Pictures of...

Stuff I got recently.
Short bangs!




New living room! Well, not really new. But rearranged and with furniture moved in from other parts of the house. This is just the thing that the Nester was talking about in 10 minutes to a room you'll love. Because, man, do we love this room now!

Below are before and afters. Please ignore the messes in the befores! I'd been sick and didn't feel like cleaning, plus I just got back from the store. Also, ignore the wallpaper border. It came with the house and has mondo-uber-impenetrable glue, so we just left it up. I wish we hadn't now, but oh well.

Before:




After:






It's a lot cozier now. I liked the openness of it before, but it was hard if we had people over. It was like someone was always banished to the chair on the other side of the room. I love having the books in there now. Dave totally loves it; of course I didn't allow him to come up from the basement until I was done with everything. Um, the rug doesn't clash with the walls as much as it looks like in the pics.

It took a bit more than 10 minutes, because I had some major dust bunnies to attack and I had to take all those books off the shelves and then put them back on. But I can pretty much say...

Ganbare yo

Okay, me. 3 day weekend. That means I have one bonus day. Although I'm still hacking up a lung, I can do it. Plans for this weekend include:
1. Clean out purse
2. Trip to best buy and target
3. Rearrange living room
4. Figure out my budgeting conundrum
5. Taxes
6. Other stuff I'm too tired to remember right now.

I already redid the blog in some hideously fabulous colors.

that's what I'm talking about

Today's the kind of day I've been waiting for. Lovely weather. No plans. A get stuff done kind of day. Of course I don't feel like doing it, but I will force myself. DO NOT WASTE TODAY. There's laundry to be done. Furniture to move. Plans to be made. Goods to be baked. Meals to be planned. Houses to be aired. Vacuums to be run.

What can I get done in the next 20 minutes? (Drinking coffee doesn't count)

Let's try...Make the coffee. Start the dryer. Sort the laundry. Start a load.

Then drink the coffee while I plan meals.

Plan?

Integration

I find I'm having a hard time integrating the big picture and the little steps to get there. I'm kicking myself for not keeping a budget for last year. I might actually have to go back through the bills and input everything just because I have nothing to compare it to now.

I'm impatient. I don't want to wait for a year, or even a few months to pass, to have a baseline.

I don't know whether I should revise my ING account to reflect all my irregular expenses and move that money out of our regular account. It's nice to have it right there at the bank, you know? But then it will be really saved up if it's in the ING account.

I have all kinds of ideas for the house, but implementation is tricky. Dave won't want to do it, but he'll feel obligated to help if he's home, or he'll say something can't/shouldn't be done. I want to do it anyway. I need to get him out of the house.

First I need to make step by step plans and supply lists so I can have it all together. Yes. That's the first step.