Meet our new Director of Marketing! Welcome to the family, Lindsay!

I have a reeeeally exciting announcement.

I want to introduce you to the newest member of the FCF family, 

LINDSAY!

She's our new Director of Marketing,

and she's basically amazing.

You're going to love her.

I wanted to introduce her in style, so enjoy reading some fun facts about her. We're so happy to have you on-board Lindsay, welcome to the fam!

Hi! I am Lindsay and I am the newest member of funcheaporfree.com! I am beyond thrilled to be working with Jordan as the Marketing Director. I plan on working hard for all of you! I will bring you some great giveaways, additional product discounts and much more!

I have been married for 3 years to that stud-muffin on the left! Together we are raising our son Greyson, who will be turning two on Halloween. In addition, we have a very energetic and thankfully for her adorable puppy Lola, and one fish I have miraculously been able to keep alive & well since March. In our free time we love going out as a family and playing disc-golf. During nap times you'll likely find me cruising through Pinterest, painting a room in our new (to us) home, or playing around with Photoshop. 

10 random "Get to know me better" facts:

1. I have not gone a single day without some form of chocolate since before college. 
2. I am terrible at accessorizing / styling rooms...like really bad....I have no idea what I am doing, I always have to call in my husband to lend and eye.
3. I LOVE planning parties. Any kind, any size, and for any occasion. 
4. I do not like bacon or watermelon. Every summer I try watermelon in the hopes of loving it (like an American should), but it's terrible.
5. Even though I spend all day with Greyson, when he goes down for a nap I find myself missing him.
6. I gave up caffeinated soda when I got pregnant, and I have not had any since...I also do not drink alcohol, or coffee. 
7. I check my email, and blog reader before my feet even touch the floor in the morning. 
8. My favorite purchase of all time is our camera. As a honeymoon present Scott bought me a Nikon D3000, and I adore it.  I have just recently put it in manual mode, I can already see a HUGE improvement in my photos.
9. My pupils are two different sizes
10. I have a streak of gray hair in the back of my head (thankfully underneath the top layer). My brother also has a "patch" of gray hair. 

I truly feel like the luckiest girl getting the opportunity to work for Jordan, and every.single.one of you readers! {just wait to see what we have planned!}                                                                             xoxo,  

Lindsay

Ideas for a fun, cheap, or free FOOTBALL party! Superbowl, Homecoming, college rivalry...ideas to go around.

Recently we through a big football party to celebrate the annual tradition of the BIG RIVALRY GAME here in Utah.

source

Every year rivalry schools, BYU (Brigham Young University) and University of Utah go head to head. 

Let's just say...

It's kind of a big deal.

This year we decided to host a party to let everyone watch the game at our house. It was a ton of fun! Here are some of the fun things we did:

The morning started off with the 3rd annual neighborhood rivalry breakfast at a neighbor's house. As you can see, red outweighed blue so we clearly moved into the wrong neighborhood.

Some of the neighbor kids tried to taint our son. 

"Ew yucky! Let's get that off ya buddy..."

They had everyone bring a breakfast item to share, and the food was killer.

They had all sorts of cute decorations. You can't see it well, but they put the plastic utensils in square glass vases and tied blue and red ribbons around it. Nice touch!

My little team 

(minus the quarter back)

 The neighbor girls did face painting. 

Adorbs.

AHH...now we're a full team.

 After the breakfast we headed home to prepare for our own party.

My goals with this party:

1) To keep it as cheap as possible (naturally)

2) To keep it as easy as possible (no DIY, simple food, no big projects...)

3) To make it welcoming, inviting, and fun for our guests.

I think we accomplished everything!

Here's how the lineup went:

FOOD

My crowning moment of the day?

Behold the beauty of this baby.

Seriously, I was pretty proud of myself for this one.

I saw a photo on Pinterest and thought I'd give it a try. 

The verdict?

It was actually super easy! 

I will totally do it again someday!

Basically, you chop off the end of a watermelon, 

Put the chopped-side down. Draw (better than I did...) an opening for the face,

...and cut it out.

Hollow it out and keep all the watermelon to serve at your shin-dig.

Take the piece you cut off the end and start making small rectangles like a face-mask.

I drew it with a marker and basically eyeballed it.

Set the face-mask part into place.

 I secured it with toothpicks because it started falling apart because I suck at crafty things. 

Fill with fruit, and voila!

Seriously, so cute.

My second crafty attempt?

Football deviled eggs. 

Cute in theory, but I don't recommend them. (They stink, and they were hard to make look good.)

However, they were clever. Thus, if you want to give them a whirl, here's how I did it!

Follow a recipe for deviled eggs. Instead of mixing the yolks, etc. in a bowl, mix everything up and put it in a ziplock.

Cut a small opening, and simply squeeze it out. Easy peasy!

Those worked fine. The catch was trying to make them look like footballs. I concluded to dipping a toothpick in food coloring paste, and attempting to draw football laces and lines in them. 

The result?

I called them my Halloween eggs because they look like eyeballs with bloody stitches in them.

Told you I'm not crafty. 

Oh well, I tried.

P.S...The cute football platter? DOLLAR STORE BABY!

I made blue koolaid and red party punch, 

 I made my awesome Oreo Truffles (using Peanut Butter Oreos)...but I forgot to take them out of the fridge and dunk them in chocolate. I didn't want to hassle while my guests were there so I just drew the football laces on without the chocolate coating and they tasted just fine. 

Not as good, but totally fine.

I used Betty Crocker squeeze frosting for the laces. 

I also made a cheese ball, shaped it like a football, and made "football laces" with parsley. Of course I forgot to take a picture before it got devoured.

I asked guests to bring a party food to share and we got some good ones. Chips and salsa, dip, cookies, and these individual mini cheesecakes.

Are you kidding me??

Mmmm...

All the food I price-matched that week, paying full-prize for absolutely none of it. 

Cheap? 

Check. 

Pretty? 

Errr...

I'll keep practicing.

DECOR:

We had the football game playing on every TV in the house (in case parents wanted to be by their kids upstairs but didn't want to miss the game), but we held the party in our basement.

I printed off some quick signs using Word to direct people where to go.

I bought the streamers and football garland from the dollar store.

Love that place.

Downstairs we had more garland, streamers, and all the food.

I also found this football bunting at the dollar store.

I know, right?!

 I bought a red table cloth...and tried to find a blue one but they only had a pale blue...from the dollar store, found a pom-pom set in the toy section, and bought football napkins, blue napkins, and red napkins - all from the dollar store.

The saddest part of the night? 

We lost in the last 5 seconds of the game. 

The second saddest part of the night? 

I didn't get a SINGLE PICTURE of a SINGLE PERSON the entire night. That's true Jordan fashion though...to busy socializing to remember to capture the event.

Oh well, you get the idea. It was a blast!

Hopefully this helps you with YOUR next football party.

HIKE!

Blogger's Night Out recap

I had a super fun night the other night that I wanted to share with y'all!

Here in Utah we have a really fun place called Gardner Village. They teamed up with My Craft Channel to sponsor a "Blogger's Night Out." It was fun! Here's what we did:

We started off in Archibald's restaurant with fried avocado (you heard me right), fried green tomatoes, and an awesome spinach artichoke dip. I loved it. My arteries didn't. But I told them to hush. 

They sent us on a scavenger hunt through all the stores. It was fun to see how they go ALL OUT for Halloween! Every inch of that place is decorated!!! I LOVE IT!

 My friend Michelle from Design on a Dollar and I stopped for a few photo-opps, of course.

 P.S...my outfit? $0.50 from a yard sale. Yeeeeah baby.

 The scavenger hunt even sent us to get a professional photo taken from Highlite Photography...with mustaches, of course.

Um...That's me trying to be fierce and talk at the same time. Not pretty, Jord. Not pretty.

P.S...those are my friends from The House of Smiths and Design on a Dollar! Aren't they cuuuute?

The scavenger hunt led us here at the end...

 ...for prizes! YAAAY!

 

I wanted this bag more than life.

Wanted being the key word.

Because I didn't win.

gosh dang it.

We indulged in major chocolateering (is that a thing? let's make it a thing...)

I would like to state, just for the record, that Michelle clearly isn't a true Chocolateer.  

Then, Lucinda the...good?...bad?...witch (still deciding...haha) drew the winners.

Michelle won the first prize of the night, a free cooking class.

Oh yeah, I won nothing.

Did I mention that?

Darn all the luck...

We said our goodbyes to Lucinda...

 And I tried the awkward fierce thing again. 

Seriously, Jordan, give it a rest!

It was a blast! Check out the video here:

  

Thanks for all the fun times, Gardner Village and My Craft Channel!
Now...who's ready for some Halloween???