Stacie's Place

  It's that time of year again!  Choosing one little word or finding what one little word chooses me .  I came up with this word: Devote/Devoted/Devotion.  Partly, because the word kept coming to my mind & partly because for awhile I've been feeling like I have needed to be more devoted in certain aspects of my life. Keep reading to find out what areas I will be working on in 2026.

 Since the Christmas card template I picked has photos that go by month, that might be the best way to recap our year in words here with more details. Enjoy!

  I take my birthday deals seriously and this year I again updated my spreadsheet so I could keep track of what I wanted to redeem, when freebies expired, etc. It was super helpful and I just use Google Sheets to set it up. So! Here's what I worked on this year with all the birthday emails I received.  Adidas - 15% off birthday coupon to use on their website. I did not use this. I had 8 days to use it. Aerie - 10% off a purchase online. It was good for 30 days. I did not use this. AE & Aerie- $5 to spend. I did not use it this year Albertsons - 2x the points in the month of July. I don't think I went to get groceries here at all so that was a missed opportunity.  AMC - free large popcorn. I did not make it to a theater to watch any movies in July. Archibald's - a yummy restaurant in Utah. They did not send me anything this year but they did send me a free meal (b1g1) in 2023 and 2024. Not sure what happened this year. Azteca - a restaurant in WA. The deal was fo...

  **This post contains affiliate links** Lately I have been feeling extremely dissatisfied by the water bottle options available in stores and online. There are so many brands ~ Yeti, Zulu, Simple Modern, Hydro Flask, Ninja, ThermoFlask, Starbucks and on and on. There are so many lid styles ~ flip, twist, slide button and more. Handle or no handle. So many different colors, designs and sizes. It's enough to make your head spin, am I right?

  (This post contains affiliate links) Do you have a best friend or a bunch of best friends? I feel like I've made special relationships with friends throughout the years depending on where I have lived and worked. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a best friend as, "a person's closest and dearest friend." Aw! 😌 Today I wanted to share some ways to celebrate your best friend(s) for National Best Friends Day which is coming up - June 8th! But before I share those ways, I wanted to talk a little about best friends I have had in my life. I'd say my first best friend in life was and still is my sister Laura. I'm the oldest of 8 kids and she is the 2nd oldest which meant we did of lot of activities together when we were kids, teens and young adults. Even to this day, she's someone I talk to every day and I try to visit her as often as I can. Other best friends have not stayed best friends for my entire life like Laura has but I still consider them the bes...

  If you know me well, you probably know I have a lot of things. In all the categories 😵 Clothes. Shoes. Craft supplies. Snacks. Holiday decor. You get the idea. America has so much abundance everywhere and its all so easy to access via shopping stores and the internet in particular. I am party of deal/coupon groups and can't resist sometimes! I am not saying this as an excuse, it's just how it is here in the USA for most people. Access to fun things is just so easy. Probably too easy. For those who like to collect things, those who have a passion for fashion, those who love many brands of shoes, those who can't stick with just one kind of craft and so on and so forth. I have traveled a lot in 2024 and I do want to travel in 2025 but would like to keep this one little word - Simplify - forefront in my mind, when I am home and able to downsize and declutter. Doing these things will help me simplify my life, I hope. I am aware that this is not something that will happen over...