My niece, Natalia, turned 4 years old on Wednesday (Dec. 7th).  Here are a few of my favorite shots! The rest are on my Flickr site, in the Natalia set!

Last weekend was so uplifting for me.  I had my best friend in town visiting and we spent 3 days hanging out with some of the most wonderful women with creative minds that I know! There was a lot of fun conversation and cheering…and FOOD!  I literally can’t wait to have another weekend like this. I feel so rejuvenated and I hope everyone knows how much I enjoyed spending time with them!

I managed to have a really productive weekend…sometimes when I have a fun weekend it doesn’t end up being productive, but this weekend was different.  I created 9 single page layouts and 1 two page layout…I also performed “the washing of the fruit” – Deb helped with the ceremony and the washing

More photos in the album labeled “Walnut Retreat”

Laughter & Smiles
photos by Shaganman Photography

This little sweetheart turned 8 years old today!

http://www.2wheatens.com/photo-albums/the-2-wheatens/100_0990/

James and I love her so much!  And Booker loves her, too!

I’ve been wanting to get some prints up on the walls for awhile now.  I finally decided to order three color prints, using Persnickety Prints, sized at 11″x14″ – and I plan to use them together in a scheme on the wall in the guest bedroom.

I feel like the pinks in two of the photos will compliment each other and the yellows in two of the photos will compliment each other.

I’m excited to put these together and see the outcome. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get them before Friday and hang them up before James and I leave on our mini vacation.  If not, I’ll probably be able to get them up in the guest room before Deb comes to visit!

Next up…I’m hoping to locate some of my old black and white prints and hang them in the living area. We’ll see!

Prints:

I decided I needed to start blogging again…and the best way to motivate myself was to put up a pretty little header.  I took the photo that is the Header when Deb and I went to the Botanical Center in DesMoines…years ago!  It reminds me of her and the fact that I started blogging was because of her, so I figured it was fitting to make a blog header out of something that reminded me of her.

Along with that…I was super excited to figure out how to change the color of my fonts and the background on my blog, so that everything matched. It was originally blue, purple, and red. I decided to change it to pink, gray and black.  I had to go into the code and change the code color, which was semi-scary for me. Usually, I contact Deb and have her, have J fix it up for me.  I’m not at all interested in doing this all the time, but today I’m having a peaceful afternoon to myself and decided to give it a try.

I added some videos to the Ear Candy section, added some new Etsy shops that I love, updated some links, and deleted all my Norwex (my Norwex website is now www.rachelpiper.com).

I’d like to start filling you all in on all the fabulous things I’ve been up to, but it doesn’t equate to much of anything.  I’ve been super busy with my new position at work and I’ve been reading a lot, catching up on my shows, pinning on Pinterest…all while spending lots of quality time (when not at work) with JP and the 2wheatens.

Reading FYI…

The Hunger Games = a must read! I read all three in less than a 48 hour period of time!  I cannot wait for the movie to come out. Exciting!  Extremely well written and totally lives up to the hype…although, sometimes it’s quite graphic.

James and I have been planning a mini vacation. Mom is going to babysit the 2wheatens while we head up to Minneapolis to see the Sexy Liberal comedy show (James’s idea) and go to the Mall of America. It should be really fun. 

The following weekend…I get to see Deb!  And we’ll be able to spend a nice weekend with a bunch of great ladies in DesMoines, so I’m really looking forward to that, too.

To celebrate my mom. 

It might seem like an odd picture to choose to celebrate how much I love my mother, but the story behind it is simple. 

I am overly independent.  I’ve always just sort of done my own thing. Answered my own thoughts.

However, when I need my mom she will always come to me.  A phone call in the middle of the night, babysitting the 2wheatens, or washing my dishes

This picture shows her washing my dishes after helping us move for two long days…and she is still smiling after all those hours of being with the overly obsessive ME!

I love you, Mom!

used: [Robyn Meierotto, Agnes Biro, and Jopke Designs]

Tomorrow is the last day to get a FREE super scrapbooking kit through the designers at DHD (Design House Digital)…it’s also the last day of their [inter]National Scrapbooking Celebration. Extra freebies and discounts!

The free kit is part of a Blog Hop…it’ll take a little bit of time to get all of your downloads, but it’s totally worth it.

I started on Robyn’s Blog, of course.

I just read a post on thekitchn.com and saw an excellent way to keep away from using the plastic bags in the produce section.  It was a link to an old post from last summer, but they are available on etsy and I bought one large and one small as a bundle for $22!  I’m super excited!

These bags can also be used for bulk purchases of beans and grains, which is fantastic!

Here the website of the woman I purchased from on etsy – post shows photos:

Ambatalia

Happy, plastic free, Tuesday!

I could tell you at least 5 stories that revolved around stuck cars and detours we had to take to get home on Tuesday, which happened to be our anniversary.  It took 30 minutes for us to get home from work (which is basically just across the way from where we live) that night because of unplowed roads and trapped cars.  Luckily, they did decide to plow our road, but only one side at 6:30AM that morning or we wouldn’t have been able to get out…however, they did not plow our side of the road, so we had to dig ourselves out of an extra 1/2 of the street.  The storm winds blew in an unusual direction based on my previous experience helping out Deb (who used to live on the opposite side of the street and uphill)…normally the drift went uphill and east, covering Deb’s drive in a sucky way, but this time it came downhill and west.  As of today, there’s no way we could get to our backyard from our driveway, which is pretty hillarious. The snow is about 5’7″ high (approximately).  I need to take some pictures!

My main reason for the post was this:  
I had a dream last night about the huge snow storm we just had.  I personally spoke to the groundhog and he said it would be an early Spring.  I didn’t  believe the little rat and made fun of him.  I know…a talking groundhog and me being mean to an animal…I will chalk this behaviour up to frustration of the snow and being sick with a bad cold.  Anyways, I went to bed after the conversation with the groundhog and when I woke up it was Spring.  I hadn’t fallen into the Sleeping Beauty trap or anything…it just simply happened over night.  And then I felt bad for being mean to the groundhog, but was happy I didn’t have to go through all the watery, muddy yuck that will happen when all this white stuff starts to melt!

Moral:  Be nice during this depressing weather because Spring will be here soon!

Yesterday, I went to the store (as usual) and bought a carton of eggs. 

James decided that he would have an egg sandwich for breakfast.  As I was sitting at the table drinking my beverage and checking out Pinterest, I noticed he made a sound and saw him looking at the egg carton.

He got all huffy with me and said,

“Rach, this carton is missing an egg!  Did you even check it before you bought it?!”

To myself, I’m thinking: [of course, I did. I'm no fool!  I've been buying eggs for a million years, duh! But I decided to have some funwith him, because that's what he'd do to me]

My retort,

“Oh my gosh!  No. I didn’t know you were supposed to. Really?  An egg is missing??!!”  And then, [voice filled with sarcasm] “wait a second…I think I remember eating an egg.  Was that today?”

James:  [A look of malice and the shaking of his spatula in my direction]

I have to admit. I love that guy! I think it’s good to give him a taste of his own medicine once in awhile!