New Year's Resolutions: Declutter a.k.a. Throw Stuff AWAY!

Ok. You may ask, what am I doing writing a New Year's Resolutions post two weeks after the New Year? Well, they say that most resolutions are broken within two weeks. Isn't that awful? Yeah, I thought so too. For a while, my response to that was just to refuse to make resolutions. Then I thought, no, that's the wrong answer. I think the answer is to make resolutions more mindfully, putting a lot of thought into them beforehand and being sure well before the New Year that any resolution I make is a life change I'm ready to commit to.

My big resolution this year? Declutter. What does that mean for me? Throw stuff away.

That may seem weird to you. Or maybe not. Maybe you're nodding your head fervently as you read this, saying "oh my gosh, I have so much stuff I could get rid of! Oh, the clutter. Oh, the mess. Oh how I wish it were just more organized."

Now, let's be clear.

Review: Canning For a New Generation

For Christmas this year, my brother and his wife gave Mr. Scrimp and I a copy of Lianna Krissoff's Canning for a New Generation. Being readers of Scrimpalicious, they knew about my sometime love affair with canning, and also that Mr. Scrimp and I tend to be, well, I hate the word "foodie" because it's a silly-sounding word, but if the shoe fits...

First of all, this book is beautiful. It's worth owning just for the eye candy, in my opinion. From the appealing cover to the photographs sprinkled lavishly throughout, this book is just pretty. I would (and already have) just leave it on my coffee table for people to flip through as an aesthetic pleasure.

Soon to Come

All I can tell you right now is that my house smells like amazing food, I've just rearranged all my furniture, and I'm halfway through two new blog posts. We're having a party tonight, so the new posts may need to wait a little bit depending on how much time I have, but they'll be here soon.

Guest Post: Magazines

Today's offering for all of you is a guest post by my childhood best friend and scrimpy pal, Emma, who writes a great little blog called Simple Pleasures. Be sure to visit her and give her some love once you're done reading about this fun project she did!

Surgery

It's been an exciting time at Casa Scrimp. I had to have emergency surgery yesterday to take care of an issue that wasn't immediately dangerous but could have become dangerous if not taken care of asap.

Home again now, feeling tired and sore, but good. Look for a new post later today.

Our First Fake Tree

I'm so ashamed! I never, ever thought this day would come.

Mr. Scrimp and I have a fake Christmas tree this year.

And I even like it a little bit.

What possessed us to do this? I've never had a fake tree in my life, and I've always been very clear that I didn't ever want to have a fake tree. But we're going out of town for Christmas this year, we didn't want to leave a live tree behind for a week where the cats could get at it and a housesitter would have to water it, and Mother-In-Law Scrimp offered us a very cute, 3-foot-tall artificial tree.

To compound the problem, I went and picked up some absolutely embarrassingly artificial pine garlands at the dollar store. I'm so ashamed.

Ok... let's be real. If you want to have an artificial tree--more power to you. I have heard and understand all the myriad arguments in favor of fakery. But the artificial tree is lacking something crucial. What's that, you ask? The smell! It can't really be Christmas without the scent of pine needles wafting through your home.

Well, that problem has been solved for me this very day. Merely by salvaging some cast-off branches from the closest tree farm, putting them in water with a little cinnamon and clove, and warming the water up, I can make my house smell like the freaking North Pole and not worry about coming home to a living room carpeted in pine needles the week after Christmas.

And so can you! Visit Organic Authority to get their quick and easy recipe for Christmas tree scented potpourri.

(Seriously, though--next year? We're back to a live tree. )

Trying This At Home

Tonight, we had another cooking adventure. And I'm really not sure how I feel about this one.

Have you ever heard of sweetbreads? If you have, and you haven't eaten them, you're in one of two camps--either you're intrigued, or you're totally disgusted.

For those of you who don't know, sweetbreads are organ meat. But not just any organ meat. This is the thymus or pancreas of a calf. And we decided (why did we decide this??) that we wanted to try cooking and eating some.

This is our story.