I'm aliiiive!

It's been a while. Okay, a really long while. I have two toddlers, and the memory of a goldfish. I come bearing gifts...will that get me out of trouble? :)

Summer is upon us, and it's hot. Hotter in some places than others, but this giveaway seems very appropriate given that summer just started. I got the Dry Idea deodorant a couple weeks ago, and have been using it since it arrived. I hadn't used a roll on deodorant in some time, but this one didn't disappoint! It worked just as well as my normal antiperspirant, and I will continue to use it until it's gone. I'll have to hunt for it more often in my couponing adventures! :)

Purex has teamed up with Dry Idea and allowed me to host this wonderful giveaway THREE coupons for free Dry Idea AdvancedDry. Anyone interested?

I have four ways for you to win!

1. Leave me a comment telling me what your favorite summer activity is. 

2. Bring someone over! Tell a friend about Frills & Freckles, and have them follow me and leave a comment saying you sent them.

3.. Head over to Dry Idea's facebook page, like them, and leave a link to my blog (giveaway) telling them that I sent you!

4. Dry Idea is hosting a sweepstakes worth over $1,000 in prizes! Who doesn't love free stuff? Use the unique url, and enter the contest! Dry idea sweepstakes!

Don't forget to leave a comment for any of the entries you complete! You must also be a blog follower to win. Contest will end on 12:00pm EST on 7/1/12. Good luck!

DISCLAIMER - Dry Idea provided a free sample of their Advanced Dry Roll-On for review. 

However, all the opinions are my own!

Thank you Fisher Price!

Last Christmas, Breleigh's big gift was the Fisher Price IXL Learning System. After tons of research, review reading, and store browsing, we I finally decided on that one. We've been through quite a few sets of batteries. She absolutely loves it. But I'm also very careful about where she uses it, and what she's doing with it. I didn't spend $80 (the price at the time) for her to turn around and toss the darn thing on the floor.

Probably six weeks ago, she went to turn it on, and you could see the backlight, but it wouldn't do ANYTHING. No sounds, no picture, nada. I emailed Fisher Price about the problem, and they told me to do their live chat to troubleshoot to see if they could talk me through it to fix the problem. Wouldn't you know that halfway through our troubleshooting, my computer would NOT reconnect to the chat. I must have talked to four different people before I finally gave up. By the time I got back to the computer, I had an email from Fisher Price Consumer Relations telling me that they were going to replace her IXL. They emailed me a label, I paid for the shipping, and mailed it to them. We received the IXL from UPS today. About three days after an email stating they were sending it back. Not only did they replace it, but they replaced it with an "updated" version that had a  new look and more content.

I can't begin to praise Fisher Price enough for their help and quickness and resolving this problem. We planned to take the IXL with us to Disney in two weeks, and I was worried it wouldn't be fixed in time. No worries. I didn't have to argue with anyone about why the toy was broken, or a receipt, or how long it was broken. They quickly remedied the problem. Thanks for the great customer service, Fisher Price!

Can't stop me now!

I promised you a new DIY project, didn't I? Well, I finally found some time to finish it. I wanted to make Breleigh a new tank top before summer is already here starts. We do live in Florida, after all, and winter doesn't stick around for too long. I didn't  have a pattern, but patterns and I don't agree anyway, so I just kind of went with it. It did take me four hours, but since I started from scratch, I guess it could have been worse. So here is all of my hard work and pin pokes on my little beauty of a model. She is gorgeous, isn't she?

I had to work hard for that smile. Once I finally did get a smile she said "Mooooom! Take a picture of a funny face!" So, in typical Breleigh fashion...

 

 

Don't be surprised, this is normal for her :)

I am a DIY ninja.

Okay, not really. But I just saw the Walmart commercial about being a ninja, and I quietly giggle every time. Quietly because I get made fun of otherwise. Anyway, back on track.
One of my goals for this year was to do at least one DIY project a month. Well I'm awesome and just finished my second one of the month (The third will be done by the end of this week, holla! Wait for pictures). I have a slight obsession with Pinterest, so while I'm not cool enough to think of any of this stuff on my own, I like to think I make nice additions to the massive overload of ideas that is Pinterest.
I needed something for the blank wall in our bedroom. I had a frame that I got for free because it had a defect, and took the mat out since it was the defective part. The frame itself is gorgeous, I think.

 

Supplies: Frame, one piece of scrapbook paper, any kind of stick on letters (or just print on the paper if you want), and some ribbon! I already had the frame, so I spent $5 after coupons for the rest.

After putting the letters in. I had to glue the ribbon to the back of the frame since it didn't have any kind of hanging hooks or anything.

And you may laugh at this, but unless you have a man around to do the laundry, you don't realize how awesome it is ;) He does laundry, I vacuum. Trust me, it's an even trade where hate for chores is concerned.

So easy, and literally took me 10 minutes if you don't count the drying time for the ribbon. And should make for interesting comments with the dry erase marker lol

DIY, Rewind.

I redid my daughters' dressers a while back, and it seems they were well liked, thankfully :) A lot of people asked me how I did it (a couple people asked me how much they cost, score!), so I guess this is an easy way to do it all at once! I found two identical small Broyhill three drawer dressers (in near perfect condition) for $20 for the pair. Half of the pictures have managed to vanish into thin air, so this is what I could find.

This is what they looked like prior to painting. 

After sanding.

After two coats of white paint.

This was the most time consuming parts to do. I had to paint each drawer face and handle pink or green. Then I brushed on some mod podge, and added the diecut type scrapbook paper (I just cut it to size before hand). I added another coat of Mod Podge on top of it, and it dried completely clear!

Oh, hello there!

If you manage to find this, thanks for reading! I hope I have plenty to tell you on a more constant basis than I do cleaning some other things! New year, new resolutions. That pretty much makes me like everyone else. This blog is one of many things I'd like to work on this year. So keep reading, and I'll keep writing, k?


I suppose a short introduction is appropriate :)
My name is Amanda, and I'm a born and raised Floridian. Although I don't usually prefer the beach, I'm all about warm weather. I lived in Wisconsin briefly, and let's just say snow is not for me. I have an eight year old stepdaughter, a sassy three year old daughter, and a newly turned one year old not so little boy. I'm sure you'll see plenty of pictures! Oh wait...here they are now!

Chloe, Mason, Breleigh

Okay, now that we've gotten that cuteness out of the way...
I love to do DIY projects (thanks to a possibly unhealthy obsession with Pinterest), I have heavily packed shelves in my garage due to my couponing, and a huge stash of fabrics because of my love for self taught sewing. Stick around, you'll see plenty of it all! And send your friends over too! ::hinthint:: I'll be doing giveaways and reviews!