A Bargain Scrapper's TFTD (tip for the day)

For anyone out there who may not know this about me (although it would be hard not to, LOL), I am completely obsessed with scrapbooking/cardmaking/papercrafting.  I call it my creative outlet of choice.  Unfortunately, the deeper the obsession grows, the deeper it can reach into your wallet!  There is such a myriad of brands, products, design lines, and tools available that you could spend hundreds of dollars a day and never have enough!  

As for me personally, I simply can't afford to just buy up all the pretties that I want!  Sad fact, I know.  So I am developing myself into a Bargain Scrapper.  I have to be on the lookout for the most cost-effective way to grow my hobby!  So I have decided to use my little blog here as a way to offer some the money-saving ideas I have found for other papercrafting addicts out there.  

Thus is born the Bargain Scrapper's TFTD, or Tip For The Day.  Anytime I find a useful tip for saving green while crafting away, I will post it here and share it with others!

TFTD 5-11-09:     If I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times...do not buy products at full retail price if you can absolutely help it.  Large chain craft stores just offer too many sales, discounts and coupons for us to be spending precious $$  on regular priced items!  For example, this week Hobby Lobby has an online coupon for 40% off one regularly priced item that you can print and use in store.  I LOVE these coupons.  Even if you just need some new scissors or a new pad of plain cardstock, you can save yourself 40%!  Michael's usually has coupons in their weekly ads to be on the lookout for, also.  

So to my fellow bargain scrappers out there, this week, go buy yourself a scrap goodie, no matter how big or small, at LESS than regular price!  I'll post later whatever I find!  :D  

Happy  Scrapping!

The Dreaded Plateau

UGH.  I have officially plateaued.  I knew it was coming, as it does to anyone starting a weight loss journey, but why oh why did it have to come three weeks before we go to the beach?!?!  I have been stuck for a little over a week now at 12 pounds weight loss.  I don't think I'm going to reach my goal of losing 25 total by the time we go to the beach.  *sigh*  Oh well.  Just gotta stay on topside, I guess.  

I think Keith has lost a total of about 17 pounds now, if I'm correct.  And the proof is in the pictures!  I must say that I laughed at him for taking pre-dieting pictures, you know, posing with no shirt on, LOL.  I refused to take any pictures when I started because for one thing I was pretty sure that the camera would break, and second I did not want a single more "fat picture" of me floating around out there.  But now I kinda wish I had.  The difference between Keith's Day 1 pics and Day 30 pics was pretty amazing.  So much so, that he even showed my  mom!  LOL.  Now I wish I had taken some sort of pictures to kind of be able to step back and look at my progress.  

In other Jones Household news, I have recently developed a new obsession with Rhett and Link, a couple of vloggers and internetainers as they call themselves.  http://www.rhettandlink.com  These guys, to me, are pure comedic genius.  I could watch these videos over and over and just laugh my head off!  And they are so dang adorable too!!  I'm going to add them to the "blogs I follow" list.

Blogging would be so much more fun if...

I knew that more than one person actually read it, LOL.  Oh well, I guess I could think of it as a journal for myself.

Well I guess the biggest thing in the Jones household is our healthy lifestyle changes!  The husband and I have started eating much healthier and exercising nearly everyday.  We're both trying to lose weight and just improve ourselves.  I got on the scale when I first started so I knew where I was starting at, and that was the last thing I remember before I apparently experienced cardiac arrest from the mere shock and had to be rushed to a trauma center.

Kidding, lol.

Seriously though, I had never seen that number before and I never want to see it again!  I guess since my whole life I have just thought of myself as fat no matter what size I've been, I didn't really notice all that much when I started steadily packing on pounds and inches.  Well no more!  I am determined to reclaim the hottie that is smothering underneath all of this cushiony layer of fat, haha!

So right now, I am down 9 pounds after about 4 weeks, and Keith is down 11 pounds after 5 weeks.  We leave for Myrtle Beach on May 26, so my goal is to lose about 15-16 more pounds by then.  It might be a lofty goal, but at least its a goal!

ITS A NEPHEW!!!

My sister-in-law finally had her baby this morning, Friday, January 9, 2009, and its a boy!!!!! Little Josiah Paul was born at 7:35 am and weighed in at a little over 8 pounds!!! WOO HOOOOO!!!!

Kicking the Habit

Well I have decided to get a jump start on one of my new year's resolutions. I am determind to kick my mt. dew/caffeine addiction. I just know that its not good for my body and therefore I want to stop consuming it! I am two days into my recovery.

Anybody got a valium? Xanax?? Anything?!?!?!

Just kidding.

Sort of.

Yesterday I ended up with a terrible headache and today I am just flat out exhausted. I had so much planned to accomplish tonight and it looks like I'm going to get none of it done, lol.

Here's to recovery!

AAAHHHHHHHHHHH

I've taken this moment to step away, breathe, collect myself, and prepare to get back to work. So pardon me while I momentarily freak out...



*AAAAAAHHHHHHHH* *RAAAAWWWRRRRR* *GRRRRRRRRRR*



Okay. Much better.



Its just this crazy time of year. I love every minute of it even if it does make me a little crazy. I devoted the entire day today to Christmas shopping, hoping that I could complete it all. Boy were those lofty hopes, LOL. I spent the entire day on my feet in Lexington and the three people that I went to Lexington to shop for, I bought nothing for! I'm just not very original, I'm a person who needs specifics. *sigh* But I did get some others marked off my list, so I'm happy. I also had a marvelous lunch and some fun shopping with Haley, she came down to Lex from Georgetown to meet me for a while.



As for the moment, this is what I am buried in:

Tonight I have to finish the Christmas cards I volunteered to make for the gift baskets the church is giving out tomorrow night when we go caroling. They're the burgundy ones with the gold christmas trees on them. I also REALLY need to get my butt into serious gear to finish my personal Christmas cards and get them in the mail. *doh* And throw in there somewhere finishing the last of my shopping.

Can somebody get me a valium?

Kidding, kidding! Sort of.

;-) Here's to wonderful holiday madness!!

I <3 Gatlinburg!!!

Every year since 2004, the Jones family has taken a family trip to stay in a cabin in the Smoky Mountains for Christmas. It has seriously become one of the highlights of the year! We always have so much fun, see beautiful sights, eat like pigs, act like dorks, relax like slobs and love each other's company!! ^_^ I'm usually a picture taking freak on these trips, but for some reason I just wasn't this year. I did catch some good stuff, tho!!

I am hoping that this kid's *serious* adorable-ness is distracting you from the strange distortion of my face....wait now I told....dangit!

We love getting in an outdoor hottub when its 30 degrees outside! Its a tradition!

Movie time snacks!!! Yay!!!

I know...we're adorable. ^_^