Just wanted to let you know that the H.I.T. (Housewife-in-Training) over at Surburban Housewife-in-Training is doing a very cute giveaway! It's called Secret Santa and I think it's a great way to do a giveaway. She is going to pick a winner and then either go through their blog and/or ask the winner a bunch of personal questions. From the winner's answers, she will then pick a gift that she thinks you will like. Isn't that fun?
Here's the link to the contest over at Surburban Housewife-in-Training. Goodluck!
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Christmas cards vs. Our new address vards?
I always have such high aspirations of being this Martha Stewart-Betty Crocker-Ty Pennington wife, but I can never quite get there. I work long days in a city that's about a 40 minute drive from where we live and by the time I get home and either cook dinner or eat dinner with The Husband, I have no energy and it's pretty much bedtime. I subscribe to Better Homes & Gardens, I read tons of blogs that give such good decorating/home improvement/cooking ideas, but the reality is, I'd rather spend those few precious hours (sometimes minutes) after work with The Husband before he falls asleep (which is usually the way it works in our household. I'm a night owl, he is not).
We got married on 12/27/08 and last year would've been the year to send out our first family christmas card with a wedding photo on it. Well...we missed that bus. Now we have moved into a new home and I'd really like to do a christmas card with pictures from all the fun stuff we did this year, as well as a photo or two of our new home. However, I haven't gotten on the ball yet (did I mention I work 10 hour days?) and now I don't know what to do. I've designed a couple and have been happy with the result, but because we are thinking about including a picture of the house with our new address, we;d have to get a folded card, not just a flat one. I've designed one I really like at Shutterfly but, while not expensive themselves, we'd need to order around 100 cards, maybe more, plus postage = more money then I'd like and money that we should really be putting toward the house.
Here are some of the cards I found at Shutterfly. We have a lot of friends/family who do not celebrate Christmas, but I still want to include them in our seasons greetings, so we prefer to stay away from the "Merry Christmas" cards.
I love the colors and style of this card.
This card is my absolute favorite. I LOVE the saying and the monogram! Plus, it has enough room for us to put pictures of all the fun things we did this past year on the front and then room for a picture (or three or four) of the new house! Plus, this song ("What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong) played while The Husband and I did our candle lighting during our wedding ceremony.
Absolutely LOVE this card. The message is so simple and the perfect way to send our friends and family joyous holiday greetings.
Again, I love the colors of this card and the message is so simple, yet is exactly what we want to say.
Some flat cards I've found that I really like, but not sure will work for including our new address (They don't give you a lot of room to add anything more than your name):
So cute! Love the colors, love the message and LOVE the picture of the two little ones. Adorable!
Super cute!
Adore this one with all the fun colors and it's a very cute way to let your family and friends know what you've been up to this year. I love it so much, I think I might have to try and make this one work for our card. I'll keep you posted!
So what do you all think? Is it better to do a holiday card with our new address...or would it be best to just send out store bough christmas cards and through in a card that has our new address? I know store bought is so not Martha Stewart of me, but with time closing in and our "house want" pile growing bigger and bigger, what's a girl to do? Or do you think we should wait until after the holidays and send out a "We've moved" postcard? What do you think?
We got married on 12/27/08 and last year would've been the year to send out our first family christmas card with a wedding photo on it. Well...we missed that bus. Now we have moved into a new home and I'd really like to do a christmas card with pictures from all the fun stuff we did this year, as well as a photo or two of our new home. However, I haven't gotten on the ball yet (did I mention I work 10 hour days?) and now I don't know what to do. I've designed a couple and have been happy with the result, but because we are thinking about including a picture of the house with our new address, we;d have to get a folded card, not just a flat one. I've designed one I really like at Shutterfly but, while not expensive themselves, we'd need to order around 100 cards, maybe more, plus postage = more money then I'd like and money that we should really be putting toward the house.
Here are some of the cards I found at Shutterfly. We have a lot of friends/family who do not celebrate Christmas, but I still want to include them in our seasons greetings, so we prefer to stay away from the "Merry Christmas" cards.
I love the colors and style of this card.
This card is my absolute favorite. I LOVE the saying and the monogram! Plus, it has enough room for us to put pictures of all the fun things we did this past year on the front and then room for a picture (or three or four) of the new house! Plus, this song ("What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong) played while The Husband and I did our candle lighting during our wedding ceremony.
Absolutely LOVE this card. The message is so simple and the perfect way to send our friends and family joyous holiday greetings.
Again, I love the colors of this card and the message is so simple, yet is exactly what we want to say.
Some flat cards I've found that I really like, but not sure will work for including our new address (They don't give you a lot of room to add anything more than your name):
So cute! Love the colors, love the message and LOVE the picture of the two little ones. Adorable!
Super cute!
Adore this one with all the fun colors and it's a very cute way to let your family and friends know what you've been up to this year. I love it so much, I think I might have to try and make this one work for our card. I'll keep you posted!So what do you all think? Is it better to do a holiday card with our new address...or would it be best to just send out store bough christmas cards and through in a card that has our new address? I know store bought is so not Martha Stewart of me, but with time closing in and our "house want" pile growing bigger and bigger, what's a girl to do? Or do you think we should wait until after the holidays and send out a "We've moved" postcard? What do you think?
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Welcome Home!
Well...we did it! We closed on our house last Wednesday, 11/10, painted/cleaned/ripped out carpet on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and moved in on Saturday. Needless to say, it has been an exhausting, exciting, crazy and chaotic past couple of days. I returned to work this morning for the first time since last Tuesday and it was definitely weird to wake up in our new master bedroom in our new home and get ready for work. My routine was the same (pack lunch the night before, watch the news, shower, do hair, get dressed, leave) but it just felt different. Closing the garage and pulling out of the driveway definitely felt different, but it all felt different in a good way. A great way. A phenomenal way.
We got the three bedrooms painted (including all of the trim, quarter round and closets and ceilings) before moving in. The kitchen, master bedroom and second bedroom are all unpacked and organized, minus curtains (Yikes! Gotta remember to be careful getting undressed - HA!) and closet doors (that were taken off for painting).
Many filled boxes remain that I hope to get to before Thanksgiving, but we shall see. I am a Christmas fanatic (I am that person that wants Christmas music to start playing before Halloween) and I can barely stand waiting for Thanksgiving to pass before getting all my holiday decorations out. Some years I don't wait, but most of the time I do. So, I'd really like the boxes unpacked and everything put away and in its place before I get out the Christmas stuff, however I might have to settle for putting some boxes down into the basement until I can get to them. There is NO WAY I am missing out on decorating for our first Christmas in our new home.
I hope to have pictures of rooms as they get finished, so fingers crossed I actually do it!
We got the three bedrooms painted (including all of the trim, quarter round and closets and ceilings) before moving in. The kitchen, master bedroom and second bedroom are all unpacked and organized, minus curtains (Yikes! Gotta remember to be careful getting undressed - HA!) and closet doors (that were taken off for painting).
Many filled boxes remain that I hope to get to before Thanksgiving, but we shall see. I am a Christmas fanatic (I am that person that wants Christmas music to start playing before Halloween) and I can barely stand waiting for Thanksgiving to pass before getting all my holiday decorations out. Some years I don't wait, but most of the time I do. So, I'd really like the boxes unpacked and everything put away and in its place before I get out the Christmas stuff, however I might have to settle for putting some boxes down into the basement until I can get to them. There is NO WAY I am missing out on decorating for our first Christmas in our new home.
I hope to have pictures of rooms as they get finished, so fingers crossed I actually do it!
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
This close...
We are thisclose to closing on the house. The husband and I are just anxious and excited to get in there and start working on it. We did some shopping this past weekend at Home Goods, Ikea and Bed Bath and Beyond. We have only bought little things, like lamps, pillows, and sheets (for the guest bedroom), but we've also looked at a lot of furniture, like side tables, night stands, bookcases, chairs, foyer tables and kitchen storage. We've found quite a bit that we like, but since we aren't in the house yet, we don't have exact measurements and don't want to purchase anything that might not fit.
We are hoping to close next Wednesday, 11/10. We'd like our closing to be first thing that morning so we can head right on over and get to work. We'd like to clean the house from top to bottom (no one has lived there for almost a year so I'm sure it needs it), paint a couple rooms, replace the kitchen floor and install a shower into one of the bathrooms....all before we move in over the following weekend. Think it can be done? If The Husband has anything to say about it, it will be accomplished! He wants to pull out the air mattress and sleep there even though none of our furniture, tv, etc., will be there. That's how ready he is to FINALLY be in his own home.
The Husband and I spent Sunday going to Ikea with my Mother-in-Law and Home Goods. We found a couple of great furniture pieces that may or may not work. Once we are in the house with our furniture, we'll be able to see what we might need and where things can go. That evening, while my husband and MIL stayed home to hand out candy to the trick or treaters (all 4 of them!), I headed to another Home Goods to find a pillow that I just HAD to have. I had seen it at one Home Goods, but ended up purchasing it in another color scheme. However, once I was home and thinking about it, I realized I wanted the other one. I went back to the original Home Goods, but it was gone! Of course I continued to call other locations until I found it. I had to drive about 20 minutes one way to pick it up Sunday night, but it was totally worth it. It's going to look great. I know you ladies know what I mean and have done this yourselves at some point :)
Going back a couple posts, where I talked about getting more readers/followers, I got some great suggestions from Angela over at Sweet Tea Diaries. I've tried a few (except for that whole Google Reader thing...No idea how that works or if I even installed it properly) but nothing has really worked yet. I'm still trying, though! I hope to post more once we get into the house. We don't have internet access at home, so posting pictures can be difficult, but I will try!
Hope you had a Happy Halloween!
We are hoping to close next Wednesday, 11/10. We'd like our closing to be first thing that morning so we can head right on over and get to work. We'd like to clean the house from top to bottom (no one has lived there for almost a year so I'm sure it needs it), paint a couple rooms, replace the kitchen floor and install a shower into one of the bathrooms....all before we move in over the following weekend. Think it can be done? If The Husband has anything to say about it, it will be accomplished! He wants to pull out the air mattress and sleep there even though none of our furniture, tv, etc., will be there. That's how ready he is to FINALLY be in his own home.
The Husband and I spent Sunday going to Ikea with my Mother-in-Law and Home Goods. We found a couple of great furniture pieces that may or may not work. Once we are in the house with our furniture, we'll be able to see what we might need and where things can go. That evening, while my husband and MIL stayed home to hand out candy to the trick or treaters (all 4 of them!), I headed to another Home Goods to find a pillow that I just HAD to have. I had seen it at one Home Goods, but ended up purchasing it in another color scheme. However, once I was home and thinking about it, I realized I wanted the other one. I went back to the original Home Goods, but it was gone! Of course I continued to call other locations until I found it. I had to drive about 20 minutes one way to pick it up Sunday night, but it was totally worth it. It's going to look great. I know you ladies know what I mean and have done this yourselves at some point :)
Going back a couple posts, where I talked about getting more readers/followers, I got some great suggestions from Angela over at Sweet Tea Diaries. I've tried a few (except for that whole Google Reader thing...No idea how that works or if I even installed it properly) but nothing has really worked yet. I'm still trying, though! I hope to post more once we get into the house. We don't have internet access at home, so posting pictures can be difficult, but I will try!
Hope you had a Happy Halloween!
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