Thursday Night Exploits

So, J has work and class on Thursdays and is gone from almost 8 in the morning to almost 10 at night.  This leaves me with some alone time on Thursday nights.  The last three weeks, between class cancelations and Spring Break, he has been home early.  So last night was my first Thursday night alone in a while.  I MISSED YOU, THURSDAY NIGHT ALONE TIME! 

So many magical things happened last night that can only happen sans J.  I love him, but Thursday night alone time is THE BEST.  Last night included crazy phone lady, breakfast for dinner, and reeses-induced coma.

You could stop reading right here, but if you want the full effect of my awesome Thursday night alone, please, read on.

I hate going to the mall, especially by myself, but especially with other people.  I like to get in and out.  The mall is a life sucker.  Artificial light and air - it's no good.  It's like you could be trapped in there for days not knowing what time or day it was or even what planet you were on.  But I needed to go to the makeup counter, so I forced myself to go. 

As I'm walking in, some lady stops me - "Excuse me, but do you have a phone?"  I was like, yeah, me and every other person in the parking lot has a phone.  Apparently she had been waiting for her friend to meet her for an hour and wanted to try and call her.  She was a little rough looking, but I couldn't really tell her no.

I myself had been in a similar situation back in 2003, before I had a cell phone.  It involved a stranger, my future husband, and a bar - always an excellent situation.  (And yes, I was a 20 year old college sophomore without a cell phone.)  Anyway, if this lady wanted to steal my phone, she would be really disappointed.  It's a piece of shit.

So I let her use it.  It was very awkward because I felt like when you're in school and you get paired up with the nerdy kid and you want to try to be nice, but don't want the other kids to see you're being nice to the nerdy kid.  So I just stood next to her, but not facing her for about three minutes (felt like an eternity) while she tried to call her friend.  I was also  trying to stay very alert, because I was pretty sure that at any moment a brown rapist/murder van would pull up and try to kidnap me.

Her friend did not answer.  I got my phone back.  Finally got into the mall.  Trip to the mall was followed by trip to Walgreens where I probably spent an equal amount of time because they have everything you didn't know you needed.  J hates going there because he was a manager there for three years, and doesn't appreciate the browsing possibilities quite as much as I do.

When I got home I was super hungry.  J has lost 20 lbs. since the beginning of the year.  He can attribute some of it to working out and not eating fast food for lunch every day, but mostly he has been counting calories and eating super healthy.  So I have been forced through lots of meals with ground turkey and egg whites lately.  That's why it was so thrilling to put a giant piece of ham and scramble two real eggs on the skillet.  To round it all out and cover all of the Jessie food pyramid bases, I also ate about 6 reeses peanut butter cups.  Surprisingly, I passed out on the couch for two hours.

Thursday Night Alone Time - I love u.

Handmade T-Shirt Yarn Coasters Tutorial

This is a super easy tutorial.  If you've used most of a t-shirt to make t-shirt yarn, and are wondering what to do with the leftover fabric at the arms, this is the perfect project.  No special skills required!

Cut arms off at seam

(Wondering what to do with the rest of your tee?  Check out these posts:

Strung Out

T-Shirt Yarn Inspiration )

Cut hem off arm

Slice into equal widths

Stretch out resulting strands

I used a cork board to keep ends in place for weaving

Pull the end loops through eachother to finish the edges. 

A crochet hook makes this part really easy if you have one on hand.

Why Blog for Your Business

image from Gnipmac

A great blog post on SEO and how it can help your business:

A Startup SEO Lesson by Mike Sweeney. 

I loved Mike's post because it stresses the importance of content to increase your presence online.  As a freelance writer, this is great news for me because I can help people and businesses integrate their targeted keywords into well written content without sounding spammy.  It's great for business owners, because they already have access to tons of content - it just might not be online yet.  A super easy way to get your content online is by blogging.  So if you aren't blogging already, you should start!

Lunch Break Finds - Mustard, No Mayo

Had a wonderful Easter weekend - it just wasn't long enough!  It was incredibly hard to get back in the grind today, so I thought I'd share some lunch break Etsy finds.  Lately I've been drawn to mustard - both as a color and a condiment.  Here are some of my favorites:

by Farewell Pony

Mustard Scarf by SR Design

I would love to pair either the scarf or necklace with this turquoise skirt from My Lola Fashion

love this dress from THIMBLE and ACORN

This listing is for the belt, but I love the mustard scarf with the dusty blue belt from Pretty Birdie

Eco-Friendly Spring Cleaning GIVEAWAY

As a follow-up to my spring cleaning post, Elan Vital Anthology is hosting a givaway featuring green products from Mountain Rose Herbs to get you started on eco-friendly spring cleaning in your own home.  See Tara's post here on how to enter.

If you've been following her spring cleaning tips - I have! - you've come to know the awesome power of baking soda, lavander oil, and castile soap - who knew?

Eco-Friendly Spring Cleaning

image from here

It's finally getting warm enough to open the windows and refresh the house after a long, colder and more miserable than usual winter.  Tara, from Elan Vitale Anthology, is sharing some excellent tips on her blog for getting mean, green, and clean.  I am actually a tinsy bit excited about tackling some of those once or twice a year chores, like cleaning the windows and steam cleaning carpets.

Etsy Front Page!

Was so excited to see that my wrist warmers made it to the front page of Etsy yesterday!  Thankful for my fifteen minutes of fame.  If only my shop was a little more full and that it wasn't full of mittens and scarves when we are on the cusp of spring and summer, I may have actually sold something!  Still great and fun to be recognized.

Mystery Bag on My Doorstep

please stop leaving mystery bags at my door.  thxs.

Like a huge lame-o, I go home for lunch everyday.  Earlier this week, I came home and was slightly disturbed to see a lumpy plastic bag stuck behind the storm door.  I approached cautiously - when a strange bag shows up at your doorstep, common sense dictates to always procede with caution.  My heart was racing a little, because no one had called, emailed, or texted me to say, "hey, i'm going to drop such and such off at your house this morning."  So there was the huge possibility that this was a stranger's plastic bag, and there was no telling what could be inside....a bomb, dog poo, regular poo, dirt...

There was that time when I came home to find the railing that goes down our front steps missing.  I was certain someone had stolen it in broad daylight at first, but eventually rationalized that my grandpa had been working some home improvement magic.  Sure enough, it showed up later that day, painted silver and secured with extra bolts.  So it was possible someone I knew had left the bag.

I got my face down close to the bag, but was careful not to touch it - did not want to get cootied on by this weird bag.  No weird smells, which was a good sign.  I could make out a note and some very familiar handwriting.  Beginning to feel better about the whole situation, I felt it was safe to pick up and open the bag.  It was a sweater with a note  from mm that her mom was donating it to my sweater recycling venture.  Sweet relief.

Button Bouquets - A Wedding Alternative

Bouquets designed by Really Bad Kitty

With spring fast approaching, I can hear the distant chime of wedding bells as brides scurry to put the final touches on their upcoming spring and summer nuptuals.  (I can also hear the sound of the ATM shreiking in pain as I withdraw more cash for new shoes, dresses, manicures, shower and wedding gifts to prepare for wedding season.)  There's nothing more fun than unique wedding ideas, like a bouquet of buttons as alternative to fresh flowers. 

I do love fresh flowers, but they die.  There is a bitter-sweet, everything good and beautiful must fade aspect of fresh flowers (there is a Japanese phrase I'm trying to think of here...).  But a button bouquet, like diamonds is forever.

If you're a do-it-yourselfer, a button bouquet could save you some cash, but remember that your time is worth something too.  If you're a super busy bride, it might be better left to the professionals.

Plum button bouquet from Sunweeds Secret Garden 

Bouquet designed by Miss Jennifer Ray

T-Shirt Yarn Inspiration

I did a little t-shirt yarn experiment a few weeks ago. Today I came across this photo on True Up:

photograph by Robert Rausch

from here

I love the use of upcycled t-shirt yarn to make this vintage chair functional again - sustainability at its best.  The best news is that I'm going thrifting this weekend, and will be keeping my eye out for a seat-less chair just like it.  I think it would be a super cute addition to the front porch or back patio.