Les Mis, Makeup, Cleaning w/ Vinegar, and Starting a blog!

My mind is still reeling after seeing Les Miserables last night with my girlfriends, but I'm not going to write a review other than to say that it was amazing in all aspects.

Me, Nat, Cristina <3

Lately I've been into trying out new things with makeup.  I bought myself an e.l.f. eyeshadow pallet for $5 around Christmas and have been experimenting with it. (Such a good deal I bought a couple as Christmas presents also!)  Have you seen those websites that list makeup dupes for high end makeup?  I just discovered the amazingness that is drugstore makeup! I read on a few sites that Revlon Colorstay foundation is a dupe for MAC foundation and have been wanting to try it.  Last night my hubs took the kiddos to CVS to get firewood and popcorn while I was at the movies.  This morning I was pleasantly surprised to find the receipt along with $1 extra care bucks and a coupon for $3/$10 of Revlon!  The Colorstay makeup was overpriced, but the new "Nearly Naked" line was on sale for $6.99 with $2 ecb!  Great deal! So I grabbed that in "Fresh Beige" and a mint green Revlon polish (Eclectic).  With my coupons and ecb I paid $9 something and got $4 ecb back!

You can tell I've been using these e.l.f. eyeshadows just about EVERY day since I bought them!

My girlfriend, Jill, who first introduced me to couponing a couple years back, asked if Naomi could come over for a playdate today.  Jill's one of the few people I completely trust with my kids, and I can drop my 4 yo off with her without a second thought. We both needed to go to Costco so we met there, shopped, and ate.  (Three dollars to feed my kids and myself lunch is pretty much unbeatable.) I took Judah home to nap and dreamed of watching Downton Abbey and painting my nails mint green while he slept.  Instead I unloaded the car, including the 2 gallons of vinegar I bought at Costco for less than $4 and got to cleaning.  I knew I wanted to try cleaning the toilets with vinegar and baking soda so I started there.  I dumped a bunch of vinegar into each toilet and went back to the kitchen.  I needed to clean the hard water stains on both shower doors so I microwaved some vinegar.  I opened the microwave to see Pete had evidently microwaved his chili leftovers last night.  So I used the warm vinegar to sponge down the microwave until it was sparkling again.  Then I loaded and started the dishwasher.  I went back to the bathrooms and cleaned them.  I sprinkled baking soda onto the toilet brush and scrubbed each toilet while it sizzled.  It was actually kinda fun... And it worked great!  I used a sponge soaked in warm vinegar to wipe off the hard water stains... so easy!  Once the bathrooms were done I mopped all the floors with yet more vinegar.  I LOVE cleaning with vinegar! Not only is it non-toxic and cheap, but it works better than anything else!  I know the smell is not the most pleasant, but I'm used to it.  If you open the windows or light a candle the smell should be gone in no time.

No more hard water spots here!

I still had time to spare before Judah would wake up so again I contemplated TV and wet nails or something more productive.  I settled for starting a blog.  Jill had said she'd be interested in reading if I started a blog so at least I know I'm interesting to one person.  Ha!  But even if no one reads it I'll still have fun writing it.  So here it is... My first post!