2010 November | I Should Be Folding Laundry

Archive for November 2010

Tiny Prints | A giveaway

Tuesday, November 30th, 2010

By Beth

holiday-card-1

I am in love with Tiny Prints. Their service, their product, the quality, the designers, the nice clean website and their super cute logo are all among the best I have ever seen.

So, when Tiny Prints approached me about doing a review of their Holiday cards, it didn’t take me long to say “yes.” In fact, I probably screamed and jumped up and down in excitement. And when I told Brian, he screamed and jumped up and down, too, because he loves free stuff. (and Tiny Prints.)

I went to their website to choose the cards of my dreams and I found so many that I couldn’t even make a decision.

holiday-card

Talk about a good problem to have.

I’m convinced they have a card for everyone – contemporary, vintage, whimsy; whatever your style, no doubt, they’ll have what you’re looking for – believe me, I’ve shopped while in many different moods and every time I thought “THIS IS IT, THIS IS OUR CARD.”

holiday-card-2

And the next day, I’d search again and find something new.

But I found it, THE CARD. I found it last night and I’m not going to show you because part of the fun Holiday cards is receiving it, right? But I’ll show you, soon.

In the meantime, I have 50 Holiday cards to give away to one lucky winner! Any card, it’s the winner’s choice! (how friendly is this giveaway?!)

What do you need to do to be entered?

First, head on over to Tiny Prints and check out their selection. Tell me which card you would love to send out. (I’ll pretend you sent it to me, k?) But don’t worry, if you win you can pick any Holiday card, no matter which one you told me about.

Second, do not say “pick me.”

Third, you can share the exciting details about this giveaway on your Facebook page, blog or your twitter account and leave the link in the comments! (up to four entries per person, please leave your links in separate comments in order for your entries to count.)

This giveaways ends tomorrow night (December 1) at 10:00pm CST. So, get busy! (open to US and Canada)

Good luck, friends. And thanks, Tiny Prints!

(I was not paid to do this review but was given free Holiday cards. Which is just as awesome.)

(some comments are under moderation, if you do not see your comment pop up right away, it will, I promise!)

Categories: Giveaways, Holidays

Picture the Holidays | A giveaway

Monday, November 29th, 2010

By Beth

This giveaway is closed.

eclass

The winner is Amy! Congrats, Amy.

And special thanks to Tracey!

This morning, as we pulled out of our driveway to head to school, the kids counted down to Christmas, wondered what we should do for Daddy’s Birthday (today!), talked about snow and commented on the Christmas music playing on the radio.

Noah, my six year old, leaned his head back on the seat and said “man, life is so awesome.”

I love that he realizes this because as adults, it’s so hard to take the time to honor life and all of the gifts it has to offer us, which is why I’m so excited about this giveaway.

You’ve probably heard of Tracey Clark, if not, here’s your formal introduction.

Friends, this is Tracey Clark, photographer extradordinaire.

Tracey Clark, meet my friends. (the friendliest faces on the internet, I do believe.)

Tracey has created a photography workshop titled “Picture the Holidays – 30 days of festive photography.”

In her words:

tracey-clark-1

I am beyond excited to be starting this e-class on December 1st but I’m doubly excited to be able to give one of you the opportunity to join in on this amazing opportunity to try to soak in the holiday goodness while honing in on your photography skills.

The class runs from December 1 – 31st. For more information about Tracey and her e-class, click here. Tracey has offered numerous e-classes in the past and has received rave reviews from her alumni. I honestly can not wait to begin. Who will be joining me?

(and if this all wasn’t awesome enough, One lucky student will be randomly selected to win a coveted Epiphanie Camera Bag! I’m pretty sure I’ll be the winner, so don’t get too excited.)

What does one need to do in order to enter?

First, you need a camera, any camera will work!

Second, I need you to tell me what you do to treat yourself during the holidays. Is it a night out with friends sharing cookies & laughter? Dinner with your husband after shopping? Sitting by the tree sipping tea after the kids are in bed…spill it. I want to know!

Third, do not say “pick me.”

Fourth, share the exciting details about this giveaway on your Facebook page, blog or your twitter account and leave the link in the comments!

This giveaways ends tomorrow night (November 30th) at 10:00pm CST. So, get busy!

And good luck!

(some comments are under moderation, if you do not see your comment pop up right away, it will, I promise!)

Categories: Friendly, Giveaways, photography

You Capture – I Ate That

Thursday, November 25th, 2010

By Beth

Happy Thanksgiving to my Thanksgiving celebrating friends! I had intended to put You Capture up a day early but I wasn’t able to – so here I am, on Thanksgiving morning, doing You Capture!

You Capture will be the only time I post over the next few days, so it will remain at the top, so take your time taking photos and feel free to link up at any point throughout the weekend since Thanksgiving is all about the food we eat!

And giving thanks.

For the food we eat.

So, this week, I actually cooked and baked a lot. This time of year screams baking for me, it’s all I want to do.

Lucky for me I have the sweetest little sous-chef ever created. It used to drive me crazy how she always wanted to be all up in my business while I worked in my kitchen but now, she’s honestly helpful. She cracks the eggs and grabs the ground cloves and stirs and today she is making a tollhouse pie all by herself.

Anyway. Here she is peeling cucumbers. See? Don’t you wish you had an Anna?

my-sous

And in case you’re wondering, this is what I have for lunch every single day of my life. A turkey sandwich with mustard and baked doritos.

lunchy

And then, once again, I tackled Ree’s cinnamon rolls. So delicious. So simple and so so messy.

(but completely worth it. I’m eating one right now!)

buttuh

cinnamon-rolls

I’m not going to post my settings because I woke up at nine today which was two hours later than I had planned and now I’m running two hours behind. Oops!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Now it’s your turn to share!

PLEASE READ THIS GUIDELINES, especially, yes, especially if you have never linked up!

1. Anyone can join in on the challenge at anytime.
2. Please make sure the photos you use were taken for the challenge, meaning do not search your archives for an appropriate photo. The goal of You Capture is to get you out taking photos each week!
3. Use YOUR photos.
4. When linking up, only link to your You Capture blog post, not your main blog URL. (incorrect links will be deleted.)
5. You MUST link back to You Capture in your post.
6. I encourage you to visit other participants and leave comments. This is a great way to meet new friends!

{more You Capture info can be found here.}

YouCapture_300x150

Kindred.

Happy Capturing, Friends!

Categories: you capture.

Sunny Side Up

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010

By Beth

This morning, Brian kissed me good-bye at about 6:00 in the morning. He said “did you sleep good?” I said “yes, did you?” He chuckled “oh my gosh, yes.”

It didn’t hit me right away, it took a few moments to process what he meant. It finally hit me, “wait…did Elijah sleep through the night? How many times did he wake up crying? How many times did I feed him?”

…processing…processing…processing.

ZERO.

He slept through the night. Completely and totally, without a single disturbance, he slept through the night, from 8:30 at night until 6:30 in the morning.

He slept through the night. And so did I. And so did Brian and so did Anna and Noah and at seven this morning, I was holding Anna, like a baby, she’s so cuddly and cute when she first wakes up, I felt so renewed and amazing.

After so many days of sickness and cloudy, dreariness outside, the sky is so blue and the sun is so bright and I even showered before taking the kids to school which is a bigger miracle than Eli sleeping through the night. (okay, not really but for real.)

I took Eli back to the doctor yesterday and sure enough, his ear infection was back. (or still there?) So a new, stronger antibiotic began. I think I can tell the difference already, even though he’s the snottiest baby I have ever seen in my life. (speaking of which, I think he hid his syringe, have you seen it, I can’t find it anywhere?)

getting--better

Also, both Brian and I have been in the mood to organize. Our house is so over-the-top cluttered and disorganized and it makes me sick and sad because we have a nice house but it’s filled with crap. So, we are getting rid of a lot of crap and organizing the rest of the crap. Brian has been working in our garage which barely fit our car and was embarrassing to have our door open. But now, it’s almost all better!

and I’ve been working on the inside, the laundry room is spotless, kitchen drawers and cabinets are cleaned out (some of them, not all of them) and each room is slowly looking and feeling better.

And so today begins my holiday baking, starting with Pdubs cinnamon rolls. I’m excited because last year I made approximately 2,912 of her cinnamon rolls and didn’t have a rolling pin. Well…I received one for Christmas last year and haven’t used it yet…until today.

WATCH OUT, DOUGH.

Here’s the thing. I dropped the kids off and thought, wow, today is either going to be so ding dang amazing that I’m going to explode at the end of the night from all of the goodness or this moment right here will be the high point and the rest of the day is going to suck.

Either way, I got to have that goodness today and I am so, so glad.

But I’m not going to lie, I really hope to explode tonight.

Categories: Being a Mama, stupid crap

No go

Sunday, November 21st, 2010

By Beth

So.

(see how those first three words rhymed? God, I’m awesome.)

Anyway.

We’ve decided to postpone Eli’s surgery, we aren’t sure when it will be because we can’t actually get in touch with the doctor or his assistant or the hospital, the surgery center, the post-op area, the nurse’s station…NOBODY ANSWERS THEIR PHONES OR PAGERS ON SUNDAYS.

You have been warned.

Eli woke up last night with a stuffy nose, again. He then woke up 22 minutes later and then again about 45 minutes later and then again 12 minutes later and then again 64 minutes later which was nice because we got to sleep for a full hour but then he was up for an entire hour and then I fiiiiinally got him back to sleep, I laid him down, crawled into bed and he woke up.

It really was the exact opposite of awesome.

Finally, at five, we gave up and by “we” I mean, “Brian” which was good because I was so tired of pretending like I was going to just let him cry for just “10 more seconds” to see if he’ll just go to sleep. Brian picked him up from his crib and the two went downstairs to watch some guy movie with lots blood and wife beating and poker. I will always support father/son bonding if it means I get more sleep.

I fell back asleep. Woke up at 8 to find my teeny tiny baby covered in snot, literally from his forehead to his chin. It was so sad. I syringed him and managed to pull out a good 14 gallons of snot (man, he hates to be syringed. I’m not going to lie to you, I think I would like it.)

So, long story short…he’s sick. So, no surgery for him.

And also? Why is he sick again?

Categories: Being a Mama