madamwitty

I had been looking for some cheap cloth napkins, but not finding any, I made my own. Aren’t they pretty! Now I can stop using paper napkins. To be honest, I haven’t bought paper napkins in awhile and have just been using paper towels torn in half. So now I can feel classy and save the Earth at the same time.


I am satisfied enough with this set that I would make more in the future when these wear out, so here are the details of what I did so I can remember for next time.  It took me almost 4 hours to make a set of 16 since I had to figure out what I was doing, but doing it again would probably only take about 2.5 hours.

( How I made them... )

For those of you who aren't aware, www.retailmenot.com collects coupon codes you can look up to save money on web purchases.  And not just physical items that get shipped to you - I just saved 20% on the purchase of my current FICO scores & credit reports.  It took a little of the sting out of having to pay to look at my own financial information.

CVS basically paid me $2.50 to take all this stuff off their hands (cat not included):



For those interested in how I did it, read on.  But, don't get the idea that I spent hours doing this.  In fact, I definitely spent longer writing this post than preparing for my shopping trip.  The beauty of the internet is that other people find the basic deals for me, and I get to tweak them so they work better for me.  Plus, it's like a game/logic puzzle to me, to figure out how to get the best deal!

( How I came out ahead at CVS... )

For anyone who knows me in real life: I have plenty of extra toothpaste and deodorant (since these are things that I use slowly but there are often better-than-free ECB deals) so if you want some, I can give you some next time I see you :-)

The good news is, I tried the "soak it in water & vinegar to make the cat-pee smell go away" trick, and it worked!  The bad news is that "it" - the slipcovers for my couch - caused a stain that makes it look like somebody stomped all over my bathtub with permanent mud.  Scrubbing doesn't seem to help.  I think my best bet is to hope it fades/wears away over time, or that the rest of the enamel (which has already started peeling) will peel the rest of the way off before we move out :-)

Last night, for the first time, GOB and Gazoz were washing each other at the same time.  Very cute.

I've been asked to make a cross-stitch of Mt. Rainier for my aunt.  Over the weekend I went insane and started a 12 x 18 inch version at 14 stitches per inch.  I have since recovered from my insanity and now plan to start over on something smaller.  I might decide to keep going with the large one and finish over the course of 3-5 years...

I recently found out about a few funny websites, and thought I'd share:

Lasagna Cat: Some guy uses a green screen and costumes to make a live-action version of various lame Garfield comic strips, and then uses the footage to make a music video for each.

Flight of the Conchords on YouTube: A comedy-folk singer duo, I've only seen a couple of their songs but thought they were good.  Plus, I like the music, I had The Humans Are Dead stuck in my head for awhile this morning.

And there's an old favorite of mine, which I wanted to show Karen and Sara.  Spamusement: Self described as "Poorly-drawn cartoons inspired by actual spam subject lines."  The drawings are not quite what you would expect given the spam-based title.

Enjoy!

For the past week or so, my kitten GOB has been jumping onto my bed at 7AM sharp, demanding to be let under the covers for some snuggling.  This is, of course, just when I'm thinking, "I should *really* get out of bed now or I'll be late for work."  Today he was about 3 minutes early.

Brian and I went out for ice cream on Sunday.  We haven't done that in a really long time.  I tried the tart frozen yogurt.  I really liked it and now I can't stop thinking about it.  I think it's similar to what they serve at Pinkberry.  Now I understand why everybody's so obsessed.

Board games I must not play:
Starcraft: the board game
Risk with more than 3 players
Carcassonne

Foods I must not eat:
Ice cream (with the exception of natural vanilla, in the amount of 1 serving)

I got to meet Alexis' boyfriend Dan today; I liked him as much as I can like anybody while I'm stuck in a 6 hour board game.  I look forward to interacting with him again, in a non-board game setting.