Hey there, folks!

So sorry that today’s post is so late. Yesterday was so full (home-schooling, blogging, cleaning, food prep, errands, back-to-back fitness classes to teach, friends over for dinner) that I’m not sure I remember breathing.

And then last night…oh, last night was fun. The five-year-old woke up 4 (FOUR) times crying with a very stuffy nose. I finally hauled his 50-pound-self into bed with me @ 1:45 AM, only to have the baby wake up @ 3:30 with an equally stuffy nose. She was up again @ 5:30.

Now, I know that so many of you deal with much, much more trying things on a daily basis, but for a mama that’s used to having her kids sleep all night every night, last night was a bit traumatic.

So…the world’s most convoluted explanation for a tardy post ever, but the point is that I’ve been playing catch-up (on very little sleep) all day.

Let’s start with this week’s:

five days five ways | 5 Things Thursday

…the linky party where you list 5 things with pics of whatever’s on your mind.

This week’s theme is:

Sweet Things

I would love it if you would link up (or leave comments about) whatever 5 things are making your life sweeter right now, but if you’d rather just link up 5 pieces of randomness or a different theme, I’m totally fine with that as well, though.

The “rules”:

1) Please link up to your specific 5 Things post rather than your blog’s homepage, and

2) Please place the Five Things Thursday button (left sidebar) somewhere on your page or post so that others can join in the fun. 

That’s it!

Happy listing-making! : )

My 5 sweet things are:

1, Chocolate Cream Pie (click for the recipe)

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I don’t know if I saw it somewhere, and it got lodged in my subconscious or what, but sometime last week, I got a huge craving for chocolate cream pie (which I never eat), and I finally caved and went for it. It was ridiculously yummy.

2. Sweet Potato Cream Cheese Pie (recipe from the back of the Pillsbury deep dish frozen pie crust package)

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I knew we were having friends over in a few days, and two crusts came in the package, so of course I had to make another pie. This one turned out just as well as the chocolate. Two pies…two winners. That doesn’t happen every week (translation: ever) around here.

3. Vanilla cupcakes

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So, just in case you haven’t already lapsed into a sugar coma after the first two pictures, here’s yet another example of deliciousness. These mini-treats are my go-to birthday cupcakes (I’ll post the recipe soon, but for now, just imagine the moistest, fluffiest mouthfuls of cakey, creamy goodness with just a hint of almond extract). In this case, I made them for Mandy’s birthday. Of course, then the restaurant brought out 3 huge complimentary slabs of cake for everyone to share, and not nearly enough of these little guys got eaten, leaving me with the odious task of taking them home and doing the honors. It was tough, but I managed. ; )

4. My kiddos (minus Della) with 4 of their best buds—who happen to be the children of both my husband’s and my best buds—playing together in harmony. Very sweet, indeed.

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5. Baby girl’s first fall dress. 

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This little girl continually amazes me with her sweetness and ability to brighten my day…especially when she’s wearing a pretty, corduroy floral dress and vintage red patent leather shoes (I can’t believe she’s going to be 1-year-old in a month…*sniff*).

So, how about you? Ready to link-up?

 

But WAIT…wasn’t there something else from yesterday? What was it?…Oh yes! Thrifted or Grifted. I’ve left you hanging all day wondering which outfit was thrifted, and now I have the honor of informing you that you guys rocked it!

91 of you (61%) said that Exhibit B was Thrifted, and you were right (mostly…I’ll explain).

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Tank: Clothes-swap ($0), Shirt: Clothes-swap ($0), Skirt: Garnet Hill/GW ($4), Belt: GW ($1), Headband: GW ($1), Boot: Genuine leather vintage Halston/GW ($6)

TOTAL: $12 (I cheated a bit on this one since the first two items weren’t technically thrifted, but they are secondhand, and I honestly didn’t think about it until after the pictures were already taken).

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Dress: Target ($11), Belt: Target ($9), Boots: Real Sued White Mountain ($30)

TOTAL: $50

As always, I had a blast reading your thoughts on which was which and why. 

Some said that the white eyelet dress fit too well to be thrifted. Some thought it fit too well to be retail. And I think at least one person thought it was too ill-fitting not to be thrifted. : )

One sweet reader gave me the benefit of the doubt that I would never buy a headband from Goodwill for fear of lice, and I have to point out that, while I did buy it from Goodwill, it was in a display case with the original tags from the store on it. Although…my head has been feeling a bit itchy lately (JOKE!).

Can I be honest and just say that I pretty much expected you guys to get this one right?

Why?

Because you know me pretty well by now, and you know that I’m pretty darn cheap. So, you also know that an outfit with as many pieces as Exhibit B would get pretty pricey pretty quickly at retail (even clearance) prices. In fact, several of you based your votes on that reason alone (well done!).

So, even though it may mean that I “lost” this round, I salute you all for your sharp thrifting eyes and thank you for playing along with our fun little fashion game. Makes me smile!

Oh, and I chose Megan for the 5 free entries into The October Giveaway. She said: “Love the second outfit…I’m going to guess that is the thrifted one. It looks so “vintagy”(yep it’s a word cuz I made it up)! And, this may be silly, but I think it is much cuter than the first outfit and so must be the one you want us to like more. Overthinking much? ;-)”

I’m a huge fan of:

a) made-up words

b) overthinking

c) people who like my thrifted outfits ; )

Congrats, Megan!

See you guys tomorrow for Feature Friday!

 

0 Comments

  1. Thank you so much for posting the recipe, Rachel! And REALLY thank you for including me in your list of sweet things. It came at pretty much the perfect time and was a huge blessing to me. No kidding. I didn’t think it was dorky at all, and I loved the rest of your list too. Breaking glass @ 5 am…yeah, that so sounds like something I’ve done at least once.

  2. Oh, who cares about being behind. I just love reading your lists whenever you get the chance to write them out. And I hear ya on the sugar, girl! It’s my arch-nemesis too! CONGRATS on getting so close to your goal weight…I’m sure you’ll make it soon. Sounds like you’re working hard!

  3. I’m a bit behind as always, but had to get in on the sweets!! I have a total sweet tooth and that’s what usually takes me down in all my weight loss efforts 🙂 (I’m only 5 lbs away from my goal weight so I gotta steer clear of all things on my list!)
    So here goes, my 5 fave sweet things:
    1. Ice cream – always makes the top of the list – most any flavor too, but love me some peanut butter cup and all things Bluebell 🙂
    2. Apple pie – I love all things apple & cinnamon and this is a fave (with ice cream of course!)
    3. Pumpkin pie – yes, I’m one of those who always saves room for this one at Thanksgiving. Can pass on the pecan, but always gotta have some pumpkin. My MIL makes me a pumpkin pie for my b-day each year
    4. Chocolate cake – my sis-in-law makes the best one – moist w/ delectable icing
    5. Brownies – goes along with my love of all things chocolate – gotta have the homemade of course – with nuts please!
    I don’t have any pics to link up this week 🙁 no one would enjoy seeing a pic of me stuffing my face w/ ice cream….haha!

  4. I wasn’t offended one single bit! : ) I just thought it was funny that more people didn’t use the same reasoning as you did. I was expecting them to! ; ) And I love having you read my posts each day. Such a treat to have such awesome readers!

  5. Hahaha sorry about the lice comments! I hope you weren’t offended by my honesty…lol! I guess I can’t really talk, because I get headbands on Ebay sometimes! Thankfully those are in plastic wrapping, too – usually!! ha, just kidding. Have a great week, I love reading your posts every day.

  6. OK, I wasn’t going to do a list, but I wanted to let you know that I had to look up the sweet potato pie and pillsbury has the recipe online: https://www.pillsbury.com/recipes/cream-cheese-sweet-potato-pie/a6fa05fc-e052-4f44-b570-23a76c2da11f/ You know, just in case anyone else just has to have the recipe now.

    I don’t blog but I feel like I should still do a list of 5 sweet things. So, here goes: 1) my husband – he is sweet for putting up with me even when I break glass all over the bedroom at 5am 2) my newest niece – she is always full of smiles and is so adorable (she will also be 1 next month and I can’t believe it) 3) the garage that my dad is building us – this will also make #1 sweeter (he gets upset about the parking situation) 4) anything chocolate 5) you – ok, I know this is really dorky but I love reading your posts because you always crack me up and I can’t believe you ever find time to post, let alone when you have nights where you don’t get any sleep. So props to you.

I love hearing from you guys!