Justice Shopping for MiMi's 9th Birthday on the CHEAP?

So, my daughter has an afinity with Justice, only, in my opinion, Justice is really expensive. Granted the stuff is super cute! - Just, OUCH on my bank account. I tend to only shop mega sales or discounts.

This week Justice had 40% off plus earn $50 J bucks for every $50 spent. (I ended up spending $153 so I get $150 back) I hated that s&h was a whopping $20 - but, again, I am cheap ;)

Since her birthday is in less than a month, I let her splurge a little.  I think for everything I got (to include a gorgeous $41 birthday dress and $25 heals to match) I did alright. Here is what we got (mind you we are getting $150 back, which virtually makes this having me spend only the $3 and $20 s&h out of pocket). By the way, I saved $253 off retail value.

(Below: Birthday Outfit)

Light Mint Kitchen and Dining Room.

For the last several years, my kitchen had rocked Behr's grasscloth green, and it was an awesome color and to be honest, it was possibly my favorite color in the house.

When I first purchased my home in 2004 it was salmon pink, and I'm sure it was a popular color at whatever interval the previous owner's decided to paint it that way, however, it just wasn't my thing.

Over the last few years I had gone to more blues and neutrals in my home and the green just didn't seem to flow with the Subtle Taupe living room color. Shame.

I decided I wanted a light mint color, given that I loved the mint in my den so much, I picked one shade lighter off the same paint card and had at it with Lowe's Valspar paint in Aspiration.

The card color looks NOTHING like you'd imagine, but SUCH a beautiful PERFECT, calm and relaxing neautral LIGHT MINT. It's seriously THAT beautiful. Here are some cell phone images of my new paint color, it took ONE coat and a day of moving things around, but I am so happy. It flows perfectly with the Subtle Taupe in the living room.

**EDIT** New Photos off Camera:

BELOW LO RES. CELL CAM IMAGES:

 I am a messy painter...

(Below: new paint color, old green color, and previous owner's salmon color haha)

(Below: Mommy's little helper )

Valentine's Day Lollipop Cards DIY

I should note that THIS IS NOT my original idea. I have seen this idea a few times on pinterest, and on a whim decided that after seeing them for YEARS, this WOULD be my year to have at it for the kids. AND very literally, right after their nightly showers, I set up a white backdrop stand and had them hold their fists out, snapped a pic of each kiddo and put two images on a 4x6 (to save money) and sent them to Wal Mart's 1 hour photo.

The next day, I went to Wal Mart (the prints are always darker than at the professional lab I use, but they still came out nice) and bought 4 bags of blow pops and an x acto knife and had fun with the kids:)

Please excuse the cellphone quality of the pictures, between work and everything else I find myself barely putting 100% into the blog anymore:)

Anyways, VALENTINE'S DIY LOLLIPOP CARDS!!