Kitchen and Craft Adventures: Back...For Real!

Ok--I'm back...for real.

I let the blog slip by without a post for this past month...but no worries, I have a HUGE backlog of recipes & photos to post over the next couple of weeks.

Brief explanation of a few things that have been going on this month (there's more, these are just the major points):

1. We had our first garage sale. My mom joined us for the adventure. It was 3 fun-filled days of sitting in our garage on lawn chairs, eating takeout & people-watching while people rummaged through our old treasures. Overall we made pretty decent money, although we still have a few large items we need to Craigslist so we can make room to actually park cars in our garage this winter. I did think it was highly comical the number of people who were shopping through garage sales simply looking for gold & silver. My favorite is how sneaky they were trying to be. But when you break out a magnifying glass…not so sneaky.

My favorite part of the garage sale was our squirrel shopper. We have a TON of squirrels around our house. In the late morning, while the garage sale was quiet & patron-free, a skinny little squirrel came to browse. I have a sneaking suspicion that he plays on our driveway during the day while we are at work. He casually walked around our driveway, looked over at us sitting in our lawn chairs, and then went back to his browsing. He then saw his reflection in the glass of an entertainment center & his tail puffed up. After a few seconds of challenging himself in the glass, he walked behind the entertainment center to look for the other squirrel, and then ran off on his merry way. I’m still disappointed that he didn’t buy anything…

Little Squirrel--Big Tail

2. I bought a new car! I have investigated different cars for the past 5 years. I knew I wanted something new/newer, but I just couldn’t find a vehicle that I was willing to commit to the car payments. I knew I wanted something in the small SUV/crossover class of vehicles, because it was similar to what I was used to driving. I thought I had investigated about everything in that class, but when I was in Florida, I saw a commercial for the Mazda CX-7. I thought, “That’s Cute,” and I liked the financing offers that they were advertising. When we were driving back from Florida, I was passed by a Mazda CX-7 on the interstate, and I thought “Wow, That’s Really Cute and Fast!” When I got back from Florida, I started investigating the CX-7. I liked the features & options…and absolutely loved the styling of the vehicle. July turned to August, and the revised financing deal on the CX-7 became even more enticing. One test drive and I was sold. I LOVE my new car. The funny thing is that until a month ago I had never considered getting a Mazda. For some reason I thought they only made sporty small cars, sedans, & a minivan… Apparently I was wrong.

I still have to name my car though…any suggestions?

My new baby. I love her.

3. I sold my old car… It’s bittersweet. I got my Jeep Cherokee as a graduation gift from my parents my senior year of high school. I had a lot of fun in that car. It carried my piles of stuff to and from college each year. It carried me on adventures with my friends, like spring breaks, college road trips, and midnight shopping trips. It was around for my first dates, first loves & first heartbreaks. It was an excellent vehicle. However, I had grown to loathe the poor gas mileage & other inconveniences…which was becoming more loathsome with each 30-minute-each-way daily commute. So after getting my new vehicle, we cleaned up my car & posted it on Craigslist. Within 7 hours, we had over 28 emails/phonecalls about the Jeep. We actually ended up selling it that night to the first person who looked at it, and I sold it for only $200 less than my asking price, which was more than the Kelly Blue Book Value for the car. Not too Shabby…although selling a vehicle on Craigslist is an interesting experience. We had some “interesting” phone calls & voicemails about the vehicle…my favorite was the male chauvinistic jerk who asked me “Don’t you have a husband I can talk to…” Fun times, in retrospect, I really should have given that guy a verbal lesson about the year 2011…