Living Outside the Stacks

If you’ve read my About Me page, you know that I pride myself on “having the organizational skills of a mother and the domestic skills of a Stepford wife” but even I need to take a few shortcuts every now and then…  I, like many women who came of age when Martha Stewart was folding paper napkins into chandeliers, believed I had to not only butcher the pig, but fry it up while balancing a baby on my hip.  Yeah, right, life’s too short for all of that…

And Lisa Quinn’s new book, Life’s Too Short to Fold Fitted Sheets: Your Ultimate Guide to Domestic Liberation, is the perfect manual for showing all of us overachievers how to maintain a neat house and serve perfect but not~quite~homemade meals (the book includes 17 recipes made from deli chicken!) all while maintaining our sanity.  Sprinkled with self~deprecating humor, common sense and practical information, this book will have you laughing and wondering Why didn’t I think of that?  One of my favorite tips comes from the section called “Not~So~Good Housekeeping”, where Lisa lists the top 10 things you have to clean if company is coming over in 30 minutes.  Among the common sense ones, like cleaning the toilet and mirrors, she offers this little gem:

“Spray a fine mist of nontoxic spray cleaner in the air right by the front door.  You didn’t really clean anything, but it smells like you did.  Remember, perception is reality.”

LOL  All this time I’ve been spraying air freshener!  Oops.

Lisa Quinn is an Emmy award~winning TV host, set dresser, author, wife and mom of two, so she knows of what she speaks.  She has appeared on the Early Show, HGTV and The Oprah Winfrey Show and designed sets for the National Geographic Society and the Discovery Channel.  This lady has done it all and she lived to tell us how to do it the easy way!

Giveaway:  I received a copy of Life’s Too Short to Fold Fitted Sheets:  Your Ultimate Guide to Domestic Liberation courtesy of The Mom Renewal Project and Jill Daniel of Pasta Queen Public Relations, I’m giving away the second copy of the book that I received to encourage my readers to check out the book and related information about the author, Lisa Quinn.  For a chance to win a copy of the book, please do the following:

1.  Leave a comment telling me who your favorite television mom parent is

*Please make sure you leave some way for me to contact you*

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Extra Entries

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3.  Tweet about my giveaway “Win a copy of Life’s Too Short to Fold Fitted Sheets from @DaenelT and Living Outside the Stacks http://tiny.cc/io0a4″

Contest ends Tuesday, 3 August 2010 at 10 PM EST.  One winner will be randomly selected using Random.org.

Disclosure:  The book that I reviewed as well as the copy that I’m giving away were provided to me free of charge courtesy of The Mom Renewal Project and Jill Daniel of Pasta Queen Public Relations in exchange for a review.  This does not in any way compromise my review.

I have the research skills of a librarian, the preservation skills of an archivist, the organizational skills of a mother and the domestic skills of a Stepford wife. I have the research skills of a librarian, the preservation skills of an archivist, the organizational skills of a mother and the domestic skills of a Stepford wife. Read more from this author