What I Ordered from Amazon in January 2019

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We flipping love some Amazon Prime in our house.  If it can be bought on Amazon, then we buy it.  It has saved me countless trips to Walmart and it has probably saved us hundreds, maybe even thousands? of dollars over time.  I made my first Amazon purchase all the way back in 2002 and I haven’t looked back since.  I could sing their praises all day long.  I really could.  My friend, Tanya, hosts a fun link-up every first Tuesday of the month where everyone shares their Amazon purchases, and I am going to start linking up with her to share our purchases from the previous month.  I know I always love reading these posts, so I thought I’d join in on the fun!  Plus I’m the self-proclaimed Amazon queen, so there’s that.  ;o)

Brian and I have separate Amazon accounts (but we share one Prime subscription as well as the same Amazon credit card - hello, points!!) so everything you see here today is just the stuff that I bought with my account.  Here’s what I found in January…

Evening Gown for the Ball

B and I attend a ball every January and this year I decided to find something on Amazon since I’ve been so satisfied with all of my other clothing purchases from there.  I found this dress and, y’all, it is one of the most gorgeous dresses I’ve ever owned.  It is a total showstopper!  This dress fits LIKE A GLOVE and I received more compliments on it than probably anything I’ve ever worn in the past.  It made me feel glamorous and beautiful and the best two things about it?  It was SO COMFY and it was CHEAP!!  I still can’t believe what a steal it was!  It is true to size (I bought a small) and it comes in 11 colors… I want one of each!!  I’m seriously considering buying it in gold for next year’s ball.  Do you think anyone would notice that it was the same dress??  Haha.

Jesus Calling Devotional for Kids

Jacob is receiving his First Communion in a few weeks so I bought this childrens’ devotional as well as a set of nice rosary beads to give to him as a little gift. 

Blazer for Jacob

Since he’s receiving his First Communion we had to get him something extra special to wear, so we bought him his first sports coat.  I got this one from Amazon for only $39.99 and I’m so impressed with the quality.  It’s true to size.

White Oxford Shirt for Jacob

Since we bought the blazer, he also needed a white button-down shirt to go with it, and I found this one for only $9.98!!  The quality is great and it’s true to size as well!

Tie for Jacob

Finally, he needed a big boy tie since he has outgrown his toddler tie.  I found this one on Amazon for just $10.99.  I like that it’s pre-tied so we don’t have to worry about tying it, but it’s also adjustable.  It comes in lots of other colors, too.

Daddy/Daughter Dance Dress for Olivia

I searched all over the internet for a party dress for Olivia for the Daddy Daughter dance and I couldn’t find anything at our usual stores (Target, Old Navy, and Carter’s), so I took to Amazon.  Haha.  I found this dress and we just received it, but the jury’s still out on it.  I ordered the 4/5 for her, but it ended up being a little too short (she’s really tall for her age), so I went back to order the 5/6 and it was out of stock.  I ended up ordering the 6/7 instead and it should be here tomorrow, so we’ll know then whether or not it fits, but I have a feeling it’ll be too big.  The only thing I was disappointed with about this dress is that the coloring is off in the picture on Amazon.  In person the top sequin part is VERY gold and the tulle is more of a beige than an off white like it is here.  The overall quality is pretty good, though.

Every Breath by Nicholas Sparks

He’s one of my favorite authors of all-time and I own all of his books.  This is his latest.  I haven’t read it yet, but I’ll be tackling it soon!

Lego Bee Set

I purchased this set for Jacob for Valentine’s Day.  We don’t really do much for VDay, but I like to have a card and a small gift for each of the kids by their breakfast or dinner plates that day.

Lego Flower Set

This set is for Olivia for Valentine’s Day.

Crystal Drawer Pulls

We are getting ready to redo Olivia’s bedroom and turn it into a big girl room, so I bought these crystal pulls for her dresser and nightstand.  Y’all, these are absolutely GORGEOUS in person.  Prior to purchasing them on Amazon I looked on a few other websites and also at Lowe’s and Hobby Lobby and they all ranged from $4.95 - $20 PER PULL, but I found these on Amazon for just $13.40 for six of them!!!!  And they are every bit as nice as any of the other ones that I found at any other store.  I also like this set because they come with three different lengths of screws… that was so important because Olivia’s furniture was thicker than the average, so we needed the longer screws.  I highly recommend these!  They completely transformed her furniture!

Tree Skirt

I threw out our old tree skirt in our bedroom at the end of this Christmas season because it was yellowing pretty badly and I found this one to replace it.  I love that white fur look for Christmas! 

Luna Bars

These are the newest obsession in our house!  I stumbled upon them in Target a couple of months ago, tried them on a whim, and loved them soooo much.  The kids love them as much as I do, so I looked on Amazon, and wouldn’t you know they sell them in bulk for cheaper than you can get them at any store!  :o)

Toothpaste

I am very particular about toothpaste, mostly because I have sensitive teeth.  I finally found some that I like last year, but I haven’t been able to find it at the store since, so Amazon to the rescue... here it is!  And I think it’s cheaper there anyway.

Frozen Bicycle

Our girl will be turning five this month and she has been begging for an Anna and Elsa bike, so I found the best one ever… look at the sleigh on the front for her Anna and Elsa dolls!!!!  I cannot wait for her to see this thing!

Trident Gum

Jacob and Olivia have both become obsessed with chewing gum.  #TheyGetItFromTheirMomma  Jacob likes my “minty” gum that I always chew, but Olivia prefers traditional bubble gum flavored gum.  We don’t let them chew the sugary junk (aside from the occasional piece of Fruit Striped gum that they got in their stockings for Christmas) so I keep sugar free gum on hand at all times.  We chew a lot, so I like to buy it in bulk here on Amazon.  And it’s way cheaper this way!  Like Monica (from Friends), “I will always have gum.” 

Unicorn Coloring Book

Olivia is obsessed with unicorns right now and she has asked for a unicorn birthday shirt as well as a unicorn birthday cake, so I thought I’d get her a few tiny unicorn gifts so she would have something to unwrap since her bicycle won’t be wrapped.  This coloring book is so cute and it makes me want to color with her!  I can’t wait for her to see it!

Unicorn Puzzle

We absolutely adore the Ravensburger puzzles in our household, and they just so happened to have a unicorn one so I bought that for her birthday as well.

Unicorn in a Purse

Okay, so I might have gone a little overboard with the unicorns, but I thought this unicorn in a purse was precious.  She really loves purses and carrying her things around right now, so I thought this was darling.  Plus it’s teeny so it won’t take up a lot of space and it didn’t cost a lot either. 

Unicorn Birthday Card

I searched two Walmarts and one Target for a unicorn birthday card and I found nothing... which was shocking considering how popular unicorns are right now.  So naturally, the next step was to check Amazon, and sure enough, they had the perfect unicorn birthday card and it was the same price that I would have paid for it at a regular store!

External Hard Drive

You may have read my posts about how I back up all of our old files, but in case you haven’t here’s the deal.  I back up all of our old photos, videos, and documents on two different external hard drives as well as our Amazon Drive.  One external hard drive is kept in my desk drawer for easy access and the other is kept in our fire-proof safe, just in case.  I recently ran out of room on one of ours because it didn’t have a lot of storage, so I just bought this new one on Amazon that has 1 TB of storage.  Now I just have to get everything moved over to it.  I’m sure that’ll be fun.  Haha!

And that’s everything that I purchased in the month of January!

And if you’re new around here and you missed this post that I did about Amazon you should check it out.  It highlights many of my favorite purchases EVER on Amazon in my 17 years of shopping… it’s basically an inside look at our Amazon account.  If you’re nosy like I am then you’ll enjoy it.  :o)

Happy shopping, y’all!

*Linking up with The Other Side of the Road for Prime Purchases

Our Weekend - The One with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band Concert

B and I had yet another date night this weekend… that makes two in the span of seven days!  Woo hoo!  We kicked off Friday night with dinner at one of our favorite restaurants.  We enjoyed a couple of craft beers and I got to have my favorite salad ever – spinach and strawberry salad topped with goat cheese, pecans, and grilled filet tips in a poppyseed dressing.  Seriously the best salad of all time, and the best part is that it leaves me feeling satisfied but not stuffed like the food at some of our other favorite restaurants. 

After dinner we walked down the street to see Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.  If you’re not from the south and/or are not a fan of country music then you may not have ever heard of them, but they’ve been around since the 1960’s… we were by far the youngest people in there.  Lol.  B has loved them since he was a kid and it was on his bucket list to see them one day, so he jumped at the chance and I was along for the ride since he came to see Taylor Swift and Justin Timberlake with me.  ;o) 

But seriously, they were really good and our seats made the whole experience even better.  We were technically in the fourth row, dead center, but they didn’t sell any tickets for the first two rows, so it was basically like we were in the second row.  We do always manage to get excellent seats to concerts!  Even if you don’t know who Nitty Gritty Dirt Band is, you probably know the song “Fishing in the Dark” (unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the last 30 years).  That song is always a jam, so it was fun to see it live.  Any excuse to go out on the town with my babe is always good, too!  :o)

Saturday we had nothing going on so we played with the kiddos all day and got some stuff done around the house.  As you know, my goal this year is to get stuff DONE.  All of the things I’ve been putting off forever… JUST DO THEM, ALREADY. 

So Saturday we worked on rearranging some window treatments in the house.  When we moved in our house ten years ago I had no clue how to properly hang curtains (and Pinterest didn’t exist to tell me how, although, I probably could have googled it) so we hung all of them just level with the tops of the windows.  Well, several years later I found out the proper way to hang them (near the ceiling and wider than the windows) so it’s been on my list of things to do FOREVER to get all of the curtains in the whole house re-hung properly.  We did the ones in our living room years ago but I never felt like doing the others, so this weekend was our weekend to knock it out!

We got the ones in our dining room, front sitting room, and play room repositioned and I got that ugly yellow and white chevron valance thing down out of the front sitting room… finally!  White IKEA curtains are now in there and I also hung my old black and white striped curtains from my office in the playroom.  We also got our old set of red dishes sold this weekend, too!  I listed them on our neighborhood Facebook page on Friday and someone snatched them up immediately!  That freed up an entire shelf in the kitchen cabinets and gave us a little bit of extra spending money.  Winning! 

Saturday evening we went to 5:30 mass as always, and then we headed to our fave Mexican restaurant for dinner with my momma, daddy, uncle, brother, and his fam.  It was crazy packed and some of our church and school friends were at the table next to us to it was a fun evening. 

Sunday was lunch at my MIL and step-FIL’s as always, and the weather was so warm that we all enjoyed a long lazy afternoon out on the deck while the kids played in the yard.  Last week we had temps in the 20’s and this week ahead we’re going to be in the 70’s almost every day… crazy, crazy Georgia weather.  But before you northerners get too jealous, it’s also supposed to rain here for the next 40 days and 40 nights.  Lol.

Sunday evening my Momma made lots of snacks and a big pot of beef stew and we all piled in their living room and dining room to watch the Superbowl… or the commercials if you don’t care about pro football like me.  :o)  As I always say during pro football... I'm just here for the snacks!

Well, happy Monday, y’all!  I’m soooo excited it’s Monday and that rarely happens, but this week I have a good reason… ALL OF MY WHITE KITCHEN CABINET DREAMS ARE FINALLY COMING TRUE ON TUESDAY!!  Follow along here in Insta Stories!!  EEK!

Don't forget to link up with Heather, Johannah, Tanya, and myself... just grab our new graphic for 2019 and link up below!

*Linking up with B Loved Boston for Weekending and HoHo Runs for Weekly Wrap.

Inlinkz Link Party

Five on Friday - February Goals

Well, the first month of the year is officially over and I feel like it was pretty darn successful!  I’m going to share my goals for February today, but first, let’s see how I did with my January goals!  I originally used check marks and Xs to indicate my successes and failures but unfortunately they didn't translate across all browsers, so going forward I'm just going to use Y for YES and N for NO to indicate whether or not I accomplished my goals.

January Goals - How I Did

Personal

Y  Positivity, worry less, complain less, be kind, patience, relationships. – I think I did a great job on all of this in January!  Gotta keep it up!

Y  Plan all goals for 2019. – Got the whole year planned… you can see my 2019 Goals post here.

Y  Do my planner prep work for 2019. – Got this done, too! 

Y  Get all to-do lists (daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, etc.) organized and come up with a system to use them to keep my mind clutter free. – Best time I’ve spent!  I feel more organized than I ever have in my entire life and I owe it all to my new method of list-making.

Y  Catch up One Line a Day books for Jacob and Olivia.  I’m so behind. – These books are only five years long so Jacob’s is officially done for good and Olivia’s will be done the day before her birthday next month.  Makes me a little sad.

N  Organize List Master (phone app). – I have been using this app for 6-7 years now so it has a lot of stuff in it.  I did manage to declutter and organize a lot of it, but I didn’t get the job completely done. 

Health

N  Drink 4 thermoses of water most days. – While I drank a decent amount of water, I didn’t quite get 4 thermoses in per day.  During the winter I’m just not as thirsty so I find it harder to get my water in for the day.

Y  Eat an apple most days. – Ate one pretty much every day Monday through Friday and also on the weekends occasionally.  I always feel my best when I eat them!

Y  Get back to the gym after a three-week break. – Went twice most weeks and once this week. 

Y  Eat less sugar overall. – I have completely ditched any kind of sweets during the day.  I’ve been eating a Larabar or Lunabar to curb my afternoon cravings and I’m still sticking to my Halo Top in the evenings instead of regular frozen yogurt.

Y  Moisturize my neck and chest every day. – And I’m already noticing a difference in that skin.  It’s now softer and smoother.

Y  Get SI joint/piriformis muscle injections for back pain. – Everything went well and the injections have pretty much eliminated my pain most days. 

Y  Visit allergist to discuss steps for maintaining. – Now that we know most of my breathing issues were due to reflux instead of my asthma and everything is under control, I only have to visit him every six months instead of every three!  Woot!  I will still be doing allergy shots once every three weeks, though.

Y  Visit GI specialist to discuss steps for maintaining. – I had a great visit with my GI doc and he said that he is going to give me a prescription for a year’s worth of my reflux medicine but I only have to take it as needed.  I don’t have to take it every day!  And I don’t have to see him again until January 2020!  Woo hoooo!

Family

Y  Continue working on kindness and good manners with the kids. – We have been stressing this a lot this month and it is sticking with Jacob.  Olivia still needs work.  Lol.

Y  Create habits of asking to be excused and taking plates to the sink for the kids. – We have literally reminded them of this after every meal and a lot of the time they are remembering to do it on their own now.  We’ll keep working on it until it becomes a habit.

Y  Go to a UGA basketball game and have a day of fun in Athens/Atlanta. – We did this a couple of weekends ago and had a blast.  You can see the recap here.

Y  Have a family game night. – We did this a couple of weekends ago as well.  You can see the recap here.

N  Label everything that they take to school. – Just never took the time to do this.

Y  Start planning Valentine’s Day. – I purchased cards and small gifts for everyone, decorated the house, and got everything squared away with Jacob’s teacher for their class party since I’m the room mom for his class.  Now we just need the kids to pick out what they want to give to their classmates.

Y  Start planning Olivia’s birthday. – I’m so ahead of the game for this!  All of her gifts are purchased, her birthday shirt is purchased, and her cake design is already picked out!

Y  Book hotel for annual beach trip. – We are staying in 30A again for this June and this year we decided to book a condo in a tiny complex to avoid too much overcrowding on the beach.  We’re also going for seven whole nights for the first time ever.  I’m so excited I can’t even stand it!  June will be here before we know it!

N  Try a new restaurant. – Never got around to it.

Y  Get Jacob registered for soccer. – He’s all registered and we should get his team roster and coach assignments in early February!

Home

Y  Schedule a meeting to discuss cabinet/entertainment center painting. – They're coming on Monday and I'm soooo excited!

Y  Start planning Olivia’s big girl bedroom. – I’ve gathered ideas and bought a couple of things and now it’s time to put the rest of the plan to action.

Y  Clean out all Christmas decorations and organize in boxes by zone. – I ended up getting rid of one whole trash bag of stuff, two giant plastic containers of balls, and two shopping bags of other stuff that my Mom wanted.  It’s now all organized to perfection.

Y  Clean out fridge.

Y  Clean out pantry.

Y  Clean out car and wash.

Y  Clean out play room. – Got rid of five large trash bags of stuff that included toys, trash, and recycling + got rid of a stack of books, four large toys, and a shopping bag full of the kids’ old clothes.

Y  Clean out Jacob’s room.

Y  Clean out Olivia’s room.

Y  Clean out my closet. – Got rid of two large trash bags of stuff that included 54 clothing items, 2 pairs of shoes, and 1 handbag.

Y  Start cleaning out office. – Not only did I start cleaning out my office… I finished cleaning out my office!  I got rid of two large trash bags of stuff that included old stuff to donate, trash, and recycling + got rid of my old Silhouette and accessories (still trying to sell it), a huge stack of empty DVD cases, and a lamp.

Y  Photograph, toss, and organize keepsake school papers from first half of school year.

Y  Back up computer files.

Y  Do 20 things on Master To-Do list. – I didn’t just do 20 things… I did 50!!!!  FIFTY!!  However, I also added 14 new items to the list (face palm – haha), so for the sake of decreasing the list by 50% for the year, I’ll have to look at it like I only did 36 things this month.  That’s still ah-mazing, though.  A few things that I did?  Unsubscribed to unnecessary junk emails, got a new frame from IKEA to replace Jacob’s that broke in his room, changed out the pulls on Olivia’s dresser and nightstand, cleared the floor behind my work station in my office, painted my office, got Maui a new bed for my office, put a new light switch plate in my office, organized all of the computer cords behind my desk, reorganized my desk drawers to be more functional, relabeled the toy bins in the play room, organized all old home DVDs, watched all old VHS tapes to make sure I could throw them away, and much more!!

Blog

Y  Plan main content for the entire year – link-ups, posts I do every week, etc.

Y  Plan all content for January and February.

Y  Work ahead on blog posts so I’m not writing a post every single day. – I’ve been doing all of my blog posts for the week on Monday and Tuesday most weeks so that way Wednesday through Friday is free and I love it so much!   

Y  Start working on one post for the summer. – I got all pictures organized and edited for a post I’m doing in July!

Y  Take 5-6 pictures for Instagram.

Y  Co-host a giveaway on Instagram. – The giveaway I chose to join hasn’t started yet, but I’m all signed up for it, so I’m calling this one a win!

Y  Share all of my cleaning out and decluttering on Instagram Stories. – I’ve been bombarding all of you pretty much non-stop this month.  You can follow along here if you’re not already!

Y  Pitch to three different brands. – I actually pitched to four! 

Summary

42 items accomplished
4 items not accomplished

Not too shabby if you ask me!  Now for some pictures of my January successes!

Christmas decorations I donated

Christmas decorations I trashed/recycled

Most of the Christmas decorations I got rid of

My car before the clean-out... YIKES.

My car after the clean-out!

Playroom before the clean-out

Playroom before the clean-out

Playroom before the cleanout

Playroom after the clean-out

Everything we got rid of from the play room, Jacob's bedroom, and Olivia's bedroom

Jacob's bedroom before the clean-out

Jacob's bedroom after the clean-out

Olivia's bedroom before the clean-out

Olivia's bedroom after the clean-out

Everything I got rid of from my master closet clean-out

Everything I got rid of from my office clean-out

Unsubscribing to emails!

Olivia's dresser pulls before we swapped them out

Olivia's dresser pulls after we swapped them out - HEART EYES!

My newly painted blush office!!!!

Now for my goals for February… keep in mind some of them will be the same from month-to-month as I try to create habits for myself for the year!

February Goals

Personal

Positivity, worry less, complain less, be kind, patience, relationships.

Plan and have a girls’ play date or dinner.

Health

Drink 4 thermoses of water most days.

Eat an apple most days.

Go to the gym at least 2 times per week.

Eat less sugar overall.

Moisturize my neck and chest every day. 

Family

Continue working on kindness and good manners with the kids. 

Create habits of asking to be excused and taking plates to the sink for the kids.

Label everything that they take to school, take two.

Finish Valentine’s Day planning and celebrate.

Plan Brian’s birthday and celebrate.

Finish Olivia’s birthday planning and celebrate.

Try a new restaurant.

Have two date nights with B.

Home

Organize List Master (phone app), take two.

Join Poshmark and start uploading clothes to sell.

Get kitchen cabinets and entertainment center painted!!!!  EEK!

Continue planning and working on Olivia’s big girl bedroom.

Clean out kitchen cabinets.

Clean out kitchen closet under stairs.

Clean out side table with kids’ art supplies.

Clean out coat closet.

Clean out command center.

Clean out entertainment center.

Redecorate entertainment center after it’s painted.

Clean out coffee table.

Clean out game cabinet in front room.

Clean out buffet table in dining room.

Do 30 things on Master To-Do list.

Blog

Plan all content for March and April.

Work ahead on blog posts so I’m not writing a post every single day.

Complete one post for the summer.

Start working on other post ideas for the summer.

Take 5-6 pictures for Instagram.

Continue sharing all of my cleaning out and decluttering on Instagram Stories.

Pitch to two different brands.

Hit 7K followers on Instagram.

What a great first month!  Now let’s hope I can keep up the momentum in February! 

*Linking up with A Liz Adventures and Carolina Charm for Five on Friday, A Little Bit of Everything for Friday Favorites, Meet @ the Barre for Friday Favorites, and By BMG for High Five for Friday.