I Have a finish!

I did it I finished a cross stitch project! I was not to bad either. I have so many completed but not finished projects I cant begin to tell you. I actually followed the steps in this tutorial http://hannahxs.blogspot.com/2007/11/no-sew-cube-tutorial.html It made it very easy.

Here are photos of my progress.

This is a gift for my Daughter. I made it so long ago she may not want it anymore. But I do like the way it turned out. Lets hope this will inspire me to finish more.

On the Cost front it was not terribly expensive to finish. I purchased two fat quarters, some red tag ribbon and styrofoam for the center. Total cost was about$12.50. It came out of my Misc. Category in my budget. It made me very happy to spend the day working on something crafty. Totally worth the cost.

Baby decided he wanted me to wake up at 6:30 and stay awake. hmmm now he is back to sleep and I am up for the day. So just a quick entry before I grab a much needed shower....

Stitching:

I am working on a heart ornament. The pattern is from Just Cross Stitch Mag Jan/Feb 09 issue. I asked my DD to give me a subscription for my Christmas gift. I stopped getting any magazines a long long time ago as they were an unneeded expense. But I just missed JCS too much. I am altering the thread colors for the first attempt at it. I will maybe make it again in the brown as shown in the Mag. I never would have attempted a change in the pattern except for the inspiration that I have gotten reading others blogs. It is really helpful to see what other stitchers are doing and use those techniques for my own.

My local needlework shop (LNS) has sent me a coupopn for my birthday month. Ah the pleasure... What shall I get? Have to be careful about too much temptation. However on the other side of that I have only 2 weeks of maternity leave left so I should take advantage of shopping while I am still able to get out and about easily. I am sure the tiredness will return as I return to work as well as my ability to accomplish anything will again diminish.

Cents:

I really need time to spend at my desk. I am driving myself crazy with what needs to be done and what is left undone. When I return to work I will have one day where I can work from home per week. Typically I spend about half of my work day clearing off my desk and taking care of my paperwork that needs attention. It short of shifts me into work mode and makes it easier to transition into attention to details. The problem with sitting at my desk right now is with the baby it is just too cold for me to have him sit downstairs. We keep the heat off in that room to save as much money as possible. So I accomplish nothing. If I could get him to nap peacefully I would be able to sneak away. Today that is not going to happen. SIGH... Maybe tomorrow

Stitching purchases

Stitching:

I purchased the Over the top tin by Just Nan. It arrived in the mail yesterday. I am so excited. I have been a cross stitcher for many years. In 2005 I looked for cross stitch blogs.There were not many blogs out there. So I continued on with the idea that cross stitch was dying out as there are not many cross stitchers. (Michaels and other craft stores used to carry TONS of stuff for cross stitch. Now a days its all about scrapbooking and very very few cross stitch patterns are carried in craft stores.) Last year I began to pay off my credit card debt. During that process I started reading Personal Finance blogs. In Sept/Oct I searched again for Cross stitch blogs. Jackpot. I found a few. Then a few more.... I found I missed all the interaction. I have been introduced to new designers. I have been inspired by other stitchers and I am enjoying planning other projects again. One of those designers is Just Nan. I was so jealous of the tins people posted on their blogs. They all sold out so fast. So I ordered one for me. I really like it. I cant wait to start stitching. First though I have a few things to work on. I need to make a small gift for my DD for Valentine's day. (DS dosent need a gift at 2.5 months old he will never notice!) so as the holiday approaches I have to make that first. For Christmas my DH purchased a bunch of patterns for me. One of them is a bib for DS. That will be next. Then OTT tin. I have been working on my Lavender & Lace project and it is close to completion but I cant have too many Cross stitch patterns going at once. First of all it takes too much space in the Living room. Secondly with DS taking so much of my attention these days I am lucky if I get to stitch on any given day. So there it is. Just Nan awaits. I am so psyched.

Cents:

The tin kit was not too expensive. I have not been driving very much while on maternity leave. and I used the budget item of gas as justification for the purchase. In every day living I shop only for food and necessities. I also need something to be stimulating me while I am home. I love my new son but a conversationalist he is not... yet. Although lately he does try lots of wonderful coos. So I justified it that way. Plus it will go away if I do not purchase it now.

I can justify it all I want to but the truth is it would be better if you put the cash towards debt. The challenge there is if I feel so deprived that I never get to purchase anything for myself this is not a good debt reduction plan. So balance is important. I purchased one thing for myself this month. And a couple of items for DD valentines Day. Then I am finished. This is good balance.The rest of my money to the dreaded credit cards. I will be out of debt soon. I have a plan.

I am not a financial professional. If you are looking for financial advise you should seek it elsewhere. If you would like to join me on the journey, walk with me for a while and be my friend......

Stitching and Cents

Well I am finally afforded 20 minutes to type. It is much harder then I imagined to get to my computer during the day with an 8 week old baby. My computer is in the basement and It is much too cold to bring him down there. Laptop??? Of course, but at night when I finally sit down typing is awkward and If the baby is sleeping I need to be sleeping. But here I am .... and things ARE settling down.

PF bloggers if hobby talk bores you skip down to the Cents section.

Stitching:

I am posting a photo of progress. It has been a delight to get back to stitching. I am trying to figure out how to move the Q-snaps so as not to muck up the beading. I have seen other stitchers using quilted batting around the frame to help in holding the frame in place. It occurred to me that the batting might solve the bead issue. I am worried about moving the frame and it would rip out the beading that had been completed. I like to mix it up I like to stitch a color, then do a metallic which I do not like to stitch with but I do like the end result. It keeps my frustration level at the end of a stitching piece low. I always save the back stitch for the whole piece till the end. I am also reconsidering that. It is a big piece and It might be better if I did it in quadrants instead. We'll see. I do feel good about how far I have gotten this week. I had to frog 60 rows of white because the two skeins were different colors. It took me 3 days to pull all the stitches! One was a regular white from old and one a bright white. Hazards of using stash I suppose. I am so happy to be stitching again.


I finally have time to spend on stitching and I am just going to take it one step at a time. I would like to finish this project this year. After its completion, I am going to move on to smaller projects so I can get more done. I also am going to try and complete my finishes. I have never done a pin keep or a cube and I have plans to do one of each for my DD. I am also considering sending out some of the items to be finished because I know I will never get to it. I will post my progress here. Oh and I am dropping the sled project. I started it. ButI hate the colors of the bow. Not shown in this pic. And it has been a long time since I stitched on Aida cloth. I don't like it any more. I am too addicted to linen. So rather then waste time doing something I don't like I am dropping the whole thing. I might do the pattern later with different threads but. Not right now.


Cents and Sense:

Things I have accomplished this week...

1) I called CC#1 and had them adjust the "Past Purchases" balance to macth the new purchases interest rate.

2) My DH and I had a discussion about the Home purchase fund. He feels it is mathmatically smarter to pay off the credit card then to hold on to 3K for closing costs. I can see his argument, but it gave me a major sense of security. I knew that if there was an absolute extreme emergency we could dip into the fund. On the other hand it is silly to be losing money on 3K when I could gain progress on the debt reduction. Including the fact that I will be decreasing the amount of money I am putting toward debt each month. I am increasing my healthcare, I am adding child care. I really need to set time aside to do the budget for this year and that is really hard to come by.

3) Insurance. I followed up with the insurance company regarding submitting a bill for my son. He saw the Dr. In Dec and the insurance company does not have him covered starting in 2008. However... He is covered in 2009. Great execpt if I get an insurance bill in Dec for any office visits he should have been covered. So I called my employeer. They now have to follow up. and I am sure that things will need to be followed up with more later. What does this have to do with personal finance... Well I was sent a bill by the pediatrician for $223.00. I certainly would like to save that money out of pocket, He also went to the Hospital for two tests and there are probably one other insurance statements we havent seen yet from his birth. The less I pay out of pocket the farther my income goes to pay off my credit card debt.

What makes sense? Follow up follow up follow up.

I saw an item in a magazine yesterday while sitting in a doctors waiting room. there were clothes pins with each day labeled on them. I need to do one thing on my desk each day. I started With CC#1, continued with paying bills Tuesday, and follow up with insurance. I need to do one thing each day so that I can feel accomplished and organized again. I have so much to do I cant seem to wrap my head around it all. So I am doing it the way the pros do, one step at a time... Break it down and take it in small steps until the chunks are gone.

That goes for stitching too.

taking care of yourself

Sometimes I forget to take care of myself. I become wrapped up in what needs to be done and I focus on the tasks at hand. The thing that gets added lastly to the list is me. My DH yelled at me for doing it again as I was feeling frustrated because I was not able to figure out all my bills the way they should be. I needed time to sit at my desk and I was feeling VERY stressed as a result to the hight of each of the piles. Needless to say I had to ask for time to sit at my desk and take care of some of the piles. It is stunning how much mail I receive and how much time it takes for me to focus on each task and take care of things. I hate the amount of time it takes.

So as my reward I ordered a cross stitch calendar for myself. I should have ordered it earlier. but I was hoping Santa would get it for me. It was on my wish list. The calender is no longer available. It is on order but I doubt I will be able to get it. SIGH. I just needed to speak up sooner.

On the Credit card front....

I noticed that in CC#1 Statement they did adjust the rate BUT... They did not adjust the rate of past purchases. The past purchase rate stayed the same. I noticed a while ago but Dh is watching little stuff and I am slowly recovering my baby brain so here goes... I called again. I told the first customer service person the story. Oh let me transfer you. Ok I told the second Customer service person. Ok Let me see. I got a third customer service person. OK here we go again. But cheerfully I went through the explanation of why I was calling again. I noticed that the "past purchases" rate did not change and I wanted the two rates to be the same. Oh I see. He said. Let me fix that for you. And he did. I should see it reflected on the next statement. Hooray! I do think being pleasant and cheerful helped. It also helps to be persistent. I spoke with three different people before I got to yes.

January begins again

January begins again. Thank God that I put my goals on automatic pilot. I have just added up all my payments with the year end and in 2008 I paid down 13,255.42 in debt. I paid off 33.3% of my total debt. Man I rock. I even made progress in December even though I was trying to hold steady at no new debt. I accomplished that and more. I am so proud of myself. I managed to pass through Christmas without getting further into debt. WOW. I did it. Wow. I need to take time to bask in that.

Plans for 2009... The same as this year but at a slower rate. I will not have as much money for bills as I did before. Happy baby boy needs Daycare. I have allocated Some funds to pay off the debt though and I will continue to try.

My credit card #1 is paid off. My credit card #2 is paid down to 68% of the original amount. I will keep chunking away at it. My DH yelled at me to take care of myself. He thinks I need new socks. I think I need to make due with what I have until the debt is paid off. By paying off the debt I am taking care of myself.

I will post more later. For now Lunch is calling.