Pinterest never ceases to amaze me...

So my new addiction is just to browse through "Everything" on Pinterest. So many pretty pictures! Well like 2 minutes ago I came across these two pins right next to each other...
Is it just me or does this not speak volumes about pop culture? Dare I say Zoey is today's Audrey?

Craft Room Inspiration

So we have given our 60 day notice at our apartment complex. We don't know where exactly we will live come June (scary!) but we have a few options ahead of us and aren't too worried that we won't find something. Since we knew from the beginning that we only planned to stay at this apartment for a year, I have held off on all nesting and decorating projects. We plan for this next move to be a relatively permanent one, so I look forward to finally settling in somewhere.
A big item on my nesting list, is creating my office/craft room. I've shown you all what my office currently looks like. And while it's been great in our current living situation, I hope to move it out of the guest bedroom. Ideally we want to set up a den which will house my office and craft corner and a TV and couch for Luke. I'm not the type of person who just sits and watches TV or plays video games. I like to be doing something creative, but that usually means I'm in a different room from Luke. That's been no fun so my computer is currently stationed on our coffee table so I can multi-task but be in the same room as Luke. If we had a den, we could design a pretty space that accomplishes this but everything has it's own space.
A requirement for this space would be a craft table. For the last year, I have had no large table surface to work on craft or sewing projects. Therefore, there has been minimal craft and sewing projects. I have had my eye on a few table options and these are the styles I love...

1. Lulubeka 2. design darling 3. Photo Problem

While I love the simple upcycled look of the sawhorse desks, I adore the organizational factor in the first desk. After doing some research I found plans for both options. I can either build my own wooden sawhorses (if I can't find some at a yard sale or on craigslist) and screw a MDF board on top or I can make a gorgeous storage craft table from Ana White's plans.

{Ana White}

Since I will be using this table for all sorts of arts and craft projects including those that involve xacto knives and strait pins. I wanted a table top surface that would be protected from the damage of these utensils. I vaguely remember reading somewhere about a pad of some sort of material that this crafter would cover her table top with. Once it got worn out she would just tear the top layer off and there would be a fresh sheet below it. If anyone knows what I'm talking about, I would love to hear what it's called.

In the meantime, I have scoured the internet looking for a suitable craft tabletop protector. Not Martha had a great article on using cork and kraft paper for cutting tables. I was able to find some rolls of cork at Amazon, Office Depot, and The Container Store, but all three options would come out to about $40 to cover the whole table. The advantage of the cork is that you can pin patterns directly to the table top so that they don't shift while cutting. The disadvantage is that Xacto marks will tear it up faster than a self-healing option.

Since the self-healing cutting mats aren't in my budget at that size, I looked for an alternative. For around $50 I could cover the whole table surface with a vinyl drafting board cover. This is a viable option, but it's not super budget friendly :-/

The cheapest option I found, was recycling an old piece of linoleum. While not the most ideal choice, it would protect the table surface from scratches.

Of course, I could always opt against having a protective layer, especially if I'm just using an MDF table top that I could always replace later. And I'll probably always use a pattern cutting board when working with fabric which is far more economical at $7.

I'm not 100% sure what I'll decide to do but I'll keep you all posted once I start working on the room.

22 Before 22: #19 Make 22 different kinds of cookies

Here is the list of cookies I plan to make... so yummy! :)

1. Mexican Wedding Cookies  - Made polvorones instead

2. Milk Chocolate Shortbread Cookies

3. Ice Cream Cookie Pop 

4. Snickerdoodle 

5. Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies 

6. Rootbeer Cookies 

7. Double Thumbprint Cookies 

8. Raspberry Linzer Heart Cookies 

9. Cake Batter Cookies  - Made a giant chocolate chip cake batter cookie shaped like a heart for our 1 year anniversary. I even frosted it and wrote happy anniversary on it :)

10. Best Big, Fat, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie 

11. Cookie-Stuffed Cookies 

12. Cookies 'n Cream Kiss Cookies 

13. Frosting Cookies 

14. Tagalongs 

15. S'mores Cookies 

16. Red Velvet Cookies 

17. Chocolate Brownie Cookies 

18. Checkerboard Cookies 

19. Samoas Bars 

20. Iced Pumpkin Cookies 

21. Lemon Burst Cookies 

22. Almond White Chocolate Chunk Cookies 

22 Before 22: #4 Read 22 Books

For those of you who know me, you know I love to read and reading 22 books this year would be no problem. So I decided to make it a bit more challenging by creating a specific list of 22 books.

1. Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd by Holly Black

2. Crossed by Ally Condie

3. Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan

4. The Money Class by Suzi Orman

5. Mixed: Portraits of Multiracial Kids by Kip Fulbeck

6. The World Above by Cameron Dokey
6/1/11 - it was good but not as compelling as some of the others in the series.

7. Violet Eyes by Debbie Viguié
5/1/11 - Finished in one setting... proves to me why this is my favorite series and love this retelling of the princess and the pea :)

8. Saffron Dreams by Shaila Abdullah

9. The Last Little Blue Envelope by Maureen Johnson

10. What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen
5/21/11 - Classic Dessen! So far one of the best books I have read this year... Sarah never fails to deliver :)

11. The Iron Queen by Julie Kagawa

12. Heist Society by Ally Carter
6/10/11 - So very good! Cannot wait to read the next book in the series. It was like reading a young people version of an Ocean's 11 movie :)

13. Across the Universe by Beth Revis
2/1/11 - Very interesting story (although I pegged the villain long before it was revealed) and I look forward to the sequel to see how they handle the situation it ends with.

14. Between Here and Forever by Elizabeth Scott
3/1/11 - I am a huge Scott fan so I was very excited to get a digital ARC from Simon & Schuster. It was a quick read but not my favorite Elizabeth Scott book.

15. Forgive My Fins by Tera Lynn Childs

16. Dear John - Nicholas Sparks
8/25/11 - Finally finished the library audio copy I uploaded to my ipod several months back... I have to say this is probably my last chance for Nicholas Sparks. I have always felt that his books were needlessly depressing and this one doesn't even end bitter sweetly. It's just annoying. Savannah was annoying. To me she could not have been a more selfish character and for that I cannot possibly recommend this book to anyone. I absolutely cannot tolerate a word that comes out of her mouth and she really never understood what love means if she couldn't put up with a long distance relationship for a few years. As someone who was in a LDR for 2.5 years, Mr. Sparks cannot delude me into feeling sympathy for her. Such an awful waste of time!

17. Matched - Ally Condie
6/21/11 - Amazing book and cannot wait for the next 2 in the trilogy. It was a fresh take on an age old plot line. Completely recommend it!

18. The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat - Oliver Sacks

19. Beastly - Alex Flinn
5/11/11 - I liked the modern twist on this Beauty & the Beast retelling but I like some of the other versions better. The chat room subplot was a bit of a stretch for me and just came across as corny.

20. One Red Paperclip - Kyle Macdonald
5/8/11 - Just finished and this book is so amazing and inspiring! I encourage anyone who has a dream project up their sleeve to read this book and get inspired to actually dive in and work on that project. I know I have been! :)

21. I Now Pronounce You Someone Else by Erin McCahan
8/9/11 - Very, very, very good book! Very clean and beautifully written. McCahan was able to capture so many emotions appropriate to that age and transitioning period. Definitely one of my favorites!

22. Prom Season by Elizabeth Craft
4/20/11 - Fun read like watching a teeny bopper movie but many typos and discrepancies. Definitely not as good as similar books by Rachel Hawthorne.

New Template

What do you guys think of the new blog design? I think I'm loving it but would definitely like feedback ;)

Internet Tools and Sites I love: Taxes, Browsers, & The Kitchen Sink

Well the week is coming to a close and so it our wrap up of my favorite internet tools and sites. Before I leave you though, I wanted to share a few final sites that help keep me sane...


Misc. Internet Tools for Making your Life Easier


TurboTax

April 15th is fast approaching. Have you done your taxes yet? This was my second year of filing online with TurboTax and let me tell you, it was great! All it takes is a couple hours (maybe longer depending on your situation) and you can have everything electronically filed with the IRS and 2-3 weeks later your refund will be sitting in your bank account. How sweet is that?!






Hulu
If you have busy evenings like us, then catching tv shows when they air is out of the question. That's why we love Hulu! Now we can watch all our favorite shows (including a lot of cable shows) all in one evening. Plus with only 2 minutes of commercials total, it is so much more enjoyable than regular tv. And let's not even discuss the savings from not signing up for cable. And now with the $7.99 monthly subscription from Hulu Plus, you can watch entire seasons and series of many of your favorite TV shows.


MyPlate

I know I've talked about the wonders of MyPlate before but as a reminder, if you are dieting or simply interested in eating healthier, maintaining a food log is the best course of action. MyPlate makes it so easy and pain free plus has tons of other cool resources that it is totally worth checking out.










Google Chrome
Are you still using Internet Explorer? If so, what is your problem? Seriously! Do you not know how dreadfully awful Internet Explorer is as a web browser. It's slow, unsecured, fritzy, and a shear nightmare. Don't believe me? That's because you haven't experienced the internet in any other form. At the very least you should have upgraded to Firefox by now. But better yet, why don't you embrace what the must trusted name in internet technology has developed? Google Chrome is the best browser I have experienced to date and I have tried a lot (IE, FireFox, Safari, Opera, Dolphin...). Chrome is fast, sleek, easy to use, and comes with an awesome security feature that will stop you from entering a site with detected malware threats. Yes please! So if you are going to heed any of my suggestions, heed this one and give Google Chrome a try.


Well that's it for me folks. This week has been crazy with personal developments and I promise to share those at some point...


Have a wonderful weekend!


Disclosure: I was not compensated in any way for writing this post. I just wanted to share some awesome sites with my dear readers :)

Internet Tools and Sites I love: Design and Blogging Gadgets

Whether you are a designer or just a blogger who likes to play around with photos and inspiration boards, the following online gadgets will be invaluable to you.

Design & Blogging Gadgets


LunaPic

Unless you are a photographer or wrk in the design industry, you probably do not have access to Photoshop. That's where LunaPic comes in hand. Of course it won't give you the same high resolution files like Photoshop, but it absolutely perfect for quick and easy editing of photos for blog posts. It comes with tons of cool filters and effects and you can either upload your own photo or edit one from a url. You can even play around with photos directly off Flickr (even those undownloadable ones). Just make sure to respect all copyright laws and credit the original photographers.
Mosaic Maker

Mosaic Maker is a great app brought to you by Big Huge Labs and the simplest way to create inspiration boards or thumbnail collections of photos. You can use any photo off your computer or online and create boards within minutes. Be sure to check out some of Big Huge Labs other great photo tools such as the...






Color Palette Generator

Want to create a layout or spread that perfectly matches the photo you are working with. Well then all you have to do is upload any photo into the Color Palette Generator and you have a perfect color scheme to compliment your image.








But what if you aren't needing to pick colors based on a photo and you just want to find colors that go well together? Well that's where industry genius, Adobe, comes in...
Adobe Kuler
Kuler is a sleek app that lets you browse and/or create stunning color palettes with a few clicks of the mouse. You can even find color combinations based on words like "Autumn" "Warmth" "Candy" or "Carnival." And since Adobe Kuler is part of the larger Adobe family, it even has a tool where you can import your desired palette right into and Adobe program.

With all this talk of photos it can lead one to asking, "Where can I find free stock photos for my blog or design?"
EveryStockPhoto

EveryStockPhoto is a stock photography bank like istockphoto or Getty, except all there photos are free. Yes that's right... FREE! Now of course you still have to respect copyright and creative commons laws but you don't have to sell a kidney to find great stock photos :)







Well there is a few of my go to's... Tomorrow I will wrap this series up with other miscellaneous web tools I just can't live without.


Disclosure: I was not compensated in any way for writing this post. I just wanted to share some awesome sites with my dear readers :)

Internet Tools and Sites I love: Wedding Wednesday

Some of you may know but before we got married, I spent a year and a half planning our wedding. That gave me plenty of time to discover what sites worked and which I could pass on. Now of course there are many sites that have come out since we were married, and you will need to discover those on your own, but here are the old reliables...

Wedding Wednesday: Websites to Save your Sanity


WeddingWire

WeddingWire was my absolute favorite in finding local wedding related events and sales, creating a wedding website to collect rsvps, and organizing our guest list. The guest list and rsvp tools are truly the best! Not only do you get to control which events each guest is invited too, but then only people whose name is expressly on the guest list can rsvp. No longer can Great Aunt Sofi send in her rsvp for +6 for all her kids and their families.




My Wedding Workbook

My Wedding Workbook featured the best budget tracking tool I came across. It made it easy to log every purchase and keep us on track and on budget. Plus the calendar tool was great for reminding us or payment schedules, deadlines, and last minute items to tend to.







My Registry

Luke and I loved creating our wedding registry through My Registry. We were able to add items from any store online or not. And we were able to do it with a click of a button... from home... in our pjs. It was totally great since we were in an LDR (long distance relationship) all through our engagement. We never had a chance to got to a store and register together. But with My Registry, both or us could add items we wanted right from our computer. Another nice feature is that My Registry will link up to the in store registries you create as well, so no worrying about duplicate purchases.

There are a lot of wedding website options out there, and even more blogs, so it's very easy to get overwhelmed. Hopefully with these 3, you can at least find some peace of mind despite all the craziness.

Tomorrow I will tackle my favorite design and blog related tools.

Disclosure: I was not compensated in any way for writing this post. I just wanted to share some awesome sites with my dear readers :)

Internet Tools and Sites I love: Organizational Apps

Yesterday I discussed some of my favorite ways to save money using the internet. Today we will discuss some great ways to stay organized online.

Organizing Apps


Google Reader

If you read blogs and have a google account, then you should already know about Google Reader. If you say you don't read blogs, then what are you doing now? And if you don't have a google account, what is wrong with you? Just kidding! But no really! Google might be a nasty conglomerate trying to take over the world but with all the crazy cool amazing things they have created, they can go right ahead! Google Reader is the most amazing tool to keep all your RSS feeds organized and categorized and even starred so you can check back on your favorite posts later. It seriously has saved me hours. I generally keep mine set on list view so that I only have to read the posts that catch my interest in the title and then I can mark all others as read. Or if I'm looking at my Decor blogs and just wat to see pretty pictures, I can go to expanded view and just scroll through them all at once. Or I can select a specific blog and only read the posts of that one. The options are endless!

Pinterest

Ok so this is a new one and is still in the beta testing stage so if you want to check it out you have to be invited (let me know if you want me to hook you up). At first I was apprehensive about using it, I didn't quite get where I was suppose to find pictures and still stay original and fresh and innovative and not just recycle the same pics as everyone else. And then I decided to forget about other people and just focus on what inspired me. And now I am in love! Pinterest is perfect for organizing all the images that inspire me, make me smile, or help me organize my creative thoughts. Plus it is so much easier to use than creating an inspiration board for every project. Best yet, all you have to do is find a webpage with a picture you like, click the "Pin It" button that is now on my toolbar, and write a description. Pinterest will then save the photo to my desired pinboard and attach the originating url to it. So I can always go back and read the article around the photo with a click of a button. No more scouring through google to find where I snatched a photo from again!

Springpad

Springpad is like a virtual notebook or folder organizing system. No longer to you have to overload you browser with hundreds of bookmarks. Now you simply create "notebooks" to save related websites, products, images, and notes. It is an amazing way to keep organized and now you can write reminders for why you favorited a specific website to begin with.




Wantz.it
Wantz.it is a basically a "just cuz" wish list site. It's a great and easy way to mark items you would like and then you can link to it in your various profiles so that others can get ideas for potential gifts. I find it to be a very nice and passive way of saying "this is what I would like to get".

There are literally thousands of organizing sites but I don't like to use too many because then I'd need an organizing site to keep track of those O_o Tomorrow we will discuss the sites I feel in love with while wedding planning.

Disclosure: I was not compensated in any way for writing this post. I just wanted to share some awesome sites with my dear readers :)

Internet Tools and Sites I love: Money Saving Tools

As most of you have probably gathered, I spend a lot of time on the internet. It's kinda part of my job description and researching things is a much loved hobby of mine. So over time I have picked up some amazing websites and tools for different facets of my online experience. Most of these have been blogged about before, but in case you've missed them, I am going to provide you with a series of posts on my favorite tools and sites.

Money Saving Tools


Ebates

Ebates is an online shopping rebate tool. If you already shop online (even just occasionally) you need to become a member of Ebates. When you place an order through one of their affiliates, Ebates will give you a percentage back. Then every 3 months they will mail you your "Big Fat Check." Since I became a member last year I have received $93.71 back just for placing the occasional order for items I need anyways. Plus when you join and place your first order, you will relieve an automatic $5. Pretty sweet, right? Ebates also offers 15% cash back on all purchases made from my next money saving site...

Restaurant.com

Restaurant.com is a restaurant gift certificate purchasing site. There gift certificates are more like coupons though. For instance you can purchase a $25 of $35 purchase gift certificate for $10. Therefore you save $10 at the restaurant you would usually eat at anyways. Now the real savings key to Restaurant.com though is to wait to place an order for when they have their 80% off sale. These come quite often (about every other month or so) and you will receive an email notification. We stock up during these sales because you get $25 certificates for $2. Add your 15% cash back from Ebates, and you can get a $35 dollar restaurant dinner for $11.30! Talk about eating out on the cheap!

Now if your interest is peaked by this whole coupon savings for online shopping, you have to check out:
RetailMeNot
RetailMeNot is an online coupon database. Once you find the site you want to order from (preferably through Ebates), go to RetailMeNot ad type in the name of the store. They will then list all the possible promo codes you can use. Nearly every store I have tried has a coupon listed and you can rack in some serious savings.

So now that you are converted to buying online with coupons, lets talk about Daily Deal Sites. This is the biggest rage right now, and economists say they are what is turning my generation (20 & 30-somethings) onto coupon shopping. Here are my leading favorites that i have actually ordered from:

Groupon
Groupon is arguably the original daily deal site. It uses the buying power of group discounts to help you save money on local purchases or adventures. You see most businesses will offer crazy discounts if more than x number of people are buying the the same thing. But most often, we don't know that many people. So Groupon organizes so that you and 100's of other random people in your city will purchase that item and each of you gets the discount without having to know the other people. Some examples of deals I've scored are: 56% savings on an activity day in Dallas and 3 Redbox rentals for $1.

LivingSocial
LivingSocial follows the exact same premise as Groupon except if you can get 3 of your friends to buy the same deal as you, then you will get yours for free! I've snagged a $20 Amazon gift card for $10 and 2 Fandango movie tickets for $9. Great savings on places I already order from!

Woot
Woot is the Groupon of tech gadgets. So if you are a gadget addict, this is the place to go because you can score some serious deals. They have other devisions though too such as kids.woot, shirt.woot, sellout.woot & wine.woot.

But before you buy from any of these daily deal sites, you need to become a member of...
Swagbucks
Swagbucks is a points gathering and hunting website where you redeem your Swag Bucks for prizes, items, gift cards, or cold hard cash via Paypal. There are tons of ways to earn on Swagbucks. The easiest being simply searching online with Swagbucks search engine.
But you can also earn 300 to thousands of Swag Bucks by ordering from Groupon and LivingSocial through the Swagbucks website. Once I rake up 450 Swag Bucks, I like to redeem them for a $5 Amazon gift card. You also earn 10 points for every coupon you print before going grocery shopping.

Speaking of which, Erin Chase of $5 Dinners has put together the ultimate coupon cutters tool...
$5 Dinners Coupon Database
Not only is it really simple to find coupons for everything on your list but it also comes with a video tutorial so you know all the tricks for finding the best grocery deal.

Now to any true frugal person knows that the only way to actually save money when you make these purchases, is to make sure you have the money o spend. If you use a credit card and don't pay it off immediately, you wind up paying out the yin yang in interest and all your savings go bye bye. So that's where saving ahead comes into play...
SmartyPig
SmartyPig is a free savings program that links your bank account to a secure saving account that helps you reach specific savings goals. And with a 1.35% return interest rate, you can reach goals faster. Plus SmartyPig has some creative ways for inviting friends to help chip in for a specific goal. It's perfect for weddings, vacations, and other toy purchases.

Tomorrow I will cover some internet tools and apps designed to help you stay organized.


Disclosure: I was not compensated in any way for writing this post. I just wanted to share some awesome sites with my dear readers :)