Tuesday, September 30, 2008

I HATE politics!

This was emailed to me recently and for those of you who dont know my political leanings (which is probably all of you), this will definatley show you what it is. I really dont like to talk about politics much because it is a hard issue for most people. You know .. its one of those subjects that you DEFINATELY should not bring up with strangers. But I have to here because for one .. its my blog and for another I really like the message that is being cast in this video. Please watch it to the end if you have the time to. While I dont agree totally with either side on all the issues, this video brings about some interesting comments that has really made me think about who I will vote for.


Sunday, September 21, 2008

Mama Cloth

I've been doing this wonderful thing called sewing lately. I finally got a machine that WORKS!!!! Dont ask about the horror stories of the other machine. Im just not going there! But I have found that my new one has some really cool features. It might take me a while to use them all. So what is it that I've been sewing lately, you ask??

Laugh at the duckies I dare you!

"Mama Cloth". I found this stuff when I was researching cloth diapers for my sister. Everywhere I looked online for cloth diapers, I found these to go along with it and well, if you are going to go cloth on one kind of diaper, you might as well go cloth on the other too! I made the ones in the picture this afternoon with my WONDERFUL new sewing machine. Ive had them cut out for about a month now and because my other machine was such a piece of CRAP I couldnt sew them up.

These are made with three or four layers. Flannel top, towel terry (from a cheap new towel), fleece, and PUL (polyurithane laminate) on the bottom for waterproofing. I'll tell you that the flannel is such a wonderful feel. So soft. I like these because they are so much easier on the skin than that plastic crap they put in store bought pads. Its cheaper to do this too because you can make them last up to about 10 years if you really take care of them well, and a minimum of 5 years if you dont. Its not unusual for these things to last for a long time.

At a minimum of 5 years you can save about $300 or more depending on how much you use in the way of pads. If you know how to sew, its a lot less expensive to make them than it is to buy them. My materials cost me about $15-20 for the fabric @ 1yd ea, towel, notions etc. I will probably get about 15 or so pads out of the bunch. That comes to about $1.30 each when all the stores are selling them for more than $5 and sometimes more than $10 each pad. Talk about considerable markup!!!! You might be seeing me with an etsy shop soon!

Tell me, would you consider using cloth instead of plastic? Have you used cloth? What did you think about it?

Thursday, September 11, 2008

A Day of Remembrance

Today deserves a post from me. On this day, 7 years ago, the most horrifying thing, in my time, happened on US soil. Terrorists, intending to kill probably tens of thousands, flew planes into the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon, and hoped to hit the Whitehouse. Thanks to a few brave souls, the one intended for the Whitehouse went down in a field instead of the walls of its intended mark. About 3000 people died that fateful day. We all know the story. Id like to tell you mine for that day.

It was what seemed like a normal day. I woke up, helped my husband (fiance at that time) get ready for work and saw him out the door. I decided on this particular morning that I wanted to watch some TV, just to cut the silence in the house, only to find that there had been something really major happening. I watched for only a few minutes before I saw the second tower get hit. We lived in California at the time so by the time I turned on the tv the first tower was already in flames and smoke billowing in the sky. I watched in horror as they showed people scrambling to get out of the buildings and those gaping holes in the buildings and the final fate of the two buildings. I watched as they showed footage of the plane that went down in the field that was meant for the Whitehouse. I watched as they showed more footage of the Pentagon with a HUGE gap in the middle of it.

There was just confusion everywhere. I felt like there was nothing I could do to help any of them, and truly there wasnt much that everyone in the US hadnt already thought of doing. At that very moment tho, there was absolutely nothing that I would have been able to do to help any of it. I tried to call Robert to let him know what was happening but I couldnt get ahold of him. He worked on a construction site and didnt carry his phone with him all the time. Thankfully they had a radio there on the site, so that's how he found out. He came home that evening telling me about what happened, and I let him know that I had been watching it all day long and I filled him in on the bits and pieces. It was a scary and heart wrenching day to just sit and watch and not be able to do anything.

Tell your story about 9/11/01 then post a link here. I would love to know what you were doing on that day.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Coupons

I have been trying to figure out the whole meal planning and grocery shopping thing for a while now. It got so bad that I just didn't know what to cook for about three months. I think, however, that I am finally out of my slump. I have a list of our regular dinner meals on hand to choose from and I am working on a staple list so that I am not running out of the regulars when I need them the most. But there is something else that I have been trying out lately and it is something that has stumped me for years. You guessed it .. Coupons.

There's been a lot of talk around the blogosphere about the drugstore game and couponing (like that? ... it has become a verb, its not just a noun anymore!). However its still something that eludes me a bit. Organizing them in order to be able to use them without fumbling around trying to find the right one or forgetting to use them at all has been the hardest part. Then there's the whole thing about finding the stuff that you actually use. Wow there's a ton to it. I did have some success on a recent shopping trip. I was able to save about $10 on a bill that should have read $110, so I only spent about $100. I even got things I needed! Milestones right?? I'm working on it tho. Slowly. Just getting to that point where I understand their uses and can get some good stuff is a wonderful feeling.

How about you? Are you using coupons or doing the drugstore game? How successful have you been? Tell me your story.