Archive for » September, 2008 «

Decorating

There are ways to decorate your home without destroying your savings account. For example it’s a lot cheaper to paint your walls yourself instead of hiring a painter to come in and do it for you. It’s not all that hard to do.. I’ve done it many times.

You can also find some nice things to decorate with in a dollar store. Yes, I said in a dollar store. You can find some pretty glass vases that you can use to decorate with. Fill them with some decorative stone, that you can sometimes find in the dollar store too, and some nice fake floral pieces. You can change them out with the change of seasons then all you are paying for is some fake floral pieces.

You can also use some throw blankets to decorate the back of a sofa. If you have more than one on hand you can change it out from time to time.

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Zit problems

I was having zit (pimple) problems on my face. It’s probably from eating stuff like in the post below. I had one pop up in a very strange place. I never had one there before. It was on the side of my nose right about where my glasses rest. I was about to go and find the best acne treatment I could find and then it went away.

I don’t get pimples too often but when I do they are a royal pain to get rid of. I wish I had the skin I had when I was a teenager. I didn’t have these problems then!

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Coconut Decadence Cake

This cake has 536 calories per serving you’ll need to break out the diet pills after eating a couple slices of this cake!

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
3 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 cup whole milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. coconut extract
1 tbsp. sugar
Coconut Frosting (see recipe below)
1 (14 oz) pkg. flaked coconut

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 3 (9 inch) round cake pans.
2. Beat butter on medium with an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add the 2 cups of sugar, beating well. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition.
3. Combine flour, baking powder and salt then add to the butter mixture alternating with the milk and mix at low speed until blended. Stir in the vanilla and coconut extracts. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pans.
4. Bake for 25 to 28 minutes or until a toothpick, inserted into the center, comes our clean. Cool in the pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool completely on the wire racks.
5. Combine 1/2 cup water and 1 tbsp. sugar in a small saucepan. Bring to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer for 3 minutes. Spoon the sugar mixture over the cake layers.
6. Make the Coconut frosting. Spread the tops of 2 layers with 1 cup frosting then sprinkle each with 1/2 cup of coconut. Stack the layers then top with the 3rd layer. Spread the remaining frosting on the top and sides of the cake and sprinkle with the remaining coconut. Store covered in the refrigerator.

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Coconut Frosting

2 cups chilled heavy cream
1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. coconut extract

1. Combine the cream, sugar, vanilla and coconut extracts in a medium bowl. Beat on medium speed with an electric mixer until soft peaks form.

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Makes 16 Servings
Per Serving: 536 calories, 59g carbohydrates, 5g protein, 32g fat, 2g fiber, 112mg cholesterol, 234mg sodium.

Almost that time

It’s almost that time of the year to make any changes we might want to make to hubby’s health insurance at work. We can only make changes once a year and that time is coming up. We might go for the insurance that’s a little more expensive so we can have a lower deductible amount. The plan he’s on now is rough when one of us has to be in the hospital, like hubby was last year. We are still paying off that $3000.00 to the hospital.

There is an upside to his insurance coverage though.. we don’t have to shop for term life insurance quotes. That’s included in his benefits and if he goes I’ll be set for quite awhile. The payments for this coverage comes out of his paycheck each week and the lower deductible plan will just add about $20 every other week taken out of his pay.

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Let there be light

When I got rid of my old dresser there were lights on the top of it. I took them off and saved them. They kind of resemble home theater sconces. I want hubby to drill some holes in the dresser we had in storage that he just brought over this weekend and put the lights on it.

With hubby I don’t always get what I want. Sometimes I just have to plant the seed and wait for it to grow. In other words it eventually becomes his idea. It just takes some time and patience.

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What to do

I have a spare bedroom that gets used once in awhile. I’ve been trying to decide if I want to move my office furniture (desk) out of the living room and put it in the spare bedroom. I already have a bed, dresser, 2 night tables, my elliptical and some boxes in there.

This would involve a lot of re-arranging of furniture. On second thought maybe I should just leave things as they are. If I do move the desk then I lose being able to watch TV while blogging. That wouldn’t be any fun at all!

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Shopping online

Do you shop online? What kind of things do you shop for? I’ve bought clothes, shoes, appliances, gifts, electronics and even shopped for auto insurance online.

Shopping online can be a safe experience if you only give your personal information on a site that is a secure site. Usually you can find that out by looking at the bottom of your screen. You should see a little lock. If it’s closed then it’s a secure site. If it’s open.. then it’s not secure. Also look for https in the URL of the website. The https means a secure website.

Shop safe and keep your personal information secure.

Shopping with little ones

Shopping with little ones isn’t an easy feat. You either have to try to fit some kind of seat with a restraining device into the seat of a shopping cart or put the child in a stroller. If you choose the latter then you’ll need someone else with you to push the shopping cart.

If you have a Maclaren stroller then you can use the mesh basket that is attached to the stroller, if you don’t need to purchase too many items.

When my kids were little it was a real struggle to shop with them. Back in the 70′s they just didn’t have the neat things for kids that they have now.