Kitty Deschanel

How I Lost 8 Pounds Without Dieting or Exercising Today, I have the easiest weight loss tip ever to share with you. I've never been overweight, but now that I'm in my late 30s, the scale has been creeping up year after year and it has seemed impossible to drop even one pound and keep it off.  Our Alaskan cruise a few years ago really did me in - I jumped from 118 pounds to 124 and never lost an ounce. (Remember my blog post, Eating Our Way Through Alaska ? Yeah, I may have gotten carried away. I love meringue!) There wasn't much in my lifestyle to improve. We don't buy soda. I shop from the produce section more than anywhere else in the store and we eat home-cooked meals almost daily. Fad diets worked as a temporary solution, but the weight would quickly come right back. Lately, my scale has been hitting 130. 130! I haven't gotten any taller since weighing 118 a few years ago. (Wouldn't that be nice?)  My weight gain was unacceptable but I had no idea how

I slaved over these homemade crepes all day. Just kidding! My secret ingredient? Prepackaged crepes, which taste just as good, if not better, than homemade. Ham and Cheese Crepes For something so simple, don't these look so fancy? I have a fantastic recipe for you today. But first, behold the 50 calorie giant cookie...   Giant YUM! And only 1 measly gram of fat. Can you believe it? Best of all, with the help of your toaster oven, these mega-cookies crisp up in less than ONE minute! Prepackaged crepes, where have you been all my life? Of course, you can also devour these  Frieda's French Style Crepes (or other prepackaged crepes) as they are intended, with a fruit or mascarpone filling. It couldn't be easier to fancy up a crepe.  Filling them with chocolate chips and mini marshmallows before their party on the stove or in the toaster oven gives you smores crepes. Blueberries and whipped cream (skip the toaster oven!) is also yummy. But h

One of my favorite things about our new home is the unique assortment of lighting, including custom-made pieces and luxury designer fixtures. We even have an Arteriors light.  If you added everything up at retail price, we'd easily be looking at thousands of dollars just in lights. But, of course, we would never pay the retail price. (And you shouldn't either!) Everyone who knows me knows I love a bargain . Here are my tips for scoring the best deals on light fixtures for your home. Money-saving tip #1: Use Amazon Move, Wayfair, and Lowes coupons to save 10%, then save even more. When you move into a new place, be sure to fill out a USPS change of address form online, not at the post office. As we have a new construction home, we were required to go to the post office either way and, while there, we were encouraged not to fill out a change of address request online because it would cost us a dollar. (I've always thought this was dishonest of the post off

I've been neglecting my To Do list. I had the day off from work and was going to get everything done - blog updates, exercise, bathing our stinky dogs (their last bath was in the old house before we even put it on the market), meal prep, and more. Everything.  Then, I sat down for a late lunch and decided to check out the first episode of a show I'd heard so much about, The Handmaid's Tale. I'm not a big TV watcher and didn't expect to tune in for more than maybe 15 minutes. Eight nonstop hours later and well past bedtime, I pulled myself away. I hadn't even paused to have dinner. Sexy Nerd would probably have stopped me sooner,   but he was in California on a business trip. Alone in our new house in the woods, I got in bed and tried to clear my mind of all the creepy, graphic stuff from the show . (Spoiler alert - like the forced removal of a healthy eye. LOVE The Handmaid's Tale, by the way.) I was nearly asleep in the dark, quiet room when a shril