Why I'm here

Updated May 11, 2013

For years, I've started blogs and webpages here, there, and everywhere. Each time, I tried to stay on topic - a savings blog, a knitting blog (that I just noticed I stopped updating in 2006, how sad), a blog about book buying, a webpage featuring my thrift store purchases, and so on. And each time, I'd find something else I wanted to say, so I'd get frustrated. And finally I've accepted it - I just can't stay on topic! I've got a head full of thoughts and I need to let them escape somehow. I just needed a place to write things - and so here I am.

MY BLOG USES REFERRAL LINKS and I will always try to point them out - beyond being required to, it's just shady to pretend I'm not getting something for your clicks. 

What you need to know about me:

- I have a daughter with mild cerebral palsy. As of mid-2013, she uses a combination of spoken words, sign language, and an AAC device - a Vantage Lite2 from PRC - to communicate.
- I'm a lacto-ovo vegetarian. I love food, I love cookbooks and food essay collections, and I love going to restaurants.
- I love kitchen gadgets (like the Vitamix and the Inspiralizer!), bento boxes, and cute food.
- In September 2011, I joined Weight Watchers and by the summer of 2012 I had lost 30+ pounds. (I'm now a Lifetime member.)
- I'm Jewish (leaning toward agnostic) and my husband is not.
- I love to save money and use coupons - in fact, I kept track of a full year (2009) of spending/saving at CVS, and I was extremely pleased with the results. I had a blog just about saving (Tiara Saves) but now I just talk about it here when it's important. (Since those TV shows came on - you know...THOSE SHOWS...the deals haven't been as awesome. I still coupon, I still get free stuff, and I still save 20-40% at the grocery store, I just don't talk about it to quite the same degree.)
- I love finding sites on the Internet through which I can make a little money or earn some gift certificates. (That link will take you to a blog post I made a few months ago on the subject. Warning: Contains my referral links.)
- I love shopping at thrift stores.
- I buy and read a LOT of books - mostly from thrift stores, but also everywhere from local independent stores to Amazon (<--- referral link there). I currently own over 1600 books according to Delicious Library, which I use to track such things. I also belong to two different public library systems because my local system simply didn't have all of the books I wanted to read.
- I have two professional button presses - 1 inch and 2.25 inch. I use them to make and sell buttons, jewelry (including interchangeable magnet necklaces and bracelets), mirrors, bottle openers, and more. I have a web store (I'm the Button Babe!) and an Etsy shop. I also sell my wares in a few local shops.
- I have a master's degree in writing, literature, and publishing. I'm a stickler for grammar, I hate when people misuse apostrophes, and I CANNOT STAND seeing the wrong its/it's used.
- I'm a freelance writer and copyeditor. I interviewed They Might Be Giants for Ruckus magazine (now known as Atomic Family) and that was amazing. Now I tend more toward corporate work, but I'm hoping to get back into the more fun/exciting/interesting stuff very soon. (I used to have a real job doing SEO writing but then the kid came along...)
- I grew up in Massachusetts but now live in the Southern United States.

All of these things will likely come into play in this blog, which is a blog about everything, and a blog about me.