May 26, 2012 | A better way, Cultural chaos, Flashback, No retail shopping
It’s the one year anniversary since I finished the no retail shopping challenge. Why did I do the challenge? Straight from my original blog post: I wanted to live differently, meaning finding creative ways to not buy stuff I really don’t need, to share stuff...
Nov 26, 2011 | Cultural chaos, Flashback, Read the fine print
I love reading and making fun of the Black Friday ads, but better than that, reading the fine print can be quite entertaining. I started this last year on black friday. I got to do it this year with my friends Jason and Carrie. You can read last year’s post...
Sep 23, 2011 | Cultural chaos, Downsizing, Flashback
I don’t usually blog about food, but clearly this is a topic that falls into the “living differently” and “downsizing” categories. Flashback to 6 years old. I remember eating cereal called Kaboom. Do you remember it? The cereal itself...
Jul 20, 2011 | Flashback, Just plain good, Repurposed, Thrift store |
The first thing I do when I’m on vacation in a new city is scope out all of the local thrift stores and resale shops. It was raining yesterday, so the kids couldn’t do some of the things they had planned, so we hit the thrift stores. The first one had...
May 31, 2011 | Flashback, No retail shopping, Save $
I decided not to be the ugly neighbor any longer. I didn’t do much to my yard last summer, so this year, it’s looking a little rough. Should I go shopping? This is going to be weird… I chose Home Depot because I had a store credit from a return I...
May 18, 2011 | Flashback, Ideas, No retail shopping
I’ve been reflecting a lot lately over the past year and how my life has been impacted by the no retail shopping challenge. It has taken me in directions I’d never expected and changed my thinking in so many ways. I’m not sure what I was expecting...
May 12, 2011 | Cultural chaos, Flashback, No retail shopping
When I stated the challenge almost a year ago, a few people asked, “Did you buy a bunch of stuff in preparation to not shop for a year?” The answer is no. This was an idea I had when I woke up one morning and I implemented it the moment I thought about...
Jan 9, 2011 | Flashback, No retail shopping, Save $
Original post: January 1, 2009 About two months ago, I got a really cool pair of shoes from a friend’s teenage daughter. She said she was not wearing them anymore, so I took them home with me. The shoes were awesome, great colors and artwork! As soon as I got...
Dec 29, 2010 | Abandoned places, Flashback, No retail shopping
Honestly, some of these might be more than a year old, but they’re all the same, year after year… lots of stuff. Most of these were taken in abandoned places, houses, farms, buildings, vehicles, you name it. No matter where I go with my camera, I always...
Dec 27, 2010 | Flashback |
This was written 4 days after Christmas last year on my blog iembracechaos.com. What is out of the ordinary? Choosing to help others and live differently in a way that changes life as we know it. My kids really didn’t seem all that bothered by the lack of...
Dec 23, 2010 | Flashback, Save $
This is a blog post I did in October of 2008 on iembracechaos.com, and the one post I send people to most frequently. is it coffee or an investment? Anyone that knows me well, knows that I cannot live without my latte machine. It’s a Pasquini machine, basically...
Dec 23, 2010 | Flashback
There’s not much time left until Christmas. It will go by very quickly though. Looking at the Facebook news feed, I get the distinct feeling people are ready for this to be over. People are either extremely tired or they are frantically shopping. Well, maybe...
Dec 16, 2010 | Flashback |
December 11, 2009… I was listening to talk radio on my way to work yesterday. It was so incredibly cold I didn’t want to let go of my warm coffee mug to steer the car, much less turn on the radio. The news guy was reporting on the experiences of the fake...
Dec 2, 2010 | Flashback, Ideas |
These are some fun, funny, odd and disturbing holiday tweets from last year, published in my book Excessable Christmas. The book is still available for sale on Blurb. Book details: ISBN: yeah, not so much. Self published and I’m not famous… yet. Price: blurb.com...
