The end of 2010.

So today is the last day of 2010. I've gotten bold enough to use my sewing machine a little. I can definitely see how people fall in love with it. Now if I can just get over my fear of cutting into fabric. Oh but that is to come! I don't have a bunch of "resolutions". I think I'll follow my friend Kellie is doing. It's a bunch of what I WON'T be continuing into the new year.

1.) I'm going to stop hating on myself. This includes loving myself with stretches and exercises. This is taking just as much care of me as I do Mr. V and Lil Mr. V. This also includes getting back in track with Sparkpeople. There are some awesome people there that can help me on my path of loving myself.

2.) I'm going to stop being so last minute and disorganized. Ms. Flylady will become one of my best friends. :) Their new motto is 7 in 2011! So I'm going to work on getting my house in better order through her tips and tricks. They really do work. Even if you have to chase a toddler!

3.) I'm going stop putting everyone's everything ahead of me. I put off anything that I need or want to do because it inconveniences someone else, this includes showering sometimes, y'all! That's how horrible it's gotten. So I'm going to have to start putting my foot down and demanding some time for myself to take care of myself. Other people will just have to deal with it.

4.) I'm not going to buy as much this year. Well, really, I don't buy much anyway. However, if it's not second hand or meant to be used in a craft, I'm not buying it. (This does not include needed things, but extraneous spending is done.) This includes presents. Which I did VERY well this year. Most all my gifts were homemade (if not by me, by another local crafter) or they were second hand. A few things were re-gifted and even less was brand new. This year I plan on making most of my major presents.

5.) This is my one do. I will be making more crafts this year. I'm hoping to complete at least 1 project per month. The size of these projects will be determined by me, but I do plan on finishing at least 1 per month, I'm hoping to bring down my stash of unfinished projects down. Some are sewn, some are crocheted and some are cross stitched. Wish me much luck with this one. :)

This past year introduced me to several wonderful people who triggered my creative side. Something I was convinced didn't exist. So for that I'm grateful! I wished I could spend more time with my sewing buddies. Maybe I'll be able to soon enough. We'll see how this new year treats us all. :)

Take care everyone. Be safe. Remember to call taxis if you need to. I'm going to be ringing in the new year quite possibly sleeping, but maybe playing Wii with my favorite fella.

Giveaways. :)

There are a couple of blogs that I follow that are giving away some pretty great giveaways that I just had to share.

There's Linda at Stray Stitches. She is giving away a pattern of a gorgeous quilt and some BEAUTIFUL fabric for the quilt. :) She's celebrating a milestone of having 300 followers and starting off her New Year with a bang...or is it ending this year with a bang? :)

And Vicki at The Pickledish Patch is giving away a VERY nice group of things. There's a crocheted sachet of lavender, some coasters, an embroidered hanger, some fabric, thread snips....etc. :) It's a VERY nice bundling. This is to celebrate her blogs name change. It was Tozz's Corner.

Look around on both of these blogs. Linda makes some of the cleanest and prettiest hexi flowers I've ever seen among her quilts and Vicki makes all sorts of things, such as aprons, bags, wristlets, quilts, etc.

7 Yard giveaway!

That's right, a FULL 7 yards. And it's not just ANY fabric, it's Dr. Seuss fabric! Dawn's Quilt Corner  is giving away 7 yards of Robert Kaufman's "Cat in the Hat" and "Celebrate Seuss" fabric lines. OH and did I mention it was a FULL SEVEN YARDS?!?!?! Awwwww yeah....... So head over and check out her blog. There's some quilty goodness over there! :)

And now we can breathe....

December is a very busy month here. Mr. V's birthday, Lil Mr. V's birthday, Christmas, my brother's birthday. So much to get ready for and so much to do. BUT it all went down very well. I decorated my very first cake. Not bad. Lil Mr. V is in love with the movie "Cars" and a friend got a Lightening McQueen mold. So I did it! I'll post pictures later when I get all of them uploaded onto my computer. I made out like a bandit on his room too. I decorated it with the posters and "Cars" bedding. I got "OH WOW! a LOT! :) Yay, go Mommy!

For our Christmas dinner we had lasagna and garlic pull-apart bread. I'm always very nervous when dealing with yeast. I've had some bad experiences in the past. But they turned out wonderfully. And we had more desserts than I know what to do with. However, I made these for my brother. We used to eat them all the time when we lived in Germany, and I was sure they would bring back some memories for him. :) I liked them so much, I bought the book. My sister-in-law was looking for a Pfeffernüsse cookie recipe that her gramma would make, and this book had a recipe. Hopefully it's close enough to her gramma's and she can surprise her Mom with them. :)

Now that my kitchen is back to order, it's time to take the Christmas decorations down and get the rest of my house back in order.

So how was everyone else' holidays?

Day in the life of Mom - really a random post

Lil Mr. V is starting to talk more. Let me correct that. I'm beginning to understand him better. The words I could understand before are more clear and he's working on simple 2 word sentences. He still will babble like crazy as if he's really telling you a story. But interspersed in there are words that I do understand. We had a toddler bed and a low futon in his room, and since he slept on the futon more than he did his toddler bed, we just moved the toddler bed out. And now, he's not necessarily excited about going to bed, but it is easier. He talks about how he's such a big boy. YAY! Anymore if we say "big boy" it's immediately followed by YAY!

For the few that read my blog and are crafty or like crafty goodness, Sew Mama Sew is still having their giveaway. There are a gazillion blogs listed and they have a lot of wonderful things. So if you like paper work (cards and scrapbook stuffs) that's there, knitting and crocheting, sewing, pretty much everything except the kitchen sink. And I think there were a few of those even in some of the blogs. This giveaway is still good until tomorrow night. Each blog is a little different on time, because these are blogs from around the world. And more importantly, these blogs are available to you to see and I'm 100% sure that you'll find at least one blog that you'll want to follow. Or if you're like me a GAZILLION new blogs to follow.

As far as my crafty goodness, I'm still working on my afghan. It's coming along nicely. I work on it a little bit every day. I'm trying to hold off on sewing until I can get this finished. Because starting 25 projects doesn't help me finish any of them. But boy howdy! I have a LOT of ideas!

Next week is Lil Mr. V's birthday as well as Christmas. So if I don't blog before then, every have a very Merry and Safe Christmas.

Giveaway at Stray Stitches

I've been reading this blog for a little while now. She's so down to earth, I really love reading her blog. She's a part of the Sew Mama Sew giveaway day today. And she's got a lovely giveaway of some pretty fat quarters. :)

Post-Thanksgiving (First official Christmas shopping weekend)

So, starting the night of Thanksgiving (what's up with that!??!) stores start their "Black Friday" sales. Black Friday....commercial-mas' favorite day. It's the day to put ultra chinzy stuff on deep discount in decent quantity and to give a deep discount on a FEW draw items (of decent quality) in LIMITED quantity, to entice customers in. This is to give people the IDEA that THEY could be one of the few lucky enough to get one of the rare, good quality items at dirt cheap prices. Which is good IF you can be that lucky, but for every 1 lucky person, there are plenty of unlucky people. When it comes to frugality, THIS is an awesome day. No doubt. Who wouldn't want to get Rocky Rocket for less than $10 when it is normally closer to $20, and your son is driving you CRAZY for it. It's the only thing he's asked Santa for Christmas. It's the ONLY thing on his Christmas list. He even mumbles about it in his sleep. So sure, you REALLY, R-E-A-L-L-Y want Rocky Rocket. The store only gets 6, and the sale starts at 5am. Is it worth getting up at 2am to be there at 3, to stand in line and wait and PRAY that those in line ahead of you don't get it first. And that's IF you have an organized store and kind and considerate fellow shoppers. This doesn't exist in the real world. I used to work this day. And I hate what Christmas has turned into. RARELY do you see the genuine Christmas "spirit". RARELY do you see people trying to help their fellow man or in this case "shopper". It's all elbows and grabbing and pulling and rushing and cursing....oh my goodness the cursing. Some of the nicest people you'll meet at any other time seem to be possessed during their Black Friday shopping spree. And I had decided that I was never going to participate in this ruckus. Dealing with the negativity and the hatefulness just isn't my bag of tea. Getting up so early in the morning, to stress about spending money, and to fight the crowd, only to not get the stuff that I had come for just doesn't seem worth it to me. So, how do I handle such purchases then, and manage to do things frugally. Well, I put money aside during the year and buy some gifts during the year, so I'm not hurting this time of year. I'm not against purchasing used books that are in good shape. I'm not against re-purposing some things for people. Which will require me to make some stuff, but really, that doesn't bother me. If my son HAD to have Rocky Rocket, I might give him less gifts to offset the cost of the toy he so desperately desired. And that's ok. That's how things go. And he has to realize that sometimes in order to get what you really want, you have to sacrifice some other things. The sooner that her learns that sort of fiscal responsibility, the better he'll be in the future when he makes his own purchases.

So this first week of Commercial-mas, we'll be doing business as usual. Except we'll be sending out our Christmas cards. We'll go to the grocery, pay bills, and continue about life like normal people. We do still have a few Christmas gifts to get/make and then they are all complete. The bulk of our Christmas gift getting/making is finished and was finished before Halloween.

I would rather spend this time unstressed and feeling joyful. For me, this is the season to spend with my family playing and enjoying each other and creating memories. And that's exactly how I'm going to spend it.