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!

Happy Monday! I hope you had a nice weekend. Wherever you’re located, you probably had decent weather this weekend. Over here, on the east coast, we are having a crazy winter. One day it is 20 degrees and the next day it is in the mid 50’s! I’m enjoying the warm days as they come.

This weekend, I made every effort to be outside. Most of my errands were within a 3 mile distance, so instead of spending an hour indoors on the treadmill and I took a hike in lieu of Pilates. I’ll be back to using the indoor equipment this week when it’s cold or too dark outside before and after work, but it felt really great to take advantage of the nice weather and fresh air!

What a great spring weekend in the middle of winter!

How is your New Year’s resolution coming along? Have you stopped smoking, started eating healthier, paid off that lingering credit card debt, been to the gym at least three times this week? Probably not.

We’re only one week into the New Year and you might be feeling as if you’re behind your goals already. It’s easy to feel that way when you have a big goal to meet. It’s always a good idea to break your goals down into smaller manageable tasks. If you’re trying to eat healthier, start with focusing on cutting out one snack a day, or be prepared with a yogurt or almonds instead of grabbing whatever chocolate-coated candy bar is calling your name from the vending machine.

Maybe you’re doing all the right things but still not seeing the results you want yet. We all need help with our goals. If you have a few extra inches around your midsection that just aren’t budging, Slim Away will instantly show off the slimmer, trimmer you. It not only helps you look trimmer right away, but locks in body heat to help stimulate weight loss around the waist while you wear it! Slim Away is thin enough to wear under your clothes, so no one will know your weight loss secret, and it’s fully adjustable so as the inches melt away you tighten and continue to lose weight.

Keep trying to meet your New Year’s resolutions and goals. Small steps are the key. How are you all doing with your resolutions after one week?

One of the greatest parts about having your own place is hanging whatever you want on the walls. Also, you can organize your place in so many different ways when you can hang items on the walls.

For Christmas I received a few new pieces of art for my wall. I am excited to hang my new art on the walls, but dread the actual hanging. I always have a hard time juggling holding the nail steady, swinging the hammer while trying not to hit my fingers. When I hang the picture, I realize the nail is in slightly the wrong place, so I try again. When all is said and done, I have bruised fingers and several holes in the wall. I just found the new InstaHang eliminates the hassle and potential injury.

InstaHang allows you to hang your picture, posters, and mirrors on your wall in one simple step. By using the InstaHang you just need to push and the peg will go into the wall. The InstaHang peg holds up to 10 pounds, so you can hang virtually anything you might want!

So now you can enjoy your empty walls and all of the potential they have. The InstaHang will help you decorate like a professional without the hassle.

Yesterday I walked outside and for the first time this season it actually felt cold…winter cold. Now, please understand, I am not happy about this sudden change in temperature, I love warm weather and would take 50 degrees all winter long. Not only was it cold, but there were light snow flurries. Needless to say, yesterday I was cold shock to my system.

What do you look for when you’re cold? When you get into the office from the cold outside what’s the first thing you do? Before I even take off my jacket I grab a hot cup of coffee, and then slowly but surely, after I turn on my space heater, I defrost and take off my coat. When I get home from work, I immediately turn on my Cozy Air Panel Heater and change into my warmest sweats. I put on my slippers and come up with the warmest meal I can think to make that is comforting but also healthy.

Some people tell me I am always cold and that I am weak to the cold weather. I am okay with it. I do not like being cold and I try to find every way possible to stay warm. Yes, I have a space heater at work, a Cozy Air Panel Heater at home, mittens, gloves, hats, and earmuffs, but at least I know I’ll be cozy this winter. What do you do to stay warm?

Where I live, it’s that time of year; time to get ready for snow. We can really never be too prepared. The worst part is when your car gets stuck in the snow, and there is no shovel to help dig out the car. A new item I found might be just what I need to add to my snow emergency kit that I keep in my car, Tread Ahead.

Have you used the Tread Ahead yet? What do you think? How much easier would life be if we didn’t have to chip away the ice that forms under our car tires anymore? With Tread Ahead, all that has to be done is to place the Tread Ahead beneath the front of the tire stuck in the snow, and the car will out! The Tread Ahead could really help out in tricky situations if the car gets stuck, like mud, snow, ice, plus there is a built in handle and ice scraping edge to clear your windows.

The Tread Ahead can be used in more than just snow situations. You can use the Tread Ahead to help get out of mud and up ice as well. The Tread Ahead might be just what we all need just in case this winter.

In keeping with a New Year’s resolution theme, I thought today we might talk about another popular New Year’s resolution favorite: saving money.

There are lots of ways to cut back and save. I have been finding more and more little shortcuts that allow me to save a little bit of money, but do not make me feel like I am missing out on life and things I enjoy. For example, I now have a travel coffee mug. I have not given up my favorite little independent coffee shop coffee, but I have cut down from 5 days a week to 2 days a week and I brew my own on the other 3 days. Is it saving me millions of dollars? No. But, I am putting $3 into a “coffee savings account” every time I bring my own coffee to work in the morning. Let me tell you what, $3 three times a week is $9 a week – multiplied by 52 weeks in a year equals $468 savings every year! I’ll take it!

There are many other ways to save some extra cash throughout the year. For example, heating cost in your house. Instead of raising the heat every time someone in one room gets cold, you might consider something like purchasing a mini metal fireplace heater to warm up that room a little more without raising your energy bill by raising the heat in the whole house. Also, don’t think of that spare change and “useless.” Save those pennies and you’ll see
how much they add up. You can even make it easier by using a sorting bank that will sort your coins for you into coin wrappers so once it’s full you can take it to the bank and fill up your bank account!

What other ways can you think of saving money for your New Year’s resolution? Happy savings!!

One of my favorite New Years resolutions is getting organized. I love buying storage boxes and closet organizers to rearrange my things and kind of start all over – new year: new organization.

Don’t worry about me though. This year, if getting organized is your New Year’s resolution, I have the perfect information for you to look forward to. In honor of getting organized in 2012, I have put together a list of my top 10 favorite organizing products (in no particular order). I hope you enjoy them. And if you have some favorites, please leave me a comment and let us all know what you use to get organized.

1. Christmas Ornament Storage Box2. Spice Stack3. Over the Toilet Space saver4. Soft Grip Hangers5. Clear Shoe Boxes6. Document Boxes and Files7. Stainless Steel recycle Containers8. Foldaway Mobile Workcenter9. Roll Top Wood Desk Organizer

…and last, but certainly not least…the COOLEST way to store your waffles…

10. Eggo Pop Up Waffle Storage

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas weekend! I hope it was full of family, friends and food…lots of all three! But, now that Christmas is over and 2011 comes to an end, we have end of the year work to get done, and New Years resolutions to make and stick to for 2012!

New Years resolutions are tricky entities. We make New Years resoltuions because we want to make a change in our lives…we have the best of intentions for our New Years resolutions, but somehow our want to make a change becomes a burden or too difficult and we fall off our new wagon and back into our old ways. For 2012, let’s make a real change – let’s stick to it! The goal of the 2012 New Years resolution is to follow through – so make your resolution something you truly can do! Don’t set yourself up for failure. If you’ve never worked out before and you want to lose some weight, don’t make your resolution to hit the gym 5 days a week and go on a super-strict diet 7 days a week. Start with smaller steps, such as Cook healthy meals at least one more day a week and exercise at least one more day a week than before. This way, you’re able to accomplish your goal and you’ll be setting yourself up for easier success. If you like to stay active but you’re too busy to hit the gym, and too cold to go running outside, take the plunge and purchase that elliptical you’ve been looking to buy but never did!

This year, take the time to really think about your New Years resolution for 2012. Make a change in your life that you believe you really can make without feeling guilty. Make your New Years resolution right for you this year!

Do you ever see something in a store that reminds you of something from when you were a child? I feel like most of the time I do not remember much of my childhood (sorry mom, I know this makes you sad), but there are some items that will spark a memory, or at least trigger a past moment that makes me smile.

Recently I have had two moments just like these. Both of my moments made me think of my grandfather. When I was in the grocery store ice cream isle the other day, I saw black cherry ice cream. Usually impossible to find, it brought me right back to having ice cream with my grandfather on a hot, sunny day. Then when I was in line at the pharmacy I saw candy orange slices. I don’t like them, but they, too, remind me of my grandfather as they were his favorite candy.

When I brought these moments up to a friend of mine, she told me she always remembers seeing the clear plastic gumdrop trees during this time of year. They are these little Christmas tree servers that get decorated with gumdrops. Apparently, she remembers the gumdrop tree at parties when she was younger. I have never seen a gumdrop tree, but now that I learned about them, I wouldn’t mind having one.