What a Pinteresting Idea!

Ignoring Facebook has left my time open to a whole SLEW of things I can do.

A. watch tv

B. clean *guffaw*

C. try out stuff from Pinterest

So while I'm ignoring the clutter and watching tv I've been working on some projects. I'm going to have this be a series of blog posts I'm hoping will make you want to try stuff on Pinterest too. Yeah but not that hydrogen peroxide bath because seriously dude that looks DANGEROUS!

If you have done something wonderful from Pinterest let me know. I love to see actual 'pins' work. Yeah the fails are awesome and make me feel really good that I'm not the only one but still it is nice to know it isn't all bogus photoshop trickery on there.

Post #1 will be up in a day or two. Or tonite. Whichever comes fi........ erm. I mean whenever I get around to it.

Problem Solving: Tiny bedroom.





Why yes purple IS my favorite color. How did you know?



From the ages of 12 to 29 I had a daybed. I loved my daybed but I felt a bit childish in it. When I moved in 2009 I ditched my daybed for a full sized bed. Man was that extravagant. For me it was the height of luxury! So then in the late spring of 2011, my full size bed being only 2 years old, I felt silly getting a king size bed. The reasons were justified. We were getting married and both of us are overweight so we needed the room. When Chris is too close to me and snoring I feel the need to punch him in the nose. In a full size bed that would have been an eventuality. Lastly someday we’ll have kids that will want to cuddle in bed with us. (Only on thundery and nightmarish nights.)

In the apartment our bedroom was HUGE. Well, huge for an apartment in our area. I believe it was 12x14. So our big bed fit well in there. Then a year and a half after moving into the apartment we bought our house. The bedroom is I believe 10x11. (Seems more like inches than feet some days.) The way the bedroom is laid out our bed would only fit one way. Which gives us both little to no room on both sides. My husband’s beautifully handcrafted dresser is on one side and on mine my bookcase. No ordinary bookcase though. One of the times I moved I ditched my dresser which I had since I was very young. It was falling apart and I just couldn’t fix it anymore. Dressers are very expensive. Or rather nice dressers are very expensive. So instead I bought cloth cubes and used my large black bookshelf to hold them. Voila! Instant dresser. And it looks pretty nice. Though my bookcase could use some tlc. (Floor model at the store so it has some wear.) It looks nice and not what you’d expect. But the main reason I love it in the bedroom is because it takes up little space. It isn’t as deep as a dresser but it is taller so it hugs the wall nicely.

My Fred Flinstone protected "dresser".  

Dresser cube overly stuffed with 12-15 rolled t-shirts. 

Dresser issue solved!  One problem down. Six months into living at the house though I was sick of the clutter on my side of the bed. At first I used a small bookcase but that got old fast when I piled everything on top instead of using the shelves in the middle and bottom. Next I tried a round side table from the livingroom. For a while it worked but same problem, I would pile stuff on, around and under the table. *sigh* I was getting sick of tripping over stuff when I woke up. I needed a set amount of space so I wouldn’t jenga all the crap next to my bed.

The answer came in the over the door hanger I had bought at the apartment from Amazon. I was looking at it one day and thought, why can’t I hang this up on my wall and use it as my end table? Useful? Yes. Gorgeous? No.

So I talked my hubby into going to the local hardware store to get some wall mounting clips and screws.

Using the awesome drill he got for Christmas.

Wall Brackets from Ace Hardware. (Our local hardware store rocks)

Together we put the hanger/holder doohickey on the wall. And as a bonus we also put two hooks on the side of my bookshelf for shirts and tanks. I’m really proud of how it all turned out.

On the top level I put my Kleenex, pillow spray and white noise machine. Second level is a catch all for loose change, mints, lavender essential oil and vap-o-rub. The last level is my lazy level. I can reach that level lying in bed. The most important things are on that level: my dear 12 year old Nokia cell phone I all “BVrick” that I use as an alarm, my Iphone, clock and power strip. Since the ends are open I can slide my Nokia in and out the end to turn on, turn off or more likely hit snooze. The second level I slide my glasses in and out there too. So lovely, so dear, so perfectly fitting my needs.




Still looks messy with all the cords but believe me this is more organized than it was. A dream come true!

 So if you have a small space that you use daily but it is too cluttered don’t despair. Think out of the box and use unconventional space. Look up high, look low, on the walls hanging from the ceiling, anything to make life easier and less cluttered.

New Hair Do/Life's a Happy Song

Yesterday I was on a walk listening to the Muppets.

(Yes well a regular occurance I assure you.)

All day I had been thinking of getting my hair cut at the salon and then coloring it at home. Well inspired by the happy song I decided to do it that nite and have some nice time to myself. I got to the salon and decided to do the coloring there instead. What can I say, spur of the moment!

Here along with the lyrics that inspired me, are the pictures I sent to my family. Because listen life is too short to be so serious.

Everything is great

Everything is grand

I got the whole wide world in the palm of my hand

Everything is perfect

It’s falling into place

I can’t seem to wipe this smile off my face

Life’s a happy song, when there’s someone by my side to sing along

When you’re alone, life can be a little low

It makes you feel like you’re 3 foot tall

When it’s just you – well, times can be tough

When there’s no one there to catch your fall

Everything is great

Everything is grand

I got the whole wide world in the palm of my hand

Everything is perfect

It’s falling into place

I can’t seem to wipe this smile off my face

Life smells like a rose

With someone to paint And someone to pose

Life’s like a piece of cake

With someone to pedal  And someone to break

 

Life is full of glee

With someone to saw And someone to see

Life’s a happy song, when there’s someone by my side to sing along

I’ve got everything that I need – right in front of me


Nothing’s stopping me  Nothing that I can’t be


With you right here next to me

Life’s a piece of cake
With someone to give And someone to take

Life’s a piece of pie
With someone to wash And someone to dry


Life’s an easy road
With someone beside you to share the load


Life is full of highs

With someone to stir And someone to fry

Life’s a leg of lamb With someone there to lend a hand

Life’s a bunch of flowers With someone to while away the hours

Life's a filet of fish, eh! ….yes, it is

Life’s a happy song, when there’s someone by your side to sing along

I’ve got everything that I need – right in front of me

Nothing’s stopping me Nothing that I can’t be

With you right here next to me

I’ve got everything that I need – right in front of me


Nothing’s stopping me

Nothing that I can’t be


With you right here next to me

You’ve got everything that you need – right in front of you

Nothing’s stopping you

Nothing that you can’t do you

That the world can throw at you



A Facebook vacation

Today I made the decision to take a vacation from Facebook for a while. What ‘a while’ is I won’t know until it is over.  We’ll see how long I last. There are quite a few reasons why I’m doing this besides giving myself more time for the things that really matter. IE: Hubby, cat, family, cat, friends, cat, words with friends, cat. You know, all the important things in life.

Ch-ch-ch-changes exaggerating Lincoln

When I first signed up for FB it was as MySpace started to go south. Remember all of the glittery butterfly wing-fairy-sticker type things you could put on your friends’ walls with sickly sweet sayings? (How 7^th grade-1991-that felt like.) So FB was nice with its clean and formulaic design.  But over the last 5 years I’ve noticed changes. Changes affecting how we act and react on FB. In the beginning people posted infrequently. It was mostly tame and congenial. But then like most things people started sharing too much and manners flew out the window. I think it is because unlike in person (or even on the phone) on FB you can’t tell if you’re having a one sided conversation. You just keep talking.  Needless to say how we saw Facebook changed, less catching up with friends, more over sharing.

“They”- the people who work to keep FB up to date- keep changing different parts of it. Change with the times or die. People don’t handle change well when it is thrust upon them. In fact this is what causes many regurgitated troll-created posts to end up on your wall.  ‘Facebook is going to start charging you next month!’ (I’d like to see them TRY to do that.) Along with a myriad of misattributed political quotes (Robin Williams said what?!) and Photoshopped giant spider pictures.  Posts created to incite panic by those wishing to create chaos and spread misinformation. Deep down it is change that people really fear and those wishing to create chaos prey upon that.

The toilet paper roll goes UNDER dagnabbit!

I live in an area where my opinions on some explosive topics are different than the norm. This makes life difficult sometimes. Most of my friends who do share my opinions rarely make them known on FB. Keeping the peace I imagine. Too many times instead of a good debate it boils down to angry retorts and name calling. Honest to God I see on a daily basis people posting pictures and sharing forwards that demean other people and their beliefs.  I see fear of the unknown in those posts and it makes me so sad. I seem to get sucked into hot button posts meant to incite anger. You know the type of subjects. Toilet paper rolls -do they go UNDER or OVER?! People this is a highly explosive topic! ‘Under people are just treacherous scum! Over losers need to shut their pie hole!’  Okay, so I’m joking. Btw, thanks to my mom I’m of the TP roll ‘under’ side in case you desperately needed to know. Over losers shut your pie hole! :-D

Guilt trip--Jesus doesn’t love you unless you share this post.

 I’m sure if anyone reads my blog (highly doubt it) I’m gonna make someone mad Okay I said it. I don’t forward the Gospel of the Spammy Forward. God, Jesus and I are buds and don’t need constant email forwards to solidify our relationship. Actions speak louder than mouse clicks in my opinion. This annoying fad of course has dual citizenship in FB and email worlds. Also I don’t care a whit if it is “friendship/sisterhood/sith lord/hairdresser appreciation week”. And the butterfly/sunset/spangly worded “I have a beautiful daughter who lights up my world” type posts are overdoing it. Obviously if you post that your daughter got 2^nd place in the spelling bee that would make a lot more personal news and MEAN something.  They just clog up the newsfeed. Remember the glittery MySpace pictures? Yeah some people never grow out of it. ow don’t get me wrong, there are some inspirational type word/picture posts that are fine. But there are so many out there now that they become meaningless. But don’t over do it. I’ve been at fault for overdoing it. I guess what I’m trying to say is don’t saturate your friend’s newsfeeds with the same thing. Like the funny pictures I did the other nite…….Um…. well. Yeah okay. Advice taken.

All in all the bad stuff outweighs the good stuff anymore. So I’m taking a vacation. A hiatus off of Facebook.  I'm sure I'll stay in the loop. But I would hope my friends would call with something more important than how drunk they were the other nite. Because oversharing is love, right?!

Your regularly scheduled blog has been interrupted to bring you this PSA: Yes

Sheri (geeky belle) has made a culinary delight! Of course I totally ripped it off a great restaurant but I swear I had only the description in the menu to go by.

Flashback.
Duluth Minnesota. March 1st. (2013 if you MUST know….) Grandma’s Saloon and Grill down by Canal Park. After a day of awesome thrift and craft shopping while Chris worked at a client we were sitting in a funky wonky neat restaurant. http://www.grandmasrestaurants.com/  

I was about to order a plain old burger when something else caught my eye. Steak Cheese French. The description sounded so good. So I tried it and loved it. I mean every bite of it was excellent. Here is my version of this great sandwich. Of course I cheated by not slow cooking meat all day but it is a great short cut.

Ingredients
Hormel Au Jus entrees (serves 3-4) Found in refrigerated meat section.
Shredded Mozzerella, Cheddar
Crusty sandwich rolls
Cream Cheese
Garlic butter
If you have a Pizza Pizzazz you are in luck. This is the perfect tool for making the bread crusty and slowly browned. Cut the rolls in half lengthwise. If the buns don’t sit on the tray very well cut the top to make a flat area to set it down. Let the rolls rotate on “dual” (upper and lower heating) for about 5 minutes. Watch them get golden brown. Spread garlic butter on the inside top and bottom. Rotate for another 4-5 minutes til crusty and brown. Heat the meat in the microwave. Remove the tops from the Pizzazz. Add a layer of meat on the bottom buns. Change the heat to ‘upper’. Rotate for another 2 minutes. Add a layer of mozzarella and cheddar. Rotate another 3-4 minutes until cheese is melted. While cheese is melting spread a thin layer of cream cheese to the inside of the top bun. Take the bottom halves off and set on a plate. If desired add some juice to the bottom bun. Add the top bun and enjoy! If you don’t have a Pizza Pizzazz run out and buy one. They are so very handy. In the meantime heat your oven to 250-300 degrees. Don’t go by the same times, use your best judgment.

So I haven’t posted in my blog for a year and a half. We are back in an odd year, totally skipped an even year for blogging. Chris and I have been married almost two years. We lived in an apartment for a year and four months. As much as I like not having to do much maintenance I really wanted a house. I mean REALLY wanted a house. Our neighbors at the apartment were loud and redneck-y. They had the cops called on them multiple times for loud fights. They were the only ones who had a dog-supposedly a service dog-not sure on that one! Our apartment managers kept saying, ‘yeah one more time and they’re gone’. One more time, two more times, three more times, you get the picture, came and went and they did not. Finally the last straw was –get this- they made their dog poop on the deck. After everything that was the last straw. Who cares about the neighbors having to hear yelling and cursing at 2 am. But by golly better not let the dog deficate on their property… So we started looking at the end of January 2012 at possibly buying a house. And that was a seven month project where we looked at over 60 houses. I fell in love with one, Chris fell in love with one, we both had to agree. Finally shazam! We found not the perfect house (there are no perfect houses) but the best house and we knew we wanted it. Or at least I knew. I turned to Chris and said, ‘puh-leeease can we bid on this? I promise you don’t have to buy me a Christmas gift!’ ( I did end up getting a Christmas gift btw.) It took some juggling but we finally bid just before the fourth of July. We ended our bid with $42. The real estate agents for the seller thought that was funny. No one knew why we ended it that way! They countered we countered again and again. Finally we got the house for a bit over what we wanted to pay. Our wonderful house that we love (and found things wonky done to it.) Well this ends part 1 of catching up a bit. I will chat with you all later!

March. The one month with an identity crisis.

Honestly March, are you winter or are you spring? Can’t you make up your mind?

And this March has been a doozie. At least for me. Went into the doctor Feb 25th and had a sinus infection. Got a major cold (or was it more sinus infection?) Stayed home 2.5 days from work the first week in March. Last week in March, went back and found out from my dr that I never got over the heinous sinus infection. And in between were three weeks of making invitations.

March. I dislike you. I broke my leg in March and a long time ago had a breakup in March. But Chris was born during this month. So I guess, March, that makes up for you.

So yes, you heard me right before. The invitations took 3 weeks to create. There are several pieces to our invite. Most of which we created ourselves, even the envelope. Pocketfold shell, belly band with vellum cut out castle, rsvp card, wallet photo, map and the gold card with the wording on it. Ouch that’s a helluva lot of work. They are pretty cool if I say so myself. On the day of my worst sinus pressure/headache/torture we sent them off. And two days later I got this text: Hey Beautiful, What you send me in the mail? Your cute envelope was sadly opened on 3 sides w/ nothing inside. In my head all I could hear was screeching and wailing and maybe Wash the Pilot saying “Oh God Oh God we’re all gonna die” Then the bawling started. And I did and did. I’m guessing it probably helped my pressure filled sinuses in some fashion too. But it didn’t make me feel any better. I imagined all the envelopes I made falling apart in the mail. I thought about reinforcing the edges. I did. I really really did.

So I emailed people, Chris called friends and some got theirs. So far about 3 have gotten either only an envelope, an invite and envelope separated from eachother or invites with faulty envelope edges. A lot of others thankfully got whole intact wonderful impactful invites begging to be RSVP-ed upon.

Well anyway in more news I quit Fashion Bug in March. I needed the time to move, work on wedding stuff and I’ll be working longer hours at Coke for half the month (or more). Irene is going on vacation to visit her son (yay for her!) but that means I get to dispatch. And for two glorious hours a day I get to do my job. Um yay? Just the parts I can’t do back at her desk. Which is a lot. As for leaving Fashion Bug it was needed. It was time. I just need more of that, time. Funny how it speeds up doesn’t it? Although now it is April, two months til Chris and I say “I do”. Only two months. That’s it. Um, good luck to me, I think I’ll need it.

Now its early April, I've been dispatching all week and going nuts. Its not hard its just tedious and I get bored. I can do some of my job at her desk but not all. I get away to my desk thankfully for a couple of hours each day. And I've finally started feeling good enough to walk in the mornings for ten minutes. I've been craving red meat so I'm sure my body is missing iron. I rarely have red meat, its mostly chicken or turkey. So I've had red meat two days in a row with leftovers for two lunches. I hope thats enough to get me back in the game! :-D
Well, other than that we are working on the slideshow, signs, various little projects. Just waiting for the timely stuff in May. Alot of things are time sensitive and now is not the time. The time now is packing and moving. Oh boy. Fun!