Best Buy Give To Win Giveaway

UPDATE: This Giveaway is over

I went to Best Buy today to buy one last gift for my husband that I think he'll love. I made my purchase and was handed the receipt as usual but this time the receipt looked extra long. I skimmed it as I was walking out the door - also as usual. I noticed about a third of the way down in big letters GIVE IT TO WIN IT: Buy any gift card $25 and up, then enter for your chance to win Daily prizes of $50, $100, $500, and $10,000. I'm all for free money, especially when you have a tech, newest gadget loving husband (and kids) like me. I also remembered days ago I purchased a Best Buy gift card for another loved one so I was eligible to enter! When I got home, I got out the gift card receipt and went to the website to enter the drawing. Below is a screenshot of what the website looks like.

You can enter up to 10 times per day.

Prizes awarded daily.

I entered for the one gift card I purchase but then I read the fine print at the bottom of the receipt and website, it says no purchase necessary. Wait! What?!

So I spent several minutes trying to figure out how to enter without purchase. And finally figured it out, but they don't make it easy.... more than likely because they don't want you to. But you don't have to worry about figuring it out because I've included the link for you! Click Here to enter up to 10 times per day. And good luck!!!


Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with Best Buy. All opinions are my own.

Holiday Marshmallow Pops

I don't know about you but I struggle year-to-year on what to get for my kids teachers. I can't spend a lot but I like to give them something. These were a huge hit with my daughters teachers so I thought I'd share these tasty little treats my girls and I made.

Back story on how I came up with the idea: My 14yo daughter has become obsessed with swirling candy canes in her hot tea until they melt. So I decided to look on the internet for these candy cane spoons I've seen popping up on a few blogs lately, but everyone was sold out. In my search I came across a recipe where someone made these Marshmallow pops with sprinkles on them and I had an idea.... to make our own with 3 different flavors of chocolate (White, Semi-Sweet, and Dark) and then create 2 options for dipping them in.

First I went to Walmart and picked up some cute 6 inch cake pop sticks from Wilton (the red striped sticks were out of stock :( ) x 3 packages (30 per pkg). You'll need 2.5 pkg of sticks per 1 bag of marshmallows. I also grabbed some small 3x4 inch Wilton treat bags and 5/16 inch red ribbon.

I grabbed a bag of jumbo Marshmallows, Candy Canes, Oreos, Caramels and melting chocolates (couldn't find dark melting chocolate so I grabbed a dark choco bar) - I already had Red & White sprinkles and Sea Salt at home. I had the girls put candy canes and Oreos in separate zippered bags and then let them go to town with a meat tenderizer. We placed these items in 4 bowls with a spoon. We chose the following flavor combos:
White Chocolate with candy cane
White Chocolate with sprinkles
Semi-Sweet Chocolate with candy cane
Semi-Sweet Chocolate with Oreos pieces
Dark Chocolate with candy cane
Dark Chocolate with salted caramel (see directions below)

We placed the marshmallows on wax paper and placed the cake pop sticks in the center of the marshmallows.

We placed pieces of the melting chocolate (or chocolate bar) in a microwave safe bowl and heated for 2 minutes then removed and mixed with a spatula until smooth. Dip the marshmallows straight down into the chocolate covering about half way up the marshmallow (you can cover the entire marshmallow if you'd like, it's whatever you prefer) tap then immediately spoon sprinkles, Oreos, or candy cane until desired amount of coverage is achieved. Lay them out on wax paper or paper towels (not great option since fibers may stick) until chocolate is set (1-2 hours).

For the dark chocolate with salted caramel topping, dip marshmallows into chocolate then lay on wax paper until it sets (1 to 2 hours). We placed caramel into a zippered bag and placed in the microwave about 20 seconds or enough so that they are no longer solid. If the caramel is too warm either set aside for it to cool or run the bag under cool water, it should barely be warm to touch when piped onto marshmallow otherwise it will slide off. When ready cut a small piece of one edge of the baggie off (see photo).

Pipe in a zig zag pattern over top of dark chocolate dipped marshmallow, add a few sprinkles of Sea Salt, then place stick down in a cup to set (see photo).

After all the chocolate and topping has set, we then added the small treat bags one at a time over top of the marshmallow pop then tied closed with the red ribbon. If you'd like to be able to distinguish the flavors of chocolate more easily you can use a different color ribbon for each flavor of chocolate.

Then the kids added 1 of each flavor chocolate to a pretty large treat bag and added a strip of paper with a twisty tie (I think I got these bags at the Dollar Tree).
The strip reads: Marshmallow Pops
                         Enjoy by itself or stir into your favorite hot beverage!!!
                         Happy Holidays! (child's name)

These were so easy and so much fun to make with my 14 and 11 yr old daughters! You can make it even easier by not doing as many options as we did but we liked the idea of the variety.

Here is the cost break down:
Marshmallows $1.89
Candy Canes $3.50-4.00
Sprinkles (Free) or $1.00
Oreos $3.50
Melting chocolate Varies depending on brand
Cake Pop Sticks $3.79 (for decorative) or $1.79 (for plain white)
Treat bags $3.49
Ribbon $1.79
Large treat bags $1.00
Total was about .50-.55 cents per Marshmallow pop but you can get that cost down by choosing more cost effective items.

Enjoy! And have a Happy Holiday Season!

Dinette Redo with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint

I needed a table for our kitchen nook, but every time we move with the military movers our furniture gets ruined. I wanted something round (to fit in the space) and with enough room to seat 4 people comfortably. Because I didn't want to buy something new to be ruined by moving again and buying a used piece of furniture meant I would likely be dealing with nicks, chips, or scratches, I knew I'd need a set I could paint. 

I'd attempted to paint furniture before but I was completely exhausted after the first attempt - with sanding, priming, sanding, painting and sanding again - it was a just a lot of work that I didn't want to do again. I'd been reading some blogs about painting with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and how easy it was to use and the paint would stick to anything without priming! I made the trip to my local retailer The Shabby Coast Cottage and looked over her paint samples. I picked out 2 colors, French Linen and Versailles, thinking I would use the French Linen for the table set and Versailles for something else.

 I found this used set on Craigslist for $100. And it also came with a leaf that can be added for more seating.

First I sanded and repaired the set - the set is from the 1980s and the glue holding the chairs together is getting old (seller didn't disclose the extent to which it needed repaired). 

I was finally ready to paint and I chose to paint a heavy base coat of French Linen to get the best coverage I could.

After the first coat dried I didn't like how light the gray paint looked so I made a wash with French Linen and Versailles and applied this as the second coat of paint. This is how it looked after.

 A light sanding and the set was ready for a layer of Clear Wax. After the first layer dried, a Dark Wax was applied to aid in the antique look. Then a final Clear layer of wax was applied and it was buffed to a velvety finish.

I'm in love with the color. What do you think (sorry for the less than impressive photos)?

 Check out items for sale at http://www.etsy.com/shop/MaisonDuRhone

Little Girl's Dresser Redo

My girls are getting big..... too big for sharing a bedroom and too big for twin beds, so when we moved from North Carolina we left their beds and dressers behind so we could purchase new furniture for their separate bedrooms. We found a lovely full size bed but couldn't find a matching dresser that didn't look and feel cheap (furniture quality isn't what it used to be!).

(This was what the girl's room looked like before the move)

Since separating their rooms, we've started a new tradition when we move to a new base, we allow the girls to decorate their rooms as a reward for moving (because my husband is active duty in the military we move often). 

This is the bedding my youngest chose for her room.

It's a dark chocolate with a turquoise background and light blue accents.

I was on the hunt for a sturdy dresser that wouldn't fall apart - my kids (as well as most kids) can be extra hard on furniture but wasn't able to find something we would be happy with. What I found was neutral dresser of decent quality for $50 on a FB yard sale site (The top had already been removed in this photo).

When I purchased it the top had a large chunk out of the lip (front left corner). A very good friend of ours offered to remove the top and take it home to router a new edge. 

I primed the entire piece, then painted the body of the dresser a white color (Behr paint) that perfectly matched her new bed. I painted the drawers a contrasting dark turquoise (my daughter's choice) that matched the background on the bedding.

The top came back from our friend looking like new.  It was primed, painted then reattached to the body. Lastly, the entire piece was waxed and buffed.

I love how it turned out!

This is how it works with the rest of the bedroom!

 Ignore the messy room!

Let me know what you think!

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High End Goodwill Refinish

This redo has been in the works for a long time. I started working on it while I still was working at the Winery and didn't have the time to put into it. Now that I'm happily unemployed I can put more time into my furniture projects. 

I purchased this table at our local Goodwill back in the summer of 2012 and it needed some love. One of the legs was loose and falling off. The top and most of the table had scratches on it, but I loved the beautiful curved legs. I went to the local hardware store and purchased some new bolts and fixed the legs; to include tightening the remaining ones.

(I didn't get a good before photo but this photo was taken after I stripped the original stain off the top using my hand sander.) 

This is the first time I tried restaining a piece of furniture and it was a lot to take on. I started by putting one coat of Ebony stain on the top. While I was waiting for the stain to dry I started painting the body and legs with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint® in Old White. I stained it another time but still didn't think the color was as dark as I wanted. My third coat of stain, I forgot to shake the can well before using it, was a disaster. I thought maybe it would look better once I put a coat of varnish on it. It didn't, it looked worse! So I decided to sand it lightly and add another coat of stain. This time I remembered to shake the can but left the stain on a little too long before wiping it off which resulted in a sticky mess. With a lot of elbow grease I was able to get it looking good again.  I applied another layer of Old White to the legs and body. I let the entire piece dry overnight then lightly sanded the legs and body to a beautiful distressed appearance. I applied a layer of Annie Sloan Clear Wax to the entire piece (I decided the top might look better waxed instead of varnished). I let it dry then applied a layer of Annie Sloan Dark Wax to the legs and body to make it appear aged. I let it dry then applied a final layer of Clear Wax. After that dried overnight, I buffed the body and top - the top buffed to a nice velvety texture and the top took on a beautiful hand-buffed sheen.

What do you think?

If you have any questions about the purchase of this item, email me at maisondurhone@gmail.com
This item is also for sale on the MaisonDuRhone Etsy page: http://www.etsy.com/shop/MaisonDuRhone
Update this item is sold

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