Eucalan

I hate hate hate dry cleaning, it is expensive and my clothes never seem all that clean upon returning home.  I am one of those people who ignore care labels for the most part, especially the ones that say “dry clean” (as opposed to dry clean only, which supposedly means something, whereas dry clean is just a suggestion I think).  I have ruined a few things but for most part, I have been successful washing knits and especially cashmere in the washer or sink with super wet water.  Anyway I am always interested in new ways to avoid the dry cleaner, and am intrigued by this Eucalan, it is a no-rinse wool wash with lanolin and eucalyptus that all the knitters seem to love.  Lanolin conditions wool and the eucalyptus repels bugs.   Also the scent of lanolin reminds me of Johnson and Johnson band-aids and the big cream wool sweaters we carted home from a trip to Ireland when I was young.  Bandaids and sweaters.  Eucalan comes to us from CanaDA and is available at Reprodepot for $10.99.   There is also a free that’s right free sample available at the Eucalan site by mail.  I think I will get the grapefruit.

Tory Sale

When I was younger and someone from school got in trouble my mother would always say that she could tell that person was no good because they didn’t wear collared shirts.  Actually, this didn’t just happen when I was younger I heard the collared shirt reference within the last year about someone who got arrested.  She really beat into my head that people who weren’t preppy were essentially axe murders waiting to happen.  This has resulted in me being pretty preppy to this day, which I’m sure pleases my mother greatly.  But my favorite outfits are those that combine preppy with a dash of crazy old lady.  These Tory Burch Niles Pumps really take the cake in both categories.  They’ve even thrown in a pinch of nerd for good measure.  These were originally $275 then marked down to $165 and right now they’re an ADDITIONAL 25% off.  Wait for it…. $123.75!!!  Can you believe it?!?  They’re like that kind of dog you see and initially can’t decide if they’re ugly or cute and then you quick reallize that they are cute.  Cute, cute, cute.

I Change my Clothes Every Day

No I don’t!  I only change my clothes during the week!  On the weekend I shamelessly will wear the same outfit both Saturday and Sunday.  Sure I’ll change if we go to dinner or something with “others,” but I am definitely wearing the same thing to ice cream with my husband and Babymouse on Saturday night, and then all day Sunday. 

In the summer the one outfit I wear all weekend is usually a sundress.  This weekend I wore this Mossimo dress at all times, including, wait for it, to sleep in bed Saturday night!  Don’t judge me. I know the convertible strapless dress/maxi skirt is not a new invention, JCrew has one off and on, but this version is the first one I have really liked, fit-wise.  The skirt version is a true floor skimming maxi, and although I consider myself merely tall-ish at 5′8, I often find things kind of short on me.   And as long as I go dress-to-skirt, not the other way around, the strapless top actually stays up without sagging.  I also think this dress could go pretty far into a pregnancy, it is very stretchy.  Best of all it is a random knit material that is cheap enough that this dress clocks in at a mere $24.99, but not so cheap that you couldn’t put something decent over it in dress form and wear it to dinner.    That’s it, I’m not changing for dinner anymore either.

Bloggerrhea

Happy Saturday!  This is our first weekend in our new home.  I wouldn’t exactly call it relaxing.  Despite the fact that our pool now has water, we have spent the last 12 hours doing nothing but unpacking.    I am maintaining my sanity by spending lots of time planning the menu for our camping trip next weekend in my mind.  I have been following the thrify kids over at 30 Bucks A Week for a while now.  They make all of their delicious looking meals for, you guessed it, under $30.  Thru them I found this recipe for Hassleback Potatoes from Seasaltwithfood that I’m dying to try.  Baked potatoes are one of my favorite foods but I hate that with the really big potatoes it can take well over 90 minutes too cook them.  The potatoes (named after Elizabeth from the View???) only take 40 minutes and are crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.  I’m going to try these wrapped in foil on our grill. Continue reading »

Do You Want to Be Starting Something

I know everyone is very sad about Michael Jackson, myself included (raise your hand if you teared up in the car today while listening to “Thriller”).   At least we can all enjoy some good radio play over the next few weeks (for those of us listening to that old spontaneous non-satellite radio); I know that is a bad thing to think of at a time like this.  Really really bad.  you know it.

 Michael Jackson was at the height of his glory when I was about 7 years old, and I thought, looking at him, that the lord in heaven must wear highly mirrored aviator sunglasses.  They were like molten silver mirror sunglasses, no way you were going to get a peek at Michael Jackson’s eyeballs in those things.  

Anyway aviators still look good, although maybe not in extreme mirror.  Of course the classics are from Ray Ban (about $130), but I know some women find these are little too large for their faces.  Fortunately there are tons of knockoffs out there, some very nice ones.  Burberry has a nice pair, I think City might have a pair like this. 

Urban Outfitters, always reliable, has some cute and cheap aviator-like sunglasses, like these tortoise ones.  16$!

Anyway, my point is the Michael Jackson memorabilia is probably all sold out, and you don’t really need that anyway- but you could go out and get a pair of aviators in MJ’s memory!  Much less conspicuous that a single white glove. 

Direct from Neverland Ranch

These marquee alphabet lights were featured in an inspiration board on Snippet & Ink earlier this week.  They are just so adorable I can’t stand it.  Picture these atop blue striped wallpaper in BabyMouse’s room.  ADORABLE!  Its like the fair, but wihtout all the creepy carneys.  I think these would be so perfect (1) in a child’s bedroom, (b) in the room of your pet chimpanzee named bubbles or (4) lighting the way to where you store the Beatles song catalog and the rights to Happy Birthday.  Just a few suggestions.

Let’s Hear it for the Boys

So, I have been skirting around the idea of wallpapering my son’s room.  I had a disastrous problem with covering the walls with fabric adhered with liquid starch- actually let me back up and say wallpapering your walls with fabric and liquid starch DOES work, with the right fabric.  I did it with burlap and it looked pretty good.  Unfortunately I  took down the burlap when he was in the oven because it seemed kind of scratchy for a baby, and tried the same technique with some patterned cotton.  Well, I failed to preshrink the fabric , so there’s three days I’ll never get back.   After that debacle I painted beige in a fit of non-creativity, but as so often happens when you go running out to the paint store and pick a color in 5 minutes, it isn’t really the beige of my dreams.   It has a sandy pink tone that I don’t care for.  Anywho I love wallpaper, for obvious reasons, and actually believe I am better at wallpapering than painting.   

This is an old house and a small room.  At first I thought a wide blue and white stripe run horizontally. 

Then I thought I could throw caution to the wind and get this totally old school “little boy” wallpaper at the top, or this one, which is what I really want (the fact that this is also out guest room holds me back).

I know this royal blue bumblebee paper is too much, I worry this could lead down a short road to christopher robin style pantaloons.   I’m just including it here so you can remind me I am not allowed to get this.

Its Called a Programmable Thermostat People, Get One!

Why oh why must office buildings be heated to 80 in the Winter and cooled to 68 in the Summer?  It just does not make any sense.  In the Winter I have to wear a tank under my coat to stay cool and in the Summer I either need a turtleneck or a space heater to survive.  Can we all just pick one temperature and stick with it?  I suggest 73.  Who doesn’t love 73?  In the meantime, I am looking for summery sweaters tht can keep me warm despite the artic blast of my AC.  I love this nautical inspired cardigan from the Gap for $69.50.  The blazer styling makes it the perfect thing to keep in my office. 

But Wait, there’s More!

Lately I have been obsessed with the “as seen on tv” aisle at my local Walgreens.  I was wondering aloud about the bumpits a few weeks ago and CityMouse informed me that Bumpits were available here in the non-tv world at Walgreens (along with, like 8 varieties of Pringles, according to CityMouse).  I don’t like Pringles, but I do like a good dose of volume when I have my hair in a bun.  I have had some unfortunately hair incidents when my husband informed me my hair looked like one of our founding fathers (John Quincy Adams style). 

So I bought Bumpits, which are like little plastic hair implants, and can report they seem to have some potential as a way to dress up a boring bun for work.  You certainly can’t throw it in your hair and run out the door as the commercial suggests, on the contrary it takes a long time cover that sucker up, because your bumpit must never, never, be visible on your head, that would be terrible.  Also the bumpit comes in a box of three, one medium sized one that produces a Holly Golightly sized bump, one enormous one that produces a trashy prom style bump, and a tiny one that I just don’t understand (it is the size of a meatball).   But the medium does give a pleasing Sarah Palin-style volume if you put it a little behind the crown.  I know some people have mocked her hair but I prefer to mock her behavoir- her hair looks pretty good.  I would certainly prefer Sarah Palin’s hair to Paul Revere’s.  Anyway, next time I take the time to do a legit pinning up of my hair I am going to give the medium sized one a try.  By the way guess what is first on the list on a google of “Sarah Palin Hair”- that’s right, Bumpits.

iWant iKaraoke

CityMouse + 2 glasses of wine = a karaoke extravaganza.  I have learned that this will happen regardless of where I am at the time.  Say a wedding reception for example.  However, thse venues often do not come equipped for karaoke so I end up using a spoon (or in the case of last weekend a pepper grinder).  But now, thanks to iKaraoke I can have a proper karaoke fest anywhere!  My apologies to any of you out there who are not deaf as my singing voice is less than melodious.  iKaraoke is a microphone, processor and FM transmitter that plugs into your iPod.  It fades the lead vocals and trasmits the song, along with your voice to your car or home stereo.