Dear Me > Sweepstakes!

There is nothing I like better than free money and I'd like to share the wealth with you!  

Lately my email inbox has been flooded with sweepstakes offers from magazines and companies like Better Homes and Gardens, House Beautiful, and Hormel. I love getting inspired (i.e.-stealing their ideas) by these magazines, but I would love to win their prizes even more! This year they are throwing around some serious, feather-your-whole-nest, cash prizes and someone like you (our fabulous readers and moi), needs to win these!


Check out these sweepstakes that are currently running now (click on the picture to be taken to the linked page):


Do you need a new Garden Room or Summer Shack, as I like to call it - $4000 in plants and furniture.

Need $25,000 to pay off your bills - Parents magazine wants to help you out.

How about $5000 from Better Homes and Gardens to refresh a room.  I don't know about you but unless I'm redoing my Kitchen I could refresh more than one room with $5000.

How about $5000 to makeover your kitchen from Myrecipes.com.  I don't think you can makeover your kitchen for $5000 but you could certainly do a little facelift.

How about $5000 in free groceries.  With the price of groceries that ought to be about enough to cover the Glossy Flossy's bridal shower for the future bride, and a Easter & Memorial Day Barbecue.  I'm really doing you a favor here because I really want to win this one! I just noticed it's for a year of groceries - that's also okay.

More money to help with your groceries from Parents and Hormel.

How about $15,000 from Velveeta and Rotel?

House Beautiful has a $50,000 Kitchen Remodel - now that's what I call a remodel!

Do you need to get away for a little mini vacation?  Better Homes and Gardens is giving away a 4 day trip to Banf Springs!

Do you scrapbook?  Check out this sweepstakes from Scrapbooks, Etc.

And let's not forget these wonderful sweepstakes from Good Housekeeping:

$25,000 for Home Decor

$50,000 for a custom Kitchen

And last but not least - Enter to win $100,000 Goodbye Debt Sweepstakes from Good Housekeeping.

Get busy and good luck!  If I don't win these sweepstakes I want one of our faithful readers to win!

~Laurie

I Need Minions > Kitchen Pantry

Fresh start, clean slate, beginning of the year.  


It's January, yup that's right - the slate is clean.  Maybe it's that resolution thing that people do (not me, but other people) for New Year's.  For me there is something about taking down the Christmas decorations and starting the New Year fresh.  I have to admit that I've been known to still have my Christmas decorations up in mid-January.  Not this year though.  Don't start congratulating me on my promptness, the only reason I have them down and put away is because I knocked my tree over Christmas morning and broke the stand.  When your Christmas tree is leaning against the wall like a drunken sailor there is some motivation to put everything away.  


January seems to be the month for organization, cleaning and fresh starts.  All the January magazines have articles about it and all the stores have an awful lot of organization/storage paraphernalia on sale.  The January Good Housekeeping magazine has an article titled "Hey, y'all, I need some help!"  Paula Deen's kitchen is a disorganized mess and she needs some help.  Don't feel too sorry for her because her kitchen is huge.  Everyone knows that if you have too much stuff for your space that's where you get into trouble and I have the smallest kitchen known to man.  I've seen bigger kitchens in hotels with kitchenettes.  You think I'm joking but the Future Mrs. 2Wicked's brother was over the other day and when he walked into my kitchen he said, "Wow, your kitchen is really small!"  You know it's small when a non-gay guy comments on the size of your kitchen.  

My kitchen is about the size of Angela Glossy Flossy's pantry - 

actually I think her pantry might be bigger.  You know that saying, "You can't have everything - where would you put it?", well I don't have everything but I still need somewhere to put all that extra Costco size stuff, and the supplies that I'm getting close to running out of.  If you don't have a pantry like the one below, I have some ideas for you.

The only real "free" space I had was in a small corner of my laundry room. So we got creative and took an Ikea closet unit that happened to fit perfectly and used that as my pantry.

I chose the shallow shelf version vs deep for two reasons:  I was only storing grocery type items in it and if the shelves are too deep the items seem to get lost and I would not have been able to open the doors all the way with the deep one because of space.  Why the clear doors? I personally don't like to see everything on my shelves and I like the way the closet doors give the room more of a finished look.

Some tips before purchasing a pantry:  

Measure your available space.

Decide how you want to use space.  Are you using it for food or are you using it for storing appliances?  If you are storing appliances (mixers, crockpots, chafing dishes, etc., I would definitely get a deeper closet or storage unit. 

Don't forget to use your vertical space, especially in small spaces. 

Needing some extra storage space of your own but don't have a whole lot of space like me? There are tons of ideas out there for unconventional pantries, here are a few to get you started:

Armoires:

Wire shelves:

Bookcase:

And the last idea - and I'm not making this up - there is a site selling these.


The Convertible Pine Box Book Shelf "Casket".  This is a direct quote from their site:  "For the customer who wants to help their loved ones by planning ahead, the Conversion Caskets are the answer.  The casket can be available until the time it is needed, but be used in the meantime as a living room bookshelf, a kitchen pantry. . . "  Now that is a conversation piece.  I can hear it now, "I like to keep my Bisquick in my casket, doesn't everyone?"  I'm pretty sure if I saw that in someone's living room I would be beating feet out of there.

www.longarmwranch.com

Just hoping no one wants to help me plan ahead!


Happy New Year! or Happy Fresh Start!


-Laurie

Obivously Delicious > Lunch Monster

It is constantly lurking in the dark corners of your brain...."What are you going to make?", it whispers. "Do you have groceries for that?", it snarks. "Do you really consider cheese on a hotdog bun a healthy lunch for your precious growing children?! Do you even know where the bread aisle is located?", it laughs. This is about the point where I scream and send each kid to school with a baggie of scrounged - up couch change for hot lunch.

Are you right there with me, ladies? School is in full swing and so is the panic of what to pack the kids for lunch. Thankfully there are lots of great sites, tips, and tricks out there that will keep that Packed Lunch Monster at bay.

One of my favorite go-to sites is the Kraft Lunch Box Builder site:

 

They have great recipes and a great chart that gives you a ton different side lunch combo ideas. There is also a pdf of joke clipouts to add a little pizazz to your lunch! Everything Mom  has a great list of 50 great tips and ideas. Good Housekeeping .com  also has a whopping 30 ideas to conquer your lunch time woes.

Save yourself!! Check them out!!

In the meantime, have a laugh below to keep yourself from crying from the stress of packing all those school lunches.

~Angela

P.S. These lunchbox ideas also work well on your picky hubby's lunch too, I tried them out, and no complaints. He really appreciated his sandwich with a heart cutout.  ;-)