Just Make Your Man Build It #DigIn

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of The Home Depot.

As most of you know, we've been working hard building a raised garden bed over the past couple of weeks. We've been having so much fun with our raised garden bed plans and design, our trip to home depot, and now with the actual building process of our raised bed. Now we're getting to the nitty gritty and I'm so excited to share with you how you can build a raised garden bed and then share with you how ours turned out!

Remember how I mentioned in this post how I was going to totally take over and conquer the screw gun and not make Cory do most of the work? Well, I lied. I totally took on the role of camera woman and Alea & Bentley babysitter... and rocked it. Sometimes you just gotta stick to what you're good at. Cory can stick to the construction and I'll stick to the picture taking. However, once the veggie planting comes in, I'm all about getting my hands dirty. I promise!



We dove into the building process on Mother's Day after I got home from a relaxing afternoon at the coffee shop studying for finals. We had all of our materials ready to go, so as soon as I got home we got to work! We did one more once over and cleaned up our area and made sure it was as level as possible and then laid out our materials that we got from The Home Depot the weekend prior. Visit The Home Depot Garden Club site for a list of materials.


1. Layout all of your materials to ensure that you have everything that you need for the project.

2. Lay out your first level of boards.

3. Line up the stacking joints at each of the four corners.

4. Screw in each of the stacking joints at each corner with the screw gun.

5. Add another two boards-- a long one and a short one that will join at the corner-- and screw in a stacking joint with the screw gun. Repeat until all four corners are complete.

6. Add dirt + veggies!

I'm not even kidding you. It's really that simple. I almost feel a little silly posting the step-by-step instructions for you guys, but I know personally seeing it laid out like that is helpful! We thankfully didn't run into any problems with this project and it all went very smoothly. You do need two people when it comes to adding the second level of boards, but all in all this project could easily be completed in an afternoon. It went seamlessly even with a toddler running around!














Thankfully Alea was able to keep herself pretty busy throughout this entire building process. She blew bubbles, discovered a new joy for collecting rocks, and even enjoyed eating a little bit of dirt. Okay, so she didn't physically eat it, but you wouldn't even know the difference looking at the pictures below. Girlfriend was so dirty she left a ring of dirt around the bathtub afterwards! She had so much fun watching the garden bed come together and was really anxious to plant. However, we have to wait to get a trailer from our friends to haul dirt from our compost site and then our plan is to top off the raised garden bed with top soil. Boy was Alea disappointed when we told her that we'd have to wait and you bet she asked a couple times each day when we were going to plant vegetables!

And don't mind Alea's brown paints + black shoes combo. I'd say it's Cory's fault because he dressed her, but really I didn't do laundry so his pickins were pretty slim!











Our next step will be to load up our garden bed with dirt from the compost site and then fill the rest up with half a dozen bags of topsoil! I can't wait to share with you all the delicious vegetables and herbs we'll be planting. You can see this post for some of our choices, but there's a couple more that have been added to the list!

I've also been dreaming about our next outdoor projects and I've been looking for inspiration on Home Depot's Pinterest boards. Such a great resource for a collection of great and easy projects similar to this one! I'm also dying to make some adorable vegetable and herb markers for my garden as well. Be on the look out for a little DIY post for those in the near future!

It’s home improvement time, and The Home Depot has everything you need to #DigIn for Spring. No matter what projects you want to tackle, they have great values on all you need. They’re ready to help you with renovation ideas and expert advice, too.

Get over $300 in email exclusive savings each year, sneak peeks on new products, monthly lawn & garden ideas for your region and access to The Home Depot’s gardening experts. Click here (http://thd.co/ZNbhDj) to join the world’s largest garden community today! Or go to
http://gardenclub.homedepot.com/ to see some of the many benefits of membership.

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of The Home Depot.


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The BEST Summer Shoes

This post is sponsored by Shoedazzle, but all opinions are my own.

Honestly, what girl doesn't love shoes? And what girl doesn't love summer shoes. Is it just me or is summer the perfect time to freshen up your shoe wardrobe? Here in Minnesota we can't wear much other than boots in the winter, so when summer comes around I stock up on flip-flops galore and at least one or two pairs of cute sandals. This summer though? I'm on the lookout for a cute pair of wedges. Preferably yellow wedges, but a more neutral tone will do. I've mentioned this before, but I'm the kinda gal who likes a pair of shoes that can go with multiple outfits. I'm not really a statement piece kinda gal. I want bang for my buck!

And speaking of "bang for my buck," I'm always up for a good bargain, too! And at Shoedazzle you can get 25% off your first pair just by taking a sweet little quiz that shows you which shoes suit your style most. That's called saving time and money in my opinion!


Wedges|Flats|Slip-ons|Sandals

An entire collection of yellow shoes. A girl can dream right? I really love those flats. And those wedges. Okay... and every single one of them. If you didn't already know, yellow is my favorite color. Now I sound like a first-grader, but seriously it is! I love how bright & cheery it is. Perfect for spring! Which yellow shoes are your favorite?



Sandals #1|Boat shoes|Sparkle shoes|Polka-Dot Wedges|Sandals #2|Wedges

And since I'm a neutral kinda gal, I had to include some of my favorite "neutral" shoes, but I threw in a little pizazz for all you daring ladies as well! Those gold polka dot wedges are my absolute FAVORITE. But sad story? They're sold out. Any of these other shoes are neutral enough to be compatible with any outfit in your wardrobe though. And that's what neutral's all about, isn't it?

Now head on over to Shoedazzle.com and take the quiz to find out which shoes fit YOUR unique style. And don't forget to come back & let me know your favorites! I can't wait to see which ones you pick!



Thank you to Shoedazzle for sponsoring this post. Though compensation was provided, the opinions expressed in this post are 100% my own.

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Awkward + Awesome

I've always been a huge fan of Sydney from The Daybook's "awkward and awesome" posts. She just cracks me up.
This is my lame attempt at a similar post. Complete with awesomely awkward outfit photos of myself. You're welcome.



Outfit photo rule #1: Whatever you do, don't look at the camera.


Awkward:
-I burnt my elbow while curling my hair. MY ELBOW. I don't even know.
-My CPR instructor said she loved looking at me. That I'm just one of those people that's "fun to look at." And then told me not to be creeped out. Too late.
-Spending way too much time getting ready only to find out you can't go anywhere due to the weather. What the H.
-Checking out at the grocery store and the cashier thinks that I'm Alea's babysitter. Actually, that's not awkward, that's extremely annoying. But I guess it'll pay off a couple years from now when I'm dying to feel younger.
-Driving in the car singing along with the song "Beer Money" only to instead sing "you got the kiss that tastes like honey and I gotta a little bit of money." Yeah, Cory corrected that mistake pretty quickly. Lo and behold, I have never known the real lyrics to that song... despite the title.

Awesome:
-Alea went to bed at 6pm Sunday night. It was glorious, minus the tantrum that preceded that early bedtime and her getting up somewhere between 5 and 6 times at 3:30am for water, to go potty, needing to be tucked back in, her puppy stuffed animal "Mago," and for me to sing "Ba-ba black sheep."
-Leinenkugel's summer shandy. Enough said.
-Learning how to use my curling iron like a curling wand and not having to buy a curling wand. Duh people. It's like the same thing!
-CPR classes with a verbal test out. As in, the teacher reads the answers and you fill out your answer sheet. (Don't worry, I still know how to save your life.)
-AT&T commercials. You know the ones with the little kids? Whenever they come on, I pause whatever I'm doing and am immediately sent into a fit of laughter. Am I easily amused? Maybe.
-Seeing myself featured as a favorite blogger here, here, here, here and here. Words can not describe how stinkin' happy that makes me. You mean you guys actually really like me? Well, I like you back!

What's awkward & awesome about your week?


linking up with the pleated poppy + passion for fashion

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Ten Tips to Being a Successful Student

I've been a student almost non-stop with only a one year break since I started kindergarten. True story. I took a break when I was 7 months pregnant with Alea and then went back to school when she was 8 months old. It's been a long road coming and I still have one semester left, but I've learned a lot along the way. Today I'm sharing my tips & tricks to success with MOOC's over at MOOC Adviser. But with topics such as time management, staying motivated these tips could honestly be applied to any course though or life in general.

And if you're curious to know what an MOOC is, MOOC stands for "massive open online course." They're free online classes taught by an actual college professor. The only difference between an actual college class and an MOOC is that you don't receive university credit for an MOOC like you would with a college class, but it's the perfect way to test the waters and see how you'd do with an online class. They're certainly not for everyone. Did you know that they have MOOC's for blogging though? I just did some digging and here's a few that I found:

1. 10 Video Tips on Brand Visibility That Attracts Clients
2. Blogging for Business
3. It's Time to Blog

Cool, huh?

But before you get too into reading up on those awesome courses, don't forget to read my 10 Tips to Thrive in School in an Online World.

For more information about MOOCs, please visit StudentAdvisor.com. I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective, and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.


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Kids Activity: A Lesson in Color-Mixing

Now that I'm out of school for the summer, it's time for Alea to start doing a little summer school. Cory and I talked and decided that we won't be putting Alea in preschool in the fall and we'll be waiting until next fall when she's 4 years old. We really feel as though she doesn't need two years of preschool (heck, I didn't even go to preschool at all), but in the mean time it would be great to not only supplement what she already knows while teaching her a little bit more.

We have a fun preschool workbook that I've been wanting to really sit down and use constructively with her, but I don't want this summer to be all about worksheets. I want to teach her that learning can actually be fun. So our very first summer-school lesson was most definitely fun! A hands on color-mixing activity that really taught her something. By the end of our "lesson" when I asked her "what color do blue and red make?" She could answer almost immediately with "purple!"

It's all about figuring out what works best for your child too. It may be trial and error, but in the end you're working on discovering what their learning style is. I know I don't learn best from someone just verbally telling me information or just reading information from a book. I'm a very hands-on learner and by the looks of it from this little color mixing activity, I think that Alea's going to be that way as well!



It's pretty simple. There's really not a lot to this "craft" if you can even call it that. A couple dollops of finger paint (we like Crayola Finger Paint) in the coordinating colors and let your little one have at it. The mixing and exploring of the colors and the finger paints is the best part for them. But don't forget to wipe off their hands in between colors as so to not taint the experiment!

Remember:

Red + Yellow = Orange

Blue + Red = Purple

Yellow + Blue = Green











Alea was convinced that mixing all of the colors together would make a rainbow. Boy was she disappointed when she mixed them all and it made the ugliest shade of brown we've ever seen!

Not only is it an educational activity, but it's a fun and messy one. It's an activity where you as a parent need to let go a little and embrace the mess! Just make sure you attempt this on a nice warm day so you can be outside and don't forget a package of wipes on your way out there. And remember, little ones are sponges. Teach them all that you can!

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