My Goodness, Where Has All The Time Gone?

Hello readers,

I have participated in dozens of swaps and have blogged about almost none.  My bad!  I'm going through a load of personal laundry right now, so I'll blog when I feel like it again.  Could be a week.  Could be a month.  Definitely this summer, though.

Hugs,
Jenny

Today Was A Good Day

I am truly blessed to have such a good friend as J!  Check out her blog at Just Another Anonymous Witch.  Today she sent me this gigantic box of goodies.  And it was wrapped like a ninja.  I told her she should wrap for the secret service, lol.

Here is everything she sent me in one teeny-tiny-ninja-wrapped box.

A beautiful journal with one of those magnetic closing covers.

Cupcake cuteness inside.

 

Pretty note inside almost made me cry!

She MADE me this necklace. And two turquoise stones came along for the trip.  Awesome!

A super thoughtful coupon.

A purpley purse for all my purple purse needs.

A crap-ton of stamps for crafting.

2 nail polishes, and some makeup samples.

Squee!!! Pens in my favorite colors, pink and turquoise!

A box of stationery.

A totally uplifting book.

Inside the book.

Love you, Jen!

She knows I hate scary stuff.

This purple shirt, no joke, I have been wanting for 2 years. I even have the magazine ad clipping to prove it...somewhere. 

In addition to my bff's awesomeness, I had some postcard stuff too, today.

Here's some of what I sent out:

Here's one I got in return.

PLUS, my 4 year anniversary with my husband was yesterday.  Here's the card he got me.

Bahaahahahaaaaaa

 And Mother's Day is tomorrow, so he got me a Dog Mom card.

Inside:

See? Today was a good day.

Swap-bot: Let's Fly Away! Postcard Swap

I swap with Swap-bot!


For this swap, we'll be swapping postcards that feature things with wings ... birds, butterflies, planes, anything that flies! (Have postcards featuring birds that can't fly? Penguins? Ostriches? That's okay, too!) Store-bought postcards only, please. Postcards can be sent naked or in an envelope, sender's choice.

Here's what I sent:

Here's what I got in return:

Received April 10, 2011 from Aimee in NY.

Isn't it awesome?

Swap-bot: Food PC Swap

I swap with Swap-bot!
Description:

This swap is going to be a postcard featuring any type of food.

Everyone will have one partner and you can send a homemade card or a store bought card. The food can be either a cartoon, have a recipe on the front or the back, or just something that you like or have in your stash.

Here's what I sent:

I'm pretty sure I got this out of a Seventeen Magazine about 11 years ago.  It has an ad for Target on the back.

Here's what I got in return:

Received April 7, 2011 from Lollipop Marie.

I love it! So cute, yet so simple!

Swap-bot: Crowd Postcard Swap

I swap with Swap-bot!
Description:
Send one postcard to one partner of anything with hundreds or thousands of people on it. A stadium, fairgrounds, the beach, a rally, etc. Store bought only, and written on and stamped.

Here's what I sent:

Does this count as a crowd? It's all I had.

Here's what I received:

Received on April 7, 2011 from Aladyde in Germany.

The description reads, " Bahnstation, 1844. Railway station - Gare. Bundespostmuseum Frankfurt am Main." No idea what that says. :)

Swap-bot:The Super Boring Scenery Postcard Swap

I swap with Swap-bot!
The description:

Here's your chance to get rid of that postcard that's been sitting in your stash forever because it's just too dull to actually send out! (Or if you just want the challenge of shopping for the most boring postcard in the souvenir shop, that's okay too!)

Cards should show some sort of scenery - natural or manmade. The more boring, the better! 

Here's what I sent:

Here's what I got in return:

Received April 7, 2011 from Moowee.  

It's so great! It even arrived dirty (she said she didn't send it that way, lol).  The caption says "Snow Capped Mt. Washington as seen from Highway; WHITE MOUNTAINS, N.H."

Poignant

I read The Bloggess regularly, and recently she posted about "coming out" with mental illness.  She shared a story of a close friend who lost her husband to mental illness, and she linked to a blogger, Michael Kimber, who encourages us to speak out.  Here's his video.



I used to speak about my illnesses to anyone who asked, because I understood the need for educating people about it.  What I didn't understand until I got a bit older is that just because they ask doesn't mean they really want to know.  As I became a teacher, I declared myself fully mentally healthy to the public and kept the Klonopin by the bedside.  I couldn't reveal my struggles for fear of never working again.

Now is the time.  If he can do it, if they can do it, if Jenny the Bloggess can do it, so can I.

Someone once said to me that I was the strongest person they knew.  I said, "I don't feel strong. Not at all."  He said, "You're so used to fighting to be strong, you don't even realize you do it." I'll never forget that moment.

That's All, Folks

This blog brought me great joy in 2010.  Then I got a job that required my every waking moment's attention, and blogging fell by the wayside, along with thrifty crafting.  And now that it is January 1st of a new year, I have to be honest with myself: having this blog makes me feel guilty.  I feel like I should be blogging, then when I make time, I feel guilty for having nothing thrifty to write about. So in the interest of my sanity, this blog is now on hiatus until further notice. I'll come back, one day.  Don't think you can get rid of me that easily. ;) Probably when the school year gets out and I'm not teaching I'll have more time.

Goodbye, and thanks for all the fish!

Goodwill is Better than Salvation Army

Yes, folks, it's true.  At least in my town.  Goodwill has more stuff, and it's cheaper, even if it is further away from my house.  I am so glad I got a Station Wagon for my replacement car, because I'm able to haul home the good stuff!

$4.99 - We think it had been a butcher's block at one time, but right now it has a formica-looking thing on the top.  This is after I cleaned all the nastiness off the thing.  I shoulda taken a "before" pic, but I want you to keep your lunches. 

 So now I keep all my candles and candle holders in the bottom drawer, all the doggy stuff in the middle drawer, and nothing in the top drawer (yet).

$2.99 - This beauty was mentioned in this post.  I plan to paint the wicker parts an ivory-tanish color.

Oh, and Hannah says hi.

Getting Thrifty is Hard To Do

I have not done anything thrifty or crafty to speak of since I moved to Missouri in August. *hangs head in shame*.  I'm too busy trying to be awesome at my job (and failing pretty miserably).  I haven't unpacked all the boxes from the move, and I literally have no where to even store my craft stuff, let alone craft it.  Here's a list of my half-hearted efforts:

Boxes: I piled them up against the wall in the bedroom and draped unused curtains over them so I wouldn't have to look at my failures every time I went to bed.

Goodwill: I bought a really really ugly book shelf and planned to paint it some groovy colors, but then the towering piles of books overcame me and I just shoved books on it.  And now I have a really really ugly book shelf.

Salvation Army: I needed a purse with different pockets/etc that my current one didn't have, and I wanted to pay almost nothing, so off I went.  I want to tell all of you that the Salvation Army does not mess around getting their $ for the value.  Most of the purses were more than $10. Wtf? I found a bright red one for $2.49, with visions of fabric dye dancing in my head.  Alas, fail again.

At work: Just about the only way to cover the cabinets and carts during the day while they're not being used is to use thumbtacks and fabric.  I used a lime green sheet with a white pattern to do the job. I got them at Goodwill three years ago, intending to make curtains.  They never made it to curtain status, but did a wonderful job as packing blankets in the move.  But it looks like hell.  I am itching to hem the edges, use stitch witch on them, or something, but I do not have the time or space.

Mail: I get so many fliers and so much junk mail living here it's friggen ridiculous.  Instead of sorting and recycling, I dumped all of it onto a food serving tray and stashed it on top of my printer.  Let's see if I can remember to ever go through it, lol.

Dogs: My shih tzu Teddy is in desperate need of a haircut.  I have always done his haircuts myself, but since we've moved here I haven't had the time.  So I'm shelling out $36 on Saturday to have it done.  My aunt knows a place near her that does it for $25, but my place is a block from my house and I've got shit to do.  Thrifty FAIL.

Butterflies and daffodils to you my lovelies.

Something actually thrifty: Remember that car wreck? We bought another, better car for less than our settlement check, and with the difference, I bought a laptop (cheapest I could find) for work. Booya!