It’s that time again. You ask, and I pretend to know things and answer your burning questions. It really is so much fun to open my inbox and see the wide variety of questions you guys have. Reminds me that my readers are so diverse and pretty dang awesome. So keep those questions coming and I’ll keep racking my brain for answers.
As always, please pipe up if you have any input or are knowledgeable when it comes to any of the following questions:
Mavis I need your helpful advice…I know in the past after a long winter of less activity and consumption of a more than adequate amount of pastry from all those bakery visits, you acquired a muffin top. What’s the best way to loose it. I don’t remember if you ever shared that with us. But you lost yours…how did you do it? Love following you. If you’re ever going through Lancaster, NH check out the Polish Princess Bakery…YUM!
~ Susan
Hi Sue, the answer is super simple. I became a full time grounds keeper. Ha! Seriously, it feels like I haven’t stop moving since we got here and although I think I’ve only lost 3 pounds, I’m feeling pretty strong these days. The jiggly bits are becoming a little more tone, I can button my pants with ease, and my muscles don’t ache as much at the end of the day like they did when we first arrived.
Winter is the time to fill up on baked goods, and summer is the time to burn them off through outdoor exercise {in my opinion}. Bottom line, take a few less bites, keep moving, drink more water, and don’t take life too seriously.
Your article about prices being too high at thrift stores was hilarious. Recently I saw a sheep figurine that I donated. I bought it for $.99 and goodwill marked it $2.99 LOL
~Joan
Hi Joan, I have also donated items to a thrift store and gone back a week later to notice the goods on their shelves with a much higher price than I paid too. I don’t understand the pricing strategies of thrift stores either but I do think the smaller, more community centered {as apposed to corporate} shops are much, much more reasonable.
Hi Mavis! I’ve been reading your blog for years as a fellow Pacific Northwest-er and am now LOVING reading about your new East Coast Adventures! I love all the amazing finds you snag at thrift shops and garage sales, etc, but I’m curious if you ever worry about picking up bedbugs?
I used to be an avid thrifter but got spooked by a lot of the articles I was reading about bedbugs hiding out in furniture and other secondhand items. Do you have any tips for looking over items before bringing them into your home? I do love a good deal and would love to get back to feeling more comfortable with secondhand!
~ Sincerely, Kelly from Oregon Duck country
Ticks, I freak out about, but bed bugs? Not so much. We bought a used couch off Craigslist for our last place from a local couple {basically to fill the room for staging} and although Lucy got way more use out of it than we ever did, I wasn’t too worried about the couch having cooties. Had I picked it up off the side of the road or found it in a thrift store…. I probably wouldn’t have brought it in the house because I wouldn’t have known where it had come from originally.
That being said, if you are going to buy a used piece of upholstered furniture {or bring home a free rug from the recycling center} I highly suggest going over it meticulously with a vacuum cleaner and then steam cleaning the heck out of it. In the case of the rug, we also let it dry out in the hot sun for a few days too.
Luckily I haven’t had any bad experiences with used furniture, but maybe others can chime in on this one if they have and what their methods are for preventing bud bugs from getting in the house.
Hi Mavis, I live in Pennsylvania and we used to be bothered with ticks. Now we spray ourselves with a solution of Listerine and water and we don’t have any problems.
~Nancy
Thanks for the tip Nancy! After our first experience with ticks, we currently have Lucy on K9 Advantix II and it seems to be doing the trick, but I’m sure my husband want mind if I try your Listerine trick out on him! 🙂 🙂 🙂 Thanks for the frugal suggestion!
Have a question for me? Submit them HERE and I’ll try to answer them.
Have a great weekend everyone,
~Mavis
Lissa says
We’ve had our first tick experience. Took mr doddle out to the lake for a long walk and the next day found 2 ticks wandering about on the bed. ewww, ick, ugh…so grossed out. He’s on medicine now, but the idea that he might have crawlers on him that will shared has me freaked out. Not quite as bad as when we had a couple of rats in our old house (the city dug out an old building and they were all freed from their old homes), but still….TICKS.
Our patients are frequent bed bug carriers so I’m cautious about some things along those lines.
Lynda Kling says
I donated two made in China quilts from my mom’s estate, to the thrift shop. Saw them marked at $99 EACH when I went in one day….I told the woman that I had donated them, they were CHINESE and not worth near that, but she just shrugged!
Susan says
Our local Goodwill has the little glass bowls that they sell at the Dollar Store 4/$1 for .99 all the time!
And dirty canning jars for .39 each…without the bands and lids. Not old, antique jars….newer jars. It is cheaper to buy a case of nice new canning jars . They are LESS when you figure in the price of the bands and lids !!!
Susan says
.99 for 1!