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Friday Favorites, volume 26

November 7, 2014 by Jana 12 Comments

Many things I didn’t enjoy happened this week. I’m trying to turn the negatives into positives because silver linings and everything so I won’t share all the crap with you and instead I’ll move right into my weekly favorites.

(Quick question for you guys before we get started: does anyone know of someone who can help with some design elements? I have a new header that’s been updated to be more reflective of what I write about but it’s a floating header and for the life of me, I can’t figure out where it’s currently coded and how to code the new one and it’s making me crazy that I can’t add it to the site. I’m on WordPress, if you need that information)

Favorite 90s song

I know I ordinarily pick rock songs but every now and then a non-rock song will creep its way in. Today’s one of those days. I had a college friend who LOVED the Indigo Girls and we’d all listen to them and they’re really not so bad (even if my husband calls them “Lilith Fair music”) and I heard this song a few weeks ago so let’s work it in this week and get it out of the way. “Closer To Fine”. The Indigo Girls.

Favorite frugal find

I haven’t been shopping so looking for deals and coupons hasn’t been on my list of things to do, and none have come my way. Oh, wait! Bath and Body does have their winter scents on sale (4 for $18) so that’s a good deal but I’m pretty sure that stuff is always discounted but it’s worth mentioning.

Favorite blogging tip

I didn’t do much reading involving blogging tips this week, and some of the pins that I have are a bit dated to share (this is why I need to cull my pins) since Pinterest has apparently changed their algorithms for the way searches come up. But you know what stayed the same? Needing a quality image. Fortunately, Helene had a good post on how she uses PicMonkey for her blog’s images.

Favorite book news

The only book news I have is the reminder that my and Steph’s Show Us Your Books linkup is happening on Tuesday so make sure you join us for that. Also, if you’re looking for a literary agent or anything related to publishing, the 2015 Writer’s Market is on sale at Amazon.

Favorite Internet reads

As a mom, I loved this post from Babble on the 7 Stereotypes About Motherhood That Annoy Me (number 3 is a huge pet peeve of mine. Really, a shower can take 5 minutes. It’s not a badge of honor to smell). I struggle with some of these but this list of 15 phrases you’ll never hear successful people say is something to think about and strive for. Dolly Parton is one of my heroes and this interview with her proves why. And, lastly, I need to update my house and make some improvements but we don’t have a ton of money right now so this post (and video) containing 23 ways to update your home for under $50 is quite useful.

Favorite funnies

Sometimes it’s the highlight of my day

It’s the only hat I’ll wear. And it looks so good on me.

Nostrils, I will never again take you for granted.

Yep.

Coming up on Monday: Should be post #1 in my cheer mom series. But I can’t make any promises.

Have a great weekend!

Linking up with Amanda

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Thursday randomness: Jamberry, Meghan Trainor, and more

November 6, 2014 by Jana 28 Comments

I wanted to have a well thought out, useful post for you guys today. That dream died when I realized just how many pictures I needed for the post that of course I didn’t have since it involves food and I’m the worst at taking pictures of my food because I’m too focused on wanting to eat than remembering to take pictures. So maybe we’ll table that for next week.

Instead, you get another round of random Thursday brain dump.

You’re welcome.

I have a cold. Again. Second one in a month. I’m pretty sure this isn’t fair and I’m really tired of sneezing and blowing my nose.
I have more blog post ideas than I can keep track of but I’m hesitant to share some of them because sharing my weight loss stuff and book writing process makes me nervous because that’s just so personal. (You’re probably thinking that this sounds insane since I share all about my depression but for some reason, that’s not as sensitive of a topic).
To know me is to know that pop music makes me queasy. But damn you, Taylor Swift and Meghan Trainor for making me not only enjoy but like some of it. And then Meghan went and sang with Jimmy Fallon and she’s just too adorable for words.

- I need to ramp up my work on the blog’s Facebook page (have you liked it yet? Go ahead. I’ll wait) but I keep not doing it. I don’t know why. Am I lazy? Am I forgetful? Do I not care enough? Probably a little bit of everything.
- Sons of Anarchy is killing me. It’s a hell of a final season. And this past week’s episode? STUNNED. I’m not giving any spoilers but if you’re watching it, please let me know so we can discuss.
- Working through NaNoWriMo this month is making me realize two things: I’m not nearly as disciplined as I need to be and I really need people to read my book when I’m done so I can get feedback for editing. But I’m too afraid to ask people to read it because I fear their comments. #ihaveproblems
- Jamberry, yes or no? I haven’t bought any, ever, and I feel like everyone’s all
- I have approximately zero Christmas and Hanukkah shopping done. My daughter’s birthday is in December and I always wind up focusing on that instead and the holidays always fall by the wayside which leaves me scrambling. It’s starting to stress me out.
- On voting: First, it bothers me that I don’t get a sticker when I vote. I mean, I’d do it anyway, and on Tuesday I drove 30 minutes to vote because I still haven’t changed my address on my license and couldn’t vote in my area, but damn it, I want a sticker like everyone else gets. Get your shit together, Delaware. Second, I find it a bit annoying when people don’t vote because a) it’s not that hard; b) it’s not that time consuming if you don’t have to drive out of your way; and c) for so long, so many people couldn’t vote. Why wouldn’t you exercise your right now that you can? Voting and jury duty are a few of the primary ways normal citizens, non-politicians and lawyers, can participate in our democratic process. I get that they’re an inconvenience but seriously, don’t complain about our government and our justice system if you do nothing to try to make them better. /rant
- There are so many pretty things I want from Etsy. People are so creative and I love the idea of supporting small businesses than buying more crap from big box stores.
- “What am I, your fucking sandwich welfare? I think you should establish a good line of credit”. This is probably my favorite scene from Good Will Hunting (which is back on Netflix, by the way. Hooray!)

Thanks for sticking around! See you tomorrow for Friday Favorites!

Linking up for Stuff and Things

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The November in which I get organized (sort of)

November 5, 2014 by Jana 27 Comments

I think today is the day we’re supposed to report on our results of October’s Wallet Watch and I think tomorrow is the day we link up for our Choose Your Own Adventure Challenge but I’m pretty much a mess and since I’m remembering both now, they’re getting crammed into one post.

If you want to break it up, read the first half today and the second half tomorrow but that seems a bit ridiculous to ask of you guys so you probably should just knock it all out today.

Let’s cover the Wallet Watch first.

This is what went down:

No unplanned going out to eat. The results: HAHAHAHAHA! I never should have even made this a rule because we didn’t even make it past the first weekend.
Stop abusing my Starbucks gift cards. The results: I still have $5 left on one of them (which is half of the $10 initial amount) and I started drinking more tea at home. This was aided by the fact that my daughter said “Mommy, you should drink tea from home. It’s cheaper.”
Stay away from nail polish and makeup. The results: I bought no new makeup. I bought no new nail polish. I spent $0 on anything beauty related, except for what was necessary like face wash. But I’m committed to getting the Naked or Naked2 Basics palette for Christmas. Or Hanukkah. Either will do.
Find free stuff to do. The results: I think I did okay with this. Um. Well, except for the I can’t mention what it was family road trip the first weekend of the month. That was CRAZY expensive and maybe we used the money we had saved for our new dishwasher to do it but every minute was worth having to hand wash my dishes every day for the forseeable future.

So, to sum up

And now, the Choose Your Own Adventure Challenge.

I had one goal. To not drink diet soda. And I mostly achieved it. Except on the 7 or so days that I didn’t and had the deliciousness that is diet soda.

And it was glorious. #noshame

For November, the theme is organizing which I love more than words can say. I need to get some of my shit organized because I keep losing important things like bills and my daughter’s homework and gloves. And I really want to start using Pinterest more than just a place to internet hoard (between Pinterest and Pocket, I am set for DAYS with things to do and read). So I focused my organizing to these areas:

My daughter’s homework station. She doesn’t have a desk yet and we needed somewhere to keep her craft supplies and homework and assorted school stuff. It’s impossible to find anything. It needs to be dealt with.
My hallway closet. First of all, it smells like feet. So that needs to cease immediately. And the piles of winter accessories need to be sorted and stored in a fashion where my daughter doesn’t wind up wearing my gloves and my husband doesn’t have to use my polka dot umbrella.
The living room table. I don’t know how to describe this situation. It’s essentially a table that gets filled with junk daily. I hate looking at it and if we didn’t need it, I’d set it on fire. Since we need it, it is a moral imperative that I figure out how to tame it.
Pinterest. I need to cull my pins, reorganize my boards, and sort some into my new boards so that when I want to do a project, I can go to my board of projects I’ll actually do and when I want to menu plan using save recipes, I can find ones that fit my time constraints and my budget, and I need to do something with my secret boards, too.

I’m pretty sure I could attack my whole house so I might revisit this challenge on my own in a couple of months but for this month, the above list will do.
And this is how I feel about it.

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Friday Favorites, Halloween edition

October 31, 2014 by Jana 15 Comments

I feel like today’s post should be about Halloween even though I can’t stand Halloween and, unlike most people, I have zero memories of being a child on Halloween. I have no recollection of my costumes (although I remember the 80s children’s plastic costumes vividly), going trick or treating, handing out anything with my parents, or anything even remotely related to Halloween.

Okay. That’s a lie. I have one memory, and it’s family tradition related. I grew up on Long Island, and not too far from my parents’ house was a place called Hicks Nursery. It’s a family owned plant nursery/pumpkin patch/Christmas store that each year had a very elaborate walk-though storyboard display, sort of like a living diorama but with placards containing a narrative. I’m doing a terrible job describing this. Here are pictures:

We did this every year up until 2 or 3 years ago but my very limited decorations do include an Otto the Ghost stake (the ghost in the pictures is named Otto) in my front yard so I still try to keep the tradition alive.

But that’s basically all I do. Because I don’t watch scary movies, I have no interest in dressing up myself, my husband takes the child trick or treating and I’m more than happy to put out a bowl of candy with a sign that says “help yourself” because the doorbell bothers my dogs and I don’t enjoy small talk with other people’s kids and I’d rather hide in my room with a book. I half-heartedly throw together decorations and at the pumpkin patch, I purposefully pick the small pumpkins because I like them better. Large pumpkins bug me for reasons I cannot explain.

I’m basically the Halloween grinch. I’m fine with it.

For this week’s edition, though, I’ll put my grinchiness aside and bring you my very limited Halloween favorites (besides Otto and small pumpkins).

Favorite Halloween song

It’s not necessarily a Halloween song in the traditional sense but Rob Zombie is basically the year round, living, breathing embodiment of the day so I’m using his song, “Dragula”.

Favorite Halloween frugal find

My daughter was supposed to go as Laura Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie but the costume was turning out to be a nightmare so we went on to Amazon and found a Southern Belle costume on sale for less than $20 plus free shipping thanks to Amazon Prime. Less than $20 and no crowded costume store? Score for me! (pics will be on Instagram so if you want to see my daughter in her costume, make sure you’re following me)

Favorite Halloween candy

Reese’s peanut butter cups. And I really like the mini Snickers. Too bad I’m working the low carb diet right now. I’m pretty sure my child is thrilled by this.

Favorite Halloween movie

The Worst Witch. My middle sister and I would watch it before school every single day in our respective rooms. I still love this movie and found it on YouTube and hopefully I can get my daughter to watch it.

Favorite Halloween Internet reads

I liked this read from PopSugar, 15 Halloween Movies for Wimps. Buzzfeed had a wonderfully helpful post about candy and cocktail pairings. And Book Riot linked to a story on FlavorWire with 10 scary stories you can listen to right now.

Favorite Halloween funnies

I will be drunk in about 15 minutes

I find this funnier than I should

This will be my candy bucket sign

True story

Hope you all have a great Halloween and rest of the weekend!

Coming up on Monday: I’m not quite sure yet. It’s either the beginning of my cheer mom series or something else. We’ll see what strikes me when I sit down to write.

Linking up with Amanda

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Pet peeves. I’ve got a lot of them.

October 22, 2014 by Jana 40 Comments

Admittedly, I have a lot of pet peeves. Probably more than the average person. Which is fine because I’ve decided it doesn’t make me high maintenance or bitchy; it makes me quirky.

I’m not ashamed of my pet peeves, either, because people really need to get it together and I’m all for helping them do so because seriously, tell me that none of these bother you:

Receiving an email that’s riddled with spelling errors, punctuation abuse, and incorrect forms of words (ex., using “your” instead of “you’re”). It’s even worse when it’s from a professional organization.
Using letters and numbers in place of words anywhere except text messages. And I can’t really stand it in texts either (true story: I have a friend who proofreads her texts before she sends them to me).
People who move unnecessarily slowly, especially in the supermarket or when walking on the sidewalk.
People singing incorrect lyrics to songs, especially songs that I like. Misquoting movies and TV show is included in this.
Open shower curtains. When I’m rich, I’m replacing all the curtains with shower doors.
Not texting me back but posting all over social media.
In what probably makes me seem all Sleeping With the Enemy-ish, I can’t handle it when the labels on cans in my pantry face different directions.
Wire hangers. No.
The sides of the comforter on my bed being uneven.
Celebrity nicknames, specifically the combining of two names into something ridiculous.
The term “shipping” as it refers to wanting two characters on a TV show to get together. WHY DOES THIS EVEN EXIST?
When people use big words and they clearly don’t know what the word means.
When people mispronounce common words (it’s “moot”, not “mute”) or incorrectly use a word (hey, irony, I’m looking at you).
Employees of an establishment smoking directly in front of the entrance so that you have to walk through their cloud of smoke.
Rude smokers in general.
People who are not 80s children claiming they miss the 80s.
Putting a pitcher with 4 drops left back in the fridge.
When drivers have 8786 miles and 128943 signs warning that the lanes will merge but still wait until they have 5 feet left until the lane ends to get over.

I’m going to stop here. The list could be way, way longer but:

How about you guys? What are some of your pet peeves? And if you’re interested, you can read some of my other ones, ones that are a little more substantial, in this post.

Linking up for #Blogtober14

Friday Favorites, volume 26

Thursday randomness: Jamberry, Meghan Trainor, and more

The November in which I get organized (sort of)

Friday Favorites, Halloween edition

Pet peeves. I’ve got a lot of them.

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