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3 Yard Sale Lessons Learned in Kentucky

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On the Kentucky trip I’m learning a whole bunch of stuff about yard sales and here are three tips I’ve picked up:

1. Gather a bunch of stuff you want and offer one price to the seller. Start at half the tagged price and go from there.

2. Don’t commit too much to an item where the seller can see your excitement. If they know you really want it they will try to sell it for the full tag price.

3. Beware the sales that have multiple sellers that are not present at the sale. You are less likely to haggle a price if the sellers aren’t at the sale because people aren’t willing to speak on behalf of others.

Things Pinterest Taught Me: Things to Do With Cadbury Eggs

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Anyone who knows me knows lately I’ve been OBSESSED with Pinterest!!! Oh my goodness! Some might say I’ve even been PINSPIRED!!! Since joining the site I’ve made organizers, thrown out clutter, made homemade laundry detergent (future post coming about it!), made a knockoff of febreze, windex and hand soap and so much more!! I frikkin’ love the site. Lately on the site I’ve been learning a ton about Cadbury Eggs. In the spirit of Easter weekend I decided to share with you the things I’ve learned you can do with a Cadbury Egg!

1. Cadbury Cupcakes! Pinned here. Blogged about here. The shear genius of this is hard to deny. Add one Cadbury Eggs to the center of 24 chocolate cupcakes before baking and then add another after you ice them for a double dose of awesome with each cup of sugary heaven!

2. Cadbury Brownies! Pinned here. Blogged about here. Okay, so these brownies don’t ACTUALLY have any Cadbury Eggs in them, but they are inspired by them and the filling made for them is supposed to be very similar to what you would find inside an egg…


3. Make a turducken! Pinned here. Blogged about here. This highly caloric concoction may push you into a diabetic coma and frighteningly enough requires the use of power tools but effectively calls for shoving a mini Cadbury Egg into the body of a peep and then shoving those two into a hollowed out chocolate bunny.

4. Drink your egg! Pinned here. Blogged about here. The Caramel Cadbury Egg martini recipe calls for 1-1/2 ounces Baileys Irish Cream with Caramel, 1/2 ounce crème de cacao, 1 ounce caramel syrup, 1 ounce cream and 1/2 tablespoon Hershey’s chocolate syrup (plus extra Hershey’s chocolate syrup for rim). A few shakes and the garnishing of a Cadbury Egg on the side and there you have it!

5. Go gourmet with Cadbury Egg Brulee! Pinned here. Blogged about here. Four ounces of mini Cadbury Eggs, some heavy cream, eggs, sugar, elbow grease and some time in an oven will leave you with a ramekin filled with chocolatey goodness ready to devour!

If these ideas don’t tickle your fancy you could always just settle for eating them right out of their package. Happy Easter! May your Cadbury Eggs be a plenty and may all their calories not stick to you!

Words Are Amazing Things

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I was reading the Road to Domestication blog that a former editor of mine writes and one of her posts struck me in a way that can only be described as completely overwhelming. I became a blubbering mess within seconds of reading something she wrote because it hit home so hard I couldn’t breathe.

The funny thing is, and I told the author this, that I know in the back of my mind her blog exists but I often forget it’s there but somehow seem to stumble upon it when I need it the most and her words are so full of emotion and passion, but they are just words.

Words are amazing things. They can incite laughter, they can cause anger and they can cause a fully functional person to go into a complete fit of emotion.

Words can take a sane person and make them so angry they can become physically ill and have a stroke. This happened to someone very close to me. After a hurricane scare in Tampa her boss said some very mean words to her causing her to physically react and have a stroke on the office floor and end up in the emergency room and have a subsequent hospital stay for a few days.

Words can take a sad person and make them laugh so hard they can’t see through the tears. My husband knows exactly how to do this to me. I can be depressed as hell and he will say something to me that might not even be funny to anyone else and get me laughing to the point of being unable to breathe and have my face turn redder than a tomato.

Words can take a happy person who is having the best day ever and hurt them so badly to the core that they don’t know if they will ever recover.

The words, “She’s dying,” “He doesn’t love you anymore,” “I want a divorce,” “She’s cheating on him,” “I broke the vase your mother bought you,” “Will you marry me?”, “Why did the chicken cross the road?”, “A funny thing happened,” and on and on we go…they are all just words. Jumble them in different ways and the effect they have on people changes drastically. Sometimes two people can hear the exact same words and both react completely opposite from each other.

One of my English teachers in high school always said, “When the heart kicks in, the head shuts down.” Its amazing how often words can make our heads shut down.

Words are amazing things. They should be chosen carefully and used wisely.

Writing and my A.D.D.

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Reposting from The Crooked Table

I wrote this a loooooooong time ago…but it still applies.

I’ve been stuck in a rut of A.D.D. with my writing lately. Nothing I have been meaning to do has actually been done. I’ll sit down to write and next thing I know I’m checking my email or watching Law & Order. Sure, I’m being entertained, but I’m accomplishing NOTHING.

Ugh, how can I get done what I need to do?

I found this link on procrastination and I thought you all would appreciate it:

http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/procrastination.html

The piece on procrastination is really long and it’s more based on writing assignments than on personal writing goals, but I think it has a lot of helpful information.

The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair.—Mary Heaton Vorse

Officially Working From Home

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Today is the first day that I officially am a full time freelancer. This is a scary transition for me as I will no longer go into an office and clock in or out. I’m on my own and left to fend for myself. Basically the only times I will go out is when I’m interviewing a subject for a story, taking pictures for a client or have errands to run.

Although I already confessed this is a scary transition for me, at the same time I am thrilled and excited at the possibilities that are ahead. I’ll concentrate a lot more on all the blogs I started and post all links to new blog posts in this blog. This is going to be like a home base for all of the work I am doing.

Everytime I have written something, been published and/or just want to share stuff about my freelance life with you…it will all be here. This blog will now be my digital diary and an open book of my life. I’ll be happy to answer questions, take story ideas and see where this new chapter in my career leads!!!

The Law of Attraction

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I have become quite obsessed with the Law of Attraction. A little more than a year ago I purchased the book The Secret. I bought it as I buy many books hoping I’ll find the time to read them. I finally sat down and read the darn thing and the book made me excited. So excited that I practically fell asleep in it.

Unfortunately, the next day I woke up and forgot all I had just read. The dread of having to get up for work and go into a place I didn’t really want to be made me sad and instead of being strong and thinking about working at the place of my dreams, I focused on how awful my current situation was.

Needless to say, my situation got worse. Then, my husband got laid off and dreams and hopes went out the window.

A few months ago I picked The Secret back up. I was ready to try this again. I even bought the Chicken Soup for the Soul-Living Your Dreams at a thrift store and began making visualization cards.

So far my miracles have finally started coming. Today my husband got hired. I don’t work at that awful place I did a year ago and things are looking up. Everyday a new miracle comes into my life. So, I want to blog about miracles, gratitude, getting what you wish for and so much more.

Today I begin my acceptance of all of my miracles. I’m receiving them as I type this. I can feel the winds changing and all of my dreams coming true. Let’s go on the journey together. What do you wish for?