Sundays. Ugh.

If only I was talking about sundaes...then I might be happier.

Well, happy for a couple minutes and then full of guilt and depression over the unnecessary calories. What? I struggle with a love/hate relationship with food as much as the next gal.

Back to stinky Sundays. For as long as I can remember, I've hated Sundays, especially Sunday evenings. They are the lowest low of my week. The weekend is ending, I have nothing to look forward to but Monday (ugh) and Tuesday (ugh) Wednesday (ugh.) And the biggest kicker is that I usually feel like I wasted the weekend. I've had two days for just me and I haven't accomplished enough. I wasted the days feeling too overwhelmed to actually start anything, so I just end up watching TV. Maybe we made it to Home Depot once. But that's not enough, I should have painted all the trim in the guest room or started the great American novel or fed the homeless or something amazing. Ok, maybe I'm a little too hard on myself.

I was beginning to feel that way about this weekend. But then I forced myself to list what I did this weekend, and I was surprised to discover it wasn't too bad. Not amazing, but still pretty good.

Friday night I had a movie night/slumber party with my MPG girls. No Strings Attached is one of the worst movies I've ever seen, but it was still so nice to see my MPG girls-we don't get to see each other often enough. I also cancelled the Weight Watchers subscription I haven't used in over a year. I would still like to lose a couple pounds, but I just wasn't making use of the subscription. There's $200/year saved. A excellent step towards my New Year's resolution to Waste Less. So when you think about it like that, Friday was a success!

Saturday morning I got up early and got a hair cut, went to Target before 9 am and picked up breakfast for B and I. That afternoon we spent 3.5 hours at Home Depot working with a Certified Kitchen Designer on ideas for our kitchen (WOOOHOOO) and had a lovely dinner. With the kitchen planning alone, Saturday was a success.

Today I stayed in my PJs until 3, which is what made me feel lazy in the first place. But during that time, B and I agreed upon a bunch of upcoming house projects (agreeing=HUGE step), rearranged the guest room, did 4 loads of laundry, ran the dishwasher and cleaned up the kitchen. I think that's pretty good overall. I also felt bad I didn't make it to the grocery store (its really cold outside.) But I ended up doing something better instead. I played Top Chef with the random food we had in the fridge (spinach, broccoli slaw, lemon, chicken, fresh thyme, leftover mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes and pie crust) and actually created a tasty dinner without a recipe. I had a lot of fun doing it, I used up all our leftovers and 80% of it was vegetables, so it was healthy. Did I Waste Less again on Sunday? You bet! Goooo me!

So overall, this weekend wasn't the waste I felt like it was. It was a bunch of itty bitty baby steps towards a happier and more fulfilling life. Sounds pretty good to me. So, I take back the ugh.

Sundays. Yay!

Goodwill Hunting

My favorite Saturday afternoon activity is going down to the local Goodwill and sifting through the treasures. Sometimes they have great furniture, sometimes a decent leather purse and sometimes I come home empty handed feeling grimy. It really depends on the day and my mood. Overall, the good days outweigh the bad ones.

On bad days, thrift stores can be VERY overwhelming and annoying (Ugh, why can't they just show me the adorable things!) BUT I refuse to miss out on good deals because my blood sugar is low. So I have a pretty simple method:

Go directly to the pretty things. Skip the boring junk and look for shiny or embroidered or pretty patterns. I have a real addition to all things embroidery and crewel. I want to cover EVERYTHING in it. I haven't done so yet, but I'm sure it will happen soon, just you wait, it will be bad.

Anyway, after something catches my eye I check out the brand and/or quality of fabric and construction. Sometimes brand is enough of an indication. If not, I look for natural fabrics-wool, silk and cotton.

This week I struck gold in the jacket department.

J Jill embroidered number (shocker) that I have in mind for my mom:

A tagged-ripped out (AKA really good) 100% silk one that I think might be sweet for my oma (sorry the color's washed out):

A classic grey wool for moi (it always helps when a cute hipster walks by and says "that looks great on you." Ok, thanks I will take this one-I look cute in it.)

And a cute purple puffy sleever that I don't know what to do with, but has the potential for adorable-ness.

Now I need to decide how to style these babies...

Deals in the most random of places

Ok, it's not that random. I go to BJ's for deals on toilet paper and Sonicare toothbrush heads and Laughing Cow cheese. Sometimes I'll pick up a paperback while I'm there. But finding a item for my wardrobe that I've been pining after for years? Unheard of! There I was, trying to decide between 1 or 2 gallons of olive oil when I turned around to see a shining beacon ahead of me:

HUNTER WELLIES!

*cue the sounds of angels singing*

Let me just start by saying that I am a diehard Anglophile. I love all things British. This may or may not be directly related to the fact that my family watched a lot of PBS and Monty Python when I was growing up. But studying abroad in London for a semester only made it worse. Some of the happiest moments in my life occurred strolling down the streets of London, just going to or from class. Ah, precious memories....

Anyhoo, I love wellies. Wellington boots. Rain boots. They're adorable and functional. And I love well made/quality items. The kinds of things that Queens prefer to wear. And I love a good deal.

Hunter wellies for $125 at Nordstrom? Quality-check. Good deal-uh, no.

Hunter wellies at BJ's for $80? Done and done. That's a 36% savings my friends! And I'm confident these will last me for years to come, making them a good investment. It also helps that my current electric blue Polo wellies from Marshalls were on their last legs. They were also adorable, an excellent deal and served me well for 5 years. Alas, they were a little too small and lining at the heels had worn through. So they will be donated so someone else can love them as much as I did And when Spring come, I will being my love affair with my aubergine Hunters wellies. Unless I can find a good deal on liners sooner than that ;)



*I apologize for my horrible picture taking skills-they're actually a lovely deep purple that sometimes looks navy. Aubergine=fancy way of saying eggplant in French.

Keeping Resolutions

It's only a couple days later and I'm already having trouble keeping my resolutions. Boo. I know everything is a work in progress, but I hate the "in progress" part. I got a great deal yesterday on something I've wanted forever, but could never justify the cost. And I found them in the most random of places! But my card reader isn't working (of course) and a picture is worth a thousand words. So that will just have to wait for a slightly later date. And this is still technically blogging, it's just not exciting blogging.

Baby steps and less hitting of the snooze button (I told you I was lazy by nature!)

New Year's Resolutions

I know, I know, resolutions are lame. They're just society's way of setting oneself up for failure. Look at how crowded gyms are for the first 6 weeks of the year, and then they empty again. By Valentine's Day, you get your normal elliptical back, no waiting. I'm as guilty as everyone else of breaking resolutions. I actually stopped making resolutions for a few years, I made "life changes" instead. But they were really just resolutions with a nicer name. I felt like less of a cliche when I didn't fulfill them. But I'm back to making good old fashioned resolutions them and this blog is one of 'em. My life needs some changes and I feel like I can't make them unless I do so in baby steps. One blog post at a time. So what are my resolutions? I have three:

Take more risks
Waste less
Blog

They kind of tie into each other, and I'm hoping that will help me succeed to some degree at all of them. I've been living a somewhat quiet life for a couple years now and I'm itching for a change. I don't feel fulfilled-there's more joy to squeeze out of this existence and I'm going to find it. I'm not one to take risks (unfortunately I'm lazy by nature), so let's step that up a bit. Wasting less applies to everything-money, time, resources, my life! I want to feel like my life has a purpose again (even if it's small and only makes me happy.) I read blogs daily and always say I should start my own but never follow through. I've been to afraid of people judging me and sounding like a fool. Whatevs, I sound like a fool on a daily basis and I'm judged all the time. So there will now be a written record of it. Sounds like progress to me ;)