Belated Christmas Gifts

Yesterday I had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. So you can imagine my delight when I came home and there was a package for me sitting on our front porch! When I saw the box I instantly knew what it was: Christmas presents! It may be a little late but after Peter and I returned from our trip I ordered my friend a letter press calendar that I had been eying for quite some time–and since my mother taught me always to give gifts that you would want to receive, I ordered one for myself as well. Here’s what the package looked like what I cut open the box:

Complete with a little note from Pistachio Press, the Etsy seller that I ordered it from.

Pistachio Press was inspired by vintage tea sets to create the delicate designs that grace this year’s calendar. The pages are attached with a gray ribbon (my favorite color) for an elegant, feminine touch.

Here’s the lovely image that Peter and I will be looking at on our wedding month!

I opted to put the calendar in our office simple because it’s too pretty to procrastinate hanging. I’m not sure if this will be the calendar’s forever home, but for now I think it really softens some of Peter’s boy decor.

The best part of this purchase–Sarah, look away– is that I managed to buy the calendars for 20% off because I waited until after the New Year to make my purchase. It was difficult worrying that I may come back from my vacation to find them sold out, but the price cut made it worth it. Have you bought yourself any belated Christmas gifts?

Using a Zip-It

This weekend we arrived back at the condo feeling inspired by my cousin and ready to conquer some unfinished tasks. The first thing on my list was to unclog the the sink in our bathroom. The drain has been slow for a long time and while it was annoying, it was never terrible enough to motivate us to do anything about it. Finally I decided to pick up the Zip-It off the floor and give it a try.

I decided to spare you by not taking any photos of the ick that I pulled out of the sink. Overall, the tool was easy to use but in our case it was no where near as simple as they make it seem. On my first attempt, I inserted the Zip-It into the sink and pulled it out. There were teeny bits of grossness attached but I didn’t actually pull anything, other than the Zip-It itself, out of the sink. I tried it again, this time fishing around a bit–still nothing. After a few attempts I finally managed to pull up some hair but the Zip-It didn’t bring it all the way out. I actually had to use my hand and fish yuck out of the drain. It was horrible. Then I realized that there were minor clogs in each quadrant of the sink stopper.

(Illustrating three of the four quadrants. Note: This is not my actual hand.)

Each required the Zip-It to loosen up the clog and bring it to the surface. But more importantly, each required me to touch (albeit wearing gloves) the grossness that was clogging the sink. I’ll be honest: it was horrible but I thought you deserved fair warning. This tool is not glamorous my friends–but it did work. Our sink now drains without a flaw. Have you tried using the Zip-It? Did it work like it claimed or did you end up with an unfavorable process like I did?

Images courtesy of Amazon and Handyman How-To.

Righting Wrongs

I just got back from a business trip in Chicago. Is it just me or does work become a million times crazier around the holiday? Either way, in this time of sparse writing I’ve managed to fix a few of my mistakes. Do you remember about a month ago when I got really excited about spray painting and forgot to clean the wine rack before I painted it and got spray paint all over my jeans?

I’m happy to say that I remedied both of these situations without spending any extra money. The wine rack was really easy. I simply sanded down the surfaces to ensure that I removed any dust. After sanding, I wiped it down to ensure that I wouldn’t repeat the same mistakes. In case you forgot, here’s what it looked like before:

Pretty gross, huh? And here it is now:

And just so you can admire how wonderfully dust free this really is, here are a few more:

Secondly, I managed to remove almost all of the spray paint from my jeans!! Before I give you the details, I’d like to make the disclaimer that I don’t know very much about stain removal so I’d only try this with clothing that you would otherwise be forced to throw away (or condemn to a life of “painting clothes”). After staring at my jeans in disbelief for a good twenty minutes, I brought them inside and began to route through the laundry cupboard. I realized that Shout wasn’t going to cut it for this job so I turned to the internet.  A quick Google search later, I was sitting in the bathroom with hairspray and hand sanitizer. Several people on various websites swore it would get spray paint out of clothes. So I applied, rubbed and rinsed, and applied, rubbed and rinsed some more. I just knew that this was some fabulous little secret that would shock Peter with its dramatic results but after trying again and again, I still had bright red jeans. I slumped down in the bathroom, sure that my jeans were ruined forever when my eyes met the nail polish remover. This was an act of desperation but as I poured (with a heavy hand) the nail polish remover on to my jeans and scrubbed, I saw a difference. I knew they’d improved but honestly I was too afraid to wash them because it seemed like the final step that could set the stain and officially banish my jeans from the outside world. So they sat on the washer, got pushed onto the floor, and finally weeks later I put tons of Shout onto them and threw them into the wash. And guess what? They’re near perfect. There is one tiny red spot where there had originally been a quarter size stain but they’re completely work appropriate again! (Yes, we have a very casual dress code.)

Migraines

I’m sitting at home, wiped out from a migraine that I had this morning and I feel so unproductive. It kills me because I stayed home from work today and there are so many things that I want/need to get done but I hardly have the energy to write this post. I did some knitting for awhile, watched a lot of TV online–which I almost never do– and now I’m waiting for Peter to get home from his class or my dad to get in town. Migraines. I can’t believe how many people get them. They’re debilitating and frustrating and somehow there’s no cure for them. The migraine is gone now but my body is just wiped out.  I can’t wait to feel alive again. To get things done.

I’ve suffered from migraines for years now. At one point in my life I was getting them about five days a week. You don’t realize what that’s like until you’re just in bed, unable to do anything for weeks on end. Luckily, now they’re much fewer with further between, but I still long for the day when they are completely gone. In all my experience with them the one thing that I’ve found to consistently help me is taking magnesium pills. This is another one of my mother’s tricks.  Magnesium is a natural muscle relaxer so it helps all those tiny muscles in your head and neck relax without having the extreme effect of prescription muscle relaxers. I’m also a fan of a heating pad and relaxing essential oils.   Note: I am not a doctor nor do I have any medical training so please consult your doctor before you decide that any of this is right for you.

For those of you who suffer from migraines, are there any natural remedies that make you feel better?

Do Gyms have a Monopoly on Fitness?

This isn’t what I call, “fitness on my terms.”  Several months ago I signed up for 24 Hour Fitness. I wanted to work on my posture and realized that yoga classes were out of my budget. After looking at gym after gym, I came across a deal at Costco for a two year membership to 24 Hour Fitness. This was a pay upfront deal but when I calculated the monthly payments they only came out to be a little over $12/month. Faced with the option of $10 per yoga class or $12 per month I chose the Costco deal at 24 Hour Fitness.

For a few weeks things worked out great and I went all the time but then I misplaced my temporary membership card. Now, you may be thinking, “Hey, that’s not a problem because they send you a real membership card.” I say this because that is what I thought. So, I waited and waited and nothing happened. I received junk mail from 24 Hour Fitness but no membership card. I visited the club and each time it took about 25 minutes for them to admit me (meaning every time I missed the class I wanted to take). All the while I was still receiving junk mail. I kept meaning to call but 24 Hour Fitness’ customer service is not 24 hours.

Finally today, after an early release day at work, I buckled myself down faced the customer service people.The person on the other end of the phone read off of a script and failed to answer a single one of my questions. After continuing to question them about why I had not received my card, the man on the line told me, “I’ll tell you what, this time we won’t charge you the $10 fee for losing your card.” Was he not listening? They NEVER sent it. But he thought that he was doing me a huge favor. It was horrible. Their customer service is so bad that it rivals T-Mobile.

What really irks me about this situation (besides the fact that I’m paying for a service that is a huge pain for me to use) is that this weekend I was telling a friend of mine about this and she said, “Oh that happens to everyone!” So, I want to know, if this happens to a lot of people then why do we keep giving them business? Plus, the same friend had her car broken into while she was working out this weekend. Apparently, just this year they’ve had close to 600 break ins. Don’t you think they’d add some security? I’m sorry about this rant but, really!? I mean really 24 Hour Fitness? I can’t believe that in a time so tight that you can devalue your customers in such an extreme way.

Tell me about where you go to the gym, be it in Austin or elsewhere. Do they value your business or had fitness become so monopolized that all gyms take customers for granted?