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Sunday, March 28, 2010

offer #1

We got the 1st offer on our house today after 44 days on the market...

we'd love to be more excited,
more hopeful,
more optimistic,
more trusting,
more believing,

but we were pretty insulted by the offer & are hoping the potential buyers will come to their senses.

We've countered their offer & are hoping and praying they'll at least seriously consider it.
If not, then we'll keep hoping & praying for the right buyers to come along, sooner rather than later.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

free at last!

i'm certainly hoping this is a sure sign that we're free from the bounds of winter!

i'm loving that my flowers are blooming,
that it stays light until 1930,
that it's getting warm enough for flip flops!,
that consecutive warm, sunny days are just ahead.

spring at last...wahoo!

warms my heart!

In the mail yesterday we received Samaritan's Purse Operation Christmas Child Special Report for 2009.

It warmed my heart to see pictures of all the smiling little faces and to read of all the good these simple shoe boxes do across the world.

For 2009:
*8.2 MILLION shoeboxes were distributed in 108 countries...wow!

This year, I'm hoping Chris & I can volunteer at one of the processing centers.

You can click here to read the report.
Be prepared to be touched!

deal of the week

my amazing deal for the week...1 bottle of Herbal Essences shampoo
+ 1 bottle of Herbal Essences conditioner

$1.99

couponing +saving $= happy me!

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Pottery Barn inspired

i love, love Pottery Barn.
i only wish i could afford to furnish my house with all of their stuff

maybe one day...
until then, i browse their catalogs & website to get inspired

i found these great spring Easter eggs the other day on the PB site ($19.99/6)

yesterday, i found these at Ross ($6.99/6)

as an added bonus, they spell out spring on the backside!

they're not quite the same, but i love them!

Friday, March 12, 2010

house update

To sum it up, it's still for sale!

We have a showing scheduled for 12:45 today which brings the grand total to 11 showings!

We have had 72 online hits .

We had an open house Sunday afternoon that brought in 7 groups of prospective buyers.
Our agent felt it was a very successful open house.
We are certainly hoping that some of the prospectives will be back with an offer!

We're trying to be patient, knowing that it will sell in the right time.
Fingers crossed that it'll be sooner than later!

giveaway

Pink Nothings is sponsoring another great giveaway courtesy of Air-O-Swiss.

Enter before March 31st to win one of these nice ultrasonic humdifiers!

Thursday, March 11, 2010

burp cloths

How about these burp cloths I made for a dear friend who just adopted a sweet baby boy...
Sadly, the pictures don't do them justice.

I was so happy with how they turned out, and they were so quick & easy to make.

I used a slightly modified version of the pattern & directions found here.

Monday, March 8, 2010

hard to believe.

It's hard to believe that it's been a year today since Peppes passed away.
Sometimes it feels like just yesterday and other times it feels forever since she was here with us.

Adjusting to life without her has been difficult.
I miss her immensely, to say the least.

In her honor, last night after dinner I made a "Peppes banana pudding".
Although I had watched and helped her make many, this was the first one I made on my own.
A few tears probably dropped into the homemade pudding while I was stirring it for 15 minutes until it thickened.
Stirring the pudding was always "my job" ("the most important job") when we made it together.

It turned out pretty well considering mine will never measure up to hers.
It was a great way to remember the wonderful memories I have of her.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

random, but fun

The many uses for coffee filters .... Who knew!

1. Cover bowls or dishes when cooking in the microwave. Coffee filters make excellent covers.
2. Clean windows, mirrors, and chrome... Coffee filters are lint-free so they'll leave windows sparkling.
3. Protect China by separating your good dishes with a coffee filter between each dish.
4. Filter broken cork from wine. If you break the cork when opening a wine bottle, filter the wine through a coffee filter.
5. Protect a cast-iron skillet. Place a coffee filter in the skillet to absorb moisture and prevent rust.
6. Apply shoe polish. Ball up a lint-free coffee filter.
7. Recycle frying oil. After frying, strain oil through a sieve lined with a coffee filter.
8. Weigh chopped foods. Place chopped ingredients in a coffee filter on a kitchen scale.
9. Hold tacos. Coffee filters make convenient wrappers for messy foods.
10. Stop the soil from leaking out of a plant pot. Line a plant pot with a coffee filter to prevent the soil from going through the drainage holes.
11.. Prevent a Popsicle from dripping. Poke one or two holes as needed in a coffee filter.
12. Put a few in a plate and put your fried bacon, French fries, chicken fingers, etc on them. It soaks out all the grease.
13. As a sewing backing. Use a filter as an easy-to-tear backing for embroidering or appliqueing soft fabrics.
14. Put baking soda into a coffee filter and insert into shoes or a closet to absorb or prevent odors.
15. Use them to strain soup stock and to tie fresh herbs in to put in soups and stews.
16. Use a coffee filter to prevent spilling when you add fluids to your car.
17. Use them as a spoon rest while cooking and clean up small counter spills.
18. Can use to hold dry ingredients when baking or when cutting a piece of fruit or veggies.. decreases the # of bowls to wash.
19. Use them to wrap Christmas ornaments for storage.
20. Use them to remove fingernail polish when out of cotton balls.
21. Use them to sprout seeds.. Simply dampen the coffee filter, place seeds inside, fold it and place it into a plastic baggie until they sprout.
22. Use coffee filters as blotting paper for pressed flowers. Place the flowers between two coffee filters and put the coffee filters in phone book..
23. Use as a disposable "snack bowl" for popcorn, chips, etc.
Thanks to my mother-in-law for the tips!