Spice Cupboard

So in my humble little abode, I don't have a pantry just two doors of the cupboards that serves as my pantry/spice cupboard. The 50 things book inspired me to clean it out and sort - OH MY STARS!! Many out of date things in the back. happy to say it is now clean, organized, and all within save to use dates! When was the last time you cleaned out your pantry? Perhaps today is your day!

VHS Purge

So I read the book Throw out 50 Things by Gail Blanke. Quite a good read - discusses more than just your physical clutter. I like the mental and spiritual clutter aspect. Of course, my example is a physical thing but I have finally purged the majority of my VHS tapes. Yikes. As I still have one functional VCR I kept a handful of old favorites. However, I easily am donating 50 tapes (though according to her system they would only count towards one item, oy vie!) Don't judge me by my movie collection - okay, go ahead you know you will anyways!

It's a small world!

Okay, so while you are humming that lovely little diddy in your head - here is proof that it truly is a small world. I sent a Christmas card out too one of my favorite former teachers along with all the other cards I mailed out. All cards were delivered to my local post office. Keep in mind this post office is located only two miles from the card's destination. Okay, so that is the set up info. Yesterday, I stopped to pick up my mail and I get a real card from Mrs. A. I'm thinking - Cool! I open the envelope to pull out another envelope addressed to Mrs. A - I'm now a bit confused. I pull out of the second envelope my envelope and Christmas card and a sheet of paper - now I'm really confused - why is she sending me back my card?!? Then I find the note she wrote on the back of my card and I read the sheet of paper. Here is the gist. My card which was addressed completely correct was delivered to some random town in Georgia. (Several states away!) The lady who received it sent it back to its rightful destination. Now here is the crazy small word part. While this lady resides in Georgia now, she grew up one town over from us and has a family that lives no more than three miles from me, the post office, and Mrs. A. WHAT!!!!!!! Crazy right! I am still chuckling! How does this craziness happen! FYI - this is not meant to be a slam on the USPS - I love them! I love sending real mail, I love receiving real mail. No entity is perfect and this minor harmless error has generated a crazy but wonderful story!

A long time coming....

so do I continue or send this lovely blog to the graveyard of abandoned blogs, hmm, I may try over this summer to find a passion for blogging again, but if not, I will just send it on its merry way.

Cat Lady Confessions

I often try to fight this moniker, I mean, I only have two cats. Okay, so I trap, neuter, and return barn cats....and I feed the barn cats, but still - I am far too cool to be a cat lady - plus, I like dogs too! Then I have a moment where all I can do is shake my head and confess, yes, I am a cat lady. It is like those awful "you know your a redneck when" jokes. Yep, you know you are a cat lady when you have one cat at the head of one side of the bed and another at the foot of the other side of the bed, so you squirm in at a diagonal so you don't disturb the kitties. I hang my head in shame.

Preparations for Tortur, ah, I mean Relaxation.

The Oatmeal Face Mask and the Banana Hair Mask (looks all smooth and innocent doesn't it.)

Misadventures in Natural Beauty

Tuesday looked to be a relaxing evening - the house is clean, basic to do list is done. So I thought, you know, it IS winter - perhaps I should do a hair mask and a face mask to control the frizz and dry skin. Inspired idea, don't you think. I had honey, I had oatmeal, I had a banana, and I had a free evening. Turns out these are not only the ingredients to recipes for natural beauty treatments, they are a recipe for disaster. (Ha ha, do you like how I set that up.) I was feeling pretty mellow just at the thought of a long, hot pampering bath - so rather than blend or food process the hair mask, I thought it's just a banana, a fork will do. Oh, how wrong I was.

I run the bath water, add a little salt to it to add to the natural beauty treatments, I settle in with my little concoctions and a book nearby. I slather my hair with the mixture of one banana and approx. a tablespoon of honey, cover with the shower cap to lock in the juices. I then apply my face mask of oatmeal and honey (1/4 a cup to a dollop - I know but it would have required more washing to measure) I set the timer for twenty minutes and lean back with my book and relax. Ahhhh.

Beep Beep Beep. Okay, stand up switch to shower mode, first wash off crusty oatmeal, check - no problem here - just mentally preparing to clean the goo off the shower floor before in cements. Next, remove shower cap - thoroughly rinse so no stray banana bits cause a future moldy surprise, check, again no problems. Lastly, prepare to rinse out hair mask in order to have the lovely conditioned hair the recipe promised - Danger! Danger! Here is when the lack of food processing makes itself known. First, the water started a little to hot - great, bake a few pieces of banana, wonderful. Wait - where did all these tangles come from? Crap! Fast forward to nearly forty minutes in the shower picking mini chunks of banana from my head, enough hair pulled out from tangles to form a sculpture of a pet hamster (I shall name it Hairold - ha ha, nerd). What is a girl to do. Well I will tell you. At the forty minute mark, this girl decides to get out, let hair dry the brush out dry flakes of leftover banana (which HAS to be easier than the wet version) and shower again in the morning. So Lesson here - it is worth it to dig out the food processor.

CONFESSIONAL TIME: This is a review lesson - I had the exact same experience minus the hamster sculpture with an avocado mask earlier this year. Great treatment when run through the food processor, new torture method when not.