How Much Is That Doggy in the Window?

Well, the house is in better shape than it was...but that's not saying much. It's amazing how disorganized this organization spree has made me. I'm ~90% done with the craft bookcase. Now I've pulled all these piles out from under my desk, where I'd shoved them during finals or some other such stressful time, and am sifting through that mess, trying to make sense of it and convince myself that it can all be trashed. It's getting there.

Tomorrow we start housesitting for some friends for a week, so that will tear me away from the mess for a little while. I'm actually looking forward to it; they have the sweetest dog, Joe (pit bull/lab, I think). I can't wait for a dog of our own. We've been planning for quite a while now (years?) to get a golden doodle or two once we have a house, but that's at least a year away, so for now I will just borrow Joe. Golden Doodles are a mix between a pure bred poodle and golden retriever. The idea is that they get the coat (more of less) of the poodle, so they don't shed much, if at all, and are pretty hypoallergenic. They come in all sorts of colors and sizes, depending on the sort of poodle that is bred. And they're quite smart and are excellent family dogs (per the goldens). Also, if you get a first or second generation (i.e., pups from the poodle/retriever mix, or pups from the mix of a golden doodle with a poodle, respectively), you get the best of all genes so they're very healthy, bright, and beautiful. It's a fairly new breed (1980s, I think...) and not yet recognized by the kennel clubs (no matter to us), but we're hoping that by the time we're actually ready for the pups we'll be able to find one at a shelter. It's hard for us to think of dealing with a breeder, being raised as hardcore shelter supporters, but we know our personal limitations in regards to dog-rearing. In order to be successful puppy parents, we really feel that we need to know what we're getting. I'm sure it will all work out when the time comes.

Slept through spinning class today...oops. Usually I can take little power naps and my body just wakes up when it's supposed to. I cut it too close today. Will have to make up for it on Friday. Maybe a little pre-yoga cardio?

No word yet on the sewing machine. DH is in class tonight (network engineer by day, MBA by night), so I haven't heard whether the repair shop called him back yet about ordering the gear for him to try to install himself. I worked more on my reused Christmas card gift tags though.
Some of them came out quite nice, if large. I didn't do anything fancy with them, but I think they'll be fun to use at holiday time. At any rate, it used up a long-growing envelope of cards (there have to be over 50 tags), not to mention much construction paper, so it was a decent stash-reducing activity. It also inspired me to consider using more media in the future (e.g., fabric scraps, glitter, rick rack, etc.). I've never been much into paper crafts, but even this limited excursion into that area was fun.

I've been reading about lots of bloggers out there making commitments to use what they have for a month or so, prohibiting themselves from buying more fabric, yarn, etc. in order to force themselves to use what's already in their stashes. I'm doing my own personal version of this now. I'm trying not to spend any money on anything (save gas, medications, emergencies, postal costs, other absolute necessities) for one week, including food (unless, e.g., one ingredient needed to complete a recipe--anything that gets me to cook is a good thing), clothes, fun stuff. Just a little exercise in budgeting. You'd be amazed how hard this is. No, scratch that. It's not hard in and of itself, but two days feels like it's already been a week. I feel like I'm thinking about it constantly--like a diet! But I like that it's forcing me to entertain myself with things I already have to do around the house (witness the Christmas cards). But, my Container Gardening for Dummies book came, and I want so badly to run out and buy some pots and plants to start my first, true gardening experience ever. This little spending-halt is forcing me to plan out exactly what I want to get, though, so I think it will be beneficial to the garden in the end. I'm hoping that this experiment will also result in a noticeable reduction in the bills this month, but I realize I could just end up spending more than usual next week in compensation. I'll let you know how it turns out.

I also made my first student loan payment today! Yay! This is exciting as it is yet another reminder that I am no longer in school and (thank goodness!) actually have a job again. Oh yeah, another small thing, my diploma finally arrived! Nice tangible reminders all around.