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In honor of the day, here are links to two sites where you can download free pumpkin carving stencils. Pumpkin Masters even has corporate logos and Pumpkin Glow has everything but Halloween stencils (including the Steve Erwin pattern).
Walgreen's has a "treat" for customers this Halloween. Through Oct. 31, enter "GHOST" as the promotional code at Walgreen's Photo Center and get 4x6" prints for .15/each. The "trick" is you have to order 100 or more prints. It's worth it if your digital photos have been piling up on your harddrive like mine ...
I'm quoted in the current issue of Christianity Today ... here's the quote and a link to the online version.
"Evangelicals have to jump into the technology race with both feet in order to stay anywhere near being culturally engaging," says Cara Davis, editorial director at Relevant Media.
A couple of people in my office have showed me creative ways to use these binder clips. They have hung posters from the clips and affixed the clips to the wall using push pins. The clips look cool and anything lightweight can be hung with little damage to the wall. Real Simple suggests using the clips to display photos, pretty cards and even recipes when you're cooking. A photo and description are here. Click through the online gallery for more cheap decorating tips.
My husband and I love our rescue pup Macey like she was our child ... This weekend we talked about our desire to have another dog, preferably a Boston Terrier mix, but the talk eventually turned to the cost of owning a pet. That in addition to the extra stress it would add to the household caused us to rethink our dreams of being a two-dog household (you would think we'd be talking about kids with this much attention). With that in mind I found this article today about saving money when it comes to pet costs.
Everyone knows it's expensive to eat out ... but one can expect to spend around $40 a person when eating a decent meal in NYC, which is 20 percent higher than the national average. Zagat's annual dining survey released on Wednesday said prices have raised 5 percent in the city for most restaurants, with some rising 15 percent since last year. This was the biggest percentage hike in years, but it's still a deal compared with meals in Tokyo ($75), London ($72) and Paris ($67).
Carrie posted this comment on a post from awhile back about our new home and a tip we had heard about getting wallpaper down: “Hi there, I found your site while Googling for wallpaper removal tips. I realize this is an old blog but I was wondering how the wallpaper removal with Fabreeze worked out for you? I need some tips and was hoping that this one worked. Please let me know. Thanks!”
Well, Carrie, as it turns out, most of the “wallpaper” tips we heard seemed to be old wives tales. We tried soap and water, DIF, Fabreeze, the roller that perforates the walls to allow liquid to soak in … none of it worked magic. My husband and I worked eight hours on one part of one wall and barely made progress.
Just last week we hired a friend from church who spent 13 hours using a steamer and got all the wallpaper down. It cost us a pretty penny ($375) but we felt we ran out of options. With both of us working full-time and my husband’s grad school load, we felt we had no other choice.
My husband will sand the walls down and prep them for painting, so at least we won’t have to pay anything additional to finish the job.
But what a pain! I hope we never have to deal with wallpaper again.
Today's twentysomethings are committing to mortgages about three years younger than the two previous generations. The average young professional buys a home at age 26 these days—and for the first time, they're making up a significant chunk of the condo market. Because of that, condos are being designed much hipper and cooler.
I bought a condo a year and seven months after renting a place. I had help from my parents on the downpayment. After I was married, we stayed there nearly two years until we bought the house we're in now. The only way we were really able to afford the housing market was because of the money we made on the condo. It was a great investment at the right time.