Category — Goodies

Okay I know.  I love my bulldog and maybe that is why I love this so much but how cute is this!  Now if I can find out where I can get this immediately!

Found via SwissMiss

 Update:  You can buy one here at Humunga Stache!

It has been a happy happy day.

After all of the house drama we found a house that we love and had our offer accepted.  That means we are about 45 days away from having the house of our dreams!  I am so excited.  I just hope that the inspections and appraisal go without a hitch.

Here is a couple of things I have been eying for a long time that I would love for my new home!

 I am going to need some pretty pictures for my wall.  Maybe I could have a custom silhouette made by
sweetcarolinadesign, $22

I have always wanted this comfy looking velvet poof pillow from Urban Outfitters, $28

For entertaining, this Polly George cake stand, £100.00.  I have my eyes on the matching butte dish, teas pot and sugar bowl too.

Side table from West Elm, $129

These are just a few things I have come across in the last few months but I am sure there is a lot more to come.  Any places that you look for decor ideas?  I am going to need some.

Anyone remember this toy from the eighties?

It was called the “Pocket Rocker” (not to be confused with the Pocket Rocket, which is a whole other “toy”).  It is a cassette player that plays mini cassette tapes of your favorite eighties pop songs.  You get one song per side and I had tapes of Debbie Gibson, The Jets, and my all time fave, Tiffany.

I somehow managed to hold onto the cassette player all these years but I don’t have any of the cassette tapes.  I wonder if the thing even works.

Until I saw this commercial I had totally forgotten that the tapes clipped to your clothes.  LOL

The White House by meArtDesign

Remember I mentioned that we had an offer on a house?  Well, we pulled out of the contract.  When I tell you why you are going to laugh and then write to me in the comment box below that I am the biggest idiot ever!

So biggest rule when you buy a house I have learned …

Look at the house as many times as you can!

We went and saw this house only once before we put a contract on it.  We knew we loved it, we knew the price was right and we were stressing about it getting snapped up by someone else.  Well four weeks go by and we still hadn’t heard anything back on whether our offer had been accepted and decided, to go look at it again.  We had driven by it numerous times but had only been inside once.

So stupid!

We scheduled a time to meet up with the realtor to check out the house again.  I am driving there when Mr. Juicefairy calls …

“We have a problem.”

“What! What’s wrong.”

“The garage is too small.”

“What do you mean the garage is too small?  It’s a two-car garage.”

“I thought the garage looked kind of small so I had the realtor open the garage door and I tried to pull my car in and it wouldn’t fit.  The car hangs out the back of the garage and you cant close the door.”

“How is that possible?  It’s a two-car garage.  Aren’t they a standard size?”

“Apparently not.”

After further inspection we realized that the builder had built into the garage to make room for the hot water heater and the AC unit.  Big mistake on their part because unless you drive a VW bug you can’t get you car in the garage all the way. We pulled out of our contract immediately.

Moral of the story folks:

Always look at the house more than once.  Look at everything.  Open every cabinet, every garage door, look in every closet look at every vent and ceiling.

We are still looking for our dream house now.  Sigh.  Mr. Juicefairy says that pulling out of the contract on that house we had loved felt like ending a long term relationship.  It was a little sad.  But he also said “we dodged a bullet!”  So true … so true.

 Becoming Green had a similar problem with these dishwashing soaps. Image: becoming green

The following story is about how my dishwasher almost drove me to the edge of insanity when it stopped cleaning my dishes.

A few months ago we caught a deal at Walmart on Palmolive Eco Gel Dishwashing Detergent and bought two big bottles.  I generally don’t buy the “eco” or “green” detergents.  Not because I don’t care about the environment, but because, as you have read in this blog, I am cheap.  If it wasn’t for Walmart’s 2 for 1 deal I probably would have bought the cheapest generic box on the shelf.  And I should have!

A few weeks after using the soap I started noticing a white build up on all of my dishes.  I cleaned the trap for the dishwasher, ran the dishwasher empty and even tried a citrus dishwasher cleaner.  None of it worked.  Frustrated, I went online and found out that you can put white vinegar in the rinse aid dispenser and use baking soda as detergent.  After a few washes this seemed to help a little but I was using about a 1/2 cup of baking soda per load.  That is a bit much when the stuff comes in a miniature box.

Finally, after a lot of my complaining, Mr. Juicefairy and I decided to just replace the dishwasher, assuming something was wrong with it.  Now before I get chastised for making such an expensive decision, the dishwasher was one of the appliances that was ready to replaced when we redid our kitchen.  It was old looking and the granite installer never really properly replaced the dishwasher so the door has gotten cracked.  I figured that the dishwasher had just outlived its use since it was so old.

I assumed that the problem was solved as soon as the dishwasher was replaced.  I had to scrub all of the pots, pans and dishes with Brillo pads to get the scum off (a task I am still working on because even Brillo was having a hard time getting this soap off).  The problem was better with the new dishwasher but I could still feel soap on the outside of my glasses and dishes.

I finally realized that I had switched to the new soap when this problem started and went to Publix and bought some name brand Cascade.  Instantly the problem was gone.  My dishes are clean again. I am still working on getting some of the leftover soap under the lips of my pots and around handles which is a tedious task but overall the dishes come out sparkling.

So that was a lot of aggravation just because of a dish soap.  Heed my warning readers: don’t buy Palmolive Eco Gel dishwashing soap!  I complained to my sister about this recently and she claimed to have the same issue with the Seventh Generation dishwashing soap.  No more eco friendly dishwashing soaps for me.  I will save myself a few cents and some hassle by sticking to good old Cascade.