Swap It To Me

Over the past year I have signed up to attend every clothing swap event I could find.  I have things in my closet that have never even been worn.  Thanks for thinking that dress might fit me mom, but it’s been awhile since I was a size 4.  And it has not been post-baby, that’s for sure.  God love her for still thinking that of me though. Oh, it was a final sale? No problem.  It will look great in my closet. I will however, be back into a size-6 by May. There I wrote it, so it has to come true, right?  I gain a dress size every winter (sometimes two.)  I don’t know when I will learn.  Winter does not mean sit on the couch and eat cookies every night.  Because then spring comes around and I have to work twice as hard.  But I digress.

I sign up for these clothing swaps constantly because I love the idea of them, but I never actually get to one.  Either something comes up, or I’m just wiped out from the week and too tired to actually go. I used to put things on eBay once in a while, but I rarely got what my items were worth and then actually packing things up and mailing them got to be a bit much. $15 is not always worth the trouble. I donate stuff to Goodwill, but I don’t know how effective that actually is. Are my clothes doing anyone any good? I tried putting dvds up for sale, but no one wants to buy my dvds.  I don’t even want my dvds.  There’s nothing wrong with them, I’m just tired of them.  And with netflix, I don’t even need them.  So last week I discovered Swap.com and I’m becoming slightly obsessed with it.  I’ve just starting listing my items.  My goal of getting rid of stuff is obviously not going to be accomplished here, but I can get rid of stuff and get stuff in return that I might actually want.  I’ve already made offers on several books. My husband and I are at the book store all the time, but this way I can just swap for new books and get rid of some that I won’t read again.  Our bookshelves are overflowing because we have been so unwilling to part with any of them. It’s time to come to terms with the fact that overflowing bookshelves do not make us look any smarter.  We just look like hoarders.

You obviously have to do some digging because people do list a lot of crap on here. It can be like an online thrift shop that way.  But once you find people who appear to have the same interests as you, you can follow them and when they add new items it shows up on your feed.  This is also a great place to trade kid stuff.

It’s certainly not for everyone, but I thought I’d share anyway for those people like me that are compelled to belong to anything and everything that turns up on the web.

The Liebster Blog Award – You Shouldn’t Have!

Well look this at this everyone.  Little old me received a blogging award yesterday!  Thanks to Jenna over at Xanax or Running Shoes for nominating me.  If you don’t read Jenna’s blog, you should.  It’s honest, humorous and fun.

Liebster is German & means ‘dearest’ or ‘beloved’ but it can also mean ‘favorite’ & the idea of the Liebster award is to bring attention to blogs with less than 200 followers.

The Rules:

1. Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.
2. Reveal your top 5 [or more] picks for the award and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
3. Post the award on your blog.
4. Bask in the love from the most supportive people on the blogsphere – other bloggers.
5. And, best of all – have fun and spread the karma.

As I’ve already thanked Jenna, I will jump right into my picks.

1.  Mommy Said A Swear Word   She’s already received this award, but I’m nominating her again anyway.  She’s one of my favorite mommy bloggers and she’s also a real hoot.  You know you’re a mother when you say things like “she’s also a hoot.”  Whatever.

2.  From Nonsense to Momsense  If you don’t want to laugh, whatever you do, do not go to this blog.  Stacy is a riot and she seriously does it all.   Check her out.

3.  Taking Candy From A Baby   I can’t tell you how much I enjoy reading this blog.  Although she’s been making me tear up a bit lately.  Nothing but honesty over here.

4.  Verbal Opium Sometimes you need to live vicariously through other people.  I like to do this by keeping up with my pal Gloria in NYC. She talks relationships, food, music and of course, fashion.

5.  People I Want To Punch In The Throat I really don’t think I need to bother saying anything about this one.  The title speaks for itself.  Oh the hilarity.  She has more than 200 followers, but rules and I sometimes have issues.

I tried to keep the descriptions short in hopes that you will pop over to see for yourselves.  You guys won’t be disappointed!

Now, I guess I need to get this butt off the couch and clean the house.  Is there an award that comes with a maid?  Please nominate me for it.  I will pay you in pinot.

Bjorn This Way

My friend Colleen is a creative genius. If you love Gaga like I do (and even if you don’t,) you are sure to get good chuckle out of this.

http://bjornthisway.blogspot.com/

The Help – A Snob’s Book Review

Here’s something you should know about me.  I am a snob.  Not a snob in the traditional sense. I don’t think I’m better than anyone else.  I don’t turn my nose up at anyone.  Lord knows I’m not rich. But I am a snob when it comes to things that are overly popular.  Unless I was reading/listening/watching it first.  Although I am much better than I used to be.  My husband still gives me a hard time though.  Every time a new band comes on Yo Gabba Gabba he says “hey Whit, have many times have you seen these guys in concert?” It started as a kid I think.  My dad never wanted us to go back to school shopping until after the first week. He always said we needed to see what everyone else was wearing first.  That way we’d always be in style.  Even then I threw a fit.  “I don’t want to wear what everyone else is wearing!” In retrospect, it was probably good advice.  I was never the coolest kid.

 

I mentioned last week that I just finished the 4th book in the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series and needed a mental break.  I was in the airport when I finished it.  After milling around in the airport bookstore I decided on “The Help.”  But I was reluctant.  Because I am a snob.  There was so much hype around it that I was reluctant.  In all fairness, even if I weren’t a snob I find that when movies or books are that hyped up they turn out to be a disappointment.  Not bad necessarily, but you get so worked up and excited over it, thinking you are about to witness the most amazing thing ever, you can’t help when things turn out to be just really good, and not the most amazing thing ever.   But I have to tell you, the book is so good.  I couldn’t put it down.  I think you are all probably aware of the storyline, so I won’t bother to explain it. The author Kathryn Stockett is one brave lady for writing this book.  There aren’t many white women that could (or should) write a book about such a troubled time and largely from the perspective of a black woman living through it.  I was a little taken back initially because she’s uses a heavy dialect for the black characters only, but I think it worked. Stockett manages to make all of her characters relatable, even the completely unrelatable ones.  I am pretty sure I know a woman or two that could have been Hilly Hollbrook in a past life.  Pretty awful stuff. If you haven’t read this book yet, I highly recommend it.  And now I will ignore all of the hype about the movie and put it on my Netflix queue immediately.  I already have a girl crush on Emma Stone anyway.

More Muppets Madness

Ok Go does the Muppet Theme Song.  Ava and I both love this one:

Sh*t Girls Say

Thank God I just found this. Because I have been struggling to get through the US Postal Service answering service for 15 minutes and I need a distraction.  Is it any wonder they are soon to be non-existent?  Seriously, 15 minutes.  I have turned into that crazy woman in the office yelling at no one.  Today is my husband’s birthday and his present is MIA.  Not a happy camper over here.  By the time someone picks up the phone I am going to be so furious.

Anyway, this video is hilarious.  Only time will tell if the show will actually turn out to be this funny.  Either way, this is pretty accurate.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said “are you near a computer?”  Just ask my sister.  Pretty sure she doesn’t find me irritating at all.  But I’m hopeful about the show because Juliette Lewis makes an appearance (hopefully to stay.) Of course, that would mean her band “Juliette and The Licks” won’t be back in town any time soon, but I’ll live.  This started as a parody twitter account and became so popular that they turned it into a web series.  Kudos to the writers for being smart enough to go this route and not risk ruining the hilarity like they did with “Sh*t my dad says.”  My apologies Camille Grammer.

This is probably going to be my new favorite thing.

Oh, good, I am officially on hold now.  That’s progress, right?

20 minutes and counting…..

 

Goodnight Moon and Other SleepyTime Tales

I just came across ‘Goodnight Moon and Other Sleepytime Tales”  on HBO Family and it is terrific. Susan Sarandon reading Goodnight Moon almost made me cry it was so magical.  But I’m just that person.  And the kids are adorable.  “Sometimes I have scary dreams.  And sometimes I dream about wrestlers.” I highly recommend you guys check this out.  Although I try not to let Ava watch tv right at bedtime, so we watched during the day.  She loved it.

http://www.hbofamily.com/programs/goodnight-moon.html

I also recommend that you teach your kids that dogs don’t have cell phones.  Every time I pick up the phone to call someone I have to stop and let Ava say hello or she freaks out.  She is so furious this morning that I won’t call Jake.  Jake  by the way, is my parent’s dog.  And both “dogs don’t have phones” and “dogs don’t talk” are unacceptable answers.  Good thing its pancake day.  Pancakes solve everything.

Smell Hair

Just when I think my friends and I have all grown up, something like SMELL HAIR happens.  Be amazed people.  And then run, do not walk, to the nearest bar(or supermarket?) to play. Or at least check out the tumblr and laugh at the idiocy, I mean genius of it all.

http://smellhair.tumblr.com/

http://www.facebook.com/smellhair

Dancing With An iPod in Public

I’m sure everyone has seen this already but I’m posting anyway.  I love this guy.  A lot.

Winter Is Coming

No, I’m not complaining about the cold again, I ‘m talking about my current obsession with Game of Thrones.  This series is actually called A Song of Ice and Fire, but people recognize Game of Thrones because it’s on tv.  The books have somewhat taken over my life. My husband and I nerd out talking about them all the time. He has just finished the third book and I’m trailing a few hundred pages behind him. He has been forced into silence until I catch up.  Each book is 1000 + pages so the series is a bit of a commitment.  But I’ve always been committed to being a nerd, so no problem here.  And now that Harry Potter is done I have a replacement.  Sort of.  No, that’s not true, nothing will ever replace Harry Potter, but I digress.

There are so many frustrations I want to voice about the third book (A Storm of Swords) but I don’t to ruin anything for anyone. I had a friend ruin part of this book for me (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE) and I was less than pleased when it turned out to be true. But if you have some time do read this series.  I have not been able to put them down.  I’m so invested in the characters (although that’s not necessarily a good thing.)

Also, I just want to throw out that fantasy readers get a bum rap.  They’re all supposed to be fat dudes with greasy hair that spend too much time playing World or Warcraft and not enough time showering.  But what’s wrong with a little magic I say?  I will happily school any of you in Lord of the Rings trivia (and then just as happily take a shower mind you) any day.  So if you have a little time to spare, I highly recommend you pick up these books.  And for now I leave you with this.

Note:  I realize that posting a picture of the author does nothing to help my cause regarding fantasy readers.