CHRISTEPHI

The biggest item on my mending list for the week is a quilt my grandma made me almost 30 years ago.  I am her first grandchild and I think it'll be very nice to repair it and give it to my son, her ninth great-grandchild, especially since it's nicely gender neutral (unlike many of the other items I've saved from my childhood). I think I have all the pieces. It has been repaired in the past, by machine. But even those stitches are coming out now, so I decided to do it by hand this time. The cat should be completed by the time I go to bed tonight. I also have a few buttons to sew on, two pairs of my own jeans to patch (or cut off for shorts), and a few small rips and tears to stitch shut.

When Miss M was born, we lived in a tiny one-bedroom apartment.  The on-site laundry facilities consisted of a single coin-operated washer and two dryers.  Whenever I did laundry, I always washed the adult clothes first so the final load of baby stuff would have as little "contamination" as possible -- particularly the residue of other people's laundry detergents and fabric softeners.  Miss M had such bad eczema that her tiny baby cheeks would bleed on her crib sheets at night.  Prescription ointments didn't work.  I wonder now if cloth diapering would have helped with her sensitive skin, but it really wouldn't have been feasible for us what with the time involved and the expense of coin-operated laundering.  We finally discovered Aquaphor by Eucerin ; it helped keep the worst of the eczema at bay until she outgrew her hypersensitivity. This time around, however, I have my own washer and dryer (hallelujah!) and have decided to cloth diaper the n...

Our no-spend week turned out to be an exercise in both self control and negotiation.  I'm not sure hubby was quite as sold on the idea as I was to begin with, especially for the weekend.  All day Saturday he said things to me like, "You don't have to cook tonight.  We can just go out.  You deserve a break.  Wanna just order pizza?  Let's just go order from the $1 menu." etc., etc., etc.  I made a conscious effort to not be frustrated at his attempts to sabotage our no-spending his unwillingness to cooperate. Instead, I tried to understand why he was being this way.  I was first tempted to say he simply lacked self-control.  My husband was raised Catholic which instilled in him a strong sense of "it's easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission."  In other words, his natural inclination is to do what he wants and deal with the consequences afterwards, like going to Confession Sunday morning after partying all night Saturday.  I, on the other h...

Well, we made it through our no-spend week weekdays ...just two weekend days left.   Those'll be the hardest!  I convinced hubby to pick up his video game on his way home from work Tuesday instead of coming home first and going back out for it (he likes to have us with him when he shops).  So he didn't need to fill up his gas tank this week!  But we had a major blowout today...McDonald's was kind enough to provide our supper...for a fee!  Actually, hubby called me on his lunch break today and asked if he could go to Dairy Queen for lunch.  "Didn't you pack your lunch?!" "Yeah, but I feel like eating something hot."  Anyway, I convinced him to just eat the lunch he packed, but he insisted we go out to McDonald's tonight.  I must admit I was secretly glad because it meant I could sit at my sewing machine a little longer instead of getting up to make supper.  Plus, Miss M didn't take her nap today and was in need of special love and attent...

I've finished up four more garments for the Ottobre Fall SWAP (sewing with a plan).  I'm really pleased with how wonderfully this whole sewing plan is going!  I've done most of the "easy" garments and am starting in on some of the more complex items. The fabric I used in the Muru tunic (Ottobre 1/2009 #6) was taken from an old t-shirt cardigan of mine that magically grew shorter and shorter on me.  I even re-used the ribbing and buttons.  I swear, I had a bad case of preggo brain when sewing it because I must have ripped out every seam at least once. It wasn't the pattern, just me.  In fact, the pattern was really quite simple and I enjoyed making it!  I nixed the whole clear elastic thing though 'cause the knit was so tender and the elastic so stiff...it just wasn't working.  I gathered it with old fashioned basting threads.  I'm not sure if I'll try the clear elastic again next time I make this pattern; it will probably depend on...

Today's the first day of our no-spend week. I did what I could this weekend to plan and prepare, so we'll see how it all goes! But first...  We went to a parade Saturday!  Miss M has been begging to see a parade (and, in fact, "seeing" them in the most unlikely places), so when I heard there was to be a parade at the Parkville Days celebration, we decided we just had to go. There were two marching bands, clowns, a carnival, pony rides, and one very happy toddler!  You couldn't have asked for a more gorgeous day. We got hungry, but opted to buy a small snack rather than spend an arm and a leg for carnival food that most likely would have been less than satisfactory portion-wise.  That saw us through the rest of our errands and we ate at home. I made my meal menu that night. I doubt anyone plans meals quite like I do, but who knows, maybe my way could be helpful to someone else at some point.  Instead of planning specifically what I'll cook on ...

We've decided to start our no-spend week Monday and carry it through next weekend. Today was hubby's payday, so that gives us a chance to do our grocery shopping and other errands this weekend. When I was single, I was very frugal, mostly because I didn't have any money to spend! A shopping trip to Target to buy shampoo, deodorant, and other female necessities usually cleaned out what was left in my checking account each month. At that time I was only getting paid once a month -- talk about needing to budget well! -- so I simply had to plan ahead for rent, utilities, and groceries.  After I got married and started working full time, hubby took over most of our budgeting. Sadly, he's really good at it because his parents are so bad at it. We got all our (my!) debt paid off and saved up for some big-ticket items (a used car paid for in cash and a refrigerator).  We had a double-income then, and though living in Orange County, California is anything but cheap, we did pret...