My husband nicknamed me the DIY (Do-It-Yourself) Queen this morning. It’s true, I’ve got a habit of taking on all types of projects on a purely “learn as you go” system. From finishing my garage, putting down a new wood floor and building furniture to crocheting blankets, creating recipes and everything in between, I’ve been known to tackle a wide variety of DIY projects. I blame Grandma Luthy. I’ve heard stories and have many things crafted by her able hands. She was the kind of woman that simply made what she wanted if it weren’t available for one reason or another. My motivation isn’t as admirable as hers; my primary motivation is simply that I’m cheap. I don’t like spending money, especially on things that I know I could do myself for a fraction of the cost. Today’s share - patio furniture covers.

I have two chairs and 60″ swing that needed done. But I was sick looking around at replacement cushions. It was easily going to cost a couple hundred dollars just for replacements. Knowing their purpose, abuse and lack of use I just can’t justify that. So I googled outdoor fabric and found a discount website. I was still dismayed to see that some of the fabrics ran an average of $12 per yard, but still $50-70 is a great deal over 4-5 times that much. Then I found their clearance section and I found some durable and heavier fabric for only $2 per yard. Score! Okay, it’s straight from the early 90’s and not what I’d choose if I were going purely on what I liked, but it was okay, and I’m learning so I ordered $20 worth. It arrived yesterday afternoon.

I cut out the old batting and used plain tissue paper (from the gift wrap bag) to trace out a basic pattern. The hardest part was sewing the closing seams after the padding was in place as I don’t have a heavy duty machine, but I made it work!

And here are the results:

I’m pretty happy with my $20 purchase. Now that I’ve done it I’d even consider paying more in the future for a pattern I really like! But for now, I’m happy knowing that’s another 5 years away. *smile*

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Shopping Homemaker Sharing Potential Talents

It’s official, I’m converted. A PC/Windows owner for over 16 years, I am now officially the proud owner of the iMac.

I’m tired of buying top line PC’s only to find that within 2-3 years they’re dead or dying a slow death. When computer developers start choosing Mac machines I think it’s a good sign that maybe Mac is doing something better. My PC started having problems a year ago with slowness that we couldn’t find reasons for. Even with all the maintenance and PC tools to keep it clean it wasn’t right. Then a few months ago the system would just stop recognizing the mouse and keyboard during use. A complete power down was the only solution. Then the reboots starting bringing up new error screens and boot up process started getting skewed. It would take multiple off/on attempts to get the machine back up and running. I backed up everything (twice and in two different places!) and hoped it would limp along for a while longer. Yesterday the blue screen of death reared its ugly head and I knew my time was coming to a quick end. In short, a top of the line HP media computer purchased less than 3 years ago was good for 2 years, needed the screen replaced within the first year and started dying the 3rd year. Worse is it’s the 3rd time in the past 7 or so years that the cycle has repeated. That just makes me cranky.

The change has been working for a while now. I’m only married to about 3 software packages, 2 of which can be purchased for the Mac and the other has a Mac equivalent. Most everything I do is online now. 5 years ago I probably couldn’t have lived without my programs, today there are more that I don’t use than I do and those just slow a system down. The Internet connection is more important than any boxed software now for me. These things certainly helped pave the way to transition.

Add to this, for Mother’s Day I got my first iPod and fell in love (yes the iPhone is on the wish list now too!) iTunes rocks and not only does it let me get and control my own music preferences, it also has some slick movie and TV episode download options. This is a perfect fit for our TV free home of the past 10 months. And the final straw comes down to my favorite word: simplicity. One plug, one unit in a flat panel and I have everything including built-in speakers. Yes, that’s a tear of joy rolling down my cheek.

So here’s my new baby.

It made its arrival not a moment too soon. I plugged her in, she welcomed me, took my picture for my profile, found my wireless connection, located my Apple account information and starting working like a dream. It gave new meaning to plug and play. She so quiet I can’t believe she’s running. Her speakers and sound are awesome, the 24 inch screen is a thing of beauty and the crisp images and photos are unreal. I’m adjusting to the sleek, flat keyboard and the typos are decreasing with each passing hour.

My only critique at this point is wishing I had more USB ports and media card reader. However, both those can be remedied with inexpensive add on devices. The learning curve has been pretty speedy, I’m still learning how to navigate my new system and organize things the way I want but it’s been fast and fun so far. The mouse is pretty cool with the ball on top allowing rolling in all directions not just up and down. I haven’t found the “right click” solution/option yet but no worries, I’ll find it eventually. My daughter foamed at the mouth with the little remote that came which pulls up a full screen control for media of TV episodes, movies, music and photos. She can’t wait to dig in to that. As if all this isn’t reason enough to make me happy, my kids work on Macs in their schools which means I’ll be better equipped to help them and what they do at home will be more familiar on the computer for them. It will also make my volunteer time there more helpful, now I’ll know both systems.

So I’m a happy, learning, busy bee today. So much to learn so little time…

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Shopping Blogging

It’s official, we’ve graduated - from the minivan stage that is.

I have no complaints about my ‘05 Toyota Sienna beyond the fact that it was a minivan. The convenience and practicality of a minivan with young children was simply too big to discount any longer than we already had. I did fully love the ability to open and close sliding doors with the touch of a button, not to mention the fact that it drove like a car. But I was never in love with the look of a minivan, even though Vin Diesel drove the same make and model (right down to the color of ours) in “The Pacifier” and I made it nearly four years. So there were no tears shed by me to trade it in for our new Pathfinder.

Up until last week we were looking at the 300M but we couldn’t ignore the fact that it would be a huge inconvenience when grandparents came to visit that we couldn’t fit 6 people in it. So we started looking at mid-size options and after an eternity at the dealership Friday night drove home in my new baby.

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Shopping Sharing Blogging

I love Kohl’s. Don’t get me wrong, I hate shopping but I love saving money. A few weeks ago my husband and I braved the store for some shopping. With all their 40-60% off sales we not only got more than we had planned but kept shaking our heads walking out the door at how little it cost and how in one stop we’d done nearly all our shopping. From that trip I got $30 toward my next purchase at their store and a 20% off coupon in the mail to boot. So yesterday I forced myself to go out again so as not to waste the $30.00 which expires today or the extra 20% off coupon which expires Monday.

The kids are getting their toys for Christmas and this year my hubby and I are getting a dining room table - a nice one. It’s being delivered on Monday. My daughter is so excited to use my wedding china for our Christmas dinner and on a new table to boot. So I was thinking a great place to put the $30 was toward a nice table cloth/setting for our Christmas dinner. Well at first I was intimated because our table is huge and the size table cloth I’d need was $49.99 by itself. Then I saw the 60% off signs everywhere. So I got all this (over $100 of price tags) for…..drum roll please……

….a whopping $13.40! Now that’s my kind of Christmas surprise.

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Shopping Homemaker Holidays Blogging

Need I say more? No, but I will because it’s my blog and I’ll blog if I want to. *giggle*

Consumers continue to experience the great rip off. It just slays me how companies constantly reduce the quantity, size and/or quality of their products yet their price tags only experience growth. Hmmmmm. Most of the time they’re pretty sneaky starting reduction in small increments so you may actually wonder if it really used to be bigger or if you just have a hazy memory. Another favorite is to go straight to packaging where they’ll reduce the quantity to make it fit. Then they’ll slap an ad on the front saying something like 30% more free! Free my arse, we’re paying more for less but this is supposed to give us a warm fuzzy about it. Another great tactic is to change something and then wait for a period of time reintroducing the old as new. This morning I saw my first Trix commercial showing round shapes as new. I nearly laughed myself silly all the while my kids are looking at me like I’ve finally lost my marbles. I guess it is new to them, but hopefully they’ll join me for a giggle when in a few years they reintroduce the fruit shapes as new.

I feel like the leading lady in the movie “Misery”, you know the part where she’s screaming about getting ripped off when the cliff hanger of your favorite movie or show ends with a car going over the mountain but the next show continues changing it so the car never actually went over. I know that feeling of wanting to stand up and scream to the entire audience that you’ve just been ripped off that they just changed it to trick everyone. In fact, it was the first thing that popped in my head when I took this picture showing how the double stuff Oreo is now what the original was. Maybe they’re gearing up for the introduction of the triple stuff cookie so we can finally get a real double stuff again.

I don’t mean to sound so pessimistic but what happened to letting inflation just be more for the same? I’d even be okay paying more for more. But I’m really growing tired of paying the same and/or more for less. Pretty soon the normal size roll of toilet paper will have all of three squares and we’ll run out of words beyond “mega.” *laugh*

Rest assured that it’s not your imagination that packages are getting smaller or products are not all they used to be. It’s part of the great consumer rip-off….errr corrective….errr deception program. Ah call it whatever you want, just know it’s real. *wink*

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Shopping Food Blogging

We went out and bought a new computer monitor last night. I lamented having to do it and the entire process took WAY too long, but boy was I glad for timing this morning when I woke to find my old monitor had died in the night. So this morning I hooked up the new one and can I just say “Behold there was light and it is good!” LOL I’m so glad I can keep up with my computer activities today! I got a 19″ wide screen this time with a good brand name behind it. Hopefully this one lasts more than a year! *wink*

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Shopping Blogging

Darn it anyway. Two items in my home that receive A LOT of use are dying on me. My computer monitor and our TV. Naturally, they would start crapping out at the same time. *frown*
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If this is the first Simple Balance tip you’ve read, make sure you click on the rainbow image as it will take you to the index and overview of the series. ;o)

So, it’s the holidays and most people are feeling the sense of the hustle and bustle that go with it. As I was sitting here thinking this morning, I realized how much of what I wanted to say fit so well with this series. So today you get a quadruple whammy as tips will cover: Organizing & Planning, Technology & Resources, Family & Entertainment as well as Cooking & Shopping!
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It was about this time two years ago when we purchased our last car. The holiday season was approaching and we had a year of long distance travels coming up. We knew we needed something that worked better for our family. My back couldn’t continue taking the constant reaching and stretching to restart the movie on the laptop every time it got bumped, and my nerves sure couldn’t take many more long road trips with our two kids getting more verbal and active with each other. As you can see from these pictures, the decision made everyone happy travelers!
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Okay this one is the easiest tip so far. It’s something that helps with both cooking and shopping.

Cooking & Shopping Tip: FoodSaver

If you don’t have one, get one. They are awesome and a worthwhile investment. Mine has paid for itself several times over. It’s several years old and not nearly as sleek looking as the new models but it still works great and I’ve put a lot of miles on it. Here’s what I love about mine:
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