Oh My God, I Finally Found It! The One Secret To Saving Money!

I've been looking for a long time, but I finally came across THE one bit of money saving advice that will, well let's just say it'll totally save me a boat load of money.

I was surfing on Pinterest (like you do) and clicked on a pictogram (like you do). In an eye-catching, multi-sized, san serif font it stated:

"Stop Wasting Money With These 5 Tips." 

I Made a Thing!

...and if you don't look too closely, it is SPECTACULAR.

The kitchen of my 1950s kit house is a bit small, and even though the last owner did a lovely reno—it's not what I would have done (very masculine, lots of dark colors. It even had black curtains when we moved in). But until I can afford to do my own renovation (which I'm pretty sure would include pushing out the front wall and tearing out the interior walls & the floor, + relocating all of the plumbing), I'll just have to make the current slightly awkward layout work for us.

In Which I Made My Wife Get Up Early to Stand in Line to Get a $5 Gift Card

Last week, our local health food store had a grand re-opening. They'd just redone the floors and moved some stuff around & in celebration they decided to have a re-opening extravaganza in which the first 50 people through the doors got a gift card valued anywhere from $5 to $100. (mostly $5.)

Well, that $100 gift card was enticing enough to get me out of bed at 6 am on a Saturday morning and  drag my wife with me to go wait in the cold. Of course, when we got there, there were already a TON of people waiting in line. Too tired (or lazy) to count how many people were in line ahead of us (I'd only had one cup of coffee at this point), we waited in line with the rest of the folks & said a little "let me be in the first 50 prayer."

Forgive the Pun, but This Dish is Souper

It's Winter. It gets dark early. It's cold. And generally I am ready for pajamas and bed by 6 pm. Unfortunately, other members of my household are ready for dinner about that time.

I stumbled upon this recipe last week and thought I'd give it a try. It's ridiculously easy (even if you don't buy ready-made ingredients), and it's quite tasty. So much so that you might consider making a double batch.

I Bought a Greenhouse!

It took us 4 weeks to get the thing built, but this little slice of heaven will allow me to grow all year long. It also lets me protect my plants from certain household cats. ahem.

The kit was delivered in a very small (but heavy) box & just as we were preparing to build it, I threw my back out. So the kit sat for 3 weeks until friends lovingly came over to help build it.

Hello December!

As predicted, I am behind on my advent gift wrapping. Somehow, even with plenty of warning, December crept up on me. You know how it is, you're walking along, best laid plans in hand when, SQUIRREL! (or in my case, "oooo, shiny!")

So now I'm making up new traditions, like "we only open advent gifts once a week b/c it makes it more special" (and gives me a minute to breathe.)