We have family in town this week, so I might be a little scarce….or at least actual projects getting done might be a little scarce. But next week is Dave’s spring break, and we have big, ginormous plans! GINORMOUS! One of the plans is 16 by 16 feet, for example. And the other one is five feet tall. Teasers.

But I have a few quick things today.

1. Fabric! Remember when I made everyone tell me what fabric they liked best for my dining room chairs? I’ve finally compiled the results (not very scientifically….like if someone said, “I like these three” and someone else said, “this one’s my favorite” I just counted them all the same. Maybe I should have made an actual poll).

The top three vote getters were #9:

 

Dragons!

#7:

 

and #3:

 

My top choice going into the whole thing was #7 (I actually liked the very similar #8 more, but #7 is much cheaper and the indoor/outdoor fabric I’m hoping will make for easy cleaning).

Thanks everyone for your input! A couple of people also suggested painting the table something other than black, which I’m considering now, too. Basically, I’m still undecided. I’m also thinking I’ll need less fabric than I was thinking originally, so I might take a look at Spoonflower (which I didn’t do before because it’s expensive) and see if there’s anything I love enough to splurge on. The chairs were so inexpensive that I might be able to justify it. For the right fabric. We’ll see!

2. Interesting/spooky thing happened here the other day. A pane of glass came out of  the window in Milo and Gus’s room, fell three stories, and landed unbroken in our yard. True story:

The front of the house already had all newer, vinyl windows when we moved in. The back is all the original mid 80’s wooden windows, well past due for painting/reglazing. We were planning to have them all painted, but now I’m thinking it makes more sense to just replace them a couple at a time as we can afford it/panes of glass start falling out of them. So looks like we’re in the market for a couple of new windows. There’s cardboard taped over that pane right now. At least it’s finally warming up! (and I’m not so sad to have an excuse to start replacing those old, drafty windows, truth be told).

3. I have a really hard time managing to buy cards for people. Especially buying cards on time. So when Cardstore.com got in touch to ask if I wanted to try out their online card store, I thought, “OMG. My stepmother’s birthday is coming up SO SOON.” In other words, “yes, please.”

My usual card buying process consists of standing, utterly overwhelmed and despondent, in front of the greeting card display at the drugstore. I pick up 400 or so cards and read the inside of them, then finally pick one that I’m not particularly thrilled with and pay way more than I expect for it.

The thing I liked most about Cardstore is that I could go through that whole terrible indecision period right from the comfort of my own home, without an impatient one year old trying to climb out of the shopping cart.

The way it works is you go to the site and browse through all the card designs (there’s a really big selection, and I found the navigation well laid out and easy to deal with), pick one you like, then customize it.

So, for example, here’s the card we picked for my stepmother:

(it arrived with FOUR envelopes. I have no idea why, but, hey, free envelopes! Score!)

One of my sort of anal issues about buying cards for grandparent types at the store is that they never have the right name on them. There is NEVER a card at Walgreens addressed to “Grandma Randi.” Or to GiGi, as the kids call my mom. So I liked being able to address it exactly how I wanted.

Then you can customize the message on the inside, both the words and the font size, type, and color:

And then you can add stuff to the back, too, if you want. They have a lot of cards with photo options on the front or the inside, too, but you don’t really want a big picture of yourself on someone else’s birthday card, so I didn’t go that route. But I did think a little family picture, kind of like a signature, on the back would be nice and not obnoxious:

The whole card making and ordering process went really smoothly. It looks to me like most of the cards are regularly $5, which makes them competitive with what you’d buy at the store, and then they seem to run sale and promotions regularly, too. Shipping was $1.50 and you could also, for the price of a stamp, have them send the card directly to the recipient. Normally that would have been awesome, but I wanted to see my card in person since I was going to blog about it.

I got the shipping notification the next day, and the card arrived two or three days later, in this friendly envelope:

I was really happy with the card, although I’ll point out for anyone who cares about such things that it had a more matte finish than most cards that you’d buy at the store (they talk in the FAQ about how the paper they use is sustainably sourced and planet friendly and all that, which I like better than shininess, personally).

So, overall, very good experience and I’d definitely think of Cardstore again when I need a card. The main downside I can think of is that you do have to remember that you’ll need a card a few days in advance; you can’t suddenly stop on the way to the birthday party like, err…..SOME people might find themselves doing sometimes.

I was provided with a free card to review by Cardstore.com but was not otherwise compensated. All opinions are my own. 

Okay–now off to have fun with the family! I should be back later this week with reports on said fun and probably some blathering about the other half of our bedroom and future plans for it.