Apron Thrift Girl

home and winner

We have once again arrived home only to be met by a cool breeze and a cloudy covered sky. I realized coming home that it has been quite a few years since I arrived home and felt really good to be there. I'm not quite sure what this means. Maybe that I enjoy the sun too much or maybe I have too much stuff in my home and the minute I open the door the weight of the stuff mentally falls upon my shoulders. Either way it feels wrong. I should be grateful to be home not saddened. I suppose part of my sadness was having to say goodbye to this.

Dave and I figured it was placed in the dull mid-size car section by mistake.  Why are expensive and sexy cars so incredible to drive? While we love our van, the other car we own is an old beat up beige coralla that painfully sputters as we speed up. I loved cruising down the Pacific Coast Highway in this car. Friday they had to tear me away from her lovingly upholstered leather black seats to put me on the rental-car bus to go to LAX. It was a difficult goodbye.

The children and I didn't really want to leave. We took that as a good thing. It would be far worse to have disliked an area that we were possibly moving to. I loved the weather, the people, the shopping (did I mention that there was an Anthropologie on every street corner opposite Starbucks?) and especially the ocean. Do people get bored of the sea? I was completely mesmerized by it and gasped every time I spotted it through some trees or between houses.

On Friday we did manage to get to a Goodwill store in Redondo Beach. Yes it was very small and the kitchenware department consisted of a few shelves. I was very impressed though with the clothing. I found a few Hanna Andersson's for Cerys, a few boutique tops for me and even a pair of Spanish posh boots to consign. I think I'll do okay down here if we do move. It will be different but I have the drive and motivation to find thrifted good. And who doesn't love a challenge?

Speaking of thrifting. I have a winner to unveil.

 

Thanks to the 145 comments you all left.  Some people were shocked by my giveaway. I love things, I love to own things but I have realized this last year that I don't need to keep things. Even if I experience them for a year or even a few months. It's the experience of having them in my hands or on my shelf that I enjoy. Then I am ready to pass them on to a new owner. As I am clearing out room after room in

our home, I look at items that I have collected and I know that for the most part once they have left my life, I could find them again if I wanted to. For now I have the memory of the item. It's enough. Really.

Cerys came down the stairs groggy from just waking up. But curious enough to help me draw out a name. And the winner is...

 

Christine~~

Please email me with your address and I'll ship your quilt and goodies this week. I'm solo parent again this week as Dave flies off to New York so it may take me a couple days to post your package. Not to mention the start of Gossip Girl and 90210. Oh and the fact that I can't seem to put this book series down. Otherwise, lost of free time...well not really. Thanks again fellow thrifters.

36 Years of Thrifting

I turned 36 today. How do I feel? Lighter than ever and excited about today, this moment and the year in front of me. Some of my earliest memories were actually in a thrift store. I couldn't have been more than two years old when I remember being carried into our local thrift store by my mom which was run by the local Mormon Church. Funny enough I just remember it being extremely cluttered. It wasn't there very long and our thrifting locally ended when the store left town. We later thrifted in a college town called Chico where we frequented the Goodwill and Salvation Army. Again I recall it being cluttered and very dirty. But it fascinated me and I loved going there and digging for treasures.

The cake is gluten free with 7 minute icing, made by our local Bakery. The candle is silly but I came across it in a box of pre-marriage junk just last week. I checked to see if it was valuable but you can basically pick up one of these for .99 cents plus shipping on eBay. What to do with it I pondered. Then I realized I didn't care that it had a number four, it was going to decorate my cake. So I used a candle that must be nearly 25 years old. It worked perfectly and I loved it.

Strawberry Shortcake represents to me, the beauty and innocence of my childhood. A lovely thing to cherish years on.

My mother in law is visiting from England and she and I went to Macy's to buying some items from the Martha Stewart line. Being as thrifty as I am (even armed with lots of gift cards from family) I couldn't find anything to spend my money on except this colander. It matches my kitchen perfectly with its (nearly painted) blue walls and red accents. My dear MIL graciously hit the Cath Kidston outlet near Oxford before coming over here and delighted me with two mugs and 4 cloth napkins. And my darling Dave bought me Juno and gave me a nice Macy's allowance of which I am saving for their sale later this month. Once a thrifty always thrifty.  Not pictured is a sweet brown skirt and a Macy's gift certificate from my parents. Wow, I sound like an advertisement for Macy's. I just have fallen in love with the American Rag clothing line that they sell and the Martha Stewart Line. A lovely combination.

Keiran and I finished the day off by heading to a certain rectangle receptacle where we saved a handful of books, pottery dishes and some glasses from heading toward the landfill. It was a perfect day.

Me with my new haircut.

A Long Winter

I am greatly missing the sunshine right now. It feels like the winter has slowly moved forward at the pace of a sleepy snail slithering along a forest path. I moved the first time to Washington in 1994. I moved from an apartment in Chico, California that had a swimming pool and hot tub. My parents dangled a carrot in front of me offering to give me a down payment on a house in a small town in Washington State. I was a wandering soul at that time without much direction in my life. I had just broken up with a man who enjoyed his drink just a wee bit too much and I decided a fresh start would be welcoming. I spent the next two years living in Aberdeen, Washington and worked at a cemetery. I must say, looking back that had to be the darkest part of my life. I was terribly lonely, worked in the weirdest job I've ever had and was miserable in the dark, wet weather. On April 1st, 1996 I met David in the Sears Tower in Chicago and fell in love. A year later I left Aberdeen to begin a new life in England with Dave. I left the dreary, cold and wet weather of Aberdeen and exchanged it for the gray skies of England. Still as a newlywed I overlooked that part of it. I was delighted to have found David and to have lived in a country so rich of history.

I lived in the UK for four years and missed home (what I would consider California) every day. I loved
many things about the UK and in fact I miss many things still. But I missed the warm weather most of all. We moved to Herndon, Virginia and for the first time in 8 years, I was able to enjoy the most incredible spring. Every day I would wake up, look out the blinds and just be in shock that it was yet another sunny day. And the sky was the bluest of blue in the mornings. I can still remember all those mornings I spent outside in our screened deck enjoying a breakfast with Cerys while watching the cardinals fly around our yard. I think it those memories of Virginia are my fondest. The summers were a little tough with the humidity that I wasn't used to. Poor Dave melted under the heat and barely made it through the summers. The West coast was still calling me, mixed in with the fact that in Virginia we were 3,000 miles away from my family and 3,000 miles away from his. Luckily his work called him out to Seattle and that helped make our decision. We moved to our little island outside of Seattle in July 2003. And if I do the math, out of the last 14 years, I spent 12 of those in a colder, grayish type climate.

I did fine the first three winters here. Well not fine but I managed. But this winter it has been so wet, so gray, and quite honestly, pretty miserable. It began to get cold in August with quite a few rainy days. This was a shock after our three weeks in California. I think August is one of my toughest months because of the change in temperature from vacation to western Washington temperature. And it only gets colder and darker.

The positive side of living here is the beauty of it all. It is stunning with the mountains, water and forest. I love taking the ferry into Seattle. And I love taking it home again to the quiet and peace of the island. I love just thinking I live on an island. But I miss the sun and blue sky so much. Sometimes I wake up to the gray sky and I feel a little pain in my soul for another dark day ahead. Does anyone else feel dissatisfied with their weather? It probably doesn't help that my body is cold a lot of the time. Dave and I constantly have a discussion about whether it is too hot or too cold in the house. I need it warmer, he wants it cooler.

Needless to say, that is partly my excuse for not writing very much this winter. I feel that I have been hibernating, coming out for food when needed, and then scurrying back to my cave of warm, down comforters. I am so incredibly restless at the moment. When I get restless I want to be anywhere but here. I want change, I want a spark in my life and I want to feel alive. When I travel to California in the summer and I feel the heat on my body, I feel so alive and vibrant. It is quite the opposite of what I feel here.

To help my restlessness I usually search the net through real estate ads of warmer places, look for house swaps with swimming pools, spend time visualizing a life somewhere sunnier and then when I get burned out of those choices, I go and move the furniture around. My late winter/spring cleaning is in full force. I am sending items to Goodwill by the truck load. I don't know if it is my restlessness but things just don't mean as much to me as they used to. I still love to thrift, love to shop but I don't buy as much for me. I'm even taking the plunge and getting ready to sell my Desert Rose dishes that many of you watched me collect here on my blog the last couple of years. Don't worry, we won't be without dishes. I still have 5 other sets to use. As a thrifter it is so easy to horde items, especially when people sell them for pennies. But also as a thrifter, it is easy to give away things knowing that you have only paid $1.00 for something. I think all of this is a natural cycle. We shop, we buy, we get rid of and we cleanse.

For now the house cleansing helps me get through this dark winter, one day at a time. My soul longs for warmth and at times I'll sit in front of our wood stove and attempt to take in as much heat as my body can manage. I wish it would warm me to my core so that I would feel settled again.
Thriftly yours,
Selena

Still here, swamped and all that

I'm alive and still here. In the retail world this is generally the busiest time of the year. Between school, volunteering for the school, selling books and now ebay auctions, I'm pretty swamped. But still here and still thinking of all my fellow bloggers.

I have quite a fun story to tell about a dream estate sale I went to on Saturday. Pictures and story to come soon.
Thriftly Yours,
Apron Thrift Girl

Grateful

An otter at the Port Townsend ferry dock

When the telephone rang this morning, I quickly glanced over to the handset and read the number on the caller ID. I didn't recognize it so I ignored the phone call and continued listing books on the computer. Dave flew to England for the week so I was trying to finish as much work as possible while the children are in school. I heard the message machine click on and heard the voice of a friend of mine asking me to call her back. I made a mental note of it, the same mental note area that acts more like a garbage disposal then a notepad. I forgot about the call, forgot about calling her back and carried on with my day. At the school pick-up that afternoon, I saw my friend and guilt washed over me. I have a lot of guilt about the telephone because I tend not to like the phone. Email is my favorite medium for communication, followed by in person, followed by a telegram, followed by passenger pigeon and last on the list would be talking on the phone. Once I brave the phone and actually answer it, I do enjoy the conversation, especially with friends I haven't spoken to in a long time. I chat away like there is no tomorrow, thinking of new things to share with whoever is on the other end of the phone. Calling strangers though or even speaking to strangers when they call gives my tummy a small ache. Sometimes I have to talk myself into calling someone on the phone, especially to do with work. I had a customer ask that I call him to run his credit card through. Sigh...it took me five minutes before I could work up enough nerve to call him. Yet when I did speak to him, my words were coherent and I think I actually came across as professional. He had no ideas I was still in my jammies, sipping on my coffee with Elffie at my feet as I spoke to him on the phone.

When my friend walked up to me in the parking lot she didn't even question the fact that I didn't return her call, but jumped straight into telling me how grateful she was for the help I have offered her. I had given her some advice on her business when we met and later introduced her to Waldorf education. Her daughter is in the school now. She gave me me a hug which warmed me over. It's not every day that someone actually tells you how grateful they are. It felt so good to hear those words from her and to know that just something I said had affected her life. We don't always think about how our words can change someone's life.

Every night at dinner we sing a blessing and then go around the table and share with each other one thing we are grateful for.  Some of our answer are silly like "hot dogs and Tatar tots". Others are very serious such as being grateful that my mother's cancer is now in remission. Keiran who is five years old sometimes comes out with some very deep answers like "I'm grateful for my spirit" or "I'm grateful for my heart". Sometimes David looks at me and tells me he's "grateful for the soul I bring to our family" which of course leaves me a bit tearful. He's always been such the romantic.

I haven't done this lately but I started a habit last spring of waking up and saying all the things I was grateful for. Daily I would add that I'm grateful for my family and for the love we all have each other. Usually toilet paper made the list too. I mean who isn't grateful for that?

Sometimes it is hard to be content where we are in life. Many of us in blogland have huge dreams and we can find ourselves being restless while chasing those dreams. As I have shared in the past, I often dream very big and can find myself frustrated that I am not reaching those dreams quick enough. I am working on living in the moment rather than wishing for Friday night to come quicker (although Fridays mean a lot more to me now that Moonlight is on...that man is so hot...let's just say my grateful list will include Alex O'Loughlin tomorrow morning) or wishing for next summer when we are on vacation. I want to enjoy each minute and then be grateful for what I experience in that minute.

I am not sure how memes are started but I'm going to try and start one. I would like you to list five things you are grateful for in your life. They can be silly or serious or just simple and heart felt. Imagine what the world would be like if we all could be a little more grateful for the small things.  I am going to tag Sandy, Rebekka, Elizabeth, Eren and Blair.

Catching Up

The last three weeks have been strange. But then again, the weeks leading up to school starting are always strange because the children are just so ready to be back in school. School offers such a safe and secure rhythm that is hard to match at home. We came back from vacation in the end of July but I certainly wasn't ready to be home. My heart is still down south in the warm sun. I longed for it as I woke up to the cool Pacific Northwest mornings. I longed for the slowness of time while we were on vacation and I really longed for all those small, out of the way thrift stores brimming with vintage items at low prices. During the first week of September Dave went to the UK for a week which was especially hard on all of us. It always is so challenging to be without him. He creates a balance in our lives that is almost sacred. He and I are truly in our marriage together, helping each other out and wanting more for each other than for ourselves. (although he's even more giving than me I must admit). He gives so much to the children that when he isn't here, we all feel it. Even the simple things like putting the chickens away at night, taking my dishes out of my office that build up during the day, and putting the toilet paper roll on (I tend to just take it out of the package and balance it on the roller on it's side). Things I either don't do or can't be bothered doing. On the other hand, Dave always says I bring the soul to our marriage. I come up with the crazy ideas of doing house exchanges or even the idea of getting a new puppy.

His name is Elffin (a Welsh name) and he is a 10 week old Corgi puppy. Keiran and I went to Whidbey Island to pick him out last Monday and we both fell in love with him instantly. He is a pure delight and with such a sweet personality. The children love him to pieces. We had been wanting a dog for over a year now. But it took us a long time to figure out what kind of dog, what to do with him when we travel and how we add a new "member" of our family without disrupting the flow.  We tried to get a rescue Corgi but none were available locally so I started looking into getting a puppy. This might be our only family dog (although Corgi friends have mentioned that once you have a corgi you generally want more) and I wanted the children to experience life with a puppy.  Cerys is in heaven, basking in all the attention she gets from people when we take him out. She gives me a running tally of the compliments that she receives. Each morning she wakes up with an excitement in her step and races down stairs to see Elfie (his nickname).

The children on their first day of school last Wednesday.  I'm ashamed to admit this but Cerys' outfit and Keiran's shirt were purchased new at this amazingly cool store called Naartjie. We found a store at the mall in Sacramento. Their clothing is so unique and relatively inexpensive that I totally got suckered in. I hit the sales rack, trying to stay true to my thrifty side though and found tops and pants for $7.00 each. It was so nice to go beyond the Gap and Gymboree look. While I don't shop retail very often, I did enjoy going school shopping with Cerys.

More thrift stories to share on another post. Off to sleep now.

 

8 Things About Me

My very good book selling friend, Guusje tagged me for the meme "8 Things About Me".  Great motivation to get me blogging again. Here they are....

1) When I am happy, I like to sing. I can't necessarily sing but I love to do it anyway. I can belt it out quite loudly sometimes, especially songs from musicals. I love to sing songs from Phantom, Sound of Music or sometimes make up my own tune and words. My son doesn't enjoy my songs as much as my daughter. I can always gage my happy meter though by the amount of singing I do.

2) I'm a total klutz. I can't wear a white shirt without spilling something on it, usually chocolate. I run into things when I'm walking and I drop things like there is not tomorrow. Dh has great amusement from this side of me.

3) I love any story about time traveling and I've often wished I could time travel myself. My favorite adult book because of this is The Time Traveler's Wife. This fall there is a new show following Hero's on NBC called Journeyman which looks fantastic and it is all about time travel.

4) I have always loved writing. When I was 10 or so, I started my first newspaper called "The Unicorn News". I wrote each copy with pen and sold them to family members for .25 cents. I think it was one of those signs that I wanted to be an entrepreneur.

5) Recently I have been really into Wayne Dyer. I somehow picked up both his book "the Power of Intention" and the audio CD set with the same title to sell. But when I was having a migraine I started to listen to his CD and really connected with his words and had to keep both. It has changed a lot of my outlook on life and especially how I interact with people. It's a nice, needed change.

6) We just got a GPS system in our van and I am in love with this technology. It feels like the last two years has been amazing for technology for me personally. My three favorite things I really wouldn't want to live without are my Tivo machine (I was always forgetting to tape shows or taping the wrong channel), my Ipod which I take when thrifting and now GPS. Ours lets us find coffee houses and ice cream parlors on it. When we get lost it helps us find our way back. It is  so amazing.

7)  I've recently started watching Martha's morning show Martha. I started last spring and I was totally hooked on her. Which is funny since many in blogland have been into her for years. I am sometimes late on the bandwagon. It started with finding her new cookbook "Everyday Foods". Then I had to have her magazines of the same title and then I found her show and loved it. I would tivo it so I could fast forward the boring parts or the gluten laden parts that I didn't want to see. Dh laughs at my obsession with her but loves the food we are making from her cookbook.

8) I've started a vacation scrapbook. My first scrapbook in probably 2 1/2 years. And to link it in to #7 I found a Martha Scrapbook at Michaels which I had to have. It is powdering blue and gorgeous. My only problem is that I forgot my camera lead to my computer so I can't upload photos which means I also haven't been blogging too much lately. Last night though I went to Safeway and printed off some instant photos for .29 cents each. They weren't the best quality but serve my scrapbook purpose for now.

There you go, eight more things about me. Let's see now....which eight people will I tag? Sandy, Lucy, Erin, Samantha, Willow House, Beth, missvintagelove and Laura.

Here are the tagging rules. Have fun.
1. Let others know who tagged you.
2. Players start with 8 random facts about themselves.
3. Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts.
4. Players should tag 8 other people and notify them they have been tagged

I'll try to get some photos up soon. I have been thrifting again at the Sebastopol flea market and just yesterday I picked up 3 Vera scarfs in perfect condition for $3.00. It was heavenly.

Birthday Me

Yep, this week I had a birthday. And can you guess what I did? Well I am pretty selfish when it comes to birthdays. I usually want to do something fun and something that I really love. So I grabbed Dave, my parents took the children to school and we jumped on a ferry to Seattle to go thrifting all day.

Do I look 35? or should I just call myself a girl who has thrifted for 35 years? Hmm.....This is Dave and I at local Mexican restaurant where I can order gluten free food. My parents and our children joined us for a lovely dinner. 

I was spoiled with a gift certificate for Anthropologie from dh, fil and my parents, flowers from the children, a Cath Kidston robe from my mother in law and a gift certificate from eBay that my brother gave me. Does my family know me well? I actually stopped by Anthropologie on Tuesday (my birthday) and the frugal me, although armed with the certificate, couldn't find anything to fit my frugal needs. I wanted to make this gift go a long and not spend it on a single skirt. I'll have to wait for another day to score some favorite anthropologie goods.

Dave seriously impressed me with his book scouting skills. We were there when the Goodwill Outlet opened their doors at 9am. All of us (a crowd of 20) ran for the carts and then ran for the bins. It is so funny. Dave and I headed to the books and started throwing in anything that looked like it might sell or that I might want to keep. Dave found a Barbapapa book which is always a good seller. He had a great sense of what to pick up, a lot of what he has remembered when I shared good sales with him. It was strange to spend an entire day with him and being able to hold a conversation. Keiran talks non-stop so we can hardly get a word in. We really enjoyed each others company and I enjoyed showing him one of my favorite passions in life, thrifting.

Why is it?

Dave left us for a business trip to the UK on Tuesday afternoon. He returns this evening and you would think that I could handle a measley 3 days on my own. I even had my parents with me on Tuesday evening, all of Wednesday and most of Thursday. Easy peasy right? Goodness no. Dave left at 2:30 and by 5pm I started to feel sick with a dreaded cold. When I get a cold my energy levels fall to about 30%. It totally wipes me out. I started with all my herbal regime to stop the cold from taking over my body and for the most part it worked. I felt a little better the following afternoon but then I would eat something that I think had sugar in it (like a dressing) because I had forgotten to look at the ingredients. I will only think about it when my symptoms get worse again. Sigh....(this is really a whine post so please forgive me). Then on Thursday morning Keiran wakes up with Pink Eye. Off to the Doctors at 8:10am to be told that it was probably viral and they said it would clear up on its own. Good from the point of view of not having to give him medication. He's a tad grumpy when he is ill and his horns were showing that day and he sooooo pushed my buttons. It's so hard to be a good mama when he is saying "You are ugly", "Your mean".

The funny thing is I had read a friends email that morning that said words are just words until you give them power. I thought to myself that she is right. If Keiran says hurtful things I just have to realize that he doesn't mean them the same way I am feeling them. Well that thought kind of went out the window when he started in on me. I can't even remember why he was angry. I just know that he has recently found his will and luckily I have discovered a new drink (to me), the blessed mohito. I don't have them very often but boy do they make an effort to sooth the batterings of his tantrums. (I drink them a couple times a month at a local pub-not during his tantrums :-)

Today was the topper of our mere three days on our own. One of our beloved Buffies (chickesn) was killed last night possibly by a raccoon. I was chasing my tail trying to get bedtime going and didn't put them away until late dusk. I didn't realize it until this morning when I found tons of feathers in the chicken yard. You know they are just chickens but it broke my heart that she died under my watch. I couldn't find anything else of her until this afternoon. I spotted her on top of the chicken pen near a tree. We buried her and I cried my heart out. (Keiran got mad at me of course-because I then made him cry) I was one of those children who wouldn't cry when a movie character died, but if an animal died I cried buckets. The annoying thing is that she wasn't even dinner to whatever animal that got her. She just died for no reason.

Dave is driving to the ferry terminal and will soon be home with us again. I hope peace can come to our home once again. Every time he goes away I just really realize how balanced we all are when we are together and how flustered we are when he is away. I notice everything he does in the house and how much I appreciate those small things.

Here are some positive things:

*Sold 254 of the children's books from my Craig's List purchase for $90.00
*Found a few pieces recently of Mikasa Cera stone dishes that I collect
*Sold a book this week for $115.00 about painting
*Sold a All That Jazz CD (purchased 2nd hand) for $30.00
*Planted kale, lettuce, beets, peas and broccoli in my garden
*Planted Cilantro, dill and parsley
*9 Days until our 10th wedding anniversary

I have lots more to write so hopefully my next post will be sooner. Thanks for all your emails wondering if I disappeared under a pile of thrifted finds.

I know...I know...I know...

Where have I been? Good question. I'm figuring out that maybe my blog is seasonal. I started it in the late spring and it blossomed for the entire summer, into fall and slowly went into hibernation. Partly though I have the excuse of my new Mac computer (thanks for the Mac suggestions). I love it in more ways than not. But here are two things that slow me down substantially regarding my blog. 1) there isn't the spell check above the writing box like on my PC (which I think should just plum be illegal). I have dreadful spelling which I'll blame on my father who also can't spell. 2) When I load pictures now, all I can see is the HTML rather than the photo. On my PC I could make them bigger and smaller with my mouse. Now I have to load a photo 4 or 5 times to get it the correct size. Very painful and slow. Luckily my dying PC is still kicking if not a little slowly. I'm setting up my office to work on both computers and eventually I'll be back up and running in full gear. Still the mac is pretty darn sexy for a computer.

Because of the photo thing explained above, I'm afraid this post will be photo free. And that saddens me because I love adding the colors of photos to the posts. I have Cerys 7th birthday photos to share, a photo of my winter cleaned pantry in the kitchen to share, the 40lb chocolate Santa my mother won on Dec. 24th to share and much more.

I also want to say thank you for all of those that have emailed me to make sure I was still breathing. Each email meant a lot. And for those curious about the boots? I did sell them, last Thursday for $245.00. I was really pleased with the sale. And of course just a little sad too. Oh I loved those. I hope it isn't one of those things I regret in 30 years. My parents apparently used to own a house in Berkeley (which I regret them selling). Of course at the time they needed the money and so on. The profit on the boots were pretty amazing and I'm still buzzing from the sale as we speak. I love those eBay moments like that.

I've moved closer to being a bookseller than ever before. I bought a nifty little tool that lets me scan bar codes to see what the value of the book is while thrifting. I feel a bit like James Bond when I am out scouting with it though. And when I'm shy or self conscious I call myself the stealth scouter as I try to sneak it out to look at a book. Scouting is the name given to book sellers when they are on the hunt for valuable books to resell. I started selling on Amazon too just on the 8th of this month and yesterday they deposited $450 in to my checking account from sales just this month. Comparing eBay to Amazon is like climbing a steep hill to rolling down on a roller coaster. eBay can take me anywhere from 15 minutes to 45 minutes in total and Amazon takes me at the most 5 minutes (including research) for one item. I'm really happy in the direction I've moved since I closed the organizing/consulting business. I feel like I'm just beginning to be control of my schedule now. Because I am spending less time listing on eBay, I am able to spend more time with the children, more time cooking and even more time scouting. Our meals became quite bland and dull over the last few months because we just didn't take the time to spend it on cooking. In January we decided that we would take turns cooking (Dave has made most of the meals for the last 5 months while I worked from 4pm - 5pm...dinner at 5) and try to spice up our meals a bit more.

He's in England this week so were back to quick and dull meals. But last week....yum. It is nice to taste delicious food that we have prepared for each other. It's a nice new years resolution that we are really happy about. Another positive on Amazon is that I don't have the big crunch at the end of the auctions like I did before. Now I get a sale notification in my inbox and I ship it out. I can't express how nicer and less stressful my life is. And yet I'm still bringing in money which is very needed after the spendy holidays, my mac and still paying for my sewing machine. What happened to our budget in December? Out the window that went.

So that kind of a summary of what's been going on. I promise to write more often and soon.
~Apron Thrift Girl