Me in Place

I have been on a cash only budget kick since the beginning of the year. And a couponing kick. This means I’ve had coupons floating around the house – and never quite all in the place they need to be. I tried the accordion file system – didn’t work. Tried the “only take the coupons you need at that store in an envelope system” and that didn’t work because I’d find deals at the store that weren’t advertised and then wouldn’t have the coupons for it! This week I worked on my final attempt at keeping this SAS (Short Attention Span) Girl in Order.

And you might not want to admit you know me anymore. It might be a little over the edge embarrassing to you. Just warning.

It’s the Amazing SAS Coupon Binder System (which many people use – maybe they all have short attention spans too!)!

I used my personal/”fun” money to buy a cute tote bag at Target:

And put my coupon binder in it. The coupon binder has a set of baseball card sheets in it – and dividers (divided according to category and how I shop at the store). This took me about two hours to do on Sunday afternoon. Since I had gotten the binder for free and had paid about 60 cents for the dividers last fall when they were on clearance, the only cost was the baseball sheets, which were about $6 at Target.

Insert the coupons folded into each slot and you’re set. The reason this works for a spaz like me is that you can see each coupon – instead of flipping through the envelope or trying to remember what you have and what you have already used. If I see it, I am much better at using it.

Case in point: I save $30 at Target today with coupons. The kids were most excited about this:

The Connect 4 game was $10.09 at Target – and I had a $4 off coupon, making it $6. But at Target this week, if you buy select games, you can get a free Scrabble Slam! or Monopoly card game – priced at $5.24. So, for both games, I spent $6.09 total. Even if you don’t have kids, it makes a great gift to have on hand! (For those of you who are couponers – I know there’s also an online Target Hasbro coupon, which you can stack with the manufacturer one.)

I’m sorry if that’s all overboard for ya – I promise not to embarrass you and pull out my binder if we ever go shopping together!

Here’s an easy craft for a snowy Thursday afternoon. Or a non-snowy, sunny, but bitterly cold Thursday afternoon. Whichever one you have on hand.

Paint a winter scene with watercolors and, while the watercolors are still wet, sprinkle salt over the pictures. They dry looking like a pretty snowfall. And kids are happy because they made a giant mess with salt everywhere and Mom is happy because they did this for approximately 24.3 minutes. 24.3 minutes of cherished happiness and peace, I tell ya.

10 yo’s:

7 yo’s:

SuperBoy’s (5yo): I’m not sure this a winter scene. I think this is more influenced by the StarWars Lego Nintendo game he’s been playing for the last month. Can’t you see Luke? Or R2D2?

We’ve discussed SAS Decorating in the past (For new readers: SAS stands for Short Attention Span). But, really, no matter how hard I try to keep the house decorated and looking nice, it’s always the kids and cat that win out in Most Creative Decoration Award. Here’s a look at some recent wins:

Creative use of Happy Meal Toys:

The cat has a new boyfriend. She tries to get up in our front window in order to talk to him at night. She has already broken my absolute favorite African Violet vase from Smith & Hawken – a gift from my mom and dad. Note that any gift from my dad – even if it’s just a vase – is of utmost value to me now. I was so mad. Not gonna lie. She stayed outside in the backyard for punishment. Anyway, this is the next night’s mess:

‘Nuff said:

Soldiers fighting the flames:

In case you were wondering – I do realize the Cubs’ season has begun!

Last night we had our annual Opening Day Party for the Cubs, at which I serve hot dogs and chips and make the kids put on their Cubs hats and shirts. SuperBoy and I made one spectacularly decorated Go Cubs cake. They thought we should have candles on it, but I’m not really clear on why.

And, here’s the link to get your very own SAS Decorating Cubs Fridge Schedule where you can track your mood all season long! So far, it’s looking pretty Happy!

This is a guest post by Kelli’s brother, Jeff.

MIP has a fairly regular installment of Short Attention Span Decorating ideas. Here’s a fall one. Here’s a spring one. And even a Christmas one.

As you can see, most SAS Decorating projects involve a candle, a plate and some junk slopped around it. I believe this is called “the feminine touch.” Apparently, us guys “need” this.

Well, that’s fine. I’m not going to start any gender wars. I readily admit my house looks better with my wife in it than out of it. I thought I would share with you my own, “masculine touch” SAS Spring Decorating idea.

Here’s my Spring decorating idea for my office. First, here is my desk before my decorating project.

Although the current decorating scheme is quite masculine already, here is the Spring Masculine touch that puts it over the top. Observe the difference.

Simply add your March Madness Bracket printout and place it in the bottom middle of the desk and leave it there for three weeks. Nothing says spring like brackets. Beautiful yet simple.

What day is it today? It’s SAS Crafting Day! (SAS=Short Attention Span). But, for all my wonderful manly readers out there, I’ve also included some photos to keep your SAS riveted to the post. Ready? Here we go!

1. Buy a plain, kraft paper covered journal (doesn’t matter what size).I have bought them at Barnes & Noble and Archiver’s.

2. Select three coordinating papers from your scrapbook paper stash. (I don’t scrapbook, but I do lurv some good scrapbook paper!)

3. Cut out three pieces of paper from the scrapbook paper…Since we’re talking SAS crafting here, I don’t have measurements, just use your judgment to make a pretty pattern. On the edges of these papers, I’ve taken them and swiped them across a coordinating ink color from an ink pad.

You’ll end up with something like this:

Halftime: Hey Guys! Look! Cords:

Oohh…. So Pretty!

Are you a RockStar?

Yes, you are. Go buy your wife some flowers. Now, that’s RockStar.

4. Okay… back to Crafting. Get some ribbon. I just have a box of ribbon that I’ve collected clearance sale and coupon sale ribbon in. It all should be fairly thin ribbon and fabric-y works best. You’re going to tie and tie and tie and tie those ribbons onto the spiral binding of the journal. Ready?

What you may or may not notice here is that the laundry is right in my view of the TV. Do I stop my crafting? Nope. This was a Sunday afternoon. Football was on. Kids were fine. Moms can relax, too. Give yourself a break.This picture is bad (of the tv), but I wanted you to see what the view was. Look at what a master I am at Ignoring Laundry.

Keep tying on the ribbons all over the spirals. Don’t have them hanging too long, just long enough to fill up the spirals and make them look oh so pretty. Like an Easter Bonnet.

And there you have it. Your very own SAS Craft (Yes, the journal changed. Sorry, that’s how SAS I am.):

Ooh… look! A RockStar!

*

Here is Fall’s version of SAS (Short Attention Span) Decorating. And, in case you’re wondering, we’re almost at a full year of SAS Decorating Volumes:
Here are the past ones:

Christmas Edition ’07

Spring Edition Vol. 1 (in which a glue gun is employed. I do have my FOID card, you know.)

Spring Edition Vol. 2

Summer Edition

Summer Edition Vol 2

Truly SAS Decorating for Fall:

Taking the same tray you used for summer, you’re going to dump all those shells in a Ziploc and store it away for next year. Have your children do that, because you’re bored already with the project. (I told you I had a SAS!)

Eeuw. Ugly. Boring. Let’s dress it up! Now, to get the materials for dressing it up, you’re going to have to pick a really rainy fall evening, meet a friend… let’s call her S.Q. (Sudoku Queen) and make her go to a store with inexpensive decorations such as Home Goods. Roam around making fun of all the things other people buy to decorate their house. Choose wisely; the line between beautiful and stupid is a thin one. Pick up a box or two of fake leaves and acorns and pinecones. Yes, it’s fake. And other people would probably make fun of me. But if I can’t hear them making fun of me, I can ignore it.

Bring your purchases home. Oops! Go ahead and set aside the Ann Taylor Loft purchases. Oh, and the shoes. Those will not be used for our project here. But they were really pretty and will be good fall decorations.

Back to the point:

Employ your 8yo to do the decorating. She is your perfectionist child, so she will take the leaves and acorns and every little itty bit of fakery and place it gingerly on the tray. My only rule was for her to hide the extra fake bright leaves at the bottom. And put the cuter, not-so-fake acorns and pinecones on top. You can’t mess up a pinecone, right?

That’s fine, you’ll save your sanity if you just leave the room now and let her continue. Here is our finished project:

The SAS Decorating Monster is lurking not far away:

And, to keep it honest here, I suppose I should show you what is right beside the table that I attempt to beautify… a bed other people in my house brought home one night for Tempo cat:

*The POOPIE button up top is from The Nesting Place. It stands for People Opposing Objectionable Pretend Plants in the Environment.

Remember way back in the days of yore when we did the very first SAS Decorating Edition? This was the project for Christmas. Today I took out the same glass dishes, grabbed a couple candles and my bag of “river rock” from Michael’s Summer Clearance Sale – I believe after all was said and done, I got the river rock for $1.79. Now, if I had had me a handy river, I could have gotten it free, but alas, all I have me is a plot of teeny land in a subdivision.

I have to stop thinking about that or I get claustrophobic and ungrateful.

Moving on. Here is what it looks like:

Here is what the other one looks like. Remarkably similar, huh?

I put the rockin’ river rock deco on the bookshelf under my mother-in-law’s beautiful watercolor of the dunes in Indiana:

If you look closely, you can see the Chicago skyline in the distance (just as you can in real life when you’re at the dunes):

But don’t, whatever you do, pretend you’re IN the painting… at the beach… listening to the waves and reading a book. You’ll get claustrophobic and cranky.

(The glare is my fault, not the watercolor or mother-in-law’s fault. I would never ever insinuate that anything was my mother-in-law’s fault. Nosiree. She’s the best. )

My kid’s craft project today turned out to look rather cool (in my opinion!). They aspired to do the entire patio, but SAS crafting lives on in my children:

Spring seems to be over. So I pulled out my SAS (Short Attention Span) Summer Idea (which I totally stole from the Nester). To review, here’s the SAS Spring Edition:

After a Springtime of being beautiful, you can see that it’s losing a little of its charm, mainly because there are egg culprits in my house who thought it was fun to dig their fingernails into the little styrofoam pretend eggy things:

So we put the pretend eggs away and got out the Summer Seashells. And I used my noggin to come up with the brilliant idea of putting SuperBoy to work as the decorator. In this way my short attention span did not get taxed at all – and it kept him busy for about half an hour. Win-Win, my friends.

This morning we finished up our project, which we have entitled, Ode to Gramma’s Cape Cod. Because we have a Gramma and she’s from Cape Cod and I like to hear her order “a Junior Whopper, please” in her Cape Cod accent because it makes the two of us giggle.

SuperBoy poses with his artwork:

And our piece de resistance (Wouldn’t that translate to stubborn piece in English? Hmm… seems apropo for a SuperBoy masterpiece):