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Budget-Friendly DIY Gallery Wall

Spruce up your living space with a Budget-Friendly DIY Gallery Wall. We took our living room from ho-hum to hey-hon with some cheap canvas prints and budget plaques in no time at all. So can you! You should know, I did receive product from Canvas on the Cheap in exchange for this post, but all opinions are my own!

We bought our house 2.5 years ago. I haven’t decorated much. You see, since the minute we moved in, we’ve had different house guests “living” with us for different lengths of time. It seemed pointless to decorate. I mean, there was crap in every corner, always, and it was all I could do to stay up on the vacuuming, toilet scrubbing, cooking, kitchen cleaning, laundry, etc. But about a month ago, the last of our guests moved out and my house is mine again. I’ve (we’ve) resolved to not have any long-term house guests “visit” anymore, so it was time to make this place my own!

Are your walls in need of a makeover on the cheap?

Prior to now, my walls were PIT-I-FUL! Although I think my family is beautiful, I realize that a spattering of three family photos on a large wall (quite serious photos at that) didn’t do much to say who we are. This wall was boring, we looked staged (we were), and it just doesn’t show our fun side. This is the wall people see when I meet for work. This wall had to be reworked. Bah-bye, boring wall! I had so many (FUN!) family photos, I knew exactly what to do. I turned to Canvas on the Cheap for a budget-friendly DIY Gallery Wall. We needed to show our fun side, and show our fun side we did!

I placed my order and I was shocked at the prices! I just knew this was going to be crap when the package arrived. I chose two photos from a family shoot gone wrong (thank goodness it did) for my gallery wall. When the packages arrived, I was pleasantly surprised to see the personalization involved. Thank you, Kaylee, for caring enough about my family memories to package these memories with care!

Packaged nice and tidy and clear as a bell, my canvases arrived in about a week and I was ready to make my wall magic happen!

The babies each chose their favorites and they were excited to see our gallery wall come to life as well!

I am very impressed with the quality of the prints. The edges look almost hand folded although I doubt they are – unless Kaylee did that too! They are very similar in quality to the smaller prints you see on my wall that I had purchased from a different online vendor a year or so ago.

The one true difference is affordability! The 8×8 prints I got from the other vendor cost about $22 each (tax and shipping included, so the order for four 8×8 prints was $85). The price of the 16×20 prints from Canvas on the Cheap is $17.60 right now with their summer special, so they were a total of $35 each (with tax and shipping for full disclosure for those of you on a budget). I did order the two 16×20 prints separately so the shipping cost is a little higher – be smarter than me and think ahead and place your entire order at once to keep shipping down.

Once you add in some totally cheap signs from Ross or Marshall’s, you’ve got yourself a gallery wall. Easy, peasy, cheap, and impressive on a budget.

Need canvas prints of your family photos?

If you are in need of a budget-friendly wall makeover, turn to Canvas on the Cheap for help! They’re constantly running amazing sales and they offer a variety of sizes and different finishing options. I, for one, couldn’t be more thrilled with my gallery wall and I was so proud to show it off in a meeting yesterday. Finally, a little touch of my personality in my living room. Now to go look around the house to see what else I can spruce up!

Family Fun at iT’Z Pizza Pasadena TX

By Christy Leave a Comment

Looking for family fun in the Houston area? iT’Z Pizza Pasadena TX is where it’s at. Endless pizza, pasta, salad, desserts, and more, plus video games, laser tag, bowling, bumper cars, and even a bar. iT’z the affordable place to be in Houston!

Endless Food at iT’Z Family Food & Fun

The minute you walk in the door, you’re greeted by a friendly staff where you can check in or buy your tickets for the day. Once the business-like stuff is over, it’s time to dive in…to endless food! Literally, endless pizza, salad, pasta, chicken, mashed potatoes, desserts, and more. It’s all buffet style, it’s replenished regularly, and even with my picky bunch (I’m probably the worst!), there’s plenty for everyone to eat.

Just so you know, I’m a pizza snob. A snob, I say. Growing up in upstate New York will do that to a person. That said, I like the pizza at iT’Z. It’s fresh, cheesy, plenty of toppings, and if they don’t have what you like, they’ll make you whatever you want (as long as they have the ingredients – don’t go all psycho on the topping choices!). I was super hungry so I got excited to see that they had a veggie pizza (my fave) with marinara. I have no clue why most pizza buffets use Alfredo for veggie pizzas. Duh, we’re vegetarians, we absolutely do like tomatoes! But I digress…

Of course, they have the meat lovers covered too. There were literally about 20 varieties of pizzas out at any given moment and all were fresh. You don’t get that over at the place with the mouse!

The salad is FRESH and there are so many options, from the lettuce to the toppings to the dressing. Soooo good! You can’t eat pizza without salad. It’s a scientific fact. I’m glad the folks at iT’Z gets that.

Can we just talk about this hummus for a sec? Creamy, rich, roasted red pepper hummus and pita chips. If you have an addictive personality, stay away from this hummus.

Just in case I haven’t talked about food enough (you’d think a 95-pound grown up woman could think of something else to talk about), there’s dessert. All the dessert. So many desserts. And did I mention it’s endless? That’s right. If you buy the Biggest Deal Package for just $28.99 each, you get unlimited video games, mini bowling, laser tag, and more, plus you get one free game of regular bowling with shoe rental AND unlimited food and fountain drinks….for the whole day. The whole day, people!

The fun starts here!

OK, sorry about all of the food talk, this girl was hangry when we got there, but the real fun starts here!

Why iT’Z Pasadena TX for us?

Well, here’s the thing. We live on an island, a tourist town, and although there is a lot to do in Galveston, we’ve pretty much done it all and sometimes we need a change of scenery. We don’t want to break the bank and we need to find something that two adults, a brassy tween cheerleader, and an elementary school straight A student can all enjoy. That’s a hefty task, but iT’Z offers us that. We can all have fun; together, alone, and in pairs. It’s a beautiful thing!

Eyes on the prize!

The straight A student is a serious gamer. Like, we all believe we’ll be living in wings of his mansion when he grows up. When he’s playing for tickets, it’s eyes on the prize, baby…EYES ON THE PRIZE! Note: If you buy the Biggest Deal Package, you get a $5 fun card which equals 20 points to play the ticket games.

The fun goes on forever. Air hockey, anyone?

Bubby would literally spend ALL DAY at laser tag. Well, he kinda did, but that’s OK because he had fun!

Bumper cars? You betcha!

Kylee loves hitting things, so the bumper cars are therapeutic for her.

Regular bowling is very colorful at iT’Z Pasadena TX.

But if handling 10-lb balls isn’t your thing (yes, I really said that), they have mini bowling too!

What’s in it for the adults?

For us, lots of shoot-em-up video games (don’t judge) are great. Stress relievers are fun and I oddly find shooting dinosaurs amazing! Also, at the end of the day, if you have a DD, there’s an adults-only bar outside of the bowling alley that you might want to stop by. Looks like a lot of fun!

Grab the deal and have some fun!

Not in the Pasadena TX area so you’re a little bummed about missing this deals and fun? They have locations in Euless TX and Willowbrook (Houston) TX too and you can take advantage of the fun and BOGO Biggest Deal savings right now at any of their locations. Buy one Biggest Deal at regular price ($28.99 plus tax) and get one Biggest Deal Free! All day food, fun, and family together time. It doesn’t get much better than that, so what are you waiting for?

Disclosure: I received a family 4-pack to iT’Z Family Food & Fun through a partnership with US Family Guide, however, all opinions are my own.

An Unlikely Casualty of Bullying

By Christy 5 Comments

As a mom, it’s hard to deal with your child being bullied. Constant contact with school officials, too many scares to be counted, crying (both of you) more than you should, but what do you do when your child becomes an unlikely casualty of bullying?

An Unlikely Casualty of Bullying

Our experience with bullies in today’s middle school has been life altering. Literally. There’s been an unlikely casualty here, and although I’m fortunate it’s not a tangible human casualty, my daughter is forever changed, I fear. Before you go thinking I’m being a little overly dramatic again, let’s define casualty.

cas·u·al·ty (noun):

a person killed or injured in a war or accident.

a person or thing badly affected by an event or situation.

My Bug falls heavily under that second definition. She’s different. Everything about her has changed. She’s no longer just a bad ass, she’s borderline bad, and she’s completely shut down.

From Cheers to Tears!

Although Kylee has always had an “attitude” issue, she was a very cheerful kid who sang, danced, and took over every situation whenever she could just to be the star of the show. The start of middle school was a huge win for our Bug. She was on the cheer squad, in band, getting fantastic grades, and all of the teachers just thought she was a doll. She was the quintessential student and she had a huge group of “friends”.

Then the bullying started. One incident after another. Some mild mannered that we worked through, some absolutely blood curdling. But with each instance, I watched my daughter change. With each mean word, slap, threat, lack of action (and actual bullying) by some administrators…she just kept changing. She was shutting down.

My daughter was shutting down.

The Day My Daughter Changed

I can’t say I recall the exact day, the exact moment, that Kylee became a different person, but I can say that her entire personality is an unlikely casualty of bullying. I’ve been supportive, I’ve been at the school, I’ve documented everything, I’ve encouraged my daughter regularly, but she’s different.

Whatever day it was, or series of days, I’ve watched my daughter slowly die inside and a new person has emerged. This person is not as kind or loving as the last one was; not even close. She’s no longer very talkative, she fights with everyone at home, she rolls her eyes at her teachers, she complains about changing for cheer (if she goes to practice at all), she stopped bringing her bassoon home to practice. She doesn’t sing like she used to, she doesn’t dance a whole lot.

Her new “friend” group is actually the last round of bullies. Yes, she’s with them now since she couldn’t stand strongly against them, since the administrators labeled her “one of them”. I mean, if she has to go to ISS every time she speaks up against one of them, she might as well be friends with them. Of course I understand, but I don’t condone it. She hasn’t (and will NOT) hurt anyone, but she’ll slowly roll with this group of girls until she’s in the wrong place at the wrong time. She’s afraid to find a new friend group since they all “turn on her anyway” so she’s settled here rather than being alone.

What would you do?

I, personally, would rather be alone and I’ve told her that repeatedly, but I can’t be there every minute of every day. I can only be there to pick her up every time she falls. And I will.

In the meantime, I’m here watching over her as best I can, protecting her every step of the way, and watching her slowly die inside while I stand helplessly by. No words I can say, no hug, no anything will erase what she’s gone through. I just hope one day in the near future she realizes that her whole life doesn’t have to change, she doesn’t have to change, and she’s back to the feisty little bad ass that I love so much!

Right now, unfortunately, her psyche is an unlikely casualty of bullying and I miss her.