Tis the Season to Shop!

It is that time of year when everyone is beginning to shop for the holidays! And if you are anything like me, every year, you are shopping more and more online. For me, online shopping is the height of convenience. I can throw everything in my cart, figure out in advance which coupons I can layer, calculate easily what I am spending on everyone, and not have to leave my house! No crowds, no driving in potentially bad weather, no fighting over the last shirt in your mom's size... Plus, let's be real - some of the online deals are better even than in store! These sales get going the whole week before Black Friday and last the whole week after, also!

Plus, when you shop online, you get Ebates on top of it all! 

If you don't do Ebates, you need to sign up right now! (Well, finish reading, and then sign up!) I'm sure you've seen those TV commercials where people talk about all the cash they get back. I'd seen them and always assumed that there was a catch somewhere. There really isn't. You sign up for an absolutely free account, then when you are shopping online, before you check out, you start a "shopping trip" with ebates. You still check out at the store's website and pay with whatever method of payment you'd normally use. (The "shopping trip" basically just tells ebates that you are about to check out.)  And then bam! You get a percentage of your purchase price back. They send you a check once every three months for everything you've accumulated. Since signing up in April, I have earned $154.44 back!! 

You can even download their "Cash Back Button," which makes everything even easier! It goes up in the corner of your browser, and it alerts you any time you are at a website that gives you cash back! Or, if you are Googling for an item ("new boots," anyone?) the Cash Back Button will automatically show you which Google results will give you cash back. The Cash Back Button even tells you other deals the store has going on! Example: "Enter code 40OFF at check out for 40% off your purchase!" 

Right now is an excellent time to sign up. Many stores have anywhere from double to quadruple the cash back on all purchases right now! Just a few examples: Nike is at 12%, Under Armour is 8%, Kohls and Macys are both 6%. Anyone buying Uggs for someone for Christmas? 13.5% cash back right now. Thinking about buying Proactiv? 37.5% cash back. And if you are thinking of switching cell phone or tv providers - Verizon and DirecTV both have huge cash back offers for new customers. There are HUNDREDS of stores that offer cash back and many of them are huge retailers that you probably shop frequently anyway - Amazon, Walmart, Target, Macys, Kohls, and JC Penney, just to name a few. Can you honestly say you've never placed an online order at one of these places??

You can even refer your friends for additional cash back! Refer just three friends and earn $100! They just have to create an account and make one purchase using their new account! So, since I have hopefully changed the way you shop online, help me out! Just click the link below to make your new account and I will get credit for having referred you! :-) 

Sign up here!

If you are still waiting for the catch, let me try to relieve some of your worries: The account is absolutely free. It takes about 2 minutes to sign up. There are absolutely no requirements or minimum purchases. You could create the account, use it once, and never use it again (although I don't know why you would!) 

If you need more convincing, think of those very large purchases... Do you need new appliances soon? I know someone who ordered all her kitchen appliances through Lowe's and got cash back on the whole suite. You can even order online, but have it delivered to your nearest store for pick up, which allows you to avoid shipping charges on large items. Plus, you still can get cash back or rewards special financing from your credit card, if you are enrolled in any of those programs. 

Now, just because I am able to receive a credit for referring you, it does not mean that I have exaggerated or embellished anything above. I would tell you the exact same thing if you were just going to go to ebates.com and sign up on your own, without my referral link! Seriously, this will be the best online shopping decision you've ever made! But, if you wanted to use my referral link and give me a little extra holiday shopping money, that'd be cool! :-) Happy shopping and happy holidays! 

Granny Squares with Family

Last Sunday, I spent the afternoon with Carol, my future mother-in-law. She was teaching me how to crochet granny squares.

I taught myself to knit in college, and my friend, Emily, taught me to crochet a couple years ago, but I had only ever made things that start at one end and you progress left to right, or end to end. I was interested in the idea of starting in the middle and spiraling outwards, determining the size of the final project as you go. And, it turns out, Carol almost only crochets granny squares - turning them into throw blankets. 

So, I went over to her house armed with my box of crochet hooks and scraps of yarn. She poured me a glass of wine from a new vineyard she just discovered and started showing me how to do granny squares. Below are the final results. Her professional looking square that she whipped out in ten minutes is on the left. My effort, achieved only after being ripped out six or seven times, is on the right. She went around hers one more time than I did, which is why mine is smaller. 

I bring this up because I fully recognize how lucky I am to get along so well with my future in-laws. There are all sorts of horror stories that I have heard about in-laws. Of course, television and movies enhance this idea, but I do know people whose relationships with in-laws range from strained to downright awful. I am extremely thankful that I do not have any of those stories to tell. 

Colin and I have been together for nearly seven years, so I have known the Davises and McCutcheons for a quite a while. They were all friendly, welcoming, and accepting from the start. Of course, it helped that I have a lot in common with both his parents, and with Carol especially - a love of musicals (which Colin does not share,) a love of reading, and a similar sense of humor. (I do not share the Davis love of sports, though I am getting better. We joke that every conversation, no matter the topic, can be turned to baseball.) 

So, as we plan our wedding for next September, I feel a little surprised as people make comments about me joining the Davis family. To me, nothing will change next September except my name. I'm already a part of the Davis family and I have been for seven years.

Capsule Wardrobe!

I have found out about something that sounds truly amazing. Have you heard of the capsule wardrobe? Well, I had not. I discovered this idea on a blog called My Simply Simple, which I really enjoy. Check out Kelsey's original post here.

Okay, so how does this work? You divide your year into four seasons of three months each. At the start of each season, you pick out 37 clothing items to make up your capsule... and that capsule lasts you for those whole three months! I know, it sounds crazy - bear with me.

Now, first of all, the 37 items does not include work out clothes, pajamas, accessories, or old crappy clothes that you use for gardening or working outside. I have also decided to not include team clothing - for example, the t shirt for your kid's baseball team, old college t shirts, or your Cubs jerseys (but go ahead and just throw away those Cardinal jerseys! :-) Just kidding!)

What IS included in the capsule? Jeans, dress pants, sweaters, blouses/shirts, dresses (if you wear them - I don't) and SHOES.

For the first season, you really analyze your closet:

     -Do you REALLY love everything in there? Of course not.
     -How often do you REALLY wear each item? If you are anything like me, there are many items that never get worn.
    -Does everything mix and match well? Be honest - everyone has a few sweaters/pants/shoes that you just CANNOT find anything to match!

Only allowing 37 items into capsule means you have to be so selective! You have to really, truly love each item that you put into your capsule AND they need to be very versatile! Each item also needs to really fit you very well. I am ashamed to say that I have purchased many items online, only to have them not fit quite right. But what do I do with them? Return them? Nope. I cut the tags off and throw them in the closet! Why would I do that?! I have no idea.

Of course, a way to make this easier is to decide on your color palette. If all 37 items fit into the chosen palette, they will all go together well, which will make it easy for you to mix and match. For example, I am always drawn to neutrals. My grandmother loves black, white, red, and navy. Decide on colors that you love, love to wear, and look good on you and choose your 37 items so that they all fit into that palette.

This whole idea made SO MUCH sense to me. I cannot wait to try it. Unfortunately, I think that the seasons that make the most sense for central Illinois weather include winter stretching from the start of December to the end of February. That means I have a whole month until I can start! On the bright side, there will be a lot of prep work before a capsule starts. Not only are you choosing your 37 items, you should be clearing out all that crap that doesn't fit, is worn out, or just isn't your favorite. This weekend, my project will be to completely sort and clear out my closet. I will make piles that will a) go straight to Goodwill, b) to Plato's Closet/Clothes Mentor (our local resale places) and c) into storage. The storage option is for summer clothing that just isn't applicable to a winter capsule or for the things that I am afraid to get rid of, in case this whole capsule thing doesn't work out. I'm a little bit of a chicken. If this is successful and I continue the capsules, I will take that stuff to Plato's Closet/Clothes Mentor also. Or, who knows? If I get in a "I mean business" mood, I might get rid of everything except the 37 items! :-)  :-/

Being the accountant I am, I have started a spreadsheet that is divided into Shoes, Pants, Shirts, and Sweaters. I have listed out some of my definite love, love, love pieces that I already own into each category, and then looked at what I have a lot of and what I still need. Now I am trying to fill holes - either with other pieces I have, or something I purchase. (Did I mention... once you set the capsule, NO changing it until the end of the season... and that means no shopping for new items for three months! Unless you want to buy it in preparation for the next capsule.)

I will keep you updated on my progress and let you know which 37 items I choose and how it works out!

What do you think? Does it just sound crazy? Would you like to try it?

Identical Aims and Open Hearts

Hello! I'm Katey and I have started this blog to share my life and record my adventures. 2015 has been a huge year for me so far and I think things are just continuing to look up, so I want to keep a record to remember these times!

The first huge change in 2015 was my job change. My degree is in Accountancy, and I had been working at a bank in a nearby town so that I could continue to live in my hometown, near all my family, and near Colin, my then-boyfriend (more later!) But in April 2015, I started as an accountant at our local community college. I had interned there in college and loved it and was SO excited to come back! It has now been almost seven months and I can say that I am still loving it. The other ladies in my office are wonderful and I absolutely love the work that I am doing.

Just shy of a month later, Colin also switched jobs! He was hired at the same community college to be the Director of the Foundation. This position is seriously perfect for him - he works all day, every day, to raise money for the Foundation so that the Foundation can continue to support the College. He also is loving his job. We both feel so thankful to have found jobs that we truly love, especially this early in our careers.

The most recent big change was that Colin proposed! We were on vacation in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado this September. One night, while up in the mountains, by ourselves by the side of a road, watching the Super Moon, he proposed, and of course I said yes!

This brings me to the title of my blog: Identical Aims and Open Hearts. I love the origin of quote - it is, of course, by Albus Dumbledore. "Differences of habit and language are nothing at all, if our aims are identical and our hearts are open." Of course, he was talking about Voldemort, but this also reminds me of how Colin and I are starting our lives together - we have our differences but our overall goals in life are similar and we will be starting this journey with open hearts.

So, this blog will just be about life - a variety of topics. I have some cool topics planned, possibly some teaming up with another blogger, and I am sure I will come up with more ideas as I go! :-)