

I hope you all had a great weekend too!  I'm looking forward to a non-busy week and a fun weekend in Chicago!

I'm linking up with Sami to share my weekend recap.

Saw It, Pinned It, Did It: Floating Jars

I'm linking up once again with Katie and Steph for Saw It, Pinned It, Did It.  This week, I may have stolen borrowed an idea from Katie.  She did a project like this a little over a month ago and I loved it so much, that I decided I needed to do it too!  So while I saw this project first on Katie's blog:

Source: mykeepcalmandcarryon.com via Ericka on Pinterest

I also drew some inspiration from the following pin on Pinterest:

Source: Uploaded by user via Ericka on Pinterest

Supplies:

Hooks

Screws

Drill

Hanging Wire

Mason Jars

Step 1

The first thing I did was purchase these super cute spoon and fork hooks from JJEvensenArt on etsy.  They have lots of other styles and some that you can even personalize.  The hooks come with the screws, so you don't have to worry about finding the right size.  I just picked a spot on the wall to hang them, had my Dad bring his drill over, and drilled the hooks in to the wall.  Super easy.  

Step 2:

Choose your mason jars and add hanging wire to them.  I chose two different size mason jars.  There really is not a good way to explain how to wrap the hanging wire around the jars.  For me it was trial and error.  Just make sure the wire is tightly wrapped around the jars and leave enough extra wire to add a loop to hang your jars.

Step 3:

Hang your mason jars on the hooks and fill with whatever you want.  Just make sure it's nothing too heavy.  You don't want your jars falling!  I decided to fill mine with wine corks :)

I don't have an actual dining room in my house, just a little eat-in area in the kitchen.  It's really the only open wall in my kitchen, since the rest of the walls have cabinets on them, so this was the only place I could really hang them.

  I wanted something to go next to my wine rack on the wall, and thought these would be cute.  I think adding the wine corks was a good way to tie the wine rack and the floating jars together.