Black Friday To Hit The Young Retiree, STAMPED!

Can you believe that Thanksgiving is a short three weeks away? I am so excited to celebrate with Hubs, even though it will be just us. We got two 5 pound turkey breasts to cook up. One for dinner and leftovers and one to freeze or make casseroles for me for during the deployment. As I sit and prepare for the Holidays I must pay special attention to my etsy shop! There are some great Autumn/ Harvest cards in there and this is my favorite one:

This is the only one available, and it just hit the shop!

I don’t have the set, I made it at a workshop, but the set is definitely on my wish list!

There are also some new Christmas goodies going into the shop over the course of the next few weeks! I am holding an amazing sale during Black Friday weekend in the shop::

• From 11pm EST Thursday, November 24th to 11pm EST Friday, November 25th you will be able to take an AMAZING 30% off your entire order!
• From 11pm EST Friday to 11pm EST Saturday, November 26th you can save a whooping 25% off your entire order!
• From 11pm EST Saturday night to 11pm EST Sunday, November 27th you can save 20% off your entire order.

LET’S NOT FORGET CYBER MONDAY! There will be a coupon code in the shop at 11pm EST on Sunday, November 27th for an amount to be determined from weekend sales. I’m thinking somewhere between 25% to 30%!

COUPON CODES will be tweeted out (@TheYoungRetiree) and posted on my shop facebook page so definitely head over there to get your alerts! In order to spread the word about the sale, I’m holding a November giveaway! You can win a $10 credit to my shop (which can be used during the sales if you want to hold onto it!) for anything you would like!

To Enter:

1. Comment telling me your favorite thing from my shop. (1 entry)
2. Post about this contest and sale on your blog! Be sure to link to this post and leave me a comment with your link! (3 entries, please leave three seperate comments)
3. Tweet about the giveaway with the link to this post and @TheYoungRetiree. Comment and let me know you did! Can be done daily. (1 entry per tweet for a total of 8 possible entries)

That’s a possible 12 entries! Begin entering now – you have until Next Wednesday! Winner will be chosen via random.org. Good luck to you all!

Mele Kalikimaka, Y’all! :: Etsy Loving!

I was so excited when Jane won a giveaway for some shop credit to my Etsy store. She loved my gift tags but asked me if there was anyway I could incorporate their duty station in Hawaii into them. My first thought was bright colors and beaches… and one of my favorite Christmas songs! Who doesn’t love Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters? Christmas will be green and bright, and so can your Hawaiian inspired gift tags!

(click picture to be taken to this listing in my shop!)

This particular pink and green are my absolute favorite colors and I would stamp everything in them if I could! All three colors are from Stampin’ Up: Pink Passion, Green Galore and Only Orange. I looped through some contrasting colored twine and we are all set! In the shop, these little fellas come in sets of ten, but I can do any quantity you’d like!

The holidays are fast approaching! How do you wrap your gifts? Fun, funky and fresh? Or do you go more traditional? I am working on a few other designs and can’t wait to have them in the shop! It’s so awkward getting ready for the holidays this early!

*As a side note:: I am still sitting out on the patio, except now it’s about 77* and I am listening to Christmas music. I wonder how crazy the neighbors think I am, if they can hear the gentle luls of Christmas hymns coming over the fence!

Fun Food Friday :: Fried Chicken!

Hello friends! It is Friday afternoon (evening for some of you!) and I am ready for the weekend! Today we are celebrating our Fun Food Friday with some fried chicken 😀 That means I have to get in the kitchen soon, but it will be so worth it and tasty! I call it my lighter fried chicken, but let’s be honest… it’s still good ol’ fried chicken! I take boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut them in half right across the middle, pound them out pretty thin and coat them! I use flour, eggs, and panko with a little seasoning (tonight I’ll be using Greek oregano and some garlic mixed in with the panko!) to coat them. I put a little oil in the pan and fry them up. I don’t go all Paula Dean and open my countertop to reveal a deep fryer!

I pound them out so the cook a little more evenly and I cook them on at a time until they are golden brown on both sides. I learned a trick on The Chew today about how to tell when the oil is ready! Take a wooden spoon and place the handle of it in the oil. When the oil starts to bubble around the handle you know it’s hot and ready! That sounds much better than my old method of sprinkling some water in and waiting for the hiss!

That’s what we’re getting into this evening 🙂 I hope you are having a wonderful kick off to your weekend!

Also: I will be on vacation (and by that I mean FINALLY getting our HHGs! It only took a year and a half for the Navy to move us!) and instead of closing my shop, I am leaving it open for browsing! Also, there will be a coupon code over there in the event you’d like to buy, and wait to get your order once we return! I can most definitely set up custom orders during this time as well! I mean, I just won’t be able to ship things, but I’ll still be around and able to return e-mail and such!

The Little Things Like Muffins and Mixers!

This week was a hard week for me and it was very easy to lose sight of those little things in life that are blessings. The biggest blessing has been my Hubs, and the fact that he has not kicked me out of the house! My hormones and medication have not been kind to me at all and it has been a very trying week for him. I have focused on my jobs this week though: trying to be a better wife and creating products for my shop. I had my second customer (a custom order for 40 favor tags!) and ordered my first ad space (Over on To Make Love Stay) so check her awesome blog out and look for my ad next month! 

Onto those little things that did shine through this week though. Last weekend we had blueberry muffins for breakfast. They were not from scratch, they were in fact a mix that I only had to add water to, but they were the best muffins I’ve ever had. Maybe it was the shiny wrappers (hey, it was all we had!)

Do you know the muffin man?

We also made Reubens for dinner last weekend (which were delicious the second time we tried them!) and since we had the bread I made us grilled cheese for lunch! Jewish Rye bread is my favorite bread! We hadn’t had grilled cheese sandwiches in I could not tell you how long (for me, easily 5 years!) and they were so good!

Most delicious lunch ever.

We completely forgot about our nephews birthday this week! Well, I didn’t even know when it was, and I’ve asked my sister-in-law a few times when everyone’s birthday was, to keep track, but she never tells me. Luckily, we’re friends on Facebook, and so when she posted it was his birthday Sunday, I grabbed this cute card from my shop and sent it off! Later in the day she posted a picture of his cake and it had red, orange and yellow balloons on it! Worked out pretty great, except late. We still have not heard from her letting us know he got it. I love in-laws.

Perfect to have on hand!

The final little things that made my week was the three-day process of making pizza! Did you catch that story? I was able to use my Artisan mixer for the first time (the first time we tried, the second time I used my hands.)

I'm in love!

Oh, and I suppose you want to see the pizza:

Homemade white pizza with artichoke pizza sauce. DELISH!

OH! Sugar cookies! We can’t forget sugar cookies! (remember the kind of week I’m having?) I have requested Hubs to stop and get sugar cookies everyday this week. Our local grocery store is in the process of undergoing a make-over and they finally added fresh cookies to their bakery. BEST.COOKIES.EVER.EVER.EVER. Oh, best husband ever too, EVER.EVER.EVER:

I love the man who stops after a ridiculously long day at work to get every sugar cookie in the bakery... all 5.

As always I’m linking up with Lindsay and if you’re hopping over from there you may think I’m familiar to you. I was posting this on my faith blog, and that is something else this week that has been a blessing. God has come into my life and let me know my “regular” blog is my faith blog. There is no reason to hide my faith or cater to the readership here. I am on a journey of discovering myself and my relationship with Him and it is changing who I am for the better. You won’t be seeing Seek Ye First anymore, you’ll be catching me here, and everything that makes me who I am!

To my regular readers, I hope this new change doesn’t make you feel alienated. I know I don’t normally blog about my relationship with the Lord, but it is something I am focusing on more in my life, and for sure will make its way into my blog.

What little things happened this week for you to make you smile, friends? If you’re looking for previous posts, they are all under the category “The Little Things” and have been imported over here. For my fellow hoppers, have a joyous and blessed week and let’s always remember the little things!

Courage | Duty | Honor | Valor | Sacrifice

Last night and today I was able to add the first two items in my Wounded Warriors series in The Young Retiree, STAMPED! I am so proud of this line, and the 20% that will be donated to the Wounded Warrior Project. It is my goal to make a donation to them every month – so please spread the word to your military friends that the line is up, and will be growing!

"Courage to Serve"

This courage to serve not card is made on high quality cardstock from Stampin’Up in “Not Quite Navy” blue. The quote down the right side is stamped in “Riding hood Red” from Winston Churchill:

 “Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities… because it is the quality which guarantees all others.”

It is perfect for any military milestone but I call to mind occasions such as enlistment/re-enlistment, commissioning, promotion, deployment, or those who have completed their career and are ready to retire.

I also have one for those brave men and women who stay behind while their service member serves and protects our country:

For those who serve, by staying behind

 This one is great to send to a friend who is struggling with the deployment of a loved one.

I am in love with this set and have been brainstorming several designs.

Please help me spread the word of this amazing cause! Also: free shipping to APO/FPO addresses for those who are serving and stationed overseas on any order in my shop 😀

*Side note: I had my first sale yesterday 😀 A week after the concept for this shop came together, someone purchased something that I made! I am still super giddy about it and so blessed that people find my talents worthy of purchase!

Swippity Swapping!

It’s that time of year where the USPS gets bogged down with packages going to and fro! All over the blogosphere you can find Fall swaps, Holiday swaps, Ornament swaps, Cookie swaps, et cetera! Are you participating in one? I have good news if you are: I will offer free shipping on a note card or gift tag (well, you’ll get the whole set) from the shop for you if you are! Are you hosting one? Let me know and I can give you a coupon code if you would like to advertise this deal to your participants!

I have some cute autumn goodies in my shop right now:

 

Click on image to be taken to shop!

There are a few more autumn goodies coming this week as well as tons of Christmas cards and tags 😀 Keep your eyes open for them! If you’re interested, let me know what swap you’re signed up for and you can get free shipping!