Flowers

I am the coupon queen. I love to find deals for all of the stuff I buy. One of the latest deals I have found is for flowers – just in time for Valentines Day. I love flowers and I love sending them to my mom and sister. I like to send flowers at random times of the year just to make them smile. It is very nice to receive flowers for no other reason then for someone to say I love you and appreciate you.

I am going to grow a bunch of flowers this spring out in the front of the house. I have already made a diagram of the flower beds I want to put in. I am trying to choose which flowers and colors would look the best and grow in at different times so there are always blooms in the yard. I am thinking that I want to do one section in red, white and blue flowers that will all bloom in time for the Fourth of July. That would look amazing.

Left Handed Challenges

When I was young, I remember my mother trying to encourage me to write with my right hand. This was hard for her to do, since she was left-handed, and I wanted to be just like her! I actually have become ambidextrous, which is great, but I have developed a true empathy for “lefties” in a “right-hander’s world.” Taking notes, for example is a challenge because the notebook’s binder is on the left side, which becomes an obstruction to writing!

When Charlie told me about how he was trying to find a left handed guitar store to be able to buy a guitar for his son Jake, I offered to try to help him find one. Thank goodness for the Internet! Googling “left handed guitars” under their “shopping” tab brought up several places to check out.

Autumn fashion

Autumn is here and the fashion world is abuzz with all the new fashion houses showing off their new lines of clothing. We women are now in the clothing frenzy time of year after having bought the children their school clothes, now it is our turn. Finding good fashions when you are pregnant can be disheartening sometimes, but not to worry, even the maternity lines are much better then they used to be.

Comfort is the most important part of fashion when you are pregnant. Whatever you buy for your maternity clothes should be able to be worn for your entire pregnancy and also be very comfortable at the same time. You body is going through a lot of uncomfortable changes as you grow larger and restrictive clothing will make you feel as if you are being smothered. Nor will it do any good for your temperament when your hormones are already going crazy on you.

If your budget is already strained, there are several things you can do for maternity clothes to start, like

  • Raiding your husband or significant others wardrobe. Large t-shirts and such will help you immensely in the interim.
  • Borrow from friends and family that have just gone through their pregnancies. There are a lot of them if you sit and think about it a few minutes.
  • Go to thrift stores for your pants and skirts. You can buy a larger selection for less money.
  • You can actually lease maternity clothes. After all, you only need them for a little while until you lose that weight, so why not.

Some items are a little more difficult to manage, but there are companies that specialize in them. For instance, you can buy ruPreggers.com maternity tights online and have them delivered right to your door. Utilize as much of your own accessories as possible. No you can’t wear that belt with an outfit like you used to, but you can use a large scarf instead.

As you shop for your maternity clothes with the new fall fashions in mind, remember that all trends come back eventually and if there is something that you miss this time around, well you can always get it later. Don’t stress out over it. Look for the new maternity fashions instead and see what is trending there and you will definitely be happier for it.

Keep in mind, that after you give birth, you may not fit in those maternity clothes any longer, but still be unable to wear your normal clothes right away. Make sure you have a couple of outfits that are in between sizes so that you aren’t at a loss for something to wear. Believe it or not, sweats or something like it are the best thing to have after the baby comes. You will be very busy and very tired, so looking good is the last thing that will be on your mind. Comfort and ease of access will be the only thing you care about at that point.

 

I love eating outside

We have dinner on our deck more than in the house. I came across some outdoor pillows that the kids can have to lay on the benches and be comfortable too. I have caught them asleep on the deck and had to bring them in so they didn’t get sun burned too because they are so comfortable.

Creative juices

My brother has a really large living room with lots of large pieces of furniture. He has several recliners and a very large sectional sofa. For several years I’ve been wishing that I had room for a sectional sofa in my smaller house, but I didn’t think it was possible until my best friend Suzie told me about a website that she found. She told me that you can design your own sectional furniture at ClubFurniture dot com. I just went onto that website and was pleasantly surprised to see a pretty good selection of sectional sofas with a chaise on the end for smaller spaces.

I think that I just might buy one of them! The sofa we have in our living room now is too large for the space, and doesn’t have a chaise. I love the idea of having a chaise on one end of the sofa – I love putting my feet up, and if we have a chaise section I could do that and still have room on the sofa for other people to sit!

Synthetic Reeds Might Be The Answer

Having never played any instrument that required a reed, I never realized what a pain in the neck a reed could be! A natural reed has to be kept moist (thank you bacteria!) and it can warp and crack. Today I have learned about the benefits of using a synthetic reed that won’t warp and crack, and it seemed to be a good idea to me! This YouTube video I was watching (below) addresses those issues and demonstrates the use of the Signature models synthetic reed. I think it sounds great, don’t you agree?

Now this is a pretty neat gift

My father is one of those people that has to know what the 5 day forecast for the weather is so he can plan the next five days.  Well I couldn’t believe it when I found a 5 day Wireless Weather Forecaster by Brookstone. That is absolutely the most perfect gift I can get for my father. It’s also something that hopefully no one else would think to get him.

One year I got him a scale model of an Indian Motorcycle like he used to have and my sister got him the same thing but it happened to be a different color thank goodness. Well I bet that won’t happen again this year.

Saving money

It’s no secret that I like to save money. I will comparison shop, and clip coupons, and look for discount codes until the cows come home! I’ve already started to do some comparison shopping on a Jem7v for Chuck’s birthday, and I have to say that I’m disappointed that the guitar is so expensive. I know it is a high-end guitar, and you get what you pay for, but even with a sale price that knocks about 25% off the price, the guitar is more expensive than I expected it to be! I’m going to have to have a chat with Chuck and see if he is willing to chip in some money towards it himself.

Electric Blankets Are Great Inventions

I don’t know about you, but I have electric blankets on all of the beds at my house. I love my electric blanket – I use it a lot! Even with wool socks and sock liners on my feet, my feet are cold all of the time, and having an electric blanket on at night helps warm my feet so that I can sleep better. My bed is king sized, and the electric blanket I have now has two controls – one for each side. I like that a lot better than the first electric blanket I had with only one control! My husband was always too warm, and I was always too cold! The biggest complaint that I have about electric blankets is that I’m always afraid of washing them, and afraid of the wires shorting out and catching the blanket on fire! But I’ve had one for decades, and that has never happened, so I guess the engineers knew what they were doing when they designed them!

Recently I started to think about getting an electric blanket for my car (since I don’t have heated seats,) and found the perfect one that I want to get at the http://cozywinters.com/electric-blanket/ website. I’m sharing the YouTube video of it here on this post. I like how it can be folded up and turned into a neck or lumbar pillow when not in use for warming you up!

I’m still stuffed

Well this had to be one of the best Thanksgivings I can remember. The children were all here with me, we have a new family friend that joined us too, and the rest of the family all gathered at Ma-maw’s house through out the day. Some came for dinner and some just for desert. It was wonderful.

The kids stayed with Ma maw so I could hit the sales Friday. I really saved some money and got most of my shopping done too. I got one of my sons a remote controlled dragon fly. He’s going to love it. I got my oldest son a ‘boom box’ I guess they still call them but this one is remote controlled and he can plug his MP3 player into it and play it through it. Pretty cool I thought.

My daughter is in love with the movie Frozen so I got her several things related to that. I know she’ll be thrilled with them. I’m not finished shopping yet but I’m getting close.