progress!

well, we actually accomplished some things this weekend! Saturday we  did the grocery shopping. We didn't have much on the list, but did more stocking up shopping than anything. Giant and Safeway actually had some things on sale that we buy. That's our biggest gripe with coupons. Most of that stuff are products we never buy in the first place. We save by buying in bulk and only buying what we need. Our fridge and freezer are stuffed and none of our meals are pre-made. We have to do all the work except for snacks... chips and hummus or fruit. I started keeping track of what we were buying, how much it cost, and how much that cost per serving. We started because one of matt's coworkers didnt think you really saved that much by bringing lunch to work instead of eating out. So when I made shepard's pie, we calculated it up. Made 8 good size servings at $1.42 each. Booyah! 



While I was browsing blogs this week during work breaks, I saw this neat idea over at Free People for decorating moleskine journals. I had been thinking about buying a few for kitchen costs/ lists and gardening notes so I decided to give it a whirl. 

This is the kind of thing I want to try and it ends up going on my list of neat craft projects that never happen. Today was going to be different. While we were at Michaels looking for frames, I bought some needles, thread, and fabric scissors. I was going to do the project by hand, but since I neglected to buy a thimble it wasn't going to work that well. Solution.... sewing machine. 

Success!

Okay, so it was my first time on the machine in almost 2 years. But it only took a few minutes to do this. I finally completed a project. Small victory!

The other thing I really wanted to do this weekend was simple. The hard part was convincing Matt it was a good idea and that the condo association wouldn't mind. Composting. I've never done it. But thanks to my handy source it wasn't that hard.

I believe this to be my first step towards gardening. It won't be ready by the time I want to start planting, but it will be very good to have around later on for mixing with the soil and making compost tea. It's just a blue storage tub sitting on the balcony. I threw some soil down, then coffee grounds and plant trimmings, then topped it off with some damp shredded paper. I probably spent an hour today shredding packing paper for this purpose. I want to have some close by so whenever we throw in green material, we have some brown material to throw on top. Witness my hard work:

The paper bag (thanks Giant!) is 3/4 full now. And I might have the start of a callous from extended scissor use today. It's worth it. 


And last but not least. While I was doing this Matt hung some more of our pictures. And noticing my bumbling around with crafts and compost in the sunroom, suggested I work on turning the second room into a craft room. I have the sewing machine set up on an extra coffee table, fabric and craft supplies in two big totes, and a box of bottles for when I get around to glass cutting all organized in the corner. So, now I have no excuses! 

Time for some tea and to relax with cartoons!