Crafty Day 2.1

Sunday's weather (more snow, more cold) lent itself perfectly to extend crafty day! This time Sweet Pea wanted to do a project. After a quick trip to the craft store Sweet Pea got started on her projects: decorative pillows for her room. Music and Hello Kitty! Sweet Pea made a paper pattern, pinned, cut and (be still my heart) sewed them!

Just a mere 3 hours later she had 2 pillow shams and a stuffed pillow! Congratulations Sweet Pea! You worked hard on your pillows and it shows! They look great!

Crafty Day

Today I got to spend some time in my much neglected Happy Place...

My craft area!

The fabrics for my stadium blanket have been in the project basket since fall '09 ( no that's not a typo). There's also another blanket just waiting to be assembled. Maybe that will get done tomorrow. It might be a football game project.

Today's second project was a napkin holder cover. That project hasn't been on the list very long but it's a nice little pick me up for the table and me! Especially needed with the cold and snowy weather we've had the last two weeks.

Now it's time to curl up with my blanket, put on a movie and work on a dish cloth!

THUD

Ouch! Yep, that was me falling off the treadmill – hard. This Holiday Season was very hard to stay on track with exercise and eating right. I have reasons
justifications ok excuses, here are just a few…

• Not feeling well
  
• Getting ready for company
  
• We have company
  
• Holiday shopping
  
• Have to bake cookies
  
• Have to wrap presents
  
• The kids are home – Snow Day
  
• The kids are at school
  

I know if I don't exercise regularly, I don't make good food choices. When I don't make good food choices, I don't feel well. It's two weeks post holiday season and I'm back on the treadmill. I haven't exercised regularly since, well…Is Labor Day part of the "Holiday Season"?

I wasn't able to just pick up where I left off. I'm a bit discouraged and I really want to just push myself. If I push too hard I'll either burn out or get worn down and get sick again. I'm setting my goals, mainly consistency, putting one sneakered foot in front of the other, and soon I'll get back to where I want to be.

WHAT!?!

Thanks (or not) to technology I'm able to track my spending by payee. Yes, I figured out what I spent last year at Stuff Mart. WHAT!?!

That's not possible! I was shocked by the total. But the numbers don't lie. I am even more committed to be more mindful of our spending.

I'm not going to stop shopping, with young kids and trying to eat as much fresh food as possible, that just isn't a realistic goal. A realistic goal is to pay attention to what we are shopping for and not just running out to pick up every little "need". The first action step was to do a "stock up" trip on health and beauty products. When I get out the back-up item I can put it on the list. The next step is to make lists, lists and more lists.

I also found these stores in town, they're called grocery stores! They have food and cleaning items but no electronics, toys, clothes or crafts, all the areas that get me into trouble. I can go in get my groceries and get out! Woo hoo! This is another strategy I'm going to use to eliminate trips and extra purchases from the Stuff Mart.

Rude Awakening

This was going to be a short sweet little post about my New Year's resolution to make fewer trips to the Stuff Mart. I know we go a lot, I put the receipts in the checkbook. Just out of curiosity, I took a sample of how many trips we make. I counted the credit and debit transactions for August through November. This count doesn't include my big bi-monthly grocery shopping, I don't go to the Stuff Mart for that. The average was 14.25 trips per month! That is 171 trips a year!

I don't know what each trip costs but if the average (denial) is $20 each that is $3,400 per year. Some of those were items we needed milk, bananas, ice cream... But seriously in 171 trips how many "extras" did we buy? My guess...A LOT!

Now that the shock and disbelief have started to wear off, my resolution has to be more serious that just make fewer trips to the Stuff Mart. I know this will be a painful change especially with a teen in the house. I also think it will be a great opportunity to learn some things about ourselves, like what is really important and, dare I hope, the difference between a "need" and a "want".

Here it goes...

My 2011 New Year's Resolution is to average ONE trip to the Stuff Mart per week!