Our Favorite Card Game - It's Addicting

We have a card game obsession at our house.  We Love Nertz.  It all started when my brother and beautiful sister-in-law stayed with us last summer and she taught us how to play.  We couldn't stop.

This is a great game to play with teenagers or older children.  Any number of people can play, but it can be a little slow with just 2 (possible though).

You  need to have a different deck of cards for each player (with a different pattern on the back of each).

I buy my playing cards from the dollar aisle at the craft store.  All the "official" cards cost $4 or $5 per deck.  That's too much for me, and the craft store has cooler patterns (zebra stripe and harlequin)  I keep them on an urn in the middle of the table.

Pardon my ugly pictures here. 

Ok, this is a bit like group Solitare.  To get ready to play, each person places 4 cards face up (the River), makes a pile of 13 cards with the top card face up (the Nertz pile), and the rest are in a pile on the left (the Stream).  The goal of each round is to be the first player to get rid of the Nertz pile.  The player with the highest number of points wins the game.

The photos show a game for 4 people with 4 different decks of cards. 

Everyone starts playing at the same time.  After you get the hang of it, the game can get really fast.

Your goal is to get the cards off the Nertz pile.  You do this by playing them into the River or the Lake.  The cards in the River (like Solitare) are stacked with high cards (top) to low cards (bottom) alternating red and black and can be different suits.  The Lake is where everyone can play off anyone else's cards.  These are piles (like Solitare) starting with the Ace and building on top of that with the next highest card number of the same suit and color.  If you play a card from the Nertz pile, you flip over the next one and try to play it.  You can also move cards from the River into the Lake.

If you get stuck, you go to your Stream pile (like Solitare).  You flip 3 cards from the Stream pile over.  When you can't play any of those, flip 3 more over.

The first player to get rid of their Nertz pile calls out "Nertz" and play stops.  Separate all the cards in the Lake by type of deck so each player can count how many they played into the Lake (don't mix them up with the others).  Each player's points are the total of their cards played into the Lake minus how many cards they had left in the Nertz pile (Stream and River cards are not counted).  The person who called Nertz gets a 10 point bonus.

We usually play to 200 points.  You can play with teams, but I've  never tried that.  If my instructions make absolutely no sense to you, or you would like to read more detailed instructions on how to play, go to the Official Nertz Rulebook at Playnertz.com.

Less is More i.e. Getting Rid of the Crap

I've been reading this awesome book for the past few days:

The Joy of Less, a Minimalist Living Guide by Francine Jay.  Is it awesome?  Yes.

I had gotten a little lost in the stuff packed in my house.  Tackling it became more and more difficult because I was overwhelmed.  I felt defeated before I started.

I'm such a headcase when I declutter.  "I could use it."  "I plan on doing that project."  "I will fit in that."  Blah. blah. blah.

Not only is The Joy of Less a room-by-room how-to declutter guide, but it is a pep talk before you even start.  The first part of the book is the psychology of it all, and now I feel clear on what I'm doing before I tackle the junk.  It even tells you how to declutter your schedule.  Yes!  I can't wait until I get to that chapter.  A totally foreign concept to me.

Minimalism.  It's a beautiful thing.  Simple.  Uncluttered.  Uncomplicated life.

Francine Jay has a blog called miss minimalist.  In her "100 Possessions" series, she writes about getting rid of all the small glasses, tall glasses, wine glasses, etc. and just using tumblers.  I like this idea.  I think I might get rid of all the cup clutter and simply use tumblers and mugs.  One style of each and get rid of the rest.  To be honest, I love my mugs and I drink wine out of them.  I also love it when a restaurant serves wine in tumblers.  I feel a tinge of guilt getting rid of all my nice wine glasses.  Some were expensive gifts.  Some of my old coffee mugs have kid photos on them. These are the feelings that start adding clutter to our lives.  What feeling will I have when all that stuff is gone and the tumblers and mugs are left, looking all nice and orderly?  Probably won't miss the expensive wine glass gifts that I don't really use.  I didn't get rid of the actual kids, just the old mugs with their photos.  What do you think about wine in tumblers?

Oh, and I read the book on my Sprint HTC Evo Kindle app ... no book clutter.

Raw Food ... Wooohoooo

How lucky am I?!!  I saw my beautiful friend Giuli a few days ago, and I was telling her about how I'm eating a mostly-raw diet (if you recall, I started this after I read Crazy, Sexy Diet by Kris Carr).  She informs me that her cousin is doing a raw food seminar in my area this week.  It turns out, her cousin is this beautiful lady, Gabriella Dalmolin, who blogs about raw food in her blog, Mind, Body, Soul ... and Food (rawnovicegirl.blogspot.com) and does seminars in Northern Virginia teaching people how to prepare raw food.

I learned so much from her, and she is such a fun, happy person.  Her enthusiasm is contagious.  Can't you tell just by looking at her?

The book she shared with us today is Living Raw Food: Get the Glow with More Recipes from Pure Food and Wine by Sarma Melngailis.  I'm going to pick a copy up today.

When I started this way of eating, I was a little concerned I would be eating boring salad all the time.  I am really surprised by the amazing raw food recipes I have discovered already.  It's all so good and easy.  I spend a little more time prepping my veggies and meals, but I hardly spend any time actually cooking.

Thanks for all the great info, Gabriella!  You're amazing.

Crazy, Sexy Diet

I've recently made some drastic changes to my diet.  I was feeling tired, kept getting sick, more prescriptions, blah, blah, blah.  And all this while eating a fairly healthy diet and working out.  I was tired of it.  I saw this post at Shannon's blog, Anythingology, and I knew that was the answer.  I started to read Dr. Gundry's Diet Evolution but I got distracted (this happens often) by Crazy, Sexy Diet by Kris Carr (I will finish Dr. Gundry's book because it's a good one). 

Crazy, Sexy Diet is really a fabulous book.  It isn't so much about "going on a diet", but explains what kind food is bad for you (and why), and what kind of food is good for you (and why).  It advocates a vegetarian, sugar-free, crap-free diet.  If you can't give up meat and animal products, she tells you what the best choices are.  She says to try your best but don't beat yourself up.  Other things that are good for your mind and body are mentioned, like meditation and exercise.  And best of all, she is really funny, in a not-always-appropriate for kids way.  Hands down, the most entertaining "diet" book I've read.

One of the things Crazy, Sexy Diet advocates is juicing.  I finally gave into this idea after years of saying "yeah, that would probably be good for me."  You know what?  Drinking veggie juice isn't bad.  Throw one piece of fruit in the mix and it's sweet and good.  I love it.

I was going to blog about my experience from day 1, but I'm going to be honest.  Days 1-4 were rough for me.  I crashed on my face.  Please don't worry if you are thinking about doing this Crazy, Sexy thing, too.  My crash and burn was from (1) cutting out certain pharmaceuticals, and (2) not doing a sufficient job of weaning myself off coffee.  I can't stress the importance of slowly doing this.

I feel amazing. 

Better than I have in a long, long time.  An illness I have been battling is phenomenally better and going in the right direction.  I've cut back on all medications, and no more sleeping pills.  1-2 cups of coffee per week.  No sugar.  No gluten.  No dairy or animal products.  1-2 glasses of wine per week.  About 80% raw food, and 20% cooked super-duper healthy food.  And I absolutely hate it when diet people say this, but I'm not hungry and gnawing my arm off all day.  No pizza cravings.  There was a weak moment walking through Costco's bakery, but I smelled everything and moved on.

Health starts with the quality of what I put in my body.  I was putting bad stuff in, and then trying to patch up the consequences.  If you're on board with what I just said, the good news is, once I ripped the band-aid off, the turnaround was really fast.  I have only been doing this for about 10 days.

Thanks for the inspiration and advice Shannon.  ;-)

Clean up the Key Chain

Do you have a key chain that has a big blob of club cards on it?  Are you always losing your keys?  That was me. 

I tried to get the keys in the key bowl.  Sometimes it happened.  Sometimes it didn't.

Then I decided sometimes it's ok to work with my weakness instead of trying to fix it.

A beautiful, amazing lady I work with told me one day just to put a lanyard on the keys.  Not to wear around my neck, but kind of like a flag that says "Here I am!"

You could use any lanyard, but I spotted this zebra lanyard at The Home Depot when I was making 5 copies of my house key.  Here it is in the key bowl.

This is what my keys look like on the bottom of my purse.  Are you with me now?  How hard is it to spot my keys?  Not.

And here's what my keys look like under the mail pile.  You can spot that from across the kitchen.

Don't get me wrong, I still try to put them in the correct place because nothing beats that.  But this lanyard has saved me a lot of trouble.

Next up:  key chain clutter.  Clutter shows up everywhere, doesn't it?

I found an app for my phone (I just got an HTC Evo from Sprint.  LOVE IT!!) that stores club cards on my phone.  It uses the camera to scan the bar code on the club card.  Clerks can scan the screen just like they would scan the card.

And you know how a coupon you earned shows up in the mail every once in a while?

Well with some retailers, the coupon shows up right on my app.  I was always losing those dumb things, or they cluttered up my purse.  Now it's all there in one place, nice and tidy.

On a side note, I just discovered the wonders of apps and I am addicted! The apps I love the most are the ones that help me out in life, like the key chain app.  I will be posting all my faves in the near future.



Organizing is a Habit

Organizing is a habit.  One I don't quite have yet, but I do observe this wonderful habit in friends who are organized.  Like Mrs. Brookes at Simply Brookes, who is doing posts on organizing to help people like me.  Yay!

Yesterday I saw her post on organizing under the sink, and I thought of this mess.  It's embarrassing.  That icky stuff on the left is water damage.  Lovely.  I also see a lot of cleaners that ended up here because I was too lazy to walk 10 more steps to the laundry room and put them away where they belong.

[Can I digress here for a minute?  There is such a thing as cleaning product clutter.  Some of us buy every cleaning product known to mankind.  Stop!  It's making your house messy.  All we really need are a few basics.  Resist the rest people.]

10 minutes later ... Voila!



1.  Cut a piece of thrift store wallpaper for the bottom (hot glued dots on the corners)

2.  Put away the cleaners I don't need in this room.

3.  Used my Target Dollar Spot bins (I use them everywhere): 1 for cleaners and 1 for sponges and brushes.

4.  Put the recycle bin back under the sink.  We are apparently a very trashy family because took the recycling out 3 times a day with this little can so instead I'm using it for grocery store bags to return to the store.  Those things are popping out of every nook and cranny of my kitchen.

After you clean something, do you walk back and look at it several times that day because it makes you so happy?  Oh, yeah, that was me.  Open the cupboard doors, stop and gaze, close doors, go back to what I was doing.  I know my husband thinks I'm crazy. 

Inexpensive Gift Giving

A cute little birdie told me the other day that she has read an awful lot about Trader Joe's scones, and that she might be ready to read about something new.  So I think maybe today I'll write about gifts that don't cost a lot, in case anyone out there is trying to figure out a last minute hostess gift.  The trick is shopping ahead of time and using a few basics.  This does lead to the issue of hoarding (bad) vs. stockpiling (good).   I'm constantly wondering where the line is.

Here's the basic philosophy I'm going to cover today:

1.  Shop year-round at the dollar spot or wherever else you get good deals (I generally don't keep a gift stockpile, but I do keep a pile of $1 items.  Anything more expensive and it just ends up being money spent, sitting in my closet forever).

2.  Dress it up a little.

3.  Creatively gift wrap and don't blow $5 on a bag for goodness sake.

Walmart always has an ornament or two that doesn't break the bank.  I'm not one to spend $10 on an ornament for anyone, myself included.  This glittery church was a whopping $1.  But pleeeaaase don't give it away with that ugly tag stuck to it.  I don't even like the string for hanging it.  Cut it all off!! and put a pretty little ribbon on it.

Doesn't that look so much better?  It's all about selling it ... special details make it special.

Here are some notebooks I bought at Michaels Crafts $1 aisle.  This is a funny thing about me:  When I'm standing in the aisle looking at monogram letters, I immediately get Alzheimer's and can't remember who I'm buying for or their initials.  If you don't want to get Monogram Alzheimer's, get a teeny notebook to keep in your purse always and write the names of your friends you are looking to buy for.  Or put it on a sticky note phone app.

I wrapped a little bit black seam binding around it.  Made it a bit more special.

I wanted to use all 3 colors of tissue paper, but using whole sheets was too much.  So I used my pinking shears to cut wide strips.  I put the gift on 3 strips (not stacked evenly - see photo above with notebook) and bunched it up.   I have also been known to rip strips of tissue paper.  This saves tissue paper by not using too much, and makes it a little more special.

I don't go out and buy a bunch of wrapping stuff.  I give gifts in lunch sacks all the time. You can buy red or white lunch sacks at Target.  I love those.  I also bought a bag of tags from Office Depot.  Stamp some initials on the tag.  Stick it on with a clothes pin.  Stamp "Wish" on a ticket.  These are all things I already had in the craft pile. 


Here is a birdy ornament I used on the outside of the plain paper sack.  Great! You can also see from this photo that I am a hurricane in a craft room.  Not great!

Tags are something you have permission to hoard.  You will always be able to use them.

Here's another way you can use storage tote bags.  I found these at Target dollar spot clearance.  They weren't even a dollar!  I stood there forever thinking, "I want to buy every single one but do I have any business hoarding that many totes?"   It's a constant conversation for me.  I didn't buy every one, but I did buy a healthy stack of them.  I use them to organize my cupboards, but they also make great wine bags.  I have a stockpile of ribbon I buy for $1 and a bag of funky tissue.  The plain black tote needs a little pizazz.

I do love wine, but really know nothing about buying it.  Here's what you can do if you have the same problem:  ask the guys at the store.  Don't be shy.  The Wegmans by our house has a wine section.  One day I found out they have a wine manager, and I worked up the courage to ask him what inexpensive wine he recommends.  I thought he would look down on me.  I thought he would be wine snobby.  He was so unbelievably cool, and took me through the entire wine section and told me all the fabulous $5 and under wine he loves to drink.  The guys at Trader Joe's will also tell you what fabulous cheap wine they have.  Not a snob in the bunch.

Wrap that sucker up.  If you have it stockpiled, you can throw this together last minute.  No shopping every single time you go to someone's house.  How much time does that save?!!  And money?!!

I wanted to add just a bit more to this gift wrap, so I dug a couple ornaments out of my stockpile (Sorry, Mrs. Brookes, I bought this W after I gave you the gift or this baby would be all yours).

I bought a bunch of these reindeer at the dollar store and I use them to decorate my banister garland.  I just ripped that sucker right off the banister.  That's how I roll.  If you get a gift from me, it could be straight from my banister.

And check this out ... my new Christmas tree stand urn, courtesy of Anythingology (go here for a tutorial).  Thanks Shannon.
Now I'm off to Trader Joe's.