thislife

I don't know how many of you take a butt load of photos, but if you do, then keep reading.

I have been using shutterfly.com for years now to order pictures. A couple of years ago, I discovered a site called thislife.com . Where you can store thousands of photos and videos. It organizes them by date and you can categorize them in stories, as well as facial recognition. You can upload your photos from about any social media site. It will even upload photos you were tagged in. It's hands down, amazing.

Sidenote: this life is free up to 1,000 photos and/or videos after that its about 59/yr or 7.99/mo for 25,000 photos/videos.

I'll get to the whole point of this post. Thislife.com and shutterfly.com have merged. Yes, merged!!!! As my 3 year old would say BEST DAY EVER!!!!!! All my stories can be quickly made into books now! I'm so excited!!!! Shutterfly.com often has 40% off their photo books, which I try to hold out for.

This isn't a sponsored post or anything. Just pure excitement pouring out of my fingertips.

If you are wanting a fantastic way to organize ALL your photos and videos as well as get them printed out in an amazingly high quality book. Go visit shutterfly.com and thislife.com . It will change your life.

Or, at least the photo part of your life.

Chelsey

In search of...

The perfect coffee travel mug.

I have a few requirement: it MUST keep my coffee warm, it MUST be dishwasher safe and it MUST not change the flavor of my coffee in any way, shape or form.

This is turning into a much more difficult search than I had initially anticipated. I am finding terrible reviews on Amazon, on what looked like promising coffee mugs.

Reviews like this:

"

1.0 out of 5 stars Satan's Cup, February 24, 2011

By 

Mike - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Smart Planet EC-7LG 16-Ounce Double Wall Ceramic Cup (Kitchen)

This could be that absolute worst cup ever created by mankind. In fact I'm 100% certain that if a cave man had a choice between drinking coffee out of this cup and a carved out piece of wood, he would immediately defecate in this mug and smash it on a rock as this cup could only have come to him as an angry punishment from a vengeful God.

There is no way anybody but the Taliban, hell-bent on annoying coffee starved Americans to the brink of death, could have engineered a worse fitting cap to this mug. Fitting the cap to the mug is like solving a Rubix Cube if that Rubix Cube were filled with scalding hot coffee and were missing pieces and also smelled like toxic burning rubber.

And why does the top of this mug have to smell like a plastic industrial plant dropped a deuce in your morning java?

And why is the cup holder piece so ill fitting? Is this some sick twisted joke on the consumer? Do you want me to spill hot coffee on my crotch? Is it funny to you that I have to take the holder off the cup in order for it to dry? Why are you such an evil manufacturer?

PS and it looks awful

Buy this cup if you hate America." 

for this mug .

and this review:

"

1.0 out of 5 stars tastes rubbery., December 23, 2010

By 

getter - See all my reviews

This review is from: DCI I Am Not a Paper Cup 12-Ounce Porcelain Travel Cup with Lid (Kitchen)

Great concept. Too bad your coffee taste like you're licking a tire. Maybe it'll wear off someday, but drinking with the lid on leaves you with a rather disgusting coffee/vulcanized rubber flavor."


for this mug.




I need your help blogger friends. What do you use to transport your coffee to a different location? 

Hating cold coffee in a mug I have to hand wash,
Chelsey

Facebook Friends

Hello Fellow Facebook Pals,

I see many of you are coming over to visit my blog this morning. This blog won't have much content about my children on it, at least not photos. I will however be blogging about cooking, homemaking and homeschooling on here, as well as different happenings in our lives. I would love to keep in touch with you on here or over email. As you can see I have not updated this thing in MONTHS. I will however try to post something weekly and would love to get comments from you about what you have been up to.

Your pal
Chels

Adventure

We are going on an adventure! (said in my best hobbit voice)

Come check back at the end of May to hear all about it!

A Struggle

I can't seem to write on a regular basis. I could make plenty of excuses, but the main reason for my lack of writing is laziness. Which is ok. When you have two kids under the age of three, one being potty trained and in preschool (homeschool style) and the other that is just so darn cute all I do is want to make him giggle all day, then by the time they are both asleep I just want to do nothing. I take that back I do watch my shows (project runway ya!).

I'll admit this as well, I started playing some warrior game with my husband on our ipads to have some bonding time, I passed him in levels because I'm awesome so now I have to wait for him to catch up ;).

My son is asleep and my daughter is painting with watercolors. Better yet, painting herself with water colors. She is beautiful.

I would include some photos but stuff is not working at the moment.

Too bad for you.

I'm at a creative block with my scrapbooking (for the past 3 years). Nope, that is a lie also. I have plenty of inspiration from other blogs. My desk is just a mess.

It is kinda raining out. What's kinda raining you ask? It is cloudy and rained last night, only when I step outside does it start to rain again and hit me in the face.

I guess I'll be drying my diapers under the porch covering thing today.

My daughters hands are now black because she has so much water color on them :)

Bath time. Nope I'll just give her more paper to hopefully paint on.

This was fun.

I would love to hear what you have been up to. Has any rain been hitting you in the face?

I'll write again soon.

Chelsey

Baby Wipes

Most of you know that James and I have gone cloth diaper and love it!! . I have decided to take it a step further and make some cloth wipes which makes it easier because we dont have to have a separate container to throw the disposable wipes into, now we can throw them all in one!

Here are the steps I used incase you want to try it:

Materials:

*Cloth (im sure any kind would work but we had extra terry cloth and it works pretty well, and its cheep if you want to buy some)

*Sewing Machine

*Water

*Jar (We used a pickle jar)

*favorite baby soap

*favorite baby oil

Step 1:

cut your cloth into squares mine are roughly 5inx5in. If you get the terry cloth then just cut it into quarters.

Step 2:

Seam up the edges that might fray.

Step 3:

Have your helper layer the cloth slightly on top of each other and roll tightly, as shown above.

Step D:

Mix 2 cups water, 1 T Baby bath and 1 T baby oil in pickle jar. Shake. and put the roll of cloths in. Pull up the starting cloth from the very middle and they come up like regular wipes. Just wash with the diapers.

It might seem like alot of work but, it might have taken me fifteen minutes to cut and sew, with the help of Charli another 2 min to mix the solution and roll up the cloth. Im sure one could use a left over square wipe container and then you wouldn't have to roll the cloth. You dont necessarily have to roll the cloth for the pickle jar either, I just cant get my hand all the way down in it :) I have been testing these out for a few weeks and really like them. Charli doesnt seem to get diaper rash as much anymore either and the crude come off pretty easy. Let me know if you have any ideas on making wipes or anything for a baby.

Back!

Ello Friends and Family,

Now that I'm not working with those that I worried about seeing my family and child, Im ready to blog again.

Updates: We moved from Missouri to Kansas. With so many from Missouri that we are missing as well as others in other states that we are not able to see, Im starting up this blog to keep everyone up to date on what our little family is up to. More so on Charli :)

James received a great job here in Kansas delivering gas. I also am able to stay home with my baby girl and we are both absolutely loving it. Im discovering how much I love staying home, although I enjoyed working too, I am discovering things I loved doing and am starting them up again (sewing and scrapbooking) as well as other things such as becoming frugal, loving to do laundry (I know not many people enjoy this chore but I look forward to folding the warm clothes fresh out of the dryer in attempt to leave no wrinkles). James and I also planted some herbs for the first time and are excited to watch them grow. At my folks, they planted many veggies that we are going to help garden. James is working quite a bit, but is home every night, and enjoying the home cooked meals that Im experimenting with. He has also been enjoying working on the yard and attempting to make the lawn like green carpet :)

Charli's first tooth poked through last week, now another is poking through! She has been quite crabby and taking lots of naps. I made some teething biscuits out of baby cereal, flour and juice that she Loves! Would take a picture of her teeth but, she wont let me open her mouth, except to brush her teeth with the little finger tooth brush. Charli is also loving being read too. Her favorite book right now is 'I love you through and through' as well as the books that have flaps with things hidden behind them, if that makes since. She is crawling everywhere! I had to baby proof the house about a month ago. She is also able to pull up on lower things to a standing position and is able to walk with assistance. Time is going to fast. She had her first Easter and went easter egg hunting. She would pick up the eggs and eat them, well attempt to lol.

I will be posting pics of what we are up to through out the week or month, Ill try to stay up to date on this. I need to include some of our duplex because so many of you are asking about it! That is all I have today, Charli is asleep so Im going to organize something.

Happy Trails