Creative 365

i shyed away from this challenge mainly because i knew i just couldn't do it. i knew the time it would involve on my part wasn't there to expend. but.

i reminded myself that there isn't a prize at the end. there isn't recognition. all there is the satisfaction of completing a task and having some fantastic pieces to show for it. and that's enough for me. so i'm going for it.

starting monday... september 22, 2208 i'm going to start a creative 365. it might mean i finish october 4, 2009, but there's nothing wrong with that. i'm making my own rules to this game and my rules are that there must be 365 creative days. that's it. oh and i have to finish before december 31, 2009.

feel free to join me. i'll be posting my work on my flickr site and i'll create a group if there is enough interest. i most likely won't post everyday, but i'll definitely post what i'm working on- be it design work, sewing, drawing, photography. i'll also be posting work i'm really excited about here. otherwise, after normal postings, i'll just post a link back to my flickr as to what i've been up to and what i've been making in the form of a "day x" link after my post.

i thought about making it a craft 365 or a photo 365, but i knew in limiting myself into one genre i was setting myself up for failure, i have to keep it broad if i want it to work for me and if i want to get the most out of this exercise. my interests far exceed just design or photography. i have many pieces sitting around, waiting to be finished up and this will be the perfect opportunity.

monday is a short day. we're taking nugget to the brown county fair parade, a quick stroll thru the fair itself and then back home. it's going to be a loooong day. as for the weekend: the hubs has poker at our house tonite, UC v Miami football game (Go Frank!) and i might do some shopping with mom after she finishes up golf.

Money Diary

When I was cleaning out the front room on Sunday I ran across my Money Ledger I used when I first got out of college, had moved back in with my parents after living in an apartment for a year and was trying to make my way down "to the big city" I wasnted to get serious about budgeting and saving money in hopes that I could start being more responsible.


I printed out all the pages- single sided because at the time I didn't have the patience to set up my document to print so i could saddle stitch it. then i double stick taped them to each other (i had a lot of time on my hands when i lived with my parents. with a 45 minute bus commute into the city each way, your social life becomes non-existent, so you find ways to entertain yourself) and duct taped the outside. love this thing. i will probably never have the heart to throw it away.





each month i would figure out my constants. then i would look to see how much i had left and i would move money around where i needed it. at the end of the month, i woudl tally up my total and look at the overall picture. once i moved out, i was able to write out my grocery lists (and you can see my "entertainment" section picked up a bit) and at one point i tried to keep track of prices at the grocery. i gave up on that.




though this method is EXTREMELY hard to keep up with when you have two people in the household, i still recommend you try something similar. In doing this, I was able to not only buy myself my pretty Mac laptop, but I was able to save enough money to pay cash for a down payment on our now house. And now, we're on the same path to buying our next house.



We still use a similar method to keep track of expenses- and this way could definitely work if you had one common ledger and each person recorded their purchases at the end of the day. In our house, the ledger would get buried in a day, so we rely on my excel sheets (well, I rely on the spreadsheets. I just tell the hubz how much he can spend this month). This was so helpful in seeing where my money was going, if I was happy with where I was spending my money and when I was spending too much in a month. Visualization.


If budgeting overwhelms you, start small. start by writing out your total monthly income. then, separate your bills out by when they are due- first half and second half. this is important. separate them out into: due 1-15 and 16-30/31 (change the dates if your pay schedule is different). by doing this, you are making sure you have enough money in BOTH halves of the month to pay bills. try this for a month and keep track (as best you can- i log onto our online banking at least 3 times a week to track both my purchases and my hubz and fill in if I happen to miss a purchase) of what you- yourself- spend. After I had done this for a few months, I saw ways we could cut some costs (changing some payments to direct debit to avoid processing fees, lowering our cell phone plan and removing the internet from my phone-which was used for work at the time, but was no longer needed and a few others that I'm sure were minor, but still kept some money in my pocket).




**If you're interested in my excel sheet, send me an email or convo me on Etsy and I can send over a copy. It changes monthly as the bills change, but it's extremely helpful for us to see what needs to be paid, how much is being saved and where our money needs to work for us that month.

black out... part 3

Monday morning was slightly off. without electricity, you get thrown for a loop, but you also manage. here are a few photos of how we spent the day...


hand-washing bibs


line drying


line drying outside on the front porch


books


sitting in the highchair on the front porch (we spent most of the day there)


watching from the inside


watching from the couch


watching from the bed


my favorite picture of her as an adult. this photo tells so much of her personality. strong and confident, with a softness and sweetness in her eyes.


a Canadian moose ranger friend to watch over us while we nap

black out... part 2

a 30 minute drive turned into almost an hour and a half. my parents live somewhat in the country and the easiest/fastest way to get to them is to take country roads- long stretches of two lane highways that have an occasional side street and major intersection... the kind of street where the traffic lights are blinding at nite because there is no light pollution around to dim them like there are in "the city". the kind of road that is perfect for cool summer nite drives with the windows down. i digress.

i should have known just from getting off the highway that this wasn't going to be an easy thing. i had just under a half a tank, so i wasn't worried about gas- i was more worried about getting ticketed for being out. there were 3 gas stations and 4 fast food restaurants open off the highway exit. mind you, this is the kings island amusement park exit, so there are food joints and gas stations to your heart's content. now you could only pick the ones that the power outage spared. lines were 10-15 cars deep, spilling out onto the street. i almost wish i had my camera, but in some ways i'm glad i didn't. i got thru that mess pretty quickly and went to turn down the main artery that leads me into my parent's house. i had only just gotten past the first major intersection when i noticed there were no cars coming the other way. i looked off into the distance and saw flashing lights, so i quickly turned around and headed back for try #2.

mind you, i only lived in my parents house for a few summers and 6 months after i graduated. they moved to this new house in the middle of nowhere when i was a sophomore in college, so though i knew the area pretty well for not having lived there much, i had to visualize my routes before taking them.

i went back to the first intersection and turned, hoping this would work out a little better than the last route taken. i got deeper into the "country" part of the drive and was feeling pretty good... and then i saw her. a sheriff blocking the road and a giant birch tree laying in the ditch with power lines underneath it- and lines strewn across the street. damn. i turned around knowing i had not been able to reach the back road that would have dumped me yards from my parents' driveway.

i went back to that first intersection and turned back toward the highway. i knew it would be slightly more congested than last time, but i had no other choice. i made it thru pretty quickly again and got back on the highway. i got off at the exit that would take me thru downtown (a very historic, cute-sy downtown... it boasts the parlor shop in milk money and a historic and haunted inn- if you can name the town, maybe i'll send ya something fun!) and knowing that a section (the one section i would need to get to my parents' house) was closed, i opted to go the other route. oy. again. i ran into 2 gas stations and 3 fast food joints open and that's it. EVERYONE was in line. but, knowing these roads pretty well, i was able to sidestep the traffic pretty well pending one horn blowing incident with a jerk that decided to stop in the middle of the road to wait in the drive thru line for gold star chili- knowing the woman coming in the opposite direction was wanting to turn there as well- hence blocking traffic.

i manuevered by him with a "wave" and made my twists and turns thru the back roads. branches everywhere in the street- one tree had come down in someone's yard and clipped the corner of the roof. it was bad. i came up to my intersection where i needed to turn and all i saw where headlights as far as the eye could see... and they weren't moving. seriously?! luckily traffic going the same direction i was going was light (the other traffic was from the kroger and walmart that i'm sure were picked dry) and i got behind two other cars turning left. sweet. quick wait. i looked up at the traffic light and the yellow and green lights had been blown off... and the little red light swung there by itself.

i made my turn and thought i would be in the clear. wrong again. i started to drive down the road that would lead me to a few other "bumpkin-ish" roads, but i also knew that they were pretty likely to be intact. nope. i got half way down the road and noticed a giant telephone pole hanging at a 45 degree angle over the road, only being held by the lines themselves. flip back around... find the next road to turn down.

i took the road that a good friend of mine from high school lived on and was pretty confident i knew where to go from there. i passed by the fairgrounds and the yards were littered with metal sheeting from the barns and branches were everywhere. i found the street i thought i was supposed to turn on and turned. wrong. another friend from high school lived on this road. so i went up to the stop sign to see if i recognized the street name. water. yup. i might have to break a law, but i can get there taking this street. sure enough, i had to turn down a "road closed to thru traffic" road, dodge some tree branches laying in the road and squeeze thru the "road closed" signs at the other end of the street, but by god i made it. kind of.

i followed my normal route home, passing a cracked telephone pole and the firestation lit up like a christmas tree and held my breath as i approached my parents' street. no sheriff... no road closed signs. i turned, went up the hill and their pond glistened and i heard the angels sing. i made it. i could finally pick up my kid.

i walked in, packed her up and we headed back home. i went an entirely different route home and i took us our usual 30 minutes- 1 major intersection and highway. we made it.... after 2+ hours.

we now have power, but my parents' do not. they live pretty simply- no cable, dial up internet- that sort of thing, so they don't really notice it... the only thing my mom is worried about is how she is going to curl her hair for work tomorrow, but she told me she was going to take her styling products to work and do it there. problem solved. dad's been driving around to various relatives' houses with power dropping off frozen foods so that they don't spoil. he hits our house tomorrow if they don't get their power. priorities...

my mom has probably cleaned out the washer and dryer with q-tips by now, too... oh yes, i've caught her doing this before... we were snowed in and it was our 4th day of not being able to leave the house. she had cleaned and polished everything she could possibly find- and probably many things twice, so that only left the washer and dryer. worst part- she enjoys it. she loves it. she couldn't wait to get her hands on our house after i had the nugget. the woman is a machine and i will hire her one day (no, i will not share her, either). my dad is retired and is just as content to be outside, cut grass, clean out brush or clean up debris, so no electricity doesn't effect them much. in fact, they're probably pretty excited that their electric bill will be down this month.

so that's how we survived the "big black out of 2008" now that i think about it... this year has been big weather wise. nugget was born during the "flood of 2008" and then we had the "blizzard of 2008" right before that. oh 2008, what a charmer you have been.

black out... part 1

it's pretty bad when you're "excited" to go to work so that you can touch base with the world.

i don't even know where to start. about 20 minutes after my post on sunday, the power went out. no big deal. the winds were strong (they said between 30mph and 40mph). we continued to clean the house up, somewhat welcoming just the sounds of the wind.

i must say one thing though- i must commend those that "ride out" hurricanes. i was never in fear, but we had a few concerns when branches- and not small branches either- began snapping like twigs on the tree in our backyard and then we saw a few shingles land in the yard. i went outside at one point and was knocked off balance. the street sign at the top of the street was twisted and bent at a 45 degree angle. so i can't even imagine sitting in your house and waiting out 130mph winds.

so- with that, we just kept working our way thru the mess and clutter.

we all spent our day in various ways.
marv chose the bathroom at one point and matilda spent it pretty much following me around or curled up somewhere she feels safe. out-of-the-norm weather makes her extremely nervous and all she wants to do is curl up with me.






where was mine spent, you ask? i never made it out of the front bedroom/office! i sorted papers, threw out stuff i hadn't looked at in years, shredded old health insurance policies, emptied out our filing cabinet and got it down to one cute little paper box... i went to work. and so did the hubs. since we had no tv he was able to buckle down and clean like we had planned. we're not quite finished because once 5:00 rolled around we were trying to figure out when and how to get the nugget back. while i was gone, the hubs got out the flashlights, bought some candles and we were ready for the nite. i finally brought her home, walked into a candle-lit living room that was sparkling clean and we all turned in a little bit earlier than expected.

i'll post a few pictures of the before and after. with having no power a few things got out of whack, so i need to do some more picking up this week to get it back to how we left it sunday nite.

Brownie's Promos

I don't know if they made it in time for her monthly grab bag, but here they are ready to be shipped off! I had to take quick pictures at work, so they're a bit fuzzy...




I opted to for small 3Drug sized cards this time instead of the A2 cards I sent in to The Little Black Box. It was a better use of my time, material and honestly- I felt that the card was useful, but you weren't getting "the real deal"... ya know what I mean? I wasn't giving away a "full product"... just a sneak peek!

I'm trying to decide if I want to do The Little Black Box again. Do you ever get a feeling inside that says, "No. This isn't right for you." and then your mind says, "But you need to promote." If I DID do it, I would want to get into the November Box in hopes of catching the holiday crowd, but then again... I don't know. I feel like the 3Drug cards would work for that- even a pack of 5 gift tags... but then why would they need to come to the shop to buy? They have their gift tags and even if they DO need more, who is to say that they wouldn't just use those for someone they liked/hated (depending on if they liked the designs) and then go out to walmart to buy more. I don't know... I'm starting to wonder if tangible promotional pieces really work for me. Maybe I'll see how I fare this holiday season and then make my decisions for next year. Map it out on a schedule. Plan.

Today is a fun filled day of cleaning. The hubs is hosting poker next friday and our house is in need of a MAJOR overhaul. We haven't done this since nugget was born. It's not that we're messy/dirty people. It's that we live in a small cape cod with 2 giant dogs and a little one. We clean every week- the nuggets room gets THOROUGHLY cleaned every week, but when you live in small quarters there isn't much room for the dirt and dust to go but on top of what's already there. My philosophy is that in bigger houses, there are more places for the dirt to go- thus it "looks" cleaner. We are also big fans of making piles for later... and later comes and we are too busy playing catch up or we just don't have time. This has been our busiest summer yet- I've been trying to get work steadily coming in, hubs has been studying like crazy for his exams to be a registered architect (so he can design/build my next house) and we've both been trying to keep up with nugget (she's visiting grandpa and nonna today so we can clean, use cleaning products and concentrate on that). It's hard because one of us essentially loses a productive work day while watching Charlotte. It's okay though. We're getting our schedules worked out and working together and I think that's what's important. We support each other and in the goal each of us is trying to achieve, so it's a great system we have set up, I think.

I took before pictures, so if I'm brave enough to show my house in disarray, I'll show the before/after shots... and if not- just the after! If anything, I should probably show my work area... that might sting a little, but I got myself in this mess- I have to get myself out! One thing I will show in the near future is the before/after shots of the house in general. I think we've done really well with the house with what we had to work with. It's not the most glamorous house, but I'm happy with it so far!


i never pretend to understand this pooch.

This makes it worth it...

swinging in polka dot pants...


lounging in a tutu...