Fun Links!

Okay, one of the reasons I am re-activating this blog is to keep updated on all of my favorite blogs without checking all of the links or repeatedly checking my e-mail. So, to the right, you will see a list of my favorite, favorite blogs. These are great, and I definitely recommend checking all of them out at least once. Enjoy!

P.S. Well, don't check them out if you are not in the least bit interested in saving money, making crafts, or cooking. Those are my loves right now.

Update: Girliness is Overrated

The baby girl is here! Well, she is 4 1/2 months old now. The long-overdue blog update: the girliness is dispensed. I thought I would be so thrilled with all the girly things that came with having a baby girl, but I have discovered that I'm not quite down with the frilliness. Examples:

The cute baby booties: Yep, after hours of crocheting a cute little 3-6 mo. size pair like the ones in the previous post, my then 2-month old daughter's feet were waaay to big to shove into them.

Little girly dresses: Late in my pregnancy, I started on a cute newborn jumper...and finished it 5 months later. Needless to say, the baby girl by that time was too big for the dress. Also, trying to shove those huge feet into little tights after yet another diaper change is no fun for anyone.

Cute girly headbands: I made a few of these, and I still don't quite understand how to use them. Do you put the headband on the baby's head when you go out in pubilc? Wouldn't it be obstructed by the snow hood baby is still wearing, because it is still snowing? If you use them at home, wouldn't you just have to remove them repeatedly for naps and floor time? I know I wouldn't want my soft head being squeezed by a tight band, but I might go for it if people kept thinking I was a boy.

What I have learned is that your girliness most likely rubs off on your girl. I am definitely not an accessories-wearing, handbag-slinging, high-heeled fashionable lady. I am all about casual comfort. So, that baldish baby in the gray sweatpants and striped socks? That would be my daughter.

Let the Girliness Commence!

Okay, so I am having a girl! The Chinese gender predictor was right! My husband is jumping for joy. He thinks having a girl will somehow make me more girly. Apparently, he doesn't think I'm girly enough. Maybe it is my love of super short hair, shunning of getting my ears pierced, love of zombie movies, or refusal to wear high heels. Who knows? And while I don't know if having a girl will magically turn me into a girly girl, what I do know is that for now, at least, I am getting excited about a little more pink in the house (although I swore I would never be a mom who dressed her girl in all pink...all the time...like, ahem, some people).

Anyways, I have a friend due with a girl the week after me, so I wanted to make her a little gift before I left. Here is the finished product of some Mary Jane booties:


The thing that I love about booties is that you can make a cute pair in the time it takes to watch a movie. If you've read my other posts about crafts, quickness is a big deal to me! I got the pattern off of Etsy. It is so easy and cute--does the pink make it even cuter? I will just have to make these in another color to find out!

MYO Non-Toxic Cleaning Kit

I have yet to return to America, but I am already obsessed with ways to save money when I get back. This stems from several things:

1.) We will be the poorest we have been in five years of marriage. This is due to working a job in Japan for a year that only allowed enough savings to pay for our return tickets back! And also, my hubby will be a grad student instructor, that lovely occupation that saves universities from hiring costly professors to do the actual teaching.
2.) I spend so much money on groceries here that I am determined to slash my grocery bill by at least half when we get back.
3.) Gas. Period.
4.) Did I mention we are going to be very, very poor?
5.) I have discovered, in trying to get some comfort food in a foreign country, that there are several things that you can make from scratch that are better than store-bought. Tortillas, taco seasoning, and salad dressing, to name a few.

In my discovery of making things from scratch, I have found some really good cleaning recipes. These are floating all over the web, as the "green" movement continues. These recipes have been great, since I can't read the ingredients on the cleaning bottles here (which reminds me of a time that my Chinese roommate tried to clean the oven with engine oil).

So, goodbye, $50 excursions to K-mart to leave with a basket full of perfumey, chemically, toxic cleaning supplies. I'm making my own Non-Toxic Cleaning Kit for under $10 when we get back to the U.S. Check the link for some good recipes or leave a comment with your own!

A Clip to Make You Cry

...or at least a short video clip to make ME cry! But I get to blame it on the pregnancy hormones!



How amazing is this? After not seeing Christian for 9 months, Ace and John visited him. The night before, Christian, his "wife", and his cubs all parked themselves on a rock outside the camp and waited for them. At the end of the video, they all walk off together. They ended up hanging out at the camp until late at night, when Christian returned to his cubs.

ChaCha...Ing!

Have any of you heard of ChaCha? It's a free text messaging service that debuted in January 2008. I had never heard of it, until a friend of mine mentioned that she signed up to be a "guide" and started making money by answering texts. I am all for making money, so I signed up, too. After passing a few tests, I got accepted as a guide and now get paid .20 per question. So, if I am online e-mailing or blogging, I am also answering random questions that people are texting in and making some mula! It's not much, but it's fun...and hey, I'm already on the internet so I might as well get paid for it!

Here are some of the q's I've gotten recently. I am definitely learning some random things.

--What is the circumference of a 1200 pound moose? (15 feet!)

--How many pounds of poo does the average person go a day? (.22 to .44 pounds according to poopreport.com)

--What is the best way to catch crappie fish? (Um, crappie bait...yeah)

And sometimes I get fun questions like "How can I get Erica to like me?" or "What should I eat for dinner?" It's all pretty random. I have a feeling that alot of ChaCha users are teenagers with unlimited text messaging!

P.S. I just made $1 while typing this post. That will buy me one stalk of celery in Japan. Woohoo!

Using Up Yarn...

(aka What to Do to Keep Busy while Hubby watches Lord of the Rings. Again.)


I am trying to use up all the yarn I have bought, because I am in Japan and everyone here is frugal like that. This little penguin turned out to have a gigantic beak but eh. It only took a couple of hours to do (aka the pivotal scenes of Return of the King that always put me to sleep). Yes, I fall asleep during intense action sequences of all movies. I think it is a shutdown reflex. Don't even try to get me to watch 300 unless you have a pillow available!
Anyways, here is Paul my Polish Penguin (oops, did I make a big nose/Polish reference? Yes. Because I can.):


Here is the pattern. I know, mine is not that cute. Maybe next time!
Pablito the Penguin Pattern