I have spring fever! Out here on the east, we have had a very mild winter. The temperature will reach nearly 60 degrees today—the last day of January—and I love it! The spring-like weather every other week or so is a little reminder that winter does not last forever, as it sometimes seems it might.

The only thing I do not like about spring is the dreaded spring cleaning. The house has been closed up, needs to be aired out, the windows have collected a fine coating of dust (yuck!), the blades on the ceiling fans are looking a little dusty by this time, and all the nooks and crannies in your home that don’t see a vacuum during a normal cleaning could use a good scrub.

Most people don’t like cleaning windows. I don’t mind it so much. What I really dislike is cleaning out the dryer vent. There is no good way to do it with a regular vacuum. It’s a necessary safety measure to get the built up lint out of the lint trap and vent hose to prevent a fire, but the vacuum hose can only go so far. It creates such a mess and just seems like I’m making a bigger job of cleaning than I need to.

That is where the Lint Lizard comes in. This handy tool attaches to your vacuum and the long, thin, flexible hose goes right down in the vent to reach where your regular vacuum attachments can’t. I’m also going to use this under, behind and around the washer and dryer, the refrigerator, behind the headboards in bedrooms, and any other place I can find that I can’t reach with my regular vacuum attachments.

Now I’m getting excited about spring cleaning!

Happy Monday! I hope you had a great weekend. Mine was family-filled. Really, just Saturday, but it was all day Saturday.

Due to the fact that I had to get on the road to meet up with my family way too early for a Saturday morning, I decided to take it easy on Friday night and even attempted to get to sleep early. So, I propped myself up in bed in my sea of pillows with my book and decided to rest early and hopefully fall asleep early. Is it just me, or is it every time that you try to go to sleep early it’s as if everyone knows and tries to stop you from sleeping? Long story short, my phone kept ringing, and each time I would jolt awake and not be able to fall back asleep. I had to be up by 6. I made it to the family adventures in time, don’t worry.

The entire family (almost 20 of us) went out for a family dinner to a Chinese food restaurant. This place is known for their duck – they serve up to 300 whole ducks a day – but being a vegetarian, I ordered vegetable fried rice. Needless to say, I wasn’t full by the time dinner was over. But, my mom and dad had a gigantic piece of my favorite chocolate cake at the house for me. How horrible is it that after dinner I came home and ate half of m chocolate cake? Does it make it better that I only ate half and not the whole thing? Either way, I did it, and it was delicious.

Now, I literally spent the time with my whole family and extended family all day and night, so you can imagine, I needed Sunday to recover. My friend and I got smart. We decided to make the most of what could be a lazy Sunday: We grabbed our yoga gear and yoga water bottles and went to a 9 a.m. yoga class. What a way to get motivated for the day. I spent the rest of the day preparing food for this week’s breakfasts and lunches. I am ready for the week!

We are getting near the end of January. Have you kept your resolution for a full month? I am especially interested in those of you who chose to save more money. What are you doing to save more money and how is it going?

Every day and I am bombarded with emails from my favorite stores. It takes everything I have not to look at all of them and shop every day…because who doesn’t like 30% off? I also joined several groups to receive emails about discounts on places and things going on in the area. Of course, I will never stop clipping coupons and saving them in my coupon holder for all of the hard copy coupons I get in the mail and particularly for the grocery store.

In addition to coupons, I have just been better about not purchasing things I don’t need, keeping up my coffee savings account, buying things on sale at the grocery store, and making sure to use what I have in the house before I buy new food items that will go bad. Tell me what your plan is and how it’s been going.

I am a very lucky girl. Just about every Friday I have the luxury of getting together with some of my girl friends for lunch…not just any lunch…sushi. This is our special time together. It’s a guaranteed hour of fun with unbelievable food. My friends and I try everything possible to not talk about work on our Friday lunches. So, naturally, we talk about what we have planned for the weekend. My one friend talks all about what she will do with her husband and 2 girls, another friend generally talks about planning her upcoming wedding, and another friend generally talks about how her husband encourages her to study for the graduate classes she is taking but how she wants to go out and enjoy herself. We have a great little mix.

Our favorite topic is discussing how great it would be to leave work on a Friday evening, go home, lay on the couch, and figure out what to order for dinner so the most time off the couch we would have would be to open the door for the delivery man. Since this never happens, it’s a nice dream to share with good friends who are all just as busy as the next.

These dreams got me thinking…why can’t we have a night in just for us? Why are we always hustle and bustle and on the move to get something done. Which has led me to my next life decision: this Friday, whether I am alone or with friends, I will grab that large bowl fill it with popcorn and MnM’s and eat a delicious and balanced dinner of salty and sweet and either watch whatever TV is on or watch movies…because we all deserve a night in. Anyone want to join me?

With all of the handheld and wireless devices we have today, one of the many benefits is having music with you wherever you go. You can listen to whatever music you want while cooking, while on a bus, at the park, the options are limitless. Sometimes you want—or need –to listen through ear phones and other times you want to hear the music through speakers. The problem is that speakers aren’t exactly portable. Until now!

The Music Bullet is pretty awesome. It connects to more than just your iPod or MP3 player. You can use the Music Bullet anywhere that you can connect to a speaker jack. So, for example, if you’re anything like me and are generally busy at home taking care of chores and other projects, you can plug in the Music Bullet into your cell phone and have a clear “speaker phone” set up for you so you can use both hands while being on the phone. Also, I frequently watch DVDs on my laptop, but I like a lot of sound, not just the flat sound my laptop provides. By hooking up the Music Bullet to my laptop, I can get the full sound of the DVD I am watching without struggling to hear.

I love the idea of speakers, but I feel like they are bulky, expensive, and don’t provide the complete sound I am looking for. With the Music Bullet, I can not only get the complete sounds from my iPod, but the Music Bullet allows me to use my cell phone and laptop more effectively than ever before.

Are you a cat lover or a dog lover? I find most people lean one way or the other. Of course you can love both, equally. But of all the people I know, most really, really love dogs and like or tolerate cats or vice versa.

Either way, part of owning a pet is the cleanup. There is the fur on the floor and furniture, the splashed water and spilled food, and nobody’s favorite, the litter box or yard cleanup. I’m not sure which I find worse—I’ll spare going into details. At least there are handy helpers for these unpleasant chores. For the dogs, the Grip and Grab Pet Scoop keeps your hands away from the mess and makes quick work of cleaning up the lawn. For the cats, there is now an As Seen on TV product called Sift N Toss. It’s a series of mesh liners that you lift out one by when the box needs cleaning. The mesh sifts out the waste and the rest of the litter stays in the box. No shoveling the litter around to find the waste and stirring up odors.

We all love our pets, but not necessarily the more unpleasant duties. These two products make it just a little more bearable.

I came across an article last week that I think many of you will find fun and even useful. It was Craft of the Day, a Pencil Dish Rack
Reading the article, and the other Craft of the Day items makes me realize that I can actually do these things even though I am not crafty at all!

I loved the idea of the pencil dish drying rack. It is such a neat idea, especially for those of us who may be on a budget. For Christmas I received a new cutting board with a tool drawer that can be used as a cheese board for parties. I have been hanging onto my old beat up board, but not using it. This is a great way to turn it into something useful that looks a lot better than a plastic drying rack!

Check out the article to see how to make the pencil dish rack with your old cutting board. Also, check out the other crafty items I am certain you’ll be able to do on your own!

What a weekend! The weather was crisp and cold, a perfect weekend for snuggling under the blanket while watching movies, sipping on some hot chocolate, and trying out some new recipes in the crock pot. But of course, this is real life and I had things to do. I did spend a good deal of time indoors, doing laundry, cleaning, and doing some cooking, so it wasn’t a completely rush-around weekend.

In between grocery shopping and folding loads of clean clothes, I wanted to get some cooking done so I didn’t eat junk all weekend. I used the new Orgreenic Frying Pan to make a Green Chili Frittata. The Orgreenic pan is oven safe, so I could start the frittata on the stove and then place the pan directly into the oven. The aluminum core helps the pan heat evenly, so the eggs were cooked perfectly. I also used the pan to make salmon. The non-stick ceramic surface kept the fish from sticking so I didn’t have to use any extra butter or oil to keep it from sticking. I love this pan and can’t wait to make more meals with it!

Yesterday was a very rainy day! I don’t really like rainy days–not sure that I know of anyone who does. But I know that I’d prefer a few inches of rain over a few feet of snow, so I’ll try not to complain. While I knew it was supposed to rain and I planned for it by bringing my rain boots along, I neglected to bring my umbrella. So my feet were dry and my jacket was soaked. No big deal though because as soon as I got home, I pulled out my collapsible bamboo drying rack and I hung my coat and wet clothes to dry. If it were laundry day, I would have just tossed everything in the washer, but it isn’t and I don’t want those clothes going in the hamper soaking wet and getting mildewed. Everything was dry this morning, so I collapsed the drying rack and tucked it back in the closet beside the washer. How handy!

Luckily, today is a sunny day so far…but I’m bringing my umbrella just in case!

One of my resolutions this year was to cut back on unnecessary spending. There are some things that I won’t give up entirely, I just have to find a way to make it reasonable. I’ve mentioned several times before that I am making my coffee at home instead of buying it on my way into work. Over the course of a year, that will be about a $400 savings!

I would also consider some beauty regiments a necessity. One of those is a pedicure. I can’t stand to have rough, dry, cracking skin on my feet! I haven’t had a pedicure since the summer…and it shows. I don’t want to spend the money to go to the salon and have a full pedicure done. It’s great to feel pampered, but it costs money.

That is why I’m investing in Pedi Spin. For a fraction of the cost of a salon pedicure, I can give myself countless pedicures at home. Pedi Spin uses gentle abrasion to remove the rough skin on my feet and leaves me with soft and smooth skin. I can cut, file, and polish my toenails by myself.

An added bonus; I don’t have to walk outside in the cold with those flip flops the salon provides you with!