2018 Cross-stitch...

One of my goals for this year was to be more productive.  My mother's definition of productivity was having something to show for your time.  Since my paying job claimed three times the number of hours this year as in previous years, small projects are what kept me on goal.  

When I saw these perforated-paper tags, I knew they would be a fun way to spend productive time this year.  I searched Pinterest for small cross-stitch patterns that would fit on the tags.  A couple of the designs I graphed myself.  I made most of the tags into cards.  A few are still waiting to be made into cards.

I think most of the following photos have appeared in other posts, but I thought I would assemble them all into a single post by way of a recap for the year's productivity goal.

These were really fun and relaxing.  I'm sure I will be making more in the future.

Frugal Friday File 2018, week 52...

In 2019 I will be changing up my frugal files.  I believe I will only be posting once a month, on the last Friday of each month.  Weekly posting has kept me focused, but I am feeling it is time to change things up a bit.

This Week's Successes:
1.  Gave myself a pedicure at home.

2.  Eating up leftovers.  Luckily I love meatloaf sandwiches. 

3.  Patched a favorite pair of work pants for the grown son.  Thankful to have been taught practical and frugal skills.

4.  Paid all bills on time.  Annual and quarterly insurance premiums not a shock to the checking account, because funds had been set aside monthly over the past year for that purpose.

5.  Avoided all after-Christmas sales.  We just don't need anything, and as my husband says, nothing is a bargain if you don't need it.  :)

Frugal From the Kitchen This Week:
Saturday:  *Whataburgers
Sunday:  Sunday Christmas dinner at Kasey & Beau's
Monday:  Corned Beef Hash w/ white & sweet potatoes
Tuesday:  Chicken Curry w/ rice
Wednesday:  Meatloaf, baked potatoes, green beans
Thursday:  leftovers
Friday:  leftovers

(*not-frugal takeout or dinner out)

Merry Christmas...

Old photo with new edit.  

From our family to yours, we wish you a very Merry Christmas.

Making it Monday (Christmas Eve edition)...

So I finished binding all the kids' quilts with an hour to spare.  I had so effectively procrastinated...cough, cough...that I had to do all the binding on the machine (I usually do the last step by hand).  By the time I was done, I had gotten pretty good at making it invisible.  I guarantee the kids will never know any different, and, on the upside, it is probably more sturdy.

In the wee hours of Sunday morning, as I was about halfway around in the final step of binding the third quilt, I realized that the bobbin was making a sound like it was getting critically low on thread.  I was so exhausted and just did not want to stop to reload the bobbin, so there was a lot of, 'oh please, please, please be enough on there to finish.'  There was...just barely.  And the spool was almost as low as the bobbin!

We had our Christmas together combined with Sunday family supper at Kasey and Beau's.  Beau cooked a prime rib on the grill.  Oh my goodness, it was SO delicious.

We also played a game of Not Parent Approved.  No skill required, and good for a few laughs.  Beau, who never wants to play games with us, loves this game.  :)

Now I have some breathing room.  I have two more quilts to bind but not a huge rush.  Then maybe I will have some time to read or cross-stitch or take a nap.  :)

Edited to add:  I had intended this to get posted Monday morning, but I forgot to hit 'publish.'  Earlier today I received a text from Kasey with two photos, saying this was how she found the girls when she went in to wake them this morning..."wrapped in Grandma's love."

Made my heart happy!  :)

Frugal Friday File 2018, week 51...

Successes:
1.  I am staying home today, so I am wearing holey jeans...not the fashionable kind of holey jeans.  They're really more sweat pants than they are jeans...oh, so very comfortable.  I can't bear to get rid of them, so I save them for the days I don't have to leave the house.

2.  Carey went and paid our property taxes today.  The letter from the county reverting our tax due to last year's rate (due to Carey's turning 65 this year) came this week in the mail.  This is much more efficient, as we thought we might have to pay the higher rate and wait for a refund.  But with official notification i hand, we got to pay the lower rate saving several hundred dollars.

3.  I arranged to carpool to a social commitment tomorrow.  It's in a neighboring town.  I'm not sure how the parking may be, so being in one car rather than two will be a small help, and I won't know many people there, so it is nice to walk in with a friend.  And it saves gas, of course.  :)

4.  I did not buy holiday stamps for the Christmas cards.  I had plenty of others on hand, so went with those.

5.  Just paid my first monthly bill to my new phone service provider.  One-third the cost of the last provider.  Why did I wait so long?

Frugal From the Kitchen This Week:
Saturday:  *chicken
Sunday:  Sunday family dinner at Kasey & Beau's
Monday:  leftovers
Tuesday:  *barbecue
Wednesday:  *Chinese
Thursday:  *Schlotzky sandwiches
Friday:  Old Fashioned Goulash

(*not-frugal takeout or dinner out)

2018 Christmas cards...

Christmas cards/letters have been sent.  Yea!  They went out a little late, but, hey, some years they don't go out till into the new year or not at all.

The majority were made using my Stampin' Up! Paper Pumpkin subscription box from last month (November 2018), but I mixed up the designs to stretch them.  I think if you used the instructions as intended it would have made ten cards (lined envelopes were included).

I got well over twenty cards by adding in a few different papers/card bases and mailed most of them in plain red envelopes.

I think this one was my favorite, and I totally copied someone else's design on this one, but couldn't find a name to give her credit.

For the majority I used this image of Scripture.

It's a little hard to tell in the photos, but the plaid paper has gold metallic lines as part of the plaid, and I used a gold metallic cardstock to back the Scripture image.

 Then I mixed it up a bit, and I pulled out the kit from last year that I never got around to using, and I made a few shaker cards.

This one really was the end of the line, and used up the last of the pine boughs.

All told I made about thirty cards, including two with cross-stitch tags that will be shown in another post.  I also slipped a copy of our Christmas letter into each envelope, and included a handwritten note as well on almost all.  Two cards I purchased from a local jewelry designer (because I just couldn't resist them), and Carey bought and mailed two cards on his own to his mother and another old friend.  (I mailed his mother one also, so she got two from us.  lol)

And though I still have lots of other preparations to make, I am happy that I got cards/letters off to so many this year.

Frugal Friday File 2018, week 50...

Successes:
1.  Standing in front of the fridge on Wednesday, I was wondering what I could combine to make a supper,  I saw a variety of small quantities of vegetables that needed using up but no meat except some bacon.  I had plenty of eggs, so I decided to try my hand at a frittata.  I've never made one before, so it was a learning experience.  Next time I will know to have all the vegetables prepped/sliced before getting started.  Once you start, it moves pretty fast.  

2.   One day of work this week.

3.  Caitlyn had a school project that required copious amounts of adhesive tape.  She was working on it while we were there on Sunday, and that's when she exhausted their household supply.  I knew we had some, so I came home and rounded ours up.  Not knowing how much more she would need, I just kept gathering.  I delivered eight partial rolls of gift-wrapping tape, and as a joke I picked up two huge rolls of packing tape and added them to the lot.  The project has been turned in, and the tape has all been returned.  I also loaned Kasey my car to drive the girls and Caitlyn's project to school on the due date, as she wasn't sure how to fit said project through the doors of either of theirs.   The project was a roller coaster built from paper, by the way.  Apparently her teacher assigns this annually to each of her classes.  Beau is contemplating scenarios to get the teacher fired before Chloe has her next year.  ;)  This was more frugal for them than for me, I suppose, but at least I know I won't need to purchase any tape for our gift wrapping.  

4.  I took Rudy to the vet yesterday.  He was acting rather uncharacteristically low energy, and he has yelped several times lately while chewing on a favorite hard toy.  We thought maybe he had broken a tooth, and with the listlessness I was imagining an infection might have set in.  Since I had to work today and Monday, I didn't want to put off taking him.  Yes, you guessed it, he is completely fine, no problems could be found.  How is this frugal?  Well, for a mere $60 I have peace of mind that I won't have to call the emergency vet over the weekend.  (Yes, I know, that is a real stretch.)

5.  Gasoline prices are still low.  I filled up at $1.86 per gallon on Wednesday.  That was about two weeks on one tank of gas, which for me is pretty good.


Frugal From the Kitchen This Week:
Saturday:  pasta w/ Italian sausage
Sunday:  Sunday family supper at Kasey & Beau's
Monday:  *TexMex
Tuesday:  *barbecue
Wednesday:  frittata
Thursday:  leftovers
Friday:  soup

(*not-frugal takeout or dinner out)

Frugal Friday File 2018, week 49...

Successes:
1.  I booked two days of work; one next week and one the week after.

2. Found some Italian sausage in the freezer that was looking a little iced over.  Moved it to the fridge to thaw, and will use it in tomorrow's pasta instead of purchasing ground beef.

3.  Reading a library ebook.

4.  Adjusted soup recipe to include the remainder of portabello mushrooms that needed using before they shriveled up.

5.  Cold and wet weather makes staying home with a cup of hot chocolate and soup in the slow cooker a luxury not to be taken for granted.  

Frugal From the Kitchen This Week:
Saturday:  *sushi
Sunday:  Sunday family supper at Kasey & Beau's
Monday:  *sandwich
Tuesday:  *Chinese
Wednesday:  smoked oysters on crackers
Thursday:  *Whataburgers
Friday:  Beef & Winter Vegetable Stew

(*not-frugal takeout or dinner out)

Library Quilt Group Christmas brunch...

This year we did a Secret Santa gift exchange in our library quilt group.  We were to make six gifts throughout the year, all to go to a single person, but we didn't know who.  At the December brunch today we drew names to see who was the recipient of our gifts.

I had an appointment at the dermatologist (it was either take the opening from a cancellation today or wait till after the first of the year), so I wrapped all my packages in matching paper/ribbon (they look very Grinch-like to me...LOL) so they were easily identifiable in case I didn't make it back before the opening.  I lucked into having a perfect-sized box that just arrived from Amazon to transport them in, so I wrapped it to match too.

Below are the gifts I made in order from my least to most favorite.

Spring shopping bag - meh

I wish I had added a yellow button to each center of the yo-yo flowers and leaves to the stems, but I ran out of time.

Kitchen towels with prairie points

I'm not crazy about the black fabric on the white towels, but I like the vintage kitchen cookery print.

Set of 4 quilt-themed handmade Christmas cards

These were the last things I made, and my time was down to the wire.  I wasn't feeling great, so I kept them really simple.

Coffee mug with sewing tools image

Valentine pillow

Bowl made from fabric-wrapped cord

I love this, and will make myself one very soon.  They can be made pretty much any size and shape.  It was so satisfying watching it take shape relatively quickly.  

I had this much of the post written last night, and had planned to take photos and show what I received as well.  But the dermatologist this morning took a small spot off of the bridge of my nose.  The bandage they applied, that has to be left on for 24 hours, makes my glasses sit askew, so it is making everything a little difficult.  I will try to take photos of the lovely gifts I received at another time.