Happy Friday

So this week hardly too pictures, but I still wanted to reflect on some highlights from this week!

1. I finished reading Mary Poppins and it was adorable. I'm glad to have finally read it (it was about time!)

2. The hubby and I went out to dinner with my sister and brother-in-law on a weeknight! We don't do things like that often so it was fun, and we had gift cards which made it even more affordable :)

3. This week the weather has felt like fall and I love it.

4. I'm finally watching season three of Downton Abbey and loving it even if it makes me ugly cry. I only have two episodes left and then I'm all caught up!

5. This post is super late because we were at a friends house for dinner! I think we're going to make it a monthly thing and switch up who hosts the dinner each month. I brought a salad with strawberries, pecans, feta cheese and a vinaigrette dressing. 

I will be a much better photograher in the upcoming week so next weeks high five for Friday will be much prettier.

Have a happy weekend everyone!

And so it begins...

On Monday I wrote a post about why decorating is important to me. Now that I have had time to think on that for a few days I have decided to start decorating my house with the smallest room. Since I'm a rookie at this, starting small is probably a good idea. So, which room is the smallest, might you ask? Well it's our half bathroom.

I stole this picture from my house tour post. Anyway, because I love lists I decided to start with a list of all the things I'd like to do in this room.

Half Bath

- Remove towel bars/holders

- Replace light fixture

- Paint

- Update mirror

- Add shelving

- Paint vanity?

- Add knobs to vanity

- Bring in accessories

 Because I am a person who wants to be inspired by numbers (as in making the most of my budget) I of course did a little research to see how much these things will cost. There are a few things I already have (like a mirror and light fixture that I just made over (praying that it works) which will keep the costs down.) I'll probably skip painting the vanity for now so that leaves me with purchasing paint, shelving, vanity knobs and accessories. I think I can do all of this for $100 or less. Or at least that is is the challenge I am giving myself. 

Do you think I can do it? I must be honest, this isn't going to be the fastest bathroom makeover (this girl doesn't even own a paint brush yet,) so a reveal next week would be doubtful. But I hope you'll still check in with me to see how things are progressing. You've got to start somewhere right?

Thoughts on Decorating

I am hesitant to write this post because I know as soon as I press publish I will think of a million more things to say. But, here is goes anyway.

This weekend I had a conversation with my mom about how our house (referring to my childhood) was never really "decorated" and I wish it would have been. I love decorating but to be honest I can be overly frugal and sometimes it can be hard for me to spend money on things I don't think I need. I had a comforter, I didn't need a new one. I had blinds to cover my windows, I didn't need decorative curtains. 

We are coming up on a year of living in this house and I haven't done much in terms of decorating but I think about how I'd like to decorate this house all. the. time. It consumes much of my thoughts and I always feel like I don't have enough money or my house is too messy and unorganized to even get started. The same went for our apartment before we moved. I didn't want to waste money on making it our own if we were only going to live there short term.

But now I'm realizing a few things. Decorating is important. At least it is to me. When I see houses like the Parade of Homes I just imagine myself living in the beautifully decorated spaces and I want that for my own space. I really love my home and just living with items that are purely functional and not at all pretty makes me kind of sad. For example right now I'm writing this blog post while my computer sits on a folding table in our front room. Next to me is a plastic tower of drawers holding office supplies. This is the first thing you see when you walk in our house. I am not worried about the "impression" people get of our home when they first walk in; I care because it makes me sad to see it that way. I am not at all inspired by folding tables and plastic drawers.

By no means do I think it's acceptable to over-extend ourselves to decorate our home but I do think it's important to use our dollars wisely. Making a plan about how we want each room to look and function and then executing that plan as our budget allows is a good idea. Then I'll see progress, which will free up my thoughts from constantly mentally decorating and allow me to be creative in other areas, or just sit back and really enjoy my time here with friends and family.

It's talking me a little while to process that. I have always loved decorating and now that I am understanding just how important it is to me personally, I realize I have to make it more of a priority.

What are you thoughts on decorating? Is it something you've always loved but never achieved like me? Or is a new space a reason to decorate no matter what? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

High Five for Friday

Happy Friday! I'm linking up with Lauren to share five highlights from my week!

 1. I got a picture of Ellie and I both looking at the camera at the same time. She does not sit still when the camera comes out (unless she's sleeping) so this is pretty impressive.

 2. Grow little backyard strawberry, grow!

3. I went shopping with my youngest sister today! I've wanted these shoes for a long time and although I didn't end up taking them home today I have a feeling they will be home with me soon. These are perfect for work.

 

4. Garage sale find from Saturday. This was only $10 bucks! It will be beautiful when I'm done with it, just you wait and see :)

5. I took the afternoon off work today! Although I love my job, Fridays are especially high five worthy when you only have to work a half day. 

Christmas Savings Divide and Conquer!

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Today I want to expand a little on my Monday post. On Monday I shared my guide for the 2013 Holiday Season. One of the things I briefly discussed was start saving money this month! I wanted to talk about that a little more. The easiest way to save money is to divide it up into smaller chunks. There is more than one way to do this.

Here are a few examples for you using $500 as the savings goal amount.

First up, divide by month:  There are five months between now and the end of the year so you would need to save $100 a month to have $500 by Christmas.

By week: If you start this Friday that leaves you with twenty weeks until Christmas so that is $12.50 a week you need to save.

 By payday every other week: If you get paid every other week then you have about ten paydays until Christmas (depending on what day of the week you get paid and how they fall) so then you’ll need to save $50 out of every paycheck in order to reach your goal.

By payday first and fifteenth: If you get paid the first and fifteenth of every month then you have nine paydays between now and Christmas which means you need to save $55.55555 ($56 with rounding) each pay day in order to hit the makr.

Day by day: Or maybe you want to save a little every day.  There are 139 days until Christmas which means you need to save $3.59712 a day (okay let’s just round up to $4 a day.) Can you believe less that $5 a days gives you $500 by Christmas! That's awesome!

Do any of those saving methods work for you? Remember $500 is just an example, please use whatever savings amount you have set as your guide.

My 2013 Holiday Guide

Am I really talking about the holidays? On August fifth? Yes, yes I am because every year I feel like 

December is a stressful month and this year I want it to be different. My goal is to be able to sit back and soak up the Christmas season when it rolls around and I though I would share my plans with you.

August

-Write out a list of people I want to give gifts to and how much I think I want to spend. Make a plan to set that much aside between now and the Christmas season.

-Start on handmade gifts. If I want to crochet a scarf for my sister I better start now.

-Make a gift ideas list so that when friend and family mention something they like I can make a note of it which will make purchasing presents a lot easier.

September

-Practice some recipes.  This Christmas I want to make homemade cinnamon rolls and I have a cookie exchange to go to; so now is the time to get my practice on.

October

-Take pictures for Christmas cards. Every year I have the best intentions of sending out Christmas cards and every year it doesn’t happen. This year I want to be on the ball and take some good photos in October for Christmas cards.

-Buy a tree skirt. My cat likes to eat the tree skirt we have had in previous years so  this year I need to find something more cat friendly. I’d also like to get a few new decorations for the house.

November

-Start my Christmas shopping. I like to shop online so I am going to get started on this early in November so I don’t have to pay for rush shipping (which sometimes happens when I wait too long to buy gifts.)

-Address all of my Christmas cards so I can drop them in the mail the week after Thanksgiving.

-Get holiday outfits together for me and my hubby. Between Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years and all of the parties in between, now is a good time to make sure we’ve got the basics covered. Which means make sure our dress shoes are in good condition and we’ve got some appropriately dressy outfits to wear.

-If I had kids I would use November to gather advent calendar ideas and supplies together so that I was ready to go come December first.

December

-Finish my holiday shopping. Wrap presents as I purchase them and do not wait until the last minute (like I normally do.)

-Spend time watching movies, driving around a looking at Christmas lights and drinking hot chocolate.

-Make memories with family and friends. 

Have you started thinking about Christmas yet?

H54F

HAPPY FRIDAY!

(I'm a little excited for the weekend.)

Today I am linking up with Lauren to share my five favorites from this week.

 1. Reading in the morning is definitely one of my all time favorites. I don't know why it took me so long to develop this habit. Can't you just image getting up extra special early when you were in high school or college to read? I'm kidding, I didn't want to get out of bed either back then. I needed my beauty sleep.

 2. Harry Potter. I was so excited about these books, I wanted to take them home even though there is no possible way I could ever read them.

 3. I hung out with Rio! He's such a sweetheart. He turns his head a perks up his ears when you say his name. Most adorable thing ever.

4. At 5:51 PM there are only 144 days 6 hours 8 minutes and 33 seconds until Christmas. Not that I'm counting. This website http://www.xmasclock.com/  is the coolest. When you visit it from your computer, it snows! Sadly it doesn't snow on your phone.

5. My sister Alex is guest posting over on Simply Clarke about buying her first house. You should go check it out.