Month: February 2012

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Help with resort and hotel supplies

Living up here where there are plenty of lakes, is great place to vacation. My friend Lynn owns a Resort right on the lake and I’ve been helping her out with redecorating. She needs a Hotel Supplier & Restaurant Supply, just to name a couple services. Her place is awesome. She lives in a beautiful home right next to the resort and it is all tied together by a terrace and flower garden that I helped her plan and plant. I’m very proud of it, I must say. Since she and her husband got a divorce, I go up there when I can and help her out, especially in the summer months when she is at her peak of business.

She doesn’t have a restaurant, since her resort and the neighboring restaurants give one another business. However, the way her place is arranged, there are hotel rooms in the front of the building and in the back overlooking the lake are apartments. Everything one needs is in the apartments, from tin foil to cooking utensils, bedding to new tooth brushes. All one has to do is is bring their food and clothes. She needs to get how ever Resort Linen Supplies & Catering Supplies. At least new supplies to go with the new themes she has picked for each room and also each apartment. And a lot of the amenities that restaurants would have for the kitchens in the apartments, and also the hotel rooms.

She showed me the items online at PeachSuite Hotel Supply & Restaurant Equipment Company and we decided they have everything she needs to outfit her place in the style she couldn’t do before. I’m really happy for her and the up side of this, is because I love to help her with these kind of things, she always gives me the greatest and biggest apartment for a week in the summer so the family and I can have a nice little vacation and visit with her.

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Memories through photographs

While the kids and I are in the process of some heavy cleaning, I’ve been sort of going through photographs. Believe me, as an amateur photographer who’s passion is taking photos, I have hundreds and hundreds of loose pictures. Some are in photo boxes, some are in a photo tower that as five shelves stocked up with loose pictures, and then there is my cedar chest and a big plastic bin full of pictures I have take over the years. These of course do not include the library of albums I have.

I worry about fire. I’m terrified of it. Photographs capture moments in a lifetime, that can never be captured again, and while going through some of the photos, I have to admit that some are pretty darn good. They look professional. I’m not trying to “toot my own horn”, but when I’m taking photos, I know instantly if they will be good or not. The right lighting and post or not a pose…which ever. Most of my really good ones were taken with my old trusty Pentax Zoom 60X. I love this camera, and now to find film for it is nearly impossible. Not to mention that it doesn’t work for one reason or another and there is no one around here that will touch it. I’ve got to still keep trying to track down someone to fix this camera for me. I don’t like digital cameras. When I find a camera I love, I’m happy and this Pentax was the best camera I ever had. It “fit” me and the photos were excellent.

The memories that flooded back while looking at some of the photos that I did last night, were nearly bitter sweet. There are moments I am so glad I captured.

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Great savings at Sears with coupons

I’ve shopped at Sears for as long as I can remember and now I wish I would have paid attention to the fact that Sears offers lots of coupons and promo codes to use while shopping. I actually am really bad about taking my coupons into stores. I forget them, nearly every time. Usually I don’t remember, until the cashier asks me if I have any coupons. Getting them from Sears and also the promo codes though, is an extra plus shopping at Sears.

Some of my fondest memories growing up, were my Mom and my Grandparents,  getting the Sears catalog. We kids could not wait to look through what we called, our  “Wish Book.” Because we spent a lot of time at Papa and Nana’s house, we had the advantage of both worlds. A wonderful childhood at home, and also there with them at our second home, as I always thought of it as. My mom would do a lot of Christmas shopping out of the Sears catalog. I also remember the Mother, Daughter dresses they used to carry. It was something special when she would get us matching dresses.

For years, there was a Sears in the city near here, but it seems that the city is slowly loosing a lot of the stores, since the factories are all closing, and now the Sears is going out of business in the mall. I’m really sad about it. I get everything from my tools to my eyeglasses there, and it’s not going to be the same with out being able to shop there when I want to. I know a whole lot of people this will effect also. My oldest daughter’s very first job was in the shoe department at Sears. She learned a lot about the other various departments also, but the main thing she learned was independence and responsibility. I was so proud of her when she came home and told me she had gotten a job there. She made very good friends, who are going to be out of a job as soon as the doors close for the last time.

A lot of guys I know buy their tools there because of the great deals and the fact they are durable and a very popular brand. It will effect them. Having to drive a great distance now, is going to be expensive, with the gas prices the way they are. I am however, very glad that Sears offers lots of coupons and promo codes. It will make the drive worth it. I’m going to have to pass this info on to more of my friends!

 

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Family pulling together

Yesterday, I wasn’t feeling the greatest at all. I have a surgery coming up and I’m not supposed to really be doing too much lifting, bending and other stuff. My kids decided to tear apart my kitchen and clean it from top to bottom. Bless their hearts…they really put their all into it. I have to admit, that it is a big help with what they have done so far. They don’t clean like I do of course, but they are learning. I clean the old fashion way, and the kids take short cuts. But at least they are trying and I give them every credit in the world.

Monday when they go to school, and my oldest son is still asleep, I’m going to go over a few things that no one actually notices except me. But they really did do a great job and were helping me out a lot!

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Preparing for income tax returns

Yes, it is that time of year again and I’ve seriously thought about learning how to become a tax preparer. I can not believe the amount of money some people I know have been telling me that they are paying to have their taxes prepared, in order to get the biggest refund they can. Most of the time, if they even took their taxes things to just a regular person who know how to prepare the tax forms, they would still get the same amount of money back, but in hopes of getting a higher amount, they still spend all that money. To me, it’s rather senseless, but hey…it’s their choice.

I think if I were to become a Registered IRS Preparer, I’d have a good shot at making a decent income once a year. It’s something I’ve thought about before. Like when my husband took our tax things to this one person who charged an arm and a leg, just to tell us that we had to pay in to the IRS. That was a total bummer.

I really don’t like surprises, so I think that if I were able to prepare our own taxes, it would save me the surprise of not knowing if who does our taxes is going it right or not. I’d be the one preparing them, so I’d know if the numbers were right and if our refund was correct. There is other great information about tax courses that are really helpful.

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Fresh walls and floors

In preparation for Spring cleaning, I’ve decided to get new flooring for the kitchen and also paint for the walls. I’m actually kicking around the idea of painting though. I just painted two years ago, and also put up the boarder it took me months to find. It all matches…except the floor.

My son has volunteered to help with all the cleaning, since I am due for surgery next month and I’m not allowed to do a lot of things, which of course I’m still doing, but am careful about it. My husband has forbidden me to get up on a ladder though. I can see his point, since my doctor told me (in front of my husband) that I am to be very careful not to fall. My husband knows me. Pure and simple I am a klutz. I can trip and fall, just walking across the floor. My son is a godsend as far as I am concerned. He loves to clean and do home improvement things.

We are going shopping for either tile for the kitchen floor tonight. I’ve got to admit, I’m pretty excited about it. I hate what is down now. Even just with new tile it will make it look like a new kitchen.

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Using lockers for the home

My boys have decided to turn one of the bigger rooms in the basement into a partial gym and have asked for lockers. I thought it would be a great idea to have them down there, as I already have went to sales and have gotten some in the past at a sale when they wanted them in their bedrooms. I figure it would make great storage for their gym outfits, and other things that they would want to store in them.

The school had some lockers for sale, but I know from experience that they are way too small to store much in at all. My kids don’t even wear heavy coats to school because there is no room in the lockers for them. They can’t even fit all of the books they have into them, which is kind of upsetting since what are we tax payers paying for exactly? And who has to pay the doctor bills if the kids get sick from not wearing coats? But, that is another story. I have however, while browsing found school lockers that were much bigger, unfortunately the school the kids go to, didn’t use these.

Employee lockers that I found are great for what my boys wanted to use them for. They also were not as expensive as what I thought they would be. This is a great help with money matters, since I’m on a budget with home improvement. Maybe these will keep the basement a bit neat and even nearly non, “guy cluttered!”

 

 

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More seed catalogs and strange weather

This winter has been very non typical to this area. I’ve also been getting my garden magazines and seed catalogs much earlier than usual. I’m not complaining about that, because I can do garden planning now.

The animals have been acting odd too. My husband and I noticed that the skunks didn’t hibernate this winter, the geese in the wetlands behind my house never left like normal. In fact there are more going into the sanctuary.

My son saw a honey bee yesterday. For quite a few years there were no honey bees seen at all. Every one of our boxes out in the field were empty, which didn’t help our financial situation. This makes me wonder what this summer is going to bring.

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Spring cleaning in February

Getting a jump on doing my spring cleaning the last few days. I can’t believe how dusty this house can get. It seems that I dust in the morning and by night time, there is dust again. I’ve changed the furnace filters, so it can’t be that. However we do live on the same road that the grain mill is, and they are always running, even in the winter. That fine dust can get into every crack or opening in the house. Not that we have anything major. Just going in and out of the front door if the wind is blowing, is enough to bring in the dust.
Last year a lot of the farmers took in what we call around here, “Blood Corn”. When it is taken to the mill and ground up, the red dust get over everything, including me when I’m in my garden. The first year we lived here, I sort of freaked out, since I actually had never heard of blood corn, even though I grew up on a farm. I couldn’t figure out where tall the red dust was coming from, and why by arms and face were red.

Now, it’s just something one has to deal with. I give farmers every credit in the world. There are so many responsibilities. I just have to use more Swiffers.