Too Soon?

To be thinking about holiday outfits? We already covered picture outfits, right? I don't plan to do a holiday family picture, so there won't be any of that hassle. I realized tonight that I need 2 holiday outfits for Katie, so price must be minimal. I'll check OUAC and other places, but I really like this and it is only $12! I think it might be just right for Christmas Eve church services and not be super fussy like last year's dress. Of course, last year she wasn't mobile, so we could get away with a fussier outfit.


Then I'm thinking she's going to need something for Christmas day at my parents' house. We're pretty casual for that, usually jeans & sweaters, so maybe the same for Katie? Probably the most versatile option. Although, I've seen a ton of sweater dresses I'd love to pick up for her. Hmmm...any ideas?

Fireplaces

There's something about a fireplace that just makes the whole room seem cozier, doesn't it? We of course, do no have one in our house, and I've seen the faux fireplace and they kind of make me cringe. But then I saw this and I thought of you. For some reason, this project just yelled "Norgaard Family" to me. I hope I'm not totally off base. Maybe if we ever really made the basement into the family room then I could incorporate into my house as well.

Picture Outfits

Well, we are almost there with our picture outfits. I got a sweater last night (not exactly what I had in mind, but I like it) and Doug got a button down shirt. He wanted a polo, but it was a little tight in the chest and I knew he'd hate seeing that in all the pictures. He really just wanted it because it was $6 cheaper. Silly I know. So he's done, but I still need jeans *cringe* and Katie needs some kind of shoes and maybe tights. Not sure what we'll do about her bare legs! What do you think? I also will probably need shoes. Shh...don't tell Doug! Anyway, here's a look at what we're wearing. I hope it doesn't seem too matchy-matchy! Once you put the pink under Katie's jumper she's really pink! So, I hope that will be enough to break up Doug & I being so brown.

Here's my sweater...I really wanted something more open cardigan like, but I couldn't find anything that wasn't clingy to go underneath it. Made me too self conscious.

Shoes for Katie possibly?

Katie's jumper.


Doug's shirt, actually a 2-for-1, came with an undershirt!

Containment

I don't know if you feel this way at your house, but we are in serious need of some better toy storage. I have the cube thing with the fabric drawers, but since it lives in Katie's closet, it hasn't really been very useful. I also have a basket of toys in the living room and another basket for stuffed animals (and the toys she's outgrown) in her bedroom. Now that she knows how to get into said areas, all the toys are everywhere! So, I told my mom that Katie needed a toy box for her room for Christmas. These are the two I'm considering.

The pink one is the more expensive of the two, but it has the shelf (although, she has the cube storage for her books) and also will take up less space. This one has a storage capacity of 5.5 cubic feet.


The blue & green one is about $20 cheaper, no shelf, but definitely more gender neutral. This one has storage capacity of 6 cubic feet.

I just don't know what to pick. I also would love to have a pretty wooden toy chest in her pretty little room, but I know that that is truly not a practical choice right now. I don't want to worry about pinched fingers and lids closing and all of those crazy things. Katie needs to have easy, worry-free access to her toys. And frankly, the plastic doesn't bug me that much. Hmm...which would you pick?

Dear Martha,

I think your craft stuff is really neat and really pretty. I would love to use some of it. Unfortunately, it is too expensive for my meager craft budget. Do you think you could have a better sale than 20% off? Or at least not be on sale and not exclude it from my 50% off coupon? Pretty please with a cherry on top?

Thanks for listening!
Crafty in MO

Cooking for the Future

You inspired me. :)

The goal for this week is to do as much cooking and prep as possible today so that the meals are mostly done before I get home from work. I'm thinking this could cover two weeks (I'm planning for leftovers). I've discovered that my biggest catalyst to eating out is being hungry when I get home and not wanting to take the time to cook.

I'm not assigning days to these, I'm just going with the flow and I'll warm up whatever sounds good that day. (Bolded items are being frozen for later use, non-bolded are getting cooked fresh.)

Chicken Pot Pie Penne
Sweet Potato/Black Bean Burritos
Lemon Butter Tilapia and Zuccinni Cornbread Casserole
Terriyaki Turkey Stir Fry w/Brown Rice
Fish Tacos with Peach Salsa & Cilantro Lime Yogurt Sauce
Skyline Chili 5 way
Baked Potatoes w/Salsa, cheese & Cilantro Lime Yogurt Sauce
Crunchy Garlic Tilapia
Moosewood Moroccan Stew
Turkey Stroganoff
Chicken Cordon Bleu
Toddler Pizza Croissants

and I'm going to bake a loaf of homemade bread in my bread maker...it's been a while.

Yum-Yum!

Doug made chili last night and tonight we're having chili dogs with the leftovers. Mmmm... I'm so proud of my husband for not eating all the chili last night. Normally, chili doesn't last this long at our house. As an added bonus, Katie loved it too! And the best part, no cooking for 2 days and I think I may achieve my goal of not going out to eat this weekend (unless you count the pumpkin shake and cheese curds from Culver's that Doug & I shared last night!) :)

WANTS!!!

I saw this the other night on an ad and just can't get it out of my head! They have a bunch, but this one seems like it could be fairly versatile. I have a 50% coupon for Michael's that doesn't exclude the Martha products (which probably means they will be on sale for something dumb like 30% off) that starts Sunday, so hopefully by Sunday I'll have it! :)

Hair Raves (A Shampoo Update)

Picked up Aussie for the first time in a LONG time at the store the other day. I feel like I've tried everything else and nothing makes my hair look the way I wish it did.

But guess what? I loved it! I got the awesome volume kind, and it really is awesome, at least for my hair.

I picked this up, too. Between the two of them was a HUGE difference in my hair. It's not frizzy for the first time in a long time. I'm so pleased!

Of course, new shampoo always makes my hair feel better, so the proof will come in a week if I'm still happy. I'll keep you updated.

It's Potty Time!

Well, not really. At least not at our house. I was reading an article yesterday on it though and wow this is an intense method! I can see it's merits and can see why it would work, but I don't know that I could commit to that. And I think it would be even harder to get a daycare or babysitter to be okay with letting your kid run around with no diaper or underwear for 3 months. Even if they are still technically wearing pants. And according to this article, you can start at 15 months...15 months! Although, my mom swears I was potty trained by the time Brandon was born and we are only 17 months apart. In my mind, there is no way that Katie will be ready to start potty training in 2 months. No way, at all. I've been taking her into the bathroom with me when I go lately and she doesn't even seem to notice. The only thing she is even remotely interested in when we go in there is the toilet flushing. Now that's a frightening thought!

Menu Planning

This post brought to you by the trip to the grocery store I'm making tonight. :) This is what I'm planning to make over the course of the next 2 weeks. My goal is to actually make all these meals, when in reality I may make 2-3. Sad, because then I have all this food still that goes bad and we spend even more money going out to eat. What a waste!

Crockpot Cabbage Rolls with boiled potatoes & roasted carrots
This is one of Doug's favorite meals.

3 Packet Pot Roast with mashed potatoes & a green veggie
I've never tried this recipe, and I'm really sick of Coke roast.

Salsa Chicken with rice
I still haven't made it, and I still have all the stuff!

Spaghetti with meat sauce (and maybe garlic cheddar biscuits!)

Broccoli & Cheese Soup & sandwiches
I might add potatoes...I bought a 5 lb. bag at the store last time and I need to use them up!

Pizza with Jiffy Crust
We used 2 boxes and it made a really nice crust and for toppings we had beef & black olives and it was so good! Also, Doug doctored up the sauce a bit, on thing he did that was interesting was to add a little milk to it. The sauce ended up being really creamy and kind of took on a lasgna flavor. I'm sure it had something to do with all the fat in the whole milk!

Halloween Costumes

If Katie didn't already have her Halloween costume for the year (she's going to be a penguin), we would so totally go as Little Red Riding Hood, Grandma, & The Big Bad Wolf. Oh well, next year!

What are you guys going to do this year?

Lame

While I was organizing things before I took it down to my craft room, I came across alot of old pictures and stuff. Some of it I'd been looking for for a long time! And some things I forgot I even had. Including cards & pictures from old boyfriends. Yeah. Mostly stuff from R. As I was going through the the pictures, I was easily able to toss some of them. Bad angles, light, closed eyes, etc. But there were a few that didn't mean much to me, but I thought he might like, so I considered sending them along. Then I found these cards. These completely lame cards that made me think, "why, oh why was I so stupid?" Cards about being "best friends," because you know we weren't "together" but we were so they couldn't be love cards. I'm rolling my eyes at my naive self just thinking about it. So in one card he wrote about the gift he gave me for my birthday, I think. Yeah, he gave me back a DVD I gave to him. Because it meant so much to the two of us. HA! Lame, lame, lame! I'm sure at the time I thought it was so sweet and so full of sentiment. Seriously though, if I came across that DVD in my collection today (well, yesterday because I *do* remember it now), I would have never even thought of him. Isn't that funny?

Oddly enough, my sister seems to be going through a similar situation with this guy she's been seeing. Although at an accelerated rate. She's only been seeing him since March, I think it took R and I the better part of 2 years to get to that point. I want to pull out these old cards for her and tell her to not waste her time, but I know it's futile. She's going to do what she wants to do when she wants to do it. And yeah, she might be heartbroken for awhile, but eventually it all goes away and you forget how you acquired stupid things like meaningful DVDs in the first place.

Craft Room

Doug has cleaned it out and moved a table and small desk in there for my cricut. I'd like some shelving, but I'm not sure it will fit. In my head, it was going to painted and I'd get a cute rug and all that good stuff, but in reality if I waited to get all of that stuff, I'd never have a craft area. Besides, it'll work just fine for now.

I'll post some pictures later when I get it a little better organized.

Waiting

I'm waiting for Katie to wake up from her nap, so we can go to Michael's. I was making Hannah's tutu last night and I ran out of tulle. So I have to go back out there this morning and Katie is miraculously taking a long nap. We're going on 1 and 1/2 hours now. Which is good. Hopefully she won't be cranky when I take her. The party is at 2 though, so I'm going to have to get going soon so I can get back in time, because I also need to make her a card. We also got her this, which had I not already had the tutu in the works, I would have just stopped at that. So I feel kind of bad, because it seems like alot of stuff. Even though the EBO was marked down to $13. I hope Angela doesn't mind that we got her that. It says 8 & up, but I was pretty sure I had one when I was about Hannah's age and I know she likes cooking. Or at least she liked the evening she came over and made cupcakes with me. My original plan was to get her some dress up stuff, but Doug wouldn't let me buy her any nail polish and then we saw the EBO and so that was that.

I have a ton of laundry to catch up on and even though I cleaned the house just a week ago, you'd never know it today. That will probably be tomorrow's project. Can't wait!

Bedding...Shame on Me!

I'm such an addict. Since you linked to that skirt at Landsend yesterday, I've been surfing around. Haven't been to that site in such a long time. I'd forgotten how much I like it.

Then, I found this:

Isn't it pretty, and PERFECT for fall? On clearance + Labor Day weekend sale it is only $36.00 for the king size. But there is no way I can justify buying it. I mean, I only got my new quilt a month ago! It's a duvet cover, too, and I don't have a king size quilt, so I'd have to buy one of those. Also, they don't have the shams anymore (which is fine, because I never end up using them anyhow).

I need to talk myself out of this. I need clothes WAY more than I need another blanket.

ETA: I want those stripy sheets, too.

A Post About Shampoo

Remember when debating the pros & cons of shampoo was one of our more important conversations? :) Well, even though we have much more important things in our lives right now, shampoo has been on my mind lately. Or rather, the search for the right kind. And I think I may have found it. I had been using Garnier products, mostly because they smell good. And then one time, I made the mistake of picking up a bottle of the generic Garnier...not good. That made my hair greasy & dry at the same time. The actual Garnier worked well enough, but after my experience with the generic, I was ready to try something new. So my mom convinced me to try the Suave Professionals color stuff, after hearing on Rachael Ray that celebrities were using it. It was okay. It kind of had a harsh, almost chemical odor though. And after time, my hair really seemed to be drying out. So back to the Garnier, I went. Except all I had at home was the generic and I had forgotten my previous experience. After a week of really bad hair, I decided it was time for a cut and some new shampoo & conditioner. So this time I tried TRESemme for colored hair. Oh my goodness, what a difference! I could tell almost as soon as I was rinsing it, this was working so much better and I knew for sure when I combed it out. Doug even likes it better on his hair! :)

Here's a tip I picked up from the back of my mousse bottle. Instead of applying the mousse to your hair with your fingers, you dip your comb into it and comb it through the hair starting at the roots going all the way to the ends. I even do the underside. SO MUCH MORE VOLUME! Seriously and my hair feels thicker, and the product seems to make my hair smoother when I blow it dry and makes my hair dry faster (probably the alcohol.) Anyhow, maybe you already knew that tip, but I thought I'd pass it along, just in case.

So that's my post for the day. I'll be working this afternoon and tutu making tonight (Hannah's b-day is tomorrow.) Hope you're feeling a little better today.

Outfit Options

So I was thinking for Hazel, maybe a denim dress? Not a jumper, but an actual dress. Something like this, although it's out of stock and possibly not baby sized, but you get the idea. Maybe they have it in the store? It's such a dark wash, that it is almost navy and you could easily pair a yellow cardigan with it. I also saw a super cute denim dress at TJ Maxx awhile back. I almost bought it for Katie, but put it back at the last second.

Or what about this corduroy skirt for Hazel? It would look adorable with a sweater, tights & boots!

Katie's Outfit

Here is the jumper Katie is wearing for our pictures with this top underneath. We are also doing jeans and I also desperately need a new pair. I've never had Gap jeans. I generally buy Levi's, but they aren't looking so hot on my post-baby body. So I think it might be time to try something new. I need a brown sweater or top. Maybe paired with some pink. I'm not too concerned with that. I think Katie will be in enough pink for all of us! But if I find something that works, then I'm okay with that too.

Picture Outfits

We're getting our pics taken at the beginning of October by the same photog that did the girls' pics last year (jenrohphotography.com).

This time we are going to have the pics taken at a barn in the country. Since it's fall, I was thinking of shooting for jeans for J&I, and skirts/dresses with cute tights for the girls.

I'm thinking yellow and navy for colors...Hazel in mainly Navy, Evie in mainly yellow. I'd like to keep them both pretty trendy/funky with lots of layering. A big flowered bow for Evie and a cute hat for Hazel.

For us, nice jeans in a darkish wash (I need new jeans in the worst way. I'm considering splurging on a pair of GAP jeans if I can afford it by then. I'd LOVE to have a pair of Seven jeans, but that is not happening until I'm at goal weight so I can actually enjoy them).

I'm thinking this sweater for me, with a bright yellow cami under it. My only issue with the sweater is that it doesn't come in petite, so the sleeves might be too long.

For Hazel, I like this dress, but I think it's too formal for what I was thinking. I might be able to dress it down with a mustard yellow cardi and some funky tights and brown leather boots, though.

For Evie, I love this dress in yellow, with a navy long sleeve tee shirt under it, and navy stripped or poka dotted leggings.

But, of course, I'd need cheaper options of these looks. :) Care to assist in the hunt?

Recovery Post 1

I hope you're getting some rest after your surgery. Josh did his husband-ly duties and texted me. I forwarded the text to Angela & Desire. Glad to hear you made it out of surgery and it went well though. I've been thinking about you all morning.

I have this brilliant plan to post something here (and maybe on my other blog) everyday so you'll have something to look forward to while you're recovering, and not get totally bored with the internet. :) Here's my first link.

I totally know this girl from my message board.

Also, I looked at that little room again today and have decided it might be just perfect for my crafting needs. I'll post pictures once the battery on my camera charges.