A Simple Idea On How To Save At Least $1400 In A Year....

So I was thinking of some easy and doable ideas on how to save some $$$, I ended up trying to search for ideas on Google, and by reading a few articles, I saw this seriously simple idea. Deposit money every week into a savings account, the amount of money will be the number of the week of the year you are in. For example :

We are in week 4 of the year 2014. So deposit $4 into your savings account this week, then next week will be week 5, so you'll deposit $5 into your savings account. :)

I'm thinking of catching up from week 1, so i'll deposit $1, $2 and $3, as well as this week's $4 into a savings account. But thinking about it, I can probably deposit more weekly, so i'll definitely do that! If you do the catch up, by the end of 2014, it calculates to $1400 saved in a year. Now obviously one can put more $$$ into their accounts each week, but for some more may not be doable right now!

Good luck if you decide to do this challenge :)

Update On Schooling....

So as many of you know, I started school at WCC last Winter (Jan 2013), I decided to study to be a teacher. I did my first semester and passed all three of my classes and did pretty well. I then signed up and did my second Semester in the Summer online (May 2013), it was pretty hard but I ended it, online is pretty difficult when you are not use to studying on your own :) LOL.... I was going to sign up and do my third Semester in the Fall (August 2013), but I had booked tickets home, and was going to be gone for a total of 3 weeks, and if I miss 2 weeks of classes they automatically fail you, so I decided it would be a waste of money for me to sign up and pay and then fail almost instantly by not being in attendance for 3 weeks!!

This Winter (Jan 2014) registration time just got away from me, and other things have come in my way. I tried to register while I was at home but there was an issue with the site and I wasn’t able to register, so I was going to go in to see someone about it, but got busy being back at work and getting back into the swing of things, and it ended up being too late :( SO unfortunately I’m going to have to basically start back at square one again with classes (Math only lasts a year, and it’s now been a year, so it expires - damn!), so yes I am seriously kicking my own ass right now for forgetting stupidly to check up on the registering. BUT I have some serious thinking to do now, and will hopefully be able to have a much happier update about schooling soon :)

Sorry to those that this post disappoints, I’m disappointed myself, so trust me I’m giving myself enough grief about it on my own!! Yes I am sad and a bit embarrassed to admit to this....

Quick Catch Up Of The Remainder Of 2013....

Man oh man have I been extremely bad with my blogging!! I’ve got a sudden urge to start keeping up with my blogging, SO I am going to try this again :) I decided to do a mini 2013 catch up post since the last time I blogged and start off fresh this year!!

In June, we did a mini trip to Kentucky. Dustin found a Crown Victoria he wanted to get for his work, so he won the bid and made plans to drive down and get it. Fathers Day ended up being the same weekend we went, so the pups “gave” him a little treat. LOL

In August, we moved into a new apartment. We have SO much more space, and it’s like a mini condo!! It’s also in the perfect spot for me, I really am loving it a lot, and instantly felt at home when we were all moved in. It was pretty tiring, because we did the move ourselves, so had a few car loads full going back and forth. It was also a sudden move, so it seemed to all happen in like a day - literally, LOL....

We’ve since made some awesome new friends. They lived on the first floor directly under our apartment, so we “knew” them and spoke to them now and then when we passed each other. Boy am I glad that we have now become really close friends with them!! Rachelle and Paul - you two are AWESOME!!!! :) Ashley - you guys are awesome too - I promise!! :D I love your babies, they are the cutest. Miley stole my heart as soon as I met her the day I babysat her, she’s SUCH a good baby!

In July, I booked tickets for our much awaited trip back home to South Africa!! I was so SO excited and happy that it could finally happen, I knew though, that the trip would not be long enough, but I was grateful for the fact that we could finally go after 2.5 years since I left.

In September, Dustin went to Florida and I joined him for a long weekend. It was really great to get away from MI for a while, but I was SO sad to leave Max behind!! Nicole had both Max and Chewy for the weekend, so they were in good hands! Thank you Nicole :)

 

 

 
In November, we left for our trip to SA. We stayed in Cape Town for the first 5 days, stayed at a great place called The Surf Shack and had an amazing view of Table Mountain. We got to have lunch with Denise and have an AMAZING South African food, she seriously did good with her lunch spot :) The weather wasn’t all that great while we were there, but we managed to get to Spur for dinner a few days (LOL) and got to go to Robben Island on the last day we were there, it ended up being probably one of the best days weather wise while we were in CT.

We then stayed in Johannesburg for a night, and I got to see two good friends again, after many years of not seeing Jen, it was great to see her and meet her husband to be! Was great to see Elaine and BJ again too. We got to meet Darren Scott from Ballz Radio, and were on the radio too, I’m a shy person so said I didn’t want to talk, but they made me do it (even though I spoke too low for anyone to even hear me properly!! hahaha)

 

We then finally went on our way to Pietermaritzburg to spend the rest of our stay with my Mom and sisters. It was so amazing seeing them again! Mom had booked a long weekend in the Burg, so the first weekend with them we went to the Burg and stayed in a really cute place. Although the weather wasn’t too good, we still had a great relaxing time, it really was so beautiful there!! Thanks Mom - I love you!!!!!!

 

 

Mom unfortunately had work, Melissa had school and Hayley had work too, but we got to see them in the afternoons, which was great. Next time I’ll be sure to find cheap tickets for holiday time for them :) Mom organised a braai the last weekend we were there, so we got to see a lot of friends and family, I finally got to see a grown up Sienna (Craig and Rosanna, she is beautiful, it’s so nice to see how proud you both are of your babies), and got to meet baby Mason and hold him for a little bit (he really is just too gorgeous!!).

*PIC TO COME* (problem with my phone SD card :( )

It was a really awesome time, filled myself up with lots of South African yummies - lots of biltong SNAPSTIX :D We also had a family photo shoot done. We got them done by Desiree of Black Sheep Photography - she was really great, and we ended up with quite a lot of awesome pics!!

*PIC TO COME* (problem with my phone SD card :( )

In December, we got back from our trip home on the 3rd.... I was sad, unpacked all our bags and slowly got back into being in Michigan again. After I unpacked everything, I was seriously SHOCKED at the amount of South African yummies we brought back with us, I couldn’t believe I was able to fit ALL of that in our three bags along with our things we took with us!! Hahaha


*PIC TO COME* (problem with my phone SD card :( )

My Mom had a biltong maker at home for us, so I unpacked it from the box and was able to stick it into our bags, and it thankfully got back here unharmed. I have since made about 5 batches of biltong - my first batch was the best, the other batches have been either too salty, or not salty enough!! LOL, oh well, I’ll get it soon enough....

 

We were also invited to a South African Christmas get together, by a friend I found on a “South Africans in Michigan” Facebook page. We seemed to hit off a friendship almost instantly over Facebook, but we never could find a good time to meet and get together until December 23rd, at her Christmas party. I was SO thankful for the invite, and for the people I ended up meeting. So many South Africans, it just made my heart SO happy to be in a place that was just like home again!! South Africans really are amazing people :D Thanks Sam for the invite, and I look forward to seeing you again, more often, and a long friendship with you! I have a pic with some of the people I was lucky enough to meet :)

Christmas came and went. I got an awesome new set of Pots and Pans from Dustin and the pups. I couldn’t wait to use them, and have now decided I want to change the colour scheme of my kitchen to RED and Sterling Silver!! Woohoo, haha

*PIC TO COME* (problem with my phone SD card :( )

The first weekend after Christmas, I decided I wanted to get a tattoo of paw prints on my wrist. I have wanted one since I got Max in 2011, anyways I was umming and aaaahing the one day, then Rachelle and Paul came over again for dinner with Ashley and her babies, and I decided I would LOVE to get one, so Rachelle and I went and got one, because she ended up wanting to get one too - she got SUCH a cute tattoo too, we both loved how ours turned out. We then went to CVS to get the stuff to put on the tattoo to care for it, and Rachelle spotted an AWESOME wine cabinet, which with the discount ended up being like $12 or something, we both stared at it, wanting one so bad, but both left without one. I then went to drop her off and do some shopping at Meijer, and she said she had been to get one and that there were still 3 left, I then decided to run and get one, I just couldn’t let that awesome deal get away, its a solid wood item too, LOL. So it was a big win win day.

 

What To Do When Your Orchid Loses Its Flowers....

I've been meaning to do this post for a while now. I got a beautiful Orchid for Christmas last year from the wonderful family I babysit for, and so I have been looking after it as best I can.

A few weeks ago all the flowers on my Orchid fell off, and the stems were turning a yellow / brown colour, so I went in search of what to do next, because I had never owned an Orchid before. I found great advice and so I tried it out - I'm hoping it'll all work out in the end. I also found out that they only flower for 6 months of a year, which bumbed me out, they are so pretty and hoped they would flower more often.

Anyways here is what I did :

My Orchid with no more flowers and the stems turning light green / yellow / brown

Close up of the top two stems

Take some gardening scissors and cut about an inch from the base of the stem. For me it was about two nodes up from the bottom. Snip the ENTIRE stem off

This is how much stem you should cut off, you can see the difference in colour change from the bottom up to the top where there are two stems

This is what your Orchid should now look like, just a short little stem like this to start growing a new stem and hopefully new flowers when it has fully grown :)

I water my Orchid using the 3 ice cube way. It is so much easier to not over water the Orchid, and I found it was sufficient enough for mine. So once a week I put in 3 ice cubes at the base. I am still trying to figure out how and when to do the re-potting part, once I have, I will do another post! :)

Happy Easter....

Happy Easter everyone!!

I know I have been EXTREMELY slack at posting, but school has really taken up a lot of my evening posting time! So just wanted to stop for a bit and post and say Happy Eater to everyone that reads this :) Last night I died eggs for the first time ever, it was pretty neat, I enjoyed it! I did some glitter ones, majestic marbled looking ones and some plain ones using a wax crayon! I had to try it myself, we don't have kids yet so why not try it if I haven't experienced it yet? LOL

Hope you all have a great day! What did you do to celebrate your Easter this year?

March Birchbox....

Woohoo!! My March Birchbox arrived today, and yes I couldn't WAIT to open it and see what I got this month.... This months theme is "March Madness".... Again I was impressed, wasn't disappointed at all with this one. I actually checked out the sneek peek video of what we could get in the boxes and two of the items I was hoping to get I got :) I would have loved to get a sample of an eye shadow, but gosh the samples I got were really awesome this month too :)

Here the pics :

Woohoo!! I got a pic of the box it comes in this time....

Woooooo!!

Here is a list of the samples I got :

1. Madewell for Birchbox Emry Board

2. Vasanti - BrightenUp! Enqymatic Face Rejuvenator (Enriched with Papaya Micro-crystals and Aloe)

3. Twistband

4. Lipfusion Infatuation - La Lip Jole

5. Whish Shave Cream

I really wanted to get the Twistband and the Whish Shave Cream. The Whish Shave Cream smell AMAZING. It is blueberry scent - omg WOW!!

The Twistband is pretty cool too, they have a website, check it out : The Twistband

If you would like to try some yourself - go ahead! It's easy to cancel!!

https://www.birchbox.com/?raf=hxlv8

Birchbox February 2013....

Hey!

Well I must say I have been pretty busy with school, and it has kept me away from blogging. We just had "Winter Break" last week, and somehow the week just got away from me - boo!! :(

Anyways, I received my first Birchbox in February! It was really late, because it got snowed in with that big snow storm that hit, but I got it and I was really impressed. There were some really cute awesome samples in my box, so thumbs up to Birchbox for February 2013!!

Here is what I received in my box :

My First Birchbox....

Open....

Ooooo....

All the samples I received....

From top - Right to Left....

1. Beauty Protector - Protect & Detangle Leave in Conditioner

2. WEI Pomegranate Buffing Beads

3. Juicy Couture - Couture La La Purfume

4. Golden Root - Purifying Mud Mask

5. Ghiradelli Caramel Chocolate

6. Color Club - Professional Nail Lacquer - Mamba Color

So pretty excited about receiving my March 2013 Box, hopefully it will not disappoint :)

If you would like to try some yourself - go ahead! It's easy to cancel!!

https://www.birchbox.com/?raf=hxlv8

Have a fab new week friends!!