Sassy Black Friend

That man of mine

As usual, the boyfriend provides much of the entertainment in my life. He’s in total manly organization mode, and is hilarious about it.

We’ve gone to building supply stores three times this week so he can “work on the basement.” So far that means trying to find places to put his new toys. I drew the line at a barcode scanner, though it was pretty fun. There are a lot more uses than I’d thought at first. Maybe for his birthday.

Bathroom armageddon

It’s clear that the boyfriend and I have been together too long. We had a twenty minute argument this morning about the shower curtains we’ve been talking about buying. The idea was to get a matched set so both of the bathrooms have the same colors and design. But he’s decided the upstairs should be different (complete with plans to paint), so the curtains won’t work.

In the end we decided to keep the ones we ordered. The dog ate half the last one, so even if we only use it for one bathroom it’ll need replacing eventually.

And yes, I realize that’s a stupid thing to fight about. But we’re lacking in serious relationship issues so this is all we’ve got. And do’t worry, we got over it quickly. Next fight will likely be about packing up the car tomorrow morning. Ah, love.

It’s finally here

By “it” I am referring to my new chair. Well, actually “they” are here. The boyfriend and I both ordered arm chairs for the den since there isn’t room for a couch in there. Yes, we could have gotten a loveseat to cuddle on, but blech. He’s got cooties. We usually use the room to read anyway, and can’t do that while cuddling.

After weeks of arguing about which designer upholstery fabric would complete our lives, we decided to get different but complementary fabrics. And they rock. The room is painted and looks incredible. Someone should put it in a magazine.

Cookware matters

For the longest time I refused to spend a lot of money on cookware. I figured as long as I knew what I was doing in the kitchen, I could use whatever my local Big Box store had to offer and still make good food. Fast forward a few years to me replacing everything in my kitchen for the second or third time, and I finally came to my senses.

Yes, it can be painful to shell out over a hundred bucks for a knife. But it will last forever, take sharpening well, and make the work you do with it faster and better.

And aside from being beautiful, cooking in le creuset makes the food taste better. I’ll never braise in cheap junk again.

Think about cookware like appliances. Investing in quality up front will more than pay for itself in quality and length of use.

Gold I say

I’m not a big jewelry person, frankly. Most of the nice pieces I own were gifts from family. But a friend was asking me about the whole cash for gold thing, so I looked into it. I’m impressed. It seems a lot of people have a ton of pieces (chains especially) that are either not their style or not in good condition. Instead of just keeping this stuff, you can trade them in tons of places for cash. In person or online mail-in stores. It’s a great way to make some extra money, and in this economy, the price of gold is actually very strong, so it makes sense. Check those jewelry boxes.

Side Projects

This weekend I helped Little Mama (nee Little Sister) with a new project she’s starting. Her pregnancy is making her very tired, so she’s been taking a lot of time off work already. I told her she needed a hobby to take her mind off things, something she can do in small or larger bursts of time.

So, the darling thing is making jewelery. She’s always been kind of crafty and this is an easy, cheap way to keep herself entertained. Plus, cute stuff for her friends and family (me). We bought a million cool Beads and chains and some other clamp/tweezer things that I have no idea about.

If you can do it, this is a wonderful way to get the perfect item for a reasonable price. No more wishing the chain was a little different or the pendant was slightly larger. Just make it the way you want it. And then discover Etsy.