Wedding Items for Sale

For sale from my October 2008 Wedding

Shippable Items

Unused items from bathroom baskets-$10


2 Fall Themed Rectangular Baskets - $5ea or both for $8.50

2 small green gourds- $5 for both

1 painted 6" terracotta pot-$5


4 4" galvanized pails-$2ea or all for $6

Amber colored Pillar Candle Holder (used for memorial Candle) -$5


Olive Green tea light holders -$5 for both


Various spools of fall colored ribbons, some new, some partly used

#1 (orange/green double sided)-$2

#2 (4 spools of NEW brown organdy ribbon)-$3 for all
#3-(orange shimmer ribbon) - $2
#4(Gold Sheer ribbon)-$1
#5(Navy and Yellow skinny ribbon, only used about 1ft of each)-$2 for both
#6 (orange sheer and opaque ribbon NEW)-$4
#7(3 spools Fall printed ribbon) -$2

Spool of 2mm "pearls"-$4


Satin Cording (approx 1yrd)-$1

Ivory and white heart Garter (NEW)-$1

5mm flat sequins (approx 1000)-$4


Burgundy Organza favor bags 3x4 (approx 30)-$3

1 Leaf pomander/kissing ball-$4

Large Grapevine Pumpkins-$10 for both

Funkin filled will fall florals - $7
Foam-core covered with batting and Brown Leaf embossed fabric-$5 for both SOLD



*If you are interested in any of the items, please email me at tanaylor@gmail.com
*The buyer will pay shipping for all items through USPS Flat rate boxes as long as the item fits into one of those boxes. If you would like insurance on the item you are purchasing please let me know when you email me.
*Some of the items are very delicate, I will do my best to package them so they won't break, but of course sometimes things happen.
* I will accept pay pal payments for the items and shipping costs, unless the item is being picked up, I will then accept cash payment.

10 things...

So since I really don't have anything exciting to post I figured I'd at least write down all the things that have been going wrong... I mean on.. yeah on... in the past month or so.

1) I applied for Unemployment at the beginning of Jan.  I had to go through hell to get it because my employer didn't report my wages to the unemployment people.  So I had to file an appeal and go through a big old hassel, but I got approved.  I just got my first payment last week.

2)We are moving out of our apt in two weeks.  We have been periodically going down to do packing, and pick up some of the boxes so we don't have to get as big of a truck.

3) We are living at my parents house.  It sucks, but it is pretty much all we can do until we find jobs and an apt.

4)I've applied for a bazzillion jobs, gotten a few emails back, mostly scamish type stuff.  I am highly interested to hear more about a retouching artist position I applied for and whom responded back to me this week.

5) Josh still isn't any closer to getting his PhD.  I really really hate his advisor, it is taking her forever to get stuff back to him.  However, he is also dragging his feet, mostly because he is still depressed I think.

6)Last week I took my car in to be inspected in PA, just so I didn't have to worry about getting it done right away here.  Well it would need over $2000 just to pass inspection.  The car is only worth at most $1500.  I'll be bringing it in to my mechanic here in NY to see if it will pass NY inspection, hopefully he can at least get me another 6mths out of the car. We definitely can't afford too many repairs right now.  Though I know there is a problem with the power steering that would need to be fixed.

7)Our apt company tried to make us renew our lease because we missed the 120 day cut off to opt out(NYE).  Also even though we are leaving due to no jobs they will not let us out of the rest of our lease, unless they find someone to take it over.

8)Josh's student loan money still hasn't come in.  We cannot pay bills until this money is in. Bills include rent for an apt we are not living in, my health insurance(hopefully this will be changing asap though since I can get on the NYS health one or medicare/aid, whichever is not for old people, my student loan payments, josh's car insurance (especially important now that that is the only drivable car), electricity for the apt we are not living in, Josh's credit card bills, my credit card bills, and you know the rest of those types of things.  He called today and they told him he needed to fill out a full time status waiver thing since he is only taking one credit hour.  Well the issue is, he did do this over two weeks ago, maybe more than that.  I am so ready for him to be done dealing with that awful biology department.

9)Josh still doesn't have many job leads. He did apply for a position with the Army Corp of Engineers.  He would be a civilian, but there could be an off chance that he might have to go overseas(Iraq), though a friend of his that also works for them, said that it is really more of an optional thing, though Josh is sure he would have to travel. He never heard back from Roswell about either of the two jobs he applied for there.

10)Did I mention we have no money.  I feel bad mooching off of my parents, but it sucks.  After I get my NYS license on Monday, I'll be starting to go to temp agencies here, even though we want to end up in Buffalo. Also considering prostituting myself now...or selling organs.. either one sounds equally unappealing.  

I really hope things start to turn around for us soon.  I figure bad things come in threes... though right now we're going on 103 I feel like.  I hope that we can at least get Josh's loan money within the next week.  Though right now not paying rent doesn't seem so bad.  We want to get out of the lease at the end of this month anyways...... maybe they will just kick us out if we don't pay soon? One can only hope somehow we can get out of that soon.

If anyone has happy news for me, feel free to leave it as a comment.

Chicken Tacos

So I wanted to post this today after last night's yummy dinner. I had wanted to make something with chicken since we had brought it back to my parents house and it needed to be cooked.  I wanted something healthy, something a little different, but very yummy.  I did some searching on the web to find something that looked like everyone would like it.  I stumbled upon multiple recipes for chicken tacos and decided that that would be good.  One recipe in particular stood out because it used a homemade Taco Seasoning.  That definitely was it.

Chicken Taco's with Homemade Taco Seasoning

Seasoning:

1/4 cup dried minced onion

1 Tbsp chili powder

2 tsp paprika

2 tsp dried crushed red pepper flakes

1-1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp marjoram

1 Tbsp salt (I used sea salt)

1/4 tsp pepper

2 Tbsp corn starch

1 Tbsp dried minced garlic

1 tsp ground cumin

Prep:

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl.  It will make the equivalent of 6 packets of store bought taco seasoning. 2 Tbsp is the equivalent of 1 packet.  You can reserve the rest in an air tight container for later use.

Chicken Tacos

Chicken breasts (I used 5 and it made 6.5 large tacos)

Taco Seasoning

Green Pepper (chopped)

Onion (chopped)

Lettuce

Tomato

Salsa

Cheese 

Whole Wheat Taco or burrito shells (we happened to use burrito since we had them on hand)

Other toppings you might like for your Tacos

Prep:

Place chicken breasts into a pan with 1-1/2 cups water and 2 Tbsp of the homemade seasoning mix.  When the chicken is halfway done or fully done, remove the chicken shred it and add it back to the pan with the water and seasoning.  At this point you'll want to add in the chopped pepper and onion to the pan.  When the chicken is cooked take a taste to make sure you don't need to add more seasoning to the mix. When the liquid has evaporated and the pepper and onion have fully cooked you are ready to eat!  Top however you would like.

This is a great healthy meal.  The seasoning I might tweek again next time. It might have just needed a bit more, or I'm just getting used to this new seasoning.  I really liked it though because it didn't taste like I was ingesting a full day's worth of sodium like I do with the store bought seasoning.

Next time I make these I'm going to make sure I take pictures to add to the post.  I completely forgot this time around.

Happy Superbowl Sunday!!

Hello Mr. President!

Today was a good day to be an American.  Since Bill Clinton's first Inauguration in 1992 (I was 9 at the time) I never paid much attention to the inauguration of our president.  I certainly didn't care to watch that idiot Bush be swore in as President of the United States not once, but twice.  However, this time was different.  Though he was not my first choice for Democratic nominee, I fully supported him after Hillary Clinton left the race.  I was so proud to place my vote for him on Nov. 4th 2008, and I was ecstatic to watch him officially become president of the United States of America today.

It is something I will remember for the rest of my life.  I know it will be in history books, just like the assassination of JFK, and the civil rights movement of my parents generation.  It is such a proud moment for our nation.  We have come so far since the segregation in the 1950's and 1960's, and it is wonderful that this day falls just one day after the celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's birthday.  Some day I will be asked by my children as they are writing a history report, where I was the day Barack Obama was sworn in as our 44th president.

It is unfortunate that I cannot tell them I was there.  The support that man garnered from our country was truly amazing. I cannot wait to see what wonderful things he will do for our country in the days to come.

This week's word

di⋅vest [di-vest]

-verb (used with object)
1. to strip of clothing, ornament, ect.
2. to stip or deprive (someone or something), esp. of property or rights; dispossess.
3. to rid or free from
4. Law to take away or alientate (property, rights, ect.)
5. Commerce.
a. to sell off: to difest holdings.
b. to rid through sale.

Well I didn't choose just any word to start off my new word learning. This word has special meaning to Josh and me this week. As we are starting to prepare to move back to NY, we are realizing how much stuff we have accumulated in the past years. So we are going through all of our stuff and purging, or divesting some of it. Most will be donated to charity, however, we are selling some on Amazon. Books, DVD's, Video Games, and CD's have been listed for sale on Amazon, and we've already made $25 by selling only 7 or so things. All our clothes, old housewares and such we are bringing back to NY this weekend when we go home for Christmas to bring to Goodwill. We have 3 rubbermaid bins of regular clothing, one Large bin of winter clothes, sweatshirts and fleeces, and another large bin of books that we know we wouldn't be able to sell on Amazon so we are donating those to a Library.

All in all, I think we are ridding ourselves of well over 250 items. However, I'm not including each item individually in my count towards my 101 things to get rid of. However, I will cound many of them because they were things I didn't think I would part with for quite a while, or that I did think Josh could part with (Books). I am proud of us for really starting to realize that there are a lot of things we own, but rairly use. We have really started to make a conscience effort to purchase things that we know we will use a lot, or will be helpful to have around for a long time to come.

As we get ready to head home for Christmas, I'm starting to get really excited to spend time with my family and do some baking and just relax. I have two days of work left, then I will be officially unemployed. During the time I'm home, I will finish up my resume and start applying for jobs. I'm hopeful that I will find something quickly.

I am happy that I'm going into this Christmas season knowing that many of the things we are getting rid of will eventually be going to new homes who will be able to bring life to things that sat on shelves for years. Also that those things might bring a smile to a face of someone who never thought they would own that particular item.

I don't know if I'll post again before Christmas, if I don't, I hope everyone has a wonderful Holiday Season!

Christmas is in two weeks?

I'm finding it really hard to get into the Christmas "spirit" this year. It just doesn't feel like Christmas this year. We are putting up a tree this year, because, well lets face it, it's pointless since we go back to NY to celebrate with our families starting on the 20th-5th. Also since we are going to be moving shortly after the New Year (well that's the hope at least), we decided it was best to send all our Christmas stuff back home so it will be less to move.

This year we are also only buying gifts for three people. Since we're both newly unemployed, and also newly married, we don't have a whole lot of money. We are only buying for J's brother, and our picks in the gathering with my extended family. Oh and of course our dog. We aren't buying for our parents, since we bought them fairly expensive gifts for the wedding just two months ago. And we still don't know if we are getting each other anything either. If we do it will be something very small.

So between the no shopping and no decorating, and the lack of snow on the ground this year, along with not having seen any lights on houses down here, it just doesn't feel like it's almost Christmas.

I have 6 days left of work at my current job, and well a lot to do in those 6 days. It feels weird that I'll be packing up my office next Friday and saying goodbye to my coworkers. I still have to get my resume ready to send out. I have yet to find any jobs to apply for that are design related, and J hasn't heard from the job he applied for yet. But it's only been just over a week. We'll see what happens.

We really don't know what is going to happen after the new year when we will be faced with the reality that we don't have jobs to go to. This is going to be pretty rough for us, we might have to live in different places for a while until we can both get jobs in Buffalo, and get an apartment to move into.

Christmas is going to be depressing in the fact that we don't have too much to look forward to, and we don't know where we're headed. However, it will be really nice to be able to spend so much time with our families and friends over the holidays. It will also be nice to look forward to being back closer to them in a short time and have a much better social life than we do now.

Christmas will be what it is supposed to be this year. About seeing our friends and family, and being with each other for our first Christmas as husband and wife.

Changed my mind...

Well I will make this short, and I'll post again later today.  But, I have decided to make this not just about dairy free recipes, though I will certainly post some of those here as well.  I want a place to post my thoughts and such as my husband and I carve out a life that is yet unknown to us.  We will both be unemployed as of Christmas, so you are welcome to follow our journey in this craptacular economy.  The life of a Graphic Designer married to a Molecular Biologist who is about to(hopefully) get his PhD.  

I did make the Penne with Vodka sauce.  I tried soy milk.  It tasted alright, however, the soy milk/olive oil combo separated way too easily and the soy kind of curdled.  Next time I will try using Coconut milk.  

I'll make a more detailed post later today with updates on what is happening with us.  Also a few other things that have been rattling around in my head.