Attack plan for the house

Week 1 (April 4-10) Week 2 (April 11-17) Week 3 (April 18-24) Upper floor: Megan's room, Ian's room, linen closet, hall bath, master bath, master bedroom Main floor: Kitchen, dining room, living room Lower floor: Rec room, under the stairs, utility room, bathroom

2011 - The Year of the ACK

The roller coaster...it just keeps on rollin' on. We have a ratified contract on our house, with a settlement date of end of April. Ack. We have bid on a house, but haven't heard anything yet. ACK. Nerves. Stress. Stress. Nerves. And yet. And yet I find myself planning for this still-up-in-the-air, everything-could-still-fall-apart house. I love it. It's got everything we said we wanted (except a fridge, and that's a detail that's easy to add - money + Best Buy = nice cold food). It's got great schools. It is in walking distance to the elementary school (bonus!). It's a better commute. It's got a yard, not just a postage stamp in the front and a deck surrounded by a ruffle of uneven flagstones in the back. It has hardwood floors on the middle level. It has an extra room. It has a two car garage (this is less imprtant to me, but more important to my better half). And for the plans! The house is painted in neutrals right now, which is great for the vast majority of the house but less great for the bedrooms. Megan's room is purple right now, but I'm leaning green in the new house (Disney, Pooh Corner and Christopher Robins Swing). Ian's room will most likely stay blue, although maybe moving toward two ice-blue (Behr 580A-1/2, Icy Bay and Rainsong) walls with one royal blue (Behr, SG570, Sapphire Lace) and one red (Behr, SG170, Licorice Stick) wall. I'm also thinking about trying to do a racing stripe around the room.

Her first ponytail

She looks so much older than not-quite-two. I can see her with a shorter cut, too - though not for a while. I need to keep her my baby.

Not much of a blog post

More of a to-do list, but hey - it has to go somewhere, and in case anyone's interested in why I'm not on FB, this is what I'm doing. :)

- touch up paint in kitchen
- clean and install cabinet hardware
- clear counters
- clean off Donkey Kong
- paint wall behind J's desk
- paint wall beside laundry room door
- take tape off ceiling behind my desk, touch up if necessary
- finish baseboards upstairs
- clean bathrooms
- get scrap stuff out of bedroom closet
- pack up books in bedroom
- clear floor and vac
- touch up paint in J's bathroom
- paint hallway
- paint bedroom wall

- call G&S (Wed, 2/9)
- call MP (Mon, 2/14)
- call Derek (Tues, 2/8)

Ordered our Christmas cards...

Seasonal Chic Noir Christmas 5x7 folded card

Make a statement with custom Christmas cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Anyone can have an epiphany...

I want an *Epiphanie*! :)
An Epiphanie camera bag, that is! These gorgeous bags look like they hold EVERYTHING, and they are stylish (goodbye, ugly black scratchy bag). ColorInc has teamed up with Epiphanie to give one of these bags away to one lucky winner - go check it out!

Card me!

I admit it, I'm a freak for cards. I can happily spend an hour in the cardstore searching for the perfect card or boxed set - at least, I could before I had two kids. Now I'm lucky if I get fifteen seconds to grab the first thing that catches my eye before someone needs a drink, a pacifier, a time out or (more frequently) to go potty. In recent years, I've bought our Christmas cards from our local warehouse store - it was quick, it was easy, and I'd be going there anyway so no special trip required. The quality was OK, the selection was OK, but nothing to write home about.

This year, I tossed around the idea of making cards - a beautiful pipe dream, but again with two kids, it's probably not going to happen. We're not members of the warehouse store anymore. I started thinking about ordering cards online and then I happened upon an offer from Shutterfly - 50 free holiday cards for bloggers! (If you follow me on Facebook, you already know since I statused it earlier.) I've drooled over their photo books for years, and was anxious to see what their card selection was like, so I hopped on over and...

O.M.G. The selection is fabulous! They've got classic holiday cards, contemporary/modern holiday cards, nondenominational holiday cards, Christian Christmas cards - they've even got holiday cards that tell a story *and* thank you cards for all those fabulous gifts under the tree!

The colors are luscious - deep black, chocolate brown, hollyberry red and mistletoe green, pink and blue and in-between. How many photos to include? One photo? Two? Five? Do I want a 4x8 card? A 5x5? Glossy finish, matte or stationery? Where to start? And then, I spotted a card that ordinarily I might miss - and I couldn't look away.

Seriously - check it out. The Elegant Pearl Christmas Card. White is the perfect backdrop for color photos or black and white, for those night shots of the kids meeting Santa's train or close ups of the lighted Christmas tree. The script greeting is a great little pop of color that registers without overwhelming. It's classic and timeless and fabulous. I'm also debating With Love Chartreuse (depending on what shots I can get - i.e., how cooperative the kids are) - it's bright and cheery and packed with photo punch, plus it's a folding card so there's room on the inside for more photos and holiday wishes. Love it!

If you want to order your own Elegant Pearl or With Love cards or another design of your choosing, Shutterfly is offering 20% off all holiday cards! Go now and see. Why are you still reading? Go! :)