Love (and my Living Room) is a Battlefield

Tomorrow is the big day. The Garage Sale day. I’m not only looking to make a few extra bucks, I love purging my home of all things unnecessary. (I told you earlier how pickles were not even off limits.)

Here’s part of my craigslist ad and I had fun with it, so there, stick-in-muds!:

Easy to find due to my awesome signage-in between Harvard and Yale, north of 15th turn onto Richmond and there you’ll find my Large, organized garage sale with prices clearly marked and everything displayed for your easy viewing pleasure. No awkward, “How much is this?”, no digging, no cockroaches, no cobwebs. Just a clean, simple sale for a girl trying to make ends meet. Even if you don’t want to buy something, but for once want a pleasurable garage sale experience, come on by.

I’d love to see you there! If you don’t come, well, then I’ll miss you. (Email if you have questions, but try to weed out the stupid ones.)

I’ve already had two stupid questions. I thought I distinctly said, “no stupid ones”. Hm….

However, the organized side of me is freaking out a little. This is my living room.

MY living room. It looks like the remnants of a house raid gone awry. And yes, those are gigantic cardboard flowers.

There is a merchandise setup in the middle of the room with hundreds of clothing items hanging from it. Maxwell has spent his time removing each one from the hanger when I’m not looking. He’s been “spanked” several times, however, this does not deter.

Boxes are piled on top of boxes and the cats have had a hey-day climbing through, around and into anything they can get their little furry paws on. I found Bianca cuddled in between a pair of shoes in all of her furry glory. Lint rollers have been a necessity.

I cannot wait for my home to return to normal, to clean up the “battlefield”, so to speak. And to earn an extra few greenbacks. And maybe a treat for all my hard work (hint, hint Biceps…).

Wish me luck!

The “Oh, Crap!” Stage in Life

Dear Readers:
We are in the “Oh, Crap!” stage of life right now. When I look at the outside circumstances, I’m not sure how it’s all going to work out. I have so many irons in the fires and hats on my head, that my brain is a constant whirlwind that’s seemingly never productive.

And this is how I feel. (Brace yourself for a very disturbing and unflattering photo of yours truly.)

I find myself doing this a lot-silently, of course, so as not to scare the kittens. However, I try to remind myself of the blessings that I don’t deserve and for some reason, that I’ve received.

I live in an amazing country, I have a roof over my head and am married to my best friend. So what if everything is changing once again, just when I got used to the way it worked? Wah.

I suppose that’s called life. And I suppose I should just get used to it.
I mean, we haven’t had a house blow up yet this year, so we’re doing pretty good. Right?

Everything must Go-Reduce, Resell, Reward!

Dear Readers:
Do you enjoy getting rid of stuff as much as I do? I have a little thing inside of me that hates excess-having too much “stuff”. If I am gifted or I buy a new shirt, a dish, pair of shoes, etc.-I have to get rid of something the same. I believe I am petrified of becoming a hoarder.

I’ll get to a point where nothing is off limits in our house in an effort to reduce our excess. I’ve been known to clear jars of pickles and sell them at a garage sale. I begin to question the need for area rugs, kitchen sponges, umbrellas, the cats…and I begin making large piles of stuff we no longer need.

Biceps got in on my crazy over the weekend and together we scoured our closets, home offices and the attic looking for anything and everything we could get rid of.
Including our banana costumes from one of our greatest Christmas card photos ever.

We piled our findings into four categories:

1. Salvation Army
2. Craigslist
3. Ebay
4. Garage Sale (PS-if you are in the Tulsa area, I’m having a G-Sale on Saturday!)

There’s something so liberating as our closets breathe a sigh of relief and our attic looks a little less cluttered. I have a theory, if you haven’t worn it in the last year, it’s time to get rid of it. Plus as we get rid of things we don’t need, we’ll make a little extra cash-and that never hurts.
I mean, who really needs to own a DVD copy of “Bedazzled”?

Knick-knacks, books, jars, vases and clothing were all in the running to be reduced, resold and we would reap the rewards. The cats are safe-for now. But there is one that bit me last night that’s on the fence…

So, Dear Readers:

Do you enjoy getting rid of stuff and if you do, what’s your favorite way-throwing it all in a bag and dropping it off at Salvation Army? Taking the time to list it online? Or do you-like me-love setting up a garage sale, brewing coffee and physically watching as the money rolls in?

New! Printable Recipe Card Feature!

I had no idea how popular my recipe section would become when I first started blogging. My intention was to have a blog focused on touring with stinky rock bands, remodeling our houses and making weird crafts. I soon realized that recipes were so easy for everyone to relate to (what-not everyone tours with stinky rock bands?), recreate (we all can shop at a grocery store) and understand (if I don’t forget a step!) that they are becoming more and more of a focus for me, too.

I think with a few simple instructions anyone can cook, even if the thought of using a garlic mincer is intimidating. Biceps’ even references my site to find recipes when he’s in charge of date night. How cute is that?!

I love to share my recipes with you so much that it grieved me when I knew you couldn’t just print it off for your later viewing pleasure. I finally found a plug-in that I trusted and installed it. It’s that cute little chef hat right next to the rainbow looking thing.

I know, welcome to the 2000’s of blogging-land. So, I’m a little behind.

From now on, starting with my recipe on Sundried Roma Tomatoes, there will be a printable recipe at the bottom of the post, perfect for your personal cookbook!

It will look like this at the bottom of each recipe post.

And, it will look like this when you click on the “print” icon. Print away!

I hope you enjoy this new feature.