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hey four-eyes, I’m talking to YOU!

By on May 13, 2012 in sponsored, tips & tidbits

yeah, I’ve been a little four-eyes since I was the ripe old age of 7, and Mr. D has been wearing glasses since he was 12 or 13. this obviously means that we have plenty of scary pictures like this of our childhood floating around.

we certainly have hope that someday we will be able to afford lasik, but until then we are blind without contacts or glasses.

there are a few things that drive me batty about glasses, probably the most annoying of which being that I can’t just go directly from wearing them into contacts without having a dizzy indent in my nose from where the glasses used to be!!! I have to plan my day thinking how long before we’re going somewhere that I will need to put in my contacts if I don’t want to wear my glasses. LAME.

another thing that is frustrating is trying to figure out which eyeglasses actually look good on me, let alone staying remotely in style. (unfortunately that ship has sailed and I’m not that fond of swimming) but I always love when I can try glasses on virtually!

I was recently introduced to GlassesUSA.com and they have one of the better systems I’ve seen; it’s called the Virtual Mirror. I decided to help Mr. D try out some glasses. he doesn’t know about it until this is posted, so I’m sure he’ll be super impressed with my choices for him, LOL :)

dglasses1dglasses2dglasses3
it’s kind of addicting to see what people look like in different styles!

how sweet is it that you can try glasses on right here on our site?!

but you know what’s even more awesome??? I’ve got CODES for you!!!
if you’re looking for cheap glasses, how can you really go wrong?!

Take 50% off any pair of prescription eyeglasses/sunglass frames, plus free shipping.
Code: SPRING50FS

Take 10% off any order of prescription glasses.
Code: Blog10

now I’d better go check my eyeglasses prescription to see when I need it renewed!

Comments { 11 }

looking ridiculous is an important component of staying young

By on May 10, 2012 in friends, HA! ☺, pose like a teenage girl, stuff we do, tips & tidbits, traveling

another part of my “staying young theory”, along with the spontaneity thing, is to make a practice of doing silly things just for fun.

I’ll hang out with almost anyone, but if you’ll take funny pictures with me then you definitely score major points. conversely, if you don’t have the time of day for funny pictures, I will likely find you a little stuffy :) but if I can make fun of how stuffy you are then you’ll probably gain back a point.

see how this works yet?

ok, so in honor of turning 30 the other day last year I got Rhonda to take some pictures with me in honor of teenage girls everywhere. we intended to take more, but we ended up not having much time. I actually discovered later that I forgot to post one of them, but I can’t find it at the moment so I’ll have to get it up at some later date.

in any case, the idea is to try to get inside the mind of a teenage girl for these sorts of pictures, but sometimes our maturity just shines through…

ronald1ronaldkissymannequins

I was actually channeling my inner mannequin for this one. how creepy are these?!

enchanted

and obviously these are our fairy faces.

cupcakes

and finally, we got our men to join us. Mr D. said “I’m eating my cupcake”

do YOU take funny pictures? I’d obviously like to laugh at you, so send me a link!

Comments { 14 }

the BEST new blog tool (slogan: “Let’s make babies.”)

By on March 30, 2012 in Reviews, sponsoring, tips & tidbits, ♥ l.o.v.e.

you’re going to notice a few changes around here as you scroll down our site. it’s getting cleaner and more organized, folks! we haven’t been a part of the modern blogging community for very long, but it’s been long enough for us to appreciate the time and energy this super stellar new ad management tool saves us! seriously. if you’re not using it yet, you’re doing yourself a disservice…

helloooo Passionfruit!

(there is usually only one cute heart in their logo, but I felt it deserved a few more)

Passionfruit’s creator, Jason Lynes, hit it out of the park with this one, and from the conversations we’ve had it’s only going to get exponentially more awesome. (yes, that’s right, I said conversations – this dude is one of those forward thinking, long-term mindset, business owners who connects with his customers. judging from the 1,000,000 ads that have already found a home with Passionfruit, it’s paying off.)

so how does this great tool work? WELL, basically it’s like a virtual ibuprofen for your ad management migraine. hmm, no, that’s like saying it masks the problem, when really it gives it a swift kick in the butt and ushers it out of your life while you heave a great sigh of relief.

the process is quite straight forward.

1. simple account creation

2. set up your ad spots

(lots of great options here, including if you want the spots to shuffle or line up in the order they were purchased, and more to come!)

3. place the ads for purchase on your site

 

4. define where you want your ads to show up

(nothing will show up on your site yet, it’s just getting the nursery ready – because of all the baby language, you know)

5. make some babies! er, ads.

(you will probably want to import the ads you already have on your site or this is also how you should put any of your own ads on your site. I initially thought I’d have to make a promo code for myself in order to place one of my own ads with out paying myself, but no, just import it! yes, I said promo codes, I’ll get to that in a bit.)

5b. let others know they can make babies on your site!

(our baby-making factory is right here)

when someone goes to purchase an ad this is what they’ll see

do you see that??? they get to upload their ad themselves! not only that, but they can log in and change their ad if they need to. (you’ll always have the option to approve/edit) did you also notice that promo code box?

6. you might want to make a promo code (great for ad swaps!)

we did!

yep! that code will work on any of our ad spots, and it’s the one you use on our swap option in order to get some FREE swapping action going.
go on, do it now! (Passionfruit lets people purchase ads ANY time, not just at the beginning of the month ;) )

let’s see, did I forget anything? oh!

7. feel really smart for making your life more efficient

that’s about it! we obviously highly recommend Passionfruit.

go make some cute babies!

Comments { 2 }

is your birth control letting you down?

By on March 5, 2012 in au naturel, Debt Free!, HA! ☺, Lifestyle, tips & tidbits

as a horny 22 year old I can’t say I really put that much thought into birth control.

when Mr. D and I got married we knew we didn’t really want kids showing up unannounced for a few years at least and didn’t really want to be bothered with condoms, so the pill seemed like a no-brainer.

I was always fascinated by couples who “left it up to God”, but figured God kinda set the natural process in motion, so a baby was a pretty natural result.

a little over a year and a half into marriage we started becoming interested in a more simple, natural lifestyle and began a long process of reevaluating many products and choices. one of those reevaluations included methods of birth control.

good-bye vile pills was the result.

so condoms it was.

if you’re like a lot of people, I doubt you really put that much thought into what condoms you use. I certainly can’t say that we did. the thought we put in was basically, how do we get the most bang for our buck? (sorry, couldn’t resist – these things practically write themselves)

after years of thoughtlessly just buying the best deal we could find at Walmart, and several orders from Alice.com (which came in a really cool tin until they stopped selling them) I realized one day while doing our finances the actual cost of having sex.

$0.50 certainly sounds miniscule all by itself, but even pennies add up to hundreds over time, and when you are working toward goals and dreams while purposing to maintain a debt free lifestyle, pennies matter.

while I actually place a very high value on sex, putting a real monetary visual in my head gave me pause. everything is certainly relative in the field of finance, but for our budget 2 quarters looks closer to $1 than feels comfortable.

I figured hey, there has GOT to be a way to buy these things cheaper; they’re not selling rocket science here.

and what isn’t a short google away?!
(we’re actually happily rewarded users of swagbucks – $155 and counting :) )

shoving away the inclination to feel like a prostitute, I typed in “buying condoms in bulk” or some such search. now I must note this disclaimer that we are avid supporters of AdblockPlus in our browsers and therefore are almost never accosted with advertising, particularly of the unsavory nature. I have no idea how your personal browsing experiences may function.

I guess another title for this post could have been “How I Saved 60% on Condoms” because after a bit of cost analysis, Discount Condom King ended up the winner at $0.20 each. not having to remember to buy them as often is a decent perk as well in my book.

in my searches I noticed a couple of oddities – when you search Alice for “condoms” the results include toothbrush cases?

if I am somehow naive in my understanding of how these are related, I am happy to stay that way.

what exactly is the point of a condom case? when it says “Love Box” on it do you really feel that much more discreet if it happens to fall out of your purse?
maybe you just feel higher class.

in any case, as people who don’t know if we’ll ever have more kids but don’t want to make a permanent decision for our future selves, we’re happy with this solution.

{this post proudly sponsored by Angela, mother to six excessively cute and precious children :) }

Comments { 2 }

if you’re gonna be quirky, at least do it right

By on March 2, 2012 in HA! ☺, Lifestyle, Low-Maintenance Girl, Random, tips & tidbits, ☢ rants

when I originally wrote “quirkiness – it’s what’s for supper” in my blogging notes a while back I’m not sure what exactly I was intending to write about. (don’t you just love finding cryptic notes to yourself – I always overestimate the power of my rememberer…)

but everyone has weird habits and ways of doing things, right? that’s what we like to tell ourselves, anyway :)

apparently people need a reeducation on how to make ramen. we didn’t even realize how dumb the directions on the package are until we observed our intern, Krista, making lunch one day in such bizarre fashion. (obviously we’re not much for recipes and directions) next time you have a flashback to your college days (we try for a couple times a month) feel free to dispense with the nonsense and just put everything in the pot at once: noodle blocks first, seasoning packets on top, water run over to mix the seasoning in (don’t quite cover the noodles unless you like soupy ramen), then cover and turn on high till it boils – take off the lid and poke around a bit to make sure all the noodles are now in the water, then turn off the heat and recover for a few minutes. VOILA the perfect ramen. got it, Krista? you’re welcome for this valuable life lesson.

so what’s up with those people who only use a towel once? (I don’t personally know any of your towel habits, I’ve just heard people do it) can someone explain that to me? I mean, I understand how you wouldn’t want to accidentally dry your face with a place on the towel where you had previously dried your butt, and I suppose some might be more thorough about drying than others, but seriously, you’re CLEAN. (unless you just ran around in the shower for two seconds to feel good about fulfilling your socially obligatory hygienic duties) if you’re that scared of yourself you could at least purpose to always dry your butt with the side of the towel that has the tag so that you’re sure not to offend your face later. just a thought! unless you enjoy extra laundry. cuz that’s not really Low-Maintenance Girl’s thing either.

don’t you love how I turned around our quirkiness and made it look like other people are the ones with the problem? I do, hahaha.

I asked Krista what weird things we do around here and she said “I don’t know, I’ve just gotten used to everything now!” smirk.

“well, there is your thing with spoons”

here is my spoon theory: spoons are by and large gross. they are acceptable for much older persons and small children because in those cases they are a necessary evil. spoons are also acceptable utensils for soup and cereal, again, for obvious reasons. other than these instances, I refuse to use a spoon if I have a choice in the matter. I don’t want to go rubbing my lips all over something. I try to avoid watching other people rubbing their lips all over things as well. the other thing is, have you ever noticed how a spoon tends to look coming out of someone’s mouth? the times it comes out looking clean as opposed to slimy and goo covered are far too rare for my taste – watch someone eating ice cream if you don’t believe me. I suppose maybe my brain subconsciously does not naturally separate the concept of someone eating off their own spoon with the disgusting thought of being forced to eat off of that same spoon right after they left their slime on it. maybe I’m just more visual than some?

Mr. D has pointed out that forks could be considered more gross because of the small crevices’ propensity for getting dirty, but we use a brush to wash our forks and my comfort level with their cleanliness is high enough.

obviously there is no way for me to turn this around to look like you have a spoon problem, but in order for you to hopefully think I’m not really as neurotic as I sound, let me assure you that I really do NOT think about this hardly ever. it was a mere observation at one point in time which led to a lifestyle choice – don’t use spoons and don’t watch people who do.

(sorry to cookbookmaniac for stealing your picture, it was the only image I could find of a messy spoon. if you fancy some chocolate pear pudding then click right on that spoon for a lovely recipe)

if you happen to know us and our quirky ways feel free to remind us of other randomness that we should [attempt to] explain. believe me, I’m sure we have an explanation that at least makes sense in our own minds.

{this post sponsored by Rhonda from Kalona Coffee House. she eats with spoons.}

be sure to come back tomorrow for an extra special discussion on condoms
in part 2 of You Asked for It!

Comments { 11 }