And just like that, another Friday is here. Can you believe that Thanksgiving is now less than a month away, and Christmas is less than two months away? I am so so excited for Christmas, it’s unreal. On a completely unrelated note, here are five things I want to accomplish this weekend:
- Have a great birthday party for my seven year old daughter tomorrow
- Use the carpet cleaner (I’d call it a steam cleaner, except that it’s a Rainbow vacuum and thus uses cold water instead of hot) on our bedroom carpet
- Write some product reviews
- Bake mini donuts with my seven year old daughter and five year old son
- Sleep in
What are your plans for the weekend?
Today is November 3rd, which means that it’s the third day into National Blog Posting Month. National Blog Posting Month, or NaBloPoMo, is a spin-off of NaNoWriMo, which is National Novel Writing Month. For those of us who just can’t handle the major undertaking that is writing a novel in ONE MONTH, NaBloPoMo is the perfect bite-sized version.
Are you participating? I’m doing so, using my personal blog, Jenn.nu.
Whoa! Is it really November? I’m sitting here contemplating how far away Christmas is, when I suddenly realize that November is here. And then I realize it’s time for NaBloPoMo. I think I tried to accomplish this last year, and I failed miserably. But this year, despite being busier than ever, I’ve got a better handle on things, so I think I’m going to try it and be successful!
I’m starting off my November with doing a little bit of cleaning. 
But more than cleaning, I’m focusing on making my house smelling awesome! I’ve been alternating between a wax warmer, a fragrance lamp (a wax warmer uses electric-based heat to melt wax, whereas a fragrance lamp heats up oil), and traditional candles. The wax warmer seems to work best in terms of not getting too hot or being a hazard to the cats, but the fragrance lamp and oils seem to work the best in terms of scent diffusing.
Right now, however, it’s going on 8:30pm, so I have nothing going but my desire to stop blogging for the night so I can go take a shower, ha!
Believe it or not, it can be hard to blog on a regular basis as I do. Sometimes, I really do run out of things to talk about! Fortunately, I keep a lot of RSS feeds in my feed reader (Google Feed Reader is a godsend!), so it’s not hard to find what other people are talking about, and then perhaps talk about those things myself. Take bridal shower invitations, for example. While I’m married and thus have no plans to have a bridal shower, someone was recently talking about how costly bridal shower invitations can be, and also how hard it can be to find a design that works for a particular wedding theme. In my opinion, it makes sense to choose a theme and then work the bridal shower invitations into it – not the other way around. But at the same time, if there’s a specific design of bridal shower invitation that absolutely catches your heart, maybe you can re-think that route and instead design the theme after you’ve chosen the invitation? It sounds bass-awkwards, but it could work!
The biggest downside to being plus size, besides health issues, is trying to find fashionable and fitting plus size clothes. As a formerly very fat woman — at my heaviest in March of 2009 I weighed 331 lbs — I can tell you that finding decent clothing is no small task (no pun intended). Fortunately, more retailers both offline and online are taking notice to the fact that fat chicks want to look just as sexy and savvy as their skinnier counterparts, and so they’re offering more of a selection. Take PacificPlex, for example. This online retailer of fashionable clothing for today’s young and modern women has a great selection of plus size clothes, including some very nice plus size dresses. Don’t believe me? Go see for yourself!
With October a little more than halfway over, now is an excellent time to begin thinking about Christmas. Believe it or not, it is definitely not too early to be thinking about Christmas, and to be scoping out online deals for the holiday season. I may have thought August was too early, and may have been a little up in the air concerning September, but October? This is the perfect time. With about eleven weeks before the big day (whoo!), now’s a great time to figure out who you’re buying for, what you’re going to buy them, and how much you have to spend. Then you can start checking out deals (I love shopping/deal blogs like MommySavers for this very purpose!) and hoarding coupons and get that shopping owned!
Can you believe that Daylight Saving Time 2011 doesn’t end until November 6th, 2011? But then again, I suppose DST has always ended on the first Sunday of November. It’s just something I never paid attention to. Anyway, on November 6th, 2011, or the night before when you go to bed, you’ll need to turn your clocks back an hour – sweet! I love gaining an extra hour of sleep. I always try to keep it straight: spring forward, fall back. Yet sometimes I still get confused. You’d think I wouldn’t, seeing as how springing back and falling forward don’t happen as often as springing forward and falling back do.
ColourLovers.com is probably my favorite design resource. It’s also my favorite source of inspiration, believe it or not. More than once I have been able to simply pull up a color palette and become inspired for an entire layout. And color palettes and color schemes and patterns is what ColourLovers is all about, so make sure you check them out!
So here’s my secret: I’m not crazy about cooking, but I love to bake. If given a choice between dinner or dessert, I’d definitely volunteer to make dessert, and I’d even sweeten the deal (no pun intended) by offering to clean up all of the dishes from both dinner and dessert. Most people, especially my own mother (she hates to clean, and her previously hoarded and gross house was more than enough testament to that fact), gladly take me up on that offer.
I use TasteBook to organize my recipes (and I can access them on my iPod Touch or my son’s iPad – awesome!), and I’ve been busy bookmarking sites like Brown Eyed Baker to give me inspiration for desserts – and meals, too.
What’s your preference – cooking or baking?
Well, at least proof that one of my cats and my dog can get along:
On the left is Minerva, our six month old female tabby kitten. On the right is Leah, our three and a half year old female Pug. When we brought Minerva home she was a mere seven weeks old and oh-so tiny, and since Leah is pretty much attached to me whenever possible, Minerva readily accepted her as another warm body to cuddle up to, knead, and even lick and suckle. Leah is about as laid back as a lazy chunky Pug can get, so she takes it all in stride.
