You Know It’s Time To Turn the Heat On When…

It’s nice that at our apartment we don’t have to pay for heat or gas. We do, however, pay for electricity to run the heat. A few months ago our electricity bill was like $70 for our little 700 sq foot apartment! Since then I have managed to slowwwly adapt to living and sleeping in a colder climate, because when we get the house, we will have to pay for the propane and electricity to heat it. It hasn’t been easy, mind you.  There are times when you just have to break down and turn the heat on:

You know it’s time to turn the heat on when you discover the frost on your window is on the inside.

You know it’s time to turn the heat on when your computer makes loud growling noises because it is quite literally frozen.

You know it’s time to turn the heat on when your legs never feel smooth, even right after shaving thanks to your persistent goose bumps.

You know it’s time to turn the heat on when you can see your breath while you talk.

You know it’s time to turn the heat on when your frozen bread (yes, we buy bread in bulk and freeze it) takes 2 whole days to defrost.

You know it’s time to turn the heat on when you can’t roll over at night because you’re so weighed down by blankets.

You know it’s time to turn the heat on when your husband comments on your purple nail polish – and your nails aren’t painted.

 You know it’s time to turn the heat on when all your house plants die.

You know it’s time to turn the heat on when you can’t breathe and you keep blowing your nose from the cold, not because of a cold.

You know it’s time to turn the heat on when you find yourself fantasizing about hot showers, fresh-out-of-the-dryer hoodies, and hot chocolate.

You know it’s time to turn the heat on if you must wear gloves to keep your fingers warm enough to typ e, eventh ough itt ishard to do accurrrate ly withooutmakin g anyerrrors.

Not to say all of these signs have occurred in our little dwelling place.

Not yet.

But it does get to a point where it’s time thaw things out a bit. To me, the ideal indoor temperature would be 71 degrees, although lately we have kept it at a cool 64.  

 Just something for you to think about on this chilly Thursday afternoon in January.

Springtime, Springtime, wherefore art thou, Springtime???

Customized Christmas Cards Decked Out in Bling… These Are A Few of My Favorite Things

My apologies for the long title, but I just couldn’t help myself.

Remember how I mentioned yesterday about how you can get 50 free customized  Christmas cards from Shutterfly? Well I gave you one sample, but that really didn’t come close to representing the diverse collection of cards they have to offer.

Just ask my mom (she’s the one who’s picking out the 50 free cards). I sent her the link to their site yesterday morning, only to get multiple phone calls desiring my assistance in helping her narrow her options down. Finally, she chose this design (Wisemen’s Journey):

She narrowed it down to this one in part because she liked the wisemen and the message.

And then I started customizing the card with this picture (remember I told you about our mall Christmas picture?):

Only to discover that she could customize the whole message too! When I called her to tell her the good news, she responded with…

*silence*

hee hee… She was happy about that, but now it made it even HARDER to decide if she wanted to stick with her original photo card design or use a different one.

Ya know, I really should just break down and get texting with how many times we called each other yesterday.

Maybe next year.

Anyway, personally, I really love these designs:

I just love snowflakes (Bright Blue Snowflakes Design)… where are you, Snow??? I’m sure you Michiganders will probably hunt me down with pitchforks after this post, but…

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

And then I love the picture possibilities of this design here (Most Wonderful Year Design):

I love how you can write a decent-length message in this one (Christmas Letter Design):

I love the swirly font in this one and the black and white makes it so… striking I think. Not at all your typical Christmas card. But I love that the real meaning of Christmas is the theme of the card (O Holy Night Religious Design):

Yeah… I’m glad Mom’s choosing and not me… too many good choices. Of course, it doesn’t help that they find the cutest darn kids to put in the sample pictures. I mean who really needs to customize it if the kids in the pictures on the front are already cuter than your pictures? Unless of course you already have a little one, in which case, send me your kids’ cute pictures so I can use them on my cards!

Although, come to think of it, some people might get the wrong idea.

Anyway… back to reality.

Here are some links to their products (they’ve got some pretty good deals going on this week… even for people who don’t have blogs!):

* Christmas Photo Cards (like the ones I showed you)  http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards

* New Year’s Cards (including invitations – just don’t forget to invite me) http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/new-years-cards

* Photo Calendars (My friend Summer gets one of these each year from her husband. I love this idea!) (*cough* hint-hint *cough* Although I suppose they would only be pictures of myself since my handsome hubby is less than cooperative about getting his picture taken.) http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars  

So what d’ya think? Did ya see anything you liked (other than the glamourous mall family Christmas shot)?

I love this time of year! So many of my favorite things all packed into one month!

Happy planning!

50 Free Holiday Cards from Shutterfly

Happy Cyber Monday!

Actually… I checked out the Cyber Monday deals and really didn’t see any better deals than you can get any other day just by using retailmenot.com and keeping an eye out for sales on the items you really want.

But anyway… how was your Thanksgiving? Mine was wonderful! I ate 11 lbs of food (thanks to 2 Thanksgiving meals and gourmet cooks on both sides of the family) and only gained half a pound! Now that’s a successful holiday!

Okay, okay, that wasn’t actually the highlight of my holiday, although I definitely was relieved that the scale didn’t break when I rolled myself onto it on Friday. The highlight was definitely spending time with family. In fact, I’m thinking about forming a new support group with the women in Tyler’s family for Women Who Shed. While waiting for my food to cook at his parent’s house, we women gathered around the kitchen island and told scary stories — you know the kind — about nasty hair monsters lurking in the depths of the plumbing in our cozy little homes.  Frightening stuff! I’ll spare you the details.

And Tyler’s aunt taught me a new trick that is ingenious! Ya know how the hair all collects on the bathroom counter after you comb it? And then more after you blow dry it? And then even more after you straighten/curl/pull-it-out-in-clumps-because-it-won’t-cooperate? Well, just take that blow dryer and blow the hair off the counter! That’s right! Take revenge, people! Show that hair who’s boss!

And then kindly sweep the floor before your husband starts to think you had the bathroom carpeted.

It was a bonding moment when she shared this. I knew we were kindrid spirits.

Then at my parents’ house after dinner (*groan*) we played Killer Bunnies and Catchphrase with my brother and cousins until crazy hours of the night.

Okay, so maybe it was only 8:00 pm, but after 11 lbs. of food, some of which was turkey, it felt pretty late. But it was a blast! I’ve never had so much fun with my cousins before! When I was a kid, they were mostly all about 10 years older than I was (okay, so I guess they still are all about 10 years older), and they were just too grown up and boring. But I think they’ve regressed nicely and we have a lot more fun together than we used to.

And then it was Friday.

BLACK FRIDAY…

In which I woke up at 4:00 am without an alarm (that tells you how naturally atuned my body is to finding deals) only to sit on my computer for 2 hours and buy several items online for cheaper than they were in stores!!! Yes, people, you heard me right. While you were standing in Kohl’s’ Nightmare-Wrap-Around-The-Store-Three-Times Line to get your 4 in 1 winter parka (originally $180) for $49.99, I found it on their website for the same price, used two coupon codes and got it for $42.00, tax and shipping included! So at 7:00 am I made my official decision to crawl back into bed for a couple of hours instead of fighting off Crazies.

I did, however, end up braving it out there later. It was my Dad’s birthday and for some sick reason he gets pleasure from watching my mom and I spend save his money.  Actually it was my mom who was spending saving his money, but he likes to see how I help her. Such a sweet husband and father… when I someday win the Best Deal Finder Award he will be one of the first people I thank in my acceptance speech.

Later that day we met my brother Casey and his fiance Amanda at the mall. It was so nice to spend time with her and get to know her a little better. I love her ideas for their wedding… she’s an artist, so of course it’s going to be beautiful.

After a couple hours at the mall we went to Outback for some steak and fried ‘shrooms, and then barely slid into the $4 theater in time to see Inception. Which was the. craziest. movie. EVER.

My head is still reeling. We were so into the movie, none of us ate any popcorn until after it was over. Did you see it? What do you think happened to the top??? Crazy, I tell you, CRAZY!

Then we went back to the mall and found a little lounge to sit at so that my dad could open his birthday presents. While we were there, we decided it would be a good time to take a Christmas picture in front of one of the mall Christmas trees. So my mom sweet talked an innocent mall patron into taking it for us. She was so nice! Thanks for putting up with us, Innocent Mall Patron-ess!

Which all brings me to the real discount deal I wanted to tell you about.  Shutterfly is offering 50 Free Holiday Cards to anyone that blogs about their offer. You can use one picture or multiple pictures to customize your Christmas card however you would like it. They have over 800 cards to choose from — some that are postcards and others that are folded cards. I know this only applies to you if you have a blog, so I say,

START A BLOG!

And then tell me about it so that I can read it! And then sign up for this deal, because you know you don’t want to miss out! (photo credit)

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! More to come tomorrow!