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$399 Mohawk Rug Giveaway

With the holidays literally right around the corner our homes will soon be filled with visistors from far and near.

Welcome to the $399 Mohawk Rug Holiday Giveaway Event! Children Teaching Mama and Happenings of the Harper Household have paired up with Mohawk Home to offer this amazing giveaway just in time for the holidays!

Giveaway Prize: Any 8×10 Mohawk Rug equal to or less than $399! (Winner’s choice!)

This giveaway begins on Tuesday, November 13th at 12:01am and ends on Wednesday, December 5th at 11:59pm. Enter the rafflecopter form, click ‘continue reading’ to advance to the form.

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Chocolate Cherry Granola Bars

For awhile now I’ve had homemade granola bars on my to-make list. With the weather going from the low nineties to high sixties, the Fall baking bug has set in. The warm notes of toasty grains just sounded amazing on a chilly afternoon, plus they were a great snack to send a dear friend on the road with.

Dry Ingredients:

2 cups old fashioned oats, 1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds, 1 cup sliced raw almonds, 3/4 cup wheat germ, 1/2 cup flax seed meal

Preheat the oven to 350º. Toast grains and seeds for 15 minutes. I set the timer in five minute increments and tossed around to avoid burning. The wheat germ will burn so watch closely.

Wet Ingredients:

1/2 cup honey, 1/4 brown sugar, pinch of kosher salt, 3 TB butter, 2 tsp vanilla

Combine ingredients, warm on low heat until brown sugar is dissolved.

Chop 1/2 cup tart cherries and snack on a few while doing so.

In a large mixing bowl combine all ingredients. Add in 1/2 cup chocolate chips, the chocolate will melt coating the mixture. If you would prefer chunks of chocolate make sure your syrup is cooled before adding in cherries and chocolate. Not saying I made this mistake…

Grease a 9×9 pan with butter and pat the mixture in until distributed. Bake at 300º for 20 minutes.

You can also serve the granola crumbled over pumpkin greek yogurt with a nice cup of joe. It makes for a great start to any chilly morning.

tiny prints holiday cards {giveaway}

The holiday season is rapidly approaching. It already feels like November is half way through yet it’s only the first week of the month. I am usually one who likes to stick with the rule that holiday decorations do not go up until after Thanksgiving but this year I might be bending that rule. I am already feeling the spirit of the season and find myself stressing about being able to fit everything in. The one thing I hate to stress about is our holiday cards. I learned four years ago that the earlier you get started the better and that begins with a gorgeous photograph. Once you have your “money shot” it should be showcased on gorgeous paper for your friends and family to see and with that I always choose Tiny Prints. This year, Tiny Prints has Premium DoubleThick™ Matte Paper, their most luxurious card stock yet!

I have used Tiny Prints for baby showers, thank you cards, holiday cards and just simple hello cards for friends. I always receive the best compliments about my cards and honestly I love receiving cards from Tiny Prints as well. I can always trust their quality and even better the turnaround time.

When choosing your Christmas Cards it’s best to know which photo(s) you’re going to use first. The great thing about Tiny Prints is that there are so many photo card options, from unique shapes to tri-folds it’s so easy to find something you’re bound to love! I love deciding on our holiday card and I know you will to with the ease of Tiny Prints.

Here are the designs that caught me eye right away:

Once you use Tiny Prints for your holiday cards, you will never look back!

Check out the Tiny Prints Special Offers page, where you will find discounts that are sure to brighten the season. Be sure to follow Tiny Prints on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest for their latest updates and new designs.

Which Tiny Prints card is your favorite?

Win It!

One lucky MY PB+J reader will receive a $50 Gift Certificate, good towards your order total.
(Note: does not include shipping and you cannot combine it with other promos)

Rules:
This giveaway will begin on Wednesday, November 7th and will end on Tuesday, November 14th at 12:01 am EST.Open to the US only, ages 18+

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Disclaimer: I received a gift card and/or product to review for the purpose of this review. Regardless, I only recommend products that I personally use or believe my readers would enjoy. The opinion is 100% my own.

the journey of finding me.

“What you get by achieving your goals in not as important as what you become by achieving your goals” –Zig Ziglar

When the year began all I knew was that I wanted to lose the weight from having two children. I knew it wouldn’t be easy because I hadn’t completely succeeded with the weight loss after having Payton. I suffered from severe post partum depression, I was unhappy with my job and I closed myself off from everyone including myself. I got pregnant again and was immediately worried about how I would regain a comfortable weight after giving birth to another child. I was more conscience during my second pregnancy, I walked more and had overcome my PPD. I wasn’t working due to pre-term labor and I began finding myself. We welcomed our baby boy to the world last October and I enjoyed the holidays. When the calender turned to 2012 I knew it was my year, my year to find the person I lost in early 2009. I began doing things that I enjoyed doing, I had people in my life that made me happy and reintroduced old friends back into my life because I finally left that old me behind. I’ve done a lot of soul searching this year and I am right where I want to be.

Back in January I started my journey here with the 17-Day Diet. I stuck to the diet and watched the pounds slip away. I was walking 5-10 miles a week and reintroduced spin into my routine logging over 60-hours within the first five months of the year. In May, I was introduced to The Dailey Method. I cut back on the spin classes and concentrated time in the studio. I had finally found an exercise that worked for me and that honestly made me feel whole. Now, let me tell you that if I felt like eating a cheeseburger, I did. If I had a craving for a Snickers I ate it. I have limited myself to one, yes, one iced latte or Starbucks double shot a week. Some weeks I might not have one but I have given myself a limit. I now drink iced unsweetened black or green tea. I have cut out 99.5% of soda or anything with carbonation. We do eat out but when I cook it’s usually minimally processed and whole. The Dailey Method and it’s values has taught me a lot. The last two months is where I really found myself. For the month of October I managed to tow both kids with me to the studio for twenty classes, while this was short of my goal I am still damn proud of myself. I have completed four 5k’s, I began doing these with girlfriends and honestly I had to sit back and reconsider why I was doing them. I have had a lot of support throughout my journey and doing activities for fun was my motivation. If you’re on a weight loss journey make sure that you have honest support from those around you, weight loss is not a competition, it’s about balance and finding what works best for you. Not all of my days have been easy and I hope that you understand that I mean this. I get burned out just like anyone else but as long as you stick to your goals, focus on your life and find something that works for you; you will get to your goal in no time!

In January, I had set two weight loss goals. The first was to weigh 140 by Brayden’s birthday, I am happy to report that with the help of The Dailey Method I lost ten pounds in two months bringing me one pound under my goal! It has never felt so good to see that number on the scale.

My second goal, which does not have a date, is to weigh 130. I am giving myself a few months into 2013 to achieve this as I am having foot surgery and will be out of commission for six weeks. This comes just in time to sit back and enjoy the holidays with my family. The celebration of finding the old me.

I have to thank everyone for the nice e-mails, texts and high fives as I have reached my goal of losing thirty pounds a healthy way!

the great mini pumpkin treats

It’s no secret that I love Halloween. Whenever a holiday rolls around I love sending and secretly dropping off cards and a little treat to the children in our lives. Over the weekend I was baking breast cancer awareness ribbons for The Dailey Method donation class and had some leftover dough. I decided it would be cute to bake mini pumpkins for our tricksters. Now, I am not a professional cookie baker. I have tried a few recipes and finally found the best one that works for me, it’s simple to put together and there is no chilling. Like any new recipe you should clearly read all the directions and make sure you have everything on hand. I first made this recipe for Brayden’s mushroom cookies seen here. I probably spent a good hour reading the adventures of sugarbelle blog to ensure I was knowledgeable on the recipe and technique. I cannot urge you to this before beginning. If you want to impress your friends and family with gorgeously iced cookies with a great tasting cookie to boot you must try this recipe.

When I bake I tend to do so in the middle of the night. It’s quiet and I don’t have a certain toddler begging to taste something. My baking time is my zen time. I love perfecting something and with these cookies I think I’ve finally gotten it. I am looking forward to my Christmastime baking, I will finally be able to gift pretty cookies!

Here is how I created my mini pumpkins (ignore that these cell phone pictures, it was nearly 2 am).

watch her videos on royal icing. she even has one on pumpkins and I used the technique to make a dimensional pumpkin. You basically outline and fill the immediately. Once I finished the outer parts of the pumpkins I went back in to finish the middle. I love the way they turned out. The orange of this icing was achieved my taking my leftover red from the mushrooms and mixing in gold gel.

I took cellophane bags and added our favorite chocolate minis to the bags. Tie it off with some ribbon and you will have one impressive treat this holiday. I mailed these along with the Peanuts holiday collection to my nieces and nephew.

Do you do something special for Halloween? If so, what is it?