general life

for the man who has everything…

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For the man who has everything, you hope that something breaks before his birthday.

I think gift giving is particularly hard for me. Because the problem with Brian and my dad all men is that they always buy what they want right before their birthday or holiday! I got lucky this year in that our old George Foreman broke down leaving a convenient void in our household appliances, easily remedied with a birthday gift this year, idea courtesy of my mom. So I bought Brian a Griddler.

Okay okay, for anyone really thinking about this, you know that the last thing you need in the summer is an indoor grill. Fair enough, but as a bonus, I even bought some waffle plates for him for me. See, we have this old waffle iron from my grandma’s that makes the most amazing waffles. However, it happens to be a fire/ electric shock/ baby hazard. So I’m hoping these new waffle plates will be a perfect replacement, because I love waffles five times more than I love pancakes.

Jameson of course needed to get him a little something as well. Because bucko bucks have already been spent, Jameson didn’t want to go overboard and purchased him a little something that they can play in together (sort of…haha) in a month or two when Jameson is sitting up.

Now, the best gifts I ever gave have always been homemade, but don’t worry, there’s Father’s Day coming up for a bit of crafty fun (inspiration courtesy pinterest). Sorry dear readers but I can’t share until complete.

Happy Birthday Mr. Husband Sir.

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general life, life with baby

I <3 Eating

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I was thinking, I am not sure whether its the act of eating (sitting down at a meal, chatting with friends), or if it’s the food I love. But seriously, food is one of my favorite things. I can never turn down a meal out, and those who know me know that I am always game for doing just about anything that involves food.

Ironically, I don’t often make food myself… Brian’s birthday is tomorrow (he’s turning the big 3-2), and I don’t have any meal planned. Usually I manage about 5 meals a year, usually special occasions (NOTE: I do bake more than that. Cookies are my specialty). Birthdays would be one time I usually make dinner, but with everything that’s been going on that particular plan has fallen by the wayside. Sorry hun. I do however have some quick and easy things saved in my pinterest I could perhaps try this weekend though… we’ll just make it a week-long birthday!

But this whole eating thing has me concerned about stopping breastfeeding. I am a believer in the “breastfeeding diet”. I mean, I can pretty much eat anything. I am not losing weight anymore, but I’m not really gaining either. I’ve been hovering in the same 5 pound range for the past two to three months. All while eating super unhealthy. Really. I have had enormous grilled cheese sandwiches (both Brian-made and restaurant-made), cheesecake, fried macaroni and cheese balls… (seems to be a theme there…). I really like this right now.

Brian-made: 16 types of cheese!

All the more because I had gestational diabetes (all diet controlled) and I think I’m still not over it. I swear, I went carb crazy after Jameson was born. I had no idea before all that went down that I had to watch CARBS. I thought diabetes was all about SUGAR. It is, of course, because carbs are converted into “sugar”. I had to go to a nutritionist who set me straight and keeping to that diet was very difficult for me. Anyway, since then, any thought of a diet went out the window. I am not supposed to be dieting while nursing anyway, but I know there’s probably articles out there about how I should be eating better because that all gets transferred into my milk… In that case, I know I’m just passing down my love for cheese to Jameson.

Before Jameson, Brian and I tried various diets. The one that actually worked best for me was calorie counting. Reporting it to a website made me more accountable. That was also a time when I was able to go home for lunch everyday because I lived so close to work. It’s a lot harder when things aren’t convenient. Does that make me lazy? Brian also tried the Atkins a couple times (pseudo healthy version with lots of turkey, chicken, pork rather than beef). Atkins worked for him really well the first time, not as well the second… so where to from here? Luckily, this is a good time, because summer is approaching, which means more activity in general and


The farmers market that we go to is opening up this weekend! This is my favorite time of year. I adore fresh vegetables (and I am pretty sure that I can eat as much of those that I want), and I’m planning on buying extra now to make some baby food for Jameson. So far, he has had oatmeal, brown rice, peaches, squash, and carrots (all pre packaged, not homemade). I finally purchased my baby food equipment yesterday (we already own a food processor, so I just needed a convenient freezing tray), so in the next week or two if the farmers market has some early vegetables we will be attempting to make Jameson’s first homemade baby food.

So many things to look forward to, and food is just one of them.

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general life

Schedule Fail

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I don’t know if everyone does this, but typically Brian and I communicate via email and Google calendar. Occasionally I have invited him to things so he can also put it on his work calendar, but usually we just stick with our personal calendars which we share with each other. If we just say something about an upcoming event… we typically (I typically) forget about it.

Which I why I depend on that calendar for everything, and get angry at Brian if he forgets something. This time I forgot.

Last night, we intended to go order some furniture. We need new couches for our living/family room (we have just one room, but I don’t think I’d call it a great room, because it’s not very big). Right now we have been using my parents old furniture, which were and are still in pretty great shape but I basically just can’t handle vacuuming Sasha’s dog hair off it anymore (it’s like corduroy style, which just begs for dog hair to get stuck in it, and remember Sasha is like the size of 3 medium dogs or 6 small dogs). Anyway, we went out over the weekend and finally found leather ones we pretty much settled on (this has been a several month process as we are looking for a specific set: leather, reclining, and a loveseat that also rocks or glides) and they went on sale yesterday at La-Z-Boy at 15% off and free shipping/delivery with their Memorial Sale.

Anyway, I forgot I already had plans with my friend Teresa. Oops! Luckily this schedule fail still ended up well, even though I didn’t get to give Brian the final okay. Hopefully he ordered the right ones. Hopefully. Teresa and I still hung out (and yes, she knows I forgot about her 🙁 ) and we went out to eat. Jameson was a perfect angel the whole time, and I ate pretty unhealthy again. But it was so good. I tried these new Macaroni and Cheese bites, which were pretty much fried mac ‘n cheese and had a tomato soup dipping sauce. I’ve got to remember the “breastfeeding diet” isn’t really going to save me from all the fat I’ve been eating…

So in about 2-3 months (that’s only 1/3 the gestation of a baby, which isn’t that long at all, I have to remember), we will have some new couches. I’m already thinking about new pillow covers.

By the way, do you see that free weekend there? That free weekend is for finishing thank you notes from Jameson’s baptism over a month ago. Another fail.

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diy, general life

Digital Scrapbooking: The Hows, Whys and Wherefores

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I’ve mentioned a few times that I am planning a digital scrapbook of Jameson’s first year. I used to “regular” scrapbook (regular? hardcopy? real?) but anyway, I just… lost interest. I burned myself out when I made a birth to 18 years scrapbook for my brother’s graduation, even with some help from my cousin. I have two scrapbooks that are started and will probably remain unfinished.

So why digital scrapbooking when I could just slap some photos into a photobook and call it done?

  • I always loved the look of scrapbooks, they’re so charming
  • I feel like it lends more meaning to the photos when you spend more time on it after you take them
  • Descriptions are beautiful rather than informational (a date can be done in digital chipboard to really pop and stand out, rather than just being a caption below the photo)
  • A chance to be creative! of course.

Digital scrapbooking seems pretty simple. You only need some basic Photoshop or other graphic program skills. Oh, and some photos.

  1. Get a program. You can go free, like GIMP. Or you can go expensive like full Photoshop CS. Or land somewhere in the middle with Corel Paintshop Pro or Photoshop Elements. Key here is the ability to work in layers so you can easily move around your photos “on top” of digital paper or other fun digital pieces.
  2. Get some digital paper, or make your own. Because I’m not about to make my own digital scrapbook paper, stickers or alphabets, I browsed around and found some free stuff. Searching “free digital scrapbook paper” will pop up all kinds of stuff. When we say digital paper, we really just mean images that look like paper.
  3. Get some fun fonts. Again, searching “free fonts” should give you call kinds of inspiration.
  4. Take a little tutorial on your graphics program of choice, once you understand layers and what dimensions your program is in (inches or pixels–it’s probably easier to work in inches while you do your scrapbook) you should be good to go!
  5. Once you’ve got a handle on the program, make a decision about what size you want your digital scrapbook to be. Most digital papers come square, so 12x12in or 10x10in are good sizes. You can get these printed individually as sheets (see some options here and here) or in a photobook (see my photobook post).
  6. Make your first page. Create a new image in your size, ie., 12x12in. Select your paper and place it on layer 1. Then you want to bring in your photos in other layers. You can resize your photos to fit your pages. Add some text in a fun font.
  7. Is this too boring? You can find other elements for your pages too. If you were searching digital papers, you probably saw all kinds of other things to add to your pages. Faux flowers, “stickers”, chipboard shapes, edges… Again you can get a lot of great stuff for free.

Here are a few of my favorite sites. One in particular is running a sale right now, I love their stuff. They are not free, but to me they have great quality, and remember the nice thing about digital scrapbooking is that everything can be used over and over and over.

So here I am, after all that research and accumulation of digital scrapbooking paper and elements, 5 months in and nothing to show for it. Time is flying! Time to get started…

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general life

Money

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Money is a touchy subject! Which is why I’m not really going to talk about money, but rather the planning around money.

Brian and I didn’t really have the luxury of choice when it came to the decision for me to return to work. Luckily, I feel it is turning out for the best right now. I have my adult time, and my Jameson time. Right now this works. And I’m starting a new job, which is exciting for me! Luckily, with me going back to work, we now also have the luxury of some disposable (read: invest-able) income. The question then becomes, what actually should we do with it.

There are so many options, and after meeting with our new financial adviser yesterday, I’ve come to realize it’s pretty dang complicated too. There is life insurance, Roth IRAs, 401Ks (which, we have to confess, we haven’t paid much attention to), there’s college savings, and the myriad of other possible investment options…

We had to come prepared with a ton of documents too. And I have even simplified this list.

  • Stock stuff (including Brian’s random stock he bought some time ago to fiddle with… hmmm not sure I remembered that haha)
  • Current 401K info. Did you know the financial adviser will recommend your investments through work? I guess I didn’t really think about that. We should’ve gone to one a long time ago!
  • Bank checking & savings account statements, savings bonds
  • Life insurance summary of coverage/annual statements (this is also great. Again, I didn’t know that the financial adviser would be able to help with life insurance in combination with what we have through work)
  • Home mortgage loan
  • Most recently completed federal and state tax returns
  • Most recent work W-2 and 1099 forms
  • Completed Monthly Budget Worksheet and a questionnaire to help us determine how much risk in our investments we were willing to make, and we got to fill that out separately (the financial adviser gave us pre-homework to do!)

So at this point, the adviser is going to his own homework and we’re meeting again next week to do some of the actual dirty work of making progress on decisions. A couple hard questions he asked us:

  • He asked how much we wanted to leave in our savings. Brian said 6-9 months of what we need per month (see that Monthly Budget Worksheet we had to do came in handy). We found how how much money that was, and it was about 3 times the amount that I personally thought it was. Apparently that is a critical decision we need to make prior to taking money away in investments you can’t touch. I guess that makes sense.
  • He told us, assuming that we invest at a rate that matches college tuition increases, we will need to put $600 a month away for like 22 years to pay for one kid to go to college. (this is the part were we started talking about how awesome my parents were. Seriously, mom and dad if you’re reading this, he totally said that you guys must be great and that you raised me well :))

I guess most people don’t think of talking to your financial adviser before making a decision like moving, or having a parent stay at home… but I’m pretty sure he’s now an integral part of our decision-making process.

It did take us about 2 years to schedule this appointment (to be fair… we got married, moved, had a baby…). Next step: getting a living will. And not 2 years down the road. What is it about having a baby that makes you think of all the scary stuff?

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general life

Practice Your Photo-Taking Skills on the Computer

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I found this great SLR camera simulator to help practice with manual modes on the camera.

I confess that when I take photos I let the camera do all the work — I set my camera to automatic-no flash. With my new camera on the way, I’d love to learn the value of using aperture/shutter priority and manual modes!

When I was in high school, I used a traditional SLR camera. It’s so easy to be lazy with newer DSLRs. I learned my dad’s SLR camera and took a lot of great photos on it and promptly forgot them all by the time I had my DSLR. It’s time to re-learn.

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general life

On Photos, Cameras and Editing

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This weekend, I said goodbye to a dear friend, Emma, as she left from a lovely visit to meet Mr. Jameson for the first time. I also said goodbye to my first DSLR camera, the Nikon D40, which I purchased in 2007. I sold it to her, plus the extra battery, and I am currently camera-less.

Of course, we’re not literally camera-less; I am not sure that’s possible anymore, because we still have Brian’s sophisticated point and shoot, plus our camera phones, and our camcorder which can take stills too. So by no means am I really camera-less, but I still feel the loss of the ability to shoot in RAW format. Like forgetting to put on my wedding rings: even though I have my lovely rose ring which goes on my index finger, my ring finger still feels naked and awkward.

Friends tell me I take great photos. I myself think I have a long way to go to be professional, but I can see the growth in my skills since Jameson was born. Like I told Emma, I think that you lose some things (like freedom haha) when you have kids, but you gain in others. Particularly, my Lightroom skills.

I never read the manual, so here I am learning on the fly. I started with the Library screen, the basic adjustments to my photos (Auto-whitebalancing, sorting and rating) and moved to where I am now primarily working in Design mode, I am syncing adjustments across all similar photos to save time (though Brian would say I still spend obscene amounts of time editing photos), and even starting to play around with free presets which can tweak photos in fun ways I may not have thought of.

So last week, I re-processed some of my favorite photos and posted to Flickr last night. Here are a few:


Remember when I talked about how much better the color looked in my recent monthly photos?


Here’s an example of a preset I used which made the photo look aged. I tweaked it to bring out the blues again because the hat is such an important part of the photo.

And there are examples of my improvement with eyes and softening skin to remove Jameson’s dry baby skin. Because baby skin is not always silky soft.

I’m excited continue to enhance my skills with a next level camera. My new friend will arrive on Tuesday from Amazon (of course). It will come with 16 megapixels versus the D40’s 6 for more cropping and blow up fun. It has 11 focus points and faster continuous shooting plus a vibration reduction kit lens for quicker more accurate focusing (especially for the sneaky fast baby Jameson is becoming). It comes with a view screen that flips and rotates for great positional shots in awkward places and self portraits! We’re going to have fun, my new friend the D5100 and I.

Are you curious as to how I chose this particularly camera? Then read on.

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general life, life with baby

Celebrating Mother’s Day (Weekend)

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This weekend, I enjoyed the company of one of my oldest friends, Emma. Emma flew in for the weekend to meet Jameson. She adored him. This is her favorite photo from the weekend. I haven’t posted the rest yet. She likes the funny look on his face (this was near the end of their photo shoot and he was starting to get cranky!)


Poor little guy is coming down with a cold, so he wasn’t quite himself yesterday. Though somehow he managed to find the energy to plant me a little marigold at daycare; buy me a new Pandora charm; buy me roses and a card. haha


Most of my weekend was actually spent away from Jameson. Emma and I went to Melt Bar and Grilled (her request since she had never been). I enjoyed my Parmageddon and she had their newest permanent menu add, The Dude Abides which has mozzarella sticks and meatballs. We also tried their spinach and artichoke dip which was good and just a little spicy, and a local hard cidar.

I couldn’t believe the days this weekend turned out so nice! We had to walk around Legacy Village and stopped in the new Gymboree brand Crazy 8 store. I got Jameson an adorable shirt with a moving eyeball on it and finally found a nice sunhat for him, with a nice mesh inside for sweat.

We went on many walks this weekend and Brian even took Jameson to the park. I was sad to see the weekend end. Before dropping Emma back off to the airport, we hit up B.A. Sweetie‘s and picked up some candy. What a great place! I had never been there before, but they had all kinds of old-school candy in warehouse style: boxes and boxes of tempting candy and chocolate!

We spent Sunday evening at Brian’s parents for burgers. It was so nice to have someone there to hold Jameson so Brian and I both got to eat in peace, haha. It was a lovely reminder of how grateful we are to have some family nearby for babysitting, watching, or playing duty. And for my mother, I sent her flowers (tulips this year) like I do yearly, plus a new ebook that just came out with short stories by mom-bloggers called “Stories I Only Told My Mom“. I’m rather excited to read it myself too.

This year I’m particularly appreciative of how difficult a mom’s job is! And how nice it is for us to have family nearby, how difficult it must have been for my parents living so far away from family when I was born. Oh, and there was no Internet you know. I love how connected we all are now.


Mom, me, and grandma on Mom’s side for her first Mother’s Day


Me and Jameson, our first Mother’s Day

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general life

Photobooks

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I’m creating a digital scrapbook for Jameson for his first year which I don’t plan on publishing until after his birthday in December. So I’m a little ahead of the game when I started researching where I would publish his photobook. But because I had some specific requirements (square format, lay-flat binding), I wanted to make sure ahead of time that I could create exactly what I wanted.

I have ended up selecting a site called My Photo Creations, in connection with Digilabs who print for real photographers (So I have to think their quality is good). I had to limit my size though to 10×10 instead of 12×12 like I originally planned.

Anyway, this hunt started me on the search for photobook deals. I spent some time on the (confusing) site of Photobookgirl to help me determine where to begin my search for a square, lay-flat binding book and read some of her reviews. My top picks were:

  • Adorama – Best quality! But expensive. Has real photo books.
  • My Photo Creations – which again, seems to be the best compromise for what I want to do, but max size is 10×10
  • Picaboo – Best pricing with groupon that runs pretty regularly, but cheap quality according to reviews.

Anyway, during this hunt I also uncovered a $20 free gift card promotion with My Publisher (Note: you cannot combine special offers). They have these new mini books that they were also running free shipping on — so I received 8 mini books for the cost of tax (no guarantees for how long this promotion will be running). However, I wasn’t impressed with their photo book software which I had some difficulties with before successfully placing my order (pages being duplicated, unclear direction, etc.)

A couple days ago, Brian uncovered another photo creation site from slickdeals.net which I hadn’t heard of called Paper Coterie who are relatively new to the scene. They are running a $40 free promotion until May 8th (just extended). I purchased two spiral bound photo books for the price of shipping and a little extra, since my books were $22 each.

I like this new site because it doesn’t require you to download any software, and they layouts seem pretty flexible. And it was really easy to do a two page spread. I am excited to receive my order, since their facebook page has all kinds of customers raving about their customer service and the quality of the products.

In addition to photo books, they have some really nice looking unique calendars and other products. I’ll post a picture of my book when it arrives!

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general life

What I’m…

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Today, I asked Brian to answer some questions to make a post that includes a little about him. Thanks Brian for being a trooper and responding today while you were at work. You win some hubby points.

What I’m…. Reading
Brian: The World is Flat and Designing Great Beers

Hilary: I don’t read much of anything anymore, there isn’t time! In my queue are the newest books by Jacqueline Carey, Kim Harrison, Juliet Marillier (some of my favorite fantasy authors). If I’m reading anything right now, it’s magazines like Better Homes and Gardens or Readers Digest.

Watching
Brian: No Reservations, Dexter, Archer.

Hilary: In Plain Sight, 16 & Pregnant and The Sanctuary all just started back up. I am also watching Extreme Couponing and Pregnant in Heels, all of which I watch without Brian haha. I also have a Netflix DVD that’s been sitting waiting for me to watch for a month, oops.

Both: We like to watch Desperate Housewives, 30 Rock, Outsourced, The Office together, Family Guy, and Archer. That’s a lot of TV. We’ll be watching less when some of these shows end their season and it starts to get warm and sunny. Maybe.

Listening to
Hilary: Baby Lullabyes and whatever is on the radio to and from work. I haven’t discovered any new music in a long time. It would be great to start listening to something new again.

Brian: This changes frequently but the latest is: Wizard Smoke, Dax Riggs, Crowbar, Pink Floyd, Slim Cessna’s Auto Club.

Surfing
Brian: Beer Forums, Lifehacker, Gizmodo.

Hilary: I follow all kinds of mom-blogs now including Babble, Early Mama, and Design Mom. Also, Young House Love is a favorite. When I’m not reading those blogs, I’m getting inspired on Pinterest, shopping on Amazon, getting updates on facebook, or researching some new baby or crafty thing (most recently, I spent a lot of time researching photo book sites).

Doing in my spare time
Hilary: Usually, I’m sleeping, or taking and editing photos. I spend a lot of time discovering new methods of processing in Lightroom and playing with photos.

Brian: Being a Dad, Brewing beer, Yard work.

Planning
Brian: To ride more this summer and build a shed ramp.

Hilary: I’m planning a digital scrapbook for Jameson first year (have a lot of the “elements”, just have to start putting it together so I’m not doing it all at once in December!); also, I’m planning a picture frame wall in the entryway or up the stairs and have been collecting frames for that purpose; and I am going to make an Easter basket for Jameson for next year. Oh, and I’m also thinking about doing some sewing too like a table runner or pants for Jameson.

Dreaming
Hilary: I am dreaming of what our basement will look like all finished and what our yard will look like a few years down the road with some new perennial flowers. But that’s all dreams, I haven’t done any real planning yet for those.

Brian: Don’t remember.

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