today's free stuff 3/28/09

free emergen-c blue sample
free health food pet food
free sample products such as notecards from vista print
free gift for trying on any bra at aerie stores

my little escape artist

my cats are indoor only cats. while they may have free roam of most of our house, there are certain doors we keep closed unless one of us is in there namely the laundry room, basement, and attic. we are very careful to keep the girls out of these rooms in general although i do let them join me when i am spending time in attic with my shoes. most of the time, they are in the same room as us or sleeping in the bedroom, so its easy to notice if one of our girls is missing. twice in the last week, my eldest, belle, has managed to sneak past us and hide. tuesday, she spend most of the night in the laundry room after dan put his clothes in the dryer before going to bed. i woke up and not immediately seeing her went looking for her and was surprised to hear her meows coming from our laundry room. we figured this was a fluke since she's only gone missing once in the almost 3 years we have been living here. but then, last night she managed to pull a houdini again. i've been conducting my rock candy experiment in my basement(completely covered of course). i feel the need to check the progress of my rock candy at least once a day. unbeknownst to me, she slipped past me into the basement. maybe a half hour or so later, i started hearing noises coming from the basement. sure enough, she was waiting at the door to be let out. i have no idea what she had gotten into down there, but the top of her head was covered in dust and dirt. sadly for both of us, this meant we both got to endure one of our least favorite tasks. i got to give her a bath. she whines the whole time. its so funny as kitty my other cat will sit outside of the bathroom watching the whole time merely glad she isn't the one in the tub. i did take a pic of how pitiful she looked but only with my cell phone camera hence the poor quality.

i want these badly

paper origami crane earrings from smutopia's etsy page


i saw these super cute paper origami earrings, and felt they were calling my name. i am in love and i think so will some of my friends will be too. especially for the super reasonable price of $7 currently with free shipping. and, she says on her site she can customize the color for you. i like the green personally, but might go for blue more. that's right only $7 for those unique earrings and free shipping. what a deal. that's one of the things i love about etsy. you can get one of a kind items that are often adorable, and fashion forward and support an artisan. as a budding artist myself(hopefully, one day, i will sell some of my photography.), i feel good about buying goods from the artist him or herself.
smutopia also has nice stone jewelry. i like stone jewelry instead of gemstone jewelry in general. not only is it more affordable to get the real deal, but i tend to think its not so tacky. all of her wares seem to be very reasonably priced with the most expensive thing i see being a necklace and earring set for $24. and, i am smitten with her seaglass ring and her drops of fire ring.
additionally, smutopia has a behind the scenes blog and is having a giveaway through 4/2/09 at midnight for the earrings which have my panties all in a bunch. i'm now a follower of her blog. she seems to have frequent giveaways. i'm also kind of excited to see her wares before she even uploads them to her store.
i am currently trying to save myself as bills have to be paid and not spend money shopping right now(yes, even grocery shopping) which is why i haven't ordered them yet(well, that and there is always the hope that i might win that giveaway.). but one day with more money and hopefully one day soon, i plan on plunking down some money on her products.

today's free stuff 3/27/09

free sample of jergens natural glow
free jeffrey dunsbergen art poster
free entry into armstrong tools contest and t-shirt
free jiffy mix recipe book
free renew dry conditioner
free sample of eucerin lotion
free olive recipe book
free sample of pantene pro fusions
free sample of stencil material
free 3 scoop sundae at friendly's they email you a coupon

is march madness over yet? please, i beg you.

i love sports. i love nfl football. i like the nba, soccer, tennis, the olympics, etc. but college basketball is boring to me especially when it saturates my tv. one game maybe i could take, but 63 in a matter of weeks is way too much for me. but, then march madness commits the cardinal sin of interrupting my tv shows. thursday night, i watch survivor, csi, and eleventh hour. and, my boyfriend and i watch hell's kitchen together. this may make me sound like a tv junkie, but so what. after all those years of being a party girl, i figure i am just making up for lost time. plus, how am i supposed to type on my blog while reading a book? so, i am searching for tv shows to watch and nothing. i am not going to watch american idol. you can't make me. hundreds of channels and nothing good on. egads, i sound like andy rooney.
and, i'm tired of the silly boys at work talking about their brackets. so, please let this be over.

as a note, this is a 2nd go at this post since i lost the first one while blogger was down. i probably missed a bit.

today's free stuff 3/26/09

free attune probiotic bar
free subscription to interview magazine
free go red red dress pin
free printout for mini body lotion at victoria secret in store only
free digital tv converter box coupon
free advanced screening for hbo's grey's garden in select cities only
free advanced screening tix for adventureland in select cities only
free sample of zyrtec
free sample of old spice bodywash
free subscription to guitar player magazine

necessity is the mother of invention

i am convinced i have become a queen of making it work. as someone who tends towards spontaneous and last minute inspiration, this tends to mean sometimes odd substitutions when baking, etc. this week, i got a wild hair up my hindparts that i wanted to make some rock candy. i started making the candy before realizing my fruit flavoring options were limited. i only had pure lemon extract. ok, so looks like i would be making lemon rock candy. well, who wants uncolored rock candy? but, the only food coloring i had left was red. ah ha, my solution: i tinted it pink and i'll say my rock candy is pink lemonade flavored. i told travis my solution, and he couldn't stop laughing(but was not surprised). i promise i will post about the rock candy, but not until it is finished which sadly will be sometime between saturday and monday.
this is not the only time i've had to make it work(why can i not say that without hearing tim gunn of project runway saying it in my head?).
some other examples of making it work:

• no buttermilk in the house(and frankly i didn't want to buy something just to use in one recipe) just add a tbsp of white vinegar to regular milk
• overslept and no time to wash your hair. apply some baby powder to your scalp and hair and thoroughly pat away, so it doesn't look like you're trying to impersonate casper the friendly ghost.
• who hasn't patched a small hole in the wall with toothpaste?
• i've run out of ibuprofen and had a headache. i did however have a sample bottle of pamprin. it is mainly tylenol anyway. guess what it worked, but for some reason guys won't take it even after i show them the active ingredients.
• carrying a small purse with no room for my coupon holder, so i made my grocery list on the front of a junk mail envelope and stuffed the coupons i thought i might need for the trip inside the envelope.
• no gift labels on hand and no time to print off some cute ones from the net. cut some scrap of the gift wrap you're using into a rectangle. fold it over and write on the inside. tape or tie to the box. now no confusion about who it belongs to.

these are just a few examples of how i've made it work in the last few weeks. how about you? i'd love to hear some other people's creative solutions.