Roku, Daughters, and Scraping

Three unrelated things (aka, blogging at its finest):

1. We've been trying to ditch cable for a long time now, and have tried every which way to figure out how to keep a few important things for the least amount of money, and now I am thinking about getting a Roku. Those of you who have them -- love them? like them? hate them? worth the money? do we need a roku 3 or will 1 or 2 do the trick? I love crowdsourcing from this group of lovely people.


2. Josie is really upset that she doesn't have a daughter. She keeps telling me her two best friends are her daughters, and while I think it's funny and sweet, for her sake I thought it prudent to explain that they were not her daughters. We have been having long, rambling talks about how only grown-ups can have daughters and sons and how you should also wait until you've met the person you want to spend the rest of your life with until you make a baby or adopt a baby. I think maybe if she were a doll person, I would give her a doll and tell her it's her daughter and to take care of it and call it a day, but she doesn't care about dolls at all. This morning she told me there was a baby in her belly and it had the hiccups and it was kicking her SO LOW in her belly. So I guess my question is, should I worry about her talking about her daughters and her pregnancy in public? She has a few times, and people are shocked and weirded out, but is that really such a weird thing? If you heard a three-year-old talking about her daughter or her pregnancy, wouldn't you just chuckle and move on with life? 


3. I just got done scraping all the wallpaper off of two "accent walls" in our bedroom, and OH MY GOD, do I ever want to punch the original owners in the face. They used so much glue, it took over twelve man hours of scraping, even with the scoring and glue-dissolving spray method. I am completely broken. At this point, we should be ready for painting, but we also took down this weird little half-wall that was actually just made of paneling (?) and a four-foot section was glued to the wall where there was an overlap, so now I have some more hours of scraping ahead of me before we can start our big, awesome bedroom makeover. 

Hold me.

Card Keeper {Tutorial}

It's crafty-craft time, peeps. This was such an easy and sentimental craft. Josephine has received so many cards in her short life, and they are all so beautiful with thoughtful things written inside. There was no chance I was going to toss them, and I was having a hard time figuring out a way to keep them AND have them available for viewing. I knew a photo album wouldn't work, but I wanted something similar, and this is what I came up with.

This is super-simple, so no pictures with the directions. You all are smart enough to figure it out.

All I did was:

1. Cut the cards in half (so they open easier in the book -- obviously, this is optional if you feel too scared to cut the cards).

2. Punched two holes in each card. I found the tallest and shortest cards and then figured out where to make the holes so they would fit on the small cards but not be too close together on the large cards (for the teeny-tiny cards, I glued on a strip of cardstock to give me a larger surface to punch holes.)

3. Covered two pieces of cardstock (or posterboard, or pieces of a cardboard box you're going to recycle. Whatever.) a tiny bit larger than the largest card and punched holes in that too.

4. Ran some book rings through the holes (also -- I now know these are the exact same thing as shower curtain rings, so if you have extras lying around, use those!).

And, TA-DA!

I made one for the cards I/she got at my/her baby shower ...

And one for all the cards we/she got when she was born ...

Yes, Josephine has already gotten a hold of this one and mangled the corner a little. That'll happen. It has since been moved to a higher shelf.

I'm making one for her first birthday cards (I'm slacking a little on that one. It's not like it was months ago or anything.). I have also been collecting all the fun little cards she has gotten this past year and a half, like Valentine's Day cards and Halloween cards, so once I have a good chunk, I will make another.

I also have plans to do the same for the cards from our bridal shower and wedding (one of these days).

Simple and lovely, right?

Also, there are a million choices of how to make your cover. Originally, I thought I would add a picture in a plastic sleeve on the inside cover, and maybe even some writing on the outside, but I haven't gotten that far yet. I might never do it, but that's fine. You could cover them in lace or doilies, or add scrapbook embellishments. Go crazy!