Thursday, October 8, 2009

Things I love Thursday

There's a few items that I've come across that I absolutely love. Care to hear what they are? No? Too bad.

Vinegar. I know, I'm always raving about this stuff. But seriously, what other item can get my laundry clean, make my floors sparkle, and make my soup and pasta dishes "pop"? Exactly.

My kitchenaid mixer. I love this thing, and I know that you know that. I'm not the naming type and find it a bit strange when some people ask me what her name is. She doesn't have one. But she is getting flames painted on her soon! (Thanks to the cousin) Anywho, not only does this mix like a champ, but it makes ice cream, shreds anything except paper, and hopefully soon will roll out pasta. It's the ice cream part that excites me the most, but you knew that, too.


Coco Willy shampoo and conditioner. I haven't found this stuff in about fifteen years. My mom and I used to use it, and then it disappeared for a couple of years. When we came across it in a grocery store, we bought all the bottles on the shelf. (Yes, we asked if they had any in the back, too.) I don't like coconut, but this stuff was awesome. Should you find any, you MUST send it. I'll bake you a pie. But I can't promise what the postal service will do to it.

Palmer's lotions. In a past life, I was a bartender. A bartender that constantly had her hands in dishsoap and sanitizer, because we were perpetually running out of glasses. And it killed my skin, especially in the winter. Then I found Palmer's cocoabutter. And I love it, but recently, I found the olive butter lotion made from olive oil. It's great in the kitchen for a day of baking, but it doesn't leave you oily at all. And none of them smell like most cocoabutter lotions, I promise.


Yankee Candle Clean Linen Scent anything. One of my favorite scents is clean linen. (Yet I hate doing laundry... I don't get it). Matter of fact, I make my own detergent and had to finally scent it because the strange smell of the soap base was making me cringe. I don't like most of the food-smell candles, it just gets to be too much. But I never get tired of the clean linen scent. I've also recently found honeysuckle, and recall loving that scent as a kid. And as a side note, why can you not get the Wedding Day candle at the store? Wouldn't that be the right place for it? Yeesh.

White Sheets. I don't know what it is, but there is nothing like climbing into a bed with white sheets. It's too bad that I only have one complete set of white sheets. Sheets are just one of those things I never buy for myself.


Purple or blue mascara, currently L'oreal HIP blue. It's not overtly Madonna-blue, but it's enough that when I wear it, people notice my eyes. And I have very blue eyes. Not like the daughter's blue eyes, but more of a steel-gray-blue. This stuff has great color, but it tends to wear down during the day and I notice my face wears it after a few hours. I haven't found another blue one that I like, but of course, I'm too cheap to go to Sephora. I do keep getting coupons for Ulta, perhaps I should check them out.

Alright, this is all I can put together right now. I'm sure I will come up with all sorts of additions while I'm on my way to work tomorrow, but then I'll forget them again.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Recovering from September.

September has been a crazy busy month for us. Everything has come up, from the first day of school ever (well, she went to preschool, but still), cheerleading, swimming lessons, mental preparation for a breakdown at swimming lessons, family birthday parties, and beginning holiday planning, to the weekend where we had two weddings, one Red Sox game, one Fashion Show and two friends visiting from out of town. I still feel like I need recovery, since I've also been stuck in laundry hell for the past two weeks.

Fall is my favorite season, it's like spring with less rain. And I have learned in the three (!) years we've lived in Massachusetts, there is no fall like a New England fall. The colors are beautiful, the apples are, well... available. I'm not a huge apple fan, but suddenly I have more apples than I know what to do with. I've even made my first pass at canning this past month. It was a little messy, and I learned that when the instructions say leave 1" at the top, they mean it. Oh well, what can you do? I guess I'll be safe in that the cans of pie filling that I made will be stuck to the shelf they're on and won't fall off at least. It's something I will definitely be doing in the future, when I find the time.

Summer and fall are also my busiest times with freelance work. The company I do a bulk of my freelance for is a book publisher, and there's always the fiscal year push followed by the end-of-year push. It's nice, but combined with all the other things already on the schedule, I'd really just like to clone myself.

What else has gone on? Well, to start with, right when we fired up the deep freezer for the winter and loaded it, the condenser died. And subsequently leaked two gallons of homemade chicken stock all over the basement floor. For four days. Oh, and there were three whole chickens in there that I got on a really good sale. Figures, right? Then, the receiver for the television died it's slow and painful death. And now the plasma tv is on the fritz and the Husband is about to have a fit. (I swear, I have nothing to do with this. Other than it lives in my house, and you know how we've discussed how electronics run screaming from me.) And now we have a resident skunk living somewhere in the vicinity of our shed, which is located roughly 20 feet from our back door. And is smelly.

Anywho, fall is still a favorite time for me, despite its busy-ness. There's the return to the kitchen, which I really never left since we got gipped on summer. But I'll be trying my hand at homemade pasta—butternut squash ravioli to be exact. We'll have that with a smoked gouda sauce. I can't wait. And I'll be pulling out my famous fall recipes (because I like to pretend I'm up there with Alton Brown and Paula Deen), from stuffed chicken to shepherd's pie to yummy desserts. And probably a meatloaf for the Husband. Because I like to keep him happy since he cooks most nights of the week.

And looking ahead, we have the Daughter's sixth birthday in two weeks, she's decided out of her choices, she wants to go to Michael's Arts & Crafts for a party. Yay! And another family member is getting married, I'll be photographing that wedding, too. And then there's the fundraisers for cheerleading and school, get-togethers with friends, work, and soon upon us will be the holidays. I'm already tired thinking about it. Wonder if I could hire someone to come in and do my laundry and dishes? Anyone work for freshly baked apple pies? Anyone? Bueller?