It Doesn’t Belong in a Rolodex!

Thanks to those who weighed in on the Great Business Card Debate of Aught-Nine. I still haven’t decided yet: I saw a few more options on Etsy and N’s cousin offered to use his mad design skillz to whip up something for me so we’ll see what happens.

Shopping for cards reminded me of this video N showed me a while ago. This guy is everything I hate about salesmen but he’s pretty entertaining.

(Hmm…it seems like the video is having some trouble. If you can’t get it to work, try this version. It’s worth it.)

In Living Color

We drive past this house on the way home from the gym. I love how it’s painted. Most of the houses around here are painted some various shade of brown so this house really stands out. Once the red tulips in front of it bloomed I knew I had to stop and take some pictures.

However E was not interested in standing still for a photo.

He was alternately fascinated by the unfriendly dog in the yard and the tulips.

On the schedule for today: tidying up the house to prepare for my sister-in-law Gwyn’s visit. She and her baby arrive tomorrow–yay!

Do you have a card?

I’m a total nerd when it comes to stationary. I love examining different types of paper and fonts. I remember being so excited when I was promoted at work to a position that required I have business cards even though they were very boring. My very own business card! Whoo hoo! I was living the high life.

But now I need some new cards that have my contact info on them to give to people at the office. And being self-employed, I can decide what my card looks like. I want something pretty but still professional looking. I took a look around Etsy and found some contenders.

I love the simplicity of this one. But is it too plain? Do you think it would look cheap?

This one’s gorgeous. But is it too whimsical for an office?

I would love a letterpress-printed card like this one but unfortunately I can’t justify the price since I only need a few cards.

So what do you think? Plain border or blue brocade?

My favorite places: The NPS Store

On Friday I was up by the airport and stopped by one of my favorite shops, the NPS store. They had a bunch of Le Creuset pots in stock and I snagged this braiser for a great price.

The NPS store is kind of hard to describe. It’s sort of like Goodwill in that you never know what they’re going to have and that it’s fairly dingy. But everything is theoretically new. They sell misdirected, unclaimed or damaged freight…so basically stuff that fell off the back of a truck. And apparently all sorts of stuff falls off of trucks.

The NPS store is actually made up of three different stores: the grocery store, the industrial store, and Market Square. We haven’t spent much time at the grocery store, but they seem to have a wide variety of items, including produce. The industrial store has aisles and aisles of indescribable machine parts and tools but we’ve also seen interesting things there like car bumpers, a fully-assembled sauna, kickboxing dummies, original oil paintings, and a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream freezer.

We usually spend most of our time at the Market Square which sells kitchen items, jewelry, cds and dvds, clothes and shoes, toileties, fabric by the yard, etc… There’s also a separate room in the back full of “collectibles” including fine jewelry, wedding dresses, and original pieces of art.

When we get to the store N. usually makes a beeline for the cd section and picks it over. He’s found some rare releases for $2 or $3. I usually spend my time browsing the kitchen section. I have a couple of Le Creuset pots, all from the NPS store. I bought my big French oven there for 1/3 of the retail price. It was so cheap because the plastic handle on top was broken but then I called Le Creuset and they sent me a new handle for free so it worked out well.

It seems like the store is getting more popular. There don’t seem to have as many crazy sales as they used to, but the prices are still pretty good. I think it’s worth checking out if you’re up by the Salt Lake airport; it’s at 1600 South Empire Road. Let me know if you’re planning on going–E and I will meet you there!

For E’s Hair

When E was little we learned that he had very, very, very, sensitive skin. His eczema is pretty much under control now but he still has some patches of cradle cap. I’ve tried a bunch of different things and have found that these California Baby products work well for him.

I use the fragrance-free Super Sensitive shampoo and the lavender-scented Calming conditioner on him. The conditioner in particular seems to help his cradle-cap; it keeps his scalp moisturized so it doesn’t get scabby. So far it’s the only scented product I’ve been able to use on E and I love the way it smells. If it didn’t cost so much I’d probably use it too.

Target sells the shampoo and conditioner for about $10 and this week the shampoo is on sale for $7.99. They’re expensive as kids’ products go, but I think they’re worth it if your kids have very sensitive skin. And they last forever. I’ve been using them on E for six months now and still have 4/5ths of each bottle left.

House Works

I am in the happy anticipation phase of spring cleaning: imagining how great it’s going to be to have things organized and tidy and freshly-scrubbed. And this book, Houseworks: Cut the Clutter, Speed Your Cleaning and Calm the Chaos, is just fueling the fire.

I actually ordered it from Amazon the last time I was on a serious cleaning/organizing kick (over a year ago!) but I picked it up again this week and was impressed again by its sound advice (which I’m actually going to try and follow this time around. Ahem.)

The author, Cynthia Townley Ewer writes in a clear and calming style: she breaks things down into reasonable steps and has a lot of good ideas. And she’s not without humor. In the introduction she tells the story of how she realized she had problem with organization.

It was Christmas eve and she was recently divorced with two small kids. She had been out visiting family and returned to find the window by her front door broken. She called the cops and they came and checked it out. “Lady,” the cop said, “I don’t understand. Your deadbolt held but somehow they got inside and ransacked the upstairs.”

The rooms were “knee-deep in crumpled photocopies, legal pads, fabric scraps, piled clothing, holiday wrap, stacked files, spilled coffee and dirty dishes.” Ewer then had to confess, extremely embarrassed, that she had actually left things that way herself. (Ouch!)

After that Ewer worked hard to develop good habits and methods for keeping things clean and organized. She started a website, organizedhome.com, and then wrote this book. I know it’s kind of silly to read a book about cleaning instead of spending the time, you know, actually cleaning but she does have some good ideas. And sometimes I just need a little inspiration and motivation.

(I know I haven’t posted photos of E recently. I’ll get some up later this week, so hang in there, grandparents!)

On Buying a Better Bra

(Um, so this post is not really for the guys.)

The weekend was really nice. On Friday I went to the mall with the plan of finding a set of silverware and maybe buying a couple of new bras. My old ones were getting ratty-looking and not fitting well anymore.

Once I got to the mall I realized I should take full advantage of the rare luxury I had to shop without E in tow. It seemed like it would be a lot more difficult to try on bras while wrangling E than to look at silverware so I headed to Nordstrom.

I don’t shop at Nordstrom that often: they have really lovely things and fantastic customer service, but the prices are usually (shocking) out of my price range. But I do really like their lingerie department. Their sales ladies are very well trained and will give you a complimentary bra fitting to help you find your right size. And you don’t have to make an appointment or anything. The only downside is that the bras are pretty pricey (about $50). But, they are very well made. I’m cheap in a lot of ways but since I’m fairly busty and wear a bra everyday, I don’t mind paying extra for good support and quality that’s going to last.

I admit I was a teeny bit nervous about the whole thing before I went in to the dressing room, but the sales lady, Silvia, was great. She was super nice and knowledgeable and very good at putting me at ease. She started out by having me try on several “fit” bras to get a general idea of what size I was. Then she suggested a some different styles that I tried on in a few different sizes. We narrowed it down and I left with a couple of bras that I loved and a bottle of lingerie wash.

(About the lingerie wash, when Silvia found out that I washed my bras in Woolite she gently chided me about it. Apparently Woolite has petroleum-based compounds in it that will make spandex more brittle and faster to break down. In general I tend to be suspicious of specialty cleaners but I had heard that about Woolite before and Silvia seemed to know what she was talking about. And the bottle of concentrate should last me over a year.)

So, if you need new bras or have never been professionally fit and are unsure about your size go see Silvia at the Nordstrom in Orem. She is great and it will be awesome.

After I was finished at Nordstrom it was time to head back for my massage. For Christmas N had given me a gift card to a local massage place and so I used it on Friday for an hour-long message. It was great! I love massages but don’t get them that often. It was very relaxing: I almost fell asleep at some point.

So all in all, it was a very relaxing weekend. It was fun to be pampered a bit.

Now it’s time to be productive again. I have a meeting at the office this afternoon and desperately need to spring clean the house. I’m itching to get everything organized and decluttered. I might post some before-and-after pictures if it’s not too embarrassing (but it will probably be too embarrassing).

Seriously Cute Crochet

I’m not very good at the needle arts. A couple of years ago I learned to knit. I made a couple of scarves, a few baby sweaters and two felted stuffed sheep. But I haven’t knitted anything in oh, say about 17 and a half months. My problem is that in order to overcome my natural laziness (which is quite strong) I have to fall in head-over-heels in love with a project in order to muster the enthusiasm to tackle it instead of spending all of my free time reading or watching tv or taking naps (by the way, I got to take that nap I wanted yesterday. It lasted for three hours and it was AWESOME).

Back to the crafts: I’ve had my eye on this book, Amigurumi World: Seriously Cute Crochet, for a while now. But I didn’t get it because I didn’t know how to crochet. But my multi-talented sister-in-law Mindy got the book and posted pictures of the adorable projects she had made from it. And, overcome by the cuteness of said projects, I ordered the book.

It you crochet (or want to learn) I really recommend this book. Amigurumi are little Japanese-style crocheted animals and the patterns in this book are really cute. The first project I’m tackling is the lion from the front cover. I bought my supplies at my favorite yarn store and got some free help from the sweet ladies who work there.

Since I never crocheted before, it took me a while to get the hang of it. I think I had to redo this part at least 5 times before it looked okay. This is all I have so far: the top of the head. I need to sew on the face before I finish the rest of the head. It’s pretty slow going, but once I get farther along I’ll take some other pictures.


I hope you have a lovely weekend. I’m looking forward to mine: E and I are about to leave for the gym and then this afternoon I’ve arranged for a babysitter and I’m going to go shopping for new silverware (the set we got at our wedding is pretty thrashed and somehow missing several spoons) and then get a massage. N gave me a gift certificate to a local spa and this seems like a great time to use it. And then tomorrow night N and I are going out to dinner and maybe a movie. I feel pretty cheerful: I think I’m finally out of the funk I’ve been in for the last few weeks.

I hope you have a great Friday!