Madness Monday!

I went to CVS today since yesterday was crazy weather here in IL. Thankfully where we are at it just was uber windy and raining. No tornadoes here! But near Peoria-Washington,IL to be exact there was a wicked bad tornado that went through there and did a lot of destruction. My friend Melissa has friends and family down there. So if you could keep them in your thoughts and prayers, they'd appreciate it!


Well today I went in with my small stack of coupons and scored a good amount of goodies for cheap!
I did two separate transactions:
#1 I purchased 2 Skippy peanut butter, 3 Ragu pasta sauces, 1 gal milk.
Spend $10 on select items(which included sauce and pb) and get $3 ecb
Buy 1 gal milk for $2.99 and get $1 ecb.
Plus I had 75 cent off 2 coupon for the peanut butter.
Spent $12.47
Saved $6.80 plus $4 ecb for next purchase!



#2 I purchased 2 suave hair care items, on sale 2 for $6, 3 suave body washes, on sale 2 for $4, 2 wet and wild nail polishes on sale BOGO 50%, and found 2 packs of toothpicks 90% off or for 9 cents each!
I had BOGO Free suave shampoo or conditioner, Buy 2 get 1 free body wash, $1 off any wet and wild purchase.
Plus I put the $4 ecb toward my purchase.
Spent $3.76
Saved $19.17!



Not too shabby! :) Happy Monday!
I'm off to get a massage later today and going to do a bit of baking!
--Randi

Fall Faves!

I thought I'd share with you some of my favorite beauty items this fall since I've been so busy I keep forgetting to do my monthly favorites! Anywho here we go! :)

I have been totally in love with my Lorac Pro to Go palette since it arrived upon my doorstep! It's such a great little palette. It has a large mirror, 6 lovely shades, 2 blushes, and 1 bronzer. When I am in a rush I grab this palette and can get ready in a snap since it's all in one! :) Makes life a bit simpler. I have been loving the 2 middle shadows. The matte brown color, Cafe, is a great crease/transition color. The shimmery bronzey/brown color, Chai, is so pretty all over the lid. I use the top left lighter shade, Pearl, as my inner corner highlight. Sometimes I'll use the darker shimmery shade, Mink, on the far outer corner to smoke out my look. I usually gravitate toward dark brown or black liner to finish it off! :) I believe the price was $38 right now but it's totally worth it since these are all super pigmented. I just barely tap my brush into any of the shadows and get plenty of color payoff! The palette is great from beginner to pro makeup junkies!

I bought Elf's blush in Mellow Mauve, this is such a lovely natural color. It goes on light but can be built up. It reminds me somewhat of Tarte's Exposed blush- I do not own it but from seeing photos and reviews I feel it's somewhat similar from my knowledge so far of it.  And it's only $3 at Target or eyeslipsface.com

I finished up my Covergirl 3 in 1 foundation so I finally get to go back to my holy grail foundation, Revlon Colorstay Whipped Foundation. My color is Sand Beige, which matches quite nicely! The stuff has an awesome and fun texture and feels so lightweight on my skin. I hardly have to use a concealer since it's pretty great coverage! I have combo skin and I've worn this in the summer when it's uber hot out and it has stayed in place and my face still looked just fine! I will continue to repurchase this! :)

A new favorite of mine is the L'oreal shadow in Bronzed Taupe. I've been intrigued to try some of L'oreal's beauty items since they are with Lancome and Vichy brands. I am impresed with this shadow because it's very pigmented and this color I feel would look good on pretty much any skin tone. It is a bit spendy for a single shadow, I think it was like $7-$8 or something. I had a coupon of course. But it's worth checking out when it's on sale plus coupons! :) It's a no brainer, easy shadow to use and wear!

For lips, I have been rediscovering a few lippies in my stash but this one I keep nearby most of the time. It's the NYX's butter gloss in Maple Blondie. It's a lovely natural color and feels hydrating on the lips and lasts a fair amount of time on as well. Plus these go on sale at Ulta quite often so you can catch them for super cheap!

Another rediscovered love is my Physician's Formula concealer. This stuff is super pigmented and conceals my blemishes all day without looking to weird! I love Physician's Formula products too, especially when CVS has them like 40% off or when you can get ECB deals making items free or super cheap! :)

Lastly, I recently opened this mascara and I am liking it so far. It's the L'oreal Voluminous Million Lash Excess Mascara. It hasn't clumped and gives my lashes some more thickness and length. My holy grail is still Lancome Definicils but since I can't afford that stuff this is an okay alternative!

Oh and another item I am loving is the Revlon Lipstick in Primrose. I have Pink Cloud which I feel is a bit sheer. But Primrose is a gorgeous pinky nude color! Plus they are a steal at about $5 plus coupons! I think I found Pink Cloud at Target on clearance for like $1-$2 and Primrose on sale for $4-ish dollars! Totally worth checking out!



Outfit wise I have been in love with scarves of course along with boots and cozy sweaters! I love cardigans too! And who doesn't love cute snowmen decor and blue and silver ornaments? I love putting ornaments in mason jars-soooo cute!

Tell me, what are your fall faves?? Hope you are all having a lovely weekend!
--Randi

No Buy November

So I decided to join in on the No Buy November since I have my fair share of beauty, skincare, clothing, jewelry, etc to survive at least a month! But I did purchase some new gel polishes from my Avon lady since they are amazing and just $3.99 right now. This stuff doesn't chip and is very shiny. It doesn't need a base or top coat, at least for me it worked fine! I am in love with this stuff so when it's on sale of course I had to order it!. Check out her site at  http://brittanytuttle.avonrepresentative.com/

Also, I've been trying to find some deals for Black Friday. I've seen Walgreens will have a lot of Register Reward deals going on. Make sure to roll them to keep your out of pocket low! :) Also CVS will have some ECB deals going on along with coupons for free batteries and other great deals!

At work I will be having every other Monday off so I think I will start a post called Madness Monday that will have some of my deals I scored over the weekend! :) I am on the hunt for L'oreal lipstick in Fairest Nude. I believe I have a $1 off coupon somewhere and there will be $3 when you spend $10 on L'oreal plus I have a mailer from CVS for 25% so hoping to score it for uber cheap! :)

I had to break down and buy a new pair of tennis shoes for work. Melissa and I went to Kohl's since I had 30% off. I got a pair of Nike's normally $70 for $48-ish dollars along with some cozy socks and a candy bar to get me over the $50 limit to score $10 Kohl's cash! :) Hoping the shoes work out for me. Otherwise I may exchange them for the runner up pair I was debating on.
http://www.kohls.com/product/prd-1307944/nike-air-total-core-cross-trainers-women.jsp

Work has been crazy busying! Some days I'm getting pulled in all different directions, which I don't mind helping out. But boy when I get home I just collapse on the couch and zonk out! I am going to book a massage this weekend since I have a few knots in my back!

My Ipsy bag should be coming soon so I can share my first impressions with you all!
I am also planning to do a Trash Talk-Empties blog post soon since I have been going through and using up some products during No Buy November! Gotta say I've been pretty good aside from having to buy new shoes and ordering a couple nail polishes!

 I already know what I am getting myself for Christmas or as a belated Christmas gift! The Naked 3 palette is coming on Dec/Jan. not 100% on the release date yet but Urban Decay is teasing us! I have Naked 1 and Naked 2 palettes and LOVE them! They are the holy grail of neutral gorgeous eyeshadows! Worth every penny! I do have products in my collection that are similar but UD Naked collection is simply amazing!!

Well, enough of my late night ranting!Good night! :)

Wax melts!

I love a great smelling candle. I'm obsessed with Bath and Body Works 3 wick candles. They smell amazing, last a long time, and have pretty packaging! They just make me happy!
I recently discovered wax warmers and melts a couple months ago and I am getting obsessed! I love the idea and the wax melts are pretty inexpensive and smell up our living room with delicious scents! I thought I'd share with you my collection so far! I purchased the Glade wax warmer for $10 but you can get some from Scentsy or Walmart and can have them match your decor which is fun! Or you can get ones for different holidays.
Right now I am melting Perk Me Up from Scentsy along with Pumpkin Pie from Kohl's. This smells similar to a Pumpkin Latte! Yumm! :) I tend to switch out my scent weekly so it stays fragrant in our place.

Here's my whole collection. It's a decent start! I have Perk Me Up, Pumpkin Pie, Cupcake, Apple Press,Bora Bora Blossom, Chai Tea, French Toast, and Blueberry Cheesecake.

My favorites right now are Apple Press, Chai Latte, and Perk Me Up.

I am totally going to get more winter scents if Sam's Club has them when we go on Wednesday. Otherwise I will for sure be asking for scents for Christmas! At Walmart the 6 pack of melts are $2. Through  my Scentsy lady if you buy like 5 packs you get the 6th one free or something like that. Their waxes are like $5 I think it was? Not sure since I bought a ton as gifts and some for myself so I saved a bit of money! :)

Share with me your favorite scents! Happy Monday!

Cheap and free shopping!

Today I went to Jewel and Dollar Tree for my quick shopping. At Jewel yhey have the Yakisoba instant meals buy one get one free. These are normally just a buck so that is awesome but then I had 3 50cent off one coupons making them Free! :)
At DT I found the Progresso recipe starter for 50 cents and had a 50 cent off one making it Free! I also had $1/2 Hefty bags making those 50 cents a box! Plus I had $1/4 Libbys canned veggies and they are 79 cents at DT. So that was another good deal!
Share with me your finds! :)

Sunday inserts!

There are two inserts today! As I clipped my coupons I found many coupons you can use for Dollar Tree items!
Happy Sunday!

DIY decor

My lovely friend Melissa gave me this lovely glass to put things in. I had purchased some Christmas ornaments to put in mason jars but this would do as well!

I think this is so cute! I picked up the burlap ribbon from Michael's and just tied it around and that's it!

Super easy!

Apple Crisp Recipe

I've had some apples laying around and was feeling like using them up so I searched Pinterest for recipes. I came along an easy apple crisp recipe and thought I'd share with you! :)

You will need:

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup(1 stick) butter, melted

3 apples, peeled, cored, and chopped

1/2 cup white sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

First, preheat the oven to 350. Then, I chopped the apples and I added the white sugar and cinnamon to the apples and tossed together with my hands. I set that aside while I worked on the next step.

Next, I combined the flour, brown sugar, oats, and melted butter together. I started mixing with a spoon and towards the end I just got my hands dirty to mix it all together! Make baking fun and don't be afraid to get dirty!

Next, take half of your oat mixture and put in the lightly greased pan.

And then put the all the apples on top of that.

And then put the rest of the oat mixture on top of the apples. 

Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes or until golden brown!

This is a dryer recipe but still tastes amazing! I love it! 

Let me know if you try it and enjoy it!

CVS detergent deal!

Totally awesome deal at CVS! Buy 1 Arm and Hammer detergent get 2 FREE! This is a great deal! I love when they do these deals! Stock up! :)

Arm Knit Scarf

I really want to learn how to knit and crochet. I think it's so neat to make hats, scarves, mug warmers, etc. Plus it's a meaningful gift to give knowing that you put time and effort into the gift!
I decided to search YouTube for how to learn and came across arm knitting. Yep. Arm knitting. It's quite easy but if you have pets or kids you may want to get them out of your space since string is everywhere and you don't want to get tangled! :)
So far I've made two scarves and am in love with how warm, cozy, and chunky they are!

The video suggested to use super bulky #6 yarn, 2 things of yarn.

I used Wool Ease brand. It feels cozy and warm!

The trickiest part was starting the scarf!

I finally got the hang of it and was cruising along after that!

Scarf #1 done!

Took me about 2 and a half hours since I had to restart a few times due to my own errors! :)

Melissa and I made an afternoon of scarf making! Her first one and my second one! 

Scarf #2 done!

Took Melissa and I about 2 hours, with me helping her of course. I am sure once you really get the hang of it you can whip these out like nobody's business!

 Each scarf cost about $12 to make. Joanne's and Michael's always seem to have the yarn on sale! We made them infinity scarves but you can make it like a regular scarf as well! 

Let me know if you've made any neat things with arm knitting!

Check out my Etsy shop! Search for KozyKnitsByRandi and I can do custom orders and have select colors on hand! :)

CVS Haul!

Sorry for the delay on my Sunday CVS Haul! I went there to score some new things to try on the cheap! They had a bunch of register rewards for Revlon, Maybelline, and Loreal for beauty products. I also scored some super cheap Dial hand soap. Buy 1 for $2.50 and get back $2ecb to make it just 50 cents! For everything I purchased I spend $32 and saved $17 plus I have $8 in extrabucks leftover! I will probably use it for some cereal and milk or something.  I scored the paper towel for free since this week at the magic coupon machine they are printing a freebie coupon! The hair conditioner is amazing and it was on sale for $5.99 and I had a $3 off coupon making it $2.99 so that was a great deal!

Free photo book!

Get a free photo book from York Photos. It will be a 5x7 book with 20 pages. You can customize it too, which is awesome! Use code MYBOOK at checkout! This deal goes til November 30th!

http://www.yorkphoto.com/Content.aspx?Page=MYBOOK&PK=e0e04a5e-5062-405d-aeb0-aa379be6bd58#.UnqsoPlwp7s