Our resources

I work hard to make the most of our time, money, space and natural resources.

Catching up on my life

May 10, 2011

A lot of things have been going on in our household that took my attention away from blogging but I’m hoping to be back to regular posting now. So here’s what’s new: 1. I was pregnant. Then I wasn’t. A day after we announced the pregnancy via the blog and facebook, we found out the heart had stopped beating. I was nearly 12 weeks along but the baby died at 10.5 weeks. We never found out whether “Sonic” was going to be a boy or a girl. A couple of times since then, someone has mentioned going to a...

Best thrift stores in the Twin Cities

April 27, 2011

I’ve long been loyal to Neighbors’ thrift store but I visited Valu Thrift Center in St. Paul’s Sun Ray shopping center today on my friend Kate’s recommendation. I thought I died and went to thrift heaven. I was almost to overwhelmed to start shopping. Almost. First of all, this place is huge. Second, they have an extensive selection of pretty much everything. Third, and most important, everything is really really really well organized and displayed with sizes and prices clearly marked. I went in looking for a rain jacket for Grace and shoes for Connor. I only liked one...

Down with round canisters! Maximize with squares.

November 1, 2010

This is how I used to store my flour, sugar, etc. It not messy but there is a lot of wasted space. And when I started using whole wheat flour in addition to white, I decided I wanted to fit more than four canisters here. So I bought two sets of square canisters at Walmart (where they were less than half the price as Target’s version). I filled them up, faced the spoons to the back for a cleaner look and added labels. I printed them on Post-It photo paper and cut around the design. It worked pretty well....

Have you ever timed your mornings?

October 26, 2010

On Sunday night, I participated in a Twitter #stylechat about how long it takes to get ready in the morning. Sasha asked some great questions and the participants all had great answers. The chat itself was inspired by this: Yesterday, after the chat, I timed my morning routine. First 25 minutes: Shower, dry off, put on deodorant, brush teeth, brush hair, get dressed including shoes and jewelry and eat a bowl of cereal. Second 25 minutes: Get the three kids dressed. (Mark had already fed them.) Third 25 minutes: Get two kids into shoes and jackets and get all...

Need new school clothes? Check out these consignment sales.

September 9, 2010

Every pair of shoes I put on Grace this morning were too small. We didn’t have a jacket for her to wear yesterday. I could only find one pair of tights to go with the dress she wore today, which means tomorrow I might be in trouble. Most of her pants are too short. I guess it’s time to hit the sales. If this is true for you too, here are some upcoming consignment sales in the Twin Cities. These three are run by Munchkin Markets. Admission is $1 on Saturdays or free with a nonperishable food item or...

Big uses: kitchen drawers

September 4, 2010

First up for my Big Uses for Little Spaces series is my kitchen utensils. Exciting, eh? But it’s something that has been annoying me for weeks yet took only five minutes to fix. I had a drawer for all my large kitchen utensils. But after buying some fun kid-sized utensils for Easter and some Pampered Chef items when I hosted a party, I could no longer close the drawer. Meanwhile, I had this nearly empty drawer on the other side of the stove. I put the twist ties and ziplok pages in a cabinet (which is still underused and...

Tranformation in six words

September 3, 2010

September 7. Day after Labor Day. Our lives transform in an instant. I work — first time in year. A nanny will watch the kids. Grace starts kindergarten. She is scared. Please pray we all survive unscathed.

Big uses for small spaces

September 2, 2010

“A small house can hold as much happiness as a large one.” That was on a fortune cookie I got shortly after downsizing our house (even while upsizing our family) to move to the Twin Cities. Our small house certainly does hold a lot of happiness. And a lot of chaos. It’s not as small as the minuscule places featured at LittleDiggs but it seems that the smaller the people are, the more space they take. And we have three very little people. We I purged a lot of items when we moved here. But four years and two...

Organic vs. conventional produce: Cost of the dirty dozen

August 10, 2010

The past several months, I’ve been dancing along the line between better-for-your-health and better-for-my-pocketbook food. The following ‘Dirty Dozen’ are the produce found to contain the most pesticides. I’m aiming to buy organic for these items, so how much more does one have to pay to do that? These are the best prices I’ve found for conventional and organic produce in the St. Paul area. Because produce prices vary so much by time of season, this is a list of what produce goes for in early August, whether it’s advertised as regular price, sale or a in-ad coupon. For...

I love my thrift store shoes. And the $80 ones too.

August 6, 2010

I’m going to write about clothes/fashion for the first time ever. I’m not very fashion savvy, despite my love of What Not to Wear. I’ve even been known to ask Mark if an outfit looks OK. This is the man who once wore a red T-shirt, green and gold Packer Zubaz and cowboy boots in public. I’m not lying. I used to have only a few basic pairs of shoes — tennis shoes, sandals, boots, black heels. But in the past year or two, I’ve caught the shoe bug. And now I volunteer weekly at a thrift store so...

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