Okay, so Chris and I are getting married, for those of you who know me, you already know this. As soon as I started planning, I started to get all kinds of wedding related emails. Some where fun, and gave me a direction to start moving in, and some were just plan annoying. Now, five months into planning I have started to receive a new and exciting kind of email, pre-schools have started sending me information on where to send my kids (that I don't have) and open house invitations for myself and my not quiet yet husband.
At first I was sure that they had gotten my email by mistake, I mean really? While Chris and I have talked about kids, and are both on the same page about wanting them, its going to be a little while before they actually happen, not to mention a while before these hypothetical children will need a good pre-school to go to. But the emails kept coming, more pre-schools sending me information, and then the camps started. My favorite one thus far was the camp that advertised itself as a place to send your kids for a little mommy and daddy time; in other words, here is a place you can drop your kids off at so you can actually have sex for a change. Really? That's how you want to advertise? But I digress.
So, in addition to the emails about dresses, and how to choose the perfect dress (I ordered mine in December, so those are getting really annoying) and when to send your invitations, and how many days left, and ideas for brides maid gifts, I am also (apparently) planning the next five years of my life. I hate to break it to all of you, I really don't have the time, nor the inclination to plan out where I'm going to send my yet to be conceived children for pre-school, or for that matter, summer camp! I'm just waiting for the college pamphlets to start coming in (I'm sure it'll be any day now) I'm just wondering how they will address them.
Monday, April 23, 2012
Friday, April 20, 2012
The DIY Box
So, for those of you who know me, you know that I have recently found myself out of a job. Yep, I am, to borrow a phrase, a domestic engineer. Between looking for a job and taking care of the house, I've been pretty bored at home alone all day. To my rescue, my soon to be sister in law, who introduced me to Pinterest, little did she know she would be creating a monster. I discovered Do It Yourself Projects, and not projects that look like some ten year old created it in their basement while mommy wasn't looking, but things that actually look great, are super useful, and (the best part) give me great things to do on a budget that make life at home easier.
Okay, so I found DIY things to keep me busy (not to mention like a billion things to now look at and pin on the web), but what am I actually doing? First off, I haven't built anything yet, since we are living in my fiance's parents house, I thought I should hold off doing any big building projects, but I am making things. My first project was pretty successful, I made my own air fresheners. They're amazing, I can make them in any scent I want and they're really pretty. They are also super simple.
DIY Air Fresheners (delightfulcountrycookin.com):
4 tea light jars (find them at Michael's for a dollar)
4 packets of Knox unflavored gelatin (in the baking isle at the grocery)
Food coloring (one to two drops per jar, that shit goes a long way!)
Your favorite essential oil (about 20 drops per jar, more for a stronger scent)
2 cups of water
Boil one cup of water, whisk in Knox gelatin, once dissolved add one cup of water.
Put food coloring and oil in each jar, pour in Knox mixture.
Stir carefully, and set aside for 4 hours.
Done. Picture is from delighfulcountrycookin website.
They last for months and smell great, plus the jars are reuse able.
Next, I found a recipe for body wash. Chris and I have been sharing shower gel since I moved in, and its not that I don't like the stuff he uses, but we go through a shit ton of it, and I wanted a way for us each to have our own wash without spending any more money (maybe less). So I tried it out. Its really nice, you make a huge batch each time, it lasts forever (at least mine does) and its super simple. I may try adding a little extra scent the next time I make it, but other than that, I love it.
DIY Body Wash (found on Offbeathome.com):
8 oz soap bar (I used some that I found at World Market)
1 gallon (16 cups) water
2 TBS Glycerin (you can find it at CVS in the pharmacy)
Grate soap like cheese, add soap to stock pot full of water, set to medium heat and let soap melt completely. Turn off heat, the mixture will look like soapy water, this is good. Let sit for 10 to 12 hours for mixture to thicken. It'll look like snot, this is good. Use hand mixer to mix, add water as needed, it'll thin out a bit (trust me you'll want it to). Use funnel to put mixture in gallon jugs (or whatever, I used a milk carton). Try out, it smells great, its a little thicker than store bought, so use a bit less, and don't be surprised if it doesn't really lather, soap companies add a lathering agent to body wash, you don't need it, and it drys out your skin. The picture is from the Offbeathome website.
For my next project? I think I'm going to try my hand at some artwork. I already paint, but I suck at lettering, and that's my new goal, Quote Art.
Okay, so I found DIY things to keep me busy (not to mention like a billion things to now look at and pin on the web), but what am I actually doing? First off, I haven't built anything yet, since we are living in my fiance's parents house, I thought I should hold off doing any big building projects, but I am making things. My first project was pretty successful, I made my own air fresheners. They're amazing, I can make them in any scent I want and they're really pretty. They are also super simple.
DIY Air Fresheners (delightfulcountrycookin.com):
4 tea light jars (find them at Michael's for a dollar)
4 packets of Knox unflavored gelatin (in the baking isle at the grocery)
Food coloring (one to two drops per jar, that shit goes a long way!)
Your favorite essential oil (about 20 drops per jar, more for a stronger scent)
2 cups of water
Boil one cup of water, whisk in Knox gelatin, once dissolved add one cup of water.
Put food coloring and oil in each jar, pour in Knox mixture.
Stir carefully, and set aside for 4 hours.
Done. Picture is from delighfulcountrycookin website.
They last for months and smell great, plus the jars are reuse able.
Next, I found a recipe for body wash. Chris and I have been sharing shower gel since I moved in, and its not that I don't like the stuff he uses, but we go through a shit ton of it, and I wanted a way for us each to have our own wash without spending any more money (maybe less). So I tried it out. Its really nice, you make a huge batch each time, it lasts forever (at least mine does) and its super simple. I may try adding a little extra scent the next time I make it, but other than that, I love it.
DIY Body Wash (found on Offbeathome.com):
8 oz soap bar (I used some that I found at World Market)
1 gallon (16 cups) water
2 TBS Glycerin (you can find it at CVS in the pharmacy)
Grate soap like cheese, add soap to stock pot full of water, set to medium heat and let soap melt completely. Turn off heat, the mixture will look like soapy water, this is good. Let sit for 10 to 12 hours for mixture to thicken. It'll look like snot, this is good. Use hand mixer to mix, add water as needed, it'll thin out a bit (trust me you'll want it to). Use funnel to put mixture in gallon jugs (or whatever, I used a milk carton). Try out, it smells great, its a little thicker than store bought, so use a bit less, and don't be surprised if it doesn't really lather, soap companies add a lathering agent to body wash, you don't need it, and it drys out your skin. The picture is from the Offbeathome website.
For my next project? I think I'm going to try my hand at some artwork. I already paint, but I suck at lettering, and that's my new goal, Quote Art.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Taking Breaks
Well, friends, it seems that I have been getting all of my ideas from things I read lately. Last week I dealt with stress, and factors that lead to brain freeze (not the fun kind involving ice-cream), and this week, water. I read recently, don't ask were, I can't remember, that we are supposed to consume eight cups of water a day. Of course we all learned this back in health class about a million years ago, but since none of that food pyramid crap actually penetrated to our long term memory (possibly due to the stress that middle school exerts on even the best of us) we have all forgotten, or at least never bothered to impalement it. Apparently, drinking water, and a lot of it, is really good for you, who knew (everyone raising their hands please hold your sarcastic comments until the end of my rambling).
It goes something like this, and for those nutrition nut jobs out there, you can correct my faulty memory at a later time. The more water we consume, the more impurities are flushed out of our system, the fewer impurities, the better we feel, the healthier, and here's the kicker, the more weight we can loose with our everyday (or week if you're a lazy ass like me) workouts. As a bonus, with all that water in you, you don't feel the need to snack quite as much, or at least I don't, since I'm nicely full of water. Somewhere in the article was something about water retentions, like the more water we drink the less water we retain, in a sort of backwards way that makes sence. Its like our bodies are trusting us to put more water in, so they don't feel the need to hord it, kind of like if we eat a bunch of really small meals, our bodies store less fat. Again, I'm just speculating, I have no scientific background in this stuff.
So, I'm trying it (for a week mind you) and seeing how much better I feel, or if my workouts will become more affective. Today is day one, and so far I've polished off three glasses of water, and spent about half of my morning running back and forth to the bathroom (and I thought I pee'd a lot before this little experiment). What have I learned in the first six hours of this little experiment? One, you really can't travel far from the bathroom, because you're body's got a lot of liquid its not used to running through it; two, I'm not hungry (like at all, though I do feel like those horses we all used to ride at camp, after they'd spent some time at the water trough, and they sloshed when they ran?); three, eight glasses of water is a lot more than it sounds like.
Well, folks, unless I float away (which seems pretty possible at this point) I'll let you know how it works out, or if I even make it a full week. Drinking constantly is hard.
It goes something like this, and for those nutrition nut jobs out there, you can correct my faulty memory at a later time. The more water we consume, the more impurities are flushed out of our system, the fewer impurities, the better we feel, the healthier, and here's the kicker, the more weight we can loose with our everyday (or week if you're a lazy ass like me) workouts. As a bonus, with all that water in you, you don't feel the need to snack quite as much, or at least I don't, since I'm nicely full of water. Somewhere in the article was something about water retentions, like the more water we drink the less water we retain, in a sort of backwards way that makes sence. Its like our bodies are trusting us to put more water in, so they don't feel the need to hord it, kind of like if we eat a bunch of really small meals, our bodies store less fat. Again, I'm just speculating, I have no scientific background in this stuff.
So, I'm trying it (for a week mind you) and seeing how much better I feel, or if my workouts will become more affective. Today is day one, and so far I've polished off three glasses of water, and spent about half of my morning running back and forth to the bathroom (and I thought I pee'd a lot before this little experiment). What have I learned in the first six hours of this little experiment? One, you really can't travel far from the bathroom, because you're body's got a lot of liquid its not used to running through it; two, I'm not hungry (like at all, though I do feel like those horses we all used to ride at camp, after they'd spent some time at the water trough, and they sloshed when they ran?); three, eight glasses of water is a lot more than it sounds like.
Well, folks, unless I float away (which seems pretty possible at this point) I'll let you know how it works out, or if I even make it a full week. Drinking constantly is hard.
Monday, March 26, 2012
The Lazy Box
So, I've always had this thought in the back of my mine about having a blog. I was never really sure what I would write about, and even less sure of who, if anyone, would care what I had to say. On top of that, creating a blog to begin with is a pain in the ass, and something that I would start the process to, and then loose interest while I waited for each slogging web page to finish loading so that I could actually get my ideas or thoughts down on the page.After all this thought, I've had a few false starts, and nothing, almost literally, to write home about. Well, this weekend, while at the grocery store getting food to feed myself and my fiance for the week, I happened by a magazine rack that actually had something on it (and by something I mean not some celebrity rag). I picked up a copy of Scientific America and brought it home, only to sit on the table for a few days, before I actually started reading.
I love reading about innovations in science, I like watching science fiction on TV, and sometimes you can even find me reading a good sci fi novel, but I rarely actually take the steps to read any of these things if they're not already in my possession, because at that heart of it, I am a lazy American, who doesn't want to take the time, or the brain power to go out and get something like a science magazine to read. I have to say, when I make the effort, I'm always happy that I did.
While the articles on the Human Genome are always interesting, and I like reading about new anthropological discoveries (since I did do part of my undergraduate study in Anthropology) I was most blown away by an article that I started reading almost entirely on accident. The article was titled "Technology's Friction Problem" and I think I started reading it because of the almost Steam Punk picture at the top. The article itself was essentially about our problem with things that take too long, and are inefficient. If it takes too long, or requires too many steps, we tend to shy away from actually taking the time to do what even it was that was too involved. The example given in the article was of the author going into an Apple Store and purchasing an item using an app on his iPhone, which took far less time, and was much more simple than finding a sales assistant, standing in line, and paying for the item in the normal way, ie through someone ringing you up on a cash register, handing over money in one form or another, and receiving either a receipt to sign, or cash back.
As I was finishing the article, which was well written and enjoyable to read (though that's besides the point) my phone beeped at me, letting me know that I had an email. This on happened to be from Change.com, which I discovered some time ago, and is an online site dedicated to petitions. This particular email was informing me of a new petition I might be interested in, based on my past interest in similar subjects. I made a few clicks and I became involved by signing the petition. Then I thought about what I had just done, not in a negative way, but in the fact that if you had asked me two years ago about my political or social involvement with anything regarding taking action to make a change, I would have just shrugged and told you about the organization I give money to once a year. Now, I can boast involvement with several projects, I can tell you about starting with a petition to stop the killing of sled dogs in Alaska, and continue on to tell you about writing to my congressmen about the clean air act. All of this because it has been made readily available to me through my email, and the fact that with three clicks I can sign a petition and become involved in something I would have never taken the time to do before.
So, this article got me thinking about, a) how effing lazy we all are, and b) how great it is that there are people out there thinking about how effing lazy we are, and doing something to make our laziness work.
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