i bought stuff - in may, not recently

I bought a bunch of stuff at Ikea in May. I had a pretty good list going in, and as the worthless, assbag of a roommate and his dirt-faced tumor (aka girlfriend - seriously, I've heard him call her "dirtface" himself) should be moving out in the next couple months, I may actually be able to use the stuff I bought.

You likely have no idea how much it sucks to have all of these new things stacked in the laundry room, waiting for the bane of my existence to finally pack up his shit and leave. Ahem, it has not happened yet, despite indirect and very direct insistence on my part. Unfortunately, when someone has pervaded nearly every area of your property and spewed random objects willy-nilly, it becomes more complicated to "kick" them out.

Anyway, back to my shiny new treasures (well, they aren't "new" anymore, but they are still unused). I know some people are snobs and say that Ikea is for divorcees and college students, neither of which I am, and at this point I will tell those people to just suck it. I like Ikea and I can afford Ikea, which makes it even better.

Anyway, here's what I purchased for the kitchen:

This is the Norbo wall table. This table will become our new "kitchen table." We have some space for a small dinette set in our kitchen. Currently, our hand-me-down dining table is occupying that space right, but when that gets relocated to the dining room, we'll have some space for the good ole Norbo. I like it because we can put it at counter height and use it as a breakfast bar (when it is just the two of us) and then when we host parties, it can be folded down and replaced with a larger table. Call me Ms. Smartypants. Along with a table, generally one finds chairs. In this case, two stools:

Enter the Anssi bar stool. These are stackable, which makes them absolutely perfect. Oh, and they are cheap, but still kind of look reasonably un-cheap.

This might not be as awesome to anyone else as it is to me. One wouldn't think it was so difficult to find a suitable knife block, but it is (if you are unwilling to spend $50+ on a block of wood in which to store cutlery). I've been looking for a knife block that would accomodate the carefully-selected collection of knives in my possession for quite some time (ahem, 4 months). I've been to a myriad of stores in the flesh and online, all to no avail. I finally stopped perusing Amazon and finer shopping establishments and looked at Ikea for a suitable option, and have purchsed this: Say hello to the Reträtt knife block. It's tall, but that is a good thing because I have some wasted space next to the stove where I need some height (the cabinet above is wider than the stove, and it looks a bit off).

I also picked up some other kitchen-y odds and ends, which I will not bore you with. Perhaps this has already bored you, but when you are in a position such as mine where retail therapy is on hiatus, talking about things you've previously purchased are as close as one gets to release.

I bought some other non-kitchen things, which will be share with you all when I do a major reveal of the house, post-roommate exodus. I'm planning to take a full week off from work (a first for me) to get the house in order, and am super-excited about it. Crossing my fingers that it will be before my birthday, but am not holding out that much hope.

life list: bask in the amazingness of my domesticity

Goals, you'd better take cover. I'm on a fucking role. I'm knocking shit off my life list and my 28 goals for my 28th year left and right.

And this whole anti-spending kick...I'm kicking its ass and taking its name. I've been a goddess of domesticity and spend all of my time doing stuff around the house or going to the gym (more time at home than at the gym because I'm not psychotic, just poor).


My new computer has a memory card slot, so I'm finally able to share with you the fruits of my labor (let's just say that even though I've been cleaning, the connector for the camera is still missing). Anyway, there are a ton of pics I've been wanting to share with you, but have not been able...until now (like how the ellipses keep popping up? just wait, there's more).


Here is something ooey and gooey and delicious that I whipped up using fresh, homegrown rhubarb from my parents' place and farmers' market strawberries.

So now I can cross this off my life list. See that lattice crust? I did that...on my first ever pie from scratch. And it tasted delicious. I could hardly believe it. But then again, why wouldn't I believe it. I was wearing an apron...isn't that the prerequisite for superb baking?





Yes, it is retro...yes it is fabulous. No, I didn't color coordinate the tank top - God did. He was very excited about the pie, I guess.


There is more to come tomorrow.

my precious

This is my first post from my new laptop, which arrived in the mail last night. It was a gift from my unbelievably giving parents, despite my authentic disagreement that they should spend the money on me. It is a Toshiba Satellite A500 something-or-other and it is very fast and very pretty.

Unfortunately, there was a "power glitch" which radiated a high-pitched, incessant beeping noise from the computer when I first powered it up. It took a very nice customer service rep 30 minutes to diagnose and help me fix, but now things are smooth-sailing and I'm really happy.

Funny thing is, Cat Named Jack loved the sound and proceeded to rub his face all over the edge of the laptop, getting very angry when I tried to pry him away (to the point where he bit my upper arm a couple times - not hard, but enough to prove a point). He seemed a bit confused, but not too unhappy when the sound went away.

This moratorium on spending isn't all that bad when you have a new toy to play with. I bought some groceries (necessities) for the man before I left for my parents', but other than that and gasoline, so far so good on the anti-spending month.

july 2010 goal: moratorium on spending

I’m pretty frugal, all-in-all, but there have been a few things happening to our happy little twosome over the past few months which have thrown my frugality into a tailspin. We've had two major vehicle issues and I won’t bore you with the rest of our unplanned expenditures, but I’ll tell you that there were many and they sucked both my enthusiasm for shopping and my bank account dry.

As a result of the monetary shit-storm of the past few months, I've been looking at my personal budget once again and find it even more vital that I pay off my credit cards as soon as humanly possible. I am sick of paying for something that I don’t use and I don’t like having a revolving balance to remind me of the stupidity of my youth. I've decided to impose a moratorium on any and all unnecessary expenditures. Here is my plan.

I’m going to continue to pay my bills as I normally do, including:

• Student/Consolidation loans
• Rent
• Cell phone/Internet
• Credit card
• Auto loan
• Insurance

As for the rest of my monthly expenses, these all need to fit into a budget of $250 for the month of July:

• Gasoline
• Groceries
• Dining out/Entertainment
• Shopping (haircuts, home improvement, pet stuff, etc.)

This will help me to separate my “needs” from my “wants.” Of course, if some sort of emergency arises, I’ll have to pay for it, but $250 will easily cover the rest. I could really get by with only spending $150, but I need to be realistic and remember that I have already planned a trip to visit my family up north and that I'm required to go to a conference in Denver for work at the end of the month. Luckily, I'll be reimbursed for the conference trip expenses, but I am allowing myself some leeway since I've never been to Denver before and I might as well enjoy the only so-called vacation I'll be taking this year (I'm budgeting $50 for the trip to Denver, not including reimbursable expenses like food and cab fare).

I’ll keep you updated as to my progress throughout the month.