Twilight

So those of you that know me, know that I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this series... 

Summer is coming up and if you're looking for a great book/series to dig into, (and you haven't read it yet...) I'd HIGHLY recommend Twilight. It is the most beautiful and addicting love story that I've read in a long long time... if not ever. 

The movie isn't bad either, (you can actually download Twilight at watch-movies.net,) but I'd definitely watch it after you've read at least the first book as it's not nearly as good as the first book. The new Twilight movie (New Moon) will be coming out this November!

Also, once you've started reading, check out the authors' website: www.stepheniemeyer.com, it is very interactive, giving details and explanations on each of the 4 books, and you can even read her unfinished book, "Edwards version" of Twilight (called Midnight Sun). (I'd read it after reading the series for sure)

Hope you enjoy! Please share comments, or let me know if you agree or disagree with me as I love to talk about this book!

Healthy Food Gone Bad?

If you're like me, you have great intentions on eating your fruits and veggies, but you just don't get around to it as fast as you should, and end up losing $ by throwing them out! 

So, here are a couple of nifty tricks to keep fresh veggies and fruits for a longer period of time: 

• Make sure your fridge is at a steady temp of 34 degrees
• Keep ripe apples away from fruit as its lets off a "ripening stimulant" called ethylene
• Stick a dry sponge in the fruit/veggie drawer to soak up excess moisture
• Peel & cut fruit, if you can, and roll in lemon juice OR 1qt. water with 1tbsp salt OR 2 crushed vitamin C pills... whatever is most convenient for you
• All else fails, you can try out those green produce bags (https://www.greenbags.com/) They're pretty affordable and appear to be pretty effective! 

Borders Members

Did you know that if you're a member of the Borders Book Club, (Highly recommend, its free) along with receiving great discounts at Borders, you can also get all kinds of other additional little perks as well? Check out their Borders perks site

Dude, Where's My Cell Phone?

If you're like me, and you lose EVERYTHING, including your cell phone... 

Here is a great website that calls your cell phone for you! www.wheresmycellphone.com

You just go to the page, enter your phone # and listen for the ring!

How great is that!?

Good Monday Quote

"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could." 

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Isn't that great?! Happy Monday!

The 100 Most Useful Money Saving Websites...

My future cousin-in-law Karla, just sent this link to me and I thought it had a lot of good stuff in it,  so I thought I'd pass along!

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SmartSpending/FindDealsOnline/the-100-most-useful-web-sites.aspx

Thanks Karla!

Skin Stuff

If you are one of the lucky FEW people out there with "flawless skin," then you don't need to bother yourself with the rest of this post....

If you don't, if you are like me and STILL get the occasional breakout, here is some good advice that I've learned after years and years of dealing with this crap:

Acne stems from dead skin cells blocking dirt and oil in your pores. So, if you can find a way to "slough" those dead skin cells off of your face, nothing will be blocking the dirt and oil in, right? That's how Proactiv works. But you don't have to spend all that money to produce the same effect. 

Here's what you do; wash your face with some type of a scrub at least once a day. If you have sensitive skin, go for the mild stuff. My skin is not at all sensitive, so I use the apricot scrub in the shower and I use a facial scrubbing pad to wash my face at the sink. I then use a toner to wipe any excess dirt/oil away (mine is actually a "skin regenerator" too), then use a moisturizer that either A. Is medicated for acne, or B. Encourages skin exfoliation like an Alpha or Beta Hydroxy. 

ALSO, if you are trying to treat a break-out, and you're finding that your "spot treatment" isn't working, check to see what the main ingredient is. Odds are, it's Salicylic Acid... which is in most of the acne products out there. The best thing I've found? Benzoyl Peroxide products work WAY better. I use it to spot treat, but you can find it in face washes and lotions as well. I actually have a prescription (Duac), but a couple products I'd recommend? Panoxyl, Neutrogena Clear Pore Cleanser/Mask. I use this as a mask at "certain times of the month" when breakouts are more apt to happen... and it totally helps! Also, for spot treatment (over the counter) Try Persa-Gel or Neutrogena On-the-Spot. One more thing with the spot treatment? Don't use it lightly... coat it on the affected area. Really works! 

Hope this is of use to someone!!!

Be a Smart Shopper!

In the rare occasion that you're actually heading to the stores with something specific in mind, make sure that you do a little price comparison before you get there. There are a ton of great sites out there that allow you to type in the product or product category, and find out where you can get the best "bang for your buck." Here are a few: 

• www.shopping.com
• www.shopzilla.com
• www.pricegrabber.com
• www.google.com/products
  

Also, most larger stores have some type of a price matching guarantee, meaning that if you find a lower price anywhere else, they'll match that price for you. Smaller stores may not have the guarantee, but will most likely be willing to work with you to make the sale. So, print off the ad for the lowest price and take it with you to the store you'd like to buy the product from (if it isn't the same) and odds are, you will be able to get the price you want. 

In Honor of Dugan...

Dugan was my family dog, our "little man of the house" until Randall came along :) 

He was a golden retriever (best breed ever!) that we unfortunately lost last July...

One of the hardest days of my life! 

Anyways, I know now that he is my angel, so in honor of him, here are a few of my favorite "dog quotes" that any dog lover can appreciate:

• Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.
  -- Roger Caras
  
• My goal in life is to be as good of a person my dog already thinks I am. 
  -- Author Unknown
  
• To err is human, to forgive, canine.
  -- Author Unknown
  
• I wonder if other dogs think poodles are members of a weird religious cult.
  -- Rita Rudner
  
• Dogs' lives are too short. Their only fault, really. 
  -- Agnes Sligh Turnbull
  
• Keep in mind ... to a dog you are family, to a cat you are staff.
  --Author Unknown

MyPoints

Another site I subscribe to is called MyPoints. It’s kind of like a click-thru site that keeps an ongoing tally of points that you can accrue by ordering something online or printing coupons (with the coupon printer from Couponmom) or even researching other websites. 

I ordered some things from Macy’s and Overstock for X-Mas presents, and just clicked to those sites from the MyPoints page and I got enough points for them to send me a $25 gift card to Macys! Ex/ An Overstock order (by way of MyPoints) will give you 10 points per dollar you spend. If you spend $100 at Overstock, you’ll get 1000 pts added to your MyPoints tally. I think my Macy’s gift card (you can pick from a large list of stores, restaurants, etc… to receive your bonus/giftcard) was about 3000 points? 

It's actually pretty similar to credit card points or something… 

I actually really enjoy this site. It's really fun to try and earn enough points to hit a certain goal, and its like an "added discount" if you know you're ordering something by way of that site, because you know that you will profit on the backend as well!

Scissors Not Making the Cut?

A great and easy way to sharpen your scissors is to get some aluminum foil, and fold it over a couple times. Then simply make a few cuts into the foil with your dull scissors and they're sharp again! 

Spray Paint

One thing I quickly learned, when browsing craft stores and home improvement stores, is that you can drastically alter pretty much ANYTHING with a can of spray paint (OR using other painting techniques, which I will cover in another post)  

You can use crackle spray paint, chalkboard spray paint, you can paint any appliance with appliance paint, you can also turn anything into a metallic looking surface, stained surface, stone looking surface, etc... Possibilites are endless! Here's a couple websites for some popular spray paint brands: Plasti-kote, RustOleum