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I have a confession. One of my favorite things to do each year usually occurs around this time and it has nothing to do with turkey or Christmas (although those are pretty awesome too).

I love picking out a calendar/planner for the new year.

I know, I’m weird right? But I LOVE to organize and plan events, write in everyone’s birthdays, schedule vacations (who doesn’t love that?!) and create goals for myself. I am Type A to the fullest, but I must admit that being a new mom has thrown my controlling ways for a loop. Like a roller coaster loop. I mean, we rescheduled Trent’s first Disney vacation 3 times already! So having a way to plan things and remember to pay bills is even more important now than ever. Mommy brain is real! And because I’m trying to remember these days as they fly by oh-so-fast, I like writing down when Trent reaches new milestones and his stats from his doctor’s appointments.

So I’m trying something new to me…a NeuYear dry-erase calendar that shows the ENTIRE year at one glance!

I put my calendar on the inside of my pantry door in the kitchen and here’s what I plan to put on it.

-Meal Planning: This is why I put it on the pantry door (besides the fact that it fit perfectly). I’d like to be better at planning meals for the week and grocery shopping accordingly, so we’ll write our daily meals down and grab what we need from the pantry after looking at the calendar for that day.

-Health & Fitness goals and events: I want to create some weight loss and fitness goals for myself and this calendar is PERFECT for that since it shows the year in weekly format and I tend to give myself weekly goals. I also want to run a Disney race in the near future (anyone want to sponsor me? I’ll wear your t-shirt, hat, underwear…lol) so I will write the 2013 race dates as they become available in order to decide what to do. I’m thinking a nice fall vacation centered around a Disney race sounds kinda fun.

-Vacations: What better way to count down to a vacation than a calendar that shows the entire year and allows you to see your vacation dates every.single.day that you look at it? Nothing like seeing a vacation to make you stick to your fitness goals too, huh?

-Birthdays, days off work, events we want to attend and Brett’s photoshoots

-Work deadlines: As an accountant, I have days that I really have to be at work, so I will be writing those times in there to make sure I don’t schedule anything during that time.

 

This calendar would have also been good to use at work, but my job buys us a calendar each year, so I might as well take advantage of that…after all, it is in the budget

I’m excited to see what 2013 year brings…after all, 2012 was pretty epic with having a baby and all.

 

What about you? Do you look forward to getting your new calendar each year or am I just weird like that?

If you are in the market for a new calendar for yourself, your family, work or a gift for someone else (this would be great for moms!), you can use code “ThePhotographersWife” for 30% off your calendar purchase at www.NeuYear.net (expires 12/31/12). Or you can enter our giveaway below to win one!!

 

**GIVEAWAY**

Thanks to the folks at NeuYear, you have the chance to win one of two NeuYear calendars! That’s right…TWO winners will receive a 2013 calendar valued at $30 each! We’ll be using Rafflecopter again (form below), so that means you have plenty of ways to enter the contest…pick as many as you’d like. The more things you do, the more entries you get! The calendars will be sent to the winners directly from NeuYear. Contest ends Saturday, December 8th at midnight. US only please!

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Let’s make 2013 epic together!

 

I did not receive any compensation for this post, although I did receive a calendar to review. As always, all opinions are my own and 100% honest.

 

As a BzzAgent, I was recently invited to try Benjamin Moore Aura Interior Paint.

 

 

From Benjamin Moore/BzzAgent:

Aura^® Waterborne Interior Paint with Color Lock^® technology is, quite simply, the finest paint Benjamin Moore has ever made. No other paint rivals its performance, durability and vitality. Introduced in 2006, Aura^® was the first product launched on the Gennex^® colorant system, and it revolutionized the industry with its combination of high performance, low odor and low VOCs. Superior paint that is more eco-friendly? That’s a win-win within any home.

And we haven’t even touched upon the colors. Oh, the colors! Thanks to Benjamin Moore’s exclusive Color Lock^® technology, Aura^® paint delivers truer hues and richer colors and looks fresh for years. The line covers like no other — even the deepest Aura^® shades never require more than two coats. And if that’s not enough, Aura^® is available in every Benjamin Moore color, including the Color Stories^® Palette. With over 3,600 colors to choose from, there’s almost no limit to what your roller can do.

 

I was immediately excited and accepted the campaign. We needed a swift kick in the butt to get on a project that we’ve been dreading…the dining room wall.

Ok, that doesn’t sound or look like a big deal, but that’s because you may not be able to see the true monster hiding underneath that crackling paint…

 

 

WALLPAPER! (Cue scary theme music)

That’s the upper corner of our dining room. It started out with just a couple of cracks in the paint, but it has slowly grown. When we moved in 3 years ago, the interior of the house had already been painted by the previous homeowner who basically did a “flip” on the house by revamping it a little in order to up the appeal factor. Well, it looks he attempted to peel back the wallpaper and gave up rather quickly.

 

 

He then must’ve just decided to paint over it and we are now left with a wall that is slowly peeling back more and more. Sneaky bastard.

When the house was inspected, the inspector said there might have been a leak in that corner at some point, but that it appears the leak has been fixed. Because of that, we were hesitant to fix the wall before getting the roof replaced and just dealt with it by not looking in that corner. Now that we are in talks to replace the roof (Holy EXPENSIVE Batman!), we thought now would be a good time to tackle the project. So I accepted my Aura paint Bzz Campaign with full intentions of getting on that ASAP.

Then the man of the house told me it wasn’t going to be a quick and easy task, so I figured we could do it over one of our weekends. However, with Bzz Campaigns, you only have a certain amount of time to report back on your project and before we knew it, all of our weekends were full with activities and we had no time to complete the project. Sad face.

I wasn’t about to give up, though. And besides, I was given a product to try…so I’m going to use it darn it! It’s also been a while since my last craft project so I decided to upgrade Trent’s IKEA easel!

 

 

We bought this during our IKEA shopping extravaganza for all of Trent’s nursery items. Seriously, $15 for this easel is an absolute steal. I frickin love IKEA and wish we had one in our town and didn’t have to drive almost 4 hours to the one in Orlando.

Most of Trent’s furniture is white, so I decided to paint the easel to match his other furniture using a small can of white Benjamin Moore Aura paint. Interior paint isn’t just for walls! And since I’m lazy, I was hoping that by using a higher quality paint and primer in one would mean I would only have to use one coat to complete the project.

 

 

I couldn’t find our large plastic sheet to put on the floor underneath the easel to prevent splatter on the carpet, so I just turned one of his rugs over instead. I was going to risk it and not put anything down, but good thing I didn’t since I ended up getting 3 drops of paint on the back of the rug. Oopsie.

I used Frog Tape to tape off around the wooden edges so the paint wouldn’t get on the chalkboard/whiteboard.

 

 

I also put a strip of Frog Tape under each of the legs to not get paint on the rug.

 

 

After one quick coat, I let it dry for a few hours while we went out. The paint went on smooth with great coverage and I didn’t have to go over the same spot repeatedly.

 

 

I pulled the tape off and TA-DA! It now matches the rest of the room!

 

 

I can’t wait to try this with an entire room. We’ve used Benjamin Moore paint before in Trent’s nursery and it was great (you can see it in the above photos - the color is Grey Horse). I was pregnant at the time, so the low VOC feature was perfect, along with the ease of application meant I could help paint without hurting my pregnant self.

As for the dining room, we have our paint ready for when we finally decide to tackle that hot mess and we will definitely share our experience here with you guys. I’m actually interested in finding out what kind of tacky wallpaper is hiding under there!

 

Disclaimer: I received this product for free as part of BzzAgent campaign in return for my honest, hype-free opinion. All opinions are my own and I was not compensated in any other way.

 

 

I LOVE candles and things that make my house or office smell nice, especially since I’m surrounded by boys at home. I find a flickering flame on a candle to be very relaxing, but with a child in the house that is soon to be on the move, candles may not be the best way to go. Glade has several products that help with this conundrum. I use their plug-ins in several rooms of the house, but I don’t always like leaving things plugged in either.

 

 

I was glad that I was asked by BzzAgent to participate in a campaign to try two of Glade’s new products in their Expression line, the scented oil diffuser kit and the fragrance mist kit. Both products are designed with eye appeal in mind and are meant to be placed out in the open, rather than hidden in a closet only to be pulled out when used.

 

 

Each product offers several scents, but seeing as it is Fall, I chose the Fuji Apple & Cardamom Spice scent for the oil diffuser.

 

 

This was easy to set up, there is a container of oil that sits at the bottom and you just snap the diffuser sheet into it; both are refillable. Once placed between the decorative outside walls, it can be left out and the scent is supposed to last 30 days.

 

 

I like that I can set it and forget it. It’s also pretty to look at. It took about an hour for the scent to start filling the room, but yet it was a light scent that wasn’t overwhelming.

For the fragrance mist, I wanted to test a different scent, so I got the Pineapple Mangosteen.

 

 

Room sprays are typically meant to give a quick burst a scent to a room when needed, and that is what this does. The pineapple scent is refreshing and not overwhelming; kinda like I’m in a Hawaiian oasis…not that I would personally know, but you get the point. The room spray itself is a refillable container that snaps into the decorative holder, which is way better looking than typical room spray cans, although with a child in the house, I don’t think I will be leaving this one out where he can reach it.

Overall, these are two nice new additions to the Glade collection.

 

Disclaimer: I received this product for free as part of BzzAgent campaign in return for my honest, hype-free opinion. All opinions are my own and I was not compensated in any other way.