Still alive

I really am. Just in case anyone was wondering.

I just think I might be developing some obsessive/compulsive tendencies when it comes to boxes. I don't' remember having quite this . . . drive to be out of them so fast before.

Not counting all of Hubby's computer stuff (I am SO not even thinking about touching those), there are only 8 left. And 3 of those have something taken out of them already.


{Edited to add: And yes, we only unloaded the moving truck FRIDAY night. As in 4 days ago. So MommyJ, you don't have to worry anymore!}

I think we might need to make the coolest cardboard box fort ever.

And according to my exhaustive research {cough}, my readers are more indecisive than I knew. Out of 5 votes for my poll (5!?!?!), only 2 even had an opinion. So I guess those 2 win. I'm not changing my blog name.

Besides, Euless is just a cool name for a blog. I think.

Random

Not that anyone really cares, but I just discovered this crazy bit of news. First of all, my hubby is amazing (no, I did not just find that out). He just spent 2 hours (!!) on the phone while waiting for his next flight setting up all our utilities at our new house.

We now have everything ready except our landline/internet. Unfortunately our current provider isn't available at our new place and we haven't decided yet what to do about that.

So here's the crazy part. We added everything up. Currently we pay $231 for our utilities without phone/internet. The companies we are using were able to estimate our charges based on the previous occupants. Estimated per month:$203.

Crazy! We're almost tripling our square footage, but it's going to be less for utilities.

I knew I was going to love getting a house!

Tip Junkie Give a ways



Tip junkie is having an AMAZING birthday bash, with 10 (+) winners every day. Go check it out!



Can't keep this one to myself

So after rolling on the floor for several minutes (and confusing my daughter about what exactly was so flippin funny), I knew I could not keep this site to myself any longer.

What site you ask? Cake Wrecks It's professional cakes that are really, REALLY bad. Most of them you can't believe people had to pay money for.

Some times they provoke a smile, sometimes a groan, sometimes a chuckle, but sometimes it's a good thing that we don't allow drinks by the computer. I'm glad I've never had to clean sprayed apple juice off the monitor.

Check it out. She updates it daily.

The Process of Pedicures

Well, now that the whole world gets a chance to look at my toes, I thought I better do something about them. So again inspired by MommySnark, yesterday we did our monthly pedicure scream fest.

I guess that needs a little explaining. Let me tell you about my daughter's feet.

Girly-Lou must have the. most. sensitive. feet. EVER. Or at least the most imagined sensitive feet. I remember her being only a couple of days old, and having some lint between her toes. As I tried to remove it, she SCREAMED in agony. (and trust me, screaming like that from a preemie scares you to death!) It took several weeks for me to decide I wasn't actually breaking toes when I did this. Fortunately, I could cut her toenails while she slept.

Fast forward 18 months. She will no longer sleep in my arms, so cutting nails while she sleeps is out. Fingernails aren't a problem, but I honestly can't cut her toenails. I remember my younger, childless sister commenting that I was bigger than my daughter, just hold her down. But she did not realize the impossibility of cutting nails on a leg that is flailing like a beheaded chicken (not that I've ever actually seen a beheaded chicken, but it's good imagery, right?). Girly-Lou and I reached a compromise: I'd leave her toes alone until one ripped. Then she'd let me cut the ripped one, and maybe 1 other. So we cut toenails 2 or 3 times a week. And yes, she still shrieked and tried to kick the whole time.

Fast forward to age 3. Cutting nails is a crying sobbing mess. But Girly-Lou discovers my fingernail polish. Hmm. This might help. Cutting nails = agony. Painting them though, that's very cool. If she wants her nails painted, she must let me cut them. Our nail sessions go from 30 minutes (not exaggerating!) of screaming and sobbing to 10 minutes of screaming and sobbing. A VAST improvement.

So now up to today. She recently decided that painting Mommy's toes was even cooler. So when Girly-Lou needs her toe nails cut, it's a family affair. First we cut Mommy's nails. Then Girly-Lou's (this involves many stops and starts as she starts screaming before I even touch her foot. Usually I say more than once "Ok, we won't paint your toes today" to which she screams "NO! Paint my toes!", and she'll calm down enough until I'm on the next toe.) After we're trimmed, I paint hers and she paints mine.

And yes, Buddy has to get in on the action too. Do I think that this is because he's girly? (like his Dad thinks?) Nope. I think my attention loving boy just always wants in on any action going on. Because, after all, he refuses to have anything to do with any color that isn't BWWWWWWWWUE (I really need to come up with a way to type how he says that word. He buzzes his lips for the BL part for several seconds. So flippin cute!)

So here's our completed look. I really love the fact that 24 hours later, all the polish will be rubbed off my actual toes, and look like a half decent job. And I can tell people my 4 year old did it and put any reason for the weirdness squarely off my own shoulders. I just can't tell people that I did her nails.



Our awesome feet. And yes, I have super extremely wide feet. I really hate finding shoes that fit.

Tip Junkie

Hey! I was actually featured on Tip Junkie this week. It's one of my favorite sites for awesome ideas for just about anything. I feel so cool now!

She's also having a big birthday party bash next week with a TON of giveaways. Don't forget to check it out.

Super easy Father's day gift for grandpa

I don't know about you, but I always have the hardest time ever coming up with good presents for Grandpa for Father's Day. Let's face it, at 60 (+), they already have enough ties, they don't need anything, and they don't really want much either.

Luckily, for one side of the family, we have the only grand kids. So anything I give with my child's face on it means he will like it.

So here's my super duper, incredibly easy father's day present.

Step One: Make a picture. If you have Photoshop, or some other scrapbooky program, you could easily throw together a picture like mine. This actually a quickpage from Queen Pamedalah , which means I just stuck some pictures in the slots. SUPER EASY!! The hardest part was picking out the pictures. (For more quick pages, check out the options on DigiSrapDepot I'm a huge fan of freebies. Huge). If you don't have photoshop, or aren't into digital scrapbooking (but really, you should try it. I LOVE IT!! Sorry, I'll stop now), you could do just one big picture, or paper scrap a page.

Here's my picture:
(sigh. I have very little artistic ability. I love crafts that are just assembly! I mean look at that picture. Isn't it great! Ok. I'll shut up about the digital scrapping stuff. Really this time)

Step Two: print the picture. I've heard lots of people that print their stuff out at Costco. I checked their prices, and for square photos, you can't beat them. However, I don't have a membership, so I need other options. My original page was 12 x 12. In Photoshop, I opened a new page with the same resolution, but an 8 x 10. Then I changed my page to 8 x 8, and dragged it over, and saved it as a jpeg. Then I uploaded it to Walmart's photo center and ordered it 1 hour (the price for 8x10s are the same regardless of how you print them, so just do 1 hour). Make sure you preview it to be sure it's going to be on the page the right way.

Step 3. Buy your supplies. You need a piece of foam board ($2 at Hobby Lobby), 3/8" grosgrain ribbon, a way to stick it together (I used Elmer's Craft bond, for extra easiness), a big old knife to cut the foam, and some sand paper.(I know, I forgot to put the sandpaper in the picture. I also didn't put the clear spray stuff. I guess that's what happens when you create on the fly)

Step 4: Cut white parts off the picture, and then trace it on the board. I like to use a ruler, since I seem to be incapable of drawing a straight line otherwise.

Step 5: Cut out the board. I used my hubby's Leatherman. It helps to score it a bit first, but since it's just foam board, it really does cut super easy. Don't stress that the edges aren't perfect, we'll fix them in a minute.

Step 6: trace and cut a second board. (Hobby Lobby does sell foam boards that are twice as thick, but they were $6 instead. Cutting two is much cheaper)

Step 7: Go outside and lay down something (Very important part as I found out later). Spray both boards with the adhesive, then quickly smush them together. You do have a little tiny bit of movabilty, but work fast or it will but stuck skewampus. (and yes, those are the technical terms)(Don't look at my toes. I said DON'T!)

Step 8: check and make sure that you have the boards the right size. Then sand the edges. If you have a scrap board to wrap the sandpaper it works a lot easier too.

Step 9: measure how much ribbon you need to wrap around the outside, and cut it.

Step 10: go back outside and spray the board. Quickly put the picture on top, getting edges as even as possible. Wrap the ribbon around the outside (hum, no picture of that part, sorry. The point of the ribbon is so you don't see the yucky foam board edges. I suppose you could paint it instead, but that would mean you'd have to spend more time making the edges look nice. Slapping some ribbon on was a lot faster.) I had enough spray just land on the edges to make it stick. You could also do this part with a glue gun, but I was too lazy to heat mine up.

Step 11: Measure out 10" of ribbon for a hanger. I glued mine 1.25" from each edge. And yes, I was super lazy and stuck mine on with the spray adhesive. And then I figured out that the adhesive stays sticky. So I cut a regular piece of paper slightly smaller than my square and put it on the back.

Step 12: optional - I also sprayed it with this stuff:
So it will be a bit more scratch resistant.

Tada! Once I had the picture printed and all my supplies, I honestly did this in less than 30 minutes. And the whole thing only cost me $10 including the spray adhesive. Not too shabby.