Category Archives: Gadgets

Basic Car Organization

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I fell off the blog world planet and into the abyss. It was nice out there! But I hopped on a homemade, Pinterest-inspired rocketship and now I’m back! For the time being.

I guess I just didn’t know if anyone was even remotely interested in what I had to say. I don’t have elaborate stories to tell, but rather just discoveries/activities that I make day-to-day.

But anyway, I organized my car and I’d like to share my tips!

I’m really into organizational accessories right now, because when things get out of place (and they do quite often), I love when they have a place to go back to. Ideally, I’d like to have a series of organizing posts from bedroom to bathroom to kitchen, and so on.

I’m not a fan of clutter in my car, so I have a few tricks to keep everything tucked away.

I’ll start off in the trunk. I keep hardly anything in my trunk, and that’s good because that’s the place where everything I buy has to go.

Just a snowbrush (in pink of course), that gets moved to the backseat during winter, and my yoga mat + towel.

Backseat:

I keep a storage tote containing a towel, an umbrella, reusable grocery shopping bags and a spare pair of flip flops ($4 from Joe Fresh). These totes will also come in handy during school, because I can keep all my notebooks and textbooks organized in one. I also keep a box of Kleenex under the seat and a portable container of moist towelettes in the back cup holder.

In the centre console, I keep a few necessities/emergency items, mainly a hair tie, bobby pins, bandaids, tampons, iPhone charger, a comb and I guess my student card.

Underneath the console is a little groove for spare change, but I have found it to be perfect to keep a little bottle of Febreeze to keep my car smelling fresh.

In the glove compartment, I keep my ownership/insurance for all those times I get pulled over, a lint roller and a notepad + pen. All that is pretty easy to imagine. For my dash, I just keep my USB cord there to so I can charge my iPhone and play music. 

And that’s it! I don’t keep a garbage bag in my car — I just throw everything in the side compartment on the door and empty it out once a week.

And I guess that’s it for my first post back in two months! A lot is new, some things big, some miniscule. I welcome anyone to ask questions, or wait (with breath that is baited — ten points for whomever knows where that’s from) for my next post to find out all that is new. Also, if you like the organizing posts, I would love to do a series. Most of the search engine terms are organizational, so I figure I can build on that.

Ciao for now!

There’s a Shark in my House

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Duuun Duunn ..

Duunn Dunnn…

Dun dun dun dun dun DUN!

Remote controlled FLYING shark in my house. It’s normal.

I kind of wish we had a remote controlled dinosaur so I could just play the Jaws theme song and the Jurassic Park theme song over and over again. My house would be awesome. 

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Just a little note: If you’re not a fan of haul-style posts, don’t read on. I like haul-style posts because I get shopping inspiration from them. I understand they can come across as showy, and that’s not my intention. 

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It’s been a while! And it’s 2012 now, so I figured I’d list some things that I have become attached to (or stayed attached to) for the new year. I’m also excited to start some new projects! I want to go into full-out DIY mode and design/build some stuff, hopefully successfully.

Here’s what I’m loving (mostly from Christmas)… Sweet brewed coffee heavens, I am in love with this machine (although not the first machine I fell in love with, *cough* Mac). I need a place to store all my K-Cups (many of them dark/milk hot chocolate — obsessed), but I also bought a reusable K-Cup to save waste and to be able to make precious Dunkin’ Donuts vanilla coffee, mmm.

My next 2012 love is a perfume… It’s sweet, light and a bit citrus-y. The Express perfume is honestly the best perfume I’ve smelled in a while, and I normally shy away from clothing store perfumes, but maybe that’s a psychological thing since I pass out when I pass by an Abercrombie store.

In other scent-related things… The Scentsy is perfect for me because I am a candle addict. I have to admit that the Bath & Body Works candles smell amazing, but when I burn them for too long, the scent becomes sickly-sweet and causes me to have a headache. I can leave the Scentsy on all day because it’s just a light bulb that warms up the wax and it always smells fresh.

Tech-related love … This is my new iPhone case from Cellairis. It’s from the Elle & Blair collection (they’re beauty gurus on YouTube) and I love it because it’s nautical and reminds me of summer. It fits my 4S perfectly. I needed a new case because — I wasn’t aware of this — but the 4S mute switch is slightly lower than the 4, rendering my other cases ill-fitting #firstworldproblems. This one does the job! And food related … Skinny Cow ice cream will always be my first love, but the Weight Watchers brand has mint chocolate cups and mint chocolate ice cream is my favourite. The ice cream sandwich is chocolate peanut butter and this is my first time trying it. It’s ridiculous.

I tweeted Skinny Cow, since I’m probably one of their number one customers ;) and asked if 2012 could bring a new Skinny Cow cup, preferably mint chocolate brownie. This makes me “eeeeeeee” :D

I’m also addicted to vegetable bowls, covered in pasta sauce and topped with baked chicken breast. I’ll spare you from a picture of it.

And lastly, media wise, I’m loving:

This song: We are Young – Fun

This TV show: The Big Bang Theory. Adam and I just started from season 1 and it’s hilarious!

What are some new things you’re loving for 2012?

Mellow Monday

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Hello!

Hope you’re all having a wonderful start to the week. Everything is quiet over here, and I actually have a night to do whatever I want to because I finished my assignment this morning instead of leaving it until tonight.

I spent some time with Layla in the living room and read my book, the official biography of Steve Jobs. I could only get through three chapters because Layla was snoring too loudly. 

Let me take you on a journey back in time (OK this is not an exciting story at all, just FYI) to probably the first healthy meal that I “came up with” and subsequently fell in love with. I was 17 at the time and this dish was the catalyst that made me appreciate pretty much every vegetable out there.

Oh, and it’s wicked easy too. It’s pretty much like making a frozen skillet meal.

Here’s what you need:

  • a skillet (obviously)
  • 1 boneless skinless chicken breast (fully cooked)
  • any kind of frozen vegetables you like and as much as you like (I combine three different bags of frozen vegetables: an asian vegetable variety, frozen corn and something with frozen asparagus, green beans and peppers. Again, feel free to use any kinds of frozen vegetables you like.)
  • 2 tblsp of your favourite salad dressing (not a creamy variety)
Start by tossing around your frozen vegetables in the skillet until they’re cooked through. Add in chopped chicken breast and cook until the liquid from the frozen vegetables cooks off. This dish tastes much better when the vegetables are ever so slightly charred, not watery. Add in the salad dressing and toss around for about 30 seconds or so and it’s done!

My favourite dressing for this dish

Veggie Lovin'

It’s not a groundbreaking dish, but it tastes awesome and the fact that it comes together in about 8 minutes just makes it fantastic.

I’m going for a walk now, just because I feel like soaking up the last hour before it becomes dark outside. I’m trying to avoid seasonal depression disorder, jokingly and seriously. I’m taking Vitamin D pills to hopefully appease the drama queen in me who whines when it gets dark at 4.

New Rule

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Effective: Immediately.

As I sat down to put the finishing touches on an assignment today, my procrastination urge kicked in (as usual).

Man, my keyboard is dirty. I certainly cannot concentrate when my keyboard is this unattractive… 

So instead of just wiping my keyboard off, my procrastination instincts went full-on and I brought out tools to thoroughly clean my keyboard. I have never done this before, and I was a little nervous.

I gently plucked the keys off one at a time, using a pen to lever the key away from the MacBook.

What I found underneath was shocking and revolting. There were crumbs…. dog hairs… eyelashes(!!) and other dustbunnies. 

I used a q-tip to swipe around the edges of the key and then used tweezers to pluck every little thing from each crevice.

My keyboard looks pristine now, and my report might be late.

But I have a new rule: no more eating crumb-producing foods around my MacBook. That’s the only defence I can take right now, because I can’t really control if my eyelash or dog’s hair gets in there. You think I would have learned from The Nacho Situation, but this time, it’s for real. 

Do you know what’s lurking under your keyboard?

PS. I uploaded my second vlog again, this time including the outtakes. If you’d like, just click here and skip to the 5:30 mark to see them!