Weekend Reflections

Wow, I had a productive weekend! How was yours?

Saturday I had plans to run errands, but when I looked out I noticed it was snowing.... and snowing... and snowing. I am a #1 wuss when it comes to driving on bad roads (despite the fact I have lived in Michigan all of my life) so, I decided to spend time working on inside projects instead. To start with, I finally took down all of my Christmas decor. I would have done it earlier if not for the fact my mother said she wanted to see my house done up for the holidays. Unfortunately, however, she hasn't made it over to my house. I had stopped lighting the tree after the weekend following Christmas, and there is just something depressing about a dark Christmas tree. I just couldn't wait any longer, so down it went. After taking everything down and carefully putting it all away, I cleaned and vacuumed the rooms and put back out my non-seasonal decor. I also did laundry, organized my closet and took a whole bunch of photos for eBay.

The only time I left the house was to shovel. I spent about an hour Saturday night thoroughly cleaning snow and ice from my turn around, my walkway and sidewalks. I even did the neighbor's sidewalk as a thank you for all the times he has snow blown mine. I used the ice scraper I wrote about to clean up all the caked on snow from where tires and feet had compacted it. It worked great! That packed snow is impossible to shovel, but it came right up with the scraper. One funny thing that I noticed - from my upstairs window you can look down at my driveway and even after it is all cleared of snow, you can see a path of icy footprints from the garage to my porch, like a crime scene from the abominable snowman. (With daintier feet, of course.)

Naturally it was all covered with a fine layer of snow by Sunday, however, it was a light layer. Since Sunday seemed like it was going to be a better day for driving I went out - shopping. Does it seem surprising that I would go out shopping?? Well, it wasn't for anything frivolous...

You know how you have "around the house" projects you want to complete but just never do because you are missing some key ingredient or tool? I keep a small notebook in my purse of things like that so that when I am out and about I remember what I need to get. Sunday was a day of picking those things up and crossing them off the list.

I went to the fabric store where I bought two spools of thread to fix a favorite bag and a pair of pants of mine. The thread (which was 50% off) was far less expensive than a new pair of pants! That pair had been sitting in my closet for months because I didn't have the right colored thread to sew a button back on, and since it is button on a back pocket, it would show. Now I can fix them!

I went to Bed, Bath and Beyond where I picked up a birthday gift and some new skirt hangers. I have pretty strict "one in/one out" rule when it comes to clothes, but for some reason I have had several plastic skirt hangers break in the past few months. Since organizing my closet on Saturday, I wanted to make sure everything was hung properly, so I got a new set of heavy duty wooden hangers. Using my 20% off coupons they were about the same as the regular price of the plastic ones, and I think they will last a lot longer.

At the hardware store I bought more driveway de-icer, plus picture hangers so I could get some of my artwork that isn't hung off the floor of the spare bedroom and up on the walls where it belongs. That will not only not only look better, but also help with my goal to get that room cleared out. Mostly I bought regular hangers, but I did buy a set specifically for hanging a 50lb mirror. No, I don't have a 50lb mirror, but I do have a heavy stained glass window that my mother gave me years ago. It is time to get it out of the basement and out on display. I also found that spackle was on sale - just what I needed for my 2009 goal of redoing up the attic room!

I went to not one, not two, but three different stores for pharmacy related products. What can I say? I had gift cards for Rite Aid and Target and a couple of expiring coupons for CVS. (Here's a question for you - why are razor blades so $^*%^! expensive?) I had several things I needed and made the most of each stop.

It might sound like a lot of driving around, but all the stores I needed to hit were along my route to and from Target. While I did spend more money in one day than I have in quite awhile, it was all towards things I need to repair or complete projects. I did splurge on some 90% off "Christmas" wrapping paper and some candles that, in fact, are so neutral they can be used all year around. I love deals like that - just because the packaging has a Christmas tree on it, they put it in the clearance aisle! I would say that almost everything I bought was either on sale or I had a coupon or a gift card for. Overall it was a really good day.

Now that I've been spending though - it is time to get back to the business of making money!

Photo by: vistavision