A City Life For Me

I haven't published a Works for Me Wednesday post in quite some time. This blog carnival is now hosted at "We Are That Family". Today I was feeling crafty so I finally put together my placemat purse. I have had the supplies on hand for a little while. And while I was at it, I decided to make it into a WFMW tip. This is the placemat purse. My mom made one for me while I was in college. It has been used as a purse, a Bible bag, and a little bag for miscellaneous items, and many other things that I just can't remember right now. You can make your own placemat purse very easily. Just purchase a placemat in your color of choice, some trim, and ribbon for the handles. Sew the handles and trim on first. Then stitch up the sides, right sides together. You can stitch across the corners to make it stand up better. I got this placemat on clearance for a buck. It took me a half hour to stitch. It is just the right size for my pouchee purse organizer ! (I actually found out abou...

This idea came from my Mom, so all credit goes out to her. To make a simple bookmark that won't slide out of your book, follow these easy steps. 1. Using fancy scissors, cut the corner off of a colored envelope. 2. Slide the cut envelope corner onto the top corner of the page you want to mark. 3. Voila! Because the envelope is colored, it can be easily seen when looking at the pages of your book to find your place. Because the envelope slips over the page, it stays put instead of sliding out from between your marked pages. (Sorry this picture is a little blurry)

I have a lot of digital pictures, and I have found a great program to organize and edit them. It is the Memory Manager program from Creative Memories . I was sold on this program before I knew all of its capabilities. Now that I am learning everything it can do, I am even more excited about it! It offers easy organization of your photos. Everything is organized by People, Events, and Places. You create folders based on things you do over and over again, and drop your photos into the folders. To locate your photo, you can search by timeline, by search phrase, or by star (every pic can receive up to a five star rating). For example, Under "Events" I have a sort box called "Holidays", and within that sort box I have a folder for "Christmas". All of my Christmas pictures, every year, go into this folder. To look at the pictures from 2008 only, I simply click "2008" on my timeline, and the filter is applied. The editing features are simple to use. I ...

Below are some pictures of my coupon book. I don't remember where I read about this system of organization, but it has worked for me so far. I only get one set of the coupon circulars because I only shop for two people. So I used a basic 1" three ring binder. I bought a package of baseball card holders from Target for around $5. I then applied sticky tabs to the baseball card sheets to divide my coupons into categories. My categories are: Health & Beauty Aids Teeth & Shaving (a separate category because there are so many of these coupons) Household supplies (cleaning items) Laundry & Soap Paper & Plastic (ziploc bags, toilet paper, paper towel, Kleenex) Cereal & Snacks Dry goods Refrigerated & Dairy products Frozen products Medicine Misc Canned goods I only save the coupons for items that I normally buy. If the coupon is for a different brand than my usual item, I save it in case the product goes on sale and I can get it really cheap. Coupons for produ...

When my husband brought me home to our apartment, which had been his bachelor pad for several months, his ties were a mess. It wasn't his fault - he just didn't know what to do with them. And neither did I - for about 10 months! He insisted that tie hangers didn't work - the ties fell off, or you couldn't see which one you wanted. His ties were just thrown over a hanger so that whenever the hanger was bumped, the ties all slid off. I tried a fuzzy hanger so that the ties wouldn't slip so easily. It was only slightly better. I looked at many tie organization racks at different stores. I would come home and announce, "I want you to look at this tie hanger. I think it will work." It was to no avail - none of them were good enough. I saw this tie organizer at Target for about $7 (I think). I don't know what possessed me, but I bought it and took it home. It worked! It is screwed into the wall, so it is stationery and the ties don't get bumped. Each lit...

The credit for this idea goes out to my in-laws, the Hamiltons. I don't like Thanksgiving leftovers. The endless turkey. Turkey isn't my favorite to begin with, so I definitely don't appreciate it warmed up. Enter the Hamiltons and their creation of what I call the Leftover Sandwich. It's very yummy. I had one {at least} on Friday, and Sunday, and Monday. It is like a grilled cheese sandwich, but with all of the Thanksgiving ingredients. Butter a piece of bread and put it in the heated skilled, butter side down. Spread mayo on the top of the bread. Add a slice of American cheese. Add turkey. Sprinkle with stuffing/dressing. {Because it is only stuffing if it was stuffed in the bird. " See, Mr. Dallas, I was paying attention!"} Spread another piece of bread with cranberry sauce, and place it on top of your sandwich, cranberry side facing in. Butter the other side of the bread. It's probably ready to be flipped now, because you want to grill it t...

I use the Franklin Covey planner system. I love my planner! Franklin Covey has solutions for paper planners, as well as PDAs and electronic planners. There is an extensive seminar that you can take to show you how to maximize your productivity using the Franklin Covey planning system. I have never attended this seminar (it can be quite expensive), but I have read the materials that come with the planner, and I love the system. Franklin Covey starts with establishing a mission statement, recognizing your various roles, writing long term goals, and short term goals. Then you break your goals (even something as simple as meal planning or daily tasks) into manageable steps, which go on the monthly pages and then on your weekly compass, and then on your daily task list. Each item on your daily task list is prioritized by importance. The goal is to be able to focus on what is important, but not urgent (so that you are not constantly running around like a chicken with your head cut off) by u...

It's Wednesday again! With winter right around the corner, and germs floating everywhere, today I would like to share my cold-prevention remedy. It's called Emergen-C. It is a little packet of 1,000 mg of Vitamin C as 7 mineral ascorbates. It contains 32 different mineral complexes and B vitamins. You just dissolve the fizzy packet in water and drink it. And the best part is...it doesn't taste yucky! It dissolves very well (not lumpy or gloppy), and comes in several flavors that taste similar to Kool-Aid. Emergen-C is a super energy booster. You can take 2-4 packets per day as a dietary supplement. It is available in a box of 36 packets for $8.86 at Wal-Mart in the vitamin department. It is distributed by the Alacer Corp. of Foothill Ranch, CA. My mom introduced my brother and me to Emergen-C in college when we kept catching the common cold. I would take the packet to lunch in the cafeteria and drink it with my meal. It really boosts your immune system and helps to keep yo...

I live in a small apartment. When I cook, the food odor likes to stick around. I think that my neighbors can probably guess what we have for dinner every night, as long as thei olfactory sensors are in good working order. On church nights especially, when we eat supper and run out the door, I hate returning to a home that smells like stale supper. I have found something that helps to eliminate the odor quickly and pleasantly: a scented oil warmer. A friend gave me the oil warmer that is pictured below. This one in particular comes from Bath & Body Works. There are several styles, so you can pick one that meshes with the decor and style of your home. I think they are around $10. I'm sure you could find a cheaper one at Wal-Mart, or maybe Pier One Imports or another similar store. Bath & Body Works sells the bottles of scented oil in the same scents as their lotions and body washes. You are supposed to use a few drops of oil, and then burn a tealight candle underneath. In my...

It's Wednesday again, which means another addition of "Works For Me Wednesday" over at Rocks In My Dryer . Here is my latest & greatest tip: The Curves Plan. Recently my dad challenged me to a "Biggest Loser" competition for the twelve weeks prior to Christmas. We are each putting $10 a week into the pot, and the winner takes all! In order to insure that I walk away with the cash, I decided to do the Curves Meal Plan. There is a calorie sensitive plan, and a carbohydrate sensitive plan. I selected the carbohydrate plan. Once you have lost the amount of weight in your goal, the meal plan adjusts for a lifestyle of normal eating, weight maintenance, and no dieting for life. I am now halfway through my first week in Phase 2, but I am pleased to report that in Phase 1 my weight loss totalled 9 pounds! In addition to following the meal plan (which does not seem at all like a "diet" but rather just healthy eating that I track daily) I also work out for...

One of the blogs that I read, Rocks in My Dryer , hosts "Works for Me Wednesday" where readers share tips with other readers. My tip is regarding online photo printing. I have discovered that most online photo printing sites, such as snapfish , winkflash , shutterfly , and many local photo developers offer anywhere from 20-100 free prints with your first order. I have a lot of pictures to be developed from our wedding rehearsal and dinner, honeymoon, and first year together thus far. To be more cost effective, I just googled "online photo printing" and wrote down which websites offer introductory free prints. Then I have been "trying" each website out by ordering a couple of prints and taking advantage of the free prints. Essentially, you only have to pay for shipping, which is very reasonable for photos. I have received over 200 prints for free, and paid only an average of $2 in shipping cost. It works for me! Check out the other WFMW tips here .