sweet

So..why?

I have a couple of blogs I follow that are about buying less. One is about being frugal for financial reasons, and she's amazing. I have an immense amount of admiration for her ability to set a goal and stay the course. You can read her story of saving to buy a house here. Another is about being frugal for environmental reasons. Her goal is to create as little plastic waste as possible, a little like my no waste week only it is her whole life! Check out what she is able to do here.

So what is my purpose is setting a buy less goal? I don't have financial pressures to make me think twice, and I feel strongly about environment, but you can buy just as much needless organic recycled crap as toxic landfill fodder, so I need something more to motivate me. I figure public accountability might help. I find that it's just so easy to fill my shopping cart with things just because I like them, or the kids ask for them, or because they're an easy solution to something I could solve with just a little more effort. I want to put up a filter for those purchases. One that says things like, "Do you really need that bottle of wine? You have 3 others just like it at home. Wait, more soap? You haven't used the soap you got last time! And you can make it yourself for blinkin' sake. Mini rose plant? But you kill all plant life just by looking at it." If this filter had been in place the last week, some of these purchases might have been avoided.

Also, I do find it ironic that I run a craft center and yet I make very little of what I use in my life. Sure I buy the supplies to make things, but they rarely get used up. So the craft filter might go something like, "What!! More yarn! NO, absolutely not. NO MORE YARN. More fabric?? Are you crazy?? Put that down." So maybe rather than buying that beautiful Etsy candle (and I truly believe in supporting handmaking crafters) maybe I will use the candle mold and wax I have sitting in my garage (for the last year and a half I might add) to make my own.

I am not going to go rabid about this, I want to make an obvious but substainable change that I can maintain in the long run, so it's not a buy nothing policy, or a completely no waste goal, though i hope to see my garbage load go down. I just want to place some checks and balances on myself, especailly as for the last few months I've been in a stupid funk in which I justified buying everything I laid my eyes, because, you know, "I'm just so sad."

Time to snap out of it.

More soon, :)

I feel it coming on again

Maybe it's because I went to Target today, but I think I'm going to challenge myself to another low spending/low consumption week. This one I want to call "Do I really need all that crap?" week. I want to have a week (and if I can, expand it to a month, and then hopefully to a lifetime) where I ask myself truthfully about everything I am going to buy, "Do I really need that?" If the answer is no, or that I do but I can make it out for resources I already have, then I don't buy it. I know this isn't in the same vein as no trash week, but it might be an easier one to maintain.  And I don't want to be too starry eyed about it either, I include time in the resource question. It doesn't matter if that I have all the yarn in the world, I am not going to be able to knit a blanket before my cousin comes to town and I need to cover her up at night, so I will need to buy one. But if I can make a nutritious dinner out of what I have in the fridge, then I don't buy anything new, and if I do, I only buy what I need to compliment what I already have.

I need to think more about the rules, because "need" can be a little subjective. But if you are inclined to try it with me, leave a comment and I'll get back soon with my dates and definitions.

Happy June everyone-thus far mine is looking better than May!

:)

Ch..ch...ch..changes

This picture represents a big change in my life. Last month, after 15 years together and 9 of them married, I left my husband and moved out of my house. This comes after years of struggle and a final realization that neither of us was happy anymore. We've done our best to minimize the effect on the kids, so I still pick them up everyday and take them back to the old house, but I live in a difference one. Eric takes them to school every morning. This way we both see them everyday.

So, my new house is an ultra modern concrete box in the neighborhood I always wanted to live in, Venice Ca, mere minutes from my work and the beach. I can bike there if I want. Or walk. I can also leave my craft supplies where ever I want to. And buy the furniture I've always coveted. Hence the book case-a vintage find on ebay and already loaded down with all my science fiction. You'll also notice my Doll doll and my Hop Skip Jump doll and my Simpli Jessi dolls. I guess I have a bit og a collection going. I don't feel quite at home here yet, and the old house is feeling more and more like it's not my house either, despite all the time I still spend there, so I am still very discombobulated. Add to that the emotional toll of a divorce, even a gentle version like we have going on, and it's been a hell of a year so far.

Anyway, not much crafting going on. I went to Artfest and joined a crochet swap, so I have pictures to share, soon. After gymnastics, and karate, and maybe after May Faire, because, surprise, surprise, life didn't stop for my divorce.

:)

Love it

Thank you Poppalina.

A step away from death

Ok, that's a bit dramatic, but I just have to rely this conversation I had with Oliver. It's Eric's birthday (Happy Birthday!) and I guess it's made Oliver think a little bit about getting old. In the car today he piped up all of a sudden, "It's sad to be a grown up, because you're old and that mean's you're almost dead!" Then he thought for a moment and finished up with, "I'm glad I'm a kid."

Voila. From the mouths of babes. So count the seconds you grown ups you. They're numbered.

:)

I just almost died laughing

http://www.finslippy.com/finslippy/2008/12/how-many-neurotics-does-it-take-to-make-a-fire-.html

I love her.

:)

PS-Noddyboom tagged me for a 5 things I do daily to keep my mind healthy and I would love to do it but I can't think of one single thing except that my heart keeps beating my blood throught my body and that's of it's own accord and that I, too, am breathing, but again, I am not paying that much attention to it so I don't think either of them count. But I do read the occasional blog that makes me laugh my ass off. And I watch Grey's Anatomy despite what everybody thinks of me for doing so. So there.