With Love Chartreuse Christmas 5x7 folded card
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Monday, December 13, 2010
Thursday, December 2, 2010
We wish you a....
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
It's a little early for some of you, but I think it's never too early to start thinking about Christmas. :) (Well, as long as it's after Halloween!) I'm actually somewhat on top of gift buying this year, surprise, surprise! There are some pesky recipients who are always hard to buy for, but surely I can think of something... Aaaaannnndd, we've got an anniversary coming up too. Why did we get married in December?! Dumb, dumb, dumb. Okay, not really dumb- just crams a little more into an already busy season. But I digress... Do you give out cards and/or other personalized items for gifts? Ohhhh, we do and I looove it. It makes it easy to buy for family members; who doesn't love that? :)
Before we had kiddos, we didn't send out Christmas cards. Who really wanted to see another picture of us? ;) Pictures of kiddos, on the other hand, are always welcome we have found. After Olivia was born, we send out simple photo cards with one picture of the three of us. The past few years, we've gotten a little more creative (we even did a Christmas letter one year, cheesy as it is!). This year, I'm planning on doing it up a bit fancier, maybe with this one - I just LOVE all that lacy design and the crisp, white background. But then, I also like this one, so elegant! And I'm really digging the different shapes that are coming around, the squares especially. Shutterfly is doing a blogger promotion, so here I am blogging about Christmas cards! You could go and sign up, too. You know you want to... Everyone else is doing it...
We also do a photo calendar every year for our families. The first few years we used some local places, and the finished products were okay but nothing really to write home about. The past two or three years, we've ordered our calendars from Shutterfly and could not have been happier. I love all the background options and the different layouts. I probably spend waaaay too much time making these, but they are so fun! I even got my friend Hannah to order 3 this year. :)
We've ordered other photo gifts before from local places also, and I was not that impressed. The mug we have has faded around the top, so much that you can hardly see Olivia. Boo. We haven't ordered any of that stuff from Shutterfly (although I've got my eye on some personalized stationery!), but we have ordered 4 or 5 photo books and they are super cool! I would post a pic of what we already got this year, but I don't want to spoil anyone's surprise. ;) The last one I made, I used the Simple Path option at Shutterfly and it was so much easier than trying to place the pictures myself. My stress level went waaaay down and the pictures were in the order they were taken. Score!
Now we just have to find a few good family photos, right? Here are some excellent options...
Rabid dinosaurs? Baby birds?
I know you're jealous of our cat with chicken wing arms.
You can steal this for your Facebook if you want. I won't mind.
Horrifying, isn't it?
Spaghetti night. Mmmmm...
Polly Pocket binoculars are not functional. Who knew?
Enjoy your holidays!!
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
"One and done"?
I've heard that phrase a lot lately and it makes me sad. Now, I'm not knocking it or trying to offend anyone, so don't get your hackles up. :) I read this article in Time tonight and thought I would share.
I'm an only child. My parents tried for almost 2 years to get pregnant with me. They were on the verge of starting fertility treatments (no small feat for a young couple in the 70's) when they turned up prego with yours truly. After I was born, my mom became pregnant 3 more times and miscarried all 3 babies. Devastating for her, as you can imagine.
Growing up, I wanted a sibling soooo badly. I didn't even care if it was a boy or a girl. Granted, we lived out in the country (and I mean, OUT- my school, grades K-12, was housed in a series of trailers). But I had close friends and we saw them a lot. I just wanted a brother or sister. BAD. As I got older, around 10 or so I imagine, I decided it wasn't so bad to be the only.
Now that I'm much older, I long for a sibling. It can nearly bring me to tears. Does that sound silly to those of you with siblings? Well, here's my thought. When my parents are gone, it's just me. Yes, I'm married to a wonderful man. And yes, I have two beautiful children who are the light of my life. But they don't know the me that was 7 and crawled in the dog house with Brandy and her puppies. They don't know the me that moved to AR and cried for weeks. They don't know the me that almost didn't make the cheer squad in 8th grade. They don't know the me who hated high school but cried through the entire graduation. They don't know the me who made so many mistakes and had so many good times and cried and laughed. A sibling would. And a sibling would know what I'm feeling when my mom and dad are gone.
Do I sound morbid? I'm not trying to, I promise. My parents have both had serious health problems. My mom cannot do anything about hers. She can manage it, but no cure. That means a shortened life span. My mom and I are super close, and I can't even think about that.
I'm tired from leading 11 kindergarteners around VBS for 3 hours this week, so maybe I'm just feeling extra emotional. But when am I not? ;)
I would love to hear your thoughts, even if they're different than mine!
While you're on a blog roll, check out Megan's post on friendship. I haven't commented yet, I'm still fermenting mine. :)
Have a great day!
I'm an only child. My parents tried for almost 2 years to get pregnant with me. They were on the verge of starting fertility treatments (no small feat for a young couple in the 70's) when they turned up prego with yours truly. After I was born, my mom became pregnant 3 more times and miscarried all 3 babies. Devastating for her, as you can imagine.
Growing up, I wanted a sibling soooo badly. I didn't even care if it was a boy or a girl. Granted, we lived out in the country (and I mean, OUT- my school, grades K-12, was housed in a series of trailers). But I had close friends and we saw them a lot. I just wanted a brother or sister. BAD. As I got older, around 10 or so I imagine, I decided it wasn't so bad to be the only.
Now that I'm much older, I long for a sibling. It can nearly bring me to tears. Does that sound silly to those of you with siblings? Well, here's my thought. When my parents are gone, it's just me. Yes, I'm married to a wonderful man. And yes, I have two beautiful children who are the light of my life. But they don't know the me that was 7 and crawled in the dog house with Brandy and her puppies. They don't know the me that moved to AR and cried for weeks. They don't know the me that almost didn't make the cheer squad in 8th grade. They don't know the me who hated high school but cried through the entire graduation. They don't know the me who made so many mistakes and had so many good times and cried and laughed. A sibling would. And a sibling would know what I'm feeling when my mom and dad are gone.
Do I sound morbid? I'm not trying to, I promise. My parents have both had serious health problems. My mom cannot do anything about hers. She can manage it, but no cure. That means a shortened life span. My mom and I are super close, and I can't even think about that.
I'm tired from leading 11 kindergarteners around VBS for 3 hours this week, so maybe I'm just feeling extra emotional. But when am I not? ;)
I would love to hear your thoughts, even if they're different than mine!
While you're on a blog roll, check out Megan's post on friendship. I haven't commented yet, I'm still fermenting mine. :)
Have a great day!
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Ta-daaaa!
Before = BORING. Our entire house, with the exception of the playroom, was this boring off-white color. Ugh. It's just like living in a cloud, except not soft and squishy. We picked out some paint for the dining room in December, when we painted the kitchen. So we finally got around to it.
After = EXCITING! I am so happy with how it turned out. And no, I didn't feel the need to clean up before I took a picture for you. That's how we roll. I loooove it, don't you? ;)
One of my favorite parts is this ledge thingy above the bar. I have big plans for it, but that will have to wait for another day. :) Incidentally, you can see the kitchen paint from this angle also. I have been looking high and low for a 'before' kitchen picture, but I think I deleted the one I am thinking of since I looked like a whale in it. ;) We took down some hideous fruity wallpaper and painted it that wonderful berry color. We also got rid of our stainless steel side-by-side fridge that couldn't open all the way due to the wall directly next to it. We got a french-door, bottom-mount black fridge instead. I love it!
On a side note, my birthday was this weekend. Yep, I'm the big 3-1. Woo! We had a good weekend. Saturday, I spent the day with my mom and my aunt. We got pedicures, ate lunch at PF Chang's, and did some shopping. I just let myself enjoy being out and didn't worry about what time it was. Consequently, I got home at 6! Sunday, Livy and I were going to go to Different Strokes, but they went out of business! Who knew?! So we just ran around and hung out. It was nice, just the girls. :) I didn't get many pictures, but here are some from birthday dinner at Noodles. Hope you had a great weekend, too!
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Befores-and-Afters
We've been busy, busy sprucing up our home. Yes, we've lived here for almost 3 years and we're just now getting around to some of this stuff.
This is our living room, we had a mirrored star hanging there since shortly after we moved in. I bought it on super-duper clearance at Kohl's. Unfortunately, Wes hated it. With a capital 'hate'. Woe is me. I finally took it down and make a little project to put there. It turned out kind of bumpy, and I'll probably re-do it but I hung it to get a feel for it. I think it's a little bare, thoughts? (I think we also need some flowers or something on top of the TV, but that's neither here nor there.) We also just added the black thing for accessories, we previously had everything on an end table. Yep, that's how we roll. (Also- ignore the giant piles of laundry. It's clean, just not put away.)
Here is what I'm reh-he-he-heally proud of- the picture wall. I've had these frames for at least 2 years, if not longer. They came in a box of 7 for $10.48. That's right, people, about $1.50 each. Score! I bought three boxes, with grand ideas of a wall gallery. Two years later, they're still in the closet, in the boxes, in a ginormous Target bag. A few weeks ago, I bought these. They were a silver-color, so I decided to paint them with some extra copper-y spray paint I had laying around. I originally had a different plan for them, but I think they really 'make' the wall.
Now I can tell my children, 'Yes, someone really DOES live here!"
I was going to post pictures of our kitchen makeover as well, but I can't find them now. Since I know you're just dyyyyyying to read this post, I'll just have to promise to do it later. Stop snickering behind your hand, I really will post it! Sometime. :)
This is our living room, we had a mirrored star hanging there since shortly after we moved in. I bought it on super-duper clearance at Kohl's. Unfortunately, Wes hated it. With a capital 'hate'. Woe is me. I finally took it down and make a little project to put there. It turned out kind of bumpy, and I'll probably re-do it but I hung it to get a feel for it. I think it's a little bare, thoughts? (I think we also need some flowers or something on top of the TV, but that's neither here nor there.) We also just added the black thing for accessories, we previously had everything on an end table. Yep, that's how we roll. (Also- ignore the giant piles of laundry. It's clean, just not put away.)
Here is what I'm reh-he-he-heally proud of- the picture wall. I've had these frames for at least 2 years, if not longer. They came in a box of 7 for $10.48. That's right, people, about $1.50 each. Score! I bought three boxes, with grand ideas of a wall gallery. Two years later, they're still in the closet, in the boxes, in a ginormous Target bag. A few weeks ago, I bought these. They were a silver-color, so I decided to paint them with some extra copper-y spray paint I had laying around. I originally had a different plan for them, but I think they really 'make' the wall.
Now I can tell my children, 'Yes, someone really DOES live here!"
I was going to post pictures of our kitchen makeover as well, but I can't find them now. Since I know you're just dyyyyyying to read this post, I'll just have to promise to do it later. Stop snickering behind your hand, I really will post it! Sometime. :)
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