Mariannes Motifs

Bee on A Flower

bee_on_a_flower
Originally uploaded by mar1annec

I snapped this pic yesterday of a big fat bumble bee on some of my neighbors flowers.

First Day of First Grade Report

Here is a picture of the B-man getting off the bus yesterday.  Isn't he cute holding his water bottle?  He had such a great day and is really liking his new teacher. 

The school has given each child a calendar/homework planner with a place for the parent to initial each day.  They will have homework every day!  But they didn't have any the first day, which is nice. I am not much of a believer in home work for 1st graders.  I think their work is to play.  Oh well... no one asked me.

 

I can;t believe how big he is getting.  Before long I am afraid he will be a teenager, using acneticin, and skateboarding around the neighborhood with his pants falling down.  Eek!

Money Saving Tips of the Week

Here are some more Money Saving Tips. 

Clean your house and organize your stuff.  You will find things you didn't remember you had, and have room to use them.  What's in your basement?  Garage?  Do your kids have toys that need to be sorted out?  Once we cleaned our living room and sorted toys, the boys have been having a fun time playing with things they forgot they had.  Same goes for grownups.  When was the last time you used your sewing machine, scrapbook materials, or fancy cooking implements.  If you go through and organize, you just may feel inspired.

Call the companies you do business with and ask them if they have a cheaper deal.  Get a new auto insurance quote.  Call the Cable company and ask what it would take to reduce your bill.  Call your credit card company and ask if they have a lower rate available.  Take advantage of deals to refinance your mortgage if your rate is high.

Are there any repeating bills you can cancel?  Are you really going to the gym?  Do you really need a home phone?  Repeating bills are the scourge of the budget.

Don't neglect your deals and freebies.  Check slickdeals.net and fatwallet.com.  Find a local thrift store.  Check out local consignment sales for kids stuff.  Check out local book sales and used book stores. 

Read your weekly grocery store flyer and see what's on sale this week - then plan your menu around what's fresh, in season, and on sale.  Bonus - your will be a lot more likely to be eating local, in season, fresh fruits and veggies.  Yum.  Suddenly you've become a hip and trendy locavore and foodie.  ;-)

One Million Giraffes Project

This guy is collecting (on his website) one million giraffe art projects.  You can make your giraffe out of anything (draw a picture, crochet, knit, whatever) but it can't be computer generated and it has to be made by you.  No store bought object allowed.   Upload to his site and help him reach his goal of 1 million giraffes by 2011.

One Million Giraffes

25 Free Prints From Shutterfly

I snagged this from SlickDeals.com.

shutterfly 25 free prints or free 8x7 www.borders.com/shutterfly

Promo code: BORDERSOFFER

Get 25 FREE prints or FREE 8x10 collage poster

Expires 8/19/09

I got this on my Borders receipt today.

shipping applies

25 prints are 4x6

Professional Website Now Open For Business

I am ramping up my jobsearch by creating a professional website/blog called Beyond Messaging.  I am posting tech tips for IT managers and network administrators.  The site also contains links to my resume, and LinkedIn profile.  Where this blog will remain my personal weblog, Beyond Messaging will be my professional face to the world.

While the primary focus might be from the viewpoint of an Email Architect the site will branch out into emerging technologies such as social media, instant messaging, and mobile devices.

Saturday Chit Chat

Hubby and 6 year old are at the Lowes Build and Grow clinic this morning building a speed boat.  Little guy chose not to go and is happily playing with toys while I blog and drink my delicious Keurig coffee. 

I have now officially gone into "extended unemployment" which means I have 20 weeks of the dole left before they cut me off.  Thankfully my mom and dad have not given me a date when they will cut me off.  If they did I would probably be in the Outer Banks hiding in a canoe or something drastic like that.

For back to school we are organizing the house.  Target has a great sale right now and we picked up a 9 cube organizer and baskets to slide in the cubes.  We labeled each of the 9 cubes with a different type of toy - cars, power rangers, g.i. joe, plastic animals, etc and went through and sorted all the toys.  That's why little guy wanted to stay home this morning - he is having too much fun playing with all his sorted out toys.

This is great because it is keeping our living room from looking like Toys R Us exploded in it.  The baskets are a nice neutral and the cube storage is espresso and matches our Ikea desks and book shelves.  Great idea and it was on sale for 4o bucks.

Great New Free Fonts

Smashing Magazine has compiled a great list of new free fonts.  Digital Scrappers are always looking for fresh new fonts, (and who doesn't love free!) so I thought I would pass these along.  I particularly love the Tiza font by Pablo Carlo which has an inked/chalked look that would be fantastic used on a scrapbook layout.

 

image courtesy of nuevostudio.com

Friday Chit Chat

Yesterday we went to Ben's 1st grade open house.  Everyone I talked to said that the teacher he was assigned to is a great one.  Also, those of you who remember when I has an issue with one of the other kids parents in last years class will be relieved to know that that parent does not have a kid in Ben's class this year.  Yay.  One less thing to worry about. 

One of Ben's buddies from last year is in his class this year, and as well, I know another one of the kids parents from my prior job.  Fun.

Today we took the kids to the movies.  I saw about 3/4 of G.I. Joe.  They didn't make it all the way through.  It was a good movie, actually, if you want to see things blowing up.  A bit much for the age of our kids but they really wanted to go.  Yeah, I know, how did a pacifist end up with war like little boys?  Who knows.

By the time we got home we were all starvin like Marvin so I made dinner.  Home made Salisbury steaks, mashed potatoes, and green peas.  Yum.  Everyone liked it.  Success - and also a great way to use up some of the 99 cent 10 pound bag of potatoes I bought.  There are still quite a few left!!! 

Yeah, you need a couple extra best diet pills with this one.  Yum.

Basically, I just took ground beef and used my normal meatloaf recipe but formed it into little mini loaves/steaks.  I cooked them in a pan, drained off the fat, then poured a bottle of Heinz gravy over them.  For the potatoes I roasted a whole head of garlic in the toaster oven (wrapped in tin foil and drizzled with garlic) and then squished the roasted garlic into the mashed potatoes.  Plus butter and milk, salt and pepper.

Win Free Photoshop Actions and Grunge Overlays

Kim Hill, photographer and digital designer, is having a blog drawing tomorrow, where she is giving away a collection of her Photoshop actions, as well as 3 prizes of artistic grunge overlays.

To kick off my grand opening at Pink Ink Studios, I'm having a drawing on my blog where three people will each win all of my photoshop actions and three different people will each win all of my artistic grunge overlays. Please visit my blog to enter the drawing for your chance to win. Don't delay cuz the drawing is tomorrow morning (Friday, August 7th). Pass the message on to all your digiscrap and photographer friends!!!

Get the details and enter the drawing here:
http://kim2002.typepad.com/photos_by_kim_hill/2009/08/wanna-win-all-my-actions-bonus-drawing-for-artistic-grunge-overlays-too.html

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!!!!