VistaPrints

I was recently introduced to VistaPrints and all their freebies by a friend on her blog HogWash. Thanks to her I have found yet another new addiction...because I really needed another one.

Anyways, VistaPrint offers lots of things for free all you have to pay is shipping...what a deal! So below is my first and most definitely not my last order!

Matching pen and sticky note pad, personalized for me

Personalized note pad

100 Postcards to use on gifts (front)

Postcards to use on gifts (back)

10 Personalized Thank You cards with envelopes
Personalized keychain with characatures for each member of my family

I got all this, plus 140 return address labels and 25 business card sized magnets that will be used in future gufts (hence the lack of picture, can't give it all away), all for only the cost of shipping. And the question I am sure you are asking yourself is...but how much did you actually save??? My actual savings on all of this fabulous stuff was....$79.93!!! WOW!!!

Thank you so much Nikki, for both the website and some of the ideas! For more ideas, check out her blog, Hogwash. What a great find!

Do you ever wish you were deaf??

Have you ever wished you were deaf....at least temporarily?? I mean, I am so thankful for my ability to hear...most of the time. But have you ever experienced a sound, any sound that just made you wish, even if only for a split second, that you couldn't hear at all??

Right now, I have a 21 month old little girl who is screaming at the top of her lungs because she can't have the snack she wants....and has been doing this for the last 30 minutes. I have offered her the same snack, Ritz crackers, at least 4 or 5 times over this time period always to a resounding, "NO!"

I wonder where she gets this stubbornness? If it is from where I think it is, I believe I now owe my parents a big, Huge, even GINORMOUS apology!! So here it is.....I AM SO UNBELIEVABLY SORRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I think now would be a good time to award them with the Amazingly Patient Parent Award!!!! Congratulations....and again, I am very sorry for anything I may have put you through (like my last half hour)! I love you both!

It's a Birthday!!!

Well, today is my wonderful husband's 25th birthday (I know, I know, he is such a baby!).

I always have quite the delema figuring out not only what to get him for holiday's like this or Christmas or our anniversary or Valentine's day or...well, you get the idea, but also how to keep him from figuring out what I got him before the actual holiday. The problem is that he never wants anything...I mean, anything I can actually afford. He loves Mustangs (the car) and has one he is working on fixing up, but rarely is there something for the car that fits within our gift budgets. So the usual response to the "what do you want for your birthday" question is "I don't know." So, this year he actually gave me 3 ideas, and I picked 2 of them to purchase. One of them is a set of floor mats for his Mustang, that he sent me a link to via email one day a couple of weeks ago. I ordered them this past week and actually expected them to be delivered tomorrow...so no surprise ruined, I planned to tell him today what was coming tomorrow. However, on Friday when I checked the UPS tracking I discovered that they were scheduled for delivery on Friday...but again, no worries, I work from home on Fridays, so I would be there to get them. Unfortunately, they weren't delivered before we left to go out to dinner at 4:30 but when we stopped back by the house after dinner so that Stuart could just run in and pick something up before going out again, he discovered the box sitting on our front porch...surprise #1 ruined...he knew what it was just from the box.

So my second present (and also my deal of the week) was "The Dark Knight" on BlueRay...every place I had looked at this movie it was $30 or more. Last weekend I thought about looking for it at Walmart and guess what their regular, non-sale price for it was???? $20...for a BlueRay!!! I was so excited, except there was one problem...they were sold out. So I went back to Walmart 2 more times last weekend, and they were always sold out. So Wednesday night, Stuart had a meeting to go to and as soon as he left I (and my kid) ran out immediately to Walmart to see if they had gotten it in stock. And they had!!! I was thrilled. So I bought it and hurried home to hide it before Stuart could see it. And I found out this morning, I finally did it! I finally surprised him. He thought the floor mats were it, but surprise!! There was more!

I know this is a silly accomplishment, but after 5 years of trying, I finally did it! (and yes, I realize that on a day that is supposed to be all about him, I have managed to make this all about me! I am amazing that way!)

Anyways, Happy Birthday, Stuart! I love you!

Visitors and Home Improvements

How to start a blog...well, that I don't have the answer to...so I will just start by talking about my weekend.

My parents came to visit from MI for the weekend, and we had a great time. However, we all spent a large amount of time at The Home Depot and doing misc things around our house. My wonderful husband and dad spent a day putting a light up outside our back door and then removing a CEMENT sink that was about 4 feet wide from my laundry room. They stated that it is probably best handled by 6 grown men...but the two "super"-men managed it on their own. My hero's! Then they moved my washing machine about 5 feet to the left so that it now sits next to my dryer. I am so excited that I don't have to carry wet laundry 5 feet from the washer to the dryer. Then they spent the next day working on a leaky toilet and did a fabulous job!

After that, I decided I wanted to complete a project so after asking my heros to help me with some drilling/screwing, my mom and I put together an upholstered headboard and then mounted it on the wall. The supplies used were:

• 3' x 5' piece of 1/2" plywood
• 2 yards of batting
• 2 yards of upholstry fabric (from Walmart-for a great sale price)
• HangMan picture hanger
• drill/screwdriver
• staple gun
• hammer

We laid the fabric top down on the floor (I laid a blanket down first just to keep it from getting dirty), then the batting and then the piece of plywood. Starting with one staple near the middle of each side (including top and bottom) and working to the corners, pulling the batting as tightly as possible, staple the batting to the plywood. Then do the same thing with the fabric. NOTE: one thing I forgot to do, you probably want to iron the fabric before starting the process...it's much easier to do it before rather than afte! Trim off the extra batting and fabric. Finally we just followed the instructions for the Hangman to attach one piece to the wall and one piece to the back of the headboard and then hang it on the wall.

Here is our boring bed before the new headboard:


And here is the fabulous after shot with the new addition:


I am still hoping to make more additions to the bed and the surrounding area (bed skirt, bedside tables, etc) and will share more when there is something more to share. Let me know what you think...