Stargurl80's Blog

Since myself and pretty much all of my family and friends have Labor Day off, we're going to take the drive to Louisiana to go to my aunt's new house.  She just got a great new house built by Schumacher homes, and we're all dying to see it.  My Aunt Judie is more my style than I think any of my other relatives are.  She is laid back and has a great sense of humor.  I remember her last house was really quirky and terrific with elaborate decorations and themed rooms.

I've heard that Schumacher homes build terrific homes, and Aunt Judie literally got every brick of this one built to her standards.  It should be interesting.  I don't really know much about it, but I know she has an indoor pool and hot tub in her back yard which I'm really looking forward to.  The cookout she is having could very well be a top day of the summer.

A few months ago, my car broke down on the side of the road when I was driving to my friend's house.  Apparently there was something wrong with my alternator.  It was a dark country road, right out of a bad horror movie.  I was absolutely terrified in the middle of nowhere...thank God I had my cell phone on me.  After that night I vowed that I would never be left alone and cold in the dark again.

I ran some errands the next day.  On my list:  a flashlight, a blanket, a car cell phone charger and pepper spray.  It was dumb of me in the first place not to have these things in my car in the first place.  First off, the flashlight was the most important thing.  It seems like the number one emergency thing that you should have on you, and I really could have used it stuck in the middle of the night.  I decided on buying a shake flashlight online because it suited my needs the best.  A shake flashlight is also environmentally friendly!

Secondly, I bought a heavy fleece blanket at Wal Mart that will be a staple in my trunk.  You never know when your car is going to break down in the winter and you won't be able to turn the heat on.  Plus, a blanket is one of those things that you will use regularly for so many different activities...it's always good to have. 

The last two, car charger and pepper spray, should have been in my car from the start.  A car charger is good because you don't have to take your regular charger everywhere.  Plus, if you are driving you can just plug in your cell without even thinking and your cell stays charged.  The pepper spray is pretty self explanatory for self defense purposes.  I just needed a small can for my pocket, and I feel a lot better now that I picked one up.

A few of my friends are moving back into college around this time, and I like to try to give them a hand whenever I can.  However, there are certain times that I refuse to help.  The only time I ever refuse is if the person is a complete slob.  I have a couple of guy friends who are borderline animal they are so messy.  Last year, I helped my friend Jake move into his apartment.  He's a great guy, but very messy.  I did not know how messy until I helped move him in.

We got to his apartment and his 2 friends helped him carry all the heavy things in like the fridge, bed, dressers etc.  I was going along to help with the organization and "interior decorating"...which is almost laughable.  After we got everything moved in...when your apartment is supposed to be at it's cleanest...his apartment was still truly disgusting.  

First off, the inside of his refridgerador was covered in mold and fungus.  Fungus removal and mold removal are beyond my concern, I'll leave that up to Jake.  His bedding wasn't washed, his clothes weren't folded or hung, his shoes smelled, his couch had cigarette burns and spills all over it.  I don't know if it's just me, but how do some guys live like this?  Maybe I'm being too hard on 'em, but its gross!

My recent interest has been solar power. I remember being young and having teachers in school and friend talk about "solar powered" as a thing of the distant future. Well, that future is upon us. I was cruising around the internet and saw everything from solar iPod chargers and solar cell phone chargers to lights that don't need batteries or electricity.

This kind of technology still kind of blows my mind, but it would be amazing if this caught on to all aspects of our life. Could you imagine a car without a battery or remote controls and other day to day electronics with a black strip that replaces the batteries? I know buying batteries is a pain for me personally...they are one of those things that you hate to spend money on.

I am looking forward to the day where cell phone chargers, batteries, extension cords and power outlets are a thing of the past.  As for right now, I am going to do my best to learn more on this technology and maybe invest in a few solar items.  A solar powered light sounds like a good start.

I read a pretty interesting article the other day on one of those online wacky news sites about self cleanses. I am really interested in weight loss, even though I am in pretty good shape. I try to work out and eat healthy as much as possible, but I'm far from a health nut. Anyways, this article was all about body cleansing and I have to be honest, it really got my attention.

The first kind of cleanser was a colon cleanser.  While it seems pretty insane and the title doesn't help too much, there are people who rave about this.  In essence, it is a full body cleanse than gets all this junk that builds up in your intestines out of you.  It is kind of like a super laxative.  The article also had testimonials from athletes, one was a mixed martial artist I believe.

He said he follows a strict raw food, non cooked diet and uses different colon cleansers and cleansing techniques to give him more energy and feel healthier.  I suppose if someone who competed at an athletic level that highly used it and raved about it, I should trust it.  Maybe sometime down the road I'll give this a try just to see what the fuss is about.

My 2 uncles are both Ohio home builders , so I was talking to them about my dream house.  Ever since I've been little, I always thought about what my dream house would be.  We grew up in a small house, and I was always jealous of my friends' big basements.  That is probably the most important thing about my future dream house:  not the kitchen, not a big bathroom, not an impressive master bedroom...I want a big finished basement.  Hopefully if I have children one day, I want them to have a place where they could spend time with their friends and not be confined.

My uncles said that they took a trip to Texas with their crew for some work on 2 Texas custom homes , and they were talking about their finished basements.  The one basement, my uncle said, was like a replica of their first floor with the same amount of rooms.  There was the main area that had a big screen TV on the wall with a sectional couch and a really nice bar off of the wall.  There was a separate room coming off of this room that had a pool table and ping pong table in it with some seating and a bathroom.  Just listening to him describe this basement made me 100% positive that this is what I wanted.

Hopefully I can get a well paying job and marry a good guy so I can make this happen!

This may seem like a pretty minor point, but I am genuinely curious how you girls (and even guys) go about this. I've done the gradual underwear accumulation, and I've done the underwear bulk buys and I'm not too sure which is better.  Do I take a day and a good amount of money and buy a lot of new bras and panties ?  Do I buy a small amount every month? Here is a pros and cons list that I've made up for both methods.

Bulk Buying

Pros:

-you can take $300 and buy all the underwear you'll need for the next year or two at least

-you can take advantage of store sales or online sales like Hue panties.

-you can cross one thing off of your list for the near future

-you can put a bonus check or extra money towards it

-you can throw out all of the underwear you don't wear or is damages at once, clearing out a ton of room

Cons:

-it can be a big expense all at once if you have a tight budget

-you may not be able to get the variety you're looking for

-you may over buy

Gradually Buying:

Pros:

-you don't need a lot of money at once

-you know exactly what you need

-you can make a quick and easy shopping trip

-you can concentrate on variety and style, not price

Cons:

-you can't take full advantage of sales

-you'll have to fit new underwear in an already full collection

-you'll have to constantly update your collection

Think about it and let me know what you think!

I have a friend who is a big fan of chewing tobacco. While I personally don't like him doing it all that much, I am mature enough to know that people can make their own decisions. He is a good friend of mine and I trust he can run his own life. Nevertheless, something good did come out of his nasty habit.

The kind of tobacco he likes comes in a small, rectangular tin with rounded edges. After seeing him throw a number of these out, I couldn't help but think that it was a waste. I am very creative when it comes to arts and crafts and recycling things, so I told him to give him empty tins to me instead of throwing them out.  The tin doesn't have any labels on it or anything...just painted metal.  I immediately thought that it would be easy to spray paint these and reuse them.

I collected about 4 of the empty tins off of my friend Alex in about a 2 week span.  I went to the arts and crafts store by my house and picked up some spray paint, glitter and other miscellaneous art items.  Time to go to work.  I immediately painted two of these cans pink.  I painted the top and bottom separately so they wouldn't stick when closed.  After I painted them, I put some silver glitter on the tin before the paint was wet.  I painted the other one orange and put gold glitter on it.

After the paint and glitter was done, I hand painted my mom's name on one, my other friend Brianne's name on one and my name on one.  I gave them to those 2 as presents, and they loved them!  My mom put a little cushion in the bottom and keeps some of her earring in it now.  Brianne has hers at work to collect spare change.  They both said they have received many compliments on their unique gifts.

I painted the last tin black and put a red skull on it and Alex's name in Old English font.  I gave it back to him and he was really impressed.  I guess if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!

My room has been getting a little stale lately, so I decided to use my disposable income to invest in some decor.  After much interior decorating deliberation, I decided that I wanted to have a pretty dominant central theme.  I didn't want my room to look like I just threw it together...like it was a dorm room.  I decided on my favorite animal print, zebra!

It was pretty easy to get my hands on a lot of fairly inexpensive zebra print interior decor.  First, I got a terrific black and zebra striped comforter to go with black sheets and pillowcases and my black wooden frame bed.  I have hardwood floors, so I got a matching zebra area rug to put next to my bed.  The two big changes were done!

My walls and ceiling are white, so luckily I didn't have to paint them.  I did get a terrific poster of a model wearing a zebra print dress online.  I framed it and put it on the white wall...it looks amazing!  In addition, the one expensive item I did buy was a small zebra fabric bench.  This piece matched with the rug and comforter pulls the entire room together!

So I know it's August, but it's never too early to start thinking about Halloween!  I am a girl who really enjoys Halloween...when else can you take on another personality for a night or two?  Anyways, I've narrowed my famous Halloween costumes to threee finalists.  Here they are, and let me know what you think.

Zombie:

I always thought this would be a really cool idea.  I was thinking of wearing somewhat of a semi-formal outfit and zombi-ing it out.  I was going to get an old dress and wear tights or sheers under it with some old jewelry and heels.  Then the twist...I'll smear the dress and my face and arms with dirt, put holes in the tights and maybe even wear only one heel.  Give myself a pretty horrifying makeup job with dark circles under my eyes and whatnot.  This sounds like an awesome costume if everything comes together correctly!

Retro Cheerleader:

I really like cheerleading, and I love the fashion of the old cheerleaders.  This one involves some research, but nothing I couldn't handle.  I'd see if I could get my hands on a real retro cheerleading uniform and some knee high socks.  I'd put my hair in pig tails or something retro looking, and get a megaphone and maybe some flash cards.  This could be a terrific Halloween costume, and would be 10 times better than the overdone "sexy cheerleader".

Old Lady:

I'm not too much of a fan of Halloween being a day that girls can dress "slutty", so this would be a great ironic costume to make a bit of a statement.  I'd want to look very grandmotherish, with the short, curly gray hair and dignified dress or pant-suit.  The makeup and hair would be tricky, but I'm pretty sure I could nail the outfit.  I think people would like this costume...girls would find it pretty refreshing.  Guys might not be too fond of it though!