Tips and Tricks: What to do with perfume samples

So you know how you get all of those perfume samples in magazines? What do you do with them? I think most of us open them, sniff them, wrinkle our nose and throw them away. After throwing away so many of those potent rub on samples I decided their must be some way I can use them.

I have been wanting to try one of the new "Stick anywhere" air freshener for my kitchen trash can. But I am cheep and do not want to spend $6 dollars to make my trash can smell better. So I decided to take one of those rub on samples and tape it to the under side of the trash can lid and see if it will help with the smell. So far it seems to be working. I am not sure how long the perfume smell will last but I have three more samples waiting to make my trash can smell like designer perfume.  

The Story of Toothless

It looks like my last post was about our new pet Toothless. Unfortunately our little Toothless passed away after a few weeks of owning him. We decided to try again with a new baby bearded dragon, but once again the poor little guy didn't make it after a few weeks. It was really hard to see both of them have a short life and not so pleasant deaths.
My husband still wanted to own a bearded dragon and started to do a lot more research on what it takes to own and care for these exotic animals. After a few weeks of researching he found a breeder of bearded dragons. Before we had just bought the lizards from a big box pet store (not a very good idea). When you buy any exotic animal it is best to buy them straight from the breeder, you may pay more but you are paying for that persons knowledge of care. Many pet stores do not use the correct lighting or feed the baby lizards the correct food.
Here is where our story of Toothless number 3 gets exciting. The breeder we found lived in a different state, so how would toothless get to use? By mail of course! Toothless was a healthy 6 month old mix between a citrus and a red gala bearded dragon. He came over night in a small brown box with stamps all  over saying there was a "Live Harmless Lizard, Keep Warm."

 I was home that day while Tyler was at work. I left Toothless in the box partly because I wasn't sure how big he was going to be and I wanted Tyler to open the box since Toothless is his pet. When Tyler got home it was like Christmas opening the box and seeing what was inside.

Because bearded dragons a reptiles and cold blooded, he needed a source of heat. He was shipped inside a box in a clothe bag full of shredded paper, and had a few heat packets in side the box next to the bag. I wonder what people thought as they handled the package and realized that it was warm and had stamps saying there was a lizard inside. Are animals shipped in the mail very often?

When we pulled Toothless out of his bag, he was so colorful and a bit sleepy after taking a plan and road trip over night and most of the next morning. We put him in his cage under his heat lamp to warm up and get some energy. It is kind of crazy to think that these pictures are almost a year old. Toothless is now full grown and has a fun personality. He loves to take baths and he snuggles with my husband in the evenings. I never though I would be  reptile person, but Toothless has stolen my heart. :) 

We Bought a Lizard

I think we all look forward to buying the big newspaper stuffed with all the black Friday ads and sitting at the table or on the floor and browsing through each add. We see things we need, things we want and things we only dream of. Well this year my husband was looking through the ads and found one from PetSmart. On the front page it said "Bearded Dragons 50% off!" 

Tyler has wanted a lizard since he was a kid, his dad had one when he was little but it had a sudden death ad they never replaced it. So Tyler could not pass up this bargain. Now most people buy socks or technology items on black Friday. Not us. We were at PetSmart around 8 in the morning to buy a bearded dragon. 

At first I was not sure I wanted a lizard, some of them look really creepy! But the beardies won my heart and now we have a third member to our non human children clan.

Now onto the name of our lizard. Tyler says he wants a dragon but since that is not possible we got him a bearded dragon. We both love the movie How To Train Your Dragon and the main dragon Toothless.  So Toothless it is! We aren't sure if Toothless is a boy or a girl yet and you can't tell until they are bigger but whatever it is I think Toothless id a great name.

And here he/she is! Toothless is about 6 inches long but very little considering his tail is more than half his size :) It is going to be a fun adventure watching this little guy grow up and have his personality come out. Welcome to the family Toothless!

Making Candles From Left Over Wax

I have been collecting wax from my pillar candles that burn out but still have wax left over for a few months. I love to burn candles, I have a few going almost every day. Yesterday I decided to make some candles with my left over wax and small glass containers I have. The small containers came from tiny candles I got from Ross and the bigger ones I picked up at a yard sale empty. 

First I started by cleaning out the containers and drying them.

Then I picked off the sticker on the bottom of the wax and cut out as much of the left over wick as I could.

To melt the wax I used a pot that I will NOT use for cooking. It is hard to get all the wax off of the pot and I do not want waxy food

I turned the burner on very low. If you melt the wax on to high of a setting the wax will start to evaporate like it would if you were burning the candle. Low and slow is the way to go :)

As the wax was melting I prepped my candle making station. I laid down tin foil in case I spilled and space out the containers. I bought wax coated wicks that come with the medal thingy on the bottom. I placed the wicks in the containers and waited for the wax to finish melting.

After I poured some wax in I let it set for awhile. At first I tried to fill the whole thing on the first go but that caused the wick to move around or lift off of the bottom. Also I found that the wax will sink in in the middle. I do not know why but the sides ended up much higher than the middle. So my solution to this is to fill the container in layers.

As you can see I spilled some wax. But the tine foiled saved me. I let the wax cool and I was able to peel the wax off.

If you let it cool all the way it comes off really easily.

Now I can put it back in the pot and melt it.

One last little trick I discovered is to dip the medal part of the wick in melted wax and then place it in the center of your container. This will help keep the wick from floating up and around as you pour in the melted wax.

And here are some of the candles I made :) For less than 3 dollars for 12 wicks I am a happy crafter. Next time I will try buying a spool of wick and the medal thingies and making my own wax covered wicks. 

Star Trek at The Monterey Bay Aquarium

As I was schmoozing with a man who was tracking the otters on the Monterey Bay the other day, he told me about how the decks over looking the bay were used as a whale pool in the movie "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home." As soon as he said Star Treck was here I wondered if my dad had seen the movie he was talking about. Today I was flipping through the channels on tv and the movie was playing! So here I am watching the movie and finding more information about the cast coming to the aquarium and filming.

  Here is are some pictures of the aquarium in the movie and how the aquarium really looks. They added water to reach the deck, in the background is a San Francisco skyline and the whales are not real. But it looks realistic.
  I found a clip (http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/video/video_popup_timeline_high_txt.asp?video=5_timeline) of the cast at the aquarium and Spock was walking around in his make up and ears admiring the exhibits. :) I wonder why I have never heard about the movie at the aquarium before. I think they should have a small exhibit with pictures of the actors here or even clips of them in the aquarium. Not only would you get sea life fans but you would get star trek fans! As I am watching the movie it is really cool to see how much they filmed in the aquarium and if anything has changed. Since I started about a quarter of the way through and it has commercials I think I should try to find it on netflix and watch the whole movie :)

Anne Hathaway in My Backyard

(photo from popsugar.com)

Anne has tied the knot, and the festivities were only 30 miles from house! Big Sur is where Anne had her wedding. I have never been to Big Sure but from what I have heard and read it is very lovely. There is camping from tent to luxury cabin, art galleries, gift shops and wedding locations.
 I was watching one of the popular celebrity news shows and I heard Anne got married this weekend. Then when I heard it was at Big Sur I knew that was near by. So I googled it. From my apartment to Big Sur it was 30 miles :) It feels really cool to know a movie star ( one I actually like) was 30 miles from me. California is becoming more and more eventful. I wonder what will happen next :)

Here is a link to an article on Hathaway and Shulman's wedding. http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20633276,00.html

Does This Apartment Make Me Look Fat?

  Moving to Monterey has been wonderful! But when my jeans start to get to tight and shirts are showing pudge that I didn't used to have, it is past the time to start doing something about it.
  Here in Monterey I do not do nearly as much walking as I used to when I was in Albany and going to college. I would park my car further out so I would have to walk farther to get to class and about 9 hours a week I was running around with toddlers. I felt healthy and pretty good about my body.
  Now that I am in Monterey my house is very tiny so walking from the kitchen to the bathroom or living room feels like ten steps. I try to get out and walk 2 or 3 times a week but I hate the walk back up the hill so sometimes I talk myself out of going anywhere.
  Well all my laziness has ended up in a 15 pound weight gain. Ugh, and it is depressing. So I am more determined now than I have ever been to loose weight. I am heavier than I have ever been and that in not ok. The only time I want to gain weight again is if I am having a baby, which I am not.

  In goes the Insanity dvd each day from now on and we will see how much I loose :) It is hard to do the whole dvd but I just do what I can and I try keep moving by jogging in place if some of the exercises get crazy hard.
  So I shall keep you posted with the numbers and how I am doing at working out. :)