Let the thrifting begin!

Being at home for Christmas break has made me realize how much I want to change in our house. Unfortunately, I’m not someone that likes to spend a lot of money. That has its advantages and disadvantages. One advantage is that it allows me the creativity to find new and inexpensive ways to spruce up what I already have with just a few new to me items.

Before we left for town yesterday, we ate lunch at my mother-in-law’s house. We go there every year on New Year’s day for black-eyed peas. I still think they taste like dirt, but it doesn’t keep me from eating a few (3 to be exact) so I won’t be the only one that misses out on good luck and prosperity.

Cole, my mother-in-law & Audrey

Cole, Audrey and me

Audrey sporting the new shirt that her daddy lovingly chose for her. They call it a ‘cat’stronaut.

Cole about to dive into the banana pie if he doesn’t get a second piece.

Begging….Puss in Boots adorable eyes trick style.

Audrey and I had to visit Chick-fil-A before we left town.

We ended up making a trip to a thrift store and Hobby Lobby. I only brought home a few things. I found this ceramic urn marked down to $1.98. The picture doesn’t show the true color. It was a pale shade of sage green. It looked really strange. The top and bottom are both metal.

I used an Elmer’s school glue crackling method to paint the urn. First, I used brown craft paint for my base coat. I only used one coat, as you can see. It doesn’t have to be perfect because it’s just going to be the underneath color that shows through when the paint crackles.

Then, I divided the urn into thirds and brushed on Elmer’s glue.  I let it sit for about 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Then, I painted over the glue (while it was still tacky) with my top coat of ivory craft paint. I used an embossing gun to dry the paint to create the crackle effect.  You could probably use a hair dryer if you don’t have an embossing gun.

The color is completely off in this picture because there was so much light streaming in the window, but I ended up putting a plant in the urn and setting it on my computer desk.

I didn’t like the looks of the fern in the white pitcher on top of our piano, so I picked up some new greenery at Hobby Lobby.

I spent about $11 on the different floral stems and dark red bouquet. The price of floral arrangements is crazy! This is my first real floral arrangement. My sister-in-law, Niki, had made one for me for fall, so she showed me a few tricks. Mine is by no means perfect, but it’s better than the fern.

It looks better in real life, but here’s an idea of what it looks like now. We will be giving the piano back to my parents soon, so it should free up a lot of space in our tiny farmhouse.

This is the way we celebrate

Most of our New Year’s Eve day was spent at home playing, cleaning and just enjoying the fact that we didn’t have much to do.

Audrey and I got her birthday thank-you cards finished. It was great practice for her writing her name and she really enjoyed it. When I made an icky face after licking too many envelopes, she told me she would do it. I think she felt the same way I did about the taste.

After we finished putting away the Christmas decorations, we decided to make a quick run to Wal-Mart. I treated myself to some new Paula Deen cookware with some of my Christmas money. Let’s hope the new pans will make me cook more in 2011 or at least maybe a little better!

When we were in the check-0ut line at Wal-Mart there was a younger man behind us that had two very large bottles of liquor. The cashier finished ringing up my items and said, “These aren’t yours, too, are they?” I looked at her, looked at my cart and my children and told her no because my things probably weren’t nearly as fun as his.

As I was walking to my van it made me think of how my shopping bags were full of food, things for our home, treats for the kids and that I was very happy that although my idea of fun may be completely different than others, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

When we got home, we immediately put everything away and pulled out our special treat, a bag of Pepperidge Farms Milano cookies. I’m pretty sure we ate 2/3 of the bag last night. It’s a good thing they are more expensive than I like or we would get them all the time.

Cole played a wii game before we watched a few movies. He likes watching Green Acres of all things. It’s so cute!

Audrey played with her Barbies and her new fairy princess Barbie that she got on sale last night. I love listening to her play with her dolls because she does all these different character voices and she makes her dolls have meaningful conversations. She gets kind of embarrassed when she knows someone is listening.

By 11:00 we are all getting kind of tired. Cole read several books to Audrey and then we all plopped down on the couches to watch Little House on the Prairie and tried to stay awake while John was busy listing ebay auctions.  We made it to midnight and John, Cole and Audrey were in bed very shortly thereafter.

 

Happy New Year!

New Year's Perspective

I am so excited about the coming year! There are so many things that I will do differently. I find this time of year to be great for reflection and for looking forward. It's almost like we are given a chance to start over and to do better. Although we don't necessarily get to start over, the feelings are somewhat the same to me.

I don't typically make resolutions. I've tried and I rarely succeed. I am more likely to commit myself to something if I tell someone and have to be accountable, but that doesn't seem to work with resolutions. I'm kind of the same way with goals.

This year, I'm taking a step back with my perspective on goal-setting. Instead of just making long-term goals, like I usually do, I'm going to make and set smaller goals and less deadlines for them. That way, if I don't meet my goals exactly when I thought I would, I won't sabotage myself and give up.

One of my biggest short-term goals is to blog more regularly. Although I would love to blog daily, I find that I just don't have the time to do it. So, for my goal to be attainable, I need to set a number to it. My hope is to blog at least three times each week. I know that doesn't sound like much when others do it daily and some multiple times a day, I just don't seem to be able to do it.

While I've been on Christmas break, I was looking back at pictures, scrapbooks and old memories items that I've kept from the kids and I began to realize how much I was forgetting. The pictures and items brought back memories, but not specific details that elicited feelings of being in the moment. Since I have neglected scrapbooking in this phase of my life, my blog needs to be the scrapbook that I can record my thoughts and feelings about my family, my marriage, myself, my religion, my successes and failures, my need to put into words the feelings that I will one day forget.

We have no big plans for New Year's Eve.  We are simple in our celebration of a New Year. We find comfort in the thought of just being together and not going out. So, our only plan is to stay home. We hope to make M & M's cookies and watch Netflix movies. We will do silly things and giggle. We will take pictures and clean up messes. We will read books for the millionth time and receive countless pieces of paper that only read MOM, DAD or COLE from Audrey. We will hear about Transformers and computer games. We have all been staying up way too late, so we might actually make it to midnight tonight, but if not, that's okay. I know that I'm happiest when I'm home with my family doing whatever it is that makes each of them happy.

Happy New Year to each of you and may 2011 bring you many blessings, good health and lots of love!

A fresh beginning (again)

Thank God I’ve lived to see another New Year. I am very blessed with a wonderful, healthy, supportive family and I treasure and place huge importance on my friendships. I am also blessed with a great job. 

This year, I want to…

• read my Bible more and try to find a women’s bible study group
• participate in more acts of charity
• develop pictures more than once a year (same goes for balancing my checkbook)
• find even more ways to save money so that I can give more to others (I would really like to help an organization that helps children or pregnant women.)
• be the mom that my children need and want me to be and the wife my husband expects me to be (John would appreciate this!)
• procrastinate less and be more proactive and less reactive (Like emptying the dishwasher BEFORE the counter is stacked with dirty dishes ready to go inside.)
• finish painting a few rooms and refinish a few pieces of furniture (Like the dresser my mom gave me with stickers all over it that I still have yet to strip and paint from 2 years ago.)
• maintain a healthier lifestyle by eating at home more often (McDonald’s and Chick-Fil-A may see a plunge in sales)
• Facebook less (I almost wish I’d never started reading everyone’s status updates. I can’t get enough of the pictures though.)
• blog more (I know, can’t really blog any less w/out blogging at all, right?)
• scrapbook/journal events in a more timely fashion by going back to the old way of scrapbooking without all the fancy embellishments that distract from my subjects (I realize some of you will be appalled by this. Sorry!)
• drink less Dr. Pepper and more water (Notice, I do not intend to give it up by any stretch of the imagination.)
• realize that all that I have is ‘enough’ and the things I think I need are not always necessary (This goes for home decorating in a big way!)

Overall, I can’t say that I regret a lot from this past year other than spending way too much time worrying about things that weren’t important. My biggest personal regret is not spending enough time with my friends and family. However, I don’t think I could ever have enough time with my family and friends. Luckily, I always have 2010!