M.J. Fredrick's Blog, page 39

And the Winner Is…..

Sonimar! She guessed I spent $115 at IKEA this week and the total before tax was:

 

Actually, even with tax, it was $140, so she was still closest, only $25 off. Makes you want to run to IKEA, right?

Goals for the LAST WEEK of Summer

This is it, the last week of summer, which means I’m going to be cramming in a ton of stuff. I can’t believe I never got my act together this summer. I’m hoping maybe with the structure of the school year…

So, here I go.

Finish novella
Finish revising other novella
Sew two skirts. Maybe 3.
Put together my outfits for the first couple of weeks, with shoes and jewelry. I actually love doing this.
Maybe figure out what I might maybe should teach the first week…
Write a guest blog
Day with Mom
Go to the movies
Dinner with Baby Brother
Pinterest–something. Jewelry?
Stain my new dresser
Exercise

See what I mean? If I can stay HOME for 2 solid days, I think I’ll be okay.

The Price Is Right–a Contest. How Much Did I Spend at IKEA?

Okay, here’s the rules: I am posting a picture with 2 angles of the haul I brought back from IKEA. I’ll also list everything. Leave a guess in the comments here or on Facebook, and the person who comes the closest by breakfast Sunday morning will win a $10 gift card to Amazon or BN. Fun, right?

The list:

a 3-drawer dresser

a cutting board (18×20 or some big size)

2 IKEA shopping bags

a watering can

a decorative lantern

a treatment for the cutting board

a glass bottle with a stopper

a lamp shade

2 lint rollers

a glass serving bowl

a set of three small knives for cutting fruit, etc.

3 silicone ice cube trays

a set of 4 spice jars

2 plain dishtowels

2 embroidered dishtowels

a set of 8 hangars and 5 skirt hangers

2 good-sized S-hooks to hang my purses on

a set of 2 magazine files

What’s your guess?

Goals for the Week Before the Last Week of Summer

Yup, we’re down to the wire, and my schedule is going to show it. I appease myself by thinking this is the amount of time we have for Christmas vacation, and it seems like a good long time then

1) Work on new novella. I need 6 pages a day to finish by the time school starts.

2) Revise novel, then start again. I’m revising a chapter a day, but I worry I’m not going deep enough.

3) Go to IKEA with Mom. We don’t have one in San Antonio, so we’re going to Round Rock, which is on the other side of Austin.

4) Go to the Country Peddler show in New Braunfels. I had a coupon

5) Get hair cut and highlighted. I want highlights but sitting still is so hard for me. I hope I don’t chicken out.

6) Get ready for the cleaning lady.

7) call a yard guy

8) sew something.

9) Write something like 4 blog posts. Yikes!

10) Exercise. I’ve lost 4 pounds so far but didn’t do so well with exercising last week. Must keep up the routine!

I decided Joshua Jackson isn’t right. I never thought I’d do this, but here is Channing Tatum.He’s a little too squinty for me, but kinda right for the role.

Firsts

I saw this on another blog. I want to say Jaunty Quills but I don’t remember. Anyway, I thought it was fun.

Today, I want to play a game called fifteen firsts. Please play along by answering the questions and posting them below. My answers are listed below:

1. What was your FIRST job?

I worked in a five and dime called Winn’s. I started out in the candy department, which was like one aisle, and begged for the fabric department, which I LOVED. Most of my money went back to Winn’s when they put me in the fabric department.

2. What was your FIRST car?

My stepdad gave me his 1973 LTD my junior year so I could get to work after school. That thing was a TANK! I could fit 8 people in it, easy.

3. Do you still talk to your FIRST love?

No. No no no no no. Just no.

4. What was your FIRST alcoholic drink?

Lone Star beer. Blech.

5. What is the FIRST thing you do when you get home?

Turn on the computer.

6. Where did you go on your FIRST ride in an airplane?

California, I’m sure, to visit my grandparents.

7. Who was your FIRST best friend & do you still talk?

Wow, I don’t remember. And no.

8. What was the FIRST thing you did this morning?

Let the dog out, made breakfast and got on the computer.

9. FIRST tattoo?

No! Also, OUCH!

10. FIRST piercing?

Ears. We had to wait in this LONG line at Joske’s in North Star Mall (no longer there) and they used a gun, which had just come out. I almost didn’t let them do the second ear. And they got infected. Bad.

11. FIRST foreign country you went to?

Mexico. First and only.

12.  Did you marry the FIRST person who asked for your hand in marriage?

No. That would be the first love, who was CRAZY. OMG, I’d be living in a van down by the river.

13. What were the FIRST lessons you ever took?

Piano. I didn’t stick with it, though, sadly.

14. What is your FIRST memory?

I remember coming home from Six Flags Over Texas, the one in Arlington and at the time the ONLY one, and seeing the San Antonio skyline and being so happy because I was almost home. I was barely four, I think. There was also something about the three bears. I think they were my pretend friends.

15. FIRST published book?

Where There’s Smoke–March 2008!

Meet Andrew. I’ve never written a hero named Andrew before

My Bedroom Redesign (It Sucks to be Crazy)

So after I bought my little bedside table the other day, my room has a very beach cottage-y feel to it. I decided I wanted to go whole-hog with that idea, and Saturday night after dinner, I had Fred take me to JoAnn’s because I had some ideas (Pinterest, of course.)

I bought four white picture frames (I took 3 back on Sunday, more on that later), an ocean-y fabric, muslin, some scrapbook paper, some tiny scissors, stuffing…I think that’s it.  It came out to $78, which I didn’t think was terrible considering what the frames cost ($55 for all 4).

I came home and traced a crab, sea turtle and sea horse on three different shades of blue scrapbook paper, then cut them out with the tiny scissors. I cut out rectangles of the ocean print and centered the silhouettes, and was just about the open the $10 frames when I remembered I had some black frames and white spray paint. What would the Junk Gypsies do? They would try it. If it didn’t work, I still had the $10 frames.

Well, it worked. I had to wait until Sunday morning to put them together, but these $1 frames I’d gotten years ago at the dollar store did the trick.

Then I cut out rectangles of muslin, ironed it onto freezer paper and ran it through the laser printer. If I’d been thinking, I would have downloaded the images, placed them in a document and would have been able to center the images. As it was, I had to play jigsaw puzzle to put them together. Then I added the seaside fabric to each end to make it a long pillow. I took the remaining fabric and wrapped it around so the muslin images were “framed” in the seaside fabric.

This was a LOT more work than I expected. Not only did the thread keep breaking, but I sewed one end of the pillow wrong and had to cut it and resew it after I’d stuffed the pillow which is a PITA. But it looks good all put together.

I bought this picture as a download from Etsy. I thought it was so pretty. Another spray-painted frame. BTW, I took the frames back and got $28 back, so the whole redesign was $50, including the $25 frame I bought for a picture I don’t have yet.

I already had sea glass and shells, and the containers and the crane. I just put them all in one place. This is an old entertainment center that I put in the bedroom and use to store quilts and books.

I also already had the decorative balls that look like sand, and the basket.

And I’d made the burlap pictures long ago, was going to make pillows out of them, but the bad thing about printing on your computer is you’re limited by size. But I had more frames, so…

 

 

I’m waiting to hear from an artist because I want a print of this picture called Southern Belle. I’ve loved it for a long time, and think it will be gorgeous in the room.

So, it sucks to be crazy but sometimes it comes together.

Goals the Week of STILL Nothing

Okay, I have to take the boy to the dentist for a filling Tuesday, but other than that, nada.

This week

1) Finish novella

2) work on revisions

3) sew something

4) Pinterest project

5) hall closet/middle room closet

6) Day with Mom

7) Keep up exercise

8) Keep up the house. My cleaning lady comes back next week.Really all I’ve had to do is sweep!

Another Creative Commons picture.

 

SCATTERED!

I’m down to three weeks left in my summer vacation and I’ve gotten so little done, especially compared to last summer. I wrote a novel, but I’ve hardly done any projects since I’ve been back from the west coast. I have some super simple projects but I haven’t done any of them, though I have all the supplies.

Then there was the organization thing I was going to do this summer. Nope.

Writing isn’t going great but at least THAT I’ve shown progress.

So, even though I’m running out of time, I am going to get organized NOW.

Pinterest projects:

necklaces and magnets

stamping metal

wall decoration with toilet paper holders (don’t judge)

candle holders/lanterns with tin cans

flip flop wreath

2 collages on canvases

Tin foil picture

paint denim skirt

Sewing projects:

orange dress

pink dress

modified denim skirt

bright skirt

purple and black skirt

modified t-shirt with elastic thread

Organizing projects:

hall closet

middle room closet

fourth bedroom (need my husband’s help)

laundry room

I need to find a place to take my old computers. They don’t work enough for me to erase the hard drives, though. Any ideas?

Okay, I went to Creative Commons and here is Henry!

What Would The Junk Gypsies Do?

My mom told me about this show I should watch called Junk Gypsies on HGTV (I think.) It’s about these 2 sisters who are interior designers, but they get most of their finds from thrift stores and repurpose them, like turning a motorcycle gas tank into a light fixture. Anyway, I LOVE this show. The sisters are from Texas, and while some of their decorations are something I’d never use, I love watching them come up with ideas. Also, I think they dress cool, and they’re very handy, though sometimes they get their dad and some others to pitch in. And I love the way they meet with the client, then go out to eat while they make their plan. They do a LOT of advertising for local businesses like those restaurants and other stores. One episode, they went to Texas Trash and Treasures, who had a booth at the King William Fair.

Anyway, I’ve been wanting to reorganize my guest room, which really is more of a project storage room. I have printed out manuscripts and other writing paraphernalia, and all of my sewing and other project stuff. I don’t have enough room in there, with the full-sized bed. I feel so scattered lately and I think part of it is that I have too many projects in too many places.

Last year when I was painting the wall in the living room, I moved the DVD case and it broke. For some reason, Fred kept part of it, and I started to throw it out last week, but stopped myself. Only one side was damaged, and it had lots of storage space, so I put it in the middle room, not sure where I was going to put it. Yesterday when I was thrifting with my mom, my inner question was, “What would the Junk Gypsies do?” I knew I didn’t have room to spread out so I had to spread UP.

I didn’t find anything at the stores, but when I came home, I thought about putting the DVD case on top of the desk. I don’t sit there anyway, and it doesn’t take as much space as I expected. So I cleaned off (and out) my desk, put the case on top, and filled in the cubbies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’d had a bulletin board behind it, and it had some old OLD contest announcements, etc., on it. I took it down, thought about how the Junk Gypsies made a cute framed bulletin board and put inspirational stuff on it. I dug out a smaller bulletin board (not framed) and put inspirational stuff on it and hung it over where I’m storing my fabric and patterns.

 

Last, I put a bookshelf in there and put some of my projects on it. I just remembered I have some more in the pantry. Ahem.

 

 

I still need to get in the closet and clean the floor, but it’s much MUCH better than it was. Maybe now I can focus on getting things done and not be so scattered.

Goals for the Week of NOTHING

Okay, it will be a rough week because Josh’s girlfriend moved to Alaska yesterday to go to school. They’ve been together every day for almost a year, first as friends, then as a couple. He’s going to be lonely and heartbroken and I hope I can keep his spirits up. If you’re keeping track, last year about this time his last girlfriend broke up with him. So the challenge will be keeping him busy.

 

Keep working on revisions–10 pages a day.
Keep working on new novella, 2000 words a day
Dentist appointment
Day with Mom
Judge 2 contest entries
Go see Dark Knight Rises.
Keep up the house. I had a lady and her daughter clean it yesterday. 6 hours and it looks fantastic.
Do better about cooking. With Josh and Jolene out a lot this past week, I think I cooked twice.
Keep up with exercising. I’ve also completely cut out snacking, which is just as big an accomplishment, IMO. Instead of snacking, I get on the bike.

Alas, I’m not going to add cutie pictures anymore after reading Roni Loren’s blog about how she got sued by a photographer for posting a picture. That makes me sad because A) I like looking for the pictures and B) I like tracking my progress by changing the pictures when I’m done with the book.I know some people are deleting their Pinterest boards, too, but I just….can’t. I feel like it’s okay to still use the cat pictures since they have a “share” button.