Monday, January 5, 2015

BACK IN THE SADDLE... AGAIN...


Dear Hubby returned to work today, which means I am "back in the saddle, again" with my normal activities.  Gosh, I am going to miss him!  Between our vacation and the company's shutdown over the holidays, he has only been in the office for 5 days since Thanksgiving (although he did work online almost the entire time).  I am SURE it was a real shock to his system when the alarm went off this morning and he had to face the 50 mile commute to the office.  Yesterday I spent the morning getting things ready for MY official start of 2015.  This year's routine is going to be a little different as I intend to take the time to "think" about everything I do...prior to doing it!

Since our long term goal is to sell our home and move to something single story, I made a HUGE list of every tiny little thing that needs to be fixed before we can put our home on the market.  I am going to transfer it to an Excel file so I can sort by room, trade, estimated cost, etc.  Hopefully, by having everything listed in one place, I can take advantage of Freecycle freebies and store sales to reduce the cost as much as possible.  I am going to go to the hardware store some time this week, with gift cards in hand, to buy some of the little things that need to be purchased to make really minor repairs, things we can handle on our own.  The handle broke on a  drawer of our master bedroom closet system.  I am sure a typical cabinet pull will fit and because our closet system is all white, finding a match should be easy.  Our carbon monoxide detector finally died so I will purchase a new one to plug into our kitchen island.  Two things will be crossed off of the list.  And...I should be able to use gift cards to pay for the supplies.  YIPPEE! 

I have caught up on the last "full" load of laundry and will do more during the week as the sorted piles grow to full load size.

I have used a gift card to purchase yesterday's daily deal charm pack at Missouri Star Quilt.  I have gotten that card down to just $.58 cents.  I finished off another gift card by buying a layer cake of plain white to pair with a layer cake I received last year for Christmas.  This will complete all of the fabric I need to finish another quilt, well except the backing.  I will use a sheet for that.  My goal for 2015 is to keep up my quilting while spending as little out of pocket as I can.  While I ADORE using gift cards, and stacking them with sales and loyalty points to get the most "bang" for my buck, I hate the fact that it is so hard to use them up completely before the expiration date.  I am always left with a bit of change on the card.  I sure wish online stores would allow the use of more than one payment source! 



On Saturday I decided to try out one of the dies that my Mom and Dad gave me for Christmas.  I love flowers and figure this die will get lots of use over the years. 




I pulled several coordinating charm squares from my stash and started on a mini quilt.  As you can see, I cut the shapes before I took a picture of the charm squares, lol.  Oh well, you get the idea!  This quilt has been floating around in my head for a while.  It is going to be a rather simple design, but will have a lot of quilting and "embellishment" to give it character.  I hope.  Sometimes I worry that what I "see" in my head will be impossible to bring to fruition, lol.  I am not sure yet if it is going to be a 12" square quilt to fit on my mini quilt stand or a larger pillow cover.  The good thing about a pillow cover is that with 3M hangers you can turn it into a wall hanging too!  Or, I could simply make a 12" quilt with an overlapping back that could be a pillow or wall hanging!  I LOVE versatility!


4 comments:

  1. I have the same problems with gift cards..... I just try to get them down to pennies.

    God bless.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I guess the only way to use them is in a brick and mortar store where you can pay cash for the remaining cost.

      Delete
  2. Lin...glad to see you posting once again! A belated Happy New Year to you and yours. I wish you all health, happiness & prosperity in the New Year. Did Auntee like her quilt for Christmas? Carrie W.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh she LOVED it! All teary-eyed to the point that she made ME cry, lol. She asked me to send pictures to her best friend who now lives out of state. She loves it too! Have a WONDERFUL new year!

      Delete