i'm that desperate...or am i?

Today I shall wash my clothes in the bathtub. I'm a little excited about it. I'll let you know how it goes.



UPDATE: just hung the last of my clothes up to dry and what an easy breezy task it is to wash clothes in the tub. This may have sparked a complete lifestyle change.

UPDATE 2: you can do a final soak with liquid fabric softener, but I just like to rub the dry clothes together to make them soft.

INTERACT: What do you do (to be green, save money, etc) that most people would think wack-a-doodle-weird? My list could go on and on...

A productive weekend...for a change

Now don't get me wrong. I did plenty of sleeping in over the long Easter weekend, but I also got a chance to some things I've been wanting to do. Gotta love a productive weekend! Here are some of the highlights:

I went shopping for some recipes that I have been DYING to try, and made THREE of them!!! I took JT took the Water Gardens in Ft Worth, but for some reason they had drained the water and turned off all the fountains! I was bummed, but then JT climbed "the mountain" and we did few cart wheels and back bends in the grass, so it turned out to be a good time.





We watched "God on Trial" with Natasha which was excellent and so thought provoking. I would definitely recommend it. Now here's the BIG news. IF you know me well, you know that I can't keep things alive- plants, fish, love (kidding about the love). I mean really, the only time I remember to water the bamboo (a hand me down) in my office is when a student just happens to be drinking water right next to it. "Hey Andrea, wanna pour a little of that into Mr Bambi?"

Well, over Easter weekend I thought it would be fun to celebrate by planting something, so I started a little herb garden. SO I poured some water over some soil pellets, spent a LONG time breaking them apart, planted Basil, Rosemary, and Tyme.
This is how it looked on my back porch:



And here is how it looked today!!! I mean, I planted those babies from seeds and dirt! Fascinating.



The second day, I went out to water and the pots had tipped over and half the soil came out, so we will have to see if the seeds got mix up in the process by the time the plants get bigger. I had some extra seeds, so I covered a tomato can with scrapbook paper, hammered some holes in the bottom, and planted a little more thyme.

Today I went and bought a cheap pot and some bright lights chard seeds and some sunflower seeds for guerrilla gardening in outside around my apartment. I guess I have found a new hobby...

INTERACT: What should I cook with my new herbs, once they grow?

Tires, magazines, & rebates

Do you ever have those moments when you are in a waiting room reading a magazine and you are like, so into it and then the guy is like, "Ms. Gruver, Grey Escape" and you're like, "man I want to finish this article," but that would be awkward... I have those moments often. I had that moment today.

Today I bought new tires for my car. I was pretty pumped to buy them b/c I have been putting money aside for this day, so I really like to see that I have money for things that I need. However this weekend I got an forgotten rebate card in the mail for around the exact price for the tires. CHECK

So I went in today and they didn't have the tires that I wanted, b/c they were on sale. BUMMER. But THEN the guy offered me and upgrade for the same price and ultimately I saved $50. CHECK

I'm pretty pumped about the tires. Today took a turn for the better.

For the record, I didn't finish the magazine. I'm still wondering about that cupcake recipe on page 208.

We are starting a revolution!!!!

This is eryn....


She is star wars fan from Anderson, IN who apparently LOVES broadway musicals. But that's not why her picture is posted on "the blog." Eryn, by way of random events, stumbled upon the 30 Things Thursday idea and is now embarking on a Fifteen Things Friday. Check out her blog in the inspiration section of the link to the left and hold her accountable.

I'm going to give Eryn one of the "coveted" upcycled t-shirt shopping bags as a "thank you card" for the compliment of immitation.

Don't worry!!! I will still be drawing TWO names for shoppers TOMMORROW!!! So check back to see if you've won. (Or enter by clicking
HERE!!!!!

30 Things Thursday x 2 +12

Okay- so I have accomplished three more "Th/Th/Th"'s these past three weeks the goal has been to go through EVERY item of clothing I own and separate them into three piles- keep, sell, give. JT (my AWESOME boyfriend-best ever) sat on my bed as I held up item after item and he served as the studio audience yelling "KEEP IT!" "SELL IT!" and "TOSS IT!" This an an experience that we affectionately refer to as "the game." We hardly disagreed on what to toss, except on occassion- which only hurt me a little bit. :)


So here are the goals & results of three weeks of Thirty things Thursday:
Goal 1: Go through all my clothes
*I got rid of 95 items of clothing in the giveaway pile
*Clothing in this pile range from jeans to flip flops tp sweaters to clothes I've had since sixth grade
*I have a laundry basket of t-shirts (not counted in the above count) that I will be crating into shopping bags You can enter in my drawing to win one here-winners to be announced on Monday.)
*I have a box of about twenty things to take to the consignment shop (not counted until actually sold)

NOTE: All the clothes I kept are in a pile, so as I hang them up, I hope to edit out more articles of clothing.

Goal 2: Go through the boxes that are still in my bathroom floor from the flood last summer
*I came up with an entire laundry basket of ridiculous things and threw a lot of medicine away
*I can't even remember what was in this basket, but it was fairly full- I hope you won't like me less after seeing the pictures below.

Goal 3: Have KB (my AWESOME friend) come over and talk me out of keeping EVERY SINGLE BOOK I OWN
*This actually worked- we went through one of my book shelves (the small one) and I got rid of almost 10 books.
*I also identified 5 books to giveaway to some of my friends (watch out, it may be you)
*K handed me a trash bag (which I later realized was scented [Kristen, that's what we were smeeling]) and made me spend 2 minutes throwing trash away. You would be utterly surprised to see old bills, church bullitins, receipts, excess crafts scraps, etc. that just float around my room.

PLUS- I created a new rule:
NEW Rule: If I purchase items and bring them INTO my life, I must take that same number of items OUT of my life (on top of the usual 30)

So, I bought 12 exciting things for crafting at the antique store, so I dismissed 12 things out of my room. Included in these picture frames, old patterns (unopened), scarves, etc.

Heres the documentation to prove it:

KB with my stuff (I could BURY her under all this crap!)


More pictures of the "things:"





COMING SOON: Pictures of me ACTUALLY dumping this stuff at the goodwill & guest blogger KB writes about how hard it realy is to convince me to get rid of my crap.

I am someone's ELSES inspiration!?!?

Crazy. My former roommate, Lyndsy (pictured in the last blog entry) and a few of her friends have been inspired by "30 things Thursday." Here's an email that she sent me recently:

Lyndsy: I was talking with my two friends out here and we were contemplating what we wanted to do for lent this year. We came up with no retail purchases and taking part in 10 things Tuesdays. The overall goal is simplicity. You were our motivation. We are going to start a facebook group for it today and post every week what we are getting rid of as accountability. One is in Indiana and the other is in Colorado. All three of us are getting married and will be moving this spring so it comes at a good time.

This is great. Maybe we'll start a revolution.
Checkout Lyndsy's Ten Things Tuesday facebook group (and join!) by clicking here.

Please consider "Ten things Tuesday" as you examine your Lenten options.

The giveaway is still going on! Leave a comment in the blog below for your chance to win a shopper!

10 things Tuesday- scratch that Introducing Thirty Things Thursday!!!!

I have decided that for this semester only I will take 30 things out of my life each Thursday. (You may have heard me refer to this as 10 things Tuesday, but I've decided to step it up a bit.)
Here are the rules:

* Items can be counted as long as they are given away to friends, goodwill, or are sold.
* I must set a goal to accomplish as part of thirty-things-Thursday (T Cubed) For example: at the first ever th-th-TH, (which happened on a Saturday, ha)I set a goal of going through all my desk things, two catch-all boxes, and two of my craft boxes.
* I must throw things away as I empty.
and finally
* I must log all the things I remove from my life on the blog each week so that you all can experience this "exfoiliated life" with me (or at least make fun of me for all the crap I have, thus avoiding future accumulation of junk.

I started the semester of with a bang, by getting rid of 45 items!!!!! My good friend Carrie (check out Carrie is crafty to the left) helped me out and she ruled with an iron fist. She took some awesome things with her too.

Here's a picture of my first 45 things weighing me down:


And now it's ALL in a box:


Here the list you've all been waiting for:

*Ms. Melissa Apple
*2 green desk file trays
*Volunteer orange new testament
*little Homie
*empty earring box
*assorted wristbands (5)
*Singer sewing machine needles
*mood ring and bracelet kit
*sugarlicious lipgloss key chain
*assorted mini ornaments
*mini magnadoodle
*strawberry shortcake ring
*wooden Melissa keychain
*cross witnessing bracelet
*turquoise watch
*worry doll pin
*breast cancer bracelet
*post it notes
*yeild to me picture frame
*2 staplers
*brush
*comb
*parody CD's (2, Muppets and Star Wars)
*Best Friends forever picture frame (3- ridiculous)
*pressed flower frame
*lady in waiting book
*hair wrap instruction book
*rainbow stocking cap
*motorola charger
*coasters
*green tempura paint
*tan candle
*life is good baseball caps (3)
and
* one red paper clip

And Carrie took away:
*a few notes from my old roomie- Beth
*10 floppy disks and holder
*college food diary
*broken picture frame
*Glenn and his quarters picture

Some of the above will be used to make me an idea journal for my crafty- this will eliminate all the extraneous pieces of paper that float around my room with ideas & help me to remember I keep certain things for crafting.

Please pray for my personal cleansing as I attempt to rid my life of all this crap and look forward to future postings concerning all the WEIRD things I have probably had since college.

Thanks Carrie!!! (shown below with her husband Marc)