We did this one last year, but it didn't go over that well.  We were able to get a book a day, but our son was not as receptive to it as we had hoped.  I'm hoping that since he's a year old and seems to be a little more interested in books that he might enjoy this a lot more this year.

We've had our microfiber couch for two years now and it has been through a lot with a baby and now a toddler.  In the past I had bought the expensive cleaners from Walmart for microfiber and they do work, but it gets costly when you need to clean the whole couch.  I found a DIY cleaner on Pinterest and had bought all the stuff to make it.  Before I was able to test it out, my son got sick on part of the couch.  I'll have another post about the DIY I found for that (click here to see that post).

So, with the part he didn't get sick on we used this - a spray bottle of rubbing alcohol.  You want to saturate the area that you need cleaned.  The reason for using rubbing alcohol is that it evaporates much faster than water and won't leave rings.  After saturating the area, you want to take a white/tan sponge and scrub the area.  I know that in some areas I had to scrub really hard.  I ended up asking my husband to help me.

The original post had mentioned to take a bristle brush to refluff the microfiber by using swirling motions.  I have not tried that, but you can tell that it needs to be refluffed when you touch it.

I just ordered some personalized Christmas cards through Shutterfly and got 50% the order!  Use code CARDTASTIC.  This offer ends Monday, November 18th.  I decided last year that this is how we would do our Christmas cards this year.  Doing Christmas cards this way can be a little pricey, even getting the 50%.  That's why I only order 25 cards.  So, if you get one of our personalized Christmas cards, that means you're extra special in our eyes!

That's not the only great deal that Shutterfly is running.  I also was able to get matching address labels for FREE!  Just use code LABELIT.  This offer ends Sunday, November 17th.  Even if you're not going to order personalized cards, can't pass up on free address labels!  All you pay for is the shipping and tax.  A few years ago, I ordered Christmas labels for our Christmas cards from Shutterfly.  They are so much nicer than the ones you can make your own labels with.

Hope this helps with keeping your Christmas budget!

I had seen this idea to make turkeys out of baby food jars last year on Pinterest.  The goal was to make them for our family members last year as a Thanksgiving gift.  Since we didn't buy baby food, I had asked on our neighborhood's Facebook page about getting some baby food jars.  One of our neighbors came through!  Unfortunately by the time I got the jars, there wasn't enough time to actually make the turkeys.

image source.

I loved working on my OCC boxes this year.  My 2 year old (Michael) even helped out a little this year with a box for a little boy his age.  If you'd like to see what I did last year, you can click here to read my post about that.

Two weeks ago, my husband's family got together to celebrate his grandma's 80th birthday by getting family pictures taken.  His grandma had picked Bernie's Photography in Frostburg, MD.

The weather had not been the best the few days before so we did not do the outside photos that my mother-in-law was wanting.  Bernie uses his garage for his indoor studio.  It is beautiful and huge.  We had two two year olds and a four year old that Bernie did great with.  Michael was the one that didn't want to be in the pictures, but Bernie was able to somehow get some good shots with him in it.  

He had many different types of props.  There was one prop that my husband and I thought would make a great Doctor Who style picture.  Bernie was also telling me about at Easter he has live lambs and takes kids Easter pictures with them.  From what I've seen on his facebook page, he tries to do different kinds of special offers.  At the end of November, he's going to be doing his Christmas pictures.

Here's some of the samples that I've pulled off of the gallery.  They are not the finalized versions, but wanted to let you all see what Bernie got.  If you're in the Cumberland, MD area, definitely contact Bernie for an appointment.  He's a very nice and patient man.