Procrastination Backfire

Remember how I said I would use the shows I watch on netflix as a means to encourage myself to scrapbook?

Well, the good news is, I haven't broken that deal with myself. The sort of bad news is I have been just reading instead the past three weeks.

I do not feel too bad since I haven't read in some time, but I can only seem to really focus on one hobby at a time or at least for right now because this book is good!

A few weeks ago I had finished George R. R. Martin's Clash of Kings, then I took about a week break, and I have started A Storm of Swords the third in the series. I've read over 600 pages in the past 5 days. I am over half-way done with the book! There are two more in the series that are currently out and more to come.

Tomorrow the family and I are going to go to a museum, where I will presumably take some photos. So when I actually participate in a scrapworthy event, I like to scrapbook two or three events from the past, that way I feel like I am making progress into catching up. I hope I can find some willpower to stop reading in order to explore other creative outlets. ;) 

Thankful Thursday

My projects are going quite slowly right now, and I've been so busy that I haven't had time to think out any extremely interesting posts. But I decided that in the middle of a busy week, it'd be a good idea to focus on all the positives instead of thinking about the overwhelming amount of things I have to do.

It's easy to get wrapped up into the day to day and the routines without pausing to think about all there is to be thankful for in our lives.  I've been looking at what I feel I am missing instead of examining and appreciating all that I have.


I thought about making a list, but that seemed a bit boring and a bit obvious (family, friends, etc). A list, however, will still make it into this post, but I've decided to go into each room in my house and list a product that makes my life a little bit easier. I am truly thankful for things that make my life easier.

7 Items for 7 Room in my House that make my life easier:

Bedroom: Touch lamps (Not exact model/style)
I know it's not hard to turn on and off a light, but when I stumble out of bed in the middle of the night to use the rest room, it's nice to not have to fumble. I can just touch my light and find my way!

Son's room: Drapery Holdbacks (No need for screws or hardware!)
These are amazing. We did not want to have to install holdbacks for his room due to the framing of the windows that already existed when we purchased the house, and these holdbacks are magnetic and work perfectly!

Spare room: The Cricut
The spare room houses my scrapbooking supplies, stuff for the cat, and a desk for my husband. So I had limited choices, but the cricut is one of my favorite scrapbooking supplies. So many different fonts, endless choice of colors because it's cuts your own paper, and a variety of sizes!

Bathroom: Scentsy (I am not a consultant, but I had to go through one for a link!)
I had a hard time deciding what in my bathroom I am thankful for, but I decided it would be the thing that makes the bathroom smell better! I love my little scentsy.   Life is easier when things smell good, especially when you only have one bathroom in the house!

Kitchen: Sunbeam Mixer (mine is much older)
So many options in this room! But I had to go with my upright mixer since I bake a lot.

Dining Room: Vinyl Seats
When we bought our dining set, we had a hard time finding a set we liked that didn't have fabric on the chairs. So finally, we found a set in the right color with vinyl cushions, which works out great! It's nice and easy to clean, which is important since kids somehow spill 80% of the time.
Since the theme was what makes my life easier

Living Room: Netflix
It's like having TV without paying for cable. Sometimes I will watch a movie on netflix instead of putting in the DVD because it really is that much easier. ;)



I hope you enjoyed my spin on things I am thankful for, and in case anyone doubts it, I am most thankful for my family, friends, and pets! :)

Spending tips

I am not a professional accountant, and I do not claim to know the best way to budget. But I do know I like to spend money, and I only have a finite amount of it to spend, so here are a few tips that we use to help determine on what/how to spend our extra income. Obviously, don't take grocery money and go out to eat or spend it on the movies.

1. Eating out is expensive- try to cook all your meals at home.
    
It may seem like everyone says that, but it is definitely true. This past weekend my husband and I   ate out twice! We went to brunch with friends, and we ate lunch out at an order at the counter  kind  of place. After all was said and done we spent about $50.00 on two meals. Probably not worth it.

2. Look up a coupon online before you purchase, especially free shipping if buying online!

At this point, I will 9/10 times not buy something online unless I can get free shipping. There are those rare occasions, that I just can't happen to find the product in a store or anywhere else online, and I bite the bullet and pay, but I can only think of one example in the past six months of that happening. On top of that, find a coupon for a percentage off! If it's clothing that you don't absolutely NEED, wait until you get that coupon! You'll get more for your money! Again, I never buy clothes for myself that aren't on sale unless I absolutely need it for something. Even then, I am not happy about it!

3. Buy quality items!

I bought a Camelbak water bottle a while back, and after using it for about a year, the a hing broke on my straw. I was really sad, but I wrote their customer service department, and I received a lid and straw for my waterbottle at not cost to me! Totally worth the investment!  Sometimes you don't find quality items with awesome warranties, but buying that quality item, means it's going to last you a very long time! So the extra money upfront saves you the heartache of it breaking a few months down the line.

4. Skip the cable.

Now my husband still misses sports, it's true. But I know if we had cable, we'd both be spending a lot more time in front of the TV than we do reading or investing in other worthwhile activities like being active! Instead we pay 7.99 a month for Netflix, and we also have Amazon Prime (primarily for free two day shipping and the kindle lending library), which also offers TV shows.

5. Projects!

I am all about my projects. So that's how I decide what to spend all that extra income on, after I've found all my coupons ;) For instance, I really want new bedroom decor, but that's not my current project so until I am done improving the organization in my kitchen, everything else will wait. This helps me stay focused on actually completing a project, and I don't get sidetracked! My goal has been to buy one thing to help me complete that project every pay check. This week I bought a garlic keeper and pan organizer thing. But more on those later!

6. Spend on yourself.

My husband and I need to be able to invest in ourselves and the different things we like, so we allocate a portion of our budget to each other. We get an equal amount of money, and we are allowed to spend that money on WHATEVER we want. No judgment, and it's completely fair. I am a money saver, and my husband is more of a spender, so when we didn't have that money set aside, mine would get spent on house items, and he'd end up buying a great deal of things that I didn't think we should be spending "our" money on. Now it's his money, and I have my own money that I can keep nested away and saved for that big ticket item I want or whatever! But the main point is that we know it's important to have that money for ourselves and for our hobbies, so we've worked it into our budget. And it doesn't take away from our family's money for things like groceries! ;)

I am sure marriage and having a family will keep teaching me better ways to assess and improve our spending habits, but I am proud of what we've developed so far. I hope these tips help and give some amount of inspiration.

Fall

Fall is one of my most favorite times of the year! Here in Southern California, we get our own special variation of fall where flip-flops are still widely acceptable!

One of the best parts of fall is pumpkin flavored anything. I am talking about pumpkin spice lattes (or iced), pumpkin cookies and muffins, pumpkin pie, pumpkin pancakes. Pumpkin galore! I almost forgot pumpkin ice cream from Trader Joe's! Mmmmmm!

Pumpkin Cookies

Now, I am not sure where I found this recipe, but it is amazing. I was a huge fan of Starbucks pumpkin bread, and I think this is even better. The cookies have a cake like consistency and are pretty much AMAZING!

Iced Pumpkin Cookies
Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

(can subsititute 1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice and 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon instead of other spices)
Icing Ingredients

• 1 cup confectioners sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoon milk
• 1/2 tablespoon melted better
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt; set aside.
2. In medium bowl, cream together 1/2 cup of butter and sugar. Add pumpkin, egg, vanilla to butter mixture until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients. Drop on cookie sheet by tablespoonfuls, flatten slightly.
3. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in oven. Cool cookies then drizzle glaze with fork.
4. To make glaze combine confectioners sugar, milk, butter, and vanilla. Add milk as needed to achieve drizzling consistency. 

If you make these, you will not regret it! They are even good without the icing.
Happy Baking, friends!

Gym woes.

Sometimes I do not want to go to the gym. It's just how it goes sometimes. It happened last Friday and again today. I tend to feel unusually guilty about missing a gym day without a valid enough excuse. Talk about hard on one's self. It's okay though. Last week the deal I made with myself was gym for 30 minutes or cleaning for an hour. Well, cleaning for an hour actual won out, and I am glad it did. I was able to tackle cleaning my stove, getting the house swept, the kitchen mopped, and the living room and dining room vacuumed. Today productivity did not ensue although I missed the gym. I did manage to empty the dishwasher and get some pictures hung that have been sitting on my entry way table for about a month. So it was a step in the right direction. At least a few things got done.

But sometimes, we need a break, and we need to feel okay about taking that break. I once heard that you need to talk to yourself like your best friend, and best friends generally don't insult or shame us when we make what we deem a "bad" decision.

I think there is a difference between being a friend to yourself and self-sabotaging. Now maybe a friend would tell us it was okay that we had that slice of cake for dessert despite our eating plans, but a best friend would also remind us how we're going to do better next time, and in my case, encourage me to go to the gym tomorrow instead. There is a delicate balance between making up excuses and listening to what you need!

Remember to love yourself! You need to be your own best friend, your cheerleader and your coach!

Enjoying the quiet

Today my husband is golfing, and my stepson is at home with his mom this weekend. My house is quiet. The coffee is brewed. And I am enjoying it all. The week gets so hectic with school and plans and work and chores and everything else. Usually my husband is home too, but having just me-time is pretty awesome.

Maybe someday we will have a bigger family, and me-time will be a scarce, once-upon-a-time idea and distant memory, so I better soak it all in right now!

I hope everyone else has a happy weekend!

Spice Cabinet

I finally got my spice rack in the mail. It wasn't exactly what I wanted, the sides of it slant, but over all, it works, and most importantly, it fits the space!

I haven't figured out quite yet if I am going to get any extra organizational help for the other shelves, but I managed to go through and do some re-oganization and cleaning.

I think everything looks much improved! I am looking forward to not spending 5+ minutes looking for spices.

The product: InterDesign Linus 3 Tier Organizer, Clear
Next Project: Pantry. I've already started, but I only do a little bit at a time, or I'd blow all my cash on organizational products!

So behind-- how will I ever catch up?

As the title implies, I am feeling doubtful about my ability to consistently scrapbook and "catch up." That's okay though, at least, I know I'll never run out of things to do for this hobby, and if I stick to my netflix while scrapbooking rule, it will definitely help!

Currently I have books for 2011 and 2012 started, and school year books for my step-son. It's basically a mess, and I feel unorganized and overwhelmed a lot. But I FINALLY got a little timeline going of all my pictures for 2011. So there's an end in site for that book. Any tips on catching up?

Here's how thick it is so far. I am thinking I will need to break it up into two books.

I love using the Creative Memories products, but I am pretty disappointed with them going bankrupt, and as anyone who loves CM knows, we have no idea what the future really holds for them or their products. So once I finish my supplies up, I will be on the market for new ones! Any suggestions on albums?

Here are a few pictures of some of my favorite layouts from my 2011 album (from what's done of it):

Time Management 101

Now that fall is upon us, Netflix is getting all the latest seasons of a ton of shows that I just happen to watch. This year, however, rather than plopping myself in front of the television to indulge in all my favorite fictional characters' lives, I've decided to make sure I am scrapbooking while watching anything.

It's hard to budget time for all the different things I love to do. I think many folks can relate. Never enough time, but plenty of different things to do to fill the time. At the beginning of the week, I like to sit down and journal and think of a few different, realistic goals to set for myself. Last week, I wanted to calorie count three days of the week and exercise 3-4 times, scrapbook once, and journal three times. I journaled, I exercised, I calorie counted 2/3, and I never scrapbooked. But the scrapbooking one is okay because I ended up finishing a good book (another thing I wanted to do!). I am not beating myself up about missing that other day of calorie counting either because I was sick and taking care of my body was number one priority.

This week my exercise goal is increasing since I met last weeks to 4-5 times. Seeing as it's Tuesday, and I haven't hit the gym yet, I am thinking that 4 times will probably be what happens. Calorie counting is still three days since I did NOT reach my goal, and scrapbooking I did yesterday, but I'd like to do it one more time. My problem comes in with how I'd also like to play Minecraft, Animal Crossing ( I play it with my son), and read more! But sometimes I just have to pick and choose what I want to do the most when it comes to hobby.

Also, there are always a few BIG cleaning projects I like to tackle each week, that I don't necessarily do every single week for example, washing bed sheets, scrubbing floors, dusting ceiling fans, etc. So I like to throw one or two of those into the mix.

And let's not forget to mention, when it comes to being a mom, an employee, a wife, a daughter, a housekeeper, a chef, and any other hat you wear, there are always per-arranged appointments coming up.. taking the dog to the vet, going to dinner with friends or family. But, I find that managing my time at the beginning of the week, ends up cutting down on a lot of stress of life, and I become creative with how I use my time, and I try to listen to what I need. I end up tackling the things I don't want to do (laundry, dishes, chores in general) and making sure I have the time to do what is going to make me feel good (journaling, scrapbooking, reading, playing a game with friends, etc.).

So figure out what you need to do, what your appointments are for the week, and fill in the blanks with what makes you feel good! :)