Sunday's media madness...

Just before the new year I was reading one of the many blogs I follow and came across a wonderful book review by Caren Gittleman from Cat Chat with Caren and Cody (a blog I highly recommend checking out).  The book was one that I loved and wanted to share because it has great information on saving money while being a pet owner, but since I am no where near as good a writer as Caren, I am going to let her tell you in her own words; this is a repost of her original post, used with permission of course.  Thank you again Caren and Cody!

Friday, December 30, 2011

Book Review: Pampered Pets On A Budget: Written By: Jeffrey L. Barnes And Kristen M. Levine

I was excited when I was contacted a few weeks back asking if I would like to receive a copy of Pampered Pets On A Budget by Jeffrey L. Barnes And Kristen M. Levine to read and review.

My pets, like everyone else's are pampered and since I am virtually unemployed and my husband has recently retired, the idea that I could read about how to pamper my pet and receive ideas/suggestions about how to do so AND maintain a budget had my ears perked and my tail on alert!

These are tough times in which we live. Every day people are losing jobs and struggling to make ends meet, while the prices of groceries, medical care, etc. continue to rise. Sadly, when a family experiences a financial blow one of the first casualties is often the family pet.

As pet lovers we can never have too many tools in our tool belt to help us not only care for our pets but to maintain a budget while doing so and this book sets out to do what it promises, and that is to:

"help pet parents uncover new ways to save on the products and services you need to take great care of your pets, without compromising your pet's health and wellness care or severely damaging your pocketbook."

This book is short (74 pages) but don't let that fool you. It is 74 pages that are jam-packed with must-have information for today's pet owner.

Take a look at some of the chapters:

Chapter 3-The Internet is not Always Right: this chapter was written by Jeffrey Barnes and is one of my personal favorites. We have all fallen victim to running to the internet when our animal is ill. It can be anything from a Google search to posting a problem on Facebook and receiving 500 differing opinions. Many of those opinions include horror stories that when you are already stressed and worried, are the LAST things that you need to hear.

This chapter explains: How the internet is NOT a substitute for your veterinarian, your veterinarian knows YOU and your pet!

• It reinforces how when you are reading ANY information from the internet you need to look at the qualifications, licensing and formal education of the source providing that information!
• It mentions how drug and vaccine manufacturers stand behind their products ONLY when they have been purchased directly from your veterinarian.

Other great chapters in this 10 chapter book are:

Chapter 4-Trusted Online Pet Resources- in this chapter Kristen Levine points out that there is some online information that can be trusted but that it should NEVER take the place of human professionals when it comes to your beloved pet.

This chapter talks about: General pet information and adoption sites such as petfinder.com and catster.com It also mentions reputable Veterinary and Health Sites such as VeterinaryPartner.com

Chapter 5-The Value of Your Veterinarian: as explained by Jeffrey Barnes one of my favorite points made in this chapter is "your veterinarian is your pet's medical health care captain and is the only authority on medical issues."

Chapter 7-Pet Health Insurance is discussed by Kristen Levine and is relevant to me because I am still pondering the issue as to whether or not to purchase pet insurance for Cody and Dakota. Some points that Kristen mentions that are important to consider are:

Consider Premiums, Co-Pays and Deductibles
Pick Coverage, Not Cost

This book contains so much information and delivers it in an interesting, straight-forward, concise and reader-friendly style.

I loved that at the end of each chapter there is a page called Chapter Highlights which is a summation of information listed in an easy to refer to bulleted format.

Pampered Pets On A Budget will be your newest, invaluable resource to help you "properly position yourself to give your pet the best lifestyle possible."

For more information about this book please visit:
www.PamperedPetsOnABudget.com

Pampered Pets on a Budget is available from: www.lulu.com and www.amazon.com.
Paperback · ISBN: 978-1-105-20415-9 · $15.99
Kindle · ISBN: 978-1-105-20415-9 · $9.99

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Jeffrey L. Barnes: is a business advisor, consultant, and business intermediary, who strives to give veterinarians and business owners sound business advice in their day-to-day operations and represents them when they buy or sell their practice or business. His professional experiences with such respected companies as Aventis, John Deere, Merial, and the Sandler Sales Institute has afforded him the extensive sales, client service, and marketing knowledge that he now shares with countless veterinarians, practice managers, manufacturers, distributors, local, state, and national veterinary associations. Jeffrey lives in Tampa, FL with his wife and two dogs.

Kristen M. Levine's volunteer work led to a fifteen-year career as the Public Relations Director of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Tampa Bay, Florida, where she played a critical role in promoting pet adoption and pet lifestyle education. Kristen's knowledge of pet lifestyle concerns and family dynamics coupled with her understanding of public relations led her to found Fetching Communications, the nation’s first marketing and public relations firm wholly dedicated to serving the pet industry, in 2003. Having logged over 1,000 live national radio and television show appearances, Kristen is also a frequent contributor to pet and veterinary trade magazines nationwide. Kristen serves as Bissell Homecare’s official pet spokesperson, educating pet parents about pet clean up solutions, as well as on the Toyota Pet Expert Team (P.E.T.), where she shares her knowledge to help develop programs to teach pet parents the importance of properly protecting and securing pets in automobiles. Kristen lives in Florida with her husband, dog and a pair of miniature donkeys.

I received no compensation for this review. I received a copy of the book to read/review.

I hope you are having a great Sunday!

C.Q. ~ Thanks again to Caren Gittleman, you can find her blog here or follwer her and Cody on Facebook here.

2011 in Review...

Java over a Never Growing old is taking today off for New Years so I thought I would share some of my favorite posts with you from 2011.

In January I went with a friend of mine to Minneapolis so she could have some medical tests run and found some great information on hotel shopping that I passes along in Hotel Happiness, I also found a new blogger friend Meg Hart and her great book Housecat Confidential, a view of life from a cats perspective, that I posted in my Sunday's media madness.  If you get a chance you can check out Meg's new blog at Hart Stories, she is a terrific writer and I highly recommend her book and her blog.

In February I started getting a little antsy to play in my garden and a friend sent me some info on hay bale gardening that I passed along because it is easy and inexpensive and a great way to have a garden quick in an area that may not have an easy place to plant stuff.  You can check that out at Hey! Hay! Hay! Garden the easy way...

March brought two awards that I received, one for the Cherry on Top award and one for the Incredibly Sweet blog award, both required me to share some information about me which was fun, with the Cherry on Top one I also shared a favorite picture of my grandmother.

In April I shared a great recipe for my favorite Easter treat, Hot Cross Buns together with a little history on them.  I also started doing posts called Saturday Sojourn that were a lot of fun for me and included tips on saving while traveling.  One of my favorites was the one I did for Saint Paul, MN since we were heading there ourselves for a short vacation. 

May brought the release of a book from a series that I love by Jess Loury so I was able to do a little review of the book Octoberfest to share with my readers, May also marks Memorial Day and I was able to thank our armed services folks and post two great old pictures of my grandfather and my dad looking very dapper in their uniforms from WWII.

In June I had two great guest bloggers while I was on vacation for my 25th anniversary, the first was Alexis from from Simply Beautiful Veg.  and her great post on ways to organize, including a great pocketed organizer project you can make yourself.  My other guest poster was Nina from The Adventures ArtsyNina.  She did a wonderful post on making a Pallet Kitchen Cookbook Shelf, a very cool and extremely inexpensive project.

In July I stopped doing the Saturday Sojourn's and replaced them with Silly Saturday, my first one I loved because it emphasises simplicity.  I also love this time of year when all the fruits and veggies are getting ripe and took the opportunity to share a wonderful no bake blueberry cheesecake for everyone.

August was a great month for my Media Madness section for me, I found a couple of great apps, Uno and Conde Nast Traveller Magazine, that I love and use all the time.  The other was for the book The Help, which was wonderful and I would recommend to anyone looking for a good read.

September was a moth of highs and lows, the low being the sadness that came with the 9/11 memorial ceremonies I watched that day, the high was going on vacation to Chicago with two of my best girl friends and being able to share a bit of what we did and how we saved a ton of cash along the way.

The October posts were where two of my favorites are, one is one of my many favorite pictures, this one was of a small grey tree frog in our backyard that I used on the Thursday's picture perfect deal, the other was one of my favorite Silly Saturday's featuring a great photo shopped scene.

November was all about sharing my favorite things, including a list of movies, a great app called Flipboard and a recipe I always make for Rosy Fruit Salad, a wonderful frozen concoction that is from the 1950s.

December was all about relaxing and getting ready for the holidays and vacation, but in between that I was able to post one of my favorite ever pictures of my dog Tucker loving the first snowfall from last year.  Java also posted a wonderful Meet Me On Monday with 15 questions to tide us over until after New Year's, and being a good bit Irish, I couldn't end the year without and Irish Christmas Blessing to all my readers.

Thank you to all my readers for reading last year, I am looking forward to 2012!

C.Q.

Thank you Alexis!

I am so pleased to be guest blogging for Coupon Queen! Today I will be discussing organization in small areas. I realize this is a topic often covered on other sites or blogs, but let’s face it--most of us live busy enough lives that simplification is necessary in order to feel less overwhelmed and more in control.

As someone who has lived in small areas for the last five years, I have had to discover creative ways to utilize the amount of space I was gifted. Most of my apartments had one (if any) very small closet, limited pantry space and little to no shelving. Disorganization drives me bonkers, even though clutter seems to constantly be around my house, so finding ways to camouflage little piles becomes the major concern in my home.

This delightful mail sorter is a recent find and has worked wonders on my piles of mail lying all over the home. Bright and Blithe offers a fantastic tutorial for this project and even includes the cute little labels. A much better (and far more adorable) choice than a typical plastic box. Not to mention cost effective. You can locate a substantial piece of fabric for $2, especially if you find one you like in the remnant bin.

I have a hard time finding space to keep all my craft supplies. They seem to reproduce at rates akin to rabbits. Since I have no extra closet I cannot simply put them in there, nor can I build shelves in my rental. My solution; A winged table with shelving below and beautiful decorated boxes. It currently sits in the corner with one wing down, but if company were to show up I can easily pull it out and bring the other wing up. The boxes blend in and look like an extra decor piece. No one will ever know that on the inside of those boxes, it is a complete disaster ;-).

Nothing is worse than not having a place to put your toiletries and grooming supplies. When I moved into my current apartment, I realized that I quite literally had nowhere to put anything. Not only that, but even a tiny floor cabinet would block the way to the necessary (making for an even greater mess if one is in a hurry). I quickly located an over-the-toilet cabinet and an over-the-sink shelf, which has made an incredible difference. While the cabinet is a bit spendy, it’s worth keeping eye cream in the bathroom instead of storing it in the kitchen.

Finally, I have mentioned lack of closet space several times. One never realizes how necessary it may be until one doesn’t have it (*don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you got til’ it’s gone*). I suggest you go down to your local thrift stores and search for a wardrobe. If you have enough wall space to give up, it is incredibly worth it, especially if you can find a good deal. I found mine for $50 and it only had some drawer issues which were easily fixed. If you neither want nor need so much space being taken up by a large block of wood, try an old steamer trunk which can serve as a chair and storage space. A gorgeous vintage piece adds character to your home and offers a place for extra towels.

My hope is that some of you will find this helpful, and if nothing else I have provided a few photos which I know I always like. I hope you all have a fantastic week!

~ALEXIS~

*My thanks to Alexis from Simply Beautiful Veg. for her help while I am on vacation! Please stop by and visit her blog or her Esty Shop. :) C.Q.