Exercise

Oh my GOD! do I hate to exercise.  I have done it and not done it and in either situation I hated every minute of it.  But what is a girl to do?  I am active when I am at home.  I scrub my floors on my hand and knees.  I hang laundry and do yard work, I mop and sweep and vacuum.  I am on the floor playing with Nate and schlepping stuff out to the car... I am active.  During the workday, I am not so active.  I spend the vast majority of my time sitting at my desk looking at Pinterest working.

So I have decided to add a three day rotating... workout? routine? I don;t know what to call it to my life. (I am not training to run marathons, or ironmans, or whatever... so bear with me here)

Day 1:  Leg lifts (ala Thighs of Steel from the 90s...) 75-100 each leg
Day 2:  Abs (crunches working lower and upper abs and the side, whatever they are called)
Day 3:  Arms (15 minutes of weight bearing lifts)

---Rest---

Repeat

I don't know if I will see or even feel and appreciable difference since this is such a slow beginner routine, but at least I will be doing something.

De-Cluttering: The 100 Things Challenge

A few times a year I get an overwhelming urge to purge the house of the stuff that seems t collect everywhere.  Usually this happens right after New Years, when I can see all the holiday gifts that have entered the house and now have to find a place for.  I did a mini-purge in January, but for some reason feel the need to do it again.  Maybe I just don't like the fact that every closet in my house is filled to maximum capacity?  Maybe I am feeling the urge to do more food/supply storage/disaster prep...Who knows.  Anyway , I have decided to take on a de-cluttering challenge, the 100 Things De-Cluttering Challenge that I first saw on Money Saving Mom.

It is a pretty simple challenge... find 100 things to remove from your house.  You can give them to friends, give them to Goodwill, recycle them, or simply throw them away; but the number must be 100, and I am going to be it in 7 days.  I will post pics of my progress day by day.

Anyone else want to tackle this challenge with me?

Projects I Am Mulling Over

There are projects on my "To Do" list and then there are projects that I have not committed to fully, but am still considering.  These fall in to the the "still mulling them over" category.

1.  Taking the door's off of Nate's closet
2.  Taking out the lower shelf in Nate's Closet and adding one of those cube units for more storage.
3.  Dying my wedding shoes cobalt blue
4.  Staring a Pandora charm bracelet

What projects are you mulling over?

Books, Books, and More Books

As librarian most people expect that I am an avid reader, which I am, most of the time, only... not so much any more.  I used to devour books 3 and 4 at a time, but that was long long ago.  I still love books, don;t get my wrong, they are my bread and butter, but lately with the advent of Pinterest I have been spending what little free time I have sewing and crafting and not so much reading. 

That was until last week where I read 5 book in one week because they were all so good I could not put them down.  5 books in 7 days is a lot of reading... this is when took up all of my time (free or engaged):

Bossypants by Tina Fey (I read this in 4 hours and nearly peed myself on more than one occasion)

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Ketchup is a Vegetable and Other Lies Moms Tell Themselves by Robin O'Bryant (almost as funny as Bossypants)

It's Mardi Gras, Ya'll!

To celebrate I will be making these Mini King Cakes from King Authur Flour.

You can find the recipe here.

Another Pinterst Goodie

For the holidays I bought these bag caps for hubby. 

 Picture from: http://www.onemoregadget.com/the-bag-clip-vs-the-new-copco-bag-cap/

I thought they were interesting  and functional.  Maybe they could keep our pretzels from going stale.  We have been using then and we like them.  Yesterday, I saw something on Pinterest that was akin to a DIY bag cap that I just had to try.

1.  Cut the top off of a wide mouth soda/juice/beverage bottle (this is from a vitamin water)

2.  Find a small bag, like a bag of open chocolate chips and gather up the end.  Thread it trough the open bottle top so that it stick out the top where you would drink from.

3.  Fold the top of the bag back over the opening of the bottle.

4.  Screw the cap on.  Not only will it keep them fresh, it makes them pretty easy to out too.

Growing Herbs in Tea Tins

So, as you all know I am a complete Pinterest addict.  One of the first things I ever pinned were these herbs being grown in recycled/upcycled tea tins which I found on this blog: http://frangipanidecor.blogspot.com/2010/11/urban-garden-unusual-containers.html

I love the re-purposing.  I love the colors.  I love the idea of non-breakable, non-plastic pots for plants.  Unfortunately, I don't drink tea that comes in tins like this.  Or tea that comes in any kind of tin I could up-cycle.

So, imagine my complete delight when I took a stroll through the Smith & Hawken isle at target and found these beauties waiting for me to take them home.

 
ok, so it is not up-cycling or recycling and it really wasn't frugal either but... they look so darn cool!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I don't have a mantel so I make a Buffet-scape for every holiday.  This is what I concocted for Valentine's Day.  I am pretty proud of this buffet-scape since I made all of it for very little $$$.

The ruffled runner was made from 3 fat quarters that I picked up from A.C. Moore for $1 a piece.

The 3 frames in the center I found at Goodwill for $2 each and painted them my desired colors.

The subway art and cupid silhouette were free printables (I can't remember where I found them though), and the garland I made from yarn and bakers twine I have in the house.

The candles that are holding up the pom pom garland I had already, but they were 75% at Bed, Bath and Beyond when I did buy them a few years ago, and the read glass heart shaped vase I picked up at Goodwill for $4 probably 5 years ago.

5Things for Friday -- The "I want" Edition

Here are a few things that I have had my eye on for the house...

1.  I have loved this pillow ever since I first saw it many, many moons ago.  But with a price tag of $196, unless I find one at goodwill, I don't think it will be mine any time soon

2.  Since only Nate and I use the paper Dixi cups in the bathroom, I would love to replace them with 2 of these steel cups instead.  Alas, they are sold out at the moment.

3.  The Cup Wow (found at www.cupwow.com) aka, a drinking lid for your mason jar.  Am eco-friendly, frugal, non plastic travel mug.  Gotta get me one (or two) of these.

4.  I love the Iphone case I have right now, but how awesome would it be to have a case that I cross-stitched???

5.  I would love to be able to find another jar of Biscoff Spread.  It is so good!

Yarn Wreath

These wreaths are all over Pinterest and the bloggysphere and I have loved everyone I saw so I decided to make one for my front door.  A nice neutral wreath for in between holiday seasons.