Vintage Gwen

Update Coming Soon!

2026-01-26T16:40:00.000-06:00

Hey friends!

It's been a while!

Working on dusting this space off and doing some updates!

Stay tuned!

{Freebie} Be Mine Printable

2017-02-09T09:00:00.000-06:00

Almost time for Be Mine day! Sweetheart day? XOXO day?

What ever your favorite Valentine/love saying may be, 'be mine' is a classic and one of my favs!

Wanted to share this Valentine with you!

*just right click and save! for personal use only.*

Enjoy!!

Happy Thursday!

{Freebie} Home Is The Nicest Word There Is Printable

2016-11-15T09:13:00.000-06:00

Fall is one of my favorite times of the year. I love all the warm colors she brings, seems like it just makes home a little cozier. Back in September I hosted bunco and wanted to give a little something to everyone and found this lovely quote from Laura Ingalls Wilder. It paired nicely with a cool graphic from The Graphics Fairy. Wanted to share it with you!!

If right clicking and saving doesn't work, I'll email it to ya!

Enjoy!!

Happy Tuesday!

{Recipe} Crockpot Baked Potato Soup

2016-09-09T16:30:00.000-05:00

Scrolling through Facebook recently I came across one of those quick recipe videos....you know the ones where they go through the steps in 30 seconds or less. It was for potato soup in the crockpot. It looked easy and delicious. Two of my favorite things! The only thing is, it looked sooo thick! So after reading through some comments I decided to 'tweak' the recipe in true Jennifer fashion. I also wanted to stretch it to feed 8 instead of 6. I was so impressed with how it turned out I wanted to share before I gobbled it up!

Crockpot Baked Potato Soup

adapted from 12 Tomatoes

Serves 8

Ingredients:

1 32 oz cubed frozen hash browns

1 32 oz box low sodium chicken broth

1 16 oz box low sodium chicken broth

1 10 oz can cream of onion soup

1 8 oz cream cheese

1 package precooked bacon, chopped

salt and pepper

shredded cheese for garnish

optional garnishes: chopped green onion or chives, more bacon

Make It:

Place hash browns, chicken broth, soup, and bacon in crockpot. Stir together. Season with salt and pepper.

Cook on low for 7 hours.

Once the soup gets nice and hot and bubbling, cube the cream cheese and stir in. After an hour, stir to make sure the cream cheese is incorporated.

Garnish with cheese and enjoy the yumminess!

*Notes: I had a little trouble with the cream cheese melting through so next time I make it, I may put it in at the half way point. I had started it early before going to school/work so by the time I got home it had been 7 hours already, then I mixed the cream cheese in. It was still sooo good! And so easy!! I served 8 and had just about 1 serving left over perfect for lunch today!

And as you can see....I like lots of cheese!!

Here's to curl up and have some yummy soup weather!

{Freebie} 4th of July Lockscreens

2016-07-02T00:19:00.002-05:00

Happy July!!

When I opened up PicMonkey this last week and I was so excited to see Stars & Stripes overlays!!! And I also thought it would be fun to make 4th of July lockscreens to share!

Land That I Love

Lady Liberty

God Bless the USA

Just save lockscreen to your phone by long pressing and then go to your settings and find wallpapers and make it your lockscreen.

*For personal use only please.*

Enjoy and have a happy and safe holiday weekend lovelies!

2016 Mother's Day Mantle

2016-05-08T00:53:00.000-05:00

Happy Mother's Day!!

I sure did make a mantle in my honor! Lol!

As you can see, Lil Hunkie is a little bit creative like his momma! I thought it would be sweet to display his recent artwork for me on a "Mother's Day" mantle.

I'm loving my marquee W...someday I will get batteries and use the lights with it!

And I love that this mantle is so colorful! Just like Lil' Hunkie!

Hope your day is sweet!

Unique Gift Giving With UncommonGoods

2016-04-26T10:43:00.002-05:00

I'm a third generation gift giver....currently working on the fourth generation!

I'm told my Grandma Georgie was a giver, my mother is indeed one and when one of your Love Languages is gift giving, well there's no denying I'm carrying on the family tradition!

I'm also a crafter, a handmade maker. For the last 6 years my son, Lil' Hunkie, has watched his momma make countless gifts from baby gifts to wedding gifts. Now that he is in school the amount of handmade gifts he has made is without a doubt comical. (Evidence in the above photo! He made something then packaged it up all on his own!) I don't even know the number! I've learned to just let him be....he's spreading goodness and kindness and compassion and why, oh why should I disrupt that? He is being his own kind of uniqueness. And uniqueness is what I try to achieve when gift giving. Now if you aren't into making things then let me share a place you can go... UncommonGoods.

UncommonGoods is "committed to offering creative and exciting merchandise", in other words they provide uniqueness. UncommonGoods gives back with their Better To Give program, which allows customers to choose a non-profit organization to receive a $1 donation at checkout, in other words they are unique.

Supporting makers while shopping and then giving to worthy causes? Sounds like a perfect place to find gifts for some fast approaching holidays like Mother's Day and Father's Day!

Check out UncommonGoods' Top 25 Gifts for Mothers!

And here's some of my favs....

Bedside Smartphone Vase

How cute would this look on a tray when you serve Mom breakfast in bed!?

Way cute I say!!

Personalized Branch Bracelet

Love this cuff that you can personalize with birthstones!

They have some great Mother's Day collections to help make shopping easy and fun!

And there's Father's Day collections too! One of my favs is a guitar pick maker!!

And how fun is this Donut Warming Mug?

I don't know about your parents, but mine have gotten to the point that they don't need anything so giving unique, fun things has been where it's at!

So happy shopping lovelies!! And Happy Tuesday!

*Disclosure: This is a sponsored post, but, as always, all opinions are 100% mine.

Thanks to UncommonGoods!*

{Freebie} Easter Lockscreens

2016-03-21T10:54:00.001-05:00

Happy Holy Week!

Lots of prep for Easter this week! Thought I'd start out with a new lockscreen and share!

He Is Risen!

background via hippo wallpapers

He Paid It All

flower heart via we lived happily ever after

Happy Easter!

*for personal use only*

Enjoy lovelies!! And Happy Monday!

2016 St. Patrick's Day Mantle

2016-03-17T00:10:00.000-05:00

I'm really not a fan of having Easter in March. There's not much time to decorate for it!

I know, I know....#firstworldproblems right?

Since Easter is early I mentioned not doing the mantle for St. Patrick's Day and going straight to Easter but Lil' Hunkie would have none of it! So I just kept it simple....used what I had....the big W is new that I had and just hadn't used yet and then the glitter W is a Heidi Swapp Marquee letter I got half off at Hobby Lobby. I thought it would be fun to have! I busted out my We R Memory Keepers Banner Punch Board to make the chevron shapes for the banner, added some foam shamrocks I had and that was it!

Happy St. Patrick's Day lovelies!

{Freebie} St. Patrick's Day Lockscreens

2016-03-10T09:36:00.000-06:00

Before the funnest green day gets away wanted to share some lockscreens!!

Lucky In Love

I'm A Wee Bit Irish

You Are My Pot Of Gold

*for personal use only please.

Enjoy my friends and Happy St. Pat's!

{Freebie} Valentine Coloring Pages

2016-02-12T11:26:00.001-06:00

Finally!! I figured out how to create a coloring page in PicMonkey!!

What I couldn't figure out is how to make text color-able.

The answer was so easy it was literally staring me in the face!!

Every time you add text to what you are creating it brings up a box with TWO tabs.....an Options tab and an Effects tab. Well duh....the Effects tab allows you to edit the text into color-able text!

So fun!!!

So if I get too crazy on offering free coloring pages please tell me! Ha!

So here's my Valentine to you!

This quote is from an awesome worship song by John Mark McMillan "Heart Won't Stop".

Right click, save and print!

For personal use only please.

Enjoy!!

And Happy Valentine's day!!

xoxo!

2016 Valentine Mantle

2016-02-04T00:45:00.000-06:00

Last weekend we finally put the Christmas back in the little red barn and got the Valentine and Easter out. I sure do wish I had room to store it all in the house but I just don't.

So....sure does make for some family exercise at least!!

I bought this cute artwork last year after Valentine's Day from Ross. I pulled the chalkboard heart and flowers together and had one side done. Then I went to the Dollar Tree and found the black square frame that I simply put a piece of scrapbook paper in and then found the '&' in the Target Spot. Doily hearts came from Dollar Tree too. ☺ Cute, simple, black, pink, floral mantle!

Played with angles with my new camera!!

So now we are ready for V Day!

Happy Thursday lovelies!

{Freebie} Valentine Lockscreens

2016-01-29T11:10:00.000-06:00

Happy Friday lovelies!!

Made some freebies to share! I love changing out my lockscreen with the holidays. And when there's no holiday it's usually a scripture (She Reads Truth has some awesome ones!) or something uplifting. Trying a new size with these so hope they work on any device!

Just bring up this post on your phone and long press the lockscreen of your choice, save and then make as your wallpaper. For personal use only please.

be my valentine

love and flowers are all i need

for the love of arrows

Enjoy and Happy Friday!!

Merry Christmas!!

2015-12-25T12:54:00.002-06:00

"And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart." Luke 2:18-19 ESV

Treasure up the wonder of all things Christmas today friends....

Merry Christmas!!

{Recipe} Pretzel Spoon Snowmen

2015-12-23T00:13:00.001-06:00

I love baking, especially Christmas baking! I have for several years made Christmas goodies for neighbors, the mail carrier, garbage collectors, etc.etc.... Even made a tray a few times for my husband to take to work which I really miss doing. I have a few tried and true treats that I always make...sugar cookies and an oatmeal cookie...either with raisins or cranberries. Then I make a candy type treat. This year I wanted to use some supplies I had in the cabinet and make a circle pretzel snowman face. All I needed was the pretzel. I looked and looked and there was none to be had! What was available was a pretzel spoon!

Looked like the perfect snowman shape to me!!

All I did was dip in white chocolate, added an upside down pumpkin sprinkle for the nose and then used an edible ink pen to make eyes, mouth, and buttons. Totally cute and easy!!

Pretzel Spoon Snowmen

Pretzel Spoons

white chocolate

orange sprinkle of some kind

edible ink pen (found at Hobby Lobby)

Follow instructions on package to melt chocolate. Using a fork drop pretzel in chocolate. Tap to remove excess chocolate and then lay on wax paper. While still wet add orange sprinkle. Let harden. Once harden drawn on eyes, mouth, and buttons.

Makes a lot!!

Lil' Hunkie and I had fun making these! And some fun Christmas memories too!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

2015-11-26T09:00:00.000-06:00

Cell phone snap of my 2015 Thanksgiving Mantle. ☺

"You need to know, friends, that thanking God over and over for you is not only a pleasure, it's a must. We have to do it. Your faith is growing phenomenally; your love for each other is developing wonderfully. Why, it's only right that we give thanks."

2 Thessalonians 1:2 The Message

Thanking God for you today lovelies!

Happy Thanksgiving!

{Freebie} Thanksgiving Facebook Cover Photos

2015-11-18T22:35:00.000-06:00

Yay for more freebies!! I've gotten some 'Pinterest action' on the Thanksgiving Facebook cover photos from last year and thought I'd make some for this year! I used some freebie graphics from We Lived Happily Ever After again....they're just so great, don't ya think?

Count Your Blessings Name Them One By One

(love that phrase!)

Full Of Thanks

There's Always Something To Be Thankful For

(love that phrase too!)

*Cover photos for personal use only please.*

Just right click and save and upload to Facebook!

Easy, peasy!

Happy Thankful Month lovelies!!

{Freebie} Thanksgiving Lockscreens

2015-11-05T09:36:00.001-06:00

It's been a while since I've shared a freebie so I thought some Thanksgiving lockscreens would hit the spot!!

I used antlers and flowers from We Lived Happily Ever After, she awesome freebies on her blog!

I also used a gold foil technique learned from Mackenzie Kendall. The parts I gold foiled are not showing up well in my collage above or below but I have the antler screen on my phone and it is fine so don't fret!!

"there is always something to be thankful for"

"give thanks"

"thankfuls"

Just pull this post up on your phone and long press on lockscreen, save, then set as wallpaper!

Easy peasy!

*These are for personal use only please.*

Have a Happy Thursday lovelies!

{Sharing} Open Your Bible

2015-10-29T22:45:00.000-05:00

I've got something exciting to share!

The She Reads Truth gals are actual published authors!!

Way exciting right?!

Raechel Myers and Amanda Bible Williams have partnered with LifeWay Women to publish Open Your Bible, a 7 session study on The Word.

Here's some more info:..........

"Open Your Bible is the first Bible study partnership with She Reads Truth and LifeWay Women. This means that we are taking the best of both worlds and melding them into a study that we think women will love.
The study is seven sessions long (meaning, if you do this in a group, you will meet seven times). It has six weeks of personal study (or "homework," but who likes that term?). Each week of the study will have you diving deep into Scripture to discover truths about God's Word from God's Word. This is a print-only study. It will not be on the She Reads Truth website."

I love that you can do this as a group or by yourself. I don't know about you but reading The Word consistently makes such a difference for me. This new study sounds like a Word Enricher (ha! spell check doesn't like that word!) and we can all use some of that!

And there's more exciting news....

....a Free Gift and Free Shipping!

All orders made by November 30 will receive a companion notebook and free shipping.

(That's a free notebook for every book ordered.)

Such a sweet deal!

Are you thinking Christmas gift yet? Cause my Secret Sister might be getting this!

I do believe this would make a great 'starting point resource' too!

Open Your Bible launches Monday November 2! You can preorder now and still partake in the free goodies!

http://lifeway.com/OpenYourBible

Have a happy day!!

2015 Scary Free Halloween Mantel

2015-10-24T11:14:00.000-05:00

Well Halloween is almost here!! This year we ordered Lil' Hunkie's costume in plenty of time....last year he wanted to be Mickey Mouse and we waited too long to buy in a store and he had to settle being a shark....the cutest one I've ever seen! So this time I wanted to make sure he got what he wanted and just ordered it online! He's going as Paw Patrol's Marshall which in turn has had him request a Paw Patrol birthday pawty! ;) Gonna be fun!

Here's this year's scary free mantel...simple black and gold glitter! Cost:$0!! Yep I had all these things here and there....I had a canvas that I just swiped on 2 different glitter paints on....the chevron tray was one I had found on clearance at Hobby Lobby a while back that I've never done anything with...framed a piece of glitter scrapbook paper.....and the mirrors I bought on sale at Home Depot that I intend to add to my gallery wall someday. Never could decide on a banner so since the mantel will change briefly to a Happy Birthday one and then right to Thanksgiving I decided not to worry with it!

I'm loving gold and glitter and black and white right now!

We have Trunk or Treat at church and Fall Party at school next week....can't wait for the fun!

Happy Saturday lovelies!

40th My Favorite Things Party

2015-09-24T23:37:00.000-05:00

Happy Friday!! Been meaning to share my birthday party so here I am!

This year was a milestone for me...the big 40! And I'm still having a hard time believing that's my age! I wanted to celebrate how I wanted to and gave myself a party. Since I'm a big girl now that is most definitely allowed!! I'd been wanting to have a My Favorite Things party and this was the perfect time for the maiden voyage! And let me just tell ya....it was so much fun!

Decorations

I went gold!!

I made an invitation that I just texted out, some signs, and a tag and coordinated them all. I then found a Printable Gold Banner by Somewhat Simple and printed out the letters to spell FORTY for my mantle. I found the "40 can kiss it" with Hershey's kisses idea on Pinterest.

Invite

8x10 Sign

4x6 Sign

Gift Tag

The sequin graphic I found on Canva. And then I used PicMonkey to add text, etc.

Feel free to use the signs and tag but for personal use only please.

Food

I made all of my favorite party foods! Even the cake!

Savory

Fav Veggie Dip & veggies

Herbed Tomato & Mozzarella with Crackers

Bacon Wrapped Dates

Red Onion Chutney with Goat Cheese Crostini

Sweet

Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes

Carrot Cake

Drink

Cranberry and Ginger Ale Punch

I found some gold chipboard letters at Hobby Lobby to use as a cake topper. My friend frosted the cake and added gold icing dots for me! Used only gold and white dishes and sprinkled the table with gold and silver big confetti. Oh and fresh hydrangeas!

My Favorite Things

I took inspiration from a few parties....one by Java Cupcake and one by Shannon Finds Joy.

After eating we played a 'my favorite.....' game (printable here).

I guess it's like Scattergories ( I've never played!), you have everyone answer what their fav food, fav vacation spot, fav websites, etc and then go over answers and the person with the most unique answers is the winner. I prepared 2 prizes and had 2 winners! Then it was time to exchange our favorite things! I had everyone bring 5 of one item no more than $5 of value. I had everyone write their name 5 times and put them in a bowl. Then each lady chose 5 different names, making sure not to get their own name or duplicate any name. We had a total of 9 ladies so at the end of drawing names we had to do some rearranging of names to get it just right. Next, one by one we told why our item was our favorite and then gave them to the ladies who we had drawn names. Prior to the party I asked everyone to give my their favorite nickname. I then made everyone a tote with that name in glitter so they'd have something to tote their goodies home in!

I gave a $3 gold striped plastic tumbler perfect for iced coffee!

The items above are what I got...makeup brush, lip gloss, frame & seashell, makeup wipes, and a visor scent clip. Others items were post it notes, chap stick, & orange slices.

Everyone loved their bags and what they got! And it was so much fun hearing why the item was a favorite!

I attached the tag that said 'you are my favorite' to every bag....I wanted my friends to know they were my favorites too!

I really think this is the way to celebrate a birthday!! I mean yes, you can totally do this any time but for someone who talks the love language of giving, I loved seeing my friends receive! That was the best gift ever!!

So if you've been thinking about having a My Favorite Things party then just

doooo it!!!

Have a Happy Day!

{Sharing} Free Printable & Lockscreen

2015-09-17T09:04:00.000-05:00

Hey Lovelies!!

I stumbled across an Erwin McManus quote yesterday that I absolutely love and thought it needed to be a printable!! And an Instagram and a lockscreen!

I'm loving all things gold right now and wanted the words to be gold and I knew I couldn't really achieve that with any of the apps I use so I googled and found a great tutorial on how to make fonts gold and low and behold it involved PicMonkey!! Ha! My favorite you know!

(How To Make Gold Font by Mackenzie Kendall)

I know it's hard to see in the picture, it did print out better than I expected!!

Right click and save and print!

(For personal use only please.)

And using the Blending App, my graphic and a free Rhonna Designs background I made a lockscreen for my phone this morning!

(Pull up this post on your phone, long press the lockscreen image and save to phone. Go into settings and set as wallpaper.)

Fun stuff!! Hope this goodness uplifts you today!!

Happy Thursday!!

Never Forget....

2015-09-11T11:29:00.001-05:00

So many memories today.

Praying for those who lost loved ones....may your happy memories comfort you today.

{Sharing} Adult Coloring

2015-07-09T10:00:00.000-05:00

Did you know that 'adult coloring' was a thing?

I saw a blogger post about it on Facebook but I didn't read the story. But then I saw someone on Instagram post about Beauty in the Bible....a scripture filled adult coloring book! Which, of course, is right up my alley! Once payday hit I promptly purchased it and some fun triangular coloring pencils that I really didn't want to share but did anyway. Ah, motherhood!

I love to color any way so adding this to my devo time has been awesome!
My first page...

I quickly did a search on good ole' Pinterest and found a couple of sites that had free pages, cool huh?
So if you didn't want to be out any money you could start there!

Think I'll go color now....
Happy Thursday lovelies!!

2015 Patriotic Mantle

2015-07-04T10:23:00.000-05:00

Kept things simple with this year's Patriotic mantle.

We are in prep mode for vacation so simple was the way to go!

My church's ladies group had a paint night in June and we painted a patriotic version of Starry, Starry Night and the instructor added our new sanctuary! She was very kind and gave me one of hers (she painted an example and then painted one with us) so I have one for my new office!

So excited about that!

Wishing you and yours a safe and fun 4th!!