First post of the decade!

Happy New Year to my friends and followers! I have been lurking behind the scenes so far this year, taking care of house stuff and focusing on setting up my craft room, but this giveaway has prompted me to come out of the woodwork in an attempt to win this awesome giveaway Jennifer is having at her blog! Check it out and take a look at the darling furbabies she has as well! I am looking forward to spring when are are finally getting kittens!

I have a few goals in my head for the coming year. First, to cut down on grocery spending and reduce the amount of waste. This will require me to be more creative in my meal planning, and to help me out with that, I have been keeping track of what we have been having for dinners every night on a calendar my mother gave me. It will also give me the opportunity to use the cookbooks I got for Christmas (although I had to resort to the internet to get the recipe for banana bread - didn't want to waste the bananas!!!)

My second goal is to get back to stitching more. I haven't picked up a needle since we started the move in October - there was just so much to do with packing, organizing, moving, unpacking and organizing! The house is slowly but surely starting to come together, which is good, because our housewarming is in February, but I miss the stress reliever of stitching.

The third goal? Be healthier. It is astounding to me how I take advantage of good health, considering the importance of it, and I know good health is not a guarantee in life, so I should be mindful of that.

I think that's enough for now. Later this week I think I'll add a sidebar that calculated how much we are spending on groceries - that will be interesting (and maybe a bit scary?) to see.

Here's to a happy and healthy 2010!

Christmas 2010

No, I don't have the date wrong. Since we just bought our house, we decided to not put up all our decorations, but to instead focus on unpacking and getting things in order. Then, I immediately caved, and put up the Christmas tree. Hey, it cheered me up! But that was it - I love Christmas and we have a TON of decorations, but they are currently stored in the basement until next year. My brother and sister-in-law are coming for Christmas next year, and I am SO EXCITED! The best part? I have an entire year to plan, AND if I need any decorations (yeah, right) I can get them this year AT THE CLEARANCE SALES!!! So, while everyone else is decorating for Christmas 2009, I am anxiously looking forward to Christmas 2010.

Yes, I am crazy.

Well, it sorta worked

I raced home last night and put up our Christmas tree! I managed to get it up and the lights on before Scott got home, and wouldn't you know, he walked right by the window - never even noticed it! I had to bring him back outside to show him. But, it DID make him smile, and that was my goal!

We are still working on getting all our boxes unpacked and putting everything away. I will be donating a LOT of things to my company's Christmas auction, where the proceeds benefit the Neediest Families Fund. That will help us both!

I can't wait for this weekend - it will be our first full weekend in our new home. I love this house!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving! We are finally all moved into our house, and now all we have to do is unpack and organize! We have been doing a few boxes a night before falling down. I'll be happy when Thanksgiving is over and we can really get the place set up! I'll post pictures once things are put away - it's just too cluttered right now! I'm just happy to be able to keep up with the laundry and the dishes!

Weekend Plans

I'll be spending my weekend cleaning and moving stuff from our storage unit to the house. I think once we have all our belongings there and in some sort or order, it will really start to feel like home. Right now, it's very echo-y and kind of dark. We will buy some lights this weekend to brighten it up. I'm so looking forward to spending more time there! We have explored the neighborhood a little - walking to the CVS and the pizza place and the coffee shop, but nothing further than a half a mile form the house. Maybe we will take a break sometine during the weekend to go exploring, check out some yard sales. I don't think I'll be able to pick up my stitching again (without feeling guilty) until after Thanksgiving. That's okay, though. I have found quite a few unfinished projects (alas, the dreaded backstitching) that I really need to complete. That would be a good project for 2010!

22 days later

I have not blogged in 3 weeks but I have a good reason. I was recently diagnosed with Vitamin D deficiency. Number one symptom is fatigue, number one cause is lack of sunshine. I would love to say I have been outside in the sun instead of blogging, but the truth is, I have been doing the minimum to get by and then either going to bed early or laying on the couch watching tv. Depressing...

But, since I got the call from my PCP, I have been faithfully taking my supplement and even though it has been only a few days, I am starting to perk up. Could be all in my head, but who cares as long as I am feeling better.

A lot has happened in the past 22 days, most disturbing is that my car was broken into. That pretty much sucked, but the experience reminded me how much i have to be grateful for. Enough said.

Speaking if grateful, I have to say my hubs is the best! For a while, we have been struggling with storage issues, mostly concerning my clothes. Our apartment has built in drawers and closets, and one would think it was space saving, but I have such a hard time getting the drawers open and closed (the house is over 100 years old and the carpentry work was...well....shoddy), that we decided to do something different. Here are the finished results:

We got the materials at Ikea, and spent a total of $30.00 for the metal shelves, the large boxes on the top and bottom, and smaller boxes in the middle. We still plan to hang a curtail rod and a curtain to hide the shelving, but even if we left it as is, I think it looks fine. Before we did this, there used to be a television in that spot - a lot of wasted space, since I have stopped watching television in bed.