Friday, July 31, 2009

Want to Win a Free Diaper and Soft Soled Shoes?

My friend Vilate over at Vilate's Nifty Nook has teamed up with Jamie from Little Jumping Beans to give you the opportunity to win an adorable set of handmade goodies for a sweet little baby. Check out Vilate's blog for more information about the giveaway. Here is what you could win:




Aren't they sweet? Now hurry and go enter! The deadline for entering the contest is August 2nd!

Thursday, July 30, 2009

R is for Rant #1

I've decided to designate Thursday (R) for my rant day. This may become a trend, since I oftentimes come across products that aren't quite up to par with my standards and I need to blow off steam. I love sending a good complaint letter to companies that make crap products and such, but I also love sending a nice praise letter, too.

For this week, I've got two bones to pick and the recipients of my frustration will most likely be seeing some sort of correspondence from me. What's a bored SAHM supposed to do during nap time? Tops on my list this week is the City of Sacramento Parks and Recreation District. For starters, they've closed or shortened the hours of many of the public pools due to budget cuts. It gets hot here and when the sun is blazing and I want to hop in a pool, I don't want to wait until 3-5 pm on odd days of the week. Worse yet, boy is usually napping during prime pool time. They've also closed down the restrooms in most of the parks. But I digress. The point that's really bugging me this week is their restroom cleaning techniques. Today, I visited one of the two parks left in Sacramento with open restrooms. While I feel like I should be happy to have visited an available restroom that was clean, I'm sitting here blogging about my frustration. It takes all kinds I guess. Actually, the restroom was, to my surprise, sparkling clean (if there were enough light in there to see it) and reeked of bleach. I could tell in the darkness that the floor was wet, but I figured it had just been hosed out and the toilets cleaned with bleach. I had boy with me and convinced him to give the potty a try. Being that he's three years old, he's got definite opinions and a process for each and every time he uses the restroom. One of those opinions is that his pants must be pulled down to his ankles every time he goes. No exceptions. So, I always oblige because its enough of a fight to get him to use the toilet as it is. Now, we've walked out of this same restroom many times with him having a wet hem around his pants (which totally makes me cringe) from the chronically wet floor in that place and today was no exception. Flash forward ten minutes to him playing in the sandbox and I notice that his pants were totally bleach stained around the bottom. So, the City is cleaning the floors with straight bleach and not even rinsing it away. Who does this? Yes, I know, besides the City of Sacramento? I was lucky enough to run into a maintenance person who had little advice for me and told me he was the guy I needed to talk to. Okay. Nothing doing. Now, I've got to figure out how to deal with this:





My next beef is with Pur water filters. I have such a love/ hate relationship with Pur, its almost parasitic. I need them, but I don't think they need me. Their product is shoddy and cheaply made, but I can't live without it. I believe I'm on my fourth faucet mount filter in less than 10 years. To some, that may be acceptable, but if I spend $50 on a product, I want it to last a more than two years. My faucet mount filters keep breaking around the faucet mount and leak all over the place. Usually, it just leaks unfiltered tap water into my tap water, completely defeating the purpose of filtering water. This time its spraying water all over the place. I've had this complaint with Proctor and Gamble's Pur division before and, believe it or not, they sent me a voucher to replace my entire faucet mount with any model I wanted. Of course, I chose the most expensive stainless steel look unit. Less than two years later, its doing the same thing my last one did.







Hopefully, they'll be as generous with a replacement this time.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

A Post a Week. That's all we ask.

A couple of my favorite friends and I have vowed to challenge (its not exactly a challenge, but I'm highly motivated by them so I'll call it that) each other to update our blogs at least once a week. So, here goes for this week!

I've felt like quite a lucky girl this week and it just keeps getting better.

To begin with, I received a few gift cards for my birthday and huz let me spend a little extra to get these books.





I really wasn't intending to buy a book that consists only of sweets, but The Vegan Scoop really got me. It has beautiful photographs that made me crave ice cream like I never have! Here's a shot of some butterscotch ice cream I made on Sunday.

Isaac was so bowled over by it, that he had the cutest giggle attack I've ever seen from him.


I also made a shirt for myself.

Its Simplicity 2931, view C. Ignore my clashing outfit. I'm not sure I'm actually in love with this shirt and its going to take a big dose of humble pie and bravery to wear this thing out of the house. I love the fabric, but I don't think its the blouse for me. Additionally, since I've been shredding every morning for the past 28 days, I think I want something that hugs my curves a little more to show that I'm not just getting up at the crack of daylight and shocking my body with jump plies for nothing.



I also added a few things to my etsy!



Finally, my dream for a Bernina sewing machine may be coming true. I'm off to go look at one of these avocado beauties in a few minutes. My next post may be the story of how I finally made the leap to divorce my Brother sewing machine.




Thursday, July 16, 2009

Hello Blogosphere!

I've finally decided to make the leap and join others in the land of blog-dom. Let's celebrate this momentous occasion with a toast! Here's to me staying motivated to update this blog on a regular basis!