Craftyminx

Happy Valentine's Day!

I've always loved Valentine's Day. Not because I was a girl who had plenty of Valentines but because I love pink and candy and hearts and cutesy stuff :) So here's a little view of my Valentine's Day. 

While I make a big deal about all the pink and hearts Valentine's day is usually pretty mellow for us. We usually go out to a fancy dinner just because, but this year Sheldon is making me a special dinner. I don't know what he's making but I'm excited about it. I'm surprised he hasn't told me yet. He's really bad at keeping surprises. He got me (or should I say let me buy) my dream pink oxfords for my gift. I'm not the biggest fan of getting flowers/candy/stuffed animals so I'm very excited about these shoes! I got him some blu rays. It's all stuff we would have eventually bought anyway but can justify on the budget by putting it in the "gifts" category -- Sneaky.

I sent my nieces valentines so they could get mail. I'm trying really hard to make sure I mail them things because it's fun to get mail and I have to keep my "favorite aunt" title ;)

Oh and I made my office baked heart donuts just because. They were really yummy!

Do you celebrate Valentine's Day? 

Handwriting Meme

I saw this on Pip's and Robbie's blogs and thought what the hey, I don't show off my messy handwriting enough, So there you go.  Here's the questions so you can join in:

1. What is your name

2. Blog URL

3. Write: The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

4. Favorite quote

5. Favorite song (at the moment)

6. Favorite band/singers (at the moment)

7. Say anything you want

8. Tag 3-5 bloggers

Here's my favorite song right now. I've been playing this record a lot lately. The woman is still rocking after all these years. I'm so glad I've been able to see her live a few times, she puts on a really good show with plenty of stories from her past and a rocking voice. 

Tasty things

In my post on budgeting I mentioned how meal planning has become a big part of our lives as well. While I intend on doing a thoughts on... meal planning post in the future, I thought I'd just show you some of my favorite recipes from the last couple of weeks. (These are all my iPhone photos of meals, click through the links to see pretty photos and to pin the actual recipes!)

Basil Chicken in Coconut Curry Sauce

This curry is fantastic! I added some potatoes and would have added cashews if I had them. We'll be adding this one to our meal rotation.

Panera Mac and Cheese

Have you had the mac and cheese at Panera? If you haven't, do yourself a favor and get some now! If you have, you'll know how freaking amazing it is. This recipe on their site really is the same recipe. It's gold in my opinion. Definitely the best mac and cheese recipe I've found this year and believe me I'm a mac and cheese connoisseur. 

No Rise Pizza Dough

I used this recipe one night when I was craving pizza and didn't want to order out because we were just starting out with the budget. It's the easiest and best pizza dough I have found. I make it with rapid rise yeast (not sure if it really makes a difference) and half wheat flour and half all purpose then I use a small rolling pin and roll the dough flat in a cookie sheet. It makes a perfect thickness for our liking and is great topped with anything. 

Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes

These are amazing little gems of retro goodness. I thought they would be perfect for my madmen birthday party and they were. They are probably my favorite cupcake right now. I highly suggest making a half batch if you don't want to eat 12 all in one setting, because you will if you make them, I promise.

 

Crockpot Falafel 

Yes, falafel in the crockpot, you read correctly. These were AMAZING, incredibly crispy, and tasty! Sheldon made me make a second batch after we finished off the first one in a couple of days. They really were that good.

 

Pasta Spinach Salad

Again, another recipe I've made a few times because I love it so much and it's easy to take to work for lunch. Definitely keep the spinach separated and put a bed of it down on a plate under the pasta salad to keep the spinach nice and crisp! 

Feel free to share your favorite recipes in the comments below. Since one of my birthday goals is to make a new recipe a week I need suggestions.

I use pinterest a lot to keep track of recipes. I have a board for food I want to make and recipes I've tried with reviews for any of you who want more info about what I've been cooking lately..

Thoughts on... Budgeting

So we did it. We made it past the first month of living on our budget. The first week like with diets is always the easiest and the following weeks were a little harder. 

I've been using the youneedabudget.com (YNAB) method and software. You can read all about it on their website. I hate to say that I chose a budget plan on great website design, but I did. They have a really great site, an easy to follow method, and software that really helps. We're still using the free trial of the software but I think we'll probably buy it since we've been able to stick with everything for a whole month. Another thing I really love about their company is that they give free webinars on budgeting and how to use the software to your best advantage. ( I promise I'm not getting anything from youneedabudget for this, I just have really been impressed with it!)

Getting personal a bit, Sheldon and I have never really lived on a budget. This worked out ok because Sheldon isn't much of a spender. He's the kind of person that can look at his bank account see how much money he has and not be tempted to spend it. He's also the kind of person that gets nervous if his account ever dips below $500 and can constantly keep a running total of how much money he has at all times in his account. I am the spender in our relationship, not only am I a spender but I hate thinking about money. I treat paying bills and looking at our accounts with disdain. If I want something and think we might have enough money to buy it, I buy it. I never know how much money we have in the account and before I merged assets with Sheldon I would be overdrawn all the time! I know those of you that are like Sheldon are probably disgusted with me right now, it's fair. I'm really bad with money. 

So as I said in my New Year's goal post, if we're ever going to save up a nest egg I had to find a system that works for me before we would ever find anything that works for us and this one does. Sheldon and I make the budget together and I keep track of everything in the software. Having control of the software makes me more interested in the whole process and makes me stay on track and having big goals helps with my motivation. 

A few things I have learned:

• Budgeting is hard but it is totally doable! Finding a system that works for you (and your spouse) is the most important thing. 
• Being on a budget isn't the only lifestyle change that happens. We have had to change our entire lifestyle to keep within our budget. I could write a book about how our eating habits and home cleaning schedule has changed as well. We were generally lazy at home and now I can tell that by becoming disciplined in one area, we are becoming disciplined in many other areas of our life. 
• I need to avoid spending traps like the plague. For me, this means Hobby Lobby, Target, and the Outlet Mall. I go to these places and I loose all sense of reality and over spend every single time. I'm the worst at letting overly helpful (read: works on commission) sales people talk me into buying needless stuff. If I do go to these places, I need to only take my budgeted amount of cash and take a list. 
• Budgeting helps our communication. We have to communicate most of our purchases now, which we never really did before. We each have a small allowance every week that is our no questions asked fund (aka Sheldon's beer and cigar allowance and my nail polish allowance). Now if I want to buy something over my fun money allowance I either have to save up for it or we have to discuss it to see if it's something we as a couple want to budget for. 

So there you have it... what I've learned so far. Sorry if all this budget talk is super boring!! It's really the only thing going on in my life right now. Once it becomes second nature I will be oh so happy! I hate having to put my focus on something that I don't enjoy especially when it takes time away from the things I DO enjoy.

30 Before 30

 

Click to enlarge

It has taken me a few days to finish up my list. I'm not sure why, but this year was really hard to nail down what I wanted to put in writing and what I didn't. I'm guessing it's because I want to actually complete everything this year and knowing how I work means if it's put in writing it might not happen haha. 

This list is printed out and will be posted on my mirror in my dressing room so hopefully I'll remember all my lofty goals this year! I'll try to be better about updating this post along the way and doing milestone posts as well.

Do you do a birthday list? What is one of your big goals this year?

Credits:
Tape Strip - Pugly Pixel
Kitschy Digitals Kits:  Thrift Store Grab Bag, Monotone Fresh Feathers, Granny's Sewing Basket, Fabric Covered Buttons, Woodgrain Papers (I don't think this one is available right now)

January Photo-A-Day - Week 3

 

1. #janphotoaday day 15: happiness is coming home to my boys!!, 2. #janphotoaday #morning Dash wants some gray sky action too., 3. #janphotoaday day 17: water, 4. #janphotoaday day 18: something I bought - thrifted blankets, 5. #janphotoaday day 19: sweet - cookie crumb face, 6. #janphotoaday day 20: someone I love. Oops forgot this one yesterday., 7. #janphotoaday day 21: reflection - on my birthday!!!

 

 Credits: Photo Template - Pugly Pixel

 

Mad Men Birthday Party

Yesterday was my 29th birthday and we celebrated in style. Vintage/vintage inspired clothes, plenty of gin based drinks, and many retro recipes made up one of the best birthday parties I have ever had. Thank you to my friends for making it special and to Levi for letting us party it up at his house!

29 before 29 Mostly completed :)

1. Complete a 365 Project.

Well I'm still working on this one. Because of crochet school, I took a break on the 365 project but it's going strong once again. If you're new to the blog and you like granny squares, you might enjoy my 365 project A Granny A Day. I have resumed working on it and I'm on 259/365. See them all at once here.

2. Adopt another dog or donate to a local shelter. - We obtained Dash from a friend of the family, but we also gave to our local shelter. Even though we got Dash at a less than optimal time, I was ready for a new dog. And Dash is the best. He's sweet, energetic, super cuddly, and makes us laugh every day. 

3. Buy a pink wig just for fun.

4. Find the perfect peanut butter frosting recipe.

5. Learn something new.

I learned this awesome technique for crocheting without a foundation chain and it has changed my life!

6. Make a full sized afghan.

I made a few:

7.Knit Sheldon a pair of socks.
Yeah... I should have known this one wouldn't happen. I haven't picked up sock needles in 3 years and don't intend to for a little while longer. Poor sheldon may never know the greatness that is hand-knit socks. 

8. Finish the sweater I started for John 3 years ago. 

Let's just say this sweater is probably going to have to be morphed into some other item. See John, I'm being nice and not telling everyone said sweater might not fit you anymore ;)

9. Purge our home/ garage. 

This has been a work in progress all year. However we still have TOO MUCH stuff. I'm at the point that we either get rid of everything, or buy another house and just leave everything in the old one. The garage is the real challenge for us. No one wants to spend a lot of time in a stinky, dusty garage. This year we are going to split the garage into quadrants and work like that. 

10. Make Julia's Boeuf Bourguingnon.

Making this tomorrow for my birthday party!!! 

11. Get my Bella Tattoo.

This is even more important now that Bella is no longer with us, but I keep changing the design that I want. It will happen sometime. I have a new design involving her Bella plant that I think I will be going with instead. I haven't been tattooed in over a year and a half now and I think I have almost forgotten how bad it hurts and am ready to get another :)

12. Make cake pops.

I made them. I have photographic evidence somewhere but I can't seem to find it at the moment. FYI I hated making them and probably never will again. 

13. Carry my camera every day (after getting a case)

I carried it more this year, but I never got that case I wanted, so maybe this year... I have embraced my iPhone camera more which could be a bad thing.

14. Paint the dining room.

Paint is bought! But we're lazy haha. 

15. Acquire and scan old family photos.

Happening slowly. I do have all my old albums but that's about as far as that project has gotten.

16. Make a wedding album.

I started it... But I still have lots of work to do here too. 

17. Build a fence for our backyard.

We're still on the fence about this one (no pun intended). We're not sure if we really want to invest any more money into this property. We really want to move!

18. Finish the coat I started last year.

19. Have our first garage sale.

We just donated a bunch to Goodwill this year. Garage sales take so much effort and usually have little return. 

20. Make a new dress for everyday wear.

I bought about 20 patterns this year and I even bought all the fabric and notions for one dress. Do we see a pattern here? I'm really great at planning for project but not always great at following through mainly because of my time constraints! That's something to work on for this year.

21. Try the Mac & Cheese at Sage

 

22. Have a kick a** booth at Deluxe!

23. Create a new pattern to sell (knit, crochet, or embroidery)

Crochet School was free but I think it fits this goal nicely. And I am still working on the pattern book which will be for sale and will include about 7-9 patterns!

24. Start looking through clothing more often when thrifting.

These are the only photos I have, but I have bought sooo many clothes this year at the thrift store. Some fit me, some don't. I probably have enough to open a vintage online store soon. I even have quite the collection of amazing baby clothes that I've been saving back for our one day baby.

25. Celebrate our anniversary in a tree house.

26. Go to the Great American Beer Festival.

We didn't make it to the Great American Beer Festival this year, but we did go on a huge pub crawl in Denver for our friend's 40th birthday. I think this counts ;)

27. Pay off my car and get the big tune up it needs.

Done and Done! Betty will be with us until she won't run anymore. It is very nice not having a car payment! 

28. Have a tea party with my nieces.

I'm really sad this one didn't happen. Mainly because I completely forgot about it being a goal. I'm definitely going to post my list somewhere more visible this year so I can remember more of my goals throughout the year. 

29. Design my tattoo sleeve ideas.

They are getting there. No photos because I don't post ideas for tattoos. I only post photos after I get them. 

 

So the year is over. I turn 29 tomorrow. I have been thinking up my list of 30 before 30 and I think this year will be very exciting indeed! Since this was really my first time doing such a list I don't think I took it as seriously as I could have. I do them for fun, but these are really things I want to accomplish so I should take it more seriously. So maybe I can really accomplish all 30 goals this year!