Project 366: Week 17

Oreck Grab-It & Steam-It WINNER!!

Thanks to everyone who entered to win the Oreck Grab-It & Steam-It! According to random.org, the lucky winner is comment #8, which was Kristin!

Kristin, I will be getting in touch with you. Please respond within 72 hours to claim your prize.

Happy Cleaning! :)

DIY: Printable Nursery Clothing Size Dividers

As I mentioned last week, I've been working to get Maeva's closet organized. It has been a bit of a challenge as we don't have the nice walk-in closets that our last home did, and well, girlfriend already has quite the wardrobe, thanks to generous friends and family. Regardless, I'm making it work. I'm just not going to hang up more than one size at a time like I did when I first set up Manny'2010/04/nursery-closet.html">here and the tutorial for the size dividers I made here.)

We are fortunate to have some larger sized clothing that needs to be stored, so I bought these tubs at the Target $1 Spot for $2.50...because that makes sense...but I won't get started. Regardless, they work great for easy access to other items, and stack nicely on the closet shelf. I designed some tags to tie on to the bins so I can quickly locate a size without pulling all of the bins down. I decided not to foam-mount and mod podge the tags like I did Manny's since they won't be hanging in the middle of clothes so durability won't really be an issue. Plus it was just quicker. :)

I thought I'd share my designs in case anyone else might be able to use them too. Just click the bottom of the image or the links below them to download. I recommend printing on matte presentation paper or cardstock. Then just cut out, hole punch, and tie on with riboon. You could also print these on label sheets and stick them to the actual bin, but I didn't want something that permanent.

As with all of my downloads, these are for personal use only. Please do not re-sell these or claim them as your own. Thank you! :)


navy chevron size dividers here


pink chevron size dividers here


yellow chevron size dividers here

Happy Friday friends...have a great weekend! :)

Project 366: Week 16

Oreck Grab-It & Steam-It Giveaway

Good Morning Friends! Let's start this Tuesday off right, shall we? How about a little giveaway for an Oreck Grab-It & Steam-It Turbo Broom & Steam Mop? I think yes!

Now, if you're a regular reader of my blog, then you probably know I don't do a lot of reviews or giveaways. But when I see something that grabs my interest, AND I think my readers would benefit from? I'm all over it. So I was thrilled when the kind people at Oreck gave me the opportunity to not only try this out myself, but then give one away to one of you!

So what is it exactly, you ask? Well, simply put, I'd say it's a multi-tasker's (read:ME) best friend. This beauty has sweeping AND steaming functions all in one tidy little package. And you know what that means? One less thing to drag out, AND more productivity overall...score! (It also means our floors might get cleaned more than once every blue moon, but that's neither here nor there.)

One of my absolute favorite features of this? It has a ridiculously long cord - which I LOVE. I know it might seem odd, but it just really annoys me to have to keep moving the plug to different outlets for our vacuum cleaner. I think I could take a few laps around our kitchen island with this cord, and still be good to go. It also has a nice long handle, which is not a must for me since I'm short, but is great should someone else...oh, say Patrick, for example...decide to surprise me with some cleaning. (a girl can dream)

Because I am the world's worst housekeeper For the sake of this review, I let my floors get pretty filthy. Do you see all that gunk built up on the floor? This means not only getting the broom and/or vacuum out, but then mopping too? Clearly in this house, that just doesn't happen all that often.

The Grab-It & Steam-It makes it so simple. You can just sweep, just steam, or both at the same time. I prefer to sweep, then go back over the floor with the steam. The on/off buttons are simple, and once you have the steam powered on for about 30 seconds, a pretty blue light comes on letting you know it's ready to go. Then all you do is hold a little trigger on the handle to activate the steam. Or, you can keep sweeping and add in the steam when you're ready. Whatever tickles your fancy, really. I love the versatility of it.

Ahh, yes...a nice sparkly clean floor. Much better, huh? The one thing I would mention, is that if you're used to using a steam mop, this is a little heavier/bulkier than a stand-alone steam mop. It is not bad at all though, especially considering you're getting sweeping functionality along with the steam. It just took a little getting used to at first, but in the long run, it's definitely worth the (very) small difference in that regard. Overall I am really impressed with this piece, and am thinking it will lead to a much cleaner home in my future. :)

So would you like to win an Oreck Grab-It & Steam-It to have and to hold and call your own? It's simple...here's how!

Mandatory Entry:

Visit Oreck.com and tell me one thing you learned about the 

Oreck Grab-It & Steam-It

Want to increase your chances to win? You can do any and ALL of the following:

(important: please leave a separate comment for each additional entry)

• Follow @oreck on Twitter
• Like Oreck on Facebook
• Sign up for Oreck's email list by clicking on "Sign up for Email" in the top navigation bar and entering your email address
• Tweet about the giveaway, mentioning @oreck and @sarahjanell

Important Details and Rules: This giveaway is open to residents of the U.S. 48 contiguous states ONLY. You must be 18 years and older to enter. No duplicate comments. There will be one winner of the Oreck Grab-it & Steam-it. This giveaway will run from April 24, 2012 until April 30, 2012 at midnight CST. Winner will have 72 hours to get back to me otherwise a new winner will be selected. Please leave a way for me to notify you. Winner will be determined via drawing on random.org. Odds of winning will be dependent upon total number of entries. Disclosure – I was given the Oreck Grab-it & Steam-it to review and keep. All opinions stated in this post are entirely my own opinion. Oreck Corporation provided the prize for the sweepstakes but is not the sponsor of the sweepstakes.

Just Some Randoms

--I got the cutest gift in the mail last week from my sweet blog friend Brittany. I absolutely love this fabric banner she made, and it will look adorable over Maeva's changing table! Since I'm not fully setting up her nursery yet, this was the perfect thing to put up so it feels like I've actually done some decorating. Thank you so much Brittany...you are so incredibly thoughtful and it is the perfect touch for her room!

--I finally started packing our hospital bags. Why is it that I feel like this is my first time to do this? I cannot for the life of me think what I need and know I'm going to end up with a bunch of random things I don't need. I ended up selling the 2 diaper bags that I used for Manny, and bought the Timi & Leslie Charlie II. Love the look of it; hope I also like the functionality once I start using it.

--Which leads me to a question. I have heard a lot of people talk about putting together a big brother/sister bag for the hospital, I guess of little prizes or things to do. Has anyone done this? If so, what do (or don't) you recommend including? Was it helpful/useful? I'm thinking I want to do something along these lines, as this little guy is pretty high energy and things can go downhill quickly if he doesn't have something to do. Or should I say...something to do that won't get him into trouble. :)

--Speaking of random things, has anyone tried the " target="_blank">NoseFrida? I didn't hear about it until Manny was old enough that we didn't really need anything like that, but I'm thinking of ordering one to use for MB. I HATE suctioning babies, and if this makes it easier at all, I definitely need one.

--Thanks for all of the incredibly sweet comments on Maeva's baby shower! I definitely feel so blessed to have had a 2nd shower and that my mom and sisters made it such a special day for us. I got a few questions on things from the shower, and thought I would answer some of them here. I used my Cricut to cut out the chalkboard labels. Chalkboard vinyl can be purchased here. I also cut the monograms with my Cricut. I don't use cartridges, but always use my Sure Cuts a Lot software. Unfortunately it is no longer for sale as a Cricut compatible version, so I'm sorry I'm not more help there. As far as the banner that said Maeva Beth, I designed it in Photoshop. If you aren'2011/06/diy-easy-banner-tutorial.html" target="_blank">DIY Easy Banner Tutorial. The custom water bottle label tutorial, including a template you can download and customize yourself, can be found here. I think I've responded via email to any other questions I got, but if I missed yours please let me know!

Happy Monday, friends! :)

Project 366: Week 15

Maeva Beth {37 weeks}

Well I can't believe I'm already at 37.5 weeks! It is getting so close to her arrival and I'm nowhere near ready. I mean, I'm ready to meet her, but I still haven't organized everything the way I'd like to. My goal is to change that this week though.

Yesterday I decided to start cleaning out her closet and getting things put in her dresser. I bought some cute wrapping paper at Target to line the drawers with just for fun. I was working on this a little yesterday, and had cut 2 pieces out when I turned around, and saw my little helper was so carefully trying to put the paper in the drawer for me. 

Although I appreciated the gesture, it was a just a tad more wrinkled than I preferred, so I decided to wait until he went to bed to finish these out. And lucky for me, Patrick volunteered to cut them out. I just stuck them down with a few pieces of scotch tape, and love the little pop of color!

My blood pressure has still been spiking up on occasion, so I'm taking medication now to try to keep it under control. I feel fine, but the medicine makes me feel about 100 shades of crazy for the first hour after I take it. AND it makes me more emotional (see yesterday's post for Exhibit A.)

Because of my high blood pressure, they did a biophysical profile on MB last week to make sure she looked okay. Thankfully she scored 8/8 and is doing great, so we'll let her keep cooking for awhile. Patrick was with me and asked (AGAIN) if they were sure it's a girl. I guess he's still holding out hope. The tech only gave us one picture, but it was of this one confirming she definitely is a girl. And with that, let's pray this is the first and last time my daughter's lady parts will make an appearance on the internet. 

Happy Wednesday! :)

Our Weekend

Well this weekend turned out to be a bit eventful! (Yes, I'm still pregnant and everything is good there.) Saturday morning Manny & I headed out to Chloe's birthday party (though we never actually made it there - more on that in a minute. ) It was a picnic theme and I know everything was adorable! I'd seen a few sneak peeks of things Katie made, and I can't wait to see the rest. For Chloe's gift, I painted a wooden suitcase from Hobby Lobby with my favorite turquoise chalkboard paint by Martha Stewart, and put some chalk and a book she wanted inside. 

Anyway, I was driving along to the party when I noticed a sound that just sounded...off. I thought it might have been the crazy wind, but when a car pulled up next to me, and the passenger started motioning me to pull over I knew something wasn't right. So I took the next exit I could, and pulled over to check out the car. And that's when I saw this:

Turns out that little plastic piece (later to be identified as a shroud) should not be hanging down, turning my car basically into a snow plow. After a few calls, I do what any 37 week pregnant girl would do: start sobbing. I was sitting in my car waiting to hear back from my dad after I texted him this picture, when this guy knocked on my window and scared the snot out of me. I wasn't exactly in the safest of neighborhoods, so I was a little on edge. He was very nice (and animated) and told me to hold tight while he looked for some duct tape to fix me up. He managed to get it taped up, then added that it wouldn't last long, but at least long enough to get me out of the hood. So there's that. :)

I made it a little ways down the road before the duct tape gave out. However, I'd since talked to my dad and he said it'd be fine to keep driving as long as I went slow and preferably didn't get on the interstate. So I'm cruising along a 4-lane road about 20-25 mph (in a 45 mph zone) with my hazards on when a truck comes racing up behind me, laying on the horn and flipping me off. I was like, are you kidding me?! Just pass on the left already! And of course...I started crying. Again. Dang hormones. At that point, I was stopped at a stoplight, and the guy next to me starts honking trying to get my attention. I rolled down my window, and he said, "Hey, do you know you're dragging something?" And I said, "Yes, I do, but I'm just trying to get somewhere to get it taken care of and I can only go so fast and I don't know what to do and everybody's mad at me!" Keep in mind all of this was said through sobbing tears. Did I really just tell this stranger that everybody was mad at me?! Have I mentioned my hormones are raging?! This guy's eyes were huge, like saucer huge. He probably wanted to shout, "Listen lady, I'm not Dr. Phil!" and run the red light to avoid this conversation I had now engaged him in, when all he was trying to do was give me a heads up that something was wrong with my car.

I don't know if he was scared to death or a really nice guy, but he just responded (still big eyes, might I add) "Pull over up ahead and I'll see if I can help." And help he did! This Good Samaritan had some tools, and crawled under my car to remove the piece completely. I'm not typically a huge crier, so I felt SO silly that I couldn't reign it in. I don't know what came over me, but I'll definitely blame it on the pregnancy! I don't think I've ever had a (public) crying episode like that, so I figured this should be documented accordingly, embarrassing as it may be.

So yeah. By that point, the birthday party was basically over, so Manny and I headed back home. My mom had a board meeting in the city on Saturday, so my parents stayed with us and Manny had way too much fun playing cars with Papa. It's his favorite thing to do these days!

Sunday morning we went to church, and I didn't let Manny bring his fedora. Is it a problem that even the nursery workers asked where his hat was when we dropped him off? :) Well wouldn't you know when I picked him up from nursery, he'd found a plastic fireman's hat to make do. He's so goofy!

After church, we went to lunch with my parents then hung out for a bit before they had to head home. And that evening, Patrick and I went out for a belated anniversary celebration. April 8th was our 6th anniversary, but we hadn't had a chance to do anything yet. So we went to The Melting Pot, ate WAY too much, then just walked around for awhile. It was so nice and relaxing, and we're trying to get as many date nights in as we can before sweet little MB is born.

When we got home, I had to peek in on Manny. The sitter had told me he wanted to sleep in his hat and she didn't want to upset him, so she let him. Sure enough, he was still wearing it. Have I mentioned that I just LOVE this kid to PIECES?! Such a fun, spunky, unique personality. Love love love. :)

Happy Tuesday!

Project 366: Week 14

Maeva's Baby Shower

A few weekends ago, my mom, sisters, and sister-in-law threw us the most amazing shower! It was in my hometown, and I loved getting to see so many people I went to high school with and special people who've been in my life since I was a little baby myself. My mom and sister Rachael led the way on organizing the shower, and they did such an amazing job!

The chandelier you see in these pictures is actually the chandelier we used in the arch at our wedding! My mom has held on to it for me since then, and it will now go in Maeva's nursery (when we actually set it up.) They went with a navy, pink, and yellow color scheme to match her nursery, so of course I loved all of the details. My mom made the adorable rosette wreath with the M on it for the front door, and they had lots of cute girly goodies hung on clotheslines.

My mom also made this mirror...isn't it the cutest?! I love that they made so many decorative things that I get to keep to use in the nursery.

They made these fun poms that I plan to use in the nursery as well. My mom painted these little flower pots, and I now have them sitting on my front porch. They are a great little touch of spring, and so far I've managed to keep them alive...knock on wood. :)

They kept it simple and we played one "game" that was different than anything I've ever seen before, and it was so funny! It is like a Mad Libs form (remember those from childhood?) that made for some interesting baby advice. Guests could also leave a note on the back. These were so fun to read through!

The food was absolutely amazing, and Rachael did a good job of making sure lots of my favorites were present. But who are we kidding...what isn't my favorite these days? :)

I thought the little duckies in the punch bowl were SO cute, and the punch itself was delicious.

Here we are with my sweet, sweet mom & dad. I just love you guys to pieces!!

A few pictures of me opening gifts, and with my family. We took lots of pictures with some of the shower guests, but unfortunately most of them didn't turn out.
 

For hostess gifts, I used my Cricut to put a vinyl monogram on tumblers that I picked up from Dollar General for only $2.50. I also made them a set of stationary, and put it together in a little basket (also Dollar General - 3 for $1) and finished it off with a chalkboard label I cut with my Cricut.

And I have to include this random picture. You might notice in some of these pictures I'm wearing a cardigan, but eventually took it off. I typically wear cardigans just because I'm self conscious of my arms. It was particularly hot on the day of my shower, BUT I had the bright idea the day before to get spray tanned...you can see where this is going. She did a pretty good job, except for my left arm...it was like giraffe print or something. It was so strange!! As the afternoon went on, it got hotter and hotter, and I couldn't take it any longer, so decided oh well with the cardigan. In this picture, my best friend is looking at the ridiculousness that is my arm, and her facial expression cracks me up. So there's a random story for you. Oh, and yes...that would be a fainting goat you see in the picture as well. My niece wanted one, and apparently my parents can't say no to their grandkids...so meet Wilfred. :)

It was such a wonderful day and I can't thank you girls enough for putting this together and all of the amazing gifts!! We are certainly blessed, and I can't wait to show Maeva all of her cute goodies. :)

Easter Weekend 2012

Hi friends! Yep, we're still here, and yep, I'm even further behind on blogging than before. I wish I had more time to spend blogging just because I hate to fall behind before Maeva's even born, but that seems to be the case lately. Oh well, such is life! I'm determined to get a few more posts up this week though.

We had an excellent, low-key Easter weekend. My sister and her son came down on Friday afternoon, and we had so much fun hanging out with them. On Friday night, we took the boys (Manny & my nephew Hayden) to their first hockey game. They loved it, and my sister couldn't say no to Manny's charm and bought him a hockey puck (I wasn't present, mind you) which he absolutely loves. The mere sight of that thing makes me see stars. This kid has quite an arm on him, so for now we are displaying the hockey puck in a safe place, read: out of his reach. Thanks though Jen...I know you won major cool points with Manny for that purchase. :)

On Saturday, we hung out for a bit that morning, then had an Easter egg hunt for the boys. It was more like Manny hunting and Hayden helping him, but it was so cute and loads of fun.

I took these pictures when they were done hunting, and I think they are just precious! My sister got them these coordinating shirts, and they looked SO handsome in them. And yes, Manny's teeth are covered in chocolate from the M&M's he kept shoving in his mouth. He was one happy camper. 

Manny had so much fun collecting eggs. Though when he'd come across some of the bigger prizes we'd put out, he got a bit distracted. Especially by a little basketball, of course. His favorite!

When he very first started hunting, he would collect a few eggs, then throw them out of the basket. It was so cute. His teeth have been bothering him quite a bit lately too, so you'll notice him gnawing away at his fingers. Poor buddy. 
On Sunday we went to church, then just decided to go out to eat for lunch. My blood pressure is still kind of playing games with me, so Patrick didn't want me up cooking...which of course, I couldn't argue with. :) I tried to snap a few pictures of us at lunch, but well...you can see somebody didn't like that idea.

Manny looked so cute in his little outfit and I'm bummed I didn't get a better picture of it. Funny story though. Both the shirt and shorts were new, and I never know how well something will fit him until I put it on him. So, I didn't take the tags off because I wanted to make sure they fit first. Well, in the haste of things this morning, I forgot to take the tags off after he was dressed. And when I went to pick him up from nursery today, the tags were hanging out of his shirt AND shorts, which I'm sure happened when they changed his diaper. I was mortified. They probably think I'm going to take it back now that he's worn it. Ha! I'm losing my mind, one day at a time.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!

Project 366: Week 13