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Budget Buddy Friday Feature: Re-Use, Re-Purpose, Relief

Posted on August 26, 2011 // Budget Buddy, Budget Organization

I’m very excited to introduce today’s Budget Buddy, the lovely Magz Parmenter.

I’ve been friends with Magz ever since I opened my twitter account, and I’m very excited and honored that she is here at Budget Blonde today. I admire Magz for her excellent writing abilities, and she’s super nice to boot. I’m excited to be working with her on a project or two that we will share soon. But for now, I know you’ll love what she has to show you today. I should mention that Magz is The. Organizing. Queen. Of. The. World. and gosh do I want to be more like her. I think you’ll see what I mean read you read below.

Take it away, Magz:

So, I’ll dive right in and confess…

I have a new obsession…
It’s called re-purposing, and I. am. in. love.
We have been recycling and re-using in our house for ages, but the concept of turning something old (or old-ish) into something new for a completely different use is new to me. I spend every spare minute I can researching new and interesting ideas, and this month I had the perfect opportunity to really test out how it can work in real life.
My office was a total mess. Well, by ‘mess’ I mean- it was tidy but a jumble of functional nothingness. No style whatsoever. As a freelance writer, it was completely killing my creative energy. When I heard about re-purposing, flashes kept going off in my head of things I could use for the office. I ended up doing a complete vintage makeover of the office for under £30! (I couldn’t believe it either.) One of the projects I used is this great organizer board made out of re-purposed shutters.
It really couldn’t be any easier… you get an old/unused shutter, clean it up and paint it however you’d like. Depending on the slats of the shutter, you can back it with some board to keep any papers from falling through, but in my case, I just use bull-dog clips if I have to secure anything.
We actually got a pair of these shutters from our local recycling center for £3/pair, and I also made an organizer for my husband’s desk in black. I could probably go crazy and make some for my daughters too! These were just half-shutters and were perfect for over our desks, but you could use full length shutters as a mail organizer in an entryway or hall-space. Get creative, the possibilities are endless!
If you’d like to see the whole office makeover, you’ll find it here:
I hope you catch the re-purposing bug too! Please stop by my blog and leave me a comment if you do. I’d love to hear about it!

Magz Parmenter is a freelance writer, blogger and personal coach. She is an American married to a Brit and has been living in England for the past 12 years. Her blog is Tangerine Turtle. You can also catch up with her on Twitter: @magzparmenter or on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TangerineTurtle

Thanks so much for all the inspiration, Magz! The wheels are definitely turning!

Why not show Magz some love in the comment section and thank her for sharing her skillz with us? And, if you’d like to be a Budget Buddy, simply e-mail me with your fabulous ideas at Cat [at] BudgetBlonde [dot] com!

Have a great weekend!

Filed under Budget Buddy, Budget Organization   ~  3 Comments
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A Bit More Than We Bargained For

Posted on August 25, 2011 // A Day in the Life, Grenada

Today, I promised to bring you tales of a magnificent hike to a waterfall that nine other women and I completed yesterday. And, while the hike was magnificent, those nine women and I experienced the dangers of what can happen when you are in a rain forest in unfamiliar territory. You wouldn’t know it from these images because every picture we collectively have are of our hike up the hill.

Soon after all of these amazing scenic pictures were taken, something quite unexpected happened. It really can only be described as a flash flood. It started pouring raining – like, pouring. And, this is where I tell any spouse moving to Grenada to never, ever, ever do this hike without a guide. Don’t be naive like us. If you noticed in the pictures, we were up to our ankles in water several times on this hike. But on the way back, these little quaint streams turned into rapids up to our thighs. And when crossing one of them, I had an accident/issue/most terrifying moment of my life? when I got knocked down by the water and was on my way downstream to several boulders when my friend Kelsey grabbed me, risking her own life, and she, with the help of several other women pulled me back to the side.

That’s about as much of detail as I can go into, mainly because when something like that happens, you don’t think. You just scream bloody murder, which I can assure you, I did. And, seeing as how I can’t remember the details, I’m going to direct you to a post written by my friend Sarah about it. It was interesting to read about it from her perspective since she watched it, and of course I cried when reading it. Here it is.

We are all very lucky and very glad to be okay. Aside from a few bruises, a broken book bag, and a cell phone that quit on me (the camera has somewhat come back to life thank goodness), all is well. I think my guardian angel has some powerful wings.

So, now that I’ve told you my tale (or now that you can go and read Sarah’s account of the tale), we are back to our regularly scheduled programming….I have an amazing blogger as my Budget Buddy tomorrow and you’re going to love her.

Filed under A Day in the Life, Grenada   ~  9 Comments