Liv's Cowgirl Party

So between vacation to Disney last week, Olivia's party this week, and Christmas around the corner I am feeling a bit overwhelmed. I have no idea how to entertain 1 toddler, let alone the 24 that will be at my house this weekend :) Stay tuned for how things turn out...

To iron or not? Of course I do mean only when there is company.

So Liv's big girl sheets came today and they are so stinkin cute! Floral Gem Sheet Set However, now I am perplexed about the whole ironing the sheets thing - do people really take the time to do this? - I think I know one person who does, but I freakin hate ironing. Can you iron while the sheets are on the bed? Do you steam them? Do you have to have a special iron (I'm sure that one in slightly better shape than mine is necessary)? I guess you can see how much I iron since this was some hand me down from like 15 years ago.

Do you have to have special ironing skills - know how hot to make iron, when to release the steam button, how long to hold the steam button down? OMG - this is exactly why I don't iron. But now all I can picture is how beautifully pressed and packaged those sheets were before I tore them from the packaging. Seeing their wrinkle free appearance led me on a Google search regarding if I should even wash new sheets to begin with - after reading about formaldehyde in sheet factories I opted for yes. Although if there were for Joe and I I might have just said screw it and skipped that step. And this is coming fresh off of buying a new mattress to put the sheets on which will be delivered tomm. That was a fiasco in and of itself since Joe and I can't even decide on a $6 appetizer let alone a mattress that costs thousands of dollars. I laid on every mattress in the store at least 15 times and then my lovely husband decided to tell me my feet were dirty when we got home(he didn't want to embarrass me in the store - how kind). Oh and I think I left one of my favorite garage sale sweatshirts (the blue one you got me mom) at the store as I was dropping all of my belongings throughout the store as I bounced from bed to bed. After I figure out the sheet situation it is on to a new headboard and a quilt. Joe is less than pleased that I refuse to use the bed frame and head and footboard we already have. It is a beautiful bed, but it doesn't match my vision for Olivia's new room so stay tuned for that ad on Craigslist. It is Cherry BroyHill Sleigh bed if anyone is interested in purchasing :) In the meantime I have recruited a few peeps to make the tufted white headboard a reality :) Stay tuned for progress and pics (or lack of progress and just the stories that result from it).

Garage Sale

For as long as I can remember all of my aunts, my mom, my sister and I had an annual garage sale. Before my grandma got ill, we held these at her home in Alliance and truly embodied the stereotype of a Hoopie! You know how frustrating it is when you stop at a garage sale and there is literally one card table with like a mason jar and some old nails laying on it - well, we definitely weren't those people. We went 180 degrees in the opposite direction. We had shit everywhere - and I mean everywhere. I will have to dig up some pictures for proof (aunt Donna - I distinctly remember one with you and a bird that landed on your finger). We took up two driveways, two yards, and then some. My husband would have been appalled. We would joke that we were like a department store with certain sections for holiday, bath and bed, and clothing. My grandma had a neighbor who would actually go on a payment plan throughout the year to pay for her garage sale purchases from our sale. God bless her- she was always good for the money she owed. I would see my mom and aunts over there pushing their goods on her while the little ones reclaimed the barbies and dolls their parents were so desperately trying to sell. It was shameless! Between all of the girls we would rake in close to $700 or so a year. The neighbor was usually good for at least $300 of that. Unfortunately, times have changed - my grandma suffered a rare neurological disorder, the neighbor has since passed away, and kids have grown up and moved. My mom and I still try to do a sale once a year. We start at her house Memorial Day weekend (we end the sale with a Memorial Day cookout and pool opening party - awesome that this year it is in the 40's - not ideal swimming weather), and then crazy as it sounds, whatever doesn't sell we cart back to my house and I organize a neighborhood garage sale (so I can spend all the money I made on my shit on other people's shit!). In spite of protests from my husband that nothing is coming back in the house that doesn't sell the first time around I win out and we go through the whole process again. OMG - I really am a hoopie! By the time it is all said and done and we pay for wine and pizza, the newspaper ad, gas, signage, etc. we are lucky we even make a profit (we're heavy drinkers in my family!)But oh what fun it is - to sit in the sun, sip on a cocktail, share the same old stories we have told 100 times, haggle with the clientele, and see once 'prized' possessions find new homes is truly a memory in the making. Tomm. my goal is to make $299.99. This is the first year I am actually setting a set amount of money I hope to make and have decided what I plan to purchase with it. I figure if I have a big ticket purchase in mind it will help me to let things go for a little cheaper than I normal would (my mom always says I price things too high!) I know what I paid for those things though! So tomm. watch for updates, check my status, and cheer me on to success. Here's what I plan on buying if I make enough (actually it might be prudent to first make sure I even have $300 worth of merchandise to sell!): Cheers, KAC RANDOM NOTES: It is always the things you debate just throwing away that actually sell - I will never forget my mom making fun of me for putting in the garage sale one of those plastic change holders that you get as a freebie - do you know what I'm talking about? You squeeze the sides and it opens up? I will look for a picture. Anyways, my mom was like 'just throw that damn thing away'. Well guess what - that sold and yet my crate and barrel stuff remained. In the end I made a 5 cent profit since I got free as a promotional item :) Tomm. I will take some pictures of our best and worst items and we will see what actually goes: Didn't think this would go....but it did! However, this didn't?! Here are some random pics of how much crap we had:

weekly wanderlust: Garage Sale Goal

weekly wanderlust: Garage Sale Goal: For as long as I can remember all of my aunts, my mom, my sister and I had an annual garage sale. Before my grandma got ill, we held these a...

Challenge - Quit Spending My Entire Paycheck at Giant Eagle Mission - Go as long as I can without going to the grocery store and use up everything possible in my pantry/fridge and then restock with planned recipe ingredients Goal - Save some money - if i wasn't so lazy I would calculate all my food costs from the past month and see if I can beat my number (hopefully substantially) with this new challenge. Added Bonus - I have the world's tiniest fridge and freezer so this should create some much needed space Pathetic Point - My pantry/fridge/freezer aren't all that full to begin with (in spite of spending my life savings at Giant Eagle and Marc's) Oh, and trips to the wine/beer/liquor dept. don't actually count as restocking (I have to be a partial realist here!) Random thought - I wonder if my husband ever started following my blog (only 6 followers so not likely) - this will be a good test since he is a facebook hater to see if is aware of this new life project. Stay tuned for start-up pics and daily recipes/reports. I tried to add pics here, but they were showing up in the middle of my paragraph.

Blogging's a bitch

So this whole blogging business is much harder than I thought.  I am trying to link my blog to Facebook page and apparently I need something like a programming engineering degree to figure this out.  I am writing this as a test to see if it shows up on my FB page.  I have read some posts that say it will only post new feeds and not old ones...we shall see....


file:///Users/kristinaambrosia-conn/Desktop/pinterest-88378.html

Your crazy if you go to Nighttown and order anything but the Dublin Lawyer. This is what I told some newbies in the group as we headed off to my favorite Cleveland restaurant- the only place I ever want to take guests.  And I hate to say it (well, not really) but I was right. Three new converts to the Lawyer which is made with Cayenne butter, heavy cream, white rice pilaf, and chunks of lobster. 

And lucky me, since it is independent restaurant week, I was able to get the P.E.I Mussels in a garlic white wine broth, my Lawyer, and bread pudding (not a huge dessert person but the rest of the table enjoyed it) for $33.00.

I just love everything about this place -

The atmosphere is cool without trying.

Eclectic, literary, relaxed, hedonistic, sexy - all at once. I'm not sure you can even use literary and hedonistic as adjectives to describe a restaurant but I am! And Nighttown would let me - it is a place where anything and everything seem to go - and go perfectly well together.

In my head I picture myself sitting in a booth in the back of the dimly lit room, smoking a cigarette, sipping a gimlet, listening to jazz and just 'being.'

In reality you can't smoke in restaurants anymore (and I quit some five years ago anyway, we didn't hear music last night or strangely enough ever there even though Nighttown is rated one of the top 100 jazz clubs in the world by Down Beat magazine, and I opted for the cosmo last night as opposed to the gimlet (both are favs of mine).

Already planning my next visit...

Linked below are some of my favorite write-ups on my favorite place:

http://www.nighttowncleveland.com/history.htm

http://www.scribd.com/doc/129550985/Nighttown-TheStoryteller