5 Things I Love Right Now.

1.  Olay ProX Scrubber.  I’ve been using this sucker for months now and even with the post baby hormones, my skin has stayed really soft and smooth.  I love it and at 1/4 the price of the Clarisonic, it’s a steal!

2.  Sharpies.  So.  Many.  Colors.  I am addicted and I really need the huge pack from Costco for Christmas.  Santa?  Are you listening?

3.  Pandora.  How does it just KNOW? 

4.  Charming Charlie.  This is THE mecca of affordable accessories.  I used to run to F21 for cheap, fun accessories, but now?  One stop with THOUSANDS of items, grouped by color, and displayed with items you can pair together?  You can’t beat it.

5. CoffeeMate Natural Bliss Vanilla.  I love flavored creamers.  I don’t love that they are made with a bunch of shit I can’t pronounce, so I usually stick to putting cream and a little sugar in my coffee.  I may have squeaked out a little cheer of joy when I came across this in the grocery.  It is made from stuff you can pronounce {milk, cream, and vanilla} AND it tastes amazing.  It also comes in Sweet Cream & Caramel flavors that I have yet to try.

What is on your LOVE list right now?

Disclosure Blurb: I wasn’t compensated or asked to talk about any of these products, they’re just fabulous goodies that I love. Contains Amazon Affiliate links.

Don’t Mess With Kevin Bacon.

There are some movies that are just icons, movies that you just don’t screw with.  They are generation defining.  There can be no other.

Either they are SO bad that they are good, spurring a cult like following, think Rocky Horror Picture Show.  Or they capture a point in your life so amazingly well that you can’t imagine not having their awesomeness to relive over and over again, think pretty much everything made by John Hughes in the 1980s.  Movies that you can utter a few little words to your friends, “nobody puts Baby in the corner,” and  I’ve had the time of my life begins playing through your head.  You’re singing it right now, aren’t you and imagining yourself saying something stupid like, “I carried a watermelon,” to the Patrick Swayze of your dreams?

Iconic.

Call me a curmudgeon, but does this current generation have a Grease or a Saturday Night Fever or Jaws?  No?  How about a Top Gun, or maybe a Goonies, or The Breakfast Club?  No, no they don’t.

Will you take a look at this? 

You read that right.  If you’re screaming, “YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!” in rage at the computer screen right now, it’s justified. 

They re-made Footloose. 

The prom with the twinkly lights and the ceiling full of stars.  The sneaking off to the bar behind Reverend Moore’s back.  Ren teaching Willard to dance to the tune of Let’s Hear It for the Boy.  Re-made it.

What?!?!

Who thought this was a good idea?  Fess up, you dirty bastard.  Who, because I want to give them a quick punch to the testicles.

Go on, see up there in the right hand corner of my screen?  Click that little Facebook ‘share’ button on this one and see if you don’t have anyone over thirty pissed off at the sheer idiocy at the thought of ever replacing the real Footloose.

I mean if they remade Breakfast at Tiffany’s, who could play Holly?  No one like Audrey.  No one.

Isn’t it enough that LiLo went and screwed up my beloved The Parent Trap?  I’m sure we can all agree that Johnny Depp is in fact, not the real Willy Wonka.  And Vince Vaughn in Psycho is laughable!  Re-makes generally suck.  The ONLY one I can think of off the top of my head that doesn’t suck is Oceans Eleven and I half think it’s because of the hot factor.  Face it, even Bernie Mac is hot in that movie being a bad ass.  Those boys did the Rat Pack proud.

But this?  This?  You don’t mess with Risky Business, you don’t try to re-create Cool Hand Luke, there are no knock-offs that can ever replace the Duckiness of Jon Cryer in Pretty in Pink.  And you don’t fuck with Kevin Bacon. 

Everybody Footloose.

 

{My} Favorite Blogs: aka Pure Fabulousness I Think You Should Know About

You know I am convinced that I have adult ADD and I really feel that my Google Reader illustrates that wonderfully.  It is chock full of everything from crafty women, to moms with whom I can commiserate, to party planners who are unbelievable, to personal finance bloggers, to home renovators, to humor blogs, to fashionistas, and EVERYTHING in between.  I tend to lean toward the bloggers who lift me up.  There are some I can't wait to read every morning and some that post infrequently, but that I still light up when they do.  Some might be new for you and some may be old, but all are fabulous.

Here are my faves:

Zakary aka ZDub at Raising Colorado is quite possibly the funniest blogger masquerading as a normal mom I have ever met.  Well... as normal a mom as you can be with a manly first name and having to raise your children in the wild.  Ok, she doesn't really live in the wild, but dude she has unidentifiable animals AND bears in her backyard.  I almost always feel compelled to click over and comment on her posts, they are that freaking hilarious.  You will fall in love with this woman. 

Joy at Big Time Fancy - Oh my, I don't even know where to begin.  She is hilarious, and raunchy, and used to sleep with half the world and never felt the need to apologize for it.  Now she is in love, and less raunchy, and deserves all of the happiness in the world.  I found BTF years ago and she was actually one of the few strangers who was invited to my blog when it was private.  I can not tell you how much she reminds me of myself 10 years ago.  Read her entire archives.  It will delight and amuse, I promise.


Rachel at One Pretty Thing finds the coolest stuff ever.  Seriously, I can't even imagine how much time and energy she devotes to finding the most interesting parties, before & afters, printables, crafty stuff, DIY projects and basically anything awesome on the web.  You will want to visit daily just to be inspired and delighted.  She posts daily and each roundup is better than the next.  The woman has an unyielding supply of awesomeness in her arsenal.  She's also incredibly friendly, approachable, and sweet to chat with via email even though she's like the popular girl in school, everyone wants to be her friend!  


Megan at Whatever - Meg rocks.  She is creative and fun and just when you want to hate her because of her amazing house {the kitchen Meg, the kitchen!} she turns around and posts something so sweet and nice that you have to love her.  She also very clearly has a laundry problem {we can't all be perfect}, and with all of those gorgeous kiddos, Waffle the wonder dog and all of that time spent being creative, I would too!


Courtney at Two Straight Lines - Courtney is the ultimate crafty Mama.  Everything about her blog is calm & creative & wonderfully imaginative.  She allowed her son Elliot to have a fantastic lemonade stand and her little Lucie is near Finn's age.  She also lives in an unbelievable house and makes time to do things like sew oh, 14 geese costumes for her son's class without a hitch.


Kim at Today's Creative Blog - yeah, ok everyone in the blog world knows Kim, because her blog is GENIUS.  I mean really really, I want to kick my own ass for not thinking of this.  She first finds and then blogs about the most creative women of the web.  I can not tell you how many people she has 'introduced' to me through TCB.


You will spend approximately 928940 hours perusing Brooklyn Limestone.  I have been reading since it used to be called Adventures in Renovating a Brooklyn Limestone and now is A Brooklyn Limestone in Progress because their renovations are largely complete.  If you're not in the mood for home renovation photos that make you drool over your laptop, perhaps you'd like to check out all of the insane travel they get to do?  She also creates the best, most creative invitations I have ever seen.  If you have spent any time here, you know my love of stationery so yeah, this compliment is saying a lot.


Casey at Moosh in Indy is genuine.  She is amazingly talented and a little fucked up and a lot wonderful.  Some days, you will want to pat her on the back and cringe in the same post.  Some days you will just sit in awe of her mad photography skills.  She oozes strength as she very candidly shares her struggle with depression and infertility and the worst home buying experience I have ever heard of.  Oh, and this is not the blog of a whiner, she is raw, she is honest, and she overcomes.


And my Bloggy BFF Ashley over at Sugar Britches, of course.  She had me at hello.  Well not really hello, but she let me call her Ash and that's about the same as hello.  Right?

 

Well, there you have my very tippy top favorites and there are easily about 20 more I could add.  I would love to hear about YOUR favorites too. 

And if I haven't told you lately, thanks for reading!

Fingers Crossed.

Oh people... it may happen.  Please let it happen.  It would make my November.  It will happen.

GLEEEEE! Kind of like squeeeeee only more squeeeeeish.

Fox is doing something right.  And you won't hear me say that very often.  Not only do they have the awesomeness that is Hugh Laurie on HOUSE (incidentally only 5 days till it's back!) but their new show for this season, Glee is hilarious.  Let me repeat... HILARIOUS and chalk up a side of great music in there too.  We're talking Salt n' Pepa - Push It, Color Me Badd - I Wanna Sex You Up, and Journey - Don't Stop Believin'.  Incidentally, I actually attended a Color Me Badd concert with the Fun One.  Oh yes, yes, I did.  But enough about my poor concert choices and back to Glee...     

So, I was never in Rebelaires, our high school's version of Glee, but I knew people that were.  Some of the characters on here remind me so much of people in high school that I can not help but think the producers of this show MUST know them.  It cracks me up.  The characters are sometimes so geeky it's painful, but the show is fantastic.  And they focus as much time with the misfit bunch of teachers and staff as they do on the kids.  We all know teachers like that from high school, the bleeding heart new teachers, the overzealous coaches, the ones who are a touch OCD, they're all there in full force. 

Watch it.  I hope you'll love it as much as I do.

And because I can not sum it up any better than this, I leave you with my friend Steph's Facebook status...

"Glee actually makes me miss high school. WHAT??!?"

WANT TO KNOW SOMETHING ELSE SQUEEEEISH?  Rachel over at ONE PRETTY THING featured the DJS Party on her birthday round up!  Click RIGHT HERE to see it & check out her insane site for all things party & crafty.  It's a must visit.

Little BLUE Pills & My New Bloggy BFF

Owie. Owwwwness. Jillian is a beyotch. A pain inflicting Hurtie Mc Hurt-a-lot. Don't forget to head on over to The September Shred & read up on those skinny bitches girls and their 5 AM workouts! Sarah... REALLY??? And what the heck is up with you people who are all "I got done with the Shred and then banged out 932 miles on the treadmill?"  It is highly entertaining to hear how such a diverse group is fairing when up against Jillian. Oh, and so

you know.... the rest of us on Team Follow Anita If You Think You're Going to Die are over there as well. I would raise my fist in the air to that one, but uh... I can't really move right now.

My new bloggy BFF?  It's totally ASHLEYhttp://darlingcompanion.blogspot.com/!  Dude, I can even call her Ash because she said so!

So yeah, Ash and I are going to be bloggy BFFs 4-evah.  I can even forgive the fact that she's a skinny girl.  Psshaaaw your 165.  Why then, why is she so dang special that I want to make her my bloggy BFF?  I give you the top 8 reasons.  {The top 10 is SOOOO last year.}

1. She doesn't twitter!  I don't twitter!  And while she's a former twit(terer) and I am a twitter virgin because I just.  don't.  freaking.  get.  it. we can still totally be friends.
2. And OMG.  Read THIS.  Then read THIS.
3. She's doing the September Shred with me and not rubbing it in my face that she's way better at it.
4. Her husband has a thing for the HOT SECRETARY look!  When I shouted this out, Dave simply said, "well, that is just common awesomeness."
5. What is not common awesomeness?  Pooping.  In the tub.  Just ask Dave.
6. She makes up words.  AWESOME AGAIN.
7. She has the cutest dang daughter, Sugarbaby that I want to hook up with Finnegan in like 20 years or so!
8. She's from Arkansas and well, I TOTALLY would have been the one to give Bill {also from Arkansas!} a BJ in the oval office if I had the opportunity.  Um yeah.  The Secret Service has just tagged my blog.   

So there you have it.  I am spitting in my hand and offering it to Ash to shake.  GO!  Go now!  It's ok, I know you still love me.  You can cheat.  Hit up Sugar Britches and say hola to the bloggy BFF.

UPDATE:  As if you needed further proof... check out the comments.

The Grocery Game

I've had a lot of questions about the grocery game lately from people. I've had people ask me if it was legal, tell me they just didn't get it, to asking how hard it is to do. My favorite is people see the amount of cereal we have and look shocked... well, it was all FREE. I won't ever pay more than FREE for toothpaste or toothbrushes either. Chapstick, add that to the list of things I won't pay for.

Listen, we're foodie type people. We love to cook, both of us. We love to have friends for dinner. We try all kinds of things and aren't necessarily brand loyal for most stuff. We don't have a whole lot of pantry space, so we set up some shelves in the basement for our stockpile and we have a small chest deep freezer for the frozen items. So, the grocery game works out well for our family.

I will say this, it's a little time consuming. It takes me about an hour a week to decide what we're buying from the list and to cut out the appropriate coupons.

I decided that this week, I would document what I did so you can see a typical week. Now, I've been doing this for several months so I am at the point where I can just buy the sale items and we have enough produce and meat frozen that I didn't need to buy those things. At first, you will be a little suprised at the weird items and amounts of things you are buying. And you'll also have to keep purchasing some things that aren't on sale at first. That's ok too. You'll start seeing a significant savings anyway.

It's actually kinda funny that I picked this week to document because it wasn't even a good week! I had to get two packs of diapers which ate up almost half of my total spend for the week. I also had Dave putting a few items in my cart that weren't on sale, impulse buying is a big no no with the grocery game. At the end of this post, I'll also show you some of the receipts from good weeks.

So here goes...

First, each week we go over to the Dollar Store and buy 2-3 copies of the paper. You can get the Sunday paper at the DS for only $1. Bonus. I also ask my family members that get the paper to please save any coupons for us they won't use themselves. I put all of the coupons in a large envelope and write the date on the front. Usually I have about 12 weeks worth of coupons and when the coupons for that week expire, I put them in the recycle bin and re-use the envelope for a newer week.

Then, I log on to the site and select the items I want to buy and print my list. The list is color coded, black items you buy if you need them, blue items are rock bottom prices for that item so you should stock up, and green items are FREE! I shop at Giant Eagle because they double coupons up to $1 and anything from $1-2 is worth $2. I find that I can do a lot better there than say Kroger. They do have lists in my area for Kroger, Meijer, GE, Walmart, etc... in addition to places like Rite Aid.

Then I match up the list with the coupons that I need. I also decide how many of each item I am going to buy. For example, this week I bought 20 of the Yoplait yogurts. If you bought 20, you get an additional $2 off automatically (special deals like this are also listed on the list). I cut out 3 coupons that were buy 6, get 40 cents off. At GE you can use up to FOUR of the same coupon in a day, so anytime there is a coupon that will give me something free, I use four of them (remember I am buying 2-3 papers + getting some coupons from family so I always have several of the same coupons).

Then I shop! Here is what I bought this week... 2 packs of Pampers diapers, Redbook magazine, 20 Yoplait yogurts, Mustard, Franks Red Hot, Suave for Men gel, Suave gel, a hydroponic tomato, 2 Scunci claw clips, Sunsweet prunes, Gillette shave gel, Quaker quick oats, Gillette disposable razors, windshield wiper fluid, 2 Green Giant boxed veggies, 4 (FREE!) Rubbermaid premium containers, Sucrets (FREE!) cherry lozenges, 2 Pillsbury cinamon rolls, Neutrogena for Men face lotion, and Quaker high fiber oatmeal packets. There may be a thing or two in there that I missed.

And here is the receipt. We paid $45.04, we saved $55.34 total between on sale items and coupons. It ended up being 56 percent saved. I usually hover around 60 percent off and sometimes have gotten it closer to 70 percent off.

For me, this is a great contribution to our household. We still shop some things at Costco and Sam's. Butter and cheese in general is cheaper there. I also get things like tp and paper towels there because it's easier to get those things in bulk. I could probably get them cheaper doing the game, but the convienience factor outweighs the savings for those things.

I leave you with a few more receipts. I couldn't find any of the big ones, most have been pitched. If you have any questions, leave a comment or shoot me an email AND if you'd like to try it, please use me as a referal. (mma128@gmail.com) I would recommend that you save up 3-4 weeks worth of coupons before starting the free trial so you can really take advantage of the savings from the get go.

Vanilla-Lime Iced Tea

Vanilla-Lime Iced Tea is my current obsession and it's super easy to make.

Boil 6-7 cups of water.

Put in two of the large tea bags or about 6 of the small ones and let steep until pretty dark.

In a small sauce pan, bring just to a boil one cup of sugar and one cup of water. 

Meanwhile, juice 2-3 limes & retain limes.

When the sugar is fully dissolved, it will look like clear water, remove from heat. Add a vanilla bean split lengthwise, seeds scraped, the lime juice, and lime rinds.

Allow to steep and cool completely.  Then strain and add into the tea.

I also squeeze the limes again just to get all of the juice out.

Serve over ice.