5 Minute Southwest Chicken Salad

5 Minute Southwest Chicken Salad

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias inc, and it's advertiser, all thoughts and opinions are my own. #WhatsYourRanch #CollectiveBias
With Derek's new job, my desire to make elaborate dinners each night has decreased ten fold. With his old job I knew he would be getting off of work promptly at 4pm, and we lived less than a mile from his office which meant he was home around 4:08. Life was so predictable and easy. Now that he's on salary, and we live 5 miles away from his office, and his schedule varies by the day, making dinner just seems to fall at the bottom of my things to do, especially on nights when it's close to 6pm and the kids are going bonkers. I've learned to have an arsenal of dinners that can be prepared in minutes and don't take a thousand ingredients. 

When I was at Kroger last week I saw that Hidden Valley came out with some new dressings and I knew the Sweet Chili flavor would be bomb.com for a southwest chicken salad (spoiler alert: I was right). I've also learned that buying the pre-cooked chicken in the refrigerated section of the grocery store is pretty much the worlds biggest life saver. There is pretty much zero prep aside from opening a bag of lettuce, a container of chicken, two cans, and cutting a tomato. A monkey could do it. So when the weeknights are getting the best of you, and you don't know what to do for dinner, I highly recommend quick and easy salads like this because they're delicious, and you won't spend precious minutes in the kitchen. 




Ingredients:
1 8oz bag romaine lettuce
8oz canned corn
1 roma tomato
12oz cooked chicken, cooled and chopped
8oz black beans
Hidden Valley Sweet Chili Ranch

Directions:
Pour all the lettuce into a bowl, and then make a row of corn, followed by a row  of tomatoes, than a row  of the chicken, then a row of the beans. Drizzle the Hidden Valley Sweet Chili Ranch on top. Serve immediately. 


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The Small Business Salute + $100 Gift Card Giveaway!

The Small Business Salute + $100 Gift Card Giveaway!

This shop has been compensated by collective bias and it's advertiser, but all opinions are my own. #SmallBizSalute #CollectiveBias
Last week I attended the #SmallBizSaulte event at The Sky Lounge in Atlanta in support of small businesses for Small Business Appreciation Week. It was an amazing event with a lot of small business owners... Including the King of Pops himself. It was amazing to hear his story, and the hard work that he put into starting a popsicle shop from the ground up. I love the stories behind small businesses and take pride in every opportunity that I have to support them. 

Over here on the blog through the years, I've had the opportunity to help support my friend Lyndsey with Winsome Jones, my sister-in-law with Bed Buggs Boutique, my dear friend Haley with Tiny Tot Threads, collaborating with the girls over at Mint Julep Boutique, and styling pretty jewels from the girls over at Kluster Shop. Small businesses are the back bone to America, and our economy at a local, and national level, and so whenever I have the chance to shop local instead of the big box stores, I take the chance. 

It should also be known that The UPS Store knows how to throw a PART-TAY! The event was super fun with delicious treats, free swag, a photo booth, the works. They care so deeply about small businesses and even offer assistance to help get small business up and off the ground! 








Today you have the chance to win a $100 gift card from The UPS Store to use for all of you shipping and packaging needs! Enter using the rafflecopter below. Winner must be a US resident ages 18+. Giveaway will close Friday, May 15th at 11:59PM.

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DIY Library Tote Bag

DIY Library Tote Bag

Know those crafts that you set out to make that are supposed to be painfully easy? This is one of them. However, when I went to make it, everything that could go wrong, did. I went to print the picture from my printer, and ran out of ink. Then I ordered a new cartridge off of Amazon (the same refurbished ones we always get), and of course it didn't work. So I went to Target yesterday to get a new cartridge, and thankfully that one worked. However, I only had three pieces of iron on paper. The first one got wasted by the dead ink cartridge. Then I went to print a second one, and Jay swiped it from the printer right when it came out, and the ink was still wet and smeared all over. I finally got the picture printed off on the final sheet I had, but this easy project definitely turned into a labor of love for me. 

I've been wanting to get Jay a bag for the library for a while now. Whenever we go our library has baskets that we can use, buy Jay insists on carrying it all over and ends up hurting himself, and others with it because its awkwardly way too big for him to carry. And then there's the fact that when we leave I'm carrying Em, holding his hand, and some how stuffing 20 books into random places in my diaper bag. I decided it was time to spend the $5 and make him a bag to make the whole library experience easier on everyone.




Supplies:
Computer
White Canvas Tote Bag- $.99 at Michael's
Iron
Printer

Directions:

Go into picmonkey.com. Go to the design tab, and then click the 8x10 option. Create the design of your choice, I did my son's name inside one of the star overlays. Stretch it to as big as it will fit on the page, and then add the name. Save it to your desktop in the highest quality option.

Open Microsoft Word, or in my case, Open Office. You'll go insert > Picture > From File- and then insert the picture that you saved to your desktop. On the picture tool bar that will pop up click the flip horizontally option. You want your picture to be backwards when it prints out so that when you iron it on it will be flipped to the right way... shown in the picture above this text. 

This is the picture from round two of doing this with the new ink cartridge, but either before or after you flip the image, stretch it so that it fits the entire page on your computer screen. See the difference between the image on this picture, and the one above. 

Be sure to follow the directions for printing on your iron-on paper. Each one is a little different. But once your image is printed, you're ready to iron!

Flip the paper image side down on your tote bag, and then iron according to your packages instructions.

Then peel it off and you'll be done! Mine didn't come out as vibrant as I was originally planning, because I left the iron on too long and the page got stuck to the tote bag a little bit, but I actually really like the distressed/faded look of this one quite a bit!


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Home Tour: Nursery Reveal

Home Tour: Nursery Reveal

We finally got everything for Em's nursery a couple weeks ago, and I finally got everything just how I want it yesterday. I figured it was the prime time for me to take pictures while it looked spotless, and before Em completely threw up and destroyed the room again. Not that I'm telling you the charming details of our Sunday night or anything... 

I wanted the space to be functional, but girly, but not too over the top, and I think we found a great balance. Growing up I was a pretty big tom boy for a while and my mom always told me that one day I'd have a daughter and would want to be super girly with her, and she was right. I've said it a million times, but it really is attack of the pink in this room, and I'm really not even mad about it.

Also, let's just talk about the wall decor and that flower pillow for a moment shall we? They're from my favorite home decor Etsy shop, BegBuggs Boutique. Derek's brother Jacob, and his wife Krista own the shop, and they're amazing. BedBugss is their full time gig and I'm always super amazed at all the things they've been able to do with their business. Their story is pretty incredible and amazing, but Krista tells it a lot better than me, so you can read all about that here. 

Once we got settled into our house I ordered these wall canvasses in a heartbeat and I don't regret it one bit. They do an awesome job of filling the space above her crib, and seeing them everyday when I walk in there makes me so happy. We did get slightly spoiled when we ordered because my sister-in-law did throw in that pillow as a surprise for her new little niece, and that pillow seriously makes me a little giddy too. It was the perfect finishing piece for the room. Those flowers were cut and sewn by hand. Amazing right?










We didn't have anything to display all her hair bows so we looped them around the leg of the changing table, and they instantly became decor, and are all easily accessible!




Crib: Walmart
Wall Canvasses: BedBuggs Boutique
Flower Pillow: c/o BedBuggs Boutique
Quilt: Handmade (gifted)(similar)
Framed Floral Letter: DIY by Me (tutorial here)
Changing Table: Walmart
Crib Sheets: Walmart
Crib Matteress: Walmart
Curtains: Walmart
Curtain Rod: Walmart
Owl: Home Goods (similar)
Diffuser: Amazon
Laundry Hamper: Home Goods (similar)
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What's in My Beach Bag: Baby Edition

What's in My Beach Bag: Baby Edition

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias and it advertiser, all thoughts and opinions are my own. #CVSHuggiesHeroes #CollectiveBias


I've been doing this Mom gig for a while now. We're coming up on three years this August, and since we've lived in the south for all of those summers we've got plenty of beach, or lake day experience under our belt. I've learned that there are a lot of things I need to pack, and a lot of things that I don't. I also feel like the more kids I have, the less stuff I bring with me. I only have two arms, so more children means less things, and if it all can't fit in one reasonable sized bag, it's not coming with us. Plus, behind me is Derek with the umbrella, cooler, shovel, and pail, so he's incapable of helping with extras. Here is my list of ten things needed for every beach mom's bag:









Swim Diapers: I used to think these were super gimmicky, and the first time we took Jay swimming we didn't use them. As you can imagine the normal diaper exploded everywhere, made a huge mess, and forced us to learn the hard way that Huggies Swim Diapers are where it's at! They're also easy to grab on your way to the beach from CVS, and they always have sales, and coupons, like this $2 off $10 Huggies Purchase, so it's pretty much a no brainer. Also, pack some non-swim diapers and wipes for after swimming.

Bathing Suits: A little self explanatory but, just don't forget them! I like to change my kids at the beach so that they can have dry clothes to wear home, and bathing suits take up less room in the bag then an entire change of clothes for each kid.

Romper: I'm not that mom that likes to let it all hang out on the beach, and I find wearing a romper over my suit is just a lot more functional for playing in the sand, and I'm less likely to get sand in #alltheplaces.

Sunscreen: I kind of personally feel that baby specific sunscreen is a load of hoo ha. I just bring one spray bottle of SPF 100 Sport, spray us all down, and we're good to go. I should note that none of us have sensitive skin so my methods may not work for everyone, so if you use normal sunscreen on your child and they get a rash, don't kill me.

Towels: Another obvious one, but we don't bring a specific beach blanket, we just use our towels. Less things to pack and a double purpose.

Sunglasses: I bought my first pair of sunglasses in 10 years last year, and I was all, "where have these been all my life?"

Flotation Device: You know, because floating children are safe and happy children.

Baby Powder: This is one of those Pinterest hacks that really work. We rub this on ourselves before we go home and it takes all the sand off instantly.

Flip-flops: If for some reason we're not already wearing these on our feet, they'll get thrown in the bag so we haven them on the beach. There is pretty much nothing worse then dumping sand out of sneakers.

Hats: If you haven't noticed, we've all got pretty pale skin, blue eyes, and light hair over here. (Derek's hair is dark but he actually burns the worst out of all of us), we need the hats for complete skin protection!

So that's my list of beach necessities for my mommy beach day diaper bag! What are products that you can't live without? 
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