DoozyCards

This year, the new summer vacation happens at home. Here are some ideas how to make your money saving stay-cation as fun as a trip to Aruba. Tap into your inner vacationer and enjoy the trip.

1. Put a lei on yourself and the dog.

2. Set up a Buffet table in the living room: use a white table cloth and then set out pastries, fresh fruit served in half a carved out watermelon. Have coffee, mimosas and a newspaper (subscribe for the “Aruba Today” newspaper to be delivered to your home).

3. Play Calypso steel drum music and open the doors for a breeze (or just blast the air conditioner).

4. Put colorful drink umbrellas in blended drinks, your hair, the kids’ sandwiches. Also an excellent choice for poking anyone who isn’t taking the stay-cation seriously.

5. Create an outdoor bar with a bowl of nuts and iced drinks in a blender. Remember to set out a tip jar (more savings for you!)

6. Visit your newly created in-home spa: put Eucalyptus oil on a warm, wet hand towel, recline in a dark room and put place the towel on your face for deep breathing.

7. Grab a blended drink (you see the emphasis on tropical blended drinks here; it helps the illusion) and recline on a chaise lounge with a good, non-serious book. If you’re looking for an easy read with a witty female narrator I suggest Any Place I Hang My Hat by Susan Isaacs.

8. Take a yoga class in your living room. Order yoga videos from Netflix or video store.

9. Place gourmet chocolates and fresh cut flowers on your pillows (then put the box under the pillow so you can eat them all)

10. Send summer e-cards to local friends and family letting them know how much you are enjoying your stay-cation. “Wish you were here!”

Bon Voyage!

Not too long ago, I was doin’ some window shoppin’. I’m talkin about the kind where you stare at a pair of Ferragamo peep toe sling-backs and slip into fantasy imagining them on your feet. Then, my eyes bulged out at the $700 price tag! My mamma was right when she said shoes can be like friends with little souls but they only bring temporary happiness.

Then, my friend Sylvia flashed before my eyes. I think when a friend just pops into your head, it’s an angel telling you to contact that person. And Sylvia always makes me happier than a new pair of shoes. Sylvia always looks fierce and she laughs at all my jokes. She rolls her eyes every time I tell her about some man who was actin a fool.  I have a sweet kind of missin’ for my friend, the kind that makes my heart smile. I know the very next time I talk to her it will be just like absolutely no time has passed at all and there aren’t thousands of miles separatin’ us.

Who pops into your head unannounced? Connect with them instantly with my I’m Missin You Card:

Latsha’s I Miss You

Chances are they’ve been missin’ you just as much as you have been missin’ them.

Or if you want to send Gratitude to someone far away send Across the Miles for Mothers:

And Finally I leave you with:

Top Ten Movies That Remind Me of Parenting Three Boys:
Platoon
Planet of the Apes
Return from Planet of the Apes
Altered States
Lost in Space
Conan the Barbarian
The Clash of the Titans
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
The Blob
March of the Penguins

The Mexican army beat the French at the Battle of Puebla and now we get to celebrate for an entire day with Mexican Food, sombreros and maracas. The kids think I’m crazy (not a newsflash) but I love to put on the giant sombrero my husband and I got in Tijuana and dance all around them shaking the  maracas from my friend Kat’s trip to Guatamala. Kids can not keep a straight face when you wear a big hat and shake maracas.  Then of course they have to grab the hat and the maracas and I get dog piled but everyone is in the spirit.   Once I insisted we all wear sombreros to El Cholo Restaurant (the best green tamales in Los Angeles).  My eldest son said “this is so lame” but everyone was laughing while eating their chips.  If you’re depressed about everything going on in the world celebrate Cinco de Mayo wearing big hats with loved ones and eat Mexican chips, chrunching them really loudly.  If you are on a budget like most of us, there are many affordable Mexican Restaurants. My husband and I still frequent the Taco Truck we used to visit when we were at college.  It may sound scary but I am telling you it is delicious. To stay connected with those we love but who we can’t celebrate with (like your friends from growing up and from school)  send our most popular Cinco de Mayo e-cards.
I highly reccomend the Disco de Mayo ecard

The Gecko Margarita and Sexy Margarita are  also very popular.  For friends across the miles send some virtual holiday fun with Viva Mexico. My kids love the Crawfish de Mexico  . Feliz Cinco de Mayo mes pequenos Doozy amigos!

Hi, this is Bennett,

.. Before you get all excited to read Chandler’s and my epic struggle to outlast each other on this 5 day juice cleanse (read, “Liquid pseudo starvation”), I have to tell you… I folded. At 11 PM last night, 10 hours after beginning the infernal fast, I was compelled by stomach and dizzied brain to shove a hard boiled egg with pear-chutney down my gullet. It was followed by a Bosc pear and the remaining 3rd of a very nice piece of brie. It’s what I had in the fridge besides fresh parsley, carrots, apples and a big papaya for the juicing. I do feel much better now.

I have to say, if the Gods had meant us to eat juice, we would have razor sharp whirling teeth, and a pulp sluice out the back of our heads.

 That said, today, Chandler seems hungry. I’m counting on her caving by Friday morning. To tease her I sent her our ecard “Please Send Chocolate“, and a funny one about Diets.

To celebrate Earth Day Bennett and I went into the yard, barefoot, with our carrot juices. We are both on a five day juice cleanse because we are celebrating Earth Day. Ok, OK, we are actually fat from storing winter holiday food for the past 4 months; so if no-one appears to be running the company it’s because we are facedown on our desks in a catatonic stupor or we are downstairs juicing. I’ve bet Bennett lunch at our favorite Mexican Restaurant, Tere’s, that he won’t make it five days. I of course have never even gone a day without eating so this is all new to me. While we are drinking only what the earth produces and lying in the grass, we agree that things are different now in the world. Simple pleasures are becoming fashionable and desirable. Lying on my back, looking up into the trees with the sun trickling through the branches reminds me I haven’t seen this view since I was a child. It brings an enormous smile to my face and what’s this? Could I be relaxing? The grass tickles my ears and I think of all that is good on our Earth: the grass, a child’s smile up close in your face, friends, and enchilladas verdes from Tere’s. Happy Earth Day. We hope you celebrate by treasuring friendships and reminding friends they are the salt of the earth by sending them an  Earth Day Ecard  or  Talking Flower or let Talking President Obama deliver your message.

Yesterday, Chandler’s kids and her nephews and neice came trooping over for the day. That’s 9 kids in total. I don’t know if you are ever likewise innundated, but having all that youthful energy around really pumps me up too. I morph into a frolicsome nut-job as evidenced by the spontaneous video blog we made.

Here is our gripping Doozycards.com documentary blog on the care and feeding of an erstwhile ecard maker. The subject of our documentary is myself, Bennett, the Director of Operations, and voice of our Gecko character as I navigate the thrilling excersize of obtaining pizza from the Dominos (TM) website (did you know you can order pizza from a website now?)

Filming the blog is Chandler Chandler, President of Doozycards.com, proving that no task is too large for an active President. We didn’t even use government bailout money to fund the docublog!!