I don’t know what happened to me last week. Andy went out of town, and apparently I decided that meant I could do none of the things I usually do. I didn’t blog (though I did post an article here about a festival in my neighborhood), I didn’t exercise, and I hardly cooked. Then on Thursday night Andy and I met in Newark, NJ to continue our trip together into the weekend. So anyway, all that to say, here I am, and here are some pictures.

 Outside the iconic New York Public Library at 5th Ave. and 42nd Street.

My friend Kaleigh, whose wedding is what brought us to the northeast. It was a fun, brightly colored affair that fit her personality to a T.

Congratulations to the bride and groom!!!

Back in NYC on Sunday. We met my step-grandmother for brunch at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and checked out this rooftop art called Cloud City.

The rooftop affords beautiful views of the city!

We walked through Central Park and passed by the boat pond where Stuart Little valiantly raced. :-)

And then we flew home, and I almost ran over this guy on the sidewalk with my rolling suitcase. 

The End.

It’s May, and it’s hot outside, and no one is thinking about Christmas right now.

…except for me, because I picked up some deals for my Operation Christmas Child boxes this week!

The flashlights were on sale at Office Depot for $4.00 per 3-pack, down from $13.98. Plus they come with batteries!

The soap and cups I got at CVS for a total of $3.19. I had $1.00 Extra Bucks that I needed to use by May 16, and the soap was on sale for $1.88 and printed $1.00 ECBs. The cups were somewhat of an impulse purchase–I’ve never included anything like that in my boxes, but I thought the bright colors would be fun! They were $1.00 for 3 cups.

Believe it or not, I’ve also already collected some notebooks that I got at Staples in their “Dollar Days” sale and some pens that I got for free at Target with a coupon.

I’ve set a goal for myself of putting together 10 boxes for $100.00 this year.

The 6 boxes I did last year were pretty easy, and I would be well on my way to having 6 this year. As you can see above, a lot of things come in three’s, so I’m worried that getting to 10 will be difficult! I guess if I end up with 9 that would be okay, too.

Items I’ll be looking out for deals on in the next months include:

• socks
• soap
• toothbrushes
• toothpaste
• batteries (they ask that you provide extras if you include electronics)
• travel packs of Kleenex
• multi-packs of washcloths (clearance at TJ Maxx, etc?)
• hard candy
• Ziploc bags

I’m looking forward to seeing what all I can get for free or almost free during the back-to-school sales at the end of summer, and I’ll be budgeting at least $10.00 to spend on (10) small toys at the dollar store, like jump ropes and balls. I also know that if I don’t find good toothbrush and toothpaste deals I can get a neat travel pouch combo at Target for $1.00 like I did last year, but that would require another $10.00 out of my $100! So if I can find sales and coupons that would be great.

I don’t necessarily expect that anyone else is thinking about Christmas yet, but doing it this way will really help me put the best items in the boxes for the least money!

Did you find any good deals this week?

Kyle’s back with a second DIY project! If you missed his first one last, check it out before you continue reading.

My second project while the wife was away visiting family was to prepare and paint two TARVA nightstands from IKEA. We briefly considered the super-popular RAST dresser, but in the store the TARVA’s construction seemed much more solid and I kind of liked the second open shelf under the tabletop. We had been living without dressers and putting our books and glasses on plastic drawers, so this would be a huge improvement.

Like our INGO table, these are plain pine and desperately need either paint or stain. First I put together the dressers following the sometimes-cryptic IKEA instructions. One lesson I’ve learned is to use generous amounts of wood glue for IKEA furniture, which is as well-know for it’s flimsiness as it is for it’s spare-but-fashionable Scandinavian styling. I only had to frantically rip apart two wood-glued pieces during construction, but soon I had the two completed.

I started by painting the middle section including the open-air shelf, to see if I wanted to leave the legs unpainted. I also left the top plain-pine thinking it, like the kitchen table, would look good with exposed wood. I painted about two layers of the same satin acrylic paint/primer to achieve a solid and full coat. For the tops I first tried applying a layer of clear polyurethane, but I didn’t really like the look and when I texted a sample to the wife, she confirmed what I suspected – all-white would look best. So I slapped on a few coats of white on the top surface to complete the job.

I let both dressers dry until the next day since I didn’t want paint sticking to any books or sheets and by the time she was home they were both ready. I’m still a little anxious that the painted surface may not be durable enough, but I can always add another layer of paint if it starts to wear down.  It’s nice to finally have a place for both of our lamps and books  - and to have another home project in the books.

Have you ever started a project only to change your plans halfway through? What changed your mind and how did it affect the project or results?

Thanks, Kyle, for dropping by and sharing your DIY projects! I’m hoping to keep the Workin’ Wednesday category going with projects of my own…or yours! If you’ve done anything cool lately and would like to be featured as a guest poster, shoot me an email.

I drink a lot of water, which is a good thing. But for some reason the other day I got to thinking about how much it might cost if every single drop of water I drank came from a plastic bottle!

Andy and I have one of these guys in our fridge:

 

It’s a bit of a pain to keep it filled, but it’s so handy to be able to fill my 32 ounce Nalgene bottle and drink out of it all day. (In fact, I actually drink 2 Nalgene bottles full every day, along with extra glasses of water.)

I started wondering how much money we saved by not buying bottled water. My decision to not drink bottled water every day is more about the eco-element of not using so much plastic, but I bet we save some money, too. I know a lot of people don’t like the taste or the chemicals that can be found in tap water, but the filter takes care of those for us.

We replace the filter about once every 3 months, and we buy them in multi-packs, usually from Amazon, for around $20.00.

A 24-pack of bottled water was on sale at Kroger this week for $3.69 (and I have no idea how much the normal price is, or how that price compares to other brands). Given the amount of water I drink, I would go through at least 4 of those bottles EVERY DAY, meaning the 24-pack would last 6 days. And that’s not including the fact that Andy also drinks water! In the 3 months that our filter lasts, we would have to buy about 15 24-packs of water, costing us at least $55.35. SO, by using our fridge filter and refilling bottles, we save about $45.00+ over er 3 months, or $15.00+ a month (and again, this is assuming that only I am drinking the water). I know we spend some on the water from our tap, but I’m pretty sure that it’s not $15.00 of our water bill.

It might not sound like that much, but it’s the little things that add up. I know I could likely use coupons and get the water for cheaper, but the bottles would still incur a global cost of recycling the plastic that is not exactly measurable.

So the next time I’m ticked off that the filter pitcher is empty just as I want a glass of water, I’m going to remember that $45.00 (though I wouldn’t mind eventually replacing it with a faucet-mount filter so I could have instant gratification…)

Do you have any money-saving or eco-friendly tips? What kind of water do you drink?

I’ve decided I’m not very good with titles. I don’t mean blog post titles, although those are hard enough in their own right. No, I mean titles that we put on ourselves, or what we call ourselves.

When I was growing up, I was a swimmer. I had no problem calling myself that, but even though I practiced 2 hours a day, lifted weights and ran, traveled for meets on the weekends, and sacrificed a lot of lazy summer days in favor of training, I never thought of myself as an athlete. I didn’t swim for my school, so it wasn’t blatantly obvious that I was athletic. And plus, I thought of athletes as members of a team, people with good hand/eye coordination who wore their uniforms to school once a week. But I realize in retrospect that I was AN ATHLETE.

Recently the title of “writer” has been coming up for me. At our last church, we asked “get to know you” type questions at the beginning of our young adult Bible study every week. I remember one week the question was, “When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?” My answer was, “I always wanted to be a writer, but now I don’t really think that’s where my life is going.” Our minister, who had probably read some blog posts of mine, said, “Laura, you ARE a writer.” But I brushed it off. Writers were people who woke up in the morning and slaved away at the keyboard, people who wanted to published. I was not a writer.

I’m reading Anne Lamott’s book Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. I love Anne Lamott and every word that comes out of her pen, but some lingering voice in the back of my head keeps telling me, “This book isn’t for you. This book is for writers. You’re not a writer.”

But recently, as I was sending an email to a local internet publication in response to their call for contributing writers, it hit me: I AM a writer. I may not hone my craft like some do. I may not agonize over words. I may not have any desire to be published. But because I write, I am a writer, just like because I swam, I was an athlete. It makes sense in my head; I don’t know why I have so much trouble embracing titles like that. But I’m trying this one out: I am a writer. I am a writer. I am a writer.

What are you? Do you struggle with titles?