Mama's Got Flair February 2012 Archives

Archive for February 29, 2012

What in the world is a Zurker?

February 29, 2012 Jessi Blogging, social media

Zurker? What’s Zurker anyway?

Is that what you’re asking yourself right now? I was asking myself the same thing all day long as invitations started popping up all over Facebook and Twitter.

Curiosity finally got the best of me a little while ago and I went to check it out for myself.

Zurker is an exciting new social network where members actually earn ownership to the site by referring new members. And yes, it’s totally free to join.

Since I’ve only been on the site for about an hour, I still have much to learn, but I can’t help but be excited by the idea of actually having a say in changes and updates to the network. As much as I love Twitter and Facebook, I can’t help but feel a bit testy when things change overnight and just when I get used to the new look or features, they change again.

Join me on Zurker

With Zurker, the members are owners and will be able to vote on what’s happening in the network (after Beta). How freaking cool is that? This may not sound like a big deal, but when you take into account how many big changes have been made on other social networks that were really in the best interest of their company and not the users, the advantage is clear. Having a say makes a difference.

Beyond the ownership feature, there are other goodies, too. You can create pages on your profile for your blog or business. Since Zurker has only really been available since December of 2011, it’s still in its infancy. This can actually be an advantage to those of with sites to share. Why? Because there will be a limited number of these pages to view in the beginning, so starting early and building momentum before the platform blows up in popularity will give you the inside track on members who see and become interested in what you have to offer.

Also, you can choose to “connect” with or “subscribe” to other members profiles. This means that if you connect, the other person has to accept your connection request. Then you can interact and keep in touch. If you just want to keep up with what someone is up to, like a celebrity, you can subscribe to their updates without connecting. Then, from my understanding, they can control what you–as the “public”–have access to on their profiles, but you can still view what they’re sharing openly.

And, in your personal profile settings, you can choose whether your connections and subscriptions show up on your profile for others to see.

Like I said, I’m very new to the new social network, Zurker, so I’m still learning the ins and outs. But, I think with its option for ownership and membership say in goings on, it has the potential to be huge. Pretty exciting!

Join me on Zurker today!!

Tidy Your Grocery Bags with Tissue Boxes

February 23, 2012 Jessi Home and Garden, Tips and Tricks

When I’m grocery shopping, I try to remember my reusable bags, but sometimes forget them or underestimate how many I’ll need and wind up bringing home more plastic bags. I hate just throwing them away, so I try to reuse them when shopping and around the house as much as possible.

I use them to:

Toss stinky diapers
Pack my kids spare shoes in their backpacks when they wear boots to school
Line my wastebaskets
Clean up chihuahua doo in the yard
Collect trash in my minivan (I even keep a little wastebasket in there.)
Dye my hair
Replace packing materials
Line bowls in the fridge when I’m thawing meat
Collect mismatched socks while waiting for their buddies to reappear from the abyss

There are endless ways to get more use out of them, but I hate having them just hanging around waiting for their 15 minutes of fame. They look untidy and take up a lot of space.

Luckily, one of the ideas I found on Pinterest was using empty tissue boxes to store rogue grocery bags. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but I wondered how many one would actually hold and how convenient it would really be.

So, today I tested the tip.

I filled this tissue box with 17 bags, and honestly, if I was neater about it, I probably could have put more in there. It was easy to get them in there and just as easy to pull them out.

I’m in love.

Putting the grocery bags in a tissue box takes up way less space and looks much more organized than stuffing bags inside bags. In fact, as more tissue boxes get emptied, I’m going to fill them with grocery bags and strategically place them where I use them most:

The kitchen

Garage

Minivan

Bathroom

And one upstairs for our bedroom wastebaskets.

I’m excited that this Pinterest tip panned out. Having a few small tissue boxes holding my extra plastic grocery bags around the house is much more attractive than a big ugly bag stuffed with them. I can slip them into drawers and under my car seat and they’re handy whenever I need them. Plus, the convenience rocks my mismatched socks!

Plastic grocery bags in empty tissue boxes? Jessi approved!

Photo: flickr.com/photos/dan4th/2152704346

No comments organize plastic bags, plastic bags in tissue box, plastic bags organized, plastic grocery bags, store plastic bags

Working on Reducing Life’s Clutter

February 22, 2012 Jessi Motivation, Personal Flair

I’m sorry I haven’t been posting this week. I’ve been concentrating on a long overdue reorganization in my home, work and life in general. It’s a complete overhaul in an attempt to find some precious balance that I’ve let go for quite some time.

Have you ever just woken up one day and said, “Whoa. What the crap is going on?” This year has been a series of those moments, and not by any means in a bad way. I’ve just found this deep inspiration to really find a steady balance in all the areas of my life, rather than the constant, ridiculous, chaotic juggling that’s been going on since long before my kids were even born.

Where has the new found energy and inspiration come from? The answer is a handful of places.

For one, I’ve been watching Hoarders, which is always a shove in the “Get your crap together” direction, even if cleanliness isn’t a big problem for you. The show really demonstrates how much you can really change things if you just put your heart and mind into it, especially if you have the right supports and inspiration to get you motivated.

The second source, as silly as it sounds, is Pinterest. What started out as a way to pass some time and get cool ideas has turned into a mission. I’m not just a pinner…I’m a doer. I’m making a point to try at least two things I pin a week. It’s amazing how quickly that adds up to awesome.

My third inspiration, is how quickly my kids are growing. I woke up one day and realized I don’t have a baby anymore. My youngest will be three in April, and for a long time I wasn’t sure if I was done adding to our family or not. Lately, I’ve been falling deeper and deeper in love with the idea of stepping wholeheartedly into the “big boy” stage and enjoying the new freedoms and discoveries that come with it. It’s very exciting.

And finally, I’m totally stoked at how much easier life is getting as my life gets more organized. The reach is far beyond clean closets and planned agendas for the day. With every change I turn into a habit the breathing gets easier and more exciting. Life is good. And, while these changes are still taking place and I’m learning new ways to do things and smooth out some of the chaos, it just keeps getting better.

So, again, I’m sorry my posts have been a little sporadic, but I’m happy to say that it’s all good. There are big things happening and the blog will be back on track shortly. I can’t wait to share more!!

Photo: flickr.com/photos/evelynishere/3803375800

One comment finding inspiration for change, organizing life, reducing clutter, reducing life's clutter

My Abundantly Awkward Day: A Photo Essay

February 17, 2012 Jessi Family, Laugh Time, Personal Flair

Do you ever get the feeling that your life is just one long string of ridiculous, farcical events? I do. But I never have the evidence on hand to support my claim. Until today.

Today…I carried my camera around with me, hoping to capture some of the madness. Fate decided to meet me halfway by proving once and for all that my life is a chaotically woven fabric of sheer awkwardness.

Enjoy.

The day started out pretty normally. Cleaned up spilled cereal. Straightened the boys’ clothes out so they were tidy for school. Then Brock, who was in the kitchen sweetly making me some special “yay, we survived most of the work week” chocolate velvet coffee, called me in to take a whiff of the aromatic blend.

Oh I took a whiff all right. Straight up my nose.

I blew my nose–like, a lot–and quickly ran the boys to school. I swear to you I could smell that coffee for the next two hours.

When I got home, I did my morning Zumba workout and headed into the kitchen to retrieve some of the java I didn’t manage to snort and grab a muffin. While I was mixing up my morning brew, an unpleasant fragrance curled into my nostrils, unfortunately replacing the coffee beans.

My Zumba-rific workout drew attention to the fact that in the morning rush, I didn’t bother to put deodorant on both armpits.

I took care of my stench, grabbed my coffee, but then quickly realized my muffin was MIA. I tore up the cupboards, checked the fridge, moved crap about my counters…nothing. Then I walked into the living room.

During the coffee snorting incident, one of my precious cherubs jacked my muffin and decorated the couch with it.

Defeated, I grabbed a fiber bar and went to work. Writey, writey, typey, typey.

All the while, my little one, who’s a couple months shy of his third birthday wandered into the kitchen. No worries. We just got some fancy new childproof locks…he HAD to ask before he helped himself.

Yeah, right.

Sure, my 34-year-old husband struggles with the locks, but not my toddler. Foiled again.

Shortly thereafter, my middle child came home from preschool and I set about making lunch. Somewhere in this time period, the Brocker has the audacity to use the bathroom.

I served up the grub and went back to my desk to get more work done.

I “woke up” my screen only to find that the mad scientists I call my offspring had worked their mojo on my computer. Everything, and I mean everything, was now displayed on its side.

Yeah, that only took me half an hour to fix, all of which I spent sideways as well…and not the cool kind of sideways that comes with a cocktail either.

The rest of the afternoon went pretty normally, until I picked my big guy up from kindergarten. Make a mental note there…kindergarten…as in..he’s six.

He excitedly told me, “We went to the library and I got some new books.” What he then produced from his Iron Man book bag was not a whimsical Dr. Seuss selection..or even something light and spirited like a Stephen King novel. Oh no. That would be too simple.

Yeah…there are pictures…of ev-er-y-THING. You just know that school librarian is still laughing at me, knowing that tonight’s going to be an interesting night at the Cooper mansion.

So there it is, kids. My abundantly awkward day. I don’t even have the strength to get into the equally awkward, but thoroughly educational evening. We’ll just save that for another time.

One comment awkward story, funny mom story, funny story

The Grieving Season: Letters of Love

February 16, 2012 Jessi Grief

Valentine’s Day has passed, and I find myself entering my grieving season. This melancholy time of year has come upon me every spring since my infant son, Aiden, passed away in 2004. If you’ve lost someone close to you, chances are you know exactly what I mean. It can’t be helped. You can’t will it away. It just creeps in and sticks around until one day you wake up and just feel different.

Over the last couple days, I’ve felt it taking hold and I know that I won’t completely be myself until the end of April. Over the past eight years I’ve learned that trying to hide it or hide from it does me no good, and those who love me and know me well aren’t fooled by my charade.

But, I also know that my son, my beautiful little angel, doesn’t want me to sit and wallow in despair either. So this year, to honor him and the important life lessons he taught me, I’m taking a different approach to the season.

I bought a book of stamps.

In the past, I’ve made myself completely unavailable to those I love during my grieving time. This year, I refuse to use my loss as an excuse to ignore the wonderful blessings and people in my life. One of the most important lessons my short time with Aiden taught me is that celebrating love should be done daily, because you just never know what tomorrow might bring.

With this lesson in mind, I’m going to use that book of stamps to write letters to those in my life who mean the world to me. I’m going to tell them just how I feel about them; how they inspire me; the ways their lives have touched mine; why the thought of them warms me every day.

I think this will not only bring me comfort by reminding me just how fortunate I am, but it will also help me express feelings and thoughts I’ve been selfishly keeping to myself, like some sort of “warm fuzzy” hoarder. Deep losses are weird that way. They make you want to gather these things and keep them close to your chest as if letting them breathe will give them permission to leave too.

Having this mission to share the love rather than cloak myself in grief is already helping, and I haven’t even picked up my pen yet. For those of you who know all too well how I’m feeling, be looking for a post towards the beginning of May. I’ll write again to share if it truly made a difference. Until then, stay strong and take comfort in those who love you and the blessings in your life.

Photo: flickr.com/photos/stampendous/5534575857

3 comments dealing with grief, grief, letters to loved ones

Last Minute Valentine’s Gift! It’s impossible to go wrong with the iCard Gift Card!

February 13, 2012 Jessi Shopping

Been there, doh'd that!

So tomorrow is Valentine’s Day and you forgot to get a gift. Be it your honey, your kid in college or your grandchild in California, it’s not too late to get the perfect gift, right from your computer!

Have you heard of an iCard Gift Card? Instead of randomly choosing a gift card for a specific store or restaurant and hoping that you made the right choice, this cool service allows you to buy one card and the recipient chooses from 180 different retailers to select the perfect gift for herself.

There is absolutely no guesswork at all!

Some of the many gift cards your special someone has to choose from are:

Starbucks

Kohls

Gymboree

Barnes & Noble

AMC Theatres

Motherhood Maternity

T.J. Maxx

Old Navy

Crate and Barrel

Olive Garden

And many, many more!

All you have to do is choose the amount you want on the iCard Gift Card, find your preferred design for the eCard and print it out or immediately email it to the lucky recipient after checkout. From there, all the decisions are up to him or her. And she can even break it up between different gift cards. So she can split it between a trip to the spa and a great new pair of heels!

iCard Gift Cards are perfect for any occasion, and can be purchased last minute–just in case. Get the ultimate last minute Valentine’s gift now by clicking the banner below!