My Two Cents | Bead Happily Ever After

Never met a bookstore I didn’t love…

Posted on March 31, 2009 by crystal

Our oldest daughter is a journalist and while we can’t keep up with everything she has published, we try to read as much of her work as possible. She recently wrote an article for a Canadian travel magazine and although we live in the U.S., we had heard that it might be available at one of our local bookstores. Finding the magazine was the goal for our Saturday morning.

We began by going out for breakfast! 🙂

OK, I hear you saying: “Huh? What does going out for breakfast have to do with it?”

Well nothing really 😉 except we enjoy a leisurely meal at a restaurant and we’ve discovered that breakfast is not only an economical choice (usually less expensive than lunch or dinner) but it’s also fun to have a great big menu of choices for breakfast now and then!

Besides that, we know that making a plan to go out for breakfast on a Saturday helps us to jump out of bed with a little more enthusiasm. Otherwise, we’re tempted to sleep late just because it’s the weekend.

So after breakfast, we visited a few bookstores and a magazine shop. There was only one copy of the magazine to be found anywhere, and that was in the magazine shop. The owner told us that he only gets a single copy in an assortment of foreign magazines, so we felt pretty lucky it was still there!

With our goal accomplished, you’d probably figure that we’d be heading home next. . .

Well, not exactly. I must confess that bookstores and magazine shops are to me what chocolate or shoes or lottery tickets might be to others – I can’t just look briefly and then leave.

Exhibit A:

I found this really cool bead magazine that’s published in England. It has some great projects and helpful tips and I know I’ll find it valuable!

Exhibit B:

Then, in one of the bookstores, I just had to peruse the “bargain books”. I came across this for $5.95! I’ve always loved to read anything and everything that takes place during the time of the Tudor Dynasty in England, including fiction and nonfiction about Henry VIII, any of his wives, his daughter Elizabeth I, her cousin Mary Queen of Scots – well you get the idea. Although I haven’t started it yet, this book looks quite good! I’ll let you know for sure once I’ve read it.

Do you have a weakness for books, too? 😉

If not, what is it that you can’t seem to resist?

Sunscreen at Night?

Posted on March 25, 2009 by crystal

Hold the mayo . . . I mean the SPF-15!

Have you noticed that there’s sunscreen in many of our moisturizers, lately? Whether it’s face, body, or hand lotion – just about every product has an SPF of 15 (or more).

Now I know we are all well-versed on the dangers of too much sun exposure and the definite need to protect our skin . . . but honestly, this blanketing of so many products with an extra chemical seems unnecessary. I’m not in favor of it for a couple of reasons.

First of all, I live in New England. During the winter, there are weeks when we don’t spend much time basking in the sun, or even outdoors at all (except for dashes to and from the car). It’s too COLD out there!

Second, my skin is on the sensitive side, so I have enough to worry about with the usual ingredients in a lotion never mind anything extra.

Doesn’t it seem a little crazy to be putting on sunscreen after taking a shower in the evening? You probably are though, if you use a lotion after your shower. If I’m staying at home for the night – I don’t need sunscreen. And, if I should be venturing out for the evening, surely I’d have at least 15 minutes of moon exposure before I’d have to worry about skin damage! Don’t you think? 😉

Well . . . I’m all out of hand lotion, so I’m off to the store. If you need me – I’ll be reading the labels . . .

Utensil Drawer or Bottomless Pit?

Posted on March 12, 2009 by crystal

Do you have a utensil drawer in your kitchen that’s getting out of control?

You know. It’s bulging with spoons, spatulas, and other assorted kitchen implements to the point where every time you open it – nothing is easy to find. Then, trying to close it is almost a magic trick!

Not my drawer - mine was much worse!

I’ve discovered a solution that makes oh-so-much sense! I especially like this hint because it’s painless. Sometimes organization tips suggest you just bite the bullet and eliminate stuff – stat!!! This can cause anxiety and the dreaded “What if I get rid of this and then I need it!?!” syndrome. 😉

With the method I’ve found, you will slowly realize that there are lots of things you don’t really need!

Are you ready to show that utensil drawer who’s boss?

First, get a large box or plastic storage tub.

Take everything out of the drawer!

Place ONLY the utensils that you use EVERY week back in the drawer.

Put everything else into the storage box and keep that box in a convenient location in your home.

Now for the next six months (or even a year), whenever you need an item that is NOT in the drawer, retrieve it from the storage box. After using it, you may add it to the items that you keep in the drawer.

After six months (or whatever time frame you choose), there will still be lots of things in that storage box. These are things you hardly ever use. Donate them!

Tell yourself that if someday in the future you really need an item you donated – you can buy it. Chances are this won’t happen, though!

In the meantime, you will have organized a drawer that’s a pleasure to open with easy access to all your cooking tools!

It worked for me 🙂

Send in the Clowns

Posted on March 3, 2009 by crystal

I will admit it . . .

I can’t resist those “gift with purchase” promotions at the makeup counters!

Whenever I catch a glimpse of a “free gift” display in the cosmetics department, I have very little trouble convincing myself that I really could use a new blush, or possibly skin freshener, or mascara, or . . . something! 😉

As long as the products in the gift package are things you’d like to try, it really is a pretty good deal. Often, the assortment makes a good travel set, too! Rationalizing? Moi?

Not that I wear a lot of makeup these days, but occasionally I will “put on my face” (as my sweet Mom-in-law liked to say while winking at her grandkids! 😉 )

To tell you the truth, it’s only been in the last few years that I’ve kind of eased up on wearing makeup every day. For a large part of my adult life, I used to feel naked without it – even on a trip to the grocery store! Then one day it hit me that as you get older – less is definitely better!

Which reminds me – have you ever noticed that some older women start to look as if they’re getting ready for a circus performance with the way they apply their makeup? I always thought it was comical, but now that I’m on the other side of 40 yrs. (OK 50), I’ve had an epiphany – the poor dears couldn’t help it! Eventually your eyesight isn’t as good. It’s not that ladies are deliberately trying to put red dots on their cheeks – it’s just that they can’t see the blush that well, and need more and more for it to show up in the mirror! Live and learn. 😉

Lately, I mostly go with a swipe of lipstick, and a little blush . . . oh and earrings!!! Can’t leave the house without earrings!

How about you? No makeup? Full makeup? Earrings?

That’s Progress I Guess . . .

Posted on February 17, 2009 by crystal

Do you ever long for the days when life was simpler? I truly miss the little moments of “free time” I used to have before:

junk mail
telemarketers
spam
paper shredding

Ironically, as personal computers began to appear in homes across the country, and a paperless society was predicted, the flood of junk mail continued to escalate to crazy proportions!

Today, more than ever, I’m sorting through and disposing of catalogs, brochures, credit card offers, and sales pitches on everything from replacement windows to service contracts for the fridge. It’s become a constant chore.

Then there are the telemarketers – the countless numbers of them that are somehow exempt from the “do not call list”, either because they are only “doing surveys” or because you inadvertently gave them permission to call you. This permission may have been given when you gave your phone number during a purchase, or perhaps opened a bank account, bought a car, entered a drawing at a local shopping mall, or on any number of other occasions you offered your personal information to a company that’s affliated with the company the telemarketer is representing. Ay yi yi!!!

And how about the nuisance of deleting email spam? Whether it’s for vitamins, “enhancement” potions, or maybe just forwards from well-intentioned friends (who felt compelled to send along that chain letter so that you might escape 10 years of bad luck!), it’s time-consuming to have to sift through it all.

But what annoys me most is the relatively recent chore of shredding! This is a new job. Who was shredding 10 years ago? Big corporations perhaps? Certainly not Mr. & Mrs. Average Citizen. Today we’re warned that all hell could break loose if we casually discard papers that are financial/personal for we could be “tempting” identity thieves! Some of the things that you’re advised to shred, like credit card offers, often arrive as junk mail!!! Talk about a vicious circle of lather, rinse, repeat.

Honestly, if you totaled the minutes wasted with all of this nonsense, you could probably paint a bedroom, knit an afghan, read a book . . . maybe even WRITE a book!

It’s frustrating. I’ve done all of the usual things – getting on the do not call list, removing our name from mailing lists, and not giving our email address and phone number out willy-nilly. Unfortunately doing those things only seems to lessen the problem, not totally eliminate it.

What do you do to tame the junk mail, telemarketing, spam-sending, paper-shredding tiger? 😉

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