Thursday, March 24, 2011

free in the city

I am all about free things to do, they are my favorite.  We went to the Earl Burns Miller Japanese Garden located on the Cal State University Long Beach campus today, hoping to get out and get some fresh air before the rain starts up again.  If you go,  take your quarters--a few for parking and one for fish food.  
They have funky hours, so check before you go.  And take your camera.  I hope this inspires locals to go if they have never gone, or reminds others to go back.  It is such a lovely, peaceful place.  


Here is Chloe in February of 2008.  She is so teeny!  When I posted this to flickr in 2008, I wrote "she looks so big here."  Sigh. The growing.  








Thinking of you, Japan.   










Thursday, March 17, 2011

A six-minute makeover

My husband had an idea last night, he said "I think those ugly things on the garage windows are just inserts--this weekend we should try and take them out and then maybe put some contact paper on the windows instead."  I agreed it was a brilliant idea, but I couldn't wait till this weekend!  I went out there this morning and tore them all out.  So funny, we both hated the way they looked, but never really looked at them to see if anything could be done about it, short of spending five thousand dollars on a new garage door.
They still don't match my dream garage door, but at least I don't hate it as much as I did yesterday!  
This weekend we'll see see if we need to do the contact paper for privacy or not.  

The Info:  I just gently pushed up on the inserts to pry them out from the edges.  A couple of them broke in the process, but I'm recycling those puppies anyway.  So happy to see them go.  No tools required, just a bit of muscle.  They had a ton of dirt behind them, so I quickly sprayed down and washed the garage door.  The six minutes included me taking before and after photos--I was at the peak of my coffee rush, I guess.  

This is the garage door I really want.  Time to apply for HGTV's Curb Appeal.  A fresh coat of paint and a new garage door would be so dreamy.
Benjamin Moore's Hazelwood 1005 with white trim would make a world of difference.  
Their color gallery is so much fun to play with.  






Friday, March 4, 2011


I need new glasses in a bad way.   My old ones are so scratched and the prescription isn't good anymore, basically they are good for nothing, and I need glasses.  I have a hard time sitting at the computer for any length of time without them.  All this to say, this is why I've not been blogging.  My eyes hurt.  I kept trying to find the glasses I want at a much lower price and it turns out, eyeglasses are not something you skimp on.  Really wish I'd ordered them three months ago, now I have to wait for the Vera Wang rep to come in and bring back the frames I wanted three months ago but refused to pay that amount for.  Sometimes being Superpragmatic doesn't pay.  Lesson learned.


I did hit the sale at Border's this morning, our local one is closing so everything in the store is 25% off or more.  Magazines are half off but are already really picked over.  I got two Ellie Krieger cookbooks because I love her, and while 25% off isn't usually enough for me, I have learned that if I wait for the deep discounts the ones I want will be gone.  If there are some books you've been waiting to buy, or you want to do some early holiday and birthday shopping, now's the time to go.