I'm not blaming Chad or myself, but this week the getting to know us segment just didn't happen on Monday like it was suppose to... but here's what it should have been... hope you enjoy, I feel like there's some good questions!
Name all of the pets you have ever had?
Jenn: Let's actually see if I can do this... We had a family dog, Playful, then a hamster, Tickles, and then another hampster that was sooo creepy with red eyes, forget it's name, then there was Muffin, and my family's two cats, Cocoa and Snickers. Then Christina and I got our first cat Bacardi (Christina took her, I'm not sure where she ended up) then I got my very first pet to call my own, Pretty Kitty, and you know the rest - Stitch, briefly Cheese (another cat), Bozley, Bear, and Rowdy
Chad: Can I? No.
What is your favorite childhood memory?
Jenn: That's a tough one... I think it would have to be Christmases as a whole... including my mom's Christmas party... that whole time of year was just so awesome, especially when you're a kid.
Chad: Probably cooking with my grandma, or learning to ride my bike.
Have you ever been hospitalized other than when you were born?
Jenn: Nope... I'm too healthy! (there's no such thing!)
Chad: Yes, tonsillectomy and two craniotomies.
What is your favorite fruit?
Jenn: Pineapple
Chad: Strawberry or watermelon.
What color of clothing do you most like to wear?
Jenn: Seriously any color, I love color, I wear just about any color under the sun
Chad: Navy blue.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Monday, June 27, 2011
Weekend Rant or The One Where I Sound a Bit Crazy...
Before I get into all the ranting and raving I just want to say that I had a great time and just like my birthday rant I plan on writing a happier entry at a later date... but let's face it the negatives are probably a way more interesting read. I'm going to write part of this in a bulleted list, I'm not sure it will all make sense to everyone, but hey let's see how this goes...
Chad has a friend, P, he was the best man at our wedding and also was the best man at the wedding this past weekend. P really messed up being the best man for Chad... he didn't plan the bachelor party (another groomsman ended up doing it) and he obviously gave .5 seconds thought to this speech and as bride and groom it was highly disappointing. Chad really ended up giving him the benefit of the doubt for our wedding claiming this was P's first wedding so he didn't really understand what he needed to do.
Flash forward to this wedding Chad thought this time around P should know what he's doing, understand planning the bachelor party is important and giving a good toast is important too. Well, P totally f-ed it up. Like completely... worse than he did with our wedding... and a lot of that has to do with his girlfriend, K.
P has not been a very good friend since he starting dating K. For instance, as you might recall Chad had brain surgery earlier this year. P didn't even call or text to see how he was doing. This is after I practically begged him to come to visit Chad in the hospital. If the roles were reversed and his friend had brain surgery and I knew Chad hadn't checked in you best be believing I would be on Chad to like white on rice to call and get an update. That's K's job, she is to blame too.
K just comes off as really fake... I don't like her and I have never really liked her. And I've heard recently that she's been talking sh!t behind our backs...that's not cool and neither are you.
But back to P... he failed at planning the bachelor party for this wedding, Chad ended up doing most of the planning... he also failed at giving a good toast at the reception, however I will say it was slightly better than the one he gave at our wedding. Those are the big things, however there are other things as well. For instance, the bachelor party was a weekend long celebration (Friday night to Sunday morning) P (remember this is the best man) didn't show up to the bachelor party until Saturday at 2, and left super early on Sunday morning... wasn't even there 24 hours... what was his excuse? He had to work... dude... Chad took off all weekend for this... and he has what you'd call a real job. He also wanted to pack it in and call it a night around midnight on Saturday... the groom was not ready to go.
Also, he didn't spend the night after the rehearsal (night before the wedding) with the groom as all the other groomsmen did... or get ready with them before the ceremony. It's like he acted as though this wedding was a huge inconvenience to him. If Chad was totally messing things up like this I would be on his back to be a good friend... obviously K does not care.
All of these are reasons why I don't like K... but let's face it we get a read off people when we first meet them (first impression) sometimes I'm wrong... I have been before, but with her it's only gotten worse... and luckily I am not the only one who thinks that. When you are the only person that dislikes someone you start to wonder if you are crazy, however, we are not alone... everyone doesn't like her and now that they are engaged, it's like what do you do? They are moving away... and we'll probably never talk to them again.... which is kind of sad when you think about how close P and Chad were... however this is what happens in life... friends come and go and sadly this one might be going. I think I've captured most of the things Chad and I have talked about over the last few days... but I might update with more.
Chad and I have had some issues with friends lately... like I haven't talked to my maid of honor in who knows how long, and it's truly sad...
Like the title of this post, I probably sound crazy, mean, and a little bit bitchy... but geez I needed to get all of this off my mind... And since this is my blog I can write whatever I want... and I'm not just hiding behind a computer screen I can say this stuff out loud too. So don't think I'm too crazy, I'll be back later with a happier wedding post sometime this week.
- Inviting spouses to the rehearsal dinner is the right thing to do... not letting them sit next to their spouse is not the right thing to do... what was the point of me going??
- Going along with that not letting me say a word to my husband at the ceremony is just not cool either.
- Putting the two year old flower girl in a spaghetti strap dress is not right, why people insist on putting flower girls in general in spaghetti strap dresses just doesn't look right, thick straps are the way to go... let little girls look like little girls.
- Sitting a date of someone in the bridal party in a sea of people she doesn't know also makes her feel unwelcome... quit telling me the bride loves me and wants me to feel included when she sits me with a bunch of people I don't know
- Putting group dance songs on the do not play list is dumb... people ENJOY dancing to this music... weddings are the time to do it... you come off as looking dumb.
- "Team Awesome" is just stupid at this point... grow up you losers
- Proposing to your girlfriend two days before a wedding is not thoughtful, especially when you're the best man... wait 3 days...
Chad has a friend, P, he was the best man at our wedding and also was the best man at the wedding this past weekend. P really messed up being the best man for Chad... he didn't plan the bachelor party (another groomsman ended up doing it) and he obviously gave .5 seconds thought to this speech and as bride and groom it was highly disappointing. Chad really ended up giving him the benefit of the doubt for our wedding claiming this was P's first wedding so he didn't really understand what he needed to do.
Flash forward to this wedding Chad thought this time around P should know what he's doing, understand planning the bachelor party is important and giving a good toast is important too. Well, P totally f-ed it up. Like completely... worse than he did with our wedding... and a lot of that has to do with his girlfriend, K.
P has not been a very good friend since he starting dating K. For instance, as you might recall Chad had brain surgery earlier this year. P didn't even call or text to see how he was doing. This is after I practically begged him to come to visit Chad in the hospital. If the roles were reversed and his friend had brain surgery and I knew Chad hadn't checked in you best be believing I would be on Chad to like white on rice to call and get an update. That's K's job, she is to blame too.
K just comes off as really fake... I don't like her and I have never really liked her. And I've heard recently that she's been talking sh!t behind our backs...that's not cool and neither are you.
But back to P... he failed at planning the bachelor party for this wedding, Chad ended up doing most of the planning... he also failed at giving a good toast at the reception, however I will say it was slightly better than the one he gave at our wedding. Those are the big things, however there are other things as well. For instance, the bachelor party was a weekend long celebration (Friday night to Sunday morning) P (remember this is the best man) didn't show up to the bachelor party until Saturday at 2, and left super early on Sunday morning... wasn't even there 24 hours... what was his excuse? He had to work... dude... Chad took off all weekend for this... and he has what you'd call a real job. He also wanted to pack it in and call it a night around midnight on Saturday... the groom was not ready to go.
Also, he didn't spend the night after the rehearsal (night before the wedding) with the groom as all the other groomsmen did... or get ready with them before the ceremony. It's like he acted as though this wedding was a huge inconvenience to him. If Chad was totally messing things up like this I would be on his back to be a good friend... obviously K does not care.
All of these are reasons why I don't like K... but let's face it we get a read off people when we first meet them (first impression) sometimes I'm wrong... I have been before, but with her it's only gotten worse... and luckily I am not the only one who thinks that. When you are the only person that dislikes someone you start to wonder if you are crazy, however, we are not alone... everyone doesn't like her and now that they are engaged, it's like what do you do? They are moving away... and we'll probably never talk to them again.... which is kind of sad when you think about how close P and Chad were... however this is what happens in life... friends come and go and sadly this one might be going. I think I've captured most of the things Chad and I have talked about over the last few days... but I might update with more.
Chad and I have had some issues with friends lately... like I haven't talked to my maid of honor in who knows how long, and it's truly sad...
Like the title of this post, I probably sound crazy, mean, and a little bit bitchy... but geez I needed to get all of this off my mind... And since this is my blog I can write whatever I want... and I'm not just hiding behind a computer screen I can say this stuff out loud too. So don't think I'm too crazy, I'll be back later with a happier wedding post sometime this week.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Poor Apple Tree
If you live in the midwest you know that it has been quite the year for storms. It seems like every other day we are getting very strong storms in the St. Louis area with hail, winds, rain and even tornados... I've never been one to get all panic-y about storms, but after the tornado in Sunset Hills, the tornado that hit the airport and the horrible tornado that hit Joplin, MO I'm starting to get more and more nervous about these storms. It's gotten a little out of hand in my opinion.
I love storms, I love listening and watching them. I think the rain is relaxing and really all this rain hasn't really bummed me out, I've really been enjoying it! But geez... now I get all freaked out!
A crazy little strom rolled through in the wee hours on Saturday. You could hear how windy it was. Thankfully Chad was home and I asked him if we should worry about tornados... he said no, so it was easier to sleep. The lightening and thunder were crazy! We heard a loud bang and was pretty sure it knocked out our cable and internet... and I even made a comment to Chad how thankfully we still have the power, about a minute later another loud bang and suddenly no power... sad face!!
It started to get very hot in the house, we've already decided to keep the place a lot warmer this year to cut down on energy costs so it was already pretty warm. The rain cooled things off outside so we opened some windows in the house. That's when we spotted the tree... our apple tree blew over!!
Now this is very sad, and I love the trees in my yard, but honestly I'm not that surprised about this tree. It poor little branches already get so weighed down by the apples, and it sits on our hill it already had a good lean going on. Chad was going to try to ancher it more than we already had, but just never got around to it. So really, we aren't surprised by this... but it's still sad. I think we'll plan to plan another tree, but probably not for another year or two... maybe we'll let the ground recovery a bit.
Luckily the tree didn't hit the house or a car or anything... just the fence. We thought it might have bent the fence bar, but it looks like we lucked out there too. Chad started to cut it up yesterday, and hopefully we'll have it cleared out soon...
RIP Apple tree... we had some good memories... like discovering you were an apple tree, coming home to applesauce from our honeymoon and throwing apples to Rowdy like they were balls. I didn't get much use from you since I'm somewhat allergic to apples... but I'll miss you.
PS... look at all the other plants around the base... someone hasn't been doing a good job trimming... I'm not pointing any fingers...
Monday, June 20, 2011
Getting to Know Us Monday
If you were stranded on an island, what three things would you bring?
Jenn: My iphone (with endless service of course), a comfy bed, and a shower/toilet
Chad: Flint & steel, Machete, stainless steel 1-liter canteen
What are three things you find crucial to a successful marriage?
Jenn: Friendship, trust, and communication
Chad: Trust, communication, compromise
Dogs and cats aside, what other animal would you enjoy having as a pet?
Jenn: a bird that would sit on my finger
Chad: Ferret if I didn't have the dogs/cats
What color are your eyes?
Jenn: Green most of the time, but they change colors, I've seen them very blue at times
Chad: Brown
What sports (if any) did you participate in when you were younger?
Jenn: I tried t-ball in kindergarten, and basketball in eighth grade (scored a whole 3 points that season) but mostly I'm known doing track (high jump, long jump, triple jump and sometimes hurdles)
Chad: Baseball, water polo, softball
Jenn: My iphone (with endless service of course), a comfy bed, and a shower/toilet
Chad: Flint & steel, Machete, stainless steel 1-liter canteen
What are three things you find crucial to a successful marriage?
Jenn: Friendship, trust, and communication
Chad: Trust, communication, compromise
Dogs and cats aside, what other animal would you enjoy having as a pet?
Jenn: a bird that would sit on my finger
Chad: Ferret if I didn't have the dogs/cats
What color are your eyes?
Jenn: Green most of the time, but they change colors, I've seen them very blue at times
Chad: Brown
What sports (if any) did you participate in when you were younger?
Jenn: I tried t-ball in kindergarten, and basketball in eighth grade (scored a whole 3 points that season) but mostly I'm known doing track (high jump, long jump, triple jump and sometimes hurdles)
Chad: Baseball, water polo, softball
Friday, June 17, 2011
Follow Up
In my last post I talked about a recent motorcylce accident... I just wanted to share a story that Fox 2 News did last night regarding this event and his funeral... Take a couple of minutes and check out the video...
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Reminder to Us All
Something happened this weekend that should serve us all with a reminder. One of the members of Chad's motorcycle board was hit and killed while riding his bike. (You can read about the news story here)
While this story may initially make you think that motorcycle riding is dangerous... and really it can be... but as drivers of the road we should all be more aware of what's going on around us. We should share the road with motorcycles and look for them when changing lanes or making left turns...
Chad and I 'joke' that his motorcycle wreck saved his life. And it's really true, but I would never wish a motorcycle wreck on anyone. So many of these wrecks are caused by other drivers who aren't paying attention...
Now while we're on the topic of motorcycles, I think it's really dumb when motorcycle riders do wheelies down the highway at 80mph without a helmet... and Chad if I ever hear that you're doing that well... you'll have some trouble to pay... but that's not really what I'm talking about here.
We should put down our phones... pay attention to the road... check our blind spots... and just have a general sense of what's going on around us. I really don't think anyone should be texting while they drive and it's something I will not do... I use to do it, but not anymore. (I will admit I do text at stop lights from time-to-time which I shouldn't do... but I do no text while the vehicle is actually moving.
Also, while we're on this topic... especially after Chad's motorcycle wreck I would get a lot of people asking me why I would let Chad get back on a bike or how I could 'allow' it. Chad love riding his bike, since we bought the new one he has been noticeably happier. I could never ever take that away from him, nor would I want to. I know that Chad's a safe driver and is very good at reacting to other vehicles... I trust him and that's all that should matter.
So everyone, I plead with you... make an effort to know what's going on around you... look out for motorcycles (and bicycles for that matter). After all that motorcycle driver is some one's family member and you never want to be the cause of someone getting hurt.... or worse, killed.
While this story may initially make you think that motorcycle riding is dangerous... and really it can be... but as drivers of the road we should all be more aware of what's going on around us. We should share the road with motorcycles and look for them when changing lanes or making left turns...
Chad and I 'joke' that his motorcycle wreck saved his life. And it's really true, but I would never wish a motorcycle wreck on anyone. So many of these wrecks are caused by other drivers who aren't paying attention...
Now while we're on the topic of motorcycles, I think it's really dumb when motorcycle riders do wheelies down the highway at 80mph without a helmet... and Chad if I ever hear that you're doing that well... you'll have some trouble to pay... but that's not really what I'm talking about here.
We should put down our phones... pay attention to the road... check our blind spots... and just have a general sense of what's going on around us. I really don't think anyone should be texting while they drive and it's something I will not do... I use to do it, but not anymore. (I will admit I do text at stop lights from time-to-time which I shouldn't do... but I do no text while the vehicle is actually moving.
Also, while we're on this topic... especially after Chad's motorcycle wreck I would get a lot of people asking me why I would let Chad get back on a bike or how I could 'allow' it. Chad love riding his bike, since we bought the new one he has been noticeably happier. I could never ever take that away from him, nor would I want to. I know that Chad's a safe driver and is very good at reacting to other vehicles... I trust him and that's all that should matter.
So everyone, I plead with you... make an effort to know what's going on around you... look out for motorcycles (and bicycles for that matter). After all that motorcycle driver is some one's family member and you never want to be the cause of someone getting hurt.... or worse, killed.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
It's coming together
So as you remember I bought a dress for an upcoming wedding. The fact this dress is such a unique color I really wasn't sure how I would piece together the rest of the outfit.
So yesterday I went on the hunt for some shoes. And by hunt I mean I went to just two stores, haha. I started out at Target, this is mostly because Chad needed to buy a gift for the groom for the wedding. So usually I'm able to find something at Target, however the selection was not good... there was like one show that was a maybe and they didn't have my size... disappointment...
So after we picked up my car from the dealership... my driver's side window stopped working, the selt belt needed fixed, there was a recall part that needed installed and my roaters needed turned. Where was I... oh yeah, after picking up my car I decided to stop by Payless on the way home.
And I immediately found these beauties... I'm very excited about wearing them...
Aren't they just adorable? They feel pretty good on my feet and I love the shape and that they have a buckle and aren't just slip on.
The only negative thing about these beauties is the fact I will be about 6'2" when wearing them. I will be a TALL lady. Some of my friends are trying to convince me that tall is beautiful... which I agree, however I just get sick of people commenting about how tall I am. Plus I will be taller than Chad which will be weird, but he'll be in the wedding so there's less standing next to each other than normal. Plus I figure at the reception I will take the shoes off anyway and dance barefoot.
So here's the final pieces I need to figure out... jewelry (I'm thinking silver) and a purse (hopefully something at Target!!) and finally how the heck am I going to do my hair. I'm going to try curling one final time this Saturday night for a ladies night, so we'll see how that goes, if that's not good it will probably just be straight or some type of pulled back do.
So yesterday I went on the hunt for some shoes. And by hunt I mean I went to just two stores, haha. I started out at Target, this is mostly because Chad needed to buy a gift for the groom for the wedding. So usually I'm able to find something at Target, however the selection was not good... there was like one show that was a maybe and they didn't have my size... disappointment...
So after we picked up my car from the dealership... my driver's side window stopped working, the selt belt needed fixed, there was a recall part that needed installed and my roaters needed turned. Where was I... oh yeah, after picking up my car I decided to stop by Payless on the way home.
And I immediately found these beauties... I'm very excited about wearing them...
Aren't they just adorable? They feel pretty good on my feet and I love the shape and that they have a buckle and aren't just slip on.
The only negative thing about these beauties is the fact I will be about 6'2" when wearing them. I will be a TALL lady. Some of my friends are trying to convince me that tall is beautiful... which I agree, however I just get sick of people commenting about how tall I am. Plus I will be taller than Chad which will be weird, but he'll be in the wedding so there's less standing next to each other than normal. Plus I figure at the reception I will take the shoes off anyway and dance barefoot.
So here's the final pieces I need to figure out... jewelry (I'm thinking silver) and a purse (hopefully something at Target!!) and finally how the heck am I going to do my hair. I'm going to try curling one final time this Saturday night for a ladies night, so we'll see how that goes, if that's not good it will probably just be straight or some type of pulled back do.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Getting to Know Us Monday
Were you named after anyone?
Jenn: My mom said she liked the name 'Jenny' from a soap opera and thus I was named Jennifer... the most popular girls name for 1984 :)
Chad: Yes, my bastard father Michael
Have you ever been horseback riding?
Jenn: Yes, a couple of times, once I was on a horse that took off on me, very scary! Most recently I went with girl scouts in like sixth grade, I'd like to go again!!
Chad: Yes, many times, including camp.
Have you ever been water skiing?
Jenn: I tried to once in high school... I was awful and haven't attempted it again...
Chad: Yes, but I'm far better at wakeboarding, and enjoy it more.
What do you most like to do in the snow?
Jenn: Um, nothing? I never get out in the snow anymore, but I use to love sledding...
Chad: I LOVE 4-wheeling in my truck, and make camp-fires.
What were you like in high school?
Jenn: Um I think I was a little dorky... I thought I was cool at the time, haha. I did track, so I had that going for me...
Chad: Ha. I was an outcast in many different ways that don't need to be discussed publicly.
Jenn: My mom said she liked the name 'Jenny' from a soap opera and thus I was named Jennifer... the most popular girls name for 1984 :)
Chad: Yes, my bastard father Michael
Have you ever been horseback riding?
Jenn: Yes, a couple of times, once I was on a horse that took off on me, very scary! Most recently I went with girl scouts in like sixth grade, I'd like to go again!!
Chad: Yes, many times, including camp.
Have you ever been water skiing?
Jenn: I tried to once in high school... I was awful and haven't attempted it again...
Chad: Yes, but I'm far better at wakeboarding, and enjoy it more.
What do you most like to do in the snow?
Jenn: Um, nothing? I never get out in the snow anymore, but I use to love sledding...
Chad: I LOVE 4-wheeling in my truck, and make camp-fires.
What were you like in high school?
Jenn: Um I think I was a little dorky... I thought I was cool at the time, haha. I did track, so I had that going for me...
Chad: Ha. I was an outcast in many different ways that don't need to be discussed publicly.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Two New Purchases
Tuesday was an exciting day... I got two brand new things and I'm so very excited about each of them.
We have some close friends that are getting married in a few short weeks. Chad is actually a groomsmen in the wedding. I decided awhile ago that I wanted to get a new dress for the event. I love a reason to go shopping for something. To be perfectly honest I don't shop for myself nearly as much as I use to, so I can justify buying things sometimes because of that.
I've had this plan to shop for a new dress for the last couple of weeks, but I have NOT had a chance to make it out between lots of stuff going on and school work I've just been way too busy. Finally on Tuesday I hung out with one of my best friends, Carrie. Thankfully she agreed to help me out. I had an idea in mind of a type of dress I wanted, but the style I wanted would probably end up too short on me with my tall body and my big butt.
Luckily I found a great dress at JC Penny and get this, it was 30% off, how can you beat that?? It was so very exciting!! I love a lot of things about this dress, including the color... I'm all for bright colors, if you know one thing about me it's that I'm not scared of color!!
Here's the dress... (not the greatest resolution on that pic huh?... you can go directly to the site to view it here)
I still need to work out the accessories and shoes... right now I'm leaning toward a charcoal or pewter color shoe, but I'm totally up for suggestions. I cannot wait to wear this dress.My second new item is also a bit of a story... For my sister's graduation I ordered my sister a graduation. Somehow there was a mis-communication about what size ring she wears so the one I originally order wasn't going to fit her. I thought about returning it... I thought about exchanging it... but when it came I fell in love with it, so I'm keeping it. I'm calling it my special gift for getting a promotion.
It's from Etsy seller LarimarAndSilver. It came all the way from the Dominican Republic... I am in LOVE with the ring... it was a bit bigger than my finger but I wrapped some string around the back and now it fits just fine... so in love!!
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Baby Book
I like to be a good gift giver. It's one of the things I strive to do. Buying a gift card or money just isn't an option in my opinion. I really like to find the perfect thing for the person. This actually can be quite stressful at times.
Recently I've had a couple of pregnant people in my life... my good friend Susan (you can check out some cute baby pictures over on her blog) and my step-sister Adriane. I wanted to do something special. I would have cross-stitched them a baby blanket, but you may remember it took me nearly two years the last time... Long story short, I still have it in my closet, but at this point I'm thinking that will be (hopefully) my future baby's blanket.
I have been reading through Young House Love from the very beginning. Toward the very end of Susan's pregnancy I read about a customized baby book they made. What I really enjoyed about this book was the predictions page... something so unique and cute... I loved it and stored it away for my future baby. But then I realized, why not do this for other people!
And thus the idea was born!
First I needed to figure out what should go in a baby book. I googled around and found a lot of good page ideas. Then I also went right to the source... pregnant Susan. I played it off that I was making it for Adriane and what she felt should go in the book. I'm not sure if my sly ways really worked, she was probably on to me the entire time, but whatever, it worked!
Then I developed all the pages in PowerPoint. I used this the last time I made a book for my step-mom's birthday. With a bit of computer help from my awesome husband and I was in business. I decided not to do anything with clipart of anything, and just found a cute fun font and got to town. This and the research was the most time consuming step.
The good thing about creating the pages yourself is they are customizable. Like for Susan, she knew she was having a boy, so some pages said It's a Boy or whatever. And for Adriane her parents are divorced so I made three 'grandparents and me' pages instead of just two for Susan. Also for Adriane, they aren't figuring out the sex, so I made her both an 'It's a Boy' and 'It's a Girl' pages.
Once I had it all perfected I printed the pages out on card stock paper.
In the mean time I hit up a craft store (hint here is to go during their sales, like Hobby Lobby they run 50% off sales every few weeks, so just gotta watch the sales.) I went shopping for Susan first... I picked up a cute 'boy' scrapbook and some extra pages. I also picked up a big book of colorful paper. If you look at the YHL book above you'll notice the brightly colored paper, and that was a look I wanted to mimic. Then when I went shopping for Adriane I bought a gender neutral color book and some extra page inserts.
So then I cut out all the printed pages and colored paper. It was a bit challenging picking out the colored paper and figuring out the order without repeating colors or patterns, but I made it work. And it probably goes without saying here that I didn't use any 'girl' colors for Susan and only used 'girl' colors for the couple of girl pages I made just in case Adriane has a girl.
I used those glue, sticky squares to attach the printed pages to the colored paper. Inserted them into all the pages in the book and it was complete! They both turned out SO GOOD in my opinion. I'm actually pretty proud of them to be perfectly honest.
Wanna see pictures?? Of course you do!!
Here's Adriane's gender neutral colored book...
Here's some pages...
Here's what I was meant by the boy/girl pages in Adriane's book... That's my post-it so she knows which pages are special
I'm really happy with this project. So here's my question for my faithful blog readers... Do you think I could sell these types of books? Maybe including the birthday book as well since most of the work is done on that one too? An if you do think they could sell, roughly how much could I sell them for? I've been considering this. I enjoy putting them together so it would be just a little extra cash for me... but was wondering what others thought.
Recently I've had a couple of pregnant people in my life... my good friend Susan (you can check out some cute baby pictures over on her blog) and my step-sister Adriane. I wanted to do something special. I would have cross-stitched them a baby blanket, but you may remember it took me nearly two years the last time... Long story short, I still have it in my closet, but at this point I'm thinking that will be (hopefully) my future baby's blanket.
I have been reading through Young House Love from the very beginning. Toward the very end of Susan's pregnancy I read about a customized baby book they made. What I really enjoyed about this book was the predictions page... something so unique and cute... I loved it and stored it away for my future baby. But then I realized, why not do this for other people!
And thus the idea was born!
First I needed to figure out what should go in a baby book. I googled around and found a lot of good page ideas. Then I also went right to the source... pregnant Susan. I played it off that I was making it for Adriane and what she felt should go in the book. I'm not sure if my sly ways really worked, she was probably on to me the entire time, but whatever, it worked!
Then I developed all the pages in PowerPoint. I used this the last time I made a book for my step-mom's birthday. With a bit of computer help from my awesome husband and I was in business. I decided not to do anything with clipart of anything, and just found a cute fun font and got to town. This and the research was the most time consuming step.
The good thing about creating the pages yourself is they are customizable. Like for Susan, she knew she was having a boy, so some pages said It's a Boy or whatever. And for Adriane her parents are divorced so I made three 'grandparents and me' pages instead of just two for Susan. Also for Adriane, they aren't figuring out the sex, so I made her both an 'It's a Boy' and 'It's a Girl' pages.
Once I had it all perfected I printed the pages out on card stock paper.
In the mean time I hit up a craft store (hint here is to go during their sales, like Hobby Lobby they run 50% off sales every few weeks, so just gotta watch the sales.) I went shopping for Susan first... I picked up a cute 'boy' scrapbook and some extra pages. I also picked up a big book of colorful paper. If you look at the YHL book above you'll notice the brightly colored paper, and that was a look I wanted to mimic. Then when I went shopping for Adriane I bought a gender neutral color book and some extra page inserts.
So then I cut out all the printed pages and colored paper. It was a bit challenging picking out the colored paper and figuring out the order without repeating colors or patterns, but I made it work. And it probably goes without saying here that I didn't use any 'girl' colors for Susan and only used 'girl' colors for the couple of girl pages I made just in case Adriane has a girl.
I used those glue, sticky squares to attach the printed pages to the colored paper. Inserted them into all the pages in the book and it was complete! They both turned out SO GOOD in my opinion. I'm actually pretty proud of them to be perfectly honest.
Wanna see pictures?? Of course you do!!
Here's Adriane's gender neutral colored book...
Here's some pages...
Here's what I was meant by the boy/girl pages in Adriane's book... That's my post-it so she knows which pages are special
I'm really happy with this project. So here's my question for my faithful blog readers... Do you think I could sell these types of books? Maybe including the birthday book as well since most of the work is done on that one too? An if you do think they could sell, roughly how much could I sell them for? I've been considering this. I enjoy putting them together so it would be just a little extra cash for me... but was wondering what others thought.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
I made the switch
To diet soda.
I hinted at it in this post... but it's true... I've made the switch. Let's start at the beginning. I love soda... I really really do. Something about the bubbles... mmm... but I would never never ever drink ::gasp:: diet soda. I couldn't get over the weird after taste and something about artifical sweetner killing me of cancer factored into it a bit too.
But awhile ago I decided to try to lose some weight and cut out the extra calories I was taking in from soda. While not everything I did actually worked... the soda thing did stick. I completely cut out soda, opting to drink lemonade instead. Lemonade was lacking to me... I mean I really really missed the bubbles of soda... so I told myself that I could drink soda but it would have to be diet. That fact alone had me thinking that I would stop drinking soda all together.... I mean diet... yuck.
The craving for soda overtook any feeling I was having against diet. So I started out with some diet sodas that I've always heard as not being so diet-y if there is such a thing, like cherry versions or Mtn Dew. And that's how I made the switch. My favorite diet drinks are Diet Cherry Dr. Pepper and the flavored Mtn Dews. I still sometimes add a splash of regular soda if I'm creating a fountain drink... which is nice. And from time-to-time I'll add a bit of Sprite to my lemonade for the bubbles. Speaking of Sprite I also like the diet white sodas as I can hardly tell I'm drinking diet. On two different occasions I drank and entire can of Sierra Mist thinking it was regular only to realize when I was finished it was actually diet.
I think this was a good switch to make... I mean soda just has all those empty calories and now I still have the option of caffeine which is a lifesaver some days!! In the end it IS possible to make the switch for anyone out there thinking it isn't... I'm a living testament to that!
Monday, June 6, 2011
Getting to Know Us Monday
How many books did you read last year?
Jenn: As you may know, last year's new years resolution was to read 25 books last year, however I only made it to 15
Chad: In total, 2.
Where did you spend your last vacation?
Jenn: I think I'll agree with Chad below... however it's been a long loooong time since Chad and I took a vacation just the two of us
Chad: I don’t remember… VA to see the fam?
What size shoe do you wear?
Jenn: I'm a 9.5-10 (I've got big feet and long toes)
Chad: 10.5 wide
How many pairs of shoes do you currently own?
Jenn: I have no clue... lots... I'm not a crazy girl with a ton of shoes, but I still have a lot
Chad: 8?
What is your least favorite chores you are responsible for?
Jenn: It's a tie between cleaning the bathroom (like Chad) and dishes... yuck.
Chad: Cleaning the bathroom
Jenn: As you may know, last year's new years resolution was to read 25 books last year, however I only made it to 15
Chad: In total, 2.
Where did you spend your last vacation?
Jenn: I think I'll agree with Chad below... however it's been a long loooong time since Chad and I took a vacation just the two of us
Chad: I don’t remember… VA to see the fam?
What size shoe do you wear?
Jenn: I'm a 9.5-10 (I've got big feet and long toes)
Chad: 10.5 wide
How many pairs of shoes do you currently own?
Jenn: I have no clue... lots... I'm not a crazy girl with a ton of shoes, but I still have a lot
Chad: 8?
What is your least favorite chores you are responsible for?
Jenn: It's a tie between cleaning the bathroom (like Chad) and dishes... yuck.
Chad: Cleaning the bathroom
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Let's hope Third Time's a Charm
Embarrassing fact, but I am not good at keeping plants alive... it's true, I don't know what it is, but plants seem to die... the only plants that seem to thrive are the three I keep at work... not sure what that's about, but they are doing awesome!
Anyway... the last two years I've planted things and they would be dead before the end of summer. I think that I'm getting better, I don't think that anything survived from year one. Year two I was able to keep some things alive into the current year. My knockout rose is back in full bloom and the lily of the valley came back too, although didn't flower... one of them actually multiplied and I had 3 this year! The Rose of Sharons also came back!
This year I decided to do a couple of things differently. For one, I took notice that my front yard barely gets any sun in a day due to the two large trees. No more trying to get sun plants to grow out there! The second and best decision I made was to enlist the help of super awesome green thumbed mother of mine!
We first took a look at the yard and how many plants I would need. Next we headed out to buy some plants. We first headed to Haegele Nursery. This would not normally be a stop, however I bought a Groupon for this place ($15 for $30 worth of stuff). I had an idea of what I wanted going in, but then came across something new - Mr. Goldstrike Aucuba, which is dubbed 'shade-loving'... um can I say SCORE!!
We then headed to a small nursery at the corner of Lindbergh and Tesson Ferry. He was running a sale on Hosta plants, so I got 6 small plants for about $10... I actually need to go back and get about 6 more...
Our final stop was Home Depot where I got three more plants - hydrangea, foxglove and Wintercreeper Moonshadow.
My mom helped me get them into good homes in the ground by adding good soil and hummus. It will be a week on Saturday and I can already tell they are doing good. Some of the hostas are getting new leaves and the foxglove new flower buds are doing great. Wanna see some pictures??
Here's the Aucuba...
And the foxglove... kind of a weird angle but it's about to have a great bloom...
Here's the hydrangea... sadly my camera totally sucks so you can't really tell how pretty the flowers are, but they're currently a purpleish blue
Here's the wintercreeper
And finally the hostas
I can't wait to see all these plants growing!! Chad has promised to help me keep these plants watered. Our yard still needs a lot of work, but hopefully this is a step in the right direction.
Next year I'm planning on trying my hand at an edible garden in back... but if we keep doing a little bit each year in a few years hopefully we'll have a beautiful yard in front and back!
Anyway... the last two years I've planted things and they would be dead before the end of summer. I think that I'm getting better, I don't think that anything survived from year one. Year two I was able to keep some things alive into the current year. My knockout rose is back in full bloom and the lily of the valley came back too, although didn't flower... one of them actually multiplied and I had 3 this year! The Rose of Sharons also came back!
This year I decided to do a couple of things differently. For one, I took notice that my front yard barely gets any sun in a day due to the two large trees. No more trying to get sun plants to grow out there! The second and best decision I made was to enlist the help of super awesome green thumbed mother of mine!
We first took a look at the yard and how many plants I would need. Next we headed out to buy some plants. We first headed to Haegele Nursery. This would not normally be a stop, however I bought a Groupon for this place ($15 for $30 worth of stuff). I had an idea of what I wanted going in, but then came across something new - Mr. Goldstrike Aucuba, which is dubbed 'shade-loving'... um can I say SCORE!!
We then headed to a small nursery at the corner of Lindbergh and Tesson Ferry. He was running a sale on Hosta plants, so I got 6 small plants for about $10... I actually need to go back and get about 6 more...
Our final stop was Home Depot where I got three more plants - hydrangea, foxglove and Wintercreeper Moonshadow.
My mom helped me get them into good homes in the ground by adding good soil and hummus. It will be a week on Saturday and I can already tell they are doing good. Some of the hostas are getting new leaves and the foxglove new flower buds are doing great. Wanna see some pictures??
Here's the Aucuba...
And the foxglove... kind of a weird angle but it's about to have a great bloom...
Here's the hydrangea... sadly my camera totally sucks so you can't really tell how pretty the flowers are, but they're currently a purpleish blue
Here's the wintercreeper
And finally the hostas
I can't wait to see all these plants growing!! Chad has promised to help me keep these plants watered. Our yard still needs a lot of work, but hopefully this is a step in the right direction.
Next year I'm planning on trying my hand at an edible garden in back... but if we keep doing a little bit each year in a few years hopefully we'll have a beautiful yard in front and back!
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