Dear Baby Blog

I simply adore adore adore this blog – Dear Baby! There is little I don't find intriguing about her style, her photography, her stories of home, family, work and play. It never fails to either inspire me or make me smile... or both. I just thought I would share it with anyone who wanders over here.

Coupons... not just for blue haired old ladies anymore!

Not to long ago, I viewed coupons with some level of disdain. In my mind, coupons were associated with old women saving pennies on margarine and toothpaste until I caught a clip of that TV show 'Extreme Couponers'. Yes, yes, I know... I am late jumping on this train – it's a life long habit of blocking out main stream hype on movies, books and 'trends'. But perhaps, this time, there is something to this particular craze.

We all know the economy sucks. Layoffs, pay cuts and investment losses abound still. Even the lure of getting ab MBA has lost it's luster with hundreds of well educated folks underemployed or unemployed. We are more then a generation removed from the Depression Generation who took nothing for granted.. the original reuse, repurpose, recyclers. My generation was raised by Baby Boomers whose hey-day was in the Partying 70's and the More More More 80's – mass consumption and disposable everything. By the time the 90's hit, I was in my teenage/early 20's... and the course was set. Maybe that explains this re-fascination with saving money through coupons? I don't know but watching these men and women and their extreme couponing skills - I was fascinated, amazed, horrified and a tad bit inspired.

The fascination and amazement came through the strategy and planning that these people created and implemented to save hundreds and walk out with essentially 5 free grocery carts full of stuff. The horror was when they gave tours of their stock piles... I mean come on, who needs 75 boxes of Fruity Pebbles, 42 toothbrushes and 36 cans of stewed tomatoes?!?!  I'm pretty sure one woman had 3 years worth of diapers and didn't have children. And while I admire that strategic shopping, there is no way I would want to - or be able to - dedicate 40+ hours towards planning such a shopping trip.

The other thing I noticed was that most of the grocery savings come from the 'inside' aisles. In an effort to eat healthier, when Eric and I shop, we mostly fill our cart the perimeter items. (Good rule of thumb when grocery shopping is "If the food can go bad fast, it's good for you. If the food can keep longer, it's bad for you.) Saving big at the grocery store probably isn't in the cards for us – I don't want to save money at the cost of health. It is, however, inspiring to think, that I could save big on all most of our personal care items  - like soap, deodorant, diapers and such.

My co-worker, Lisa, took some couponing classes our company offers from time to time. She has been taking photos of what she has been getting from store like CVS and sharing the tales of her savings with me. Check out this weeks latest score:

Lisa's CVS score!

She saved 77%! The value of goods was $101 and she paid just $23 for everything. Those Olay moisturizers alone cost $26 each. Basically, she bought one of those – at a discount – and got all this other stuff for free. I want to do this!!!!

As a primer - she used this blog post to plan her attack shopping trip: My Shopping Trip: CVS

Here are some coupon resources to help you get started
Extreme Coupon Professors (This is the woman who works with my company)
Coupon Divas
Living Rich with Coupons (my personal fave at the moment!)
Hip 2 Save

And a YouTube tutorial as well!

Knitting Narwhales

Narwhales are, in a word, awesome. A whale with a horn!?! Hello! They're the unicorn of the ocean... and they are real!

I just had to share my most recent score. We are trying to decorate our home with orginal pieces of art and I found this print, by Sally Harness of Sadly Harmless, on Etsy while looking for artwork for Violet's room. When we were in the condo, I hadn't really thought about nursery decor since she was sharing Sophie's room. But I wanted somethng original and not "babyish". I'm not actually sure how I stumbled on it, I call it artsy fate. 

I actually toyed with hanging it elsewhere in the apartment, but I think Violet will dream happily with sea unicorns in her room. 

Girls Just Wanna Have Clean: Tip #1

I ran out of glass cleaner months ago. When it happened, I was in the midst of Saturday morning cleaning. Having a newborn and a 9 year old in the house, and a husband at work, I did not cherish the thought of running to the store in my pajamas with kids in tow. That's when I remembered a cleaning tip my Great Aunt Julie had bestowed on me {queue hazy sepia toned imagery}.

For about 10 years, before she passed away, I use to go over to her house every Wednesday after work and she would cook me supper and afterwards we would chat or, being elderly and alone, she would have me help her with some chores she could no longer do. One evening we were cleaning the picture window in her dining room and I asked her where the Windex was. To which she proudly informed me:

"I have never bought Windex in my life. I always just use rubbing alcohol. It cleans the glass and doesn't streak."

Aunt Julie had one of the cleanest homes I have ever been in. You know how on sunny afternoons you can see dust dancing in the sun beams? Well, at Julie's there were sunbeams, but no dancing dust... THAT'S how clean it was.

She would often give me pointers and tips on how she had kept her home clean through the decades - some I used and some, like the rubbing alcohol trick, were tucked away in my head.  Figuring a little old fashion cleaning couldn't hurt and would save me from going out, I went to the linen closet, grabbed the rubbing alcohol and a rag (made from re-purposed old t-shirts), and went to cleaning the bathroom mirror. Shiny, happy, streak-free perfection. Once again, my great aunt did not steer me wrong – rubbing alcohol makes a FANTASTIC and INEXPENSIVE glass cleaner.

When you think about it, our depression era relatives were really better then we are at re-purposing and reusing materials around the house – rag rugs, scrap quilts, empty containers for left overs, button boxes – you name and they probably didn't waste it. They cleaned with natural things like lemons and vinegar and while I won't be making my own starch like she did, I am really excited to try out some of her other household words of wisdom and reporting back!

Why yes, that IS a full size sofa in our Ford Focus!

{OK, so it didn't look quite like that... but it was close!}

My husband is one determined man. He fit a 80 3/4" sofa into the back of our Ford Focus. How?? I'm glad you asked. But first, let me start at the beginning...

Space, glorious space! Our front parlor just screams turn-of-the-century charm and to me, that says, the new digs required a new modern sofa to balance it out. I love all the original warm honey colored woodwork through out our new home and the architectural details that you just cannot find in home built post-World War II. My personal style leans towards the eclectic, so traditional furnishings were just not going to cut it. Living in New Hampshire, options are limited in acquiring non-traditional furniture. And, as much as I wish it wasn't, money is an object – as is the need for strength against children. So, where does one go when you need to find a sofa that has style, comfort, affordability and durability?

After checking out the local offerings - IKEA-land here we come. Design geniuses extraordinaire, those Swedish designers have the market covered on utilizing small space in a most eye pleasing way, but it is their flat packing that have my most sincere kudos.

Eric and I made the trek through Boston and into Stoughton/Avon to the nearest IKEA. It's just over an hour away - but it's a far enough distance that if you get down there and they are out of stock on an item, one can get very irritated. I've tried calling and having them hold an item that is in stock until I can get there - but they won't. You can purchase some items online, but you can't pick them up in the store. They will ship them to you and, in the case of a sofa, it's an extra $199. They do have an online inventory check that they say is accurate (because stock moves so quickly, they claim to err on the side of caution on inventory counts). We had been a few weeks prior and found the sofa we liked, but they were 'temporarily out of stock'. That was OK, because at the time, we weren't ready to commit. Now we were.

In our case, the online inventory said there were 6 pieces in stock at 5pm. Surely, there wouldn't be a mad run on sofas between now and the hour and 15 minutes it would take us to get there. We hoped in the car, and drove down. For anyone who have never been to an IKEA, it is a playground of gizmos, gadgets and glorious decor for a person like me. Eric firmly directed me to the sofa section to keep me from straying to a random lamp or pillow case, where we quickly tested the sofa out one more time, jotted down the aisle/bin numbers and went back down to the warehouse to pick up our sofa. We got side tracked in carpeting and lighting, but no more than an extra 15 minutes.

Karlstad Korndal Brown Sofa from IKEA

Eric grabbed a flat cart and we were quickly steering that left leaning cart to our new sofa. There, in our aisle, was a lone man, loading a sofa onto his flat cart. That's OK. There are still four more... three if it's been busy. But man, that bin looked really, REALLY empty. As we peered in and saw darkness, I felt a flutter of panic. We looked at the man with the sofa and Eric was quickly calculating how much cash the man might would accept to hand over the Karlstad... when the man said "You're lucky. There's just one left."

One? ONE! There in the shadows was the LAST Karlstad sofa. (queue angelic music and heavenly beam of light)

Eric loaded it onto the cart. We checked the stock numbers one last time to make sure we had all the right boxes and headed towards check out - content in the realization we had successfully scored our first sofa chosen together.

No Water Bottle Left Behind
Of course that happy, fuzzy feeling quickly faded as I looked long and hard at the main box of the sofa. How they H-E-Double hockey sticks was this going to fit in car? I have a 2004 Ford Focus Wagon that is a little work horse. The seats fold flat down and it is actually roomier than most mid sized SUVS –  but I was definitely getting nervous that perhaps I had over estimated my little wagon this time around.

Hubby said not to worry, it would fit. Cheerily, he folded down the seats, grimaced at the  stash of candy corn (remind me to vacuum and de-goo-ify) and various snacks that made their way in to the seat cracks, and loaded the main box.

It was to big. Not to be put off, he moved the front seat up a bit. It almost fit. Since the box was really just one side of the car, he moved the front passenger seat up again. It fit, IT FIT!!!!! But there were still the other boxes of cushions and covers, I told him to leave the case of water out so everything would fit.

"Nonsense.", says he.

Squish, swish, smush and crunch... (why, oh why didn't I get  picture of this?!?!)

Never mind the fact that Eric had to ride shot gun in the knees-to-nose position, everything made it in the car. And, of course, about a mile into the trek home, those darned water bottles started rubbing together and squeaking the whole trip. It took about five miles for me to stop giggling about the whole adventure.

So there you have it... one part (afore mentioned) determination + one part IKEA flat packing + one part wagon + one part knees to nose sitting position =  new sofa at home! Now to find some fun, bold graphic pillows.

Remembering Paris... oh Yeah and our one year anniversary

It seems like just yesterday that Eric and I were strolling along the river Seine, hand in hand, admiring the beauty of Paris and stopping at sidewalks bistros for a glass of wine (mmmmm... Côtes du Rhône) and some delicious French nibbles. A whole year (and 10 days) has gone by since we tied the knot and headed to Paris {with a quick stop in Iceland... more on that later}. So much has happened in such a short time! 

On top of getting married and traveling to Europe, we took the Bean to New York City to visit a friend and have a family adventure and where we informed her, much to her delight, that she was going to be a big sister ("I've waited my whole life to be a big sister!!!"), welcomed little Violet to the world, turned our condo into a investment property and moved to a new place. 

To some it may seem like a lot and to others... not much at all. But whatever it is... big or small... it has been one of the best years of my life. I am so lucky to be able to share it with Eric who is my best friend, soul mate and a wonderful father to both our girls. Even though we celebrated our anniversary with a quiet dinner and enjoyed some much needed grown up time together, I just thought I would share a little post to once again (and a tiny bit belated) wish my husband a happy anniversary. Year one was spectacular – I expect nothing less from every year to come.

No heat curls... FAIL

I have been happily pining away on Pinterest for months now - finding all sorts of recipes, hair style tips and tricks, fashion, home decor ideas, crafty projects to do with the kids. The problem is, I am so busy pinning, I have yet to try any tips, tricks or crafts.

Last night, I decided to attempt the 'No Heat Curl'.  My hair is naturally wavy and I thought this may tame them into a more 'beach sexy' wave rather than the 'every which way wave' I get when I let it air dry. I enthusiastically started twisting and tucking away, fantasizing about the luxurious hair I would wake up with in the morning with little to no fuss.

Wow.. simply wow. The trick worked.. a little too well.

My hair held TIGHTLY to the curl... I think it holds too well and my hair is to layered and too short. I will attempt thjis again in a few months when my locks are longer... but now.. I ended up looking like a cross between Shirley Temple and a French poodle. Hair fail and i left the house in my summer updo standby. I will tame you wavy hair... I WILL!!