Friday Favorites

Some of my favorite things just week...

1. For your home: Ever Thine Home is the holiday and home collection from FamilyLife. For those of you who don't know, FamilyLife is the ministry Joe and I are currently serving with. When I learned about Ever Thine Home and saw their products, I instantly loved the beauty of each piece, but more so loved the meaning behind each item. The Ever Thine Home collection wants to help women add the things that last forever to our home and family. Their holiday and home collection helps us to infuse our homes with purpose even in the ordinary. 

The Gathered Round is one of my favorites. It can be used for every holiday, celebration and event on your family calender. I love the idea of having a beautiful and versatile decor piece that can be used for all of those occasions and minimize the clutter of decoration storage throughout the year. The creative uses are endless. You can imagine my excitement when a dear friend surprisingly (and with no knowledge of this item being on my imaginary wishlist) gave me the Gathered Round as a gift last week. After an especially hard week, it was such a clear reminder to me that God cares and loves me personally. He knew I needed some extra smiles last week. Made. My. Day. The girls and I decided to put it to use the next day and decorate for Valentine's Day. 

2. To learn: I would love for my girls to have the chance to grow up with the Hungarian language being spoken all around them like I did. My grandparents and my dad were born in Hungary. I learned enough to understand and have basic, small conversations, but also learned the Hungarian alphabet, how to read the language and of course all the sweet poems, sayings and songs that my grandparents always shared with me. The country, the people, the culture and the language all hold very special meaning to me. 

Because Hungarian isn't a mainstream language (like Spanish and French), there aren't a ton of resources available to teach the girls. They don't even have a Hungarian Rosetta Stone to teach myself. This is why I was beyond excited to find out about the app, Gus on the Go.  The app offers interactive lessons and fun vocabulary games to learn over 90 words. The quality of the app and the rarity of finding a Hungarian version make the $3.99 worth every penny. Gus on the Go comes in a bunch of different languages. AND you don't have to be a kid to learn from it. Check out the list of languages offered here.  My girls are learning so much already. 

3. For a good laugh: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0qXjRRvpQE

4. What you didn't see in the headlines and tabloids: I'm an especially big advocate of the importance of remembering that people (famous or not) are REAL people with REAL heart issues and a REAL need for the same hope and truth. It is too easy for us to judge those in Hollywood, to put them in a glass bowl and critique every area of their lives. At the end of the day, when everything is stripped away, we have a whole lot more in common then we want to believe. After lots of media training in school, I learned that marketing and PR are powerful forces, which makes it especially important to sift through the messages sent our way before believing it to be the truth about someone. You've most likely heard many stories about the ABC's previous Bachelor, Sean Lowe. This is what you may not have heard. I'm thankful for his influence and testimony. Watch it here. 

5. Beauty: By now I'm sure you are familiar with the idea of monthly box subscriptions popping up everywhere. I think the idea of surprise boxes in the mail are a lot of fun, so I like to test them out when I get a promo code for a free box. I have never kept a subscription, but a a free box of goodies sounds like a good deal to me. My most recent box was from Julep. You know this is especially fun for me if you know my love for nail polish. After taking the quiz, they labeled my beauty style, bombshell (a confident frill-seeker with magnetic appeal, adores bold, glam colors and anything that sparkles) and put together my beauty box for me. Two nail polish colors and some cuticle repair oil. The polish is high quality, like Essie and O.P.I. The colors were fun. I only had to pay $4 for shipping. Now, I can simply cancel my subscription and not pay for anymore boxes. 

Do you want to get a free box of beauty products worth $40? Click this link and enter the code: FREEBOX at checkout. If nothing else, get your free box, then wrap it up and give it as a gift! Sweet deal! 

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7. Photos: Groovebook is a free app that allows you to quickly create a photo book with up to 100 photos taken directly from your smartphone. The GrooveBook app prints your monthly camera roll into a 4.5” x 6.5” Photo Book for FREE and mails it directly to you every month. The photos in your book are printed on glossy photo paper and are even perforated for easy removal so you can share them, frame them or stick them into photo albums. Each photo even includes the location and date for reference.

If you are like me, you take a ton of pictures on your phone and have a hard time getting them printed. I love knowing for only 2.99 in shipping every month, Groovebook does all the work for me! You can get your first book completely free. Just use the coupon code: CASSEL15. Start by downloading the free Groovebook app. Follow the signup instructions. Enter the promo code at checkout. Then, begin reviewing and uploading your pictures! 

8. Orange: It might be a fundraising strategy, but I genuinely look forward to the Valentine's Day card Syracuse University sends Joe and I every year. I love that SU is the beginning of our love story. #OrangeLove 

9. And because it is Valentine's Day after all: I'm extremely thankful for my favorite guy. His love goes way beyond Valentine's Day, but I'm thankful that he celebrated yesterday by bringing home two of my favorites: flowers (hot pink roses and gerber daisies) and iced coffee. :)