Happy...

OK.

Everyone is wishing a Happy New Year to everyone in bloggity blog land. And here it is...let's see...47 minutes to New year's and what is an exhausted mother of a 1 and 3 year old with no cable to do; who had party invites but wondered what to do with the kiddos past the 9 pm breaking point?

Um, go to bed to the soothing sounds of 85 gazillion neighbors setting off fireworks now 46 minutes too early before 2010.

Signing off in the year 2009 as it goes out in my hood with a literal bang.

Happy New Year Sweet Friends!

Two Tips Tuesday

Tip #1: Clean Your Microwave with H2O

I have seen this a number of times with different ways to do it. The funniest account was by Angela Cottrell (Travis Cottrell's wife) here. I suppose it all depends upon your microwave but the one thing I love about this is how well it works! I never have to scrub my microwave anymore although I am ashamed to admit how infrequently I clean it.

Just pop a microwave safe bowl in your microwave for about 4-6 minutes. The steam from the boiling water will soften all the icky, hard stuff in there and you can wipe it out. No chemicals from cleaner needed. NO SCRUBBING while contorting yourself into positions not intended for the human form. I have also heard you can add vinegar but the smell from the coffee maker when I clean it with vinegar keeps me at bay. Lemon juice added to the water is also another option.

Tip #2: Cleaning Those Icky Straps on a High Chair or Booster Seat


I am kinda anti-high chair because I have a fear of all the food particles that would get under those cushy seats and into nooks and crannies that I never understood the purpose of. (I so ended that sentence on a preposition but do any of you care as much as I do? It will be growth for me just to leave it.) Instead, I started using booster seats that come with the little tray. Love them, easy to wipe down, and I can see where all the crumbs and food pieces go. But those straps. Ewwwwww!

My mom used the same kind of chair for my nephews and she would soak the straps in a bowl with bleach. I am not someone who should handle bleach around anything. My clothing, carpet, shoes, whatever would get splattered. I am just too klutzy. Plus, one not so bright moment remains in infamy around here. I forgot and left canvas chair covers for some outdoor lounge chairs soaking in bleach once and when I came back it was full of holes. Bleach and me...we ain't tight.

So instead, I use the Oxy clean powder. Smells much better. Just fill a small bowl with super hot water, put about a tablespoon or two in the water and soak the straps to get all the grime off. I use a tooth brush to scrub the straps and they end up so clean. Simple!

Happy Tuesday sweet friends!

Highlights from my Christmas Week

Well I must say that this past week has culminated into a level of exhaustion I did not know possible. Are any of you just down and out tired? Yet this baffles me since we did not travel (which we usually do every year) and we just kind of hung out with our friends. But there was gift buying, wrapping, and giving, last minute shopping, baking, cooking, entertaining, cleaning, etc. And I find myself wasted yet incredibly blessed to have this time. But let me recap the most memorable moments of the last week. I will include some creative, crafty things along with family stuff. All made for a fabulous week leading up to Christmas. With funny moments too...

Annual Christmas Glee with BFF & Family

BFF and I get together each year with our families and celebrate Christmas with dinner, gifts, and goodies. We did this last Saturday. This year we did a dessert fondue while watching Elf and it was so fun. Any of you who can quote at least 3 lines from that movie will receive a Christmasgram from me next year. :)

BFF and family with our girls

The kiddos together...so cute, right?

Fondue it up. My kids are so retro cultured.

I got this fun little bag for BFF and she seemed to dig it.

BFF's boys and my girls

BFF Ring

Now most of you know I refer to Kelly as BFF. Because she is soooo my BFF that just her name won't do. We have this weird, co-dependent, mutually in-like with each other relationship where we are one another's biggest fan. It looks weird to people on the outside of this glorious union but we don't care. On the 23rd, we met a 6 am to do last minute shopping equipped with coffee and sans the kiddos. It was like heaven on earth. While shopping we stumbled across these fun rings and decided to purchase identical ones to signify our (questionably normal) devotion to one another. Our husbands just stare at us like we are the freaks we are when we tell them the stuff we do. Last year, BFF purchased matching heart tube socks for us at Valentine's Day. We have yet to wear them in public but us gifting this kind of stuff to each other just cracks us up. We are the only ones who think we are funny but that is what makes us special. Really special.

Cute ring, though. I love it.
But I am alarmed that this picture gives me the appearance of man hands. Look at my knuckles!
I'll tell you a secret, though. Sometimes, when no one is looking, we join our rings together and cry out, "BFF POWER...ACTIVATE!!!!" Lightening crackles. The power blinks on and off. Dogs howl in the distance. It's exciting.

Sack Lunches for Pinellas Hope

On Christmas Eve, my Lifegroup at church (Small group, Sunday school class) made over 300 sack lunches for the homeless. What a wonderful collaborative effort and something so terrific to involve our kids and teach them about the love of Christ at Christmas.

Christmas Eve

We celebrated Christmas Eve night with friends packed with a great lasagna dinner (and a salad my friend made that was so good I miss it now that it is gone), cookie decorating and gift exchange. Fun, fun.

Family pic after church

Our fabulous friends who celebrated Christmas Eve with us.

Cute little place cards I made for dinner with our friends. Glitter birds on almost dead branches of mistletoe. This is called..."Use What You Have" entertaining.

The gift I made for my friends. It is a fabric wrapped "P" since their last name begins with "P." They were excited because my friend James said he always wanted a giant P so he could walk in the house and say, "Awwww....someone P'd on the wall." I really have weird friends.

The Joy of Christmas Morning

So sweet...girls paying with new doll house. Buuuuut...

...joy was lacking the rest of the day. Clothing was also optional.

Just thought I'd share in this past week's crafty, Christmasy, friend and family goodness. Hope you enjoy the update.

Merry Christmas From Our Family to Yours

Two Tips Tuesday

Tip#1: Zip Up Your Cereal

I am so tickled that I felt a visual was needed on this tip. But once again, I am like the last person on earth to grasp such a simplistic concept of opening a fresh box of cereal pouring it into a zip tight bag, and ensuring its freshness. But I can be rather lazy about cereal. I will rip open the inner bag with reckless abandon and tear the thing from top to bottom. Or I will carefully use scissors but make the opening huge and when I pour it, half the box goes in the bowl. You, know as I type this I realize I am illustrating myself to be a complete moron. But I really think it has more to do with impatience and a lack of breakfast fare discipline.

I also could buy a plastic, Tupperware container but then I have to clean it (lazy) and I have to go buy it (cheap). Oh, another other thing I do is leave a cereal box with the top open on the counter for like, the whole day since it is a non-perishable. However, it is not non-staleable. And I often serve my poor children, teeth chipping, tasteless, dry good gruel where its only hope is to use the softening magic of milk.

So in a nutshell...Tip: Put cereal in a sealable bag inside the box. Here is a picture in case you are like me and often miss the obvious in the midst of a chaotic, daily life...

Do you like how I artistically displayed the empty bag the cereal initially came in? Does this clarify it better for you? Since apparently I felt the need to show you that once the zip tight bag is filled the other one is empty and a photo grouping was mandatory for a simple visual.

Annnnnnnd here's the top visual to show you the bag inside the box.

You may find it easier to insert the bag inside the box first as you pour the cereal in the bag to reduce crushing the delicate nuggets of cereal...(okay, laughing my patootie off as I type). I am hoping you know I have been facetious about the "how to of bagging cereal."

Tip #2: Wallies Chalk Board

I discovered this little find at Home Goods the other week and nearly squealed with delight since it was something I was specifically looking for. I had found this same kind of thing in another store for around $50 or $60 and I thought that price was way too much for a sticky backed chalk board for Cati's room.

Then I came across this at Home Goods for $16.99. Much more in my price range! So I decided to go online to the Wallies website and it is even cheaper online at $12.99 last I checked ( but probably not with shipping).

It is so perfect for Cati's room since we rent and I really don't want to paint one wall with chalkboard paint only to re-do it when we leave. I also believe if I got a hold of chalk board paint I would paint every conceivable surface with it because labeling is like an obsessive hobby for me and how cute would that be throughout my home decor? Okay, yeah. It would cease to be cute if everything became a chalkboard but I still feel like this is entirely too much of a temptation for me to overcome.

You can check out this cute Wallies chalk board here.

HAPPY TUESDAY!

A Little Bloggy Gift For Me

Check. This. Out. (I am so excited)

My sweet, talented, creative, marvelous friend with oodles of techy talent (of which I possess zilch) made me a little blog button for my blog. What is so cool about it is that it she was able to use two of my little birds (I actually made those) that are my trademark craft birds for the felt bookmarks I make and any other crafty thing that just calls for me to slap a bird on it.

Sidebar: I dig birds yet I am not so keen on real ones. Is that weird? I am not a bird watcher or even know names of birds. Oh, I appreciate a bird on a tree branch or resting on a bird house but I loooooove fake, crafty birds with fabric wings, stitched legs, and bead eyes.

Um, Jessica...get off point much?

Why yes. Yes I do.

So Alaina made me this button to put on the side of my blog (look to your right) in case anyone would want to give me a shout out. And I thank all 3 of you who do. I tried making one and was unhappy with it. I think unhappy was unhappy with it. So I did a do over by making the wise choice in not doing it myself.

Second Sidebar: Can I just tell you that as I type this post my daughters are watching Blues Clues and my precious, sweet, brilliant Cati actually thinks Steve is talking to her from the flashy, blinky box perched on the armoire. Now should I be concerned that she talks back to him and seems utterly non plussed that a reciprocating dialogue does not occur when she responds? Or should my concern lie in that she suffers from acute narcissism to think even people in TV land are talking only to her? And yes, it is Classic Clues before brother Joe came in the picture.

OK. I will chalk it up to her being 3. Point taken.

Seriously, I am trying to tell you a little about my friend Alaina here (who happened to just start a blog called Soda in a Sippy Cup...wink, wink) and I am doing a shameful job because I just let you know what I am thinking as I think it. I truly believe there needs to be a filter from my brain to my mouth but the fact it happens when I actually type out what I am thinking is a quandary. Guess I can't change what is inherently me...and OH. MY. WORD. I did it again.

Alaina. Blog button. Her new blog. Check it all out.

That's it.

Wait! Do any of you know how to get rid of that little jpg. thingy on the bottom of the button. I am so techy challenged it is ridiculous. Any tips would be truly helpful. Please.

UPDATE: Thank you so much Catrisha for helping me with my bloggy button dilemma. You were so helpful and sweet to do all the work for me. You rock, girl!

Two Tips Tuesday

OK. I said I was going to do holiday, festive like tips until after Christmas. I said it. I meant it.

And I am totally reneging on it because I am just plain weary.

I have been sick since Thanksgiving, my brain is fried and I am trying to have some joy here. So in order to do that I am unable to do my tips on pretty tablescapes and other festive stuff. Maybe next year. Will you forgive me?

Fabulous. Here we go...

Tip #1: Filling a Ziplock Bag

I must say that this one may be obvious to some of you but when I discovered this, I thought I was an absolute genius! Maybe the last person on earth to grasp this concept but I felt smart.

And obviously I felt the largest photo possible was a necessity as well.

Anyway. I discovered that if I put a ziplock bag over a glass or a bowl (depending on the size bag I am using) it is easier to fill and it stands up by itself. Just put it over the glass/bowl like you would a trash bag over a wastebasket. Wa la! Easy fill. Great for:

• Icing your cupcakes or cookies
• Cutting fruits and veggies and popping them in the bag really quick
• Pouring marinades, breadcrumb mixtures, or dough recipes (like friendship bread)

Tip #2: Toy Swap

BFF and I have taken to swapping toys, DVDs, whatever. It makes sense. We really did not pay attention to our brilliance at first because we are both first and foremost...cheap. We traded DVDs and small baby toys since her oldest is 18 months older than my Cati. Ella and her youngest are 4 months apart. So we actually have cycled some stuff twice. And what makes it work is that the kids get excited to have something new and it costs us ZERO DOLLARS. NOTHING!!!

See this toy monstrosity? Which costs 80 buckaroonies in the store? Well, my kiddos thought this thing was a blast when at Aunt Kelly's house (BFF) and so we swapped. Her boys loved the toy I gave her (drawing a total blank on what it was) and my girls love this. Best part? When I am sick of looking at, hearing, tripping over, and moving this thing and I can give it back.

So this Christmas when the kids have played out all their goodies...get some mommy friends together and start swapping.

Happy Tuesday Friends!