2009 February | I Should Be Folding Laundry

Archive for February 2009 – Page 3

Handmade Inspired {live beautiful}

Friday, February 20th, 2009

By Beth

I had the opportunity to meet Jessica from Live Beautiful at Blissdom, not only is she amazingly talented, but she’s a wonderful person.

After coming home from Blissdom and before succumbing to the Blisssinusfectionthatrefusedtodie, I visited her shop and fell in love and ordered a tote.

I love it.

picnik-collage

Jessica also makes heat relaxers (YUM.) and journals. (her talents knows no bounds.)

GIVEAWAY! Jessica is giving away 3 items to one lucky winner, a “Carmelicious” purse/sling bag, a “Perfectly Plush” Pink heat relaxer AND a “Daisy Me” Journal, a value of $52.00.

What do you need to do to win? Head over to Live Beautiful and tell me what product is your favorite in the comments section. Gain additional entries by tweeting or blogging about this giveaway, leaving the links in the comments.

This giveaway ends on Tuesday, February 24th at 9:00 p.m. CST.

Want more of Live Beautiful? Check out her blog!

Categories: Giveaways, handmade inspired

You Capture.

Thursday, February 19th, 2009

By Beth

you-capture-4

I had this idea so long ago. To encourage those of you interested to pick up your cameras and try something new or just pick them up at all and snap a shot here or there. And not only that, but to see what others were doing with their camera and gaining inspiration from them.

I’m so frustrated that I didn’t follow my gut and do this when I first thought of it, but that’s okay, the time is now.

I hope you are as excited as I am.

I’m pleased to invite to participate in “you capture.” My weekly photo challenge.

I created a FAQ to help answer your questions as to exactly how this is going to work and yes, if you don’t have a blog, you can participate, you’ll see how below. Also, each week will be a specific challenge, so read through to the bottom to check out this week’s “assignment.”

What kind of photographer do I need to be? You can be a complete novice or a professional, it does not matter. The purpose of this feature is to encourage you to pick up your camera and look at things differently. If you are a novice and you want to get better, there is only one way to do that, by taking more pictures.

What kind of camera should I have in order to participate? Any camera. Shoot, even an iPhone camera works for me.

Do I need to have a blog? Um, no. But why wouldn’t you want a blog? (they’re free! www.blogger.com) But okay, I guess not everyone is interested in having a blog and that’s okay, so, if you don’t have a blog but want to participate, you can do so by opening up a Flickr account. It’s free (for a basic package) and easy to use. (Flickr pro is $25 a year and I totally recommend it.) I’ve been using Flickr for years now and I love it. (btw, feel free to become my contact, okay?) Each week you can easily link to that specific picture on Flickr to the challenge.

How does this work? Every Wednesday, there will be a post on I Should Be Folding Laundry called You Capture and I’ll have my picture that I took for this week’s assignment (assignment sounds so stiff, but I can’t think of another word, sorry, friends.) on a post. Below the picture, I will have Mr. Linky in the post. Then YOU will post on your blog (or your flickr page) your picture and information about this challenge. Then you’ll fill out Mr. Linky with your name and your link to this week’s picture. (in blog world, this is considered a carnival, click here for more information on carnivals.)

Who in the hell is Mr. Linky? Mr. Linky is a link hosting program for websites. Essentially, it allows me to host all of the links to the individuals participating in the challenge, it’s up to the participants to come to my site and put their links into the required fields. (so easy) To see a Mr. Linky in action, click here.

I know most of you know how this works, but I know some of you may not, so I’m trying to expain with as much detail as possible.

Am I required to participate every single week? No.

Should I edit my photo? If you want to, yes. I always edit mine. If you are looking for a good photo editing/storage answer, I definitely recommend Picasa. Hey, it’s free, too! I’m all about the free, aren’t I?

Can I link to you? Why, yes. That would be great and very much appreciated. If you are planning to participate in You Capture, I’d love for you to help me get the word out, the best way to do this is by placing the button in your sidebars or blogging about it directly. The more people that know about this, the bigger the community and the more fun this will be. I am so excited that you’ll be here during the infancy of You Capture, I can’t wait to see where it goes!

Here is the code to add the button to your blog:

(okay, so the code isn’t working right now, hopefully tomorrow…)

(just copy and paste this code into your sidebars, under widgets and html code – if you need help adding the button to your site, let me know. You can also get help here.)

I am certain I did not answer all of the questions that are out there, so feel free to ask in the comments or send me an email directly and I’ll get those questions answered.

Now onto the good stuff:

next-week

Here is your challenge for next week. Since it’s the first week, it’s going to be very, very simple. All I want you to do is pick up your camera and take a picture of something that you love. It can be a rock or your kitchen sink or your child’s toes, just capture it. Oh and since it’s supposed to be a challenge, try to do it WITHOUT your flash…

See you then!

Categories: you capture.

There, there

Wednesday, February 18th, 2009

By Beth

I posted over here today. Join me?

I’ll be back later with winner announcements and information about my first photo challenge.

Right now I need to go to bed.

k bye.

Categories: NWIP

Handmade Inspired {polka dot tot}

Wednesday, February 18th, 2009

By Beth

handmade-inspired-banner3

I came across this shop and immediately fell in love with it. I love to celebrate my kids’ birthdays. I spend a ridiculous amount of money on banners and hats and buttons and candles and anything to make their birthdays more special. (Yes, I know they’d be happy with a napkin with happy birthday scrawled across it in pencil, but I have issues, leave me alone.)

Which is why the Polka Dot Tot Spot spoke to me, because it celebrates birthdays! I first noticed the shirts with the numbers on them. I always buy those cheap little buttons each year with their new age on the front and I swear to you, each year, the buttons break and my kids cry. Which means I just spent seven bucks just to make my kids cry.

These birthday shirts? $14.95. I immediately emailed my sister and told her that she needed to buy one for her son’s upcoming fourth birthday and she did. She’s a very good listener.

So creative, so unique, so affordable. What child doesn’t love to show off their age?

polka-dot-tot

Heather, a Mom of two, started her shop back in 2007 when she wanted to make a safer option of toys for her daughter, Julia. The rest is history. Heather’s love and excitement for her shop is obvious, which makes me love her shop even more, “It keeps me busy but it is really rewarding! Every time someone orders something I get excited about it, someone liked something that I made and it feels good, really good! I truly love to sew, I love fabric, and I love creating…its in my blood!”

Bookmark this shop and share it with your friends! It’s a keeper.

Categories: handmade inspired, Uncategorized

Relieved

Tuesday, February 17th, 2009

By Beth

Friends, I can breathe out of my nose. It feels so good to finally be feeling better.

These past eight days I have been doing nothing except blowing my nose and sleeping, I was in a pretty good mood this morning. Then I walked into the kitchen and began making the coffee when the most amazing thing happened.

I finally smelled a flower that was given to me almost a week ago.

I had the sense of smell back.

Which filled me with much optimism and delight, I even listened to music while putting my make-up on. (the fact that make-up was being applied was a true sign that I was feeling better.)

After taking Ariel to school I created a to-do list which contained items that I have been neglecting for way too long. And then I decided to rearrange the office because the current arrangement was just wrong. I decided to rearrange the furniture before completing my to-do list because I’d be in a more work-like atmosphere as opposed to sitting on my couch and then I’d really get some stuff done.

For sure. No doubt about it.

My back would face the window and my face would face the wall in the old arrangement of the office, every time I walked into that room, I’d look at it and wonder what I could do with it. Then I realized I should move the desk but never did because I was too lazy, too tired, pregnant, too hungry or too sick. (P.S. if you ever need an excuse to not do something, you may contact me. You are welcome.)

So, I began moving the desk around.

The funny thing about the desk is that it’s L-shaped, which apparently means that if you move one side more than the other, then the two pieces in the middle that are screwed together will sound they are going to crack into two (or twelve) pieces. After learning that lesson, I moved the desk ever so slowly (into the wall. twice.) and it finally ended up where I wanted it. (okay, almost.)

That desk is heavy and I am not strong.

But, I moved it and I was reassured that it was the right decision. (especially since it was all in one piece.)

The only problem that remained was the area rug underneath the 70o pound desk. Before moving it, I slid it out from underneath the desk and kind of rolled it up in the middle of the room, waiting to unroll it back to underneath the desk, after I was done moving the desk.

When I went to place the rug back underneath the desk, I realized it was nearly impossible to lift the desk and slide the rug underneath the desk. I clearly needed another set of hands.

But my only option was Racecar and well, he’s five. (yes, I know I could have waited for Brian to come home from work but that was HOURS AND HOURS away and I had so much work to do.)

So, I decided I could get underneath the desk where the keyboard tray is and prop myself up on all fours, push the desk up with my back and use my hands to pull the rug towards me.

God, I’m so smart.

I crawled underneath, raised my back into the desk and broke the keyboard tray, causing the wood to scratch my neck. I was concerned that I had punctured my jugular, but don’t worry, I didn’t.

I literally pushed the screws out of the wood and broke the wood. Brian’s going to be so pleased.

But you know? Who really likes those stupid trays anyway? I just shrugged it off and placed the wood against the wall and summoned Racecar into the room where I instructed him to “pull, no, PULL, NOOOOOO PULLLLL!!!!! THE RUG THAT WAY.“ And he did and we worked it out. (and we cheered and danced afterwards. I tell you no lies. We were happy.)

But then there is this, but that’s not my problem:

I then reorganized and dusted (but not around the cords (and sat in my beautiful new office, opened my computer and stared blankly at the screen. I then unplugged my laptop and sat down on the couch where I’ve done nothing all afternoon.

The end.

(The end product. Now I know the wall decor is all wrong so please do not send me emails or leave me comments telling me that it’s all wrong because I AM AWARE. I’m just waiting for The Nester to come over and help me. She just doesn’t know it, yet.)