Can't Win 'Em All.

I have to report that the Nepper's did not win big last Friday. I mean we won something, and its a great something, but its not $40,000. Everyone walked away with $100 cash and $100 in Safeway gift cards. This latter bit was a surprise to everyone there. They also whipped out a surprise $2,500 draw. Didn't win that one either, but I was super impressed with all this impromptu prize giving. Turns out the winners were a family of 5, and the runner up winner ($5,000) had only entered once. Fairly impressive.

It was quite the event. All the 25 finalists were asked to invite their family and friends. They had snacks and drinks. When you walked in you had to register and then you were given a strip of paper with your name on it. You then had to put it in the ballot box. Which is a mesh cylinder that they could rotate. I've always heard you want to crumple your ballot so that there are more edges to grab, but in this case, where its a reverse draw, you don't want them to grab your ballot...until the end. So I just did the plain 'ol fold it in half. Sigh...

I seriously question my folding technique. No, I'm not losing sleep over it. But in hindsight, I think I should have crumpled the heck out of it. Making it into spit ball size. The smaller it was, the less likely they would have been to grab it. I was the 3rd or 4th name out of the bin. Sigh. I'm just sayin', its all in the folding technique!

So life continues as normal around Nepper's Landing. I think it would have been fairly normal regardless, although I don't know many people that that amount of money wouldn't change somethings significantly.

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This past weekend both Rob and I got sick. This was the first time. Ever. Like meaning, we were both so ridiculously sick we were actually parenting in shifts. He'd nap, I'd attempt to parent (although I must admit, Playhouse Disney was a godsend this weekend), then I'd go nap, and he'd have a crack at it. It was awful. Something like the flu. Maybe food poisoning, although Rob got it about 24 hours after I did, so who knows. Blech. Today is our first attempt back at normalcy. Did I already say blech?
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I wanted to show off, ahem...I mean share, some pictures of my latest home decor attempt. Basically since I've been in school this year, any decorating desire within me has been squashed by shocking amounts of reading and writing. Thankfully, I finished up one course last week (meaning I'm down to one), and at the end of each course, comes this amazing gusto to do something home decor ish. So I finally got around to finishing off this bookcase and making it all the more functional. Hooray.

I picked up the bookcase off of Earthcycle. Meaning it was free. Some guy had put it out in his front yard that morning and I had to go to the far Northeast side of the city to get it. Sure, its a little desperate, but remember the free bit? Unfortunately it did get a bit of water damage (it decided to start sprinkling after he had left for work). But I just painted over it with some white paint we had kicking around, and really, you would never know...that is, until you read this blog post ;)

The top needs a little work, but I'm quite pleased overall, and I seriously sigh a sigh of organizational relief everytime I get to the top of my stairwell. Ahhh....
I picked up the fabby boxes at IKEA (of course). These boxes cost $3.99 for a 2-pack. I printed off the labels on my computer. They house my postcard collection (which is shockingly large), receipts that I need to hold onto, miscellaneous photographs that need to be put in albums, and negatives from the pre-digital days. Beautiful, isn't it?
I have a large assortment of warranties, UPC's, and basically anything warranty related. Seriously, I'm the lady that makes them regret they ever put a lifetime warranty on something. Although, I do make a point to buy items (especially more expensive items) with a decent warranty. They have come in handy more than once. So I needed a place to keep all this stuff, but a place to keep it prettily. So this is what I came up with. These two boxes were $8.99. IKEA again. Beauty. I know, I know, you aren't supposed to save magazines, but really? I mean who said that anyway? I did pare down my collection considerably. I am also working on organizing my "idea book." Its definitely needing to go from a 1" to at least a 2" binder. So now when I flip through a magazine and see something I like, I tear it out then and there.

So the grand total for this little piece of organizing heaven?
$16.97
Delicious.