Is this destiny or a boot in the butt to get going...?

Wow - talk about motivation. I previously posted about wanting to redecorate the house this year. No, let me rephrase that. I previously posted about the fact that I AM GOING TO redecorate my house this year. 2009 will be the year of the Home. Twenty years without any serious redecorating, with the exception of paint, is just waayyy too long, and I'm am tired of my house looking tired. My biggest stumbling block is the actual creative thought process needed to redecorate. Just the thought of coming up with the RIGHT color combinations makes me panic, nevermind choosing furniture that looks right together or window treatments. I told Jeff the only way MY redecorating was going to be worth the money HE is going to spend is if I collect books and magazines with photos of rooms I like, and copy those room elements. (I'm not kidding.) Now here's the destiny part... Last night I received email that I'd won another giveaway -- more than $350 worth of interior decorating books!! I was on HouseDesignFind.com last November, looking at different designs, and stumbled on their giveaway. Of course, I entered. I seem to have a lucky streak going with giveaways (I've won FIVE in the past three months!). I completely forgot about it, and was just totally blown away when I got their email yesterday. Wooo Hooo! Talk about great timing! Click on their link and you can see the books I won. Good stuff! Now we'll see if it's really destiny. I've also been entering a giveaway of a $5000 gift certificate to a local furniture store... It was over on December 31st, but they haven't posted a winner and today is the first day the entry blank wasn't on the web page...so... keep your fingers crossed! This is what I want:

That's how it's made

The holidays are over - except I still haven't taken my tree or room decorations down and honestly, there are still three presents under the tree for the grandchild who apparently has the "gimme" chromosome missing from his DNA. There were five, but he opened two more yesterday. Funny kid. So life gets back to normal as of today. Back to my daily To Do lists, back to my frugal spending, back to my housework and staying up with the laundry -- all things that have taken a backseat to my whining about the holidays. Grocery shopping today, so for the first time I got to print my shopping list from my voice-activated shopping list maker thingie. My question is: Who put NIPPLES on my shopping list??? Geesh... A conversation with Brayden while he played with PlayDoh (and you can see this in the video below -- but this is a translation for you. And 'scuse the drool -- he's getting some heavy duty teeth in, apparently!) B: I've been working on this for a long time. Me: Yes you have B: This is a Air... Me: An air? B: A air gishener. Me: An air freshener? B: A air queshener Me: (laughing) B: A air squishener Me: An air conditioner? B: Yeah, an air conditioner. Me: That's a lot of work - to make an air conditioner out of playdoh. B: What am I making? Me: What are you making? B: A circle. Me: OK, a circle. B: I'm doing it on both sides. Can you do that? Me: Yes, I can do that. B: See that little star right there? That's how I move it (the playdoh roller in his hand). B: I've been working on this? Me: Yes, a long time. B: Where's my bellybutton? Me: ??? B: My bellybutton is going to turn into a circle. ... That's how it's made. Lordy, what would I do without this child to make me laugh???