Blog Swap

I love it when people share their fav blogs with me! There are so many creative people out there doing really neat things!!

One of these blogs is Craftily Ever After! I was recently introduced to it and I LOVE it! Check out the link to see their newest "freebie"...a fun Valentine's Day "printable"! I love the look of printable art and have used quite a few prints in the nursery.

I stumbled across KevinandAmanda.com last week and have really enjoyed following it.  If you love photography, Amanda has some awesome photography tips! Her pictures are amazing.  She's the kind of woman I wanna be when I grow up! ; )

If you have any fun blogs to swap, let me know!!!

The Nursery: A Sneak Peek

Door decoration and diaper cake made lovingly by Auntie Emily!

People brought books to my baby shower. Can't wait for bedtime stories!

Yes...that is a Halloween costume in the closet...it was a consignment store impulse buy!
Major organization needed in the closet, yikes!

It's blog time, baby!

Happy (belated) New Year! Welcome to our newly designed blog! According to our blog, 2010 was pretty uneventful.  In fact, the very opposite was true.  We got the best news of our lives...we found out we are expecting a sweet baby boy around February 24th!  God is SO good!! Since finding out at the end of June, our lives have been full of joy, excitement, planning and making BIG decisions.

When thinking of New Year's resolutions...I realized I had an entirely new set of goals and plans. There is nothing more I've ever wanted than to be a mommy...and now I'm 6 weeks away from meeting our little man.  There's a laundry list of things I want to achieve in the next year...personally, as a wife and as a first-time mom. 

On that list is to dedicate more time to our blog and to treat it as an online journal of Jackson's first year! I'll be staying at home with the baby for a while and hope to return to CCDHC part-time, in the future! People tell me I'll be busier than EVER which is why I felt the need to get this blog organized ahead of time!! I'm really looking forward to documenting my sweet boy's "firsts'" and our parenting stories to share with YOU!

Holiday Card Memories

I love picking out holiday cards every year! It means that Christmas is around the corner and it's just one more tradition that I look forward to. Our first Christmas as a married couple was a very special one! We got married 11-22-08 so we didn't have a whole lot of extra time to get our cards made. We used a wedding picture and had them made by Shutterfly. We had our cards by Dec 13th and they were sent out with time to spare...not bad for us newlyweds! Our card from 2008 is below!

The following year I was a little ambitious and decided to make our cards from scratch. Two words...never again! It was the kind of project that sounded fun and ended up taking way longer than I expected. Each card was hand stamped/glued/cut...yea, not sure what I was thinking. Though I was really happy with the end result...I knew that Shutterfly and I would be in business the next year!!

That year has come...and it's time for our 2010 card. This year, our family picture will look somewhat different as we are expecting a precious baby boy in February. Don't worry Bailey...we would never leave you out! We are having our pictures taken on Sunday and will be ordering our cards soon!

A few of my favorite Shutterfly products are their:
calendars...http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars
thank you cards...http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/thank-you-cards
and canvas wall art...http://www.shutterfly.com/home-decor/canvas-wall-art
****UPDATE****
Here are our 2010 Shutterfly Christmas cards!
I am thrilled with how they came out! Even MORE excited that through a special promotion I got $104 worth of cards for $7!!!!

Couponing

I love that "couponing" is the new cool thing to do. As if saving money in the past was for losers! It's actually the other way around for me...I was the loser (money loser) because I didn't have a CLUE what I was talking about. Tell me if this sounds familiar: ughhhhh, I don't have time for that...or, how are a few coupons REALLY going to make a difference. Ahhhh, yes. This makes sense. There just isn't enough time in the day to start saving hundreds of dollars a month. Ok, ok...so I'm not up to hundreds, yet. But (and I wish I knew how true this was in the past)...every penny counts.

Jake and I are shopping buddies...I can probably count on one hand how many times I've gone grocery shopping without him. I know, sickening. He's starting to get used to this whole couponing thing and I'm hoping one day he'll grab a Sunday paper and clip a few! For now, he's my treasure hunter. I pass him the coupon and he finds the booty (pirate booty, that is). Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

Things I've learned (and are trying to put into practice):
*BOGO is not the name of a clown...it means buy one get one (FREE!)
*using a manufacturers coupon when things are on super sale or BOGO is where the real savings come in!!
*CVSing MAY actually be a worthy cause...click here to learn how to "CVS"
*paying full price on a majority of your items at the grocery store is jut silly
*online coupon printing eats the heck out of your ink but it's well worth it! Use *DRAFT MODE* on your printer!
*I'm going to have to cave and do the baseball card deal of organizing the coupons!
*this takes time...but once again, worth it!!

Here are some of my favorite blogs for couponing advice:
Southern Savers
I Heart Publix
CouponMom

I am nowhere near paying $15 and saving $125 like some people blog about. Coupons on deli stuff/meat/seafood are hard to come by so you can't always walk off with tons of savings...but, I really think it's possible to have a complete budget makeover! Now that we are putting Jake through school (and the economy is kind of, um, in the potty)...we are really realizing that every penny DOES count. Just this past Sunday, we saved $25 between Publix and Target on household items that we really needed!! I know it's not a ton, but, imagine saving $25 a week every week for an entire year....that's $1,300!!! If Jake actually read our blog (LOL) he'd know what I'm thinking...MAUI for our two year anniversary. HA! SO glad he DOESN'T read this! ; )

If anyone has any neat tips, let me know! Have fun and be careful with those coupons...ouch! Nasty paper cuts!

Linds

***UPDATE***

Extreme Couponing 101: Atlanta - Eventbrite

Southern Savers presents
Extreme Couponing 101: Atlanta -- Thursday, February 25, 2010 -- Marietta, GA
JOIN ME! : )

Project Guestroom Update

I wanted to share an update about our guestroom makeover! Here's the background info:

I'm a HUGE online news junky...CNN.com, AJC.com...even People.com (yes, it's "news", lol)...
Recently I was browsing AJC online and came across a feature of The Best of the Big A...Best Blog Award.
The top blog award was given to Charm Home. I began following the blog and became addicted! The blogger is Cristi Holcombe...it's her interior design blog. She has tons of fun and creative design ideas.

Cristi and I began emailing back and forth about the current real estate market, home makeovers, etc...we really hit it off! We have decided to team up and trade services. YAY! She's coming over on Thursday to help me with our guestroom makeover in exchange for some snazzy pics of her for the blog. I'm thrilled to have a REAL interior designer help with the guestroom. I'm also super excited to be taking her pics. I've got some really fun ideas for her shoot.

Look out for updates on the design process as well as following LH Photography for a sneak peek of Cristi's shoot! We should be doing her photo session in the next few months.

Project Guestroom

I love decorating and home makeovers. However, this can be an expensive passion! My next project is to revamp our guestroom and turn it into a functional office for Jake. Since he's started at Emory, he's been using our dining room table or leather chair in the living room to study. Seeing as he has two and a half more years of school...it seems like a good idea for him to have an area that he can dedicate to studying, etc.

Our guestroom now is a hodgepodge of "stuff" (and now, a Trek bike, lol) that just clutter up the room. My vision is to have a room that he can put his Georgia stuff in, without clashing with the current color scheme. Red and black don't quite go with the sage green bedding we have now soooo...it's time for a makeover...on a budget!

What we have:
queen bed/headboard (that needs to be spray painted black)
cherry wood nightstand (to be painted black OR donated to Goodwill *hmmmm*)
cherry dresser with TV on top (may go in master bedroom!!)
a whole lot of Georgia stuff...including his framed jersey and Mr. November calendar ; )

What we need:
black or white desk
chair
new bedding (COMFORTER/PILLOWCASES-done...now I'm looking for B&W polka dot sheets...if anyone finds some, let me know!)
fun office supplies/decor

My finds SO far:
reversible comforter and shams from Walmart.com ($50) *see above : )
red alligator-ish textured pen holder from Homegoods ($3)
vinyl B&W dry erase calendar to stick on wall from Homegoods ($12)

I'll update with pics and "finds" as I come across them!
Wish me luck!
L