No, it’s not that big of a deal (I’m so dramatic with my titles sometimes, aren’t I?).

While I’ve always been hot natured, for some reason, I love wearing slippers in the winter and can’t go a day without them.  I even took mine to IL with me when we flew there for Thanksgiving.  I put them on as soon as I wake up, walk in the door, or any other time that shoes are not on my feet.  They are my very best friend come wintertime.

Well, today, I said goodbye to an old friend…my slippers.  They’ve been with me for the past several years (yep, the same pair).  I’ve tried others, but they’re just not the same and they no longer make this slipper anymore.  My old pair are getting holes in them and it was time to say goodbye.  I scoured the internet for my new pair and did a lot of research on top picks for slippers.  I soon came across the name brand “Acorn“.  Their slogan…”comfort on earth”.  Now how can you go wrong with a brand that has that slogan?

I will say that these slippers are extremely comfortable!  There is so much cushion to them (of course I had been walking in some pretty worn slippers for the past few years, so not much to compare them too).  There is a nice elastic back to them so they have a snug fit and the insides are warm.  I’m very happy with my new pair, although I miss my old pair tremendously.  They were beyond perfect…these new ones….just great, but nowhere near perfect!  Would I recommend them to people?  Sure!  If you’ve never had the slippers I’ve had before, you would certainly think these were a little slice of heaven.

Goodbye my old friend.  You will be missed!

I’m not sure about you, but we have wishlists in our house (one for all three of us) for birthday and Christmas gifts.  This helps family know what we really want (we even rate things from 1 to 5 stars on how much we really want them).  We add links and prices to things as well as descriptions, if necessary.

This past year, my Mom asked me if there was anything else I wanted that I hadn’t taken time to put on my list.  Why yes there was.  I had been eying this magazine rack.  I have subscriptions to probably 5 magazines (ordering them at places that offer them for $4 or less).  They all seem to come around the same time and then end up sitting in a pile on my desk, taking up space.  When I’m done reading a magazine, I usually have several pages dog-eared to go back and read the full article or look something up online.  Then the pile is back on my desk for me to take time to go through the dog-eared pages.

Solution…the Umbra Magazine Rack.  I love the look and simplicity of this magazine rack.  It doesn’t take up a ton of space on my wall, is a nice interesting piece to look at and is functional.  I love it!  I just need a few more magazines to come in to fill it up.  LOL!

Tonight I finished the back of Brody’s quilt while Jason and Brody hung out together.  Here’s a quick pic of the back of his quilt.

I’m getting ready to “sandwich” them together and then the binding.  This will take me a while to do.  I miscalculated the fabric I needed for the binding, so am placing an order and will have to wait for it to arrive first.  *sigh*  I don’t do well at the patience game.

Here’s a quick picture of the front of Brody’s onesie quilt. I think it turned out nice and I love the two brown borders. It pulls everything together and definitely looks “boy-ish”.

I’ve started working on the back of the quilt, but haven’t gotten very far. It shouldn’t take long to finish and I’ll get some pictures of it up soon. Then the real work begins (sandwiching the quilt and adding the binding….yuck…both time consuming for me). This is where I’d love to just hand it off to someone else and see the finished product. LOL!

Philippians 2:9-11

“Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

It’s still my weakness.  *sigh*  Just wanted to share a cute picture of my little guy.  I think he likes Starbucks too.

This afternoon I got started on cutting the squares out to the onesie quilt.  I took a picture of the first one I did (the owl outfit that Brody wore home from the hospital…we thought it was fitting since he was born on Halloween and it was sort of like a “costume”).  It was such a strange feeling going through all of his onesies and cutting each of them up.  Somewhat sad (my baby is growing), yet very excited about what they’re about to become (a forever kept quilt).  I can’t wait to present this to Brody one day (maybe when he has a child of his own as I know he could care less about it (being a boy), but his wife would think it was pretty cool).

As I made my way through the pile of onesies, I came across his onesie that he wore for Christmas and Valentine’s Day last year.  I already have on hand shirts that Brody will wear this Christmas and Valentine’s Day, so I thought it would be neat to take a picture of his shirt this year and his outfit last year.  Can you believe that the full size of the onesie is the length of the t-shirt he now wears.  Boy has he grown this past year.

Tonight I was able to first lay out the onesies in the order I wanted and then had time to sew them all together (I had to get them off of my office floor so Brody had a place to play tomorrow morning before his morning nap).   It’s a great feeling to get that much done already.  I still have quite a bit to do with this quilt, but so far, it’s a start.

I’ll keep you posted on the progress (with pictures).  Can’t wait to see the finished look.  As a reminder, here is the example of what I plan for it to look like when I’m finished.

My husband just gave me the best gift ever!  I cannot even begin to tell you how excited and relaxed I am right now.

So what did he give me, you ask?

He sent me upstairs to my office to blog (on all three of my blogs) with a cup of coffee and two truffles.  YUM!  I’ve got Christmas music playing (I love the classics).  That’s not all.  He sent me to do this while he is cleaning the house and not just cleaning the house, but SPRING cleaning the house.  I hate cleaning, so this is the best gift anyone could give me.

This morning, I’ve finished four hooded bath towels (two more for Brody and two for a friend of mine).  I’ve gone through all of Brody’s toys and we’re getting rid of some he’s outgrown, and am now sitting and enjoying my coffee and truffles.  Next (after blogging), I’m going to start on Brody’s onesie quilt (cutting squares).  I won’t get far as Brody is up in an hour, but the thought of being able to do whatever I want in this next hour is just more exciting than I can bare.

Thank you Jason!  You have no clue what you’ve done for me.

This year we had two Christmas cards made.  Why you ask?  Well, one was through a friend of my sisters who took some photos of us this past month and the other was because I had a code for 50 free Christmas photo cards at Shutterfly and wanted to use the more traditional Christmas colors and Brody’s 1-year photos.

I had planned all along to buy my Christmas cards through Shutterfly, but when my sisters friend took our photos, I wanted to give her some business.  Anyway, here are our two Christmas photo cards for this year.  They should be sent out in the next day or two (I’m hoping).  Be looking for yours soon.

Are you a grocery list maker?  I am, always have been.

In the past few years, I’ve started putting the paper pads on the side of the refrigerator and when we run out of something or there’s something that just sounds good, we write it down.  When it’s time to go to the store, I have all of my items wrote on the list already (minus the last minute staples that we’re not quite out of, but I know we’ll need within the week).

I even go one step further (I learned this from my Mom and love this idea!).  I re-write my grocery list in the order that the store is organized so I can walk right in, look at my list and not skip a beat.  I go in the order of my list and within minutes (ok, so quite a few minutes), my shopping is done and I’m at the check-out.  I rarely have to double back unless it’s an item that I hadn’t purchased before and I was guessing where it was located in the store.

And now, to make things even easier (at least for my husband), I have made a check-off grocery list.  I came across the tutorial last week and knew that I wanted to make this.  It’s SO easy!  It’s organized by areas in the store (dairy, frozen, cleaning supplies, produce, etc…).  The list is even customizable, so you can make it really fit your needs.  It was so easy to change.  I added things we often use and added a couple of extra blanks for each category.  I even added a “baby” category (again, making it meet my needs).

I haven’t started using it yet (just made it last night).  Let me know if you make one and how you like it.