Thrift store "junky"...literally!

I helped out at the consignment store today and here's what I personally "nabbed" and brought home.  They need to be cleaned up yet but I already have plans for them!

This is a pottery piece or cement as it is heavy.  It's tilted for some reason so it might be hand made but no drainage hole so perfect for a plant inside

I also picked up this picnic basket and a wool blanket.....WOOL!!!!  My favorite fabric...woo hoo!

And isn't his cute?  It's going next to my tub, I think with "spa" ingredients on top of it...a pretty candle, a lace table mat, a bowl with handmade soaps....ahhh....I can just picture it!  But now I have to go make supper as I have nothing in this house to eat!  I hate when that happens.  Oh well, maybe I can play with my new treasures later if I have any energy left! LOL! 

Guess what I did today................

After making out bills yesterday, I tackled the next big issue.....THE BUDGET!  I am SO bad on budgeting.  I was good years ago but then I started being so busy MAKING the  money that I didn't have time to manage it.  Well, guess what...I have plenty of time now and definitely need to manage my money!   It's easy to move up on the financial ladder but a whole different story to come down.  I have very expensive medicines that I take which I am blessed are available but it has certainly affected my bottom line.   Living on lots less has taken me time to get used to but I'm getting there and tightening my belt has been challenging and yet invigorating at the same time.  
  The file above is for bills and receipts and inside each month is a list of bills. It's just a piece of notebook paper...nothing fancy.   It has the name of the bill, amount due, balance, interest paid, amount paid etc.  I have Quicken on my pc which allows me to pay using check, EFT(electronic file transfer for when you pay bills online), DEP for deposit and SAV for savings.  I  use SAV for deducting per month what I would need to pay bills that aren't monthly, such as taxes etc. 
There are some pictures of some old budget books/systems I used to use  and are still good but now I do everything on my pc.  I downloaded a great, yet simple, budget spreadsheet from Laurie Perry/Crazy Aunt Purl .  Scroll to the bottom of her website and on the right side you will find "Crazy Aunt Purl's Budget Worksheet".  It's the one I use and it works...well...as long as you plug in the correct numbers and "face the music". LOL! 

BIll paying day..........but a good day to do it!

We had cold and snow here today.  A far cry from the 60-70 degrees we had the last month.  It is 24 degrees right now...brrrrr!  I've had a fire going all day and did laundry and paid bills.  That's about it....not very interesting but glad I had the money to pay them!  There they are by the front door ready to be mailed.  Only 2 to mail...the rest get paid online.  I WISH I only had 2 bills to pay! 

Oh! How I Love Thee Mary Engelbreit....let me count the ways!

I am going to try and "link up" with "It's a Very Cherry World's" Rednesday celebration.  This is her 3 year anniversary!  3 Years!!!!  And she does such a beautiful job.  Please stop by her blog....you will not regret it.  It is RED, Engelbreitish, cheery and cherry and just darn cute and uplifting!  She's a role model to me!  So, in honor of her 3rd year and of Rednesday and Ms. Engelbreit.....here is today's post.  Here is a link to Sue's blog:
It's a very cherry world

Books, books, and more books.....what can I say?

More books came in the mail today from a wonderful friend of mine.....ME!!! LOL!  But you know since everyone has the e-readers now, it seems real paper books are a steal!  Most of what I get is used if I can get them that way so they're really cheap and a lot of the type of books I get aren't available on the e-readers yet anyway.

Primitive Quilts and Projects is a magazine I subscribed to.  It is 4 times a year  but pricey so not sure I'll resubscribe but they have really nice stuff in them.  I just won't make that much stuff....ever.  
The other book is about flea market finds and antiques.  It was talked about on PBS once I think and if something sounds really good I write it down for future purchase (unfortunately, our library never has the book I am looking for...it's very small).  This was one of those "future purchase" books.

The Betsy-Tacy book is the first in a series of childrens books "back in the day" which I never read and never heard about but when I did I was right "on it"!  I love those old children's books and series and I've read a lot of them.
 The Memory Quilt is about the Great Cloquet Fire of 1918.  Cloquet is a sweet little town in Minnesota that I used to stay the night in on my way to Canada.  It was the halfway mark of 8 hours in a 16 hour trip.  I had no idea of this history so I will be very interested to read about it.   

YES!!!!!  More felting is in my future...I just know it!!!!  Aren't those darling projects on the front???  I want to make both of those for sure!  My friend that owns the quilt shop just made the one on the right with a black background in the size of a dresser scarf but when she "felted it" her "woven ends" came out and she ended up with holes in it in several places....I wanted to cry FOR her....not sure she'll be doing anymore felting or crocheting in the near future.  But as an aside...she said she knew she spun it for too long...she wanted to get the water out of it because it was so heavy and wet and she wanted it to dry faster.  WARNING.....weave in your ends REALLY well and do not use your spin cycle.  Poor Jamie.....it's lesson to all of us!

Woe is me.............

Here's the book I've been reading that inspired this post.  It said to gather up your cleaning items in a bucket with a handle and that way they were ready to go with you wherever you wanted to clean!  Brilliant, I thought! 

This is the bucket she showed in the book all full of these delightful cleaning items from Caldrea.  I really liked the idea and the bucket...especially since it's yellow and don't I need new cleaning supplies????  So, I mozzie on over to the Caldrea website and for $75.00 I can have it ALL!!!  Bucket included not counting S&H.  AHHHH!!!!!  My dreams dashed...I sit there for a moment and wonder how I could possibly replicate "the cleaning bucket".  Whoa!  Wait a minute...I have a yellow porcelain bucket in my bathroom being used as a wastebasket!  So, I empty it, clean it and fill it with MY cleaning supplies!  Brilliant, I tell you!  Brilliant!

Ok...it's not new and maybe not quite as "pretty" as the Caldrea one with it's "newness" and fresh supplies but I didn't spend $75.00 and change either!

Here's what it looks like.....microfiber cleaning cloths folded in the bottom and my supplies surrounding it.  There's room for more if I think of something else too.  I did not include bathroom cleaning supplies as those are in each bathroom at the ready and those are supplies that are only used in the bathroom so why bother toting those around was my thinking.

Caldrea and Mrs. Meyers are run/owned by the same people, I think. so I even got close as to supplies since I do LOVE Mrs. Meyer's products www.mrsmeyers.com   BTW...she's having  a sale on Holiday items as we speak so stop on over to her website!  Great smells, great cleaning, and all natural!  As you will notice I have used some of the bottles for my own cleaning supplies that I make up myself.  I got the recipes from Mary Jane's Farm chat room where there is SO MUCH great information about everything!

These are leftovers from a by-gone era and as soon as they are used up I will be replacing them with something less "chemical" and more natural.  Any suggestions would be appreciated!  Oh!!!!  Silly me....I forgot to include my newest and most favoritest (tee hee) product! 

It's the Pledge Multi-surface duster which is similar to a Swiffer but softer and 360 degrees around so you can dust the most delicate of objects without even picking it up if you don't want to!  I forgot to include the handle but there are the refills in the bag in the picture.  I also found a few other things to put in the bucket....my Sonic Scrubber which is great since I have RA and my "elbow grease" just isn't what it used to be, an old veggie brush I use to get dust out of corners and next to moldings where it's carpeted and the denture brush which is really good in the carpeted corners.

 

 Okay...I guess that's enough for today,  it's almost 3:30 and I'm not sure the cleaning is going to get done today....maybe tomorrow!   I avoided that one didn't I!?! LOL!  I hope you accomplished more than me today!   But I'm all set for tomorrow!

Got a few books in the mail yesterday...Woo Hoo!

I have been REALLY bad this week but then again...they are my Christmas and Birthday presents but they just keep coming and MOI has to pay for them! LOL!  Yes...I am my own "bottom line"!  I haven't read them yet but they look very interesting to me.

This one I have already read from cover to cover!  I have another book by her that I got at a thrift store  and I loved it.  She designs her own and it is "ART".  She's very famous and has things hanging in galleries!  I don't think that will happen to me but I would like to try and design my own applique pictures.  Stay tuned for further developements!