Crafty Reveal

I've been waiting to post some pictures until I had everything finished, but of course something went awry and it's not done. Not like I haven't waited years to get things in working order anyway, so what's a few more weeks?

The mobile creation was a success. I can't say that about most of my crafty endeavors, which is why I rarely entertain them. I can admire, but just don't have the care or patience to really finish a project that involves sewing machines or hot glue guns. Just not my thing.

This only involved my printer, scissors, cardstock, and hemp twine. I can handle that. Template for the birds found here.

The wall will have this in dark grey. 

It arrived, we had it taped and ready to go... started peeling... and bam. Wrong color. Silver is not dark grey, my friends. It's not. Back to Amazon it went and we'll try again soon. Here's the mobile hanging in all its glory. We're quite proud of our $7 mobile created by yours truly. Too bad B thinks crib sleeping is for the birds. Hah. Birds. Get it? Sleep deprivation jokes at their finest. Guess who might be teething and is now waking every two hours at night? Not surprising as I'm reminded that my brother and I were the same way at such an early age.

The top of the Ikea bookshelf has a bird I found at a thrift store during my pregnancy with Andrew. I sanded it down, painted it white and added another successful craft project to my miniature repertoire. The letters are to represent my kidlets, and the sign in the middle reads Love You to the Moon and Back. It was given to us by good friends for Andrew's birthday. I wrote to Andrew in one of my letters and said those words. Now B has those words to cherish as well.

The blue chest was not in there when we were decorating for Andrew. We brought it up from the basement where it used to house our wedding stuff and costumes (who doesn't love a good mullet wig?) and decided it will be B's to keep. Every Air Force Academy cadet receives one of these, among other things. It's now being passed down to B from his dad. So sweet.

The A & B pillows on the rocking chair were made by my same amazing blog friend, Katie, who made B's interchangeable bowtie onesies. The blanket was made by my mom, B's grandma. As for the curtains... anyone have any ideas on making them blackout?

We have no wall space left in B's room, otherwise we'd hang our latest acquisition: B's first stock. When I was pregnant with B, Ray decided that if he lived, he would purchase his very first stock for him and have it framed. We searched the stocks available that you can purchase and have sent to you. We decided on something that would be suitable for children (candy) and a local company, Tootsie Roll. When B moves out of the nursery and into his next bedroom, we'll hang it for him. Until then... on the mantle it stays.

Also on the mantle is another craft project I've been working on. I pinned this on Pinterest, found some map templates online, purchased some old maps from a consignment store for $3, re-purposed the frame that used to hang above the crib as a placeholder for something much better (that never happened before Andrew died) and came up with this:

I'm not entirely thrilled with it, but that's what we've got so far since B managed to take a five hour nap one day a couple weeks ago. It hasn't happened since, so therefore it remains as-is for now. It's actually wax paper backing and I'd prefer something like burlap. My mom recommended a dark blue. Since the maps are obviously not to scale, it was challenging to include the places we're from and currently live while trying to maintain some sense of the state. Obviously California is not ocean. But I wanted to use the cutout of the state itself and show where I'm from originally. Unfortunately, it looks like I'm from the middle of the state when I'm actually from the southern portion just 2ish hours from the Mexican border. Should've thought of that. And Ray isn't from the center of Maryland either. The Illinois map is the most accurate as we do live in the north part of the state just west of Lake Michigan. Also, the hearts are pieces of red paper I found on the label of Ray's magazine, The Economist. Since I re-purposed that frame (that cost me around $16 back in 2010), this whole project was less than $20 so far. I need to figure out what to do with that backing.

Here's what I paid $3 for at consignment. Nice, old, vinyl National Geographic maps that may or may not still have the U.S.S.R. labeled.

Also, we bought this. In June. 

Because it was an amazing deal for Memorial Day weekend and I scored $32 cash back on my purchase through ShopatHome. My next check in July will be for $127.08 since we apparently spend way too much online and have that much in cash back to show for it. Haha. I'd like to hope that next winter we'll be spending less time shoveling and more time together watching B walk around the house and become an overall menace to society. Can't wait. 

Another food post coming soon. This one involves the use of my blender. Get excited.

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What a Difference a Year Makes

You already know. But reading this post makes my heart skip a few beats. I'm sure I don't have to do any explaining on that one.

At the very least, I am absolutely thankful to have been pregnant with both of my boys on consecutive Thanksgivings. Little baby kicks are always a great reminder that although life may suck sometimes, it could be worse. There are some diamonds of happiness amidst the gloom and doom it's felt like over the past year. This weekend was definitely evidence of that.

We made it our goal to create a massive list of random things to do around the house that would occupy the four days off we have together this weekend. We weren't planning to get crazy and tear apart more of our basement or paint any more rooms, but we sure did create a good list. We spent much of the actual Thanksgiving day hanging out together. We went for a walk in the local forest preserve, watched some football, and ate some harvest pasta sent over by my SIL. We might make Thanksgiving walks our yearly tradition if it's not icy and completely miserable outside. What's Thanksgiving really about, anyway? I made a homemade pumpkin pie for the very first time and homemade pizzas for dinner. The husband mentioned that he was only sad that he was missing out on pumpkin pie-- hence the creation. I didn't have cloves and I didn't measure the cinnamon because my husband tells me that cinnamon does not need to be measured since "you can never have too much cinnamon". Except it came out tasting like cinnamon pie and not traditional pumpkin pie. How fitting for a non-traditional Thanksgiving. I just want to comment that pre-dating, he thought it would be fun to put cinnamon in my pasta. It was d-i-s-g-u-s-t-i-n-g and I was legitimately annoyed. I've always disagreed with his cinnamon mentality. I think he finally realized you can have too much of a good thing by way of cinnamon in pumpkin pie. I didn't have any moments of what if throughout the day, although now that I type that...

Harvest pasta for lunch...

 CINNAMON pie. But look at that completely homemade (yes, crust too!) pie! I suck at baking, but I was actually impressed with the way this looked.

Taco pizza. While in the Quad Cities last weekend, I saw a taco pizza on a menu and decided I would try my hand at one. It was fine, but nothing to brag about. I guess if I used ground beef it would've been better? But then I wouldn't have eaten any. Here was the before photo.

Here's our standard BBQ chicken/black bean pizza that I love making and we both love eating. Mmm. Definitely our go-to. I've photographed it before on the blog, but it's basically TJ's pizza dough rolled out and topped with BBQ sauce, corn, black beans, shredded chicken, scallions/shallots/onions-- whatever you have on hand or like, mozzarella, and cilantro. The trick to using a pizza stone is something we have finally mastered after years of failure. Heat the pizza stone at a high temp first. Then add the already flattened dough (with a dusting of cornmeal on the bottom) and cook it in the oven for a few minutes (trick from our friend Kristi). Take it out, use a metal spatula to loosen any sticking dough from the stone, top the pizza, then cook. It doesn't stick and the dough comes out fully cooked and amazing! Also, another trick to the TJ's dough. It likes to pull back when you roll it out, so I take it out of the bag and cover it with a light amount of flour. Let it rest for 20 minutes at room temperature. Start to roll out and then let it sit for a minute or two at a time when experiencing too much opposition from the dough. It rolls out after a short break and works amazingly!

Here's the taco pizza after cooking/adding cilantro. They kind of look the same but they're definitely not! I used a refried bean and salsa base, added olives, jalapeno, shredded chicken, more onion, cilantro, cheddar/jack and a drizzling of taco sauce. Forgot the crushed tortilla chips! It was good, but I think we'll be sticking with our standard tortillas for taco fillings and BBQ chicken/black bean pizza for our homemade variety from here on out.

Friday was a fantastically perfect day. Chicago is normally in a deep freeze by this time in the year and Friday was 55 degrees! I know. I can barely contain my own excitement either. We were outside almost the entire day. We deep cleaned the interior of each of our cars, vacuumed, washed, and waxed them. It was a little bittersweet because I remember doing that while I was largely pregnant with Andrew last fall as well. Ugh. Then we swept the deck, tackled the crazy roots on our crabapple tree, picked up sticks in our yard, bagged leaves, and swept the garage of all the residual fall leaves. We also ordered new tires for my car and had Ray's tires rotated. We even called a gutter guy to come clean our very full gutters. He arrived and sat on our roof. Then he left his supplies and disappeared. When he returned, he packed up and said he'd have to come back the next day. Never showed today as it rained all. day. long. Gah. I tried a trick to clean out our oven using only baking soda and water thanks to a friend's pin on pinterest. It worked pretty darn well. We organized and cleaned and basically utilized every chance we had to be outside sans jackets.

No Black Friday this year. We all know how heartbreaking that starter train set was to purchase last year, only to have my son die and deliver him 10 days later. It didn't mean we didn't partake in purchasing some things at ridiculously great prices, but we surely weren't waiting in line at the stores. We finally purchased a ventless gas fireplace for our family room. But don't think we didn't find the best deal around! We purchased three $100 Lowe's gift cards at our local grocery store that was running a promo-- buy $100 in gift cards and get $20 in free groceries at their store! We bought 3... so $60 in free groceries! Also, we used ShopAtHome and got 6% cash back as well for that online purchase. We definitely maximized our savings.

 In addition, I finally pulled the trigger on purchasing my dreamy boots. Shoemall had them on sale for 20% off with free shipping. Then, I paired that with the 18% ShopAtHome was giving me for my purchase and it brought the boots down from $190 to about $125! I know. Sometimes I surprise myself with these amazing deals. No more big Wilson purchases... we've exceeded our limit! But man is our house super nice with that new fire. I can't wait to share what I bought the husband for his 30th birthday! Post to come in a couple weeks...

Today was an excellent day as well... except for the stupid rain. It was nice and warm still, but the rain was relentless. We ran some errands, Ray put together our new fireplace, I graded papers, did laundry, picked up Ray's shoes from this incredibly good cobbler in town that made them look brand-spankin' new, and watched some more football. Oh, and did I forget to mention that I met a lovely lady and her equally wonderful husband {from the blogosphere}? I'd like to credit us on both being bloggers before our lives were turned upside down, but we have a ton in common that includes losing our firstborn babies within a day of one another also. Not exactly how you want to meet people, but thankful for meeting two really great people in person and having that instant understanding only we loss parents have. And they were normal! And stylish! And adorable! I look overly bloated with baby fat (because I am), but she's pretty adorbs. Nothing like hanging out with people that totally get you. We've felt so abnormal for the last year of our lives that it was really great to feel like we actually "fit" with others.

Off to stop neglecting my husband. Oh, and someone asked for my email. If you click on our thumbnail photo on the right-hand side of the blog, it will take you to a page with my contact info or click here. :)

Happily Distracted

I have about 5 blog posts just sitting in my drafts right now. Random thoughts that are unfinished lay waiting for me to write more, or as I often do, delete. Sometimes I just need to get what I'm thinking in writing, but what I am thinking is not necessarily appropriate or not formulated into enough of a thought that is worth sharing. Many people read this and I have some face to save since this was a Wilson blog before a Baby Loss blog.

I wrote a lot today. I finished reading one book and ordered two books based entirely from BLM recommendations and reviews. Brooke alone sold me on Resilience by Elizabeth Edwards and so many of you women have now encouraged me to purchase An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination. In true frugal-Brandy style, I purchased both through ShopAtHome (5% back-- so what if it's only about 50 cents!) and from half.com for around 11 bucks, shipped.

This post is a complete brain drain. It's all kinds of random and partly made out of feeling at peace during a week I thought would be very difficult. Many of you know from my former blog posts that my husband is out of town. He flew far, far away to Germany for business and is over halfway through his visit there. Or as we like to say, only three sleeps until he's home! He left last Saturday and will be arriving back home this Saturday. I cannot wait. Since this is the first time he has left the country without me since we began dating in 2006, I was nervous. You all know the whole hyperventilating bit I posted in my last entry. And on the wings of "losing" our son (hate that term, but have a hard time finding anything synonymous), I was downright terrified. The fear hasn't left because he still has to fly back home over that very large ocean on Saturday. And the month isn't over-- he has about 16 total days out of town this month on FOUR round trip airplane flights. Oy vey.

When he's gone, I have learned that in order to function on any level outside of sleeping and sulking all day, I need to be kept busy. Luckily, I have some local friends who know this. I remember telling them in the hospital when they all came to visit just 24 hours after we delivered Andrew that I needed them to keep us busy. This week has proven just that. In time of need, my friends rally! I'm exhausted and feeling content despite missing my husband. I'm not nervous right now because he is on soil. Maybe it's not the same soil I'm on, but at least he's not suspended in the air. Yet.

Here's my schedule while he's gone:

Saturday 4/2: cry hysterically, fondue/face mask/girl fun with 7 friends at my house followed by a few wonderful friends spending the night (in guest beds--needed to clarify so you'd see it was all class, no trash. Haha).
Sunday 4/3: zumba, shopping with a friend, dinner with friends
Monday 4/4: sub w/ booger-pickers (aka pre-k through 1st grade), dinner & Bible study with friends
Tuesday 4/5: another day with the booger-pickers, zumba
Wednesday 4/6: sub middle school, spin class, dinner with a friend at this awesome place (anyone a yelper out there besides me?)
Thursday 4/7: sub 4th grade, zumba, TV night with a friend
Friday 4/8: sub 2nd grade, dinner with friends, watching a sleeping 2-yo (can't use the word babysitting for some reason... argh) for some friends-- aka: date with my laptop.
Saturday 4/9: zumba, probably a Target date with myself (if I could be in love with a store....), pick up my most amazing husband at the airport and squeeze him sooooo tight!

Love the busy schedule, especially when I need it most. I think exercising has no doubt helped my mood and given me a nice release for all the frustrations and sadness I've been feeling... but our zumba membership is almost over. I don't want to grow tired of it, so I won't be signing up for another session. I think it's the perfect winter workout when living in the Arctic like we do here in Chicago. I won't commit to a gym membership but I enjoy the class atmosphere as it gives me something to look forward to as a scheduled event. Anyone in a class they particularly love? I thought about yoga but a friend mentioned that the BLM brain may click on full blast during the slow movement and time for deep thought. Could be more detrimental than beneficial, no?

Window Shopping & Weekend Adventures

I'm not much of a shopper-- probably because I hate wasting money. As a whole, my husband and I value experiences over things, so shopping isn't something we spend the majority of our money on; unless you count food purchases as shopping, in which case the majority of our credit card bill is shopping for that. But just because I don't shop that often doesn't mean I don't like nice things and appreciate fashion. I usually just window shop for them or wait for a crazy-good deal at the Gap. With that said, yesterday morning I decided to do a little shopping online. I wanted some new casual tennis shoes to replace my usual Jack Purcell shoes. I needed something new for spring/fall when Uggs are too warm and flip flops are too cool. Here's what I came up with:

...and for $50 total, I am now awaiting their arrival at my doorstep. It's all that time spent in Europe that has me wanting Euro-inspired tennis shoes. I'm kicking myself for not buying them there since the variety is so much better. I use ShopAtHome for just about every purchase online. I will be getting 12% back from that purchase (around $6) just for buying through their link. They're like Ebates, but I think they have higher cash-back percentages.

Something I've also wanted since moving to colder climates (plural = Germany/Illinois) are boots. Like a nice pair of boots and not Uggs-- though I have two pair and love them dearly. I wanted something a little more fashionable that could be worn with just about anything. I never feel quite right wearing Uggs out to a nice restaurant. While I don't own a pair yet since I feel a boot purchase is similar to jeans shopping (oh, the dread!), I think something like these might suit my fancy...

...and my first {out of the ordinary} shopping post wouldn't be fitting unless I posted a thing or two from my very favorite clothing store on the planet, Anthropologie. I think this dress is simple and just my style. I love the two-tone yellow/gray pairing.

...completely absurd and out of my price range, but lovely all the same is this amazing hobo purse. Now someone just tell me what normal human being would purchase this $600 purse and not feel like wrapping it in a protective coating before taking it out in public. Set it down on the floor, gasp!

So there you have it. I'm also in the market for a new purse-- one that is black, crushed leather (not shiny), reasonably priced (under $100) and maybe a tad smaller than that Anthro purse above. Anyone have a purse they love that's worth sharing? It needs to last me a long time. I hate spending money on purses for some reason... so sturdy and trusty preferred.

As for the weekend... we Ray accomplished quite a bit in the family room, and we spent some quality time with friends. On Saturday morning I went to my zumba class. I love the instructor on Saturdays, but hate the studio the class is held in. There are far too many people in such a small space and I wish there was more room to branch out. Normally it's held in the gym, but not on weekends.

Ray began scraping the popcorn from the ceiling in our family room and was doing very well... until... he reached the 3rd (of 4) sections. The previous owners attempted to scrape the popcorn but gave up. It wouldn't matter, except they decided to paint over the area they attempted to scrape. It would have been better off had they just left it be. Scraping popcorn + extra paint = impossible! We have a goal to complete the final bits of scraping/sanding the ceiling before starting the wallpaper. Though, we peeled a bit very quickly and it came off like a breeze! The paper is a grainy texture just like our office was-- and that was the least difficult of 4 rooms we've already stripped. I'm probably speaking too soon, but we're thrilled that our last wallpaper room could be relatively easy on that end! Now to finish the dang ceiling...

Last night we had dinner with 3 other couples at a local Indian restaurant. With the help of restaurant.com, we paid $20/couple for all-you-can-eat dinner buffet! The Allens, Fergusons, and Nelsons joined us for a good time of spicy food and conversation. {Why do all of our last names end in n? Weird, right?} The Nelsons are new to the crew and we wanted to welcome them in. My friend Alli should be credited for setting up the fun shindig and we all really enjoyed ourselves. Nevermind the text message I got from her this morning about only having one bathroom at their house after a night full of Indian cuisine. Hahaha. For the record, it doesn't affect me that way, thank goodness.

At one point in the dinner, the Nelsons asked what I did for a job. I didn't really know what to say, honestly. We were out at dinner with two couples that we're quite close with and this new couple, but I didn't feel it was the time nor place to drop the bomb of sadness on two unsuspecting individuals. They are new to the group, I didn't want them feeling sad/awkward, and I didn't think that a couple of less than 6 months into their marriage needed to hear the harsh reality of life/death quite yet. I guess I also wanted them to keep experiencing new marital bliss like we had for 2.5 years prior to Andrew's death.

So I answered with a simple "nothing" and then went on to explain that I was a teacher but am now a sub for the time being. She asked if I am seeking full-time employment and I told her I was not. How can I avoid sounding entitled/boring/lame/lazy without fully divulging all the heartbreak and reasoning? I could have said that we're hoping to become pregnant soon, but then I'd probably have to deal with the whole, how exciting, first time parent comments... when I know becoming pregnant again will provide hope but will be anything but exciting. It will be downright terrifying if I'm being honest.

Regardless, we carried on with the dinner without letting the whole sad cat out of the bag. If they choose to hang with our crew much longer, they'll be sure to learn the sadness. But part of me wanted them to get to know Brandy and Ray without sadness-- for them to see the carefree, fun-loving couple we used to be and still cling to.

...In the Summer of '69 ... I mean... twenty-ten.

Over the past couple weekends, we've explored the land and listened to some great music. Those of you who know me personally may know that I love Bon Jovi. So do all the middle-aged, single women in America, it turns out. But I already knew that. You should've seen the train we took downtown. Cougar town.

When my awesome husband saw tickets on groupon for $30-- gasp -- I couldn't believe it. That price included the ticket fees and everything. So for not nosebleed seats, we got to see a concert that people pay hundreds for! (If you haven't joined that website, it's basically a site that tells you great deals in your area for each day. Sometimes you can buy a gift card to a restaurant for 60% off, concert tickets, comedy club tickets, hotel stays, entertainment, baseball game tickets, broadway and off-broadway shows, spa visits... it's basically everything entertainment/experience based and you get a huge discount. But, once the deal for the day sells out, it sells out. And they always do...)

...while I'm on topic, I should mention Shop At Home again. I love this website because all you have to do is go to it, enter the store you want to shop for, and it automatically takes a percentage off the purchase and refunds you. Once you bank $20, they send you a check. I've been a member for 6 months and I've received two checks, totaling $60 on items I already shop for online. It's just a nice kickback for items you're already going to buy online. If you're anything like me, packages come weekly to our house. Especially with a baby coming, the crib and all things related have given us some nice extra cashflow. That 5% of $25 can add up quite nicely. Okay, done with rant. I love craigslist, restaurant.com and swagbucks, too.

Here's the man himself doing his thing.

Here's where we saw the concert... Soldier Field! I've never ever seen a pro football (or college football) game live, so this was as close as I've been-- in the Bears stadium! It was pretty sweet. Oh, and those people on the floor paid approximately 90% more than we did for our tickets. Hehe.

Kid Rock opened for Bon Jovi and during this opening... the Stanley Cup was presented for some reason. There was a big Blackhawks festival going on downtown that day and we're assuming that the Stanley Cup made its rounds to the stadium for publicity. You can't see it, but the guy in the middle is holding it. Sucks to have a crappy camera sometimes. Anyone have camera recommendations? We're going to be in the market for a new one soon... and please don't say Canon.

Bon Jovi and Kid Rock did a duet at one point (saw that coming, right?) and it was pretty cool... and also the clearest picture my camera could handle taking.

 Here's the man who makes my whole world a whole lot more exciting. <3

That was a fun night. We took the train downtown, walked to the stadium, had dinner, saw a concert, and walked swiftly back (sadly missing Livin' on a Prayer during the encore though hearing it outside the stadium and singing it loudly) to the train-- making it by 5 minutes! It was the last train of the evening, so we're sure glad we made it.

Somewhere in between concert going, we headed about 4 miles from our house for the "largest, free vegetarian festival in the state" or something like that. Basically, we think it was an outreach for some spiritual organization. We received the flier for the fest at an Indian restaurant we visited. Best sighting in our hour there was seeing a strange hemp lady in a turban and white yoga pants sitting in a tree. In a tree. Yeah. Reasons I don't like being associated with vegetarians out there... they are a bit on the "interesting" side and I don't know we have much in common aside from what goes on our plates during meal time.

After the Veggie Fest this past weekend, we headed to another stadium, the First Midwest Bank Ampitheatre in Tinley Park (read: middle'o'nowhere). Two weeks ago I was reading one of the many deal blogger's blogs that I read daily and they mentioned that Live Nation (formerly ticketmaster) was doing a $10 ticket promotion in many states for many shows. I had looked once before and nothing interesting was found in our area. Until, I looked again. Not only is this Brooks & Dunn's last tour ever, but they're awesome... and the tickets were $10! Sure, they were lawn seats, but the lawn is not nosebleed at this stadium like it is at the Irvine Ampitheatre in California. We were sitting maybe 30 feet higher than the people in seats on the ground level. It was awesome! Including ticket fees and shipping of the tickets to our house, we paid $20 for two people to see the concert! And... even better... parking at the FMBA is free! We immediately called our friends, Derrick & Liz, as they are also country fans. They bought 2 tickets and we had a great night. On that note... it appears that country fans are sparse here in the Midwest! Who would've thought? We have few friends who would actually enjoy this kind of concert. I guess the cool cats still think country isn't cool? Maybe that's why we were able to get $10 tickets! I'm not complaining about their hating. :)

Here we are listening to Gary Allen (I know, $10 tickets!) play before Brooks & Dunn came on stage.

...as if I could post anything about a weekend without a post about home improvement! Aside from Ray painting and staining the molding in our baby's room, he also tended to the walls downstairs, again.

We thought this wall of our new formal living room looked a bit funny with just the center photo. We love the photo, but it seemed to get lost in the room. We decided to print off two more photos we took from our Europe escapades (left: Venice taken from our hotel room; right: Gaudi Park in Barcelona-- both taken with our former Canon camera. Such great photos, not the longest lasting camera at 1.5 years of life) and get them framed. By get them framed... you should know by now that I'm all about the deals... so we found two frames last night at Target with matting that matched for $16.99 each. Score! All is complete.

By the way... I have been linking a lot more lately just because I think it's fun to compare former blog posts (since I have posted nearly a hundred) to what is going on with us now. It's fun for me to flashback.

A Few of MY Favorite Websites

I read A LOT of blogs. Ever since we moved to Germany for 6 months (that time flew by!), I have been reading a lot of blogs to stay connected to the world, learn how other expats cope, etc. I found a lot of really great people with really interesting stories. Some of those people are listed on the right of this page. Others, I follow in blogger just to get their updates. I am following a cool teacher in Germany, teachers in Illinois, people in our new neighborhood, and all kinds of good stuff--in addition to my real-life friends. It's honestly more interesting than television. There are also crazy coupon cutter (most stay at home moms) ladies who teach me a whole lot about saving money. Since we're in the process of {trying to} buy a house, it's nice to be in-the-know. Though, I don't think I can ever be as devoted as these ladies.

Aside from learning a ton about saving money--something I'm already fairly good at--I learned about some new websites that I now used daily or as time allows. Here are a couple of those:

ShopAtHome - This site is awesome. I buy stuff online ALL the time and actually prefer it to shopping in stores. I usually get free shipping codes and things end up being cheaper. I have recently gone to this website and typed in the store I want (recent purchases made from The Body Shop, Macy's, Godiva, Barnes & Noble) and they give you a percentage back from your purchase. For example, we bought chocolate for my wonderful sister-in-law and got $1.92 back. I am up to $14.04 just for using the link to any website on Shop at Home. It takes zero minutes extra and it's totally great.

Swagbucks - This one is more work and I'm still not sure it's worth it... but since I just earned a $10 Amazon card just for using their search engine (which is a little annoying, but if you use it once a day, you'll have about a $10 gift card ready for redemption in a maximum of 3 months since usually it will award you 10 free "bucks" per day). I like that I'm getting a free $10 Amazon card, though, I'm not going to lie. Some people get really into it and have purchased like a Wii and other expensive items just on free Amazon cards... so if you're dedicated, you can make some dough. I'm just a lazy user... so it took me a couple months.

Redfin - What a great website for home buyers who are prepared. If you are on a time crunch, want to save money, want to make your own decisions, or just plain hate the idea of a real estate agent running your home-buying show, this site is the best for you. I am not advertising or getting any compensation. We are buying through them and they've been incredible, quick, accomodating (buying a house and dealing with logistics while 7 hours ahead and a big ocean in between is tough!), and professional. If you think of buying a house now or even in the future, it's nice to watch the market and the options for awhile. We did this for over a year before placing our offer and I am happy to say we are pleased with all of the people who have helped us in the process.Though, I think Redfin only works in big cities, for now.

Swagbucks & ShopAtHome give you a kickback if you promote them and your friends use them. I hate spamming friends on facebook, twitter, or email... so I figured if you cared, you'd read this blog post. And, since I actually use them and like them, I don't mind promoting them anyway. I won't post it again... but this are some things I've learned lately about stretching a buck (aside from my uber-excellent economics teacher in high school who taught me to use a credit card for every purchase, but pay it off in full every month). Of course, with that, we also get cash back and free flights, pay no interest, and have a list of all our spending to boot!