Twenty days later.....

Hello readers!

It's been a busy twenty days since my last post, but I'm here now and ready to tell you about it!

We officially moved last Sunday. It did not go as I planned, but we were lucky enough to have a ton of family and friends help us with all of the heavy lifting. There was a lot of last minute b.s. packing so I am finding weird things together in boxes like crafting stuff and cleaning supplies or a lamp and half my clothing. Hopefully I can get a handle on it this week.

I spent last week cleaning out the old house and I have learned three things: The next time we move I should hire a maid to clean and movers to move our crap, we will never rent/buy a house with stairs again because vacuuming them sucks (the vacuum kept wanting to jump to it's death), and laminate or wood floors are the way to go in the whole house besides the bedrooms.

I've also had a bit of a winning streak this past month. I told you about my first win here, but there's more! I also won a $25 gift card to Whole Foods from The Coupon Challenge, the shirt of the day from ShirtPunch, and a $150 gift card for Eating Evolved truffles from the Civilized Caveman. This is exciting because I've never really won anything before except a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle action figure from a contest held by a local TV station when I was 10. So I think I'm set on winning for the next 20 years!

In crafting news I am currently working on a cross stitch piece for my bestie/wifey, Marcy. I am also in a sea creature swap, a three tiny movie things swap, and a Wizard of Oz swap on Craftster.  I will post pictures as soon as I have some pieces finished!

The shirt I won

What $150 in truffles looks like. The flavors I chose were macadamia nut, coconut, cherry cabernet, choco mint, and bacon! I will be sharing these with my family on Easter.

A picture of my dogs, Viggo (left) and Cinder (right), just because they are cute. They're staring down the Mister because he has ice cream.

A new adventure

Hello, readers!

I started my official short term job as housewife yesterday. It is so weird not going to work anymore. It's also really nice! I like that I can take the next few weeks to pack, move, and unpack before I start my new job.

Normally when we move my stress level goes through the roof. The Mister works 60 hours a week so I feel like a real jerk if I ask him to do any of the packing. He'll be doing plenty of heavy lifting AND driving the moving truck on moving day. So I always take on ALL of the packing and that makes me realize that we I just own too much shit. This starts a snowball effect of starting a giant purge and wanting to go through each and everything we I own. Yes, I have a bunch of crafting supplies (those stay), but I also have a toy collection I am ready to sacrifice to the eBay gods.

A new house means a fresh start and I'd like to mean it this time. The new home we are moving to has a garage- yipee! My plan is that all boxes go into the garage on moving day and all furniture goes into the house. Eventhough I am going through everything before packing it away in the old house, every box will be gone through again before going into the new house. That way each box will have been gone through twice in case there was something I was on the fence about getting rid of before moving.

Sounds a little nuts I know, but my husband comes from a very clean, minimalist background from his time in the Navy. I on the other hand come from an everything is special and has meaning and don't get rid of it background. I am not a hoarder, but I do have a lot of stuff. And this bothers the Mister. So I keep the peace by purging the house and trying to find new ways to organize my craft supplies.

I am so ready for this new chapter in our lives!

A Costco junkie in the making

Good afternoon, readers!

Trying to eat well is expensive! It's a fact. Whole, nutritious foods are more expensive than that processed crap. It seems like a good argument for any conspiracy theorist(ie The Mister) to explain that the government wants us fat and sick so we keep the doctors in business. Or something.

Anyways, one of the things most of the blogs I follow agree upon is that Costco is a good place to pick up decently priced organic produce, grass fed meat, and pastured(that's pastured NOT pasteurized) butter/cheese. So today my friend, Amber, invited me on a trip to our local Costco!

Before we went I reread some past blog entries about what was good to pick up at Costco and I made a list. I decided I would be looking for their uncured Canadian bacon, grass fed organic ground beef, frozen wild blueberries, Kerrygold butter and cheese, and some nice produce.

I ended up purchasing the Canadian bacon, ground beef, and asparagus on my list. I felt that I might get a better price at Trader Joe's on the Kerrygold items so I decided to hold of on those items. I also did not purchase the blueberries because I can get the same brand for cheaper at Walmart. My steal of the day was a large 2.5lb bag of dates for $6 and a large container of Himalayan pink sea salt for $3.99! Just 1 lb of dates is around $6.99 at Harris Teeter! I was so excited about my awesome score!

I was sold by this shopping trip. After our move next month, the Mister and I will be getting a Costco membership!


Your moment of awesome:

Image credit: Google Images

 

Margary Vs. The Cuban

Happy Saturday, readers!

As you may or may not already know I have a wheat allergy. If I eat it my limbs swell up like sausages and my joints only allow me to move around like my 92 year old grandma. (I'm 33 by the way) So the solution? I don't eat wheat. Duh. Simple enough, right? And I'm pretty much ok with that. Of course I sometimes miss those wonderful baked goods I enjoyed before discovering a grain free existence. And I usually find a comparable substitute from one of the recipe blogs I follow. But there was no substitute today.

Today my friend, Liz, and I went to a Puerto Rican restaurant for lunch. She is my adventurous food lover friend. The one I can go get Thai, Ethiopian, or Indian food with. For years I have been a connoisseur of the Cuban Sandwich. Ham, roasted pulled pork, cheese, pickles, and mustard on pressed Cuban bread. What's not to love? It is the perfect sandwich.

Now usually when I come across a dish that has a bread component I just ditch it (ie lettuce wrapped burger, turning tacos into taco salad, etc). But with the Cuban you can't do that. You HAVE to have that delicious buttery bread with the grill marks burned into it.

Sigh

I fought hard and almost gave in, but feeling better all the time physically kind of trumps the five minutes of bliss I might have had with that sandwich.

Instead Liz and I shared the most delicious platter of garlic pulled pork shoulder and yuca roasted in garlic butter.

And I gave myself a gold star because six months ago I would've ate the damn sandwich anyways.

What were your triumphs this week?

I'm a winner!

Good afternoon, readers!

No, I'm not trying to give my self esteem a boost. I really did win something!

Most of the Paleo/grain free blogs I follow have giveaways from time to time. Usually to enter you have to like a Facebook page, follow someone on Twitter, or something of that nature. Clean Eats in the Zoo recently reached 4,000 likes on Facebook and was able to offer a giveaway of $25 gift certificates to Tropical Traditions to three lucky readers! And guess what? I was one of the lucky three! I was so excited! Now I get to restock my coconut cream concentrate and coconut oil.

My dream is to one day be able to offer giveaways to you guys. You all are awesome!

There's also a new recipe for Coconut Butter Cookies from Clean Eats that I can't wait to try when my coconut oil comes in! And I know the Mister will be bugging me to make paleOMG's Simple Blueberry Muffins. They are the BOMB!

The best blueberry muffin you will ever eat!

What is your favorite recipe involving coconut?

Hoopla Love

Hello, readers!

I wear many different hats of craftiness. I love to pour resin, play with Sculpey, make coasters out of perler beads, but my first love is cross stitch/embroidery. As I have mentioned before I am a member of Craftster and I participate in many craft swaps. I most recently finished crafting for the Triple Vs. Swap. In this swap there is three partners per group. One sewer, one yarnie, and one hooper. In our questionnaire we were asked to list five possible items we would like to receive from each partner. I was the hooper for this group and I wanted to share with you guys what I made for my partners.

My sewing partner put this on her wishlist. I found the pattern on pinterest and I had seen it done in other colors. She asked specifically for white, brown, and teal. I think it's pretty.

My yarnie partner asked for something geek-like that her husband would like. This is based on an art print by Jose Pulido. Being a major Star Wars fan myself, it was very hard to let this one go!

I hope you enjoy these!

My reappearing act

Hello, readers!

I know I know. I suck. You thought I had abandoned you, right? All I can say is I'm sorry.

Sometimes life gets in the way of writing crafting EVERYTHING!

I've been extremely busy looking for a new job, a new home, working at my current job, and just living. Looking for a new job or home can be extremely difficult and time consuming. Add working a full time job and the job/house that I am looking for will have to be 30-40 minutes away from where I am currently has made me a little all over the place!

But through perseverance, support from the Mister and family/friends, and lots of tears I have found success!

The new job:

A few weeks ago I had the best interview. of. my. life. Have you ever been on an interview and within the first five minutes you knew you were going to nail it? That was me.

The position is for an apprenticeship with a mobile dog groomer. I knew I was a shoe in because I love dogs, I have worked as a veterinary assistant, and I grew up in a grooming salon where my mom worked. The only thing I don't know about grooming is all of the fancy cuts for the breeds. This apprenticeship is on the job where I will shadow a groomer and not have to spend thousands of dollars going to a fancy school. Upon completion I will sign a contract with the company, be given my own grooming van, and be considered an independent contractor. I was offered the position yesterday. I am so excited!

The new house:

A friend of mine from high school had heard I was looking for housing on the Peninsula and informed me that he had a rental he had just renovated. We went to go look at it on Sunday and right then and there decided to take it. The rent, area, and house itself were just too perfect not to pass up! We should be moving sometime in mid March.

I love that everything in our lives is falling into place!

I will leave you with some of the items I recently crafted for a Classic TV swap and a Labyrinth swap. Enjoy!

A hoop of Rosie from The Jetsons

Resin bottle cap magnets of classic TV show couples

An altered box with William the worm from Labyrinth on it.

I textured the box using spray stone to make it look like a

brick and placed some tea inside as a surprise for my swap partner!

Some resin bottle cap magnets of my swap partners

favorite characters.

I'm currently working on a book lovers swap and The Walking Dead swap. Pictures soon!