Meg vs. The Couch: My newest project.

What is under this sheet in our new living room?

John's grandmother's old couch! It is just the right color of gold to clash with the walls. Ideas are in the works...

Meg vs. Vision: Firmoo Free Glasses & Giveaway on Lil' Bit & Nan!

Recently my 2-year-old broke my only pair of glasses. They were my only pair because he also broke the pair before that. What can I say? He loves glasses and is not good at being gentle with them. So currently my glasses are taped together and sitting in the car so I can use them to drive, but the rest of time life has been a blur in a more literal way than usual.

Enter Firmoo! I recently remembered that Bethany over at Lil' Bit & Nan had blogged about their First Pair Free program, and when I headed over to look up the information, lo and behold, she is holding a giveaway for another pair of free glasses from Firmoo! So I went ahead and ordered my free pair, and if I'm really lucky, then I'll get that pair of prescription sunglasses I've been wanting, or maybe a back-up pair of glasses (imagine that!). They have lots of cute and really affordable styles, so head over to Firmoo to check them out, and over to Lil' Bit & Nan to enter this awesome giveaway! Thanks Bethany!

Meg vs. Giveaways: Little Boston Print Shoppe

Head over to One Sheepish Girl to win a set of two pillows from Little Boston Print Shoppe! So darling. The giveaway ends on December 22.

p.s. I will post again soon, I promise. I have actually been busy working on things, so I will be glad I'm getting things done instead of mad I didn't post about it... I hope you will be too =)

Meg vs. Decor: Customizable Bunting Round-Up!

Bunting and garland is so in right now, and I am loving it. After making our Thankful Tree today (more on that to come), I thought the wall needed a little something to finish it off. A Thanksgiving message on garland? Just the thing. So I headed over to Pinterest to see what there was to see.

I wasn't sold on any of the Thanksgiving-specific printables I found, so I started looking for alphabet sets that I could customize myself. There are some really cute, free, printable alphabet sets available! So I thought I would put them all together and share what I found to save you (and me in the future) the scouring.

First up, good old Martha Stewart came through, as usual:

Found here.

Found here.

Found here.

Found here.

I love this one from Ruffled:

Such fun patterns and colors!

And Flights of Fancy put this one together with two different font types:

You can find this fun set at Wild Olive. Wouldn't it be super cute for a kids' party?

And if you like a vintage feel, try this one from Rook No. 17:

Here's a cutie from Jolly Allsorts:

Here's a simple set from Small Types:

Another from Shanty 2 Chic:

And one in miniature from The Tomkat Studio!

There you have them--have fun! I'll share my finished tree and banner tomorrow.

Meg vs. Toddler Entertainment: Cardboard Kitchen

Last week at Costco, my little cook spotted a super awesome kitchen that I would never ever buy for him. He couldn't take his eyes off of it, and kept asking to go back and look at it. For a second I thought, "Maybe I should get him one on Craigslist." Then I remembered all of the cardboard kitchens I had seen on Pinterest, and decided we could be a little creative and have a lot more fun with it. So I told the little Mr. that if he did a good job then we could make him a kitchen during little brother's nap that afternoon.

He was most definitely on his best behavior! As soon as the little fellow was down, we jumped right in and got to work. We still had a couple of moving boxes left in the garage, and we took them apart and turned them inside out so all of the print would be hidden. Add plenty of clear packing tape, a few old CD's, a couple of milk lids (I'll add more as we collect them, which should only take a few days in this house), some twist ties, and a little paint marker, and ta-da! Instant oven.

Cooking commenced immediately.

 Next we made the sink cabinet. Here are the action shots that my 3-year-old took of the process:

Later we picked up a plastic bowl and a frying pan from the dollar store, and we were all set.

Of course the kitchen was not complete until it had a refrigerator, and my little chef did not let me forget it. Luckily I found two diaper boxes that fit together just right, so we added that to the array the next day. Here is our finished kitchen!

The little Mr., his little brother, and their cousins cooked up a storm all weekend. I would say that my total time investment was maybe an hour, and the total cost was $2, approximately 1/60 of the cost of the fancy new play kitchen. And we love this one more because we made it together.

Meg vs. The Bedrooms: Free Furniture!

Thursday: Pick up new furniture from our friend? Start packing for our vacation.

Check. Now to paint it and get it all in place (or at least get it out of the way until that is possible).

Meg vs. The Bedroom: More Paint

Saturday: Finish painting master bedroom.

This goal was ridiculous. I don't know how I managed to not factor in (1) having to paint the trim, and (2) the fact that I can't do any painting during toddler waking hours. Not to mention that I had to put a second coat of white paint on the ceiling this morning because the stubborn dirty beige was showing through. It is now 10pm, and I am about to start cleaning the baseboards and trim, then I'll paint (surely doing a terrible job) and crash for the night.

My awesome hubby put the living room blinds back up (kind of an ordeal because they had some fit issues with the new windows), and cleaned the blinds before he put them back up, and put up the new curtain rod and my curtains. It almost looks like a real living room! I also put together a little $1 arrangement for our shelf. And the boys and I started a second garden bed in the back yard and set up a makeshift trellis for our growing peas. Aaaand... I can't find the camera again. I broke down and ordered a new battery charger for our original camera so that I could keep the back-up as a back-up. It should be here by Friday. Sigh. Someday I will be able to keep track of my valuable possessions. As soon as I am able, photos will be forthcoming.

Meg vs. The (non-existent) Library: Free Kindle books!

I have been trying harder to do at least some work on a project every day, per my goal. I have three cameras. All three have no battery, and I can't find chargers or batteries for any of them.

Sadly, this is not an unusual state for me. All the more reason to be persistent in getting this house together!

Since I can't take any pictures or share the ones I've already taken, here's something fun.

Have you seen how many free books you can get on Amazon? If you don't have a Kindle or another tablet, you can download Kindle for PC and read on your computer. So awesome.

Here is a sampling of the books I downloaded today:

Fairy Tales Every Child Should Know
Smart School Time Recipes
Organized Simplicity
How to Cook Healthy & Natural Snacks

Also, basically any classic book that is not in copyright (i.e. the author has been deceased for a long time) you can probably find for free on Kindle. I am currently reading Sherlock Holmes, and have Pride & Prejudice and A Journey to the Centre of the Earth in my lineup.

(Lest you think I read more than I do, I may or may not read these by the end of 2012. But getting them feeds my book addiction without using my money or taking up more space in the house I'm trying to de-clutter and organize!)

Yay for free!