Confessions Of A Scrapaholic

Blackberry Blogging

Testing

Just Keep Swimming

Every time I hear that phrase it reminds me of Dory. In fact, it is stuck in my head right now. (And probably yours too. Sorry about that).

I mention this for two reasons.

One, our house is still under construction. On a lesser degree than it was, but we still have the contractor/handyman at our house pretty much every day. I just can't relax having a stranger in my house. He is a very nice man, that is not the issue. But I feel like I am always "on" when we have company. Any company really, with the exception of my Mom and our friend Bob. Kelly and I are also having a minor disagreement about the floor. Floor installation specifically. I think having it installed this weekend while we are gone would be fabulous. Kelly is uncomfortable having people in our house while we are gone. I understand where he is coming from, I do. He doesn't want anything stolen, but that is why contractors are licensed and bonded... And we could come home to beautiful new floors without dealing with the mess. If we don't have it installed this weekend who knows when they can fit us into the schedule. Ugh.

I really need this remodeling to be done. Today marks the fourth week and it is starting to get to me. I think I've been having anxiety attacks the last two days. My heart keeps racing (like when you are nervous or really excited about something). Is that an anxiety attack? Frankly, it is annoying me. Maybe I should cut back on the caffeine consumption?

End of pity party.

Now for the fun bit of swimming news. Miss Zoë is a swimming superstar. I signed her up for lessons this summer and we have kept them going. She enjoys them so much that I figured, why not? Zoë had her evaluation during the last class and my little swimmer is moving up three levels. (The best part? It is a preschool class that does not require me to get in the pool too. Sweet!) She shocked me yesterday when she said, "Mama, I swim by myself" then proceeded to push away from me and swim by herself to the edge of the pool. Holy crap! I didn't know she could do that! I am glad that she enjoys the water so much. I am going to keep her in weekly lessons as long as she likes. There is no reason why she should only take lessons in the summer time. After all, it's not like she is busy taking ballet lessons or anything. Ha!

Alrighty, I am off to paint color samples on the walls. Good times. Kelly told me to pick a color that I really like because we are not painting again. Ever.

(Side note: The flat wall paint that our previous handyman recommended sucks. Flat paint is the devil. I will never use it again. I have to touch it up every couple weeks or it looks terrible. I swear, it scuffs if you brush up against it. Lame, lame, lame).

Bring on the Christmas Music!

Wait. I am getting ahead of myself.

How was your Thanksgiving? Ours was nice and relaxing. We decided to stay at home and celebrate the holiday with my brother and his family instead of driving to Spokane. We are going to Spokane next weekend anyway for Princesses on Ice, and again for Christmas. Going over for Thanksgiving would have been way to much traveling.

I tried something new this year, and I was fairly impressed. Now don't click away after you read this. Try not to gasp in horror...

I bought our Thanksgiving dinner at the grocery store. For $39.99 we had a lovely turkey dinner which included the turkey (duh), gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, rolls and pumpkin pie. It was not bad. I don't know that I would do it again (except for the turkey...I love just being able to pop it in the oven for two hours and being done with it...no sticking your hand in the turkey required). It was pretty awesome being done with dinner with dishes/mess all cleaned up by 6:30. You can't beat that.

* * * * *

On to Black Friday. No way was I getting up at 4:00am. It sounds good in theory, but I can barely drag my sleepy self out of bed at 7am (even for shopping) so 4:00am was just not happening. Instead, I kicked back on the sofa and shopped on Thanksgiving night while Zoë and Kelly watched the really bad version of Babes in Toyland. (Have you seen that? With Drew Barimore? It's terrible. Totally not the movie Kelly and I had in mind when we ordered it).

My first stop was Gymboree. You know how I feel about Gymboree. Especially since Zoë has become a girly girly girl overnight. She will choose to wear a "fancy dress" over anything else in her closet. So, a-dress-shopping-I-will-go. (Or went, I should say). Gymboree was running a 30% off everything sale, including previously marked down items. Here are the cute little dresses I picked out for my princess.  Some will be Christmas presents, others she can wear to be festive during the holiday season. You would think that for a kid that would be lame, but not Zoë. She loves the fancy dresses. :)

Next stop, digital scrapbooking stores. I found these goodies at The Sweet Shoppe (40% off everything) and The Lilypad (30% off).

I would say that I had a very productive shopping day! I also found some amazing pieces for the house, but that is another post entirely.

That brings me to the Christmas music. I love Christmas music. I listen to it from Thanksgiving evening until Christmas night. You can imagine how thrilled I was when I saw the new Josh Groban Christmas CD. I love me some Josh Groban. :D Here is my review. It's not fabulous. Don't get me wrong, Josh has an amazing voice. The songs are beautiful. But it is a bit of a snooze fest. I like my Christmas music with a bit more spunk. My favorite Christmas album is by Point of Grace. They have the most amazing version of Oh Holy Night I have ever heard on that album. It gives me chills every time I hear it. I can't wait to listen to it on our huge speakers this year. Good times.

Tag, I'm It!

My cool new friend Lisa tagged me last week and I completely forgot. Sorry about that Lisa! And away we go...

Your Partner: Such a sweet and funny man that I simply adore. Here is a snippet from one of our most recent conversations.

    Me: Did you know that there is a new Indiana Jones movie coming out?

    Kelly: What is it? Raiders of the Lost Adult Diapers?

Your Hair: In desperate need of a new haircut. I am thinking this, but am not quite sure. I like how it is long in the front and short in the back. I could still pull my hair back in a clip, but it wouldn't fit in a ponytail... And I do love my ponytail.

Your Favorite Item: Oh, that is a tough one. Normally I would say my camera or laptop but in reality, I couldn't live without my Natural Ice chapstick. (Sad, but true).

Your Dream Last Night: It's at the tip of my brain...nope, lost it. No clue.

Your Favorite Drink: Flavored coffee (black)

Your Dream Car: Anything with a navigation system and DVD player. Oh, and A/C. Other than that I really don't care.

Your Dream House: I love this house. I have excellent taste, don't you think? Now I just need Kelly to make some more money so we can afford it. :)

The Room You Are In: The office, hiding from the mess upstairs.

Your Fear: Something happening to my family is of course my biggest fear. But on a less seriously note, I would say the stomach flu. I'm having a little panic attack just thinking about it.

Where You Want To Be In Ten Years: Right where I am, just ten years older. (But looking like I do now. Ha!)

Who You Hung Out With Last Night: My family, enjoying a lovely evening out on the town. OK, so it was at the mall, whatever.

You're Not: Someone who deals well with disorganization and clutter.

One of Your Wish List Items: A fun camera strap for my precious. ;)

The Last Thing You Did: Talked about flooring with our contractor. (Exciting, I know).

What You Are Wearing: Jeans, long sleeve t-shirt and a cardigan. Dang, It is cold today!

Your Favorite Weather: Mid-autumn when the days are cooling down but you can wear a long sleeve shirt comfortably without needing a coat. (I don't like wearing coats).

Your Favorite Book: I love the Outlander series. I can't choose a single book. Now ask me the last time I actually read a book. Ha! Wait, do scrap magazines count?

Last Thing You Ate: Boo Chips (Kind of like Pringles but shaped like ghosts, from Whole Foods). Hopefully Kelly will be bringing home some real food for me soon.

Your Life: Blessed, chaotic, fun and wonderful.

Your Mood: Stressed out.

Your Best Friend(s): Marie and Heather

What Are You Thinking of Right Now: I really should be researching area rugs online instead of messing around on my blog.

Your Car: Chrylser Pacifica

What Are You Doing Right Now: Um, hello?

Relationship Status: Happily married.

What Is On Your TV? Nothing, you can't hear anything over all the power saws.

When Is The Last Time You Laughed: This morning while I watched Chicken Little with Zoë. (Really cute movie by the way).

Boy, Did I Need That.

Today has been a rough day. Ugh. My house is a disaster. D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R. Ugh. (Yes, again). I have noticed that I get particularly stressed out and touchy when my house is like this. Granted, we have remodeling projects happening on every single floor so I think it is justified. (There is nowhere to hide from chaos!) I won't bore you will all the details. Instead I am going to share this little bit of scrapbooking goodness.

Thank you Cathy. I needed a good laugh. Maybe I should take a picture to scrapbook my disaster. ;)

Random Irony

I found this picture yesterday when I was cleaning off my camera. It still makes me giggle every time I think about it. What can I say, I have an odd sense of humor. Can you read the napkins?  They say, "Less Napkins. More Planet. More Planet. Less Napkins."  Why is this ironic, you ask? The pile of napkins were handed to us by the lovely Starbucks barista along with two lattes and a cookie. How much of a mess did she think we were going to make? 

Less napkins indeed. 

The Good, The Bad and The UGLY

We have been slowly redecorating and upgrading our townhouse over the past few months. I was really excited when we started the process. The idea of designing a bathroom and kitchen sounded like fun.  Being able to choose our own lighting, cabinetry, flooring, paint colors, fixtures...awesome. I have never liked our kitchen. Laminate counter top is not my friend. Neither are ugly back splashes.

As it turns out it's not even remotely fun. It completely stresses me out. It may just be that I am intimidated by all of the options. Does that ever happen to you? That happens to me almost every time I walk into the craft store. There are so many cool and crafty things that I can't make a single decision (and usually walk out empty handed). The problem compounds when the decisions I am making are a) permanent and b) expensive changes to our home.

The past week was a good one. We finally found a contractor that we like and trust. We have had terrible luck finding a reliable company that wasn't trying to gouge us. They are taking care of the wiring projects, replacing the kitchen and bathroom back splashes, plumbing and wiring up a chandelier. Things are finally starting to happen. I like that.

All of the upgrades we are making are green upgrades. While they tend to be a bit more expensive, they really aren't that much more expensive. And I'll tell you a little secret. We bought a Direct Buy membership last year and it has more than paid for itself. Direct Buy is very much like Costco. You must be a member to shop there, but the prices you pay for merchandise are significantly less than retail. If you own a home and plan on doing any sort of improvement project or want to buy new furniture (or window treatments) then it is absolutely worth the membership fee.

There is one significance annoyance when buying through Direct Buy. I won't lie to you. The showroom is a room full of catalogs. You look through the catalogs (or their website) to find the items you want then place your order. There are no physical products to touch and feel. Normally that isn't a problem for me, but that doesn't work when you want to buy a sofa, you know? There is no way I am buying furniture without first sitting on it. Also, you must place your order at Direct Buy and most items you have to pick up at Direct Buy. They don't deliver.

I personally love being able to search the Direct Buy website for products. There is no way that Zoë would sit patiently at Direct Buy as I flipped through stacks of catalogs, so being able to browse on my laptop at all hours of the day is a huge plus for me. Then again, I run into the "to many options" problem. Last week I looked at 5,000 chandeliers. I kid you not. Five thousand. Why? Because I am a little OCD. I had to look at every single chandelier. I kept thinking, "What if the perfect chandelier is on the next page?" Five thousand chandeliers later I found ours..

That is the good chandelier. (Ours has cream candles that look slightly melted). It also happens to be less than half the price of the chandelier I was eying at Restoration Hardware. You can't beat that. Now for the ugly. This is just a teeny tiny selection of the hideous chandeliers I found. No offense to any rooster-loving blog readers.

Would you like to see some more ugly? Actually, I categorize this with bad and ugly. Ugh. This is the couch that Kelly loves. If I had let him, he would have bought this yesterday at Lazy Boy without a moments hesitation. (The sofa version)

Is that not the most hideous sofa you have ever seen? Yes, it is comfortable. Kelly said it was the most comfortable sofa he has ever sat on. In his entire life. Frankly, I don't care. It is the ugliest sofa I have ever seen in my life. If we ever have a media room then he can have it. Until then, no flipping way. Instead we bought this beauty.

Thomasville was having a great sale last weekend (rebate and no sales tax) so we took the plunge and went leather. We have been very hesitant to buy leather anything because of our cats, but Thomasville has a leather protection package that covers cat scratches. You can't beat that. It pains me to pay retail for furniture (especially now that I know how much the markup actually is) but like I said, there is no way we were going to buy furniture without sitting on it.

Tomorrow the new counter tops are being installed (in Thunder) in the kitchen and master bathroom.  Wednesday the bathroom back splash is being installed. We still have not decided on a back splash for the kitchen. I have brought home endless tile/slate/glass samples are we simply cannot find anything we like. I also need to order the bamboo flooring tomorrow (in Java) which will hopefully be installed next week in the kitchen and dining room. Things are finally moving along. We have been planning and talking about this for so long that it is nice to see some progress. Now if I could just decide on paint colors for the kitchen and living room...

Spam Be Gone!

A couple weeks ago I enabled the email feature of my Blackberry. Cool, right? Well it would have been cool if I hadn't started receiving 50+ spams a day. Every few minutes my phone would chime, "You've Got Mail!"  My sweet husband took pity on me and did something to our firewall to block the spam. 

It worked. Boy did it work. 

It worked so well that I have been receiving almost no email. The comments coming from TypePad? Gone.  Email correspondence from friends? Gone. Blocked by the firewall. I just discovered at least a hundred emails floating around on the server that I actually wanted. So, if you have emailed me in the last few weeks, I am not ignoring you. I just need to go through my backlog. Good times.