July 2010 - Page 2 of 3 - Angry Julie Monday

Upcoming Events

July 16, 2010

I am completely swamped with stuff in the next month or so. I should probably write everything down on a calendar, or something. Oh wait, I have that fabulous Erin Condren Life Planner in my laptop bag. I can’t wait to see what she has in store for the 2010-11 version.

So anyway, starting next week, July 19th to be exact, I am going to be participating in the Pro Blogger Challenge with The SITS Girls on Blog Frog. It is a plan to which gives you “31 Days to Build a Better Blog”. I am completely stumped with my blog writing lately, and I need some new ideas. This was the perfect challenge for me. I hope to learn more about myself, my blogging, and be able to change some of the things that I do with my blog.

During the first week of August, I will be attending the BlogHer Conference in New York City. This is my second BlogHer, as I attended last year in Chicago. I had a great time. I will be attending some parties, but I am not going to overwhelm myself this time. Seriously, I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off last year trying to get to all the events. I can’t wait to see all of my bloggy friends there too. If you are going to BlogHer, be sure and come say “HI” to me.

The week after Blogher, I will be hosting a Back-To-School Giveaway Bonanza with 11 other awesome bloggers. We have some great sponsors lined up for this event. We will be announcing all the sponsors and specifics soon on our Facebook page. Please “LIKE” our Facebook page to get the latest information and a list of all of the Bloggers participating.

And last but not least, I will be finishing my summer with Bloggy Boot Camp in San Francisco. This is my second Bloggy Boot Camp as I attend Bloggy Boot Camp Phoenix. I will be speaking at this particular BBC. I will also be doing a little road trip up to San Francisco with my Bloggy Pals. They also recently added a Bloggy Boot Camp in St. George, Utah on November 13, 2010. I will most likely be attending that one too, as it is the day before my 35th Birthday. I think that is the perfect way to celebrate turning 35!

Wow, looking at all of this freaks me out. But it’s a good freak out, right? Plus the Angry Kid starts Kindergarten the first week of September. I can survive all of this…I can…I hope. Wish me luck!

Filed Under: Blogging 8 Comments

What is it about Facebook?

July 15, 2010

(Photo from sickfacebook.com)

What is it about Facebook that brings out the passive/aggressive side of people? I do not understand why people think that they can post something on their wall, and not expect drama. I don’t think that someon of these people would ever say these things to someone in person.

I was recently watching one of my favorite shows this summer, The Real Housewives of New Jersey. I’ve posted about my strange fascination for “New Jersey” shows before. In the latest episode, I think that they mentioned “Facebook” at least five times. Danielle (the resident lunatic) who is 47 years old, kept going on and on about things that 18 year old, Ashley posted on her Facebook wall. Really, you are 47 years old, why do you care what an 18 yr old is posting? I think it is hilarious that there was so much drama, just because of Facebook.

I’ve been deleting or un-friending people in the past few months because of drama. I have also deleted most of my co-workers. I have nothing against my co-workers, but it seems that Facebook brings drama in the workplace. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard, “Did you see so-and-so’s pictures on Facebook?” Now I just say, nope.

One of my favorite Facebook stories was during the election last year. I think that politics brings out the worst in people. It is amazing how opinionated that people get, and what things that they type on their “friends” Facebook walls. I was working nights at work, which is pretty much swing shift. I typed something on my wall similar to this, “I can’t wait for this election to be over, I’m so sick of it already.”

I woke up the next morning and checked my iPhone, like I usually do. Admit it people, we all do the same thing. I saw that I had over 35 Facebook messages. I immediately pulled up my Facebook app to see what the heck all these messages were about. The messages were comments on my original status. I was not trying to be passive/aggressive at all. I was just making a generalized statement. Well, one of my friends remarked something like, “me too.” Then one of my co-workers responded with something like, “do you how hard we fought for the right to vote, etc…” And of course the rest of the Facebook comments were those two people going back and forth at each other. It was ridiculous. At the very end, they ended up calling each other names and threatening each other. These were two people who did not know each other at all, they were just mutual “Facebook” friends with me. After everything, the co-worker un-friended me, and the friend told me about all the drama. I guess that I missed out, because I was SLEEPING.

Some people have asked me, “if you don’t like all of this drama, why are you even on Facebook?” I have to admit, that I do like a little drama. It is entertaining. Besides the fact, you gotta love when people post those “fresh” baby pictures, or school graduations.

Have you ever had Facebook drama, seen something really funny, or awkward? What is your favorite Facebook story?

I am thankful for Mama Kat and her Writer’s Workshop, cause my mind is like Jello right now. Mama Kat sponsors a Writer’s Workshop every week.

Oh, and speaking of FACEBOOK, come “LIKE” my page. All of the cool people are there.

Filed Under: Just Julie 16 Comments

Wordless Wednesday: Building Marble Mazes

July 14, 2010

(Building mazes rather than sleeping…)

Welcome to “Angry Julie Monday’s Wordless Wednesday Linky”! If this your first time here, HELLO! I am doing a link-up every Wednesday! Post a picture(s) that you took in the past week and link back to it here.

I’m using a new thumbnail version of linky. By using this version, you are able to see a thumbnail of all of the pictures. Please use a thumbnail of the photo for your Wordless Wednesday Post.

Filed Under: Photography 8 Comments

Painting a rattan laundry hamper

July 13, 2010

We are still working on Angry Kid’s room makeover. Yes, it has been since January. The Angry Family is quite busy. I constantly walk around Angry Kid’s room and find more projects to do, or project’s for my husband to do.

The latest project was his laundry hamper. Angry Kid had a white rattan laundry hamper and green gingham liner from Pottery Barn Kid’s. He’s had the same laundry hamper since he was born. His room used to a be a frog theme long ago. Angry Husband was fine with the white hamper, but it drove me nuts. Cause it didn’t match the current theme.

We started off with the white version of this rattan hamper. I didn’t realize that I paid that much for it when I originally bought it. Angry Husband used some matte black primer spray paint that he already had in the garage. We (ok he) spray painted over a period of three days. The hamper actually took about four cans of spray paint. We already had three, so it didn’t cost us that much. The tricky part about all of the spray painting was the holes and grooves in the rattan.

You have to make sure that you thoroughly get the paint on the inside and outside of the wicker. Angry Husband had done three coats of paint, when I noticed white rattan peeking through. So he sprayed one last final coat of paint on the basket.

I then realized that we still needed to figure out the hamper liner problem. I had the current (green gingham) liner. I looked online and did not see any liners that fit our current color scheme. Luckily, I have this AWESOME and EXTREMELY TALENTED friend, who also sews. I went to lunch with this friend, KELLY, and asked her about the liner. She told me that it was super simple and to go buy the fabric.

I arrived at Kelly’s house, later that afternoon with my three yards of fabric. I bought extra fabric just in case. My trip to the fabric store was quite an experience. I didn’t realize how hard it was to get solid colored fabric. Kelly was able to match the dimensions of the original liner and she made me a new one.

I showed it to Angry Husband when I got home that night. He was impressed. This is why I am friends with creative crafty people, you never know when you might need help with a project.

I’m really happy with the results of our rattan project. The black spray paint made the laundry hamper look brand new. Can you imagine all the wonderful colors that you could paint, rattan? The ideas are endless. Just think of all the rattan trash baskets, chairs, and tables just sitting around in your garage. I saved a ton of money by just using a little spray paint.

We have one more project left and Angry Kid’s room will finally be finished. Hopefully, we can get it done by the end of the summer. That is my goal.

Filed Under: In The Home 12 Comments

I have a good idea

July 12, 2010

This is Angry Kid’s new favorite phrase. Everything revolves around, “You know what mama, I have a good idea”, or “Don’t you think that would be a good idea, uh huh, yea?” Last month, it was “Actually….”. I think he got that phrase from his mentors Phineas and Ferb. He is quite obsessed with that show. I think the “good idea” thing is from there too?

My schedule changed this past week and I was off on Sunday. My mom usually watches Angry Kid on Sundays. So it my job to find some summer entertainment for us. Although, it was chilly outside. Angry Kid had a another “good idea”. He suggested going to 24Hour Fitness to get some exercise. He said that his legs were hurting and that he needed some exercises. I guess that was the little push that I needed. So we got dressed and headed towards the gym. Usually Angry Kid takes forever getting dressed. He wanders around the house, wants to wear three shirts at a time, and can’t find his shoes. This time, he was dressed faster than me.

Oh, and going to 24Hour Fitness for Angry Kid meant me paying $3 for him to go to the Kid’s Club. Let’s see, $3 for 2 hours of babysitting, that he asked for, SOLD. I got a good workout on the elliptical while he played. It was a win-win. After working out, I headed for the Kid’s Club to pick up Angry Kid. Of course, he had another “good idea”. This time he suggested going to Wahoo’s Fish Tacos for lunch. Well, it was noon-ish, so we headed towards Wahoo’s. I suggested that we drive to Wahoo’s since it’s on the other side of the mall. He told me that he would like to walk.

We finally arrived and ordered our food. Every TV in the place had the soccer game on. You know “that World Cup Soccer Game”. Angry Kid was intrigued by all of the people in the restaurant cheering and yelling at the TV’s. I don’t think he realized that it was being shown on the Spanish channel. I really don’t think he cared. He was VERY into the game, and proceeded to ignore me.

Oh guess what, after we ate, he had another “good idea”. He wanted to go to the pool after lunch. I said, “sure, let’s go.” I let Angry Kid think that all of this was his “good ideas”. I had already planned to go to the gym. I knew that he liked the Kid’s Club and I could actually get a work out in. I had to feed the kid, and I knew if the weather cleared up, we would go in the pool. We needed to practice his strokes.

In between eating lunch and going to the pool, we came home and I cleaned up a little bit. Angry Kid thought that it was a “good idea” for him to play Plants Vs. Zombies.

Angry Kid seems to be full of “good ideas” lately and I have none. This pretty much summarizes our summer so far. We’ve been BBQ’ing, swimming, organizing, and playing Plants vs. Zombies. So far, this is our summer.

How has your summer been? Have you done anything good? Traveled? Please let me live vicariously through you….

Filed Under: Parenting 8 Comments

Spotlight Saturday: 07.04 to 07.10.10

July 10, 2010

Here are FIVE of my favorite posts from the past week. Each week I will be highlighting some of my favorites. I have many blogs in my reader, as I have many friends with all different types of “niches” or “non-niches”. I will post serious stories, fun stories, pictures, recipes, etc. They will most likely be in a random order.

Note: I have been a bit slow in my blogging for the past few weeks. I’m going through some bumps and changes in the work sector of my life. I’m adjusting to a new schedule and I’m still trying to fit everything in.

1. Tips for Hosting a Blog Giveaway

Amy takes you step by step through the process of hosting and keeping track of a blog giveaway. She even shows how she utilizes spreadsheets.

2. 10 Facts-A City Kid’s Trip to The Pioneer Woman’s Ranch

Amy and her son visited the Pioneer Woman’s ranch on the 4th of July. She talks about her son wearing Crocs in the land of cowboy boots, along with a never-ending fireworks show.

3. Hold On To Your HEADbands

A simple tutorial for headband storage. Now if you’ve read my blog, you would know that I have a bazillion headbands. This is right up my alley.

4. Snickers Caramel Cheesecake Cookies

Wow, Jenny did it again. These look delightful. Are these even legal? Just looking at the pictures make me gain 10 pounds. But seriously, everything that Jenny makes is FABULOUS.

5. Well Play, Kelly Ripa (An Ode to the Fug Girls)

Sarah posted a photo of herself and Kelly Ripa at an event. She also made up some dialogue to go with the photo. I laughed so hard, that I might have spit out my Dr. Pepper.

Filed Under: Blogging 6 Comments

I am surrounded by creative crafty people

July 9, 2010

I spent my childhood drawing and coloring. I would write little stories and then illustrate them. My specialty was mice. My nickname from my dad, was mouse. I would draw little mice families and write about them. The highlight of all of this was in sixth grade when my teacher used to laminating machine and laminated my entire story. I wish I could find that story now. It is probably hidden in a box somewhere.

In college, I learned how to cross-stitch. I think it’s one of those sorority initiation things. I learned to cross-stitch for a pillow for my Big Sis and I also learned the magic of making a fabric photo album. I can’t tell you how many times that I burnt my fingers with the glue gun making those photo albums.

After college was done and over with, I still tried to cross stitch in my spare time. I think I still have about ten unfinished cross stitch projects. I would spend hours on them. When I got to a difficult part, I would get pissed off, and toss it to the side. And then they would go into the project graveyard.

I am a creative person but literally just don’t have the time to be creative as much, anymore. My days are filled with work, chasing after Angry Kid, and the day to day stuff. I can barely fit in a workout right now, which I desperately need. So I turn to blogs and websites to inspire my creativity now. Ok, well I read about other people’s creativity.

I was talking on the phone to my friend, Kelly, last night. We were talking about craft sites and crafty people online…I keep listing tons of crafty bloggers that she had never heard of. I guess I follow a few too many. Is that a bad thing? I read MANY, ok more than twenty craft blogs and sites a day. I get so many ideas and inspirations that every once in awhile motivate me.

Speaking of my friend, Kelly, she is quite crafty and creative herself. She even has a button on her blog sidebar dedicated to crafts. For Christmas, she made me these beautiful earrings and necklace. How do I even compete with that?

Enter, another crafty friend, named Shey. Have you heard of *Shey* [B] Camera Strap Covers? Shey and I started off as Twitter friends. I think we became even better friends at Bloggy Boot Camp in Phoenix when I stalked her with my camera. Shey is used to being the one behind the camera. I think she spent the entire weekend trying to hide from my camera. I even managed to get a few pictures of her.

Last month, Shey was doing giveaways for her birthday, and I won one of them. I won a Too ChaCha for Words Tank from Erin of Haute Tots. Well, ironically, I was already a follower of Erin and her blog, Bringing Up Burns. The blogging world is very small when you think about it, because I found Erin’s blog several months ago, which was linked to several other blogs I follow. I really didn’t think much about it, when I realized that Erin and I went to high school together.

Erin also lives very close to the city I work in. I was able to pick up my tank top last night…late last night. Oh my swoon, it’s beautiful. I love it. Erin was just sewing away in her garage. That’s why crafty people do. They find a place to hide from everyone to unleash their creativity.

Oh, and my friend, Lindsay…wow. Lindsay and I met on a parenting forum years ago. We were both obsessed with clothing for our little boys. Wow, times have changed since then. I can barely get Angry Kid to wear a clean shirt these days, let alone something that matches.

While we were on the forums together, Lindsay started selling custom clothing for children. She became famous instantly on e-bay. She made beautiful creations which fetched top dollar. Naturally, blogging was a natural thing for Lindsay to do. She started her blog, Living with Lindsay. She blogged about projects that she did in her own home. Whether it be her fabric covered headboard, or her book page wreath.

Picture from Living with Lindsay

Have you seen Lindsay’s book wreaths? This easy, simple, and CHEAP craft project went viral on the blogs. I’ve seen a ton of people post about it. I like to think, “I knew Lindsay when…” I am constantly amazed at the things that Lindsay has come up with.

So although, I am surrounded by creative crafty people, I’m quite craft lazy. Actually, I would probably say that I don’t really have the time to get involved into things. I have tons of things bookmarked though. Every once in awhile, I try to bake or do a project. I just don’t actually post about it here. Maybe I should.

I have given up on scrapbooking. I had all of the scissors, papers, tools, etc. I gave them to Angry Kid to craft with. He probably uses them more than I ever have. Besides, I don’t need to scrapbook anymore. I have a blog.

Filed Under: Blogging, In The Home 4 Comments

Wordless Wednesday: Angry Kid and His Snarky Face

July 7, 2010

I’m using a new thumbnail version of linky. By using this version, you are able to see a thumbnail of all of the pictures. Please use a thumbnail of the photo for your Wordless Wednesday Post.

Filed Under: Photography, Wordless Wednesday 13 Comments