Coming in September!

The new website is almost ready to go live... 

It has taken me a long time to get to this point...

Mainly, because I have had to learn how to do everything by myself...

{ok and I had to figure out what my vision would look like and 

how it would come together}

But I'm learning to be more techno~savvy.

But I'm excited to be so close to the finish line finally!

 ~ ~ ~ 

I anticipate to go live with my new website 

towards the end of this month.

There are a few changes I'm not sure how they will be affected once I switch over to the new website.  

The web address will remain the same but I'm not sure if my old posts will transfer over  very easily and I'm trying to work out a solution for that.  I will probably switch them to a blogspot address so you can still access them if you still want. 

I will keep you updated. 

Instagram...

So I know I haven't been around very much lately and I truly apologize and hope some of you are still sticking around.  I am still working on a whole new exciting project that is taking a bit longer than I expected.  But I want to do it right and I want to get back to blogging soon but in the meantime, I have found Instagram {I know, it's taken me a while to hop on that bandwagon, but now that I have, I'm having a lot of fun!}.

It has been an easy, low stress way of sharing small snippet's of my life while I haven't been able to get full blog posts up.  I know I will be back soon, but in the meantime, if a smartphone is your thing, and if you want to follow along with me, then look me up!  My username is:  WTBYourself

Mwah!

Change Is Coming

I am so excited!

I have been busy as a bee behind the scenes.

Change is about to happen.

I am about ready to stretch my wings

and emerge from my cocoon!

It is beautiful!

And exciting!

The details are all coming together!

I can't wait to show you!

~ Stay tuned ~

Mwah!

Change Is Coming

I am so excited!

I have been busy as a bee behind the scenes.

Change is about to happen.

I am about ready to stretch my wings

and emerge from my cocoon!

It is beautiful!

And exciting!

The details are all coming together!

I can't wait to show you!

~ Stay tuned ~

Mwah!

Meditate on This!

I have been doing a ton of thinking the past few months as I work out the details of my life redesign.  I'm not sure what it will look like yet, I just know I'm headed in the right direction and that's part of the fun.  But I do wonder where it will lead me.

One thing I've noticed during all this thinking is . . .

 that I am always thinking!

Thinking, thinking, thinking...

Trying to work the details out in my head...

Trying to make sense of how it will all look...

and feel...

and function...

I think all day long about it.  

I wake up in the middle of the night,

and I think about it.

I say my morning and evening prayers

praying about it...

then thinking about it some more.

One morning I woke up with the thought in my head...

"Whoa!  You're right!" I said.

"Thank you!" 

I love it when the spirit teaches me!

I have been so wrapped up in my head!

And I wasn't stopping to listen.

I would pray for answers and then immediately be off

in my own head again, trying to reason it out! 

I imagine He might be trying to get a word in,

but I'm dominating the conversation!

The Lord's plan may be completely different

than what I think my plan should be like.

So I just need to stop.


And listen.

Change Of Plans...

A lot of people keep asking ... 

We have had a change of plans 

on this whole Brazil thing.

Back in December we had a huge scare with my mother-in-laws health.  Her health is fragile.  She ended up on life support and we didn't know if she would be able to make it off of it.  Luckily she did, but it made us realize that with her health in this condition things can happen so fast and we don't want to be half a world away.  So the Brazil dream is on hold again until who knows when!

So we decided to pursue another dream!  

That of owning an RV!

Meet the newest member of our family!

We have named it ...

The Potato Wagon

To honor her Idaho heritage.  

We bought her from a cute little farm couple in Idaho who loved her and took care of her.  And we will too.  It is just perfect to haul around our little tater tots!

Now, where shall we go first???

~ ~ ~

Where are your favorite places to visit?

Mid Year Resolution Review

This years theme is clean.

How am I doing with the clean thing?

Well, I think my husband wishes I were working more on the household side of cleaning and  organizing, but mostly my focus has been on the health side of things so far.

I have cleaned up my diet.  Sourced and figured out where to buy the best organic meats, dairy and produce.  I have even begun culturing my own kefir with probiotic goodness!

I have also begun to clean up my cosmetics, body care products, laundry products and my medicine cabinet.

I am getting serious about this category.  I have discarded bags of scented hand lotions and products with toxic chemicals in them.

I am working on a handy little list of ingredients to avoid to carry with me while out shopping.  Hopefully I will get that finished soon and I will post it for anyone else who might want it too!

~ ~ ~

How are your goals going?

Remember, every day is a new day to start over!

This Post Dedicated To My... Nephew

Rather than bore you with the details of my extended absence from the ol' blog {about how I am researching and working out some new life plans that include changing  my career that I have been deeply entrenched in for the last 17 years to one I have always wanted to be in since I was a little girl},  I thought I would just tell you what's on my mind today.

{I know my nephews will love this post! Haha!}  

So I thought I'd talk more about my...

EYES!

{This is the part where they start rolling their eyes at me!}

1.  I've decided.  Earthy, dark colors are soo not me!   I played around with some old eyeshadows I had still laying around and realized the darker browns and smoky colors just make me look old and tired.  Those are the colors I used to always wear.  Along with my black clothes.  No wonder I didn't look or feel like my vibrant self!  The shades and tones of the colors make such a huge difference!

Now put on some brighter peaches, pinks and creams and my eyes pop and I look fresh and alive again!  Now that's something!  I'd rather look alive than dead and on my way out, if you know what I mean!  LOL!  Now to get really daring and try some fun light greens and blues like these from Emily, the  DYT stylist, that she used today!

Isn't she gorgeous???   And those eyes!!!   The shadows she used are fun, light and keep the brightness in her face and eyes!  That's what I want!


2.  I have no eyebrows.  I mean, I do, but they appear to go only halfway across my brow because the other half is very thin and light.  I'm considering playing around with eyebrow stencils just for fun.  Which Hollywood actress brows would I like?  Hmmm...

Part of me is so used to the way I look with only half eyebrows that I think it might take some serious getting used to if I decided to pencil in some faux brows!  LOL!  We shall see!


3.  I have droopy eyelids.  My eye doctor pointed that one out.  Sigh. Which means I think I need to figure out how to apply makeup looks for droopier eyes {and no eyebrows!}.

4.  And because this post is dedicated to my eyes {I mean, my nephew!}, I thought I would play around and create something fun  for you to "make-up" {pun intended!} for not blogging for so long!  Check it out:

Heehee!  Notice my Groucho Marx looking eyebrows at the end???  I think I need someone to tweeze, pluck and shape them now!  Or get those eyebrow stencils STAT!  LOL!

You're welcome Caleb!!! 

Mwah!

eyebrows via

eyes used with permission

What Grounds Me

Early in the morning ...

When the birds are chirping...

And the world is still fairly quiet ...

And the sun is just barely coming up . . .

~ ~ ~

I like to sit.

And ponder.

And meditate.

~ ~ ~

It grounds me.

~ ~ ~

Lately, I love to sit in this 

cozy corner of my yard.

On the table.

Don't worry, it's a heavy duty granite table 

that can hold my weight! 

Besides, it's hard to sit cross legged / meditation style

in a patio chair!

~ ~ ~

What grounds you?

The Short Lilac Season

Mmm! 

They smell divine! 

I looked out the window last week while I was sick

and realized the lilacs were blooming.

I had to go pick a few.

Today I went out to pick a few more

and it looks as if they are just about finished for the season.

My purple bush has already wrapped up.

My white bush looks as if it is about to also.

That was a short lilac season!

Until next year my dear sweet lilacs . . .

OK, So I Fell Off The Face Of The Earth

I've been gone from this blog for a while...

But I can explain!

Here in a nutshell is what I've been up to lately:

~ ~ ~

We took a lovely two week tour of 

New England for Spring Break!

Itinerary:

 New York City / Long Island

Upstate New York

Vermont

Boston

Cape Cod / Plimouth Plantation

Rhode Island

Connecticut

We had a fabulous time!

 ~ ~ ~

One of my wildest dreams came true!

I visited Kate Spade!!!!

But didn't end up buying anything.

It was still fun!

~ ~ ~

 I've been on a digital fast of sorts...

I haven't been reading many blogs

{sorry friends!}

and I obviously haven't been writing my own!

~ ~ ~

I've been dreaming and working up some plans 

on a longtime dream of mine!

My mind has been working overtime on it

so I've been working on getting it all down onto paper.

One must go with the flow when inspiration hits!

Especially when people and things keep 

getting placed in your path!

I don't know that anything will come of it yet,

but I'm dreaming!

You can catch a glimpse here:

 ~ ~ ~

And finally...

I've been taken out of commission by

the strangest flu bug...

It has had me down and out for the count for a solid week!

Ugh!

~ ~ ~

If anyone is still hanging around...

Let me know what you've been up to!

I hope you are having a glorious spring!

Hug, hug, kiss, kiss!

Mwah!

Just So You Know...

I didn't totally drop off 

the face of the earth!

I've been travelling...

and just so you know...

Yep! Pretty much!

Be back soon...

Non Dairy Coconut Milk Whipped Cream

So a while back I saw the

Non Dairy Coconut Milk Whipped Cream recipe

flash past on Pinterest.

This week I finally got around to trying it:

{click picture to enlarge}

Easy peasy!
And totally yummy!

~ ~ ~

What have you tried from Pinterest?

Bye, Bye Birdie

There has been a death in the family

Cause of death:  unknown

Authorities have found certain small children operating a fort building practice without a proper building permit, using illegal and inappropriate building materials.  Current ongoing investigations are occurring.
 

Our birdie was a beautiful addition to our family and frequently graced the piano top vignette.  He will be greatly missed. 

Rest in peace dear sweet birdie!

Chameleon Eyes...Again!

Are you guys getting sick of me going on about my eyes yet?  Well, to me they are pretty important.  If I don't wear eye makeup people always ask if I am sick, sad or feeling ok.  In my younger days I could get away with less eye makeup  but now... I need eye makeup to help me look awake and alive apparently! 

So the other day I happened upon Almay's Intense I-Color which are palettes specifically for different colored eyes.  So I picked up the palette for hazel eyes.

The colors are different shades of grey.  Hmm.  Grey?  I wondered what that would do for my eyes so I thought I would at least try it out for fun and here is the result . . .

{drumroll please!}

The grey shades for hazel eyes make my eyes appear...GREY!    Hmm.  Not what I was hoping for.  It definitely didn't bring out my subtle shades of blues and greens.  Bummer.

Btw, that is an undoctored photo taken in natural daylight with my iPhone just like all my other eye pics have been ~ I still haven't figured out a macro lens to use yet.

So I guess if I want grey looking eyes I will use grey shadows.  The grey palette may work on other people's hazel eyes, but my chameleon~like eyes change to match the grey shadows apparently.  Now I wonder if I use the palettes for blue or green eyes if it will bring those colors out instead.  I think I may have to try that! 

~ ~ ~

Have you found any fun new products lately?

Spa Day!

Lately I have been feeling a little sad and down and I realized that the winter blues were really getting to me this year.  I have a tendency to get a little depressed in the winter anyway, but knowing this, I am usually pretty good at heading it off with simple things like keeping my stress levels down, taking my Vitamin D, getting lots of sleep if I need it and being mindful of not taking on too much etc.

So fast forward to last week.  I noticed I was sad just a little too often and kept watching movies that take place at the beach on Netflix.  Yep!  This girl needs some help...STAT before she gets a little too mopey!  My husband said he couldn't afford to fly me out to Hawaii on the spur of the moment and I was really needing some pampering self care since I was daydreaming of running away to a destination spa so I decided to get my girls together for a little fun!  I had a friend who knows oils and massage come over to teach us some massage techniques.

I decorated the house with paper lanterns I had from a Chinese party earlier.  Look at the pretty glow they make!  I decided they would be really pretty to use as Christmas decorations sometime.  I hope I remember that come Christmas time again!

I broke out the wine glasses so my girlfriends could sample some of the Slim & Sassy water that I love so much and had yummy spa-like finger foods out to much on {which I forgot to take a picture of...doh!}. 

Before the party I had to run to the store to buy a few more wine glasses because some of my others had broken over the years.  The cashier asked if I was having a wedding or something.

Um...no.

Then she wondered if I really liked to drink wine or something. 

I was just left to shake my head.   I have never had a drop of wine or alcohol in my life!  But who says you have to use wine glasses for wine anyway???  They are beautiful...fun to hold...and are lovely for water or juice!  I like to use them frequently and even let the kids use them if they want.  They aren't expensive to replace if they get broken plus I think its good to let them get used to using nice things while they are young.

Anyway, I digress!  My husband is excited for me to teach him the new massage tips ~ mostly because that means he will benefit from getting a massage during the process!  Which is fine with me because then I get a nice massage afterwards too!  And this makes for a happier me!  

It's fun to get together with my girlfriends!

I had a good time at our spa day ~ I hope my friends did too. 

~ ~ ~

What do you do to combat the winter blues?

Oscar Night Fashions

Oscar night is always fun to watch celebrity fashions.  I always dream up a dress or two of what I would wear on the red carpet.  I love designing evening wear in my head!  This year I wondered if I were a classic movie star, who would I be?

Well, Kay of Movie Star Makeover, has a fun little quiz you can take to see which classic movie stars you are most like.  I turned out to be the Lively Girl Next Door and happily join the ranks of Debbie Reynolds, Jane Powell, Ginger Rogers, Doris Day and Betty Grable.

via Movie Star Makeover

Lively Girl Next Door
Like Debbie Reynolds, you are the Lively Girl-Next-Door. You are warm, friendly, full of joy and a little zany with a vibrant, unsinkable spirit—you’re the sunshine girl! People love to be around you because you have such a positive, upbeat attitude and it seems there’s nothing you can’t handle. You are the go-to girl when there’s a project, because you know how to get it done and still have enjoy yourself in the process. If you have children, they probably have the best parties in the neighborhood, because you have a great time right along with them. You’re strong, sturdy, earthy at times, fast on the draw, and seem inexhaustible. You can be very sentimental and love photos and family heirlooms. You may have a bit of a hot temper, but you usually wind up laughing at yourself in the end. Life’s too much fun to hold a grudge!

So...what would I wear?  Hmm...I don't know yet but I'm feeling like pink this year and I think I would base my wardrobe around this gorgeous replica of Ginger Roger's {she is after all amongst the Lively Girl Next Door club!} from The Hollywood Collection...

via The Hollywood Collection

I think it would be set off with a lovely blue drapey gown such as this with some fun yet exquisite detailing:

Oscar Night by byourself featuring wedding shoes

~ ~ ~

What would you wear?

Friday Favorites

Well it has been a busy week for me, so as a way of catching you up real quick I thought I would give you some of my favorites from this week. . .

1. 

~  Grapeseed oil ~ 

I have been wanting to try a few luxury face oils as a moisturizer when I had the brilliant idea to just try the Grapeseed oil I use with some of my essential oils on my face.  It's brilliant I tell you!  It is hands down the best moisturizer I have used and it isn't even expensive.  My face feels so soft, the dry patches are completely gone when I use it and best of all my skin looks more radiant! And don't worry, your face soaks in all the oils and doesn't leave you looking oily and greasy  I am in love! ! 

2.  

~ doTerra's Slim & Sassy ~ 

Last week I tried a few drops of this essential oil blend in a glass of water at a friends house and became hooked!  It smells divine!  It's a fruity~citrusy~minty smell that my daughter thinks smells like a minty skittle.  It sounds weird but it smells sooo good!  Best of all, the special blend of therapeutic grade essential oils helps boost your metabolism and also acts as an appetite suppressant.  Plus it makes drinking your water a special experience!  It tastes so good you will want to drink water all the time now!  {If you want some I can now hook you up btw!}

3.  

~ This fabulous cuff bracelet ~ 

It was about $16 at Target's jewelery counter {not just on the regular wall shelves you walk up to}.  I think it is so fresh and pretty!  I love the blues and greens in it!

~ ~ ~

What were some of your favorites this week?

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Phew!  The sugar~fest known as Valentine's Day is over!
I ate more sugar than I care to admit yesterday!
But it turned out to be a fabulous day!
Let's review:

Let's start with the ugly first:

This is why I usually let my husband bbq instead of me!
I was trying my hand at some Brazillian barbecue!
Don't worry, dinner was rescued and not completely ruined!

The bad:

I kept comparing myself to all the other amazing moms around me who were doing cute things.  I live near some pretty amazing {and adorable!} people! I kept eating fabulous treats our friends gave us!

The bad part is not that we have nice friends who love us, but that I couldn't stop myself from eating all that yumminess!!!  I mean, look at that fabulousness!!!  That's some pretty awesome {and tasty!} popcorn!

The good:

Fortunately, the good outweighed all the bad!

I pulled through at the last minute {I'm talking literally the last minute!} with a cute love bug theme for our dinner table using things I already had.  And since it was turning kind of picnic-y, I used paper plates so that cleanup was a breeze!

I also found and bought a new pair of jeans ~ in the next size down!  Yes!!!  Sweet!!!  Doing the happy weightloss dance!!!

And I wore some adorable pink boots a DYT friend gave me!

Most importantly, 

everyone seemed happy last night!  

That was the biggest win!

I love my family!

How was your Valentine's Day?

Valentine's Day

Ah, Valentine's Day!  What a day!  I woke up feeling a little down today, not because I don't have loves in my life, but because I was feeling like a bad mom.  You know, not the crafty, super cute mom who goes all out and does a cute Valentine activity every single day leading up to the big day with her kids, makes amazing homemade Valentine cards and teacher gifts, and then decorates their rooms all cutesy while they are either sleeping the night before, or while they're away at school.  And then!  I didn't have a cute pink breakfast planned and bla, bla, bla. 

I used to try to be that mom when my first child was young but all it did was stress.me.out.  Big time!  I just don't have the energy for all of that.  And that's ok.  That's when I remember that I don't have to try and mold myself into an image that I think I am supposed to be.  I don't have to be super woman.  Letting go of those expectations of myself is such a relief!  I laugh, giggle, and have a good time with my kids without all that extraneous stuff and we are all pretty happy! 

So tonight we will be having a lovely homemade dinner {guaranteed to hit the spot with my husband because it includes bacon} and a lovely strawberry shortcake I bought from the bakery because that's about all I have the oompf for this year.  The kids are each getting a small gift and I think I'll just make a trail of skittles leading up to my bedroom for my husband!  It's his favorite candy you know!

There!  

Valentine's Day at my house this year! 

Nothing too fancy this year.

But it's good enough for me!

~ ~ ~

Listening to this song today!

~ ~ ~

I hope your day has been filled with

love and laughter today!

image via sxc

New Draperies?

So since the fabric of my dreams is a little out of reach, I have been trying to find something else a little more affordable in the colors I wanted.  I found these at Pier1 the other day and thought I would try them out.  These seem to help lighten the space and even bring in some of the blues I wanted to add to the color scheme.

They even had pillows that I fell in love with.  The pillows have different tones of green that seem to go well with the olivey green of the couches.  The drapes on the other hand do not.  They feature a brighter green that we were iffy about, however, in person {and during daylight} they seem to coordinate well with them.

My only concern is whether I am all of a sudden getting too matchy~matchy with the pillows and drapes.  What do you think?

~ ~ ~

Here is a semi-before shot.  I'm trying to figure my way around on my new Mac ~ I'm converting over from a PC and I'm having a little technical difficulty.   One of these days I will have to dig out a real before shot before we ever knocked the wall out!  Linking up to Sugar and Spice's Drab to Fab party! 

Thank You!

Rebekah over at Cupcake Caramel recently bestowed upon me the Versatile Blogger award and I am honored that she chose to include me with some other fabulous ladies.  Last spring Rebekah and I almost met by accident out in Texas Hill Country ~ we missed each other by one day apparently, neither one of us knowing the other was going to be there ~ it would have been fun to actually meet her.  The blog world is such a fun place and I have "met" some amazing women that I would love to meet in real life someday.

For my acceptance speech I must now tell you seven things about myself, so I thought I would tell you about seven of my favorite things, so here we go  . . . .

1.  

I have extremely dry skin and the have tried many, many products supposedly formulated for dry skin that all left my skin still...well, dry!  The product I have found to be the most effective has been Ponds Cold Cream.

Now I just need to find a moisturizer I love.  Still trying to find one of those because aging skin and dry skin makes skin look older even faster if you ask me.  I recently heard of an esthetician in Hollywood that uses only essential oils on her clients faces~ I might investigate that and give it a shot.

2.  

I am seriously old school {and drugstore chic} because I love Aquanet hairspray!

It's the best hairspray I have tried that gives my hair the lift and hold that it needs ~ even better than some of the salon brands I have tried.  Whatever works!  :)

3.  

I don't live near too many high end stores.  I shop mostly at places near me like JCPenney, Kohls and Target.

via

But I would love to shop brands like Kate Spade or Lilly Pulitzer.  They both have such fun, happy selections most of the time!

4.  

I love good music but prefer to listen to things that uplift me.  I don't like songs that have questionable lyrics, suggestions, inuendos, or bad words in them etc.  Currently I am still pretty obsessed with The Piano Guys.  They make the piano and cello cool again!

5.  

I love green and white.

When this trio showed up beneath a blog post one day it seriously made my heart so happy!  There is just something calming to me about green and white whether in a natural landscape, or in home decor.

6.  

My favorite flowers are lillies and gardenias.  I prefer them over any other flower.And that's what I put in my wedding bouquet nearly 18 years ago.

All white though, see?  In fact, now that I think about it, my wedding colors were white, green and gold.  Apparently I've loved white and green for a long, long time!

7.

I love fresh, healthy foods.  And apparently I love colorful foods too.  Check out some of the foods I have pinned on pinterest. 





Yum! That's how I like to eat!

~ ~ ~ 

 

 

Thank you for the award Rebekah!

 

 

 

I am thinking of who to pass this fabulous award on to next.  A lot of the blogs I like to read have already received it.  I think I may be passing it onto some of my friends with more private blogs that I appreciate so much!  I love the blogging community, friendships and inspiration I find out here on the ol' world wide web!  Cheers!

Running Around

This week has been filled with a lot of running around, errands and appointments.  I've been busy attending some continuing education classes to keep my professional credentials up so that I can renew my license.  And then for fun we also attended a really interesting seminar on body language.   It reminded me a lot of one of my favorite shows:

While the tv show focused on using these skills to help law enforcement, the presenter at the one I attended uses his in mentoring situations to help you become a better parent, spouse, communicator or business person.  I think there are valuable things to learn about non verbal communication.  I love learning new things.  The world sure is a fascinating place. 

But while running around today, we noticed that the end of Civilizzation is here.  Yes, you heard it was coming in 2012, but apparently our final day is on Monday.  Hurry!  Hug your children!  And get ready! ~wink~wink~

And so since we're speaking about running around, this is also the time of year I always seem to get the urge to run away.  To run away somewhere sunny.  I think a cruise or lounging on a sunny beach somewhere sounds heavenly about now.  I told my husband we should make it a yearly tradition to escape together somewhere warm.  Either that or send me to the spa because I could also use a nice pampering massage right about now too.

On a side note, I think I freaked my body out today by taking some allergy medicine that about knocked me out!  I could not keep my eyes open!  So then I decided to drink an energy drink...don't worry, it was a healthy version without carbonation, artificial sweeteners or mega doses of caffeine!

It was a natural one made from yumminess like goji berries, other superfruits and cacao that gets its energy kick from yerba mate and guarana, which by the way, we used to drink guarana soft drinks in Brazil all the time!  {Ahhhh!  Brazil!!!  I could definitely run away there today and be happy too!!!} You can get guarana over there either carbonated, or not.  I like it both ways.  The non carbonated version of guarana tastes somewhat like apple juice...sort of!  Anyway, I'm not sure my body knows what to think!  And I'm not sure if I will be able to sleep tonight now. 

If I end up not being able to sleep, I think I will try finishing this book while giving myself a clay facial and manicure.  At least that's a little spa-like pampering, {though the massage is what I really, really want right now.  And a nice sunny beach}!

All right, that's about it for now!  We are running off to a friends house for dinner and games!  Hope you all are having a fabulous weekend!

Tips for World Domination {at Boggle or Scramble With Friends}

So I know I mentioned I'm not a huge game player, but I"m kind of addicted to Boggle and Scramble With Friends.  I seriously LOVE this game!   I did win the sixth grade spelling bee after all!  ~wink~wink~ So word games are kind of up my alley. 

I have had a few friends and family members beg, I mean, ask me for tips on how to play because I don't mean to brag, but I kind of keep kicking their trash!  :D  I don't know if I'm really all that great of a player in the grand scheme of great spellers, but none of my friends have been able to beat me yet.

So because I love my friends 

and knowledge is power and all that, 

here are my top playing tips on how to 

dominate your friends at Boggle or Scramble With Friends:

1.  Learn and know some of the really easy letter combinations that will give you multiple words lickety split like these:

TEA

These three letters will give you lots of words right off the bat:

Tea
Eat
Ate
Tae
Eta

2.  Secondly, look for the letter S nearby any word and if you can pluralize a word, then try it!

By adding in the S to the above three letters you now can get exponentially more words:

Teas
Eats
Ates
Etas
{sorry, Taes isn't a valid plural though}

But!  That's not all!  Now you can make even more words than just plurals of those others.  Now you can get:

Sea
Sae
Seat
Sate
Set
Sat
Seta
East

So now we have 17 words from just four little letters {depending on their location on the board}.  And you can get those ones really fast if you know them!  There are other words out there that will give you combinations like these too, though some may give you less words, but knowing them gives you fast, easy points!  And since I'm feeling nice here are a few more quick and easy ones!

Ser ~ Res ~ Ers
Sit ~ Tis ~Its

 They don't give you quite as many word options as TEAS {which is the grand daddy in my book so far!}, but they do give you fast points!

3.  Another easy thing to look for that will make lots of words for you are double ee's.  If you have ee, chances are you will have lots of word options close by {and even more if you have an S nearby too}.

Just add another letter in front like p, t, l, d, s, n, c.

pee
tee
lee
dee
see
nee
cee
etcetera, etcetera and so forth!

Lots of options there!

Now look for endings on any of those double ee words.  If you have an l you might be able to get peel.  A d could give you a deed, or a seed or peed etc.  Or hey, there might even be an S nearby! ~hint~hint~

Next tip!   

4.  Make a word longer with -er and -ed combinations if you have them.
Oust can become ouster and ousted.  And sometimes you can get lucky with a bonus S!  For instance, ouster can become ousters! 

5.  Look for words within a word.  For instance STOP has TOP.  Don't forget to go backwards also.  Backwards its POTS and POT.  There you go!  A few more quick words.

6.  Work the board in sections until you exhaust all your word options before you move on to the next board section, or letter combination.  Be strategic this way or else you end up jumping all over the board and miss words because you're sidetracked with other words, or you forget if you have already gotten that word or not.

7.  Try words forwards and backwards.  Got becomes tog and lee becomes eel when its backwards and several other words work this way too.  When I first started out I always spelled things backwards to make sure I was getting words ~ I actually learned a few new words this way too btw. Keep your fingers moving smoothly and swiftly ~ don't worry if you don't get words or misspell them, just keep the fingers moving along trying words out.  This is a key to getting your speed and word count up.  Just go for it.

8.  And when you think all is lost and you just can't seem to find any more words...then remember to tilt or scramble the board for a fresh perspective.  Most times new words will suddenly appear when you couldn't quite see them before.

I'm really not a "pro" at this, but knowing these handy tips have helped to give me an edge over just about everyone I've played so far.

Phew!

Now if you made it this far, then go forth and dominate!

May the force be with you!

~ ~ ~

Do you have any word tips for Boggle or Scramble With Friends?