Crash

The big living room decorating project is finished! I had been planning and re-planning that project for years and now it's Done. Over. Finished. It's left me with a bad case of Post-Project Crash. A lot of energy and creativity went into decorating to the exclusion of other creative hobbies. So now what do I do? I don't have any other craft projects underway, or even planned, and the scrapbooks are so far behind it's overwhelming. One of my favorites quotes is "Where you mind goes your butt follows". My mind was creatively empty, stuck in a rut and so was my behind. The only thing I was creating was a dent in the couch!

How did I go about getting out of my rut? I did some immersion therapy at Hobby Lobby! Hallelujah! Ah (sigh) the inspiration! Just looking at the craft supplies, baskets, and flowers got my creative juices flowing. I came home with the supplies to start a necklace holder and a list of other ideas! No more putting all my creative eggs in one basket. When I clean up the craft area all the pretty things that inspire my creativity are out of sight. Not a good situation for a visual person. If that means my craft area stays cluttered with the things that spark my imagination, I'm ok with that! I hope Honey's ok with it.

Money (Not) Saving Monday

I don't know how I could have forgotten this but I did. To save money Do Not Take BOTH Children shopping! It must have been the movie popcorn induced haze that lead me to take the kids (mistake #1) to the book store. Bean had a gift card from his birthday, Sissy didn't have any money, we know where this is going. Bean picked out his books, so did Sissy. Yes you guessed it mom was expected to pay for hers. I couldn't buy her a book without getting one for him. I know some moms can,k I'm not that good at turning off the mommy guilt. After that we went (mistake #2) to the shoe store, just to pick up a pair I saw last time we were there. While we're here we'll look at shoes to go with the (gulp) prom dress. Bean wanted to go look at the shoes in his size (mistake #3) I let him. A minute later he comes running back to me bare foot, saying "Mom you should see all the cool shoes in my size!" Twenty minutes later, 3 pairs of shoes and earrings to go with the prom dress we head home. Lesson learned.

Money Saving Monday

I can't believe it's April already! April is a busy (and expensive) month for us. Bean and Honey have birthdays at the beginning of the month. That means gifts and party supplies hit at the end of March. I wasn't very optimistic about the March Project wrap up. When I looked at my totals I was surprised! I made four trips to the Stuff Mart and spent $100 less than last years' average! Pretty good for a pre-birthday month!

I have other spending/saving habits I'm trying to improve. I started coupon at the beginning of February and jumped in with both feet! I did fall into the trap of "chasing the deal" a little. Some deals were worth chasing, some weren't. In March my couponing mellowed out and focused more on getting what we used for less. That's working much better.

Another goal I have is to grow our savings. I haven't felt like this was going very well, new glasses, contact, tires...Oh My! I gathered my courage, covered my eyes, crossed my fingers and peeked at my savings. Woo hoo! The piggy banks are gaining weight! Not very fast but the numbers are going up! Progress!

My project for April is to make laundry soap! My friend Laurie gave me the recipe. If it works that will free up grocery cash (still working on cutting that by 10%). The Simple Dollar made a very similar recipe and figured the cost at 2 1/4 cents per load! They also compared the homemade detergent to a name brand and were please with the results. I can't wait to see how well it works for us!

My little steps are starting to pay off. I'm energized to keep making my lists and clipping coupons! If you have any more money saving tips, I'd love to hear them!

Fave Five and Coffee 4.1.11

Happy Friday! It's time to look back at the week and pick some favorite things. Visit Susanne at Living To Tell The Story for the details. I'm also joining the Company Girls Coffee blog hop hosted by Rachel Anne at Home Sanctuary.

Here are the highlights from my week.

Time to read. I finished lady in Waiting by Susan Meissner. She is a new to me author, I heard good reviews about this book and I wasn't disappointed. It was really good!

Girl talk! My

friend Michelle from The Writtings on the Wallflowers came over for a visit. She brought this to show me. Michelle hand painted it! She also had a bird's nest and a flower! Amazing!

My furry friend. Max has me well trained. I was putting on my shoes to walk on the treadmill yesterday and he started whining at me. I asked him if he wanted to go outside and went to the back door.

He stopped at his toy box, where we keep his leash. I asked again, he didn't move. I told him I wasn't walking outside but he started prancing around and went to the front door. We walked outside. After one lap around the block I brought him back to the drive way to take him in the house. He wouldn't walk up to the house. At the end of the second lap he planted his feet and pulled backward as we turned up our street. We finally made it to the drive way, got half way to the house before he used all 20 pounds of his little body to delay going into the house. Yep, Max has me trained well.

Crossing things off the to do list. I didn't finish the projects, I just decided they didn't need to be done. The first was knitted net scrubbies. I used to find them at craft fairs and loved them. I thought I can make those, yes I can, but I don't want to any more. The other was re-hemming the living room shears. They don't hang perfectly in the window. By the time the kids and the dog push them aside to look out they aren't ever going to hang "perfectly" anyway, so I'm moving on.

Journals. I have had a journal sporadically for as long as I can remember. Sometimes more sporadically than others, but I made time this week to do some writing. Nothing important really, kind of like my blog. I enjoy physically writing in the journal, it's calming for me, helps me think through whatever is going on and I have a record of progress I've made with struggles.

Those are my favorite things from the past week! What were your highlights from the past week?

Thanks to Rachel and Susanne for hosting the fun!