The Pink Tent - Camping in Style

Yesterday was somewhat of a milestone for me.....I dropped my youngest off for her first overnight Girl Scout Camp-out! She has spent the night away from home before, but this felt different somehow ~ maybe it is the sleeping outside in a tent that made it somehow different. As I went through the rest of the day I often caught myself looking at the clock and wondering what she is doing now? 

I stayed long enough to enjoy watching the girls set up their tents......a whole row of Bright Pink two man tents. I was so proud of how well she set up her little sleeping area which included her air mat, pillow, little LED night light and of course her favorite stuffed animal. She definitely inherited her Mama's "nesting" and "organizing" affinities!  

It's almost time to go pick her up and I know I will hear all about the memories she made during her trip and I couldn't be a more proud Mama, but it is bittersweet too ~ she is my youngest and I know that as I watch her reach her milestones I won't get to watch another until I have grandchildren and although watching them will be fun it just won't be the same.

Thank you for stopping by The Mix Gal! Comments validate my blogging efforts, so I would love to hear from you. Take care and Keep Life Simple by Mixing It UP!
~♥KerrieLynn

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FREE Income & Expense Form For Direct Sellers!

Are you in direct sales and struggle to find simple forms to help you keep track of your business? I am too much of a cheapo to pay for a form when I know I can create it myself and this one is hot off the press and FREE for you to use as you desire! I designed it to fit within my own Country Gourmet Home Business and our Commission Plan, but if you have any photo editing skills you can modify it to work for your needs.

To use this image you will need to save it to your computer and then paste it into a word (or similar) program.  It is designed to fit on an 8.5" x 11" standard size paper.

 I use one of these per month and is just a simple way to keep track of monthly income and expenses for my business. These will work great in a three ring binder along with pocket dividers to hold all of your receipts or create 12 file folders (one for each month) and fill out the form as you go along and toss your receipts in there too!

The only thing that I ask in return is if you are going to use this please leave me a comment with how you will use it and a link to your website and/or Facebook page (hey it's free advertising too).

I look forward to hearing how I am helping with your business.

Thank you for stopping by The Mix Gal! Comments validate my blogging efforts, so I would love to hear from you. Take care and Keep Life Simple by Mixing It UP!
~♥KerrieLynn

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Free Menu Planning Bookmarks!

Right mouse click the image and copy then paste into your own word (or similar program).  Set page to landscape and you will want to stretch the image to fit the full page.

 The Mix Gal is proud to offer you the first in a series of completely free printables! These "Menu Planning" bookmarks are designed to be printed on your standard 8.5" x 11" paper and then cut apart for using. How to Use:

1. Click on the image and right click to copy, paste into a word doc or similar and print as many as you would like.
2. Cut the bookmarks apart.
3. As you browse recipes (either online or in a book), jot down the recipe name, where you found it and any ingredients that you don't have in your pantry.
4. Just before making a shopping trip to the grocery store, compile all of your "bookmarks" decide what you will be making that week and copy the ingredients that are missing from your pantry onto your shopping list.
5. When you are ready to make one of your "Bookmarked" meals, just pull out the bookmark, find the original recipe source (see why you noted the book & page) and you are ready to go.

These bookmarks are for your personal use only (printing only) and cannot be shared, sold, or used as part of any other design. The Mix Gal retains all rights to these images. If you would like to post this image on your own blog you can do so as long as the image source links back to this post for downloading!

Thank you for stopping by The Mix Gal! Comments validate my blogging efforts, so I would love to hear from you. Take care and Keep Life Simple by Mixing It UP!
~♥KerrieLynn

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Wordless Wednesday - Dirt!

If you have been following me for a while you are probably aware that our back yard is two levels....the last 20 feet of our yard is stepped down from the main yard anywhere from 2 feet to 4 feet.

When we bought our house 3 years ago this whole area was engulfed in blackberry bushes and unbeknown to us - garbage including old bikes, radiators, the remnants of an old bed and other stuff I probably don't want to know about.

Clearing out the bushes and garbage actually made the lower level even lower so we finally were able to get some dirt to fill a little of it back in. I know it looks like a lot of dirt but at least we can level some of the really low patches out and we are hoping to be able to build it up about a foot or so.....
 

This is the view from our deck looking left (we live in a two story house). 

This is the view from our deck looking to the right. 

The piles look a little more impressive up close!

 

I can only hope that the neighborhood kids don't discover our "dirt piles" before we get a chance to spread it out!

Thank you for stopping by The Mix Gal! Comments validate my blogging efforts, so I would love to hear from you. Take care and Keep Life Simple by Mixing It UP!
~♥KerrieLynn

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Am I THAT Different?

I know it has been a bit since I've posted anything new, but life has a way of getting busy and the next thing you know you don't have time to do the things you love to do! I try really hard to not "over commit" myself and it seems that no matter how hard I try I always find myself in the land of "too much to do". I am sure that this is something that most Moms do to themselves and I am probably not unique or alone in my "over abundance" of commitments! I think I am just being a tad maudlin today as well......first day back to the day job after a four day weekend will do that to you I suppose. It also doesn't help that it is a kind of Grey and overcast morning - where's my sunshine?

To top off the feeling sorry for myself mode that I currently find myself in I discovered that I am probably unique. Why do I think I am unique? Well I have this blog you see and I have a Facebook page that goes along with it and occasionally I will look at who is following me - imagine my surprise when I discovered that many of my family and close friends don't follow what is important to me. I try really hard to support anyone who has a FB Page or Blog - even if the subject matter is not one that I am particularly interested in. Am I unique? I just don't know.

Even at 47 years old I guess I still have things to learn that I should have learned long ago...... I personally think we all struggle in our own unique ways, trying to find our path in this world and remembering this is a hard concept for some people to learn. Just because you don't think something is important or it seems silly to you please remember that your action or non-action can cause someone to get their feelings hurt and you may not even know it! My Mom taught me a long time ago to "think about what you do before you do it" and in this busy, crazy mixed up world I think this is more important than ever.

 Total subject change......I finally broke down and ordered myself a new camera - yeah for me.

I am still a novice photographer but I think I will be able to shoot some awesome pictures with this camera. It has an "auto" feature for the camera challenged (like me) but it will let me work into learning all the fancy settings when I am ready for it. My current digital camera has a 4x optical zoom and are you ready for this.....my new camera has a 28x optical zoom and a micro setting for the close ups that will allow me to get within 1cm of my subject matter and it has a low light setting - I will finally be able to capture all of my kids school moments!Just look at how awesome it is...I cannot wait to get this camera in my hands and start seeing what it can do! My son just got married in Las Vegas and he and his wife will be having a wedding reception once they get home so I plan on running this camera through the paces during the reception!

I will definitely be letting you know how it works out. Maybe I will even take some pics using my old camera and then take the same pics using the new for a side by side comparison!

Thank you for stopping by The Mix Gal! Comments validate my blogging efforts, so I would love to hear from you. Take care and Keep Life Simple by Mixing It UP!
~♥KerrieLynn

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Best Day Ever!

 

Yesterday was Mother's Day and my family made sure that I had my favorite kind of day! The weather has been unseasonably warm for Pacific Northwest ~we've had temperatures in the upper 70s since about Friday so I decided that I wanted to go on a picnic (the first one of the year). First let me back up a bit.....my hubby spent a good portion of Saturday planting my Mother's Day gifts! He (and the girls) bought me quite a few flowers (both annuals and perennials) for Mother's Day so now I have a splash of color when I look out the living room window. This particular spot where he planted the flowers had needed some "help" since we moved into our house, prior to the flower planting it had been home to a couple of scraggly plants that the builder had planted and some wild flowers that the hubby had planted last year. I will get out to the yard in the next day or so to take some pictures.

 

So back to my Mother's Day picnic......since it was just the four of us I decided to keep the picnic fixings low key and we had hoagies, chips, potato salad (store bought) and grapes. We set out for Birch Bay about a half hour drive from our house. The park was filled up with people who obviously had the same idea as me, but we did manage to find an empty picnic table and parking spot.

  

We quickly set up our home away from home......once we were done eating my youngest decided to roll up in a blanket to play her video game (she's the lump in the front).

 

Since Mom couldn't be the only one taking pictures both my hubby and daughter got out their cameras and we had a little photo war.... Next, we headed off to the beach, the tide was out so quite a few more photo opportunities presented themselves......

 

The view from our picnic area!

We found so many things while walking on the beach......

 

A crab nestled in the rocks....

 

A Bald Eagle perched high in the trees...

 

Lots of "photo opportunities"....

  

Exploring.....

 

Wild plants growing on the driftwood....

 

All too soon the picnic had to end.....

  

One more picture......

The day was beautiful and we created some memories that will stay with me forever ~ it's the simple things in life that mean so much to me! We loaded up the van and headed for home and I found a new passion along the way......old barns! O.K. so it is not new but I managed to capture photos of three old barns as we drove along, so stay tuned for my Drive By Barns series. Thanks for stopping by and sharing a little piece of my life ~ until next time, take care!

Thank you for stopping by The Mix Gal! Comments validate my blogging efforts, so I would love to hear from you. Take care and Keep Life Simple by Mixing It UP!
~♥KerrieLynn

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