Save the Shelter Babies!

I haven’t gone into too many details about how I feel about dogs yet.. but both of my fur babies are both rescues and I highly advocate rescuing animals vs. purchasing from pet shops. Both of my girls happen to be very similar in breed & amazingly get along like long lost sisters.

This past weekend I felt a tug on my heart when one of our local shelters put out a plea for the community to step up  & help. The shelter was over 100 animals in surplus and out of room for many of them. This particular shelter is, in fact, a “kill” shelter and euthanizes animals in extreme situations. To avoid euthanizing animals just to free up space, several local news stations broadcasted stories and the city’s mayor also put out a plea to the city to help. Even though we are about at capacity in our home for our 2 pups, and against my love’s wishes.. I went to the shelter to find a baby to take in, to foster.

Fostering differs from adopting in the main sense that the experience is temporary. I know we don’t have room for a third pup, and the power struggle that would probably ensue amongst the 3. When we walked through the section of pups with colds who were on meds (and really needed a home environment to be calm and get well in), we talked past one particular fur baby who ran to the other side of her cage and curled up in a ball in an attempt to hide. Poor thing, there was nothing in her cage to hide under or behind.

I asked for details on this particular pup, and turns out she was picked up on the streets. She didn’t have a name that she responded to and was scared to death of every thing and everyone. I brought her home in attempts to get her well and socialize her a bit so that hopefully in 2 weeks, when it’s time to take her back, she can get scooped up and settled in a loving home.

Please take a look and don’t hesitate to ask if you have any questions about her. I’m hoping I can find someone to adopt her before I have to take her back to the shelter.

So your pantry is full…

But you have no idea what to do with any of it. Seems to make that whole grocery trip useless, doesn’t it?

The main focus behind this series is to be prepared. Chaos will [eventually] ensue, so you must plan ahead and be smarter than the nonsense that will happen during the day. I have finally put my process into a few steps.

Meal Planning

1. Browse the ads 

In my area, our main go-to places include: Publix, Winn-Dixie, Target and Walmart. I choose to shop at Walmart because overall, their prices are much cheaper than Publix, Winn-Dixie and Target. Walmart also MATCHES ADS. I’ve had some bad experience with this.. they don’t seem to train all of their cashiers on their policies and sometimes it’s a fight. But they do match competitor ads, we’re talking the BOGOs and the 10 for $10 ads. Some Walmarts have posted new signs lately about their ad match policies, but not all. For more details about Walmart’s coupon policies, click here. More details to come about coupon policies later in the series.

I tend to browse the ads to see what’s on sale before I make my list. If you’re trying to maintain a budget, look for those items that you would normally buy that might be on sale. Don’t go buy anything special just because it’s on sale, you’ll end up spending more.. defeating the purpose.

2. Browse your own cookbook

When you’re picking your brain for dinner ideas, refer to your own cook book for tried & true favorites. If you don’t have your own or a collection of favorite recipes, check out my blog post on creating your own recipe book here.

3. Browse Pinterest and check your own boards

I’m guilty of overpinning on Pinterest. I’ve finally come to the conclusion that I need some sort of schedule in order to keep finding new things, but actually get around to trying some of what I’ve pinned also.

Using Pinterest to meal plan is a way to spice up your menus, but this little schedule keeps your organized & gives you a chance to have time to make some of the things you’ve pinned.

By giving yourself a meal planning schedule, your give yourself the opportunity to be organized and not pressured to do everything in one evening. Been there, done that – 3 hours of searching the ads, browsing Pinterest for meal ideas, and searching for corresponding coupons.. can make you see stars. This is what works for me, I have a couple days to go crazy on Pinterest and decided to reel myself in the rest of the time so that I can actually make some of the things that I’ve planned (same concept for DIY crafts too).

4. Make a list of meals for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and [yes] snacks

Another issue with trying to fill your pantry to fill your belly and not eat out is that meddlesome urge to open the fridge and stare into it and that nonsense phrase: “there’s nothing to eat.” If there are quick options or something already prepped, that phrase is never uttered. While I make my grocery list of items to put in my cart, I make a separate list of meals that I can make with things that are already in my pantry and the items I’ll put in my cart. I try to leave no option unwritten. When it’s busy or it’s a messy day, you don’t want to have to figure it out anyway, it’s easier if you can grab & go.

5. Take inventory

Evaluate what you already have vs. what you need. Add what you need to complete your chosen meals from your previous meal planning session to your list to eliminate extra trips back to the store for forgotten items, wasting gas and time & luring you into impulse purchase territory.

 

What does your process look like?

 

Part 3 to come soon! 

 

 

Everybody has those days…

Those days where no matter how desperately hard you try to get it together; you’ve overslept, you’re fumbling and dropping things as you try to hurry and make up for lost time only to open your fridge and remember DANG IT! I didn’t prep anything last night – so now I have to buy lunch today just to get out the door.

I’ve been working some time to master the art of being prepared for the chaos. For right now, our household of four includes: me, Josh, and our 2 pups. Don’t underestimate those dogs.. they act like toddlers more than not, but for the time being, I’ll be discussing the concept based on a household of 2 – Josh and I can get ourselves into enough of a bind without the added fun of kids in the house.

We all know that those days, despite our efforts to not have them, happen. That being said, I’d like to introduce a four-part series:

In this series, I’ll discuss (simple) concepts of preparation and organization so that when these days sneak up on you, you’ll have a few tricks up your sleeve.

One of my focuses the last several months, has been to cut costs. I’ve been trying to pay off some credit card debt and in strategizing how to do so, I came to the conclusion that there is no reason for us to be spending as much as we do. Slowly, I’ve progressed from brainstorming a couple of dinner ideas and hitting the grocery store to making a list before I go, then on to developing a couponing system to go with my grocery list, and finally to installing a database to make the whole process COMPLETELY organized and fail proof. I’ll discuss some of these details later in the series.

Part 1 of Be Prepared for the Chaoss: Freezer Meal Options

We’ll buy Lean Cuisine and Stouffer’s meals at the grocery store 4 and 5 at a time, no problem because they’ll go with our busy schedules. But when we’re talking about cutting costs, those are breaking your budget. Instead, make atleast 3 of your grocery list items things that you can double, or just make more than your household will eat. Our house holds 2, but one of us eats for 2.. so we’ll say we’re feeding 3. 🙂

Some of my favorite options:
BEANS! – A whole bag of beans is $1.50 at the store (I shop at Walmart.. it’s not always pretty, but it’s definitely cheaper!) Google a recipe or browse Pinterest for a great recipe, throw that whole bag of beans in the crock pot and BAM – you’ve got stuff to freeze that’ll last the next few weeks for those days when you’re in a bind. One of our favorite bean recipes is black beans and can be found  at It’s a Crazy Beautiful Life Blog. If you’re not just a beans and rice person, put those black beans in a hearty black bean quesadilla found on another of my favorite blogs, Budget Bytes. I wasn’t sure about them because there’s no meat in them, but they’re jam packed with veggies and SO flavorful. Plus the freeze really well for another freezer option you can grab in a flash!

TACOS! – Tacos are an easy, cheap meal pretty much any day. You have to go out of your way to make them expensive. But, courtesy of Pinterest, I found some crock pot tacos (can you tell I idolize my crock pots?) that you can make at night when you’re asleep (which is my method) or during the 9-5 when you’re at work. I sliced two chicken breasts in half, poured half a jar of salsa (we buy generic to save money and it tasted awesome in this recipe), and added 2 generous heaping tablespoons of homemade taco seasoning and turned the crock pot on. In the morning, I shredded the chicken with a fork and portioned all of the contents of my crock pot.

Add some painters tape and label the contents with the “good til” date, so you know what you have in your freezer

Our freezer

I personally love those little Gladware containers that you get at the Dollar Store, 4 for $1. They’re perfect for portioning our individual servings. They have all different sizes that you can get, but I like to portion them out individually so we can each grab something to take for lunch and it’s the perfect amount. These containers are dishwasher safe and if you ruin them somehow, they were only 25 cents.. so no worries!

When you’re ready to consume something from the freezer, a few notes. With all of the recent studies discussing warnings about BPA and toxic emissions from plastic containers in the microwave, I would caution you against fully microwaving your freezer meal in those Gladware containers. I pop them in the microwave for about 30-45 seconds, enough to loosen it.

Then you throw it in a glass bowl and continue to warm the dish. After, get out all the fixins and you’ve got yourself a homemade meal, for pennies instead of several dollars and just as conveniently as one of those box meals you can get in the freezer section of your favorite grocery store.

Whimsy. Why not?

It’s been a few days, I’ve been trying to be patient so as to let the final blog design be complete before I posted again.

Look around – we’re complete!

If any of you out there are looking to personalize your own blog and don’t know how to mess with all of that CSS code nonsense, I recommend looking on Etsy for a designer. I did just this, and found a blog makeover package for the bargain price of $62.00 as compared to several hundreds of dollars from larger companies. The bit I didn’t realize, was that WordPress charges a $30 a year customization fee to change the layout and look of your blog, but I prefer the layout to Blogger.. so, there you have it.

Can I first just say that I LOVE the new look? I’ve always been drawn to dandelions and turquoise colors. We incorporated both with a splash of color in between for a whimsy feel. After we installed the layout, I begin to feel a bit uneasy. The point of this blog was to create a professional platform to showcase my portfolio and to build an online presence/self brand. But the more I got to thinking about it, I thought: why not whimsical? Who says a little whimsy isn’t professional?

So, many compliments to Suzanne, an Etsy shop owner. I wouldn’t have done any of the beautiful designs featured here without her help. You can find her shop here.

So what are your thoughts? Can professional be a bit whimsical?

Design Your Mind Space

So, a few weeks ago I posted a general post about what kind of stuff we had going on around our house. I mentioned our home office. A home office was one of the main features we were looking to be able to add when we were looking at prospective places to move into a few months ago. Our cozy one bedroom apartment (which I did love and it did work for me most of the time) afforded us the option or having the desk in our living room, right next to the TV. In this set-up, the most self-controlled individuals out there would eventually cave and turn to watch the TV show [or commercial] interrupting actual work trying to take place at the desk area. We did cave and pegged it as an efficiency problem in our home. So, our search for a new place was focused on a 2-bedroom house in order to create a home office.

Mind Space

Have you noticed how you tend to work better in an area specifically designated to do work in? All the books and magazines tell you not to do work in your bedroom because of the work-mind-relaxation associations and your brain will get mixed up and you could end up feeling tense in your bedroom, in a space that should be solely for resting.

In the process of moving, everything gets boxed up and then you have to find a new place for everything that you already had. Then you find that you have a different space with different design and style challenges and need different things. I’ve been processing all of these details and have got our place just about set up. (I just don’t believe people when they say they moved and a week later, everything is done. Halfway done maybe.) I knew that our home office needed to be a place that was organized and a place where my man and I could both work harmoniously and not trample on each other’s space. We also have different tastes. He prefers plain, simple and what I would consider ordinary[/boring]. Me, I’m drawn to jewel tones, prints/patterns and want to DIY on everything. A few weeks into unpacking/organizing I had an epiphany. He was right, we need 2 desks.

After a weekend of desk hunting and coming back empty handed (desks are waaay overpriced! plus he’s picky), we ended up falling into a situation where a desk was given to us. As was mentioned somewhat previously with photos of a desk in pieces… we had trouble getting the desk into the office area (it’s the back bedroom and just couldn’t take the 90 turn in the hallway), but eventually did get it through in several pieces. After putting it back together, (amazingly it holds) we were able to set up a definitive his and hers office space where we can both organize our own papers and items and work independently, albeit in the same space.

The photos I posted a while back are of it in a messy state. Little by little, we’ve been working on it and, while I would like to add more graphical elements on the walls and remove some elements (like the toolbox in the corner 🙂 ), it’s functional for us and that’s a big WIN! So, here’s the update on what I’m calling our Mind Space.

Our Mind Space

Includes his/her desks, lots of organizational items such as rustic wire baskets to get folders/papers/notebooks off the desk, a personalized Pinterest-inspired weekly calendar to keep both of us up to speed on events, and a cheap bookcase that I (with lots of help!) did some work on to give it that extra edge.

His Desk

Your typical large style desk with a hutch and drawers and cubbies to store things.

Her Desk

Much less “typical” desk design with mobile mini file cabinet type drawers extended on both sides of the desk and wire baskets flanking a customized bulletin board over the desk.

Let’s talk a little more about my desk. Like I said, I like color and pattern and DIY. I actually designed this desk myself from the 2×4 ft. dimensions of the desk top to the mobile drawers that can be sat underneath the desk like most desks or can be moved outside of the desk to hold a printer and lamp, like mine currently do in this photo. It was originally painted a dark brown, a nice neutral. I got bored with it so I painted most of the desk an eggplant purple and painted the drawers a goldy-yellow color and added colorful knobs. (I was pulling colors out of these two paintings that were hung about the desk in our old apartment, but I’ll probably repaint those desk drawers because I’m still not sure if I like that yellow.) I also made curtains to hang under the desk so that I could hide the ugly tangle of wires/cords underneath. This was an especially awesome feature when this desk was a main feature in the living room.

As seen in a BHG magazine, I made curtains for my desk to hide all of the ugly wires/cords underneath.

Now that we have a separate office space, I don’t NEED the curtains anymore but they make a tent-like environment and the babies like to play from time to time. 🙂

Peekaboo!

All my life, I’ve had desks that allowed me to put a piece of plexiglass over the top. For years, I made collages and put them under the plexiglass as my desktop design but as you take new photos, you get bored with the old ones and always want to switch out the pictures. I got bored with a plain purple desktop though too, so I bought a stencil from Michael’s Craft Store and a few different metallic paints and set to work. It took me a week or so and I kept layering the same stencil with different colors until I was happy.

A stencil layered in several different metallic colors on a desk top combined with fun office supplies makes a personal and creative work space!

Our weekly calendar

Pinterest-inspired weekly calendar that offers personality and keeps an entire household up to speed on all events coming up in the next week.

I found this group photo frame at Ross and pretty cheap at that, for about $8. I selected different scrap book prints and stickers and labeled each pane a different day. We simply change the dates every week and write our personal events for the weeks so that we both know what’s going on and what’s due.

Bookcase Makeover

When we moved, we knew we would need a new bookcase. We threw out the old one that we had been using because it was falling apart. I’ve had it since I was a kid and it had made 3 moves, the 4th probably would’ve been the end of it. So, I scouted my options and ended up picking a bargain priced bookcase from Target. It’s a 6 foot bookcase with 4 shelves for $30 bucks. I didnt want to spend $100 bucks on a book case because I had found a Pinterest idea to cover the back of it with fabric and have a pop of color coming through from behind. I reasoned that even if it wasn’t the nicest bookcase, with a little work – it would be great.

So, my amazing man locked himself in the office for probably 2 hours and put this sucker together. I was so happy that he took it upon himself to do that but so frustrated by how CHEAP and ugly it looked.

Can you see the back? Is that not ridiculous? I understand it’s only $30 but if you’re going to use that kind of backing.. why can’t the box be bigger so that it can lay flat and not SHOW all of the creases?!?!

cheap, cheap, cheap.

So, I tried to begin the process of “fixing” it.

That stinkin thing had about 100 nails holding the back on, and then I found that the back was in TWO pieces of crap. It took a while to get it all back off. Josh was NOT happy with me when he walked in and saw me taking it back apart. What I thought was a one person job, turned into a 4 person job. If you’re handy and a one-man show, by all means I encourage you to take on this kind of project by yourself. But it was MUCH easier when my mom and dad plus Josh took pity on me and all worked to help me put it back together. 🙂

I found some turquoise floral patterned fabric at Joann’s Fabric for $1.50 a yard, BARGAIN.

$5 bucks later I came home and cut the fabric into two pieces to cover the two corresponding pieces of backing for the bookcase. I ironed each piece and attempted to staple them. Don’t do that. It ended up being MUCH easier to hot glue the fabric edges to the backing, as it was really only glorified poster board anyway. But it did take 3 of us to add the hot glue and pull the fabric taut over the board, so if you’re planning to replicate this project – make that note.

After covering both pieces of backing with the fabric, the men hammered it back onto the book case and we set it back up right. I’ve added all of our books and trinkets that have been living in cardboard boxed for 3 months now, back where they belong and voila!

A pretty patterned fabric pops out of the black book case, giving it a customized look and hiding the ugly backing that came in the box.

Book cases don’t just have to hold row-by-bow books. Feature some of your favorite books in a stacked style  with a few trinkets and you’ve got a book case full of personality.

If you have the option, take the time to make a space where you can think. Everybody means to get things done but alot don’t. If you give yourself the opportunity to think and a place to be creative in, you might surprise yourself by what you come up with. 🙂

Until next time, thanks for reading!

-LRL-