Twinkle Loon

Troi and Riker

On a totally random side note, have you seen this young lady’s blog yet? Style Rookie

She is only 13 years old and she writes a fabulous fashion blog! I ran across it about two weeks ago and have been reading through her archives practically every chance I get! She is fantastically fearless, putting together runway inspired outfits and saying what she thinks about current fashions without that pretentious undertone overtone that one is used to in high fashion reporting. And her writing is amazing to me. Her voice is so well developed, I just can’t believe it!

I love her! And if it weren’t for that fact that she regularly takes photos of her self in her latest outfit I would say there is no way she is only 13 years old! Maybe I am just out of touch with 13 year olds … no, I think she is just that exceptional.

The month is coming to an end! My final spending for the month is $182.08 I went over by $82 but I still think I did a good job. I would have liked to come in at $100 but that would have taken some preparation before hand and that kind of defeats the purpose.

Things I learned about my spending habits- I spend most of my money on the weekends! It was pretty easy to stay away from spending money during the week. I didn’t really have to change many habits with my routine. I brought food to work for lunch and made coffee at my desk and made dinner at home.

The majority of my non-grocery spending came on the weekends. The weekends were pretty rough because I wanted to go to restaurants and bars and the movies. Ugh! And it was rough resisting buying things when other people around me were purchasing things. “No, put that sweater down! you don’t need it!”… Nope, I bought the sweater. It’s nice and comfy though, I like it. I’m wearing it right now in fact.

Do you ever feel guilty for going into a store and then leaving without buying anything? Especially if it’s a small local business and you like things in the store? I find my self wanting to say “I really like your store! (whisper) But I’m not buying anything. I’m really, really sorry! It’s very nice though.” (guilty shrug) as I scurry out the door. I feel a little crazy writing that but it’s not just me! Not one hour ago a woman came into our store and did basically the same thing. She walked around a bit and then slowly walked past us ducking her head, looking to the side at me and giving an apologetic smile as she walked out the door.

I am really glad that I went through with this experiment but I am ecstatic that it is over! It brought to light my own issues with ‘consumer guilt’. Feeling guilty for buying things I don’t need and feeling guilty for not buying anything at all. I learned what I could get away with and I also learned what I don’t want to sacrifice in the future. Food! I am so tired of eating salami and cheese sandwiches for lunch and pasta and spinach for dinner!

So I know that technically I still have one day left in the month but I am flying out tonight to visit a friend in San Francisco so I’m not counting tomorrow. It’s a Holiday anyway. I can get that off right? Well I’m going to anyway. All bets are off tomorrow, I am going to eat to my stomachs content!

Last Night I spent some quality time with a pattern, my sewing machine and most importantly, a seam ripper. This Halloween I decided to be adventurous and make our costumes from patterns. The first and last time I worked with a pattern (for sewing) was my seventh grade Home Economics class. It was a very square “blouse” with a doily looking collar. Not pretty!

Altering! That’s my thing! Although I will say that some of the technical things I am learning and brushing up on will probably come in handy on my next alteration project. I still hate patterns though!

So here is a little sneak peak into what I am making. Here is part of my boyfriends costume. Can you guess what we are going to be?

No? Well here is a photo of me testing out my hair style for my costume.

If you still don’t know… well, I’m sorry but we can’t be friends anymore. Please mail me the CD you borrowed. Your number will be deleted from my phone promptly.

BEFORE PHOTOS

Main Area

Bathroom

Weird Little Corner With Sink

Front Room

Laundry Room

I bought my house almost exactly a year ago and I am finally getting a move on remodeling the basement. Originally the basement was a “Mother-in-law” apartment. There was a main room with layers of carpeting and linoleum. A tiny awful bathroom and a weird kitchenette that had not been working in years. Our inspector forced the former owners to get rid of the old gas stove. There was a front room that served as a bedroom and was pretty cleared out from the start. And finally the laundry room.

We basically had to start from scratch because everything was just so gross and dirty down there. So we just ripped everything out, the ceiling tiles, carpeting, linoleum, and the walls around the boiler and the bathroom. Actually we just ripped the whole bathroom out. That thing was a disaster area! So for the past few months my cousin who owns his own tiling business has been coming over on his days off to help remodel the bathroom. The front room we turned into a bedroom. We replaced the ceiling tile with Ceilume ceiling tiles. They are super light weight and come in many different designs and colors. We also bought bamboo flooring that we installed our selves. It was pretty easy once I got the hang of it.

DURING PHOTOS

Bathroom

We decided to make the bathroom much bigger and encompass the weird corner that had the kitchen sink. So now you will be able to wash your hands while you are still in the bathroom! Craziness!

Main Area

Here is the main area looking towrds the laundry room. The front room and the stairs are behind me… maybe I should draw floor plans for my next post on this…

Mirror Grid

Did I forget to mention that they had a mirror grid on the wall? I think that was the very first thing I tore down!

Front Room

My roommate might get mad at me for showing his room while it’s messy but I just wanted to show the ceiling tiles and new flooring. So just pay attention to those ok? Thanks!

I am really excited that things are moving along! As soon as I get a chance I am going to sand and paint the bathroom so my cousin can come in and tile. Oh joy! I am thinking of going with white subway tiles in the shower with a light green border to kind of match the ceiling tiles in the main area. And for the floor I am going with a kind of white washed terracotta Mexican tile. I am trying to stay pretty neutral, I can always spice things up later if I need to.

Just a few weeks ago we had the surprise wedding shower for my cousin Nick and his fiance Joyce. All of us ladies in the wedding party decided on two themes- the color blue and hockey! Blue is Joyce’s favorite color and hockey because that is where they first met. I ended up leading the way for the decorations but I had some help. A few weeks before the party I had some of the ladies over for a decoration making party. It was really fun and it was the first time that I had designed things and then directed other people making them. It was a pretty cool experience as an artist. For a brief time I got to be an art director!

For the centerpieces I used mason jars filled with big bright flowers from a farmers market and tied a little blue ribbon around them. And to go along with the hockey theme we hand stamped their names on blue pennants.

Hockey Net Chair

Stick and Puck Garland

Zamboni with trailing cans

For the brides chair we made a hockey net with white crepe paper and blue fabric served as the ice. Around the bar we made a garland of paper hockey sticks and pucks. And on the sticks we wrote the grooms last name. For the main centerpiece I had this idea to buy a remote control Zamboni and make little tin cans trailing behind it. I was really happy with the toy (I had to test it out by playing with it, of course) and the tin cans came out really well. You can’t see it here but I wrote their names on the cans. The flour that we put on the “ice” at first looked like… well it looked like we were about to snort lines. But one of the ladies made some skate tracks in the ice and I think, maybe, it does not look so much like that anymore

Winged Hockey Pucks

Winged Puck Cake

Another one of my decoration ideas was the winged hockey puck. I was thinking about those winged hearts and also doves and came up with the hanging winged pucks. We made cardboard hockey pucks and then covered them with black electric tape and attached paper wings. Then another bridesmaid, Angie, took the idea and ran with it making this amazing cake above!

Everyone had a great time at the Shower! Congrats Nick and Joyce! Can’t wait for the wedding!

I have revisited my fanny pack pattern, the other one I made was just too small. I made this one out of a pant leg from the style swap. I didn’t bother lining this one yet because I wanted to test out the size first. But I think it’s a winner! The next ones will be fully lined with an interior pocket.

The free pants!

Inside of the hip pack

It’s not pretty in there, but there is a pocket for my wallet, phone and chapstick. The rest of the purse holds my Canon PowerShot, one baggu reusable bag and one handkerchief.

You may notice that I started calling it a “hip pack”. Well I just really wanted to get away from the “fanny pack” stigma. Plus I made this pattern with belt loops on the back instead of a waist strap. I think that helps distinguish it a bit. Plus the fact that it isn’t made out of neon nylon!

I don’t know if I’m gonna make it guys! I only have $26.73 left for the rest of the month. Yikes!

In the past 8 days I went out with my friends for Indian food at Mughal Garden-$11.49 Got a cold and had to buy some medicine- $5.50 Paid for drinks for me and my boyfriend at Colosseo- $22.65 And had a whole lot of fun! Except for that cold part…

So I basically have a $1.67 a day left over. Lets not joke around here, I am going to go over $100. BUT I would still like to get as close as possible to that $100 mark so the game’s not over yet!

Bloggy woes- Still no photos, but hopefully the problem will be resolved this weekend.

It has been seven days on my $100 a month budget. I started off with $10 in cash which I spent the majority of on fried pickles and mead at the Renaissance Festival. Hey, you gotta treat your self some times. Today I had to go grocery shopping for lunch and breakfast food and spent $23.63

One of the biggest changes I have made in my spending is not buying food while I am at work. Previously I would buy coffee and a bagel at the local coffee shop and it was really draining my wallet. But since we have a nifty hot spigot on the water cooler at work I can make coffee in my french press! Sure, maybe it’s a bit strange to have a french press sitting on your desk but that alone is saving me almost $15 a week! And instead of buying a bagel I make yummy oatmeal with brown sugar… also at work (side note: Yes, I make oatmeal at work in the morning. I hate being late and taking public transportation can be unreliable. Therefore I choose to get to work a half hour early and make my breakfast there than risk making it at home and end up late to work. capice? Hey, it works for me).

I have been getting by making dinners at home by just working off what is in the pantry. I am getting a little worried about my next big shopping trip. I like to eat somewhat healthy (fried pickles aside) so eating from the dollar menu is not an option to me.

I have $76.37 left and 24 days to go, that’s only $3.18 a day. Time to get creative!

Update: Huzzah!! I am back in business!! We have photos people! Thanks to my awesome boyfriend Nathan! Love you!

Hmmmm my blog doesn’t seem to be working properly. It has decided not to upload photos. Minor glitch! Not to worry, I have my tech people working on it (a.k.a. Landon the super amazing website genius!)

Moving on, I have decided to do a little experiment and it begins today! Two months ago I decided to try and limit my spending to $300 for the month. I ended up with $23 left over and it really wasn’t that difficult. So I have decided to really put my self to the test and live off of $100 a month.

The Rules:

• All regular monthly bills will be paid as usual, including my monthly light rail pass. 
• All “business” expenses will be exempt from the $100 budget as long as I am using the purchased materials for a salable project.  
• I can only spend up to $100 in a given month, savings from one month will not be carried over into the next month.
• All other expenses including food, gifts, clothing, and entertainment will come out of the $100 budget.
• All purchases and cash withdrawals will be recorded on a piece of paper wrapped around my debit card.

This is an exercise in seeing how much I can get away with, reevaluating what I really need and creatively using what I already have. I am really hoping that this will be a fun and enlightening experiment! I will post regular updates about my triumphs and woes.

To quote  No Impact Man- “Make sure that what you use really makes you happy!”