In 7 years…
{ We did this }
{ We got these }
{ We moved here }
{ We survived this! }
{ We got her… }
{ and had to have him }
{ You gave me lots of these }
In 7 years.
*Thank you so much to Leslie at Mayken Memories for making this video possible! :)
Happy Anniversary, Honey! :)
A couple of days ago, I got a very compelling comment from Christine on the Fonts for Peas blog:
Christine, your persuasive plea was just what I needed to get in font-posting gear! So sorry to have kept these fonts from you, but let me make it up to you! :) In honor of your request, I just posted 20 new handwriting fonts on the Fonts for Peas blog!
Included in the new fonts are 4 new doodle fonts! There are some really cute doodles- just look at this little moo cow from Pea Tisha’s Doodles:
Isn’t she cute? ;)
And there are tons more where she came from. Check out all the new fonts here, and if you like them, you can now download all the new fonts in one download. Just look for the “Download New” button at the bottom of all the new fonts. :)
Wouldn’t that little moo cow make a really cute mini stamp? Did you know you can get a stamp made out of any of the fonts- including the doodle fonts? If you can design an image of it, you can get it made into a stamp! :) I got a return address stamp made using Pea Heather’s Handwriting and it turned out so cute! I can’t wait to use it on my Christmas cards next year. :)
And wouldn’t some of Pea Heather’s Doodle Phrases make some *awesome* stamps for cards??
Anna-Mae, from Design Your Own Stamps at Village Impressions, has come up with a really awesome stamping prize giveaway just for you guys, since ya’ll love the fonts as much as we do!! :)
The winner of this giveaway will get……….
1. One alphabet stamp of any alphabet font from Fonts for Peas or Free Scrapbook Fonts – The entire alphabet- your choice!!! :)
2. One 1″ mini-stamp of any doodle from the Fonts for Peas doodle fonts- Pick your favorite doodle and get it as a stamp! :)
Holy moly roly poly, isn’t that exciting? :)
To be entered to win this awesome stamp set giveaway from Village Impressions, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post. One entry per person, please! The winner will be chosen by his or her comment number, which will be picked by Random.org’s number generator. Contest will run until 11:59 pm CST on Friday, May 29th, 2009.
Thanks for looking, I hope you like the new fonts- and GOOD LUCK!!! :)
*** Edited Saturday, May 30th, 2009 ***
{ We have a winner!!! }
Congratulations #8 Jenney! You won! You get to pick any alphabet and any doodle of your choice to be turned into a stamp! :) Contact me to claim your prize! :D
I have an herb garden! My first one! :) Every summer my lovely neighbor Michele always has a huuuuuuuuuge, absolutely gorgeous and LUSH vegetable and herb garden. Right out her back door! She has really gotten me hooked on cooking with fresh herbs. This year, the weather has just been so nice and I’ve been looking for an excuse to spend more time outside- I decided I wanted to give it a try myself! :) We have a front flower bed that looked *pathetic*. See, here’s a pic..
It’s the one on the right, under the window. Ok, it doesn’t look that pathetic in this pic. But you’ll have to use your imagination here with me. See how it has those 5 bushes? Well, we moved two of them- I can’t remember why now, leaving only 3. And it looked really sad and empty. Then one of the remaining three bushes died. Like two years ago. And we never dug it up. Pathetic. I know.
My lovely neighbor Michele has rosemary and lavender bushes in her backyard and they stay evergreen. I thought it’d be cool to replace those standard boxwood bushes we had (that everyone else in the neighborhood has too) with rosemary bushes- It would smell great and I would have fresh rosemary year round right out my front door! :) I asked Michele what she thought and she agreed and gave me the idea to use lavender bushes as well- she suggested doing 5 bushes like this: rosemary, lavender, rosemary, lavender, rosemary. Then in the front I could fill in with some other herbs. So this past weekend, that’s what we did! :) Kevin dug up the old bushes, then tilled the bed. We put some good soil on top and tilled it again. Then I got to work planting my herbs! :)
Here’s one of my little rosemary bushes. It’s tiny now, but I really hope it thrives and grows. Michele’s has *doubled* in size since last summer and it is huge! (It’ll be 3 years old at the end of this summer)
And here’s one of the lavender plants. They smell so good! :)
The herb closest to the house is parsley (Italian or flat-leaf)
Then there’s the sweet basil…
And Oregano…
Thyme…
And Stevia. Ok. I admit. This was a complete impulse buy. The salesman totally sold me on this and got me to buy it. :D Since this was my first trip to the nursery, I had someone walk around with me and hold my hand the entire way. ;) In the herb greenhouse, he picked off a leaf of practically every plant and was like, “Here! Eat this! Here! Try this one!” He even cut off a little baby asparagus head and was like “Here! Eat this!” LOL. When we got to the stevia plant, he was like, “Here, you really have to try this one!!” I did and OMG. It’s so SWEET! Eating one of the leaves tastes like eating a spoonful of sugar!! He said you can dry the leaves and crush them into a powder (I’m going to try it in the blender) and use it as a sweetener! Freaky! I totally have to give it a try. :)
And here’s a view of the whole bed:
That’s the rosemary and lavender you see in the back row, and in the front row, starting in the bottom left-hand corner and going to the top right-hand corner, that out of focus plant is parsley, then basil (the only one in focus! :P), then oregano, then thyme, then the stevia. Got that? ;)
I also got two more plants to sit in pots on my front steps.
This is spearmint. Pop one of these leaves into your mouth and it tastes better than spearmint gum! :) It also works better as a breath-freshener than those Listerine strips. ;)
And lemon thyme. I’ve never cooked with lemon thyme before, but this stuff just smells soooooooooo good. I just couldn’t pass it up. :) And I bet it’d be great on chicken!
So that’s it! I hope all my little plants thrive and grow- and I especially hope the rosemary and lavender fill in and grow up to be nice landscape bushes. Keep an eye out over the summer and I’ll keep you updated with how they’re doing- and any yummy recipes I’ve made using them! :D
And if you’ve never grown herbs before, let me encourage you try it! :) Now’s the time to bring them home from the nursery and get them planted. Even if you don’t have a bed to put them in, you can pick up a one gallon pot and sit them outside somewhere where they’ll get plenty of sun. (Ask the friendly folks at the nursery how much they need to be watered.) At least get you some parsley and basil! :) (If I could only have 2, those are the two I’d get :)) And if you have any questions, I’ll be happy to try and answer them as best as I can! :)
And before I go, I have a winner to announce! :) The winner of the Scrapista 2009 mega scrapbooking prize pack is #4 Megan! :)
Congratulations, Megan! Your suggestion of a color class was a very popular one!! :)
Thank you so much to everyone who commented, I had a wonderful time reading through all of your excellent suggestions!!! I will have a hard time narrowing it down!! :)
Thanks for looking! :)
That’s right! I’m super-excited to announce that come this fall (September 26 and 27th to be exact!) I will be in Atlanta, Georgia teaching at the fabulous Scrapista 2009 event! :)
Scrapista is a weekend scrapbooking retreat, open to any and all scrapbookers who want to get away for some food, fun, classes, prizes and most importantly, relaxing and uninterrupted scrapbooking time!
Read more about the Scrapista event here.
Did you see the part where they’re going to have a *massage therapist* on site?? Oh. I. am. so. there.
Now here’s where I need your help- and there’s a giveaway involved! Of course there’s a giveaway! :) But that’s not all-
You guys get to pick what I am going to teach at the Scrapista event!!
I have a few ideas, BUT- I really want to teach a class that you would really be excited about taking. And what better way to find out than to just come right out and ask, huh? ;)
Here’s a picture of the awesome Scrapista 2009 giveaway prize pack:
It includes………
Heidi Swapp Chipboard Alphabet – Center of Attention
Cosmo Cricket Blackboard Vintage Mix Letters
Thickers Shoebox Chipboard Stickers
Luxe Designs Double Sided Paper in Simple Dot, Simple Pinstripe, Capris Oregano, Capris Rosemary, Simple Lined, Simple Calico, and Simple Grid
Hambly Screen Prints Mini Chandelier Transparency
Heidi Swapp Moments Clock Overlay
Big Black Rick Rack
Green Dotted Grograin
Green and Blue Fancy Ribbon
To enter this giveaway, just leave a comment on this post answering the following question:
What should I teach at the Scrapista 2009 event?
Just throw out some ideas of what kind of class you’d be super excited about taking and you’re automatically entered to win!
One entry per person, please! The winner will be chosen by his or her comment number, which will be picked by Random.org’s number generator. Contest will run until 11:59 pm CST on Wednesday, May 13th, 2009.
Thanks so much for all your support- I can’t wait to hear your ideas!! And good luck!!! :)
I really, really wish I had a picture of our laundry room {before}. It was bad. It was really, really bad. It was so bad, I didn’t even want to take a picture of it when we first moved into the house. I looked through all my old pics, all my old backup CDs and external hard drives and nothing. I couldn’t bear to take one single picture of the laundry room! I took pictures (and posted them right here on this webpage) of our bathrooms & toilets for cryin’ out loud and I wouldn’t even post pics of the laundry room. Apparently I had to draw the line somewhere. :p
But! I do have do have a picture of our laundry room from the apartment. And it looks really similar. Same plain wall color. Same washer/dryer we had before. Same wire shelving. Same small space. (Although actually I think the apartment laundry room was bigger…) But you get the idea. So for the sake of this laundry room before and after makeover, let’s pretend this is my laundry room before…
The Laundry Room { BEFORE }
Can you see it? Are you visualizin’? Okay and now…
The *real* laundry room…
The Laundry Room { AFTER }
The Washer / Dryer
We got this LG washer and the matching dryer from HHGregg. We were on our way to Lowes & Home Depot to look at washer/dryers and someone suggested HHGregg to us. It was right on the way, so we decided to pop in and look. And I am so glad we did! :) It was a Saturday afternoon, but someone was immediately available to help us. And let me tell you. That guy knew every single thing about every single washer and dryer they sold. I wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted, so I told him what features I thought I needed, what my current machines didn’t do that I really wish they did, and stuff like that. He made some suggestions for us and we walked around the store looking at the machines. I had never owned a front-loading washer before so I had to ask him practically what every single button did! LOL. He answered every single question and didn’t even have to stop and think.
After tons of questions and looking at all the different models, we were pretty sure we wanted the above LG pair. But we did want to go check Lowes & Home Depot just in case. Well, on Saturday afternoon, Lowes & Home Depot were packed and we couldn’t get anyone to help us. They both only had one salesperson on the floor and there were about 5-6 customers ahead of us. We walked around and looked, and price checked, but then went home. We looked around on the internet and read reviews and price checked the machines from HHGregg. HHGregg had the best price, we couldn’t even find it cheaper on the internet!
We went back to HHGregg later that afternoon and ordered the LGs. I think they had some kind of shipping deal that most places have these days- you pay up front for shipping and delivery and they give you a mail-in rebate to make it “free”. Well, I hate mail-in rebates. They never seem to come. LOL. So we just asked- Hey, we don’t like mail-in rebates- can you take the shipping/delivery fee off our total? They said “Sure!” and didn’t even blink. And guess what- they still gave us the form for the mail-in rebate, and said we could mail it in and still get our “money back” for shipping even though we didn’t pay for it. Neat, huh? But what was really cool- like I said, we ordered it on a Saturday afternoon- and they delivered it the next day. On a Sunday! Isn’t that weird?? But cool! It would’ve been awesome if our old washer and dryer were broken and we had a laundry crisis and had to do laundry right away. lol
After using the new washer and dryer for a couple of weeks, I’m very pleased. I really wanted to be able to wash our huge, fluffy, king-sized down comforter. It just wouldn’t fit in our old machine. The middle wouldn’t even get wet. lol. It did great in the new washer and came out so bright and clean. I can also wash all 5 of the dog beds in one load- compared to 2 at the most in our old machine- and that Sanitary cycle sure comes in handy! LOL
Pedestals
I originally thought I wanted pedestals. I didn’t want to do all that bending down. lol. Plus I really liked the extra storage space. We shopped around for the best price on the LG pedestals and found them for about $70 cheaper on Newegg.com than what HHGregg was selling them for. We printed out the shopping cart page from Newegg and brought it into HHGregg. We told them we were very pleased with their service and would like to buy the pedestals from them too, but found them for a better price online. The guy took the piece of paper, went behind the counter and got the price down to within $7 of the Newegg price. No questions asked!
We ordered the pedestals from HHGregg, and they too were there the next day. My dad came up that weekend and he and Kevin spent the better part of a Saturday afternoon installing the pedestals… But after seeing them in my laundry room… I didn’t really like them. :\ It made it feel more closed in… I guess because the washer and dryer were higher? And also, I couldn’t keep laundry baskets on top of the washer and dryer anymore- the cabinets were in the way. And I had a harder time reaching items in the cabinets. As far as bending down? Well, I found I actually prefered it! See, I would take the clothes to the laundry room in a laundry basket. Then when it was time to move them to the dryer, I just opened the door, scooped all the clothes in the the basket, slid it over and scooped the into the dryer, all in one big scoop. If the clothes were up high, on the pedestals, I would have to pull each item out of the washer separately to make sure it wasn’t attached to any other article of clothing- because I’ve done that before and it always falls on the dirty laundry room floor. Fun! lol
So my poor dad and Kevin spent the rest of the afternoon taking the pedestals OFF the washer and dryer and returning them to HHGregg for me. *sigh* :)
The Cabinets
These were just pre-made cabinets that we bought at Lowes. They were a perfect fit, and such a huge improvement over the wire shelving!!
The Baskets
I got these from Target. They were originally a lighter, honey color, but I wanted them dark so I spray painted them. Worked great! :) And for those wondering- no, I definitely can’t reach them without some kind of vertical assistance! ;) But Kevin has freakishly long monkey arms and can reach them easily without a step ladder. So I keep things he normally takes care of up there- like extra light bulbs. :)
The Rug
The rug was the “inspiration piece” for the room. ;) I saw it at Bed, Bath and Beyond and *had* to have it. I knew it would be perfect to liven up the laundry room! I took the rug to Home Depot and they color matched the blue in Behr paint for the wall color.
Oh, and btw… This stuff is *awesome*
I wanted the rug so bad, but didn’t think it would work in the laundry room because of the two doors- there wasn’t enough room to put the rug down without the doors catching on it and flipping it up every single time- annoying! So I bought this tape from Target and it rocks! It’s strong enough to hold the rug down- the doors don’t get caught on it and I can even vacuum it! But when I got ready to throw the rug in the wash before taking these pics, it was easy to get up.
The Laundry Tower
Since I didn’t get the pedestals, I decided to splurge and get this Whirlpool laundry tower (special ordered from Lowes). I had one of those little cheap, plastic rolling carts there initially, and it worked fine, but this one is nicer. :D I love the drawers, and I love that there’s enough room to fit a little mini-trashcan down there for lint. It holds all the essentials- detergent, bleach, fabric softener and dryer sheets all right there. Btw. Yes. That’s indeed Cascade you see in there. It’s my secret for whitest whites. ;)
Thanks so much for looking! :) Whew- I don’t think I’ve left anything unsaid, but if you have any questions, I will be happy to answer them in the comments! :)
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Want more Boston Terrier puppy-licious goodness? Miley and Howie have their own blog! ;)
