I posed a couple days ago on Midlife Musings how I had (we hope) marginally organized my blogging, and now I am moving on to thinking about how we can better organize all the stuff. School is ramping up for those in public school, and my kids get their new school supplies this time of year, and it’s …alot of stuff. We color code as much as we possibly can, but with 7 children (and yes, they all have to have “cool plies”) we can’t always find what we need in the right color for the kid who needs it. Since my attempts to Sharpie things are sometimes thwarted by over-zealous rubbing, I’m thinking that it might be time to make life easier with the use of some good labels.

I’ve been looking at the Ultimate Back-to-School Combo from Mabel’s Labels. The combo and the colours are available for a limited time only, until September 30th, 2008. One pack per kid ought to be enough to sort out their school stuff, their sports stuff AND label a couple of drinking cups each (do you know how many of those we use per day???), and it would last for-ever!

Your Mabel’s Labels agent is Nicole Lee. She’s a WAHM like me, and most of you. You know I like to do business with other WAHMs. It just feels good, ykwim? Mabel makes clothing labels, too. I happen to be at the end of my “made by Mama” stash. Since I fought and fought to sew the old ones in neatly, I’ll probably order these instead:

Whaddya think? Should I ask her if she’d be willing to trade some sidebar ad space for an order of clothing labels?

I threatened the other day to order a car magnet and new business cards. Tonight I sat down and did that very thing. See, I have a conference coming up and I wanted the new cards for that. And yesterday, Carla sent over the pics from HSY, so I’ll be listing dye slots soon, and I wanted to get the car magnet (s, but I’ll get to that) in anticipation of that. And while I was at VistaPrint, shopping the Special Sale, other things kept hopping in my cart. Like a free pen, and a free notepad, a free window decal and 2 MORE car magnets, because the price was just unbelievable. Yes, two more, for a total of three. So, who else wants to ride around with my magnet on your car?

Isn’t that the coolest? And it is so pink! Love me some pink. Yes, I would have loved my header better, but I don’t have that photo anymore, and the header was too low a res to print on the magnet. I briefly considered my photo, but I really disliked the idea of a slogan across my forehead!!

Oh! Here’s the business card:

Can’t beat an entire resume in 2×3.5 premium and customized inches, now can you? I’m excited to stalk the mailman now, and if you are willing to display that third magnet, just let me know!

I’m about to put a bar in this post to indicate that VistaPrint sponsored it. I reckon that this time, given the boatload of bucks I dropped there, we might could consider it a co-sponsorship, don’t you?

I love saving money, as I know you all understand. I am all about the coupons! Especially on big ticket items. Like computers. Which you know I am in the market for. Again. Yes, I know that is an unreasonable number of very short sentence fragments, but I am so frustrated over this computer situation that I could gnaw off my own arm at times. Seriously. Do you know how HARD it is to get any work done out here? The teenage music, the grade school chatter, the toddler whining? Not that I don’t love them, because I do, but even when dh is here, they come to me! Case in point: this morning, Batman walked right by his daddy to come ask me if he could have some toast. People, I was in the bathroom. On the toilet. Hello??!!?? When I say I need an office, I think we can agree that I need an office.

If I can’t have that, and I can’t, then a new laptop that actually functions as a laptop so that I can take it in my room and shut the door, is the next best thing. I’m thinking Dell, although these Apple Store promo codes are also tempting. We had a Mac back in the day, and it was pretty zippy, but I have used Windows machines for a long time now.

Hmm, I wonder if those Dell coupons are good in the Dell Outlet? Hopefully, I will be able to remedy this soon. I’ll be awfully lop-sided with only one arm, and that does make it hard to knit and all.

Here’s the skinny: Go here and order this. In case that last link only works for me, this is what you are looking for.

You find it under “aromatherapy”.

The fat: When Ang. and I were in Vegas, we tried some salt scrub stuff on our hands, and it felt. so. good! However, we had just dropped a load of dough on face stuff and so we decided not to buy it. Since then, I have popped in to B&BW a couple of times expressly to sample one of their hand scrubs. And then I walked out withut buying them because I am a stingy woman when it comes to anything except crafts. Or shoes. But we won’t go there.

Anyway, when Ang. started selling Arbonne a couple months ago, I was all set to give her an order, because that’s what friends do, right? So, I asked her if they carried “any of that sea salt stuff”. And she said yes, and I said “I’ll take that” and she gave me a discount because that’s what BFFs do, and she sent it to me. And then I let it sit on my dresser for several weeks, while she kept asking me if I’d used it. Because I am lame. And busy, very busy. Yes, too busy to wash my hands, I guess.

But I tried it this morning, and then I came and sat right down to tell you about it. Because it is good. The scent is nice, neither floral nor fruit, and it lingers just enough to remind me to feel my hands and revel in their softness. And I bet when I knit today, the yarn doesn’t catch in my raspy old lady hands. Mostly because I now have soft sweet-young-thing hands. So, go get some. Right now.

I’ve been eyeballing comforter sets for my room for several months now without buying anything. Yeah, I know. I don’t usually dither quite so long over stuff like this, but money has been a little tight, and I have had other things I wanted to buy. But isn’t that the cutest thing ever? I know it’s marketed as a kid’s set, but it is so pretty. I found it at Beyond Bedding. They sell polka dot bedding for babies, kids and teens. And grown-ups, even though they don’t seem to know it. Surely I am not the only grown woman with a penchant for pink!

Hmm, perhaps I could offer to trade craft supplies for a bedding site. How do you think that would work out for me? And do you think if it did work out, that I could convince Dh that pink is a perfectly valid color for a bedroom a grown man sleeps in?

I also picked up a few school supplies Saturday morning. Even though we home school, I am still buying supplies for a bunch of students, and we use pens and pencils and crayons and paper just like students in public school. So I buy it when you do–as soon as it goes on sale, and not one minute before, LOL! This year, I also received a box of school goodies from EZ School Supplies. You woulda thought it was Christmas up in here, ya’ll! Look at this:

They had so much fun, and I got several blissful minutes of quiet!

I really like the box the supplies came in. It’s a good sturdy box with places to write in the child’s like and dislikes, and then keep special work in after the school year is over. It even has a handle on top. I don’t know about you, but I am all about the storage!

After I posted Friday, I went back to Myrtle beach with my folks. I had already been Wednesday to see Deb, which is a pst of it’s own, but will be on my other blog. Maybe. Anyway, we bought a necklace I had etyed on Wednesday, and a pair of shoes (yeah, whatever, hush), AND we scoped out a new yarn store. It’s in NMB, and it’s called Knittiing up a Storm, and it is fantabulous.

On Saturday, I finished my purse, and helped Mama shell peas, and then started a puzzle. We were supposed to camp this weekend, but it was just too hot and also very rainy, so we stayed in the air conditioning and played games and such. Except for the pea thing.

DH says puzzles count as finished objects, since I buy serious puzzles that take some mad skills to assemble. What do you think?

The goose is getting fat! It seems like I type that earlier and earlier every year, but I can assure you that is already past the middle of July here, and Christmas is just FIVE MONTHS away! How crazy is that? I still have broken ornaments from last year over there in the craft area to be fixed. Also! I did not make personalized ornaments last year, and I mean to get on that this year. Hell-o!

Anyway! Back to the point, which is NOT my lack of Christmas Organizing Skills, but rather personalized Christmas Cards and the photos that go with them. Yep. Pi-chers for those of you who speak southern, like me. I found a boatload of articles on how to get good Christmas cards shots, and other tips, like this gem:

Flowers are wonderful subject matter for photographs. To create a dew-dropped masterpiece, place drops of water or glycerin on the leaves or petals. Glycerin can be found at most pharmacies and won’t dry up as quickly as water.

Color me open-mouthed, because it never occurred to me that those flowers we see in photos were anything other than legitimately dew-kissed. Sometimes my own naivety amazes me. Rube=Cass or something, I guess. Anyway, go read. I’ll meet you there with a glass of iced tea, ok?