Christmas Journaling - A December Daily

Last year as part of my simplification and savoring, I decided to keep a Christmas journal.  It was part Gandanke journal, part repurposing old Christmas cards and part December Daily.

I used old Christmas card fronts as journaling pages.  They are pretty AND functional.  By recording thoughts, feelings, and activities that brought me closer to the Savior I was able to more fully savor the season.

It is definitely something I am doing again this year, though I am throwing a different twist this year and journaling my answers to the questions posed in Ann Voskamps advent book, the Greatest Gift.

What do you do with old Christmas Cards?

Do you do anything different with your December journaling?

**Originally published on 12/11/2013**

 

Frugality, Repurposing and {MMB}

Today I am posting over at MMB.  I'm discussing Living Frugally and Repurposing and the contribution it can make to your home and family.  I'm no expert, but I share some ideas I've picked up over the years.

"When I was a young stay at home mom, I often wondered what it was I financially contributed to the family.  I was often left with low feelings of self worth.  I remember seeing on a talk show once someone compared a stay at home mom to a "kept woman".  I recognized these things as Satan thoughts and his fiery darts were firing away.  What better way to destroy a family, than to start with the degradation of the mother?!  I have never watched a talk show since...."  

Read more here... I'd totally appreciate your feedback and comments.

DIY Chalk Board

Can you believe I crafted?  Yeah!  I was shocked, too.  As part of the big bedroom makeover, Ladybug and I had a few fun things on our agenda.  She wanted a chalk board, but not the boring old things...

This is what we came up with:

Black tray from Hobby Lobby, used a 40% off coupon

Black chalk board paint again from Hobby Lobby, used a 40% off coupon

Add some hangers on the back

And Ladybug's favorite saying
The tray provides a nice little shelf for chalk and eraser.
A place for Ladybug to write notes to herself

Pinterest

This post/picture was recently pinned on Pinterest by multiple people. I'm not sure whether to feel flattered or violated.

What are your thoughts on Pinterest?

Repurposing II

I'm no thief, and I don't particularly like other peoples trash, but I must admit to going through my neighbors trash for a real find. May I add that the neighbor was my parents, and I asked them first? They threw away this wooden rocking chair. They said they had no need for it...I took that baby home did a little light sanding then painted with leftover outdoor house paint. It has sat on my porch for quite some time. Almost new porch furniture: Cost $0.00 See I really do love the word FREE.  

You can read about two other repurposing projects here...

Repurposing

I love when I can give new life to an older item.  Here is my latest redo. 

Bench $0, thanks mom.

Fabric $3.00 Hobby Lobby

Batting $0 already had some leftovers

A staple gun is my friend...

More Repurposing here

Repurposing

When I can create something that feels new that I have made over from something I already have, I feel so good. Cost $0.00! This is repurposing. -Verb-Repurpose: Taking a thing or a material and using it for a purpose not originally intended. 

In an old house, my mom was pulling down her beautiful white and blue balloon shade.   I loved that fabric!  She was taking the shade down to replace it and I scammed it off of her because she was just going to throw it out anyway.  I cut that shade up and sewed myself kitchen curtains for our old house.  They were pickin' cute, if do say so myself.  Two valances and two panels:  Cost $0.00 .

(See the curtains there on the left?)

I didn't have much fabric left, but I've held onto it in my scrap fabric for almost 12 years now.  Recently I was working on rearranging furniture in my room.  I created a little laptop area but needed a chair.  We had a chair upstairs in the kids domain, but it looked like crap!  I think they eat meals off of the fabric seat it looked so bad.  I decided that chair was my next project.  With my scrap fabric and a staple gun, I recovered that chair.  I love it and it looks perfect with the color scheme I have going on in my bedroom.  Almost new chair Cost $0.00!  Thanks mom!

What have you repurposed?