Shutterfly’s Holiday Card promotion

I'm really terrible about sending out Christmas cards. I dread writing on all those cards, getting them all addressed, and mailed so that the receiver actually gets them... before Christmas.

This year I'm going the easy peasy route. No writing = no stress. Since I saw that Shutter fly is doing a great promotional I jumped at the chance to try a different approach to my Christmas cards. Maybe this year the cards will actually make it out of the package.

I went looking through their Christmas cards and it was so hard for me to decide since I really love the bright colors on some of these Shutter fly cards!
So I ended up picking them by maturely eenie meenie miney moeing these guys.

How cute right?!!!

Go on over and take a peek at their Holiday card selection. So many great ones to choose from!


And I'm definitely sticking with the no writing theme and getting these bad boys.
Address labels.
Do I hear angels singing?


And for getting all that done in a few minutes you can buy a Photo Mug with a picture of your cutie on it. For the coffee you don't drink. (oops!! )

Or you can just give it as a gift to a Grandparent.


Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly… sign up: http://bit.ly/sfly2010

Time for Some Holiday Shopping!!

Its that time of year when we are all in a mad rush to get our Christmas list in. Well everyone except for me. This year I'm in a mad rush to stock up for my etsy shop! While I'm furiously sewing away for an upcoming craft fair and for restocking why don't you take a peek over at my Etsy shop and maybe scratch a few names off your list?

Out with the not good in with the.. good?

So per doctors orders I am suppose to severely cut down on the amount of caffeine I drink. Our family is on the road to becoming more aware of making healthy food choices. Coffee and tea has always been our friend and since its organic your really cant go wrong with it right?

Wrong.

Apparently the fibery lumps I have are not caused by caffeine but symptoms are exaggerated by excessive caffeine. Yay me right?

So as my doctor put it I have to come off of high octane and settle for regular.

That means no more of these




and more of these.



During my daily slump I have been making a healthy drink for myself that is suppose give me a natural pick me up. Contains- fresh strawberrys, blackberries, spinach( yes I said fresh spinach. be jealous. ) and almond milk.
I put it in one of my pretty cups so I felt better about drinking it.

Ok thats a lie. There were no clean cups and I didn't really want to drink it out of a spiderman sippie cup. McHottie takes our large cups with him full or tea or coffee *no fair* with him to work and forgets to bring them in until I have an entire dishwasher tray full of them. Baby blue has broken so many glasses helping me in the kitchen that our cups population has dwindled down to minimum.

Since I no longer can drink large amounts of tea to get things done I am not getting things done as fast as I would like. A post to come about what we have been up to. Soon.

When Crafting is not advisable.

When things are bothering me I like to take it out on my house. The house itself, not the people in it. I will clean till this place is shining or garden till I'm sun burnt and can no longer lift my arms. There is something about the quiet monotony of working that gives me something to take my emotions out on while thinking about them at the same time. That is, until I'm to exhausted to think or move for that matter. Yesterday during Baby blues nap, my house was clean and plants were all put in the ground, I was looking for something more positive to put my energy toward. I decided to make this baby.

Pretty right?

The flower (learn how to make it at mrs priss blog ) is a tiny singed flower ( do you already see the horrible tradgdy that is about to occur?) made from little circles you cut and burn the edges so they curl up. I settled down with my diet dr pepper, a bunch of matches, and turned on What Not to wear. I covered myself so I wouldn't drop anything in my lap that would burn me and would have something to set the used matches on. Ya'll, matches don't burn for very long. after going through 6 on the first circle I figured out I needed something that would burn better and longer.

Enter the lighter. Those suckers get HOT. I got about 2 more petals done and then after nearly melting off my thumb I decided that wasn't working well either. I wanted a pretty headband not a trip to the ER and if you know me at all you know that a lighter and me put together would entail a trip to the ER. Clumsy is just putting it mildly.

Birthday candles. I felt like a genius. Wouldn't have to keep re-lighting and risk of ER trip greatly reduced (ha!) I grabbed a blue candle and settled down to finish my soda and my show while being the great multitasker- re: not paying full attention to anything.

I had all but one petal done and I remember looking at the candle and thinking I'm going to need to light another one pretty soon. The next thing I knew the burnt wick fell off and onto my hand. I reacted. I tossed the candle. I was sitting on the couch. that candle rolled down and under me.

Blue wax. Lit candle. New furniture.
I nearly was in tears.
Enter Google. Google is dangerous.
My friend google said use a paper bag over the wax spot with a warm iron to remove the wax. Apparently it is suppose to gradually lift the bright colored spots off my couch. Ha. Results?
Iron mark. Apparently woven microfiber couches are still microfiber and should not come in contact with warm things. Like say... an iron.
Notice how the blue is fading but yet the two singed circles are clearly visible inside the melted iron decoration.

Real tears this time and a whole lot of file cabinet digging looking for the couch warranty information. I felt about as stupid and as panicked as I could get.

Good news is I found out that expensive warranty I bought for our couches was totally worth it. It covers everything. Candle wax, melted iron marks, crazy girls who think they can craft on nice couches...

Apparently I could accidentally do just about anything to these things and they will replace. Reassuring and kind of amazing. That lady was also reassuring and kind of amazing, she said send pictures and she will make a replacement cushion on its way. Also? she was laughing at the story. By then so was I. In a hahah.... this type of thing happens to me to often to be healthy kind of way.
Maybe next time I'll just clean the toilet.



* Both the headband and flower are two different crafts I decided to combine.
headband can be found here and flower here

A Great Cause!!

I have been following a gals blog, Lora Lynn over at Vitafamiliae, for awhile now and have really enjoyed it. She writes about their family life and one of the reasons I love her blog is that it comforts me to know that the weird mom occurrences are actually really normal in mamaland.

Company in the crazytown, mamaland is nice.

This family is also nice :) They have 5 cute kids and have the desire to adopt more and I want to help! For a fund raiser they are selling all natural laundry detergent ground up and combined by them in their own kitchen. Cool right?

This felt like perfect timing. Baby Blue and I are still battling hives from a new commercial laundry detergent that we tried on sunday. I felt like I had found not only the solution to our families ongoing weird skin reactions to ALOT of commercial laundry detergents but a way to help a fellow family out with their adoption.

Even if buying natural detergent isn't for you would you consider adding them to your facebook to help spread the word?

Thanks for taking the time to read!

Yard sales, need I say more?

Yard sale loot makes me so excited! I have wanted a popcorn set like this for awhile but never really went looking for them in stores and I'm glad I hadn't for the price I got this 5 pc set!
Those tins are brand new bought from a craft store, she had a huge box that the tins came in and as soon as I saw them I knew they would be so perfect for sending baked goods to friends. I have always felt odd spending time to bake a gift and then sticking it in a ziplock bag.. plastic bags just don't scream cute. I restrained myself and only bought 4. And that stool, do I really need to say anything about the stool? I'm going to have McHottie spray paint the wood a chocolate brown. I'm thinking of stapling a cushion and cover onto the seat, a cream color would look so pretty! If I do I will show before and after pictures. The mirror is going up with some pictures I already have hung for some interest.
Grand total? $8. Awesome hmm? I really did restrain myself this yard sale and talked myself out of the the vintage metal milk urn. Gorgeous but really kind of impractical for $25.

Baby Blue has a new love of shopping now and I have yard sales to thank. Particularly a yard we stopped at that he found his beloved "fahya-truck" He is more anxious to get out of the car and start browsing than I am and that is really saying something because I have yard sale anxiety.
I see a yard sale sign and I start braking and swerving to get there. All with our safety in mind of course. If I see cars pulling in ahead of me the anxious feeling gets WORSE. What really makes feel like I might be a little nuts is the yard sales that use bright color paper. Bright paper is going to be a fantastic sale because that paper is neon green. People who really do yard sales do neon colors, white paper just doesn't do the trick. Subdivision sales? Knowing there is a plethora of goodies out there and there is NO way I can hit all the good sales at once, or go to them all? Aghhhhhh!

Welcome to my little blog!

Hi ya'll! I love meeting new people so here goes!!
I'm a 24 and a stay at home mama to my 2 year old son, Baby Blue, and silly boy kitty, Boris. I married my Mchottie (huge greys anatomy fan here !!! ) 4 years ago. I love being a sahm mom but it definitely has its roller coaster days. *Like yesterday my son learned to make gassy noises with his mouth and then would follow it with a MOooooOOOM. Yes, this was in public. Walmart to be exact. He blamed a whole lot of horrible sounding mouth farts on ME. Totally not humiliating.*
Ahem.
A few things about me-

• I believe in Jesus
• I LOVE to craft and sew
• I eat a lot of chocolate
• I hate cleaning out the refrigerator with a passion, I will put it off forever.
• I am not organized and I need to make a to do list to get organized
• Gardening makes me calm
• I sneak tons of vegetables into food so my guys will eat something besides just meat
• I started my own Etsy store after talking about it forever, check it out here *exciting*
• I love shopping and especially if I have a great coupon or find a sale!!
• yes, I'm kind of cheap in my old age.

I really can say that I have a wonderful peace about my life right now and where its going. I really never understood a womans desire to stay at home until I got married and had my son. Its not for everyone but its for me.
So thats about it for now!! I hope ya'll come back!
I'm off to go through the blog party and find more blogs to read :D

Spring, how I love you!!

I love spring! It means that the snow is gone for now and the warm sunshine begins! The first really beautiful day Baby Blue and I went outside to play and I ended up gardening all day. Im really paying for that now. I had no idea how bright white I was till I got a massive sunburn. I'm still paying for that sun now that my my entire back ITCHES from the healing.

It also means flip flops!! I love my flip flops. Bright beautiful flip flops. You know whats even better then flip flops? Embellished ones. I made some cute little zipper flowers out of hot pink and stuck them on my new flip flops. So sweet. I think all my flip flops are in for a makeover.

On Easter we were outside grilling and watching Baby blue play, we were talking about hes such a boys boy and just how freaking cute he is. Hes gonna be a force to be reckoned with when hes older, those girls wont know what to think. Now If we can just get him to stop eating crayons and thinking his farts are hilarious, we'll be in business.


Ive been making more of those little car roll ups for etsy and he thinks they are all for him. I set them out to take pictures and the next thing I know he has all his cars on them and is "driben, driben." Apparently saying driving once isn't enough because he always says it twice. The boy loves all things ... boy.



Right now he loves all earthworms and calls them "snakes" and will catch them and bring them to me. I saw this cute little blue silicone snake at the store when I was buying things for his Easter basket so I bought it thinking he would stop giving me real worms. Screams of terror, he hates it. Its been almost 4 days and he STILL wakes up from his nap and askes "snake???" and looks around to make sure it didn't magically appear in his room. If that thing can move from where Mchottie hid it and come into Baby Blues room I'll be joining him in his crib crying.


To be clear, I put him in the shorts and shirt. He decided on the shoes and hat, he has his own sense of style and I love it.

Arnt chubby little baby feet the cutest things ever?


Well I'm off to go eat easter candy for breakfast before my dentist appointment today.

More Excuses ....

I love reading blogs, I have a huge list of blogs that are just an broad range of subjects that I frequent (usually everyday). Mommy blogs, craft blogs, cooking blogs, you name it I probably have a blog I read about it. Things is.. I'm a fast reader. I can skim through my blogs in no time flat.

I'm not so good at posting on my own blog.

I love the idea of having a blog but it takes alot more time to post then I originally thought it would . Its not that I don't have the time, I actually do. I'm a busy mama but definitely keep our schedule on the non-hectic side. Its just that I prefer to live our life rather then talk a ton about it.
So. While I haven't been posting I have been doing some pretty darn important things.

• teaching baby blue how to splash a rain puddle
• taking care of my sickies.... again.
  
• baking with my Baby Blue (mmmmm carbs )
• starting my etsy store
• shopping and making crafts for my etsy store
• coloring all the pages in our coloring books
  
• washing markers off table
• cutting my guys hair. often.

• laying on a blanket in the spring sun while Baby Blue makes a disaster out of my flower bed.

Really important stuff.

Heres a picture of my cute kid to make up for the fact that I don't post but every 2 months.



*note* I started this post while baby blue was sleeping, then nap time abruptly ended in screeches for water. Finally finishing and posting 5ish hours later.


*another note* Im not putting my name on my pictures because I think I'm a hotshot photographer (ahahah hilarious...) .... No. I'm terrified someone is going to steal a picture of my loved ones and repost somewhere. Not cool.

All in a Days Work

For me, being a mom is the most rewarding and most challenging job there is. I would have never dreamed I would have to do some of the things that I now do. Like having a desperate screaming Baby Blue who wont use certain public toilets now because some genius invented the automatic flusher. Then hugging him and holding toilet paper over the flush sensor so he will calm down long enough to pee and then realizing all that effort had gone to waste because he peed straight into his pants.







With all the random day to day occurrences aside, teaching Baby Blue boundaries and to respect the word "no" is the most difficult ongoing problem I have had to work through. Day after day lines are crossed, boundaries are constantly being tested, along with everything in reach being gotten into. Makeup eaten, glue sticks applied to forehead, computer being rebooted, lotion rubbed thoroughly into the floor. My son has no end to energy and the only places he ever falls asleep are in his car seat or in his crib. Some days I think there is no end in sight and I often wonder when its all going to start getting easier. Then little things happen that give me hope, like sharing his treat with a friend, completely unprompted by me.



Or being told by the Mops nursery worker that Baby Blue tried to comfort a crying baby by giving him a hug and patting the baby's back. Seeing generosity and compassion in my son tells me that I am doing the right thing and that right now the best job I can have is raising my Baby Blue. Watching him turn into the person God wants him to be thrills me even more then coming into the living room and seeing this.

Happy New Year!!

We don't have many family traditions, maybe its because we prefer to make things up as we go. This year in mops one of the table topics was holiday family traditions in your house. I had to laugh. The ONLY one I could think of was our silly New Years breakfast. It never fails this time of year one or all of us are sick so traditions take a backseat to staying sane. The Christmas tree is usually gotten sometime in December by whoever feels like leaving the house wont send them to the hospital with pneumonia. We always have big plans to get our fresh cut tree the weekend after Thanksgiving but usually end up waiting and hoping that at the very least we can just get it as a family. hahah, funny right? Other then going to the pumpkin patch sometime in October ( is that REALLY considered holidays???) I couldn't think of anything else. So one of our few traditions we have is the breakfast New Years day. We LOVE breakfasts here, the bigger the better and as long as its before 1 pm it still counts. The first year we were married I wanted crepes really bad New Years Day, I hadn't had them in forever and since I had everything I needed I just made them.
Ok- wasnt that easy. It was more like I started making them and 3 hours later we ate. It was the most infuriating thing I had ever made and I was ready to throw it all away and eat cold cereal. They were weird and thick and every time I tried to flip them (haha) they ripped in half. I'm going to admit they weren't the best but since we were starving we ate them. This is our 4th New Years together and only the 4th time I have made them. This year was the first year I discovered that you don't flip them.......
McHotties job was to watch Baby Blue so I could focus completely on the crepes. Since I just discovered it was among very few holiday traditions we have, I was determined to get those suckers made. And... it was easy this year. I found out you have to spray with cooking spray between every single one, they are delicious NOT healthy, and use a rubber scraper to just loosen them so you can flop them onto the plate. I got those babys done in a record time of 1 hour to the table. I don't have a picture of their delicious cream cheese filled goodness, I DO however have a picture of McHottie on the job.
I guess I should say that we stayed up (as in McHottie and I, Blue was crashed out by 9) till 1:30 am and our morning baby thought 7:18am was a GREAT time to start his day.
Maybe give the poor guy his coffee first hmmm?