say what you will...

You can go ahead and call me crazy, poor, and/or cheap (among other things) but I'd like to think that I'm a savvy genius! (who just had to spell check 'genius')

I have come up with a few fixes for when you find yourself stuck in a bind, running out of products late at night or in the early morning or when you are just feeling lazy.
I have utilized all 3 of the examples below and seriously, they work REALLY well.
Here you go...



1. Fabric Softener- I had this happen late at night, I was running a load of laundry in the washer when I realized we were out of fabric softener. Jeremy can go without it, I on the other hand cannot! The thought of touching towels, jeans or anything that hasn't been rinsed with fabric softener makes my skin crawl. I stood in the laundry room for just a moment before I thought, 'would conditioner work?' 'how much should I use?' 'should I use leave-in or regular?'. I just grabbed the regular ol' conditioner, added about 1/4 of a cup, if that to the load and it worked wonderfully!



2. Unlike the fabric softener, this one happened early in the morning while I was getting ready for work. I love coffee in the morning. I love making coffee in the French Press every morning. It’s timed perfectly into my morning routine between wrapping my wet hair in a towel and applying face lotion. The moment I realized we were out of sugar I panicked. I have already stopped adding milk to my coffee, and have replaced hot cocoa mix with a sprinkling of cinnamon, but SUGAR? Just like the fabric softener, I cannot go without it. Then I had a ‘duh’ moment. We have sugar, we have tons of sugar! It’s just not in the sugar bowl…it’s in the spice drawer. That morning I used blue sugar sprinkles to sweeten my cup of joe. My coffee may have been a weird dark greenish color but it tasted all the same. Bam, problem solved.



3. Now this one you may think is a little ridiculous but if you have ever tasted the tap water in Arizona you should understand why this trick comes in handy. This one definitely falls into the ‘Lazy’ category though. I’ve never tasted water that’s gone through an At-Home water purification that still doesn’t taste a bit like just plain tap water, so we buy our drinking water but I forget ALL THE TIME to buy water. We live steps away from a convenience store, I can see it out my window, I can throw stones to their parking lot but sometimes, when it’s late or I’m in my PJ’s or I just don’t want to leave the house I do something that is so dumb but so awesome at the same time. I break off some ice from a bag in the freezer (and there is pretty much always a bag of ice in the freezer, I’d really be screwed if there wasn’t, I’d have to, oh no, walk across the street!) put it in a glass and pop it in the microwave to melt the ice. Voila! Genius!

There you have it, my somewhat silly but actually pretty helpful tricks for around the house.

how cool is espen?

He's super cool! And how cool is his Aunt Allison for buying him such cool 'fold up' shades? She also bought me Burgerville Hamburger Dressing while she was in Oregon. I have eaten it on practically everything: eggs, yep. chicken, yep. tuna sandwich, you bet.

And about those glasses, I was so jealous of Espen's new glasses I have since purchased my own pair of Wayfarers (yes Jeremy tells me I look like I am trying to be 18) and with this recent purchase I vowed NEVER to pay full price for anything again. I feel like a chump for ever spending full price on things like shoes, clothing and accessories. Almost everything I have purchased over the last 6 months is still out there to purchase but for a fraction of the cost. Case in point. New sunnies. Buy them new for $139 or get in a painless 45 second bidding war with someone on Ebay and pay $40. Come on! Need I say any more.

We are half way, no, more than half way through with our move. We started bringing boxes over late Sunday...after I set up the first few pieces of my Mirro Medallion and Florence by Prolon collections it already started to feel like home. We have cooked two meals there now. Pizza last night and orange chicken tonight. we even hauled up our Plasma and a couch cushion so we could watch HR Puffinstuff while eating off of boxes. What more could you ask for...well, maybe the rest of our furniture which we will be bringing over on Friday!

Sell, sell, sell!

We sold all of Espen's furniture on craigslist this weekend...all but his little couch which should have a home by the end of the week. We are holding our yard sale this weekend. I hope we can get rid of EVERYTHING over the weekend. My goal is to only bring one box of items to the condo. Well, one box that does not have to be unpacked. We won't have room to store anything, so we NEED to clean house this weekend. Only 4 more weeks here, I still can't believe it.

Wait a minute, strike that, reverse it...

My boss hired me back full time today...for now. Thank heavens! Love the job, love the hours, love me some money. This is definitely a fantastic turn of events. Lets hope it keeps up.

Again!

On Saturday my boss informed me that he no longer has enough business to keep me on as a full time employee, I now have 2 weeks, while working just 2 days a week to pound the pavement and find yet another job. This is unreal. My brain feels like it shuts off every time I open my already lengthy novella that is my resume. It shows that I have a ton of experience in all sorts of fields (within real estate) but every time I have to add something to it, I begin to feel more like a failure. I know it's not true because if you look back I either left on my own or had to leave because of others failures...so I will press on.

We still have not settled on a moving date. There are several things we need to straighten out first, obviously a job for me, but a few other items as well. I can't wait for the yard sale! I just want it all gone so we can start fresh in our tiny new home.

Considerable Downsizing

As you all know, the economy has taken it's toll on just about everyone one way or the other. For us, it's been quite a rough ride, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. And although we will be 'losing' our home of six years, we have the opportunity to keep a roof over our heads, albeit the roof is only 600 square feet. We are diving head first into 'small space living' with a 2 year old in tow...and we are going to make the best of it!
Now comes the daunting task of cleaning house, de-junking, yard saleing and testing our skills at savvy space saving design. Between now and December, we have our work cut out for us.
Wish us luck!