I run to the mailbox every single day...

I'm awaiting the arrival of a sterling silver necklace I ordered as an early birthday present for myself. I found it through Fab.com (daily email bargains!) and fell in love.

I can't wait to wear it.

Money can't buy happy...

But it can bring on a smile or two. I went to the Austin Craft Riot Holiday Show last Sunday (teeming with crafty Austin Etsy artists) and got this sweet new collar for Lulu from LizzieBeesThings:

Have been coveting this for months...

Inspired by the "Keep Calm and Carry On" poster produced by the British government in 1939 during World War II with the intention of raising the morale of the British public under threat of invasion, I love this poster from the KeepCalmShop on Etsy:

I love the vintage typewriter, love the "stiff upper lip" British-inspired phrasing, love that it reminds me to dial it down and keep the words coming. I want to hang it above my desk.

I also love the the KeepCalmShop's Etsy store's bio: "During an economic drop we saw a decline in people remaining active in things they loved to do. Money should never be a boundary to the creative desires of the heart. So we wanted to send a message of encouragement to all, to 'Keep doing what you love'.... and then the love of doing it will follow."

Yes.

Adventures in frugality...

It's official: This month, I have spent more on my dog and cat than I spent on myself.

Besides regular food and chew bones for the dog (yes, they're a necessity if I want to keep shoes and other items intact while I'm at work), the cat requires "special" food because she's 11 years old and has feline lower urinary tract disease, so her dry food runs about $20 a month, wet food slightly more.

Last weekend, the retractable leash I've been using to walk Lulu since she was a puppy stopped retracting. If you've ever used one of these leashes and had this problem, you know it's not something you can fix. So I had to buy her a new retractable leash (at one of my favorite stores in Austin, Bark & Purr). For $27, including tax. Twenty-seven dollars. For a leash.

It's not entirely a bad thing. Her old leash was a cord, like this one:
See the cord? I still have whiplash burn scars on my legs from her wrapping that thing around me when we ran into dog friends and she got excited. So my new retractable leash is all belt, like this one:
No more whiplash burns, and this one should last me for a while, but let's just say that Lulu got her birthday present early (she'll be two years old on October 10, and I was wondering what to get her).

When you're on a tight budget, surprises suck. Things break, animals get sick, you get sick (I'm still recovering from paying three co-pays and for two medications from a surprise kidney infection a couple of weeks ago...as a diabetic, I don't mess around with kidney infections and even though I'm lucky enough as an uninsured person to be covered by a local health clinic that's just as good as having insurance, I still have to pay the co-pays and for medication).

I learned a lot about being frugal after spending 2009 partially on unemployment and freelancing. I know how to grocery shop on a budget, I no longer use $45 night cream, and I can't remember the last time I bought new clothes. I buy books at the used book store. And there are lots of free things to do with your free time in Austin.

But that doesn't mean I miss being able to walk into Banana Republic and dropping $400 on new clothes (the last time I did that was in 2008). I miss my Kiehl's and Philosophy and DDF skin products. I miss salon shampoo. I miss new shoes that aren't flip flops. I miss my Source of Life vitamins (I take the One-a-Days now). I've only gotten my hair cut and colored twice in the past six months, and I go to a salon north of downtown because it's about half the cost of the downtown salons.

This month, I spent $8.99 on hairspray and $17 on Olay face cream. Add it up, and I spent more on my little animal twosome.

I hope Lulu appreciates her new leash. I can't tell, other than she seems to enjoy walks more without having a cord dragging behind her and getting tangled up with her legs. She's a dog. She doesn't even know when her birthday is. It's hard enough being a dog parent; I just can't imagine trying to make it work with "real" children.

And it could be worse. Last year, around this time, it was. Now I'm getting a regular paycheck, love my job, and know I have enough to cover my bills as long as nothing catastrophic happens. (Universe, in case you're listening, that's a plea, not an invite).

I have a tight budget, but something screws it up every month. How do people with kids do it? I can substitute the cheap cat food for a week or so and my cat won't die. I can use a broken leash for a few days and it's just an inconvenience. I can cut costs and use store brand products, eat pasta for dinner for a week, and do without a new wardrobe. But kids grow out of their clothes. They need to eat green things instead of taking a multi-vitamin. They need lunch money. They get sick and you have to miss work.

Here's too all the moms out there on a budget, including my own when she was a single parent raising four of us while working two jobs and putting herself through college. You perform miracles.

Does that LOOK like a busy bee?

Let me preface this confession by saying I've had a stressful week. Not just work, but Miss Kitty has had UTI issues on and off for a month or so and I got results back Saturday morning that she has "feline lower urinary tract disease," so besides the $300 and something I've paid for bloodwork, urinalysis, antibiotics, etc. so far, I had to go back to the vet and pick up special food and another round of antibiotics, which ran me about $100. AND I have to bring her back to do it all over again in another couple of weeks. Not that I wouldn't pay any amount of money to keep Miss Kitty healthy; it's just bad timing.


So yesterday was Lulu's birthday and since she's torn apart her squeaky man twice (my mom has sewed it up once, but this last time she really shredded him), I decided to go back to PetSmart where we found squeaky man and get her a new one for her birthday. Let me also add that Lulu loves her squeaky man. She sleeps with it and has been looking for it every night since I put it away because she tore the stuffing out of it.

I had just left the vet's office and figured I'd pop in to PetSmart and return home with a new squeaky man. Not so easy. They didn't have any up front (where I found the other one 2 months ago). So I asked one of the women working up front if she could help me find it. We went to the toy aisle and I tried to describe it ("it looks like a cookie cutter and has no face, but it's made from fleece and squeaks...") and the nice lady kept holding up other toys (Lady: "is this it? It's fleece." Me: "That is a SHEEP, not a man.")

I was actually starting to get tearful (note: lack of sleep = tired and emotional) when I realized I had become Parker Posey from "Best in Show" when they lost the busy bee and she had to find another one. Video below - fast forward to the 2 min. mark if you want to know what my PetSmart meltdown looked like.



I spent another five minutes or so letting the PetSmart lady drag me up and down the toy aisle, showing me everything that wasn't a squeaky man before she told me I could probably order it on the web site. I meant to thank her, but instead I said, "if I wanted to order it online, I wouldn't have come to your store!" (or something equally bitchy and stupid).

I called my friend Charlie and told him what happened (he's usually the person I call when I need to do a crazy check). He said, "we must never speak of this again."

Then I went home and took a Xanax and a really long nap. With a day's perspective and some sleep, I feel a lot better, less crazy, and now I know I can order squeaky man on the web site.

UPDATE: My BFF, MK, who is also Lulu's Fairy Dogmother, brought Lulu a fleece covered stuffed squeaky bone-shaped toy that is close to the size of squeaky man last night and Lulu loves it.

Taking full advantage of tax-free weekend...

The new job is keeping me busy, which means I haven't done laundry or shopped for groceries in a couple of weeks. But I made the best possible use of our tax-free weekend by hitting Best Buy yesterday afternoon and getting the new laptop I've been coveting. I spent the better part of today at Target and a few other places to stock up on essentials, like a new pair of Converse shoes (they had the cutest ballet flats at Target), sunglasses (I broke my favorite pair last week), cat food (guilt from taking her to the vet means I've been giving her real tuna for about a week now), and Choxie dark chocolate with chipotle pepper. Also shampoo so I won't have to shake out the dregs of hotel and sample-size stash, a lovely bag for my new laptop, and deodorant to replace the bottle I mysteriously misplaced on Friday.

I love to shop. I love to check things off my list even more. Call this one a good weekend.

Tax free weekend rocks...

I shopped a lot this weekend. I didn't think I was going to because tax-free weekend is usually worse than holiday shopping. I avoided the mall and hit the outlets instead. I bought shoes and pants and jeans and shirts and panties and more shoes. Then I bought some skin care products and makeup and a digital camera and more shoes. Besides being tax-free weekend, I also had two "friends and family" cards from Old Navy and Gap from my sister (good for outlets too) and got 30% off at The Gap and 20% off at Old Navy.This is my favorite pair out of the lot. They're BCBG and I am in love with them.

I added everything up (retail cost versus what I spent) and I saved $278 this weekend. I'm not going to tell you what I spent, because it's what I saved that really matters, right?

On being a fashion victim...

And by "victim," I mean victim - not aficionado, not fanatic, not devotee, and not really even enthusiast. Enthusiastic would not be one of the words I use to describe my relationship with fashion. My own personal style, in the past few years, has been mostly black - black skirts, black shirts with jeans, black tunics with jeans, black tanks with jeans. The lower rack in my closet looks like Denim Day at The Gap. The upper rack, like it belongs to a mortician's daughter. I had a brief flirtation with color when my hair was platinum blonde. But I think the bleach soaked through to my brain and made me do silly things, like wear all pink, so I could flip through photos later and wonder why that blonde girl is dressed like a box of Valentine's day candy hearts.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not all function and no form. I like a well-cut pair of jeans (so much, in fact, when I find a pair I like, I stock up). I will spend a lot of money on a shirt that fits well, looks good, and is comfortable. Other than that, I don't care who makes it when, where, and why. I do look for designer labels, but only because some of them are really well-made, not so I can answer "who are you wearing?" with "Prada" or "Marc Jacobs."

The victim part is my fault. I get set in my ways and want to be able to replace the black summer weight Liz Claiborne cardigan I bought two years ago that now has a hole in the sleeve with an identical cardigan, except Liz decided that she was going to focus on old lady golf clothing in pastels this year. I need a new pair of jeans, maybe two or three pair, because every pair of the EIGHT IDENTICAL Gap specials I own has some damage - paint, rip, wear, tear, bleach. I found out this morning that Gap no longer carries My Favorite Jean in My Size. I. Am. So. Vexed.

What to do? If you knew what it takes to find a good pair of wearable, comfortable, dependable jeans, you'd bring me a happy pill right now. As I mentioned in a previous post, I even gave a pair of boys' jeans a shot last week. They were OK, but just OK. The last time I set forth on this journey, it took me a year and eight months to find the right pair, wearing the XLs that I was four-to-six sizes too small for the whole while. Picture me: shuffling through malls and TJ Maxxes, through outlets and department stores, holding up the waistband of my baggy fatgirl pants with one hand and flipping through racks and racks of denim with the other. Not a pretty sight.

Thinking it might be time to change things (and by "things," I mean my wardrobe) up, I started reading some fashion blogs to see what might work for my new look. Will it be this? Or this? It won't be this because messy Boho has never been my thang. But maybe it could be my New Thang?

What I do like: The vintage-inspired pieces in Alvin Valley's Spring '07 collection. Especially this. And this.
I've always loved Diane Von Furstenberg , but I'm not sure I could pull this off. I would, however, try the bright tights-plus-tunic.
Then there's Graham & Spencer, Michael Kors, Betsey Johnson, and Nanette Lepore. If only they made dresses out of the same fabric as the t-shirts I sleep in. Stretchy. With drawstrings. And pockets.

Ideas are welcome, as long as they don't involved the words "fitted," "eighties-retro," "fluorescent," or "tube sock."

What one does when one finishes a book manuscript in just under three months...

I finished it on Friday afternoon and sent it all to my editor. And then I did the following:
1. Cry (happy tears).
2. Giggle my ass off.
3. Schedule a 90-minute massage for early Saturday morning.
4. Go home, sleep, wake up for an hour, go back to sleep.
5. Get massage. Feel human and amazing enough to grocery shop at Whole Foods following massage.
6. Eat lovely roast beast sam from Whole Foods Deli for lunch.
7. Sleep, an excellent nap with no fits or guilt or jerking awake.
8. Wake up, call BFF, go shopping at mall.
9. Return home and wonder what to do with free time. Decide to watch Shortbus (loved it; incredible, riveting, shocking...but would not recommend to the even slightly prudish).
10. Feel inspired and write essay for May issue even though I promised to stay off computer for 24 hours.
11. Wake up early Sunday morning with the whole day stretching in front of me like a lovely giant yawn. Eat cereal in bed, go back to sleep until noon.
12. Spend balance of day washing clothes, cleaning house, going through weeks of mail, and calling much-neglected friends.

Now that I know I can do this book thing, I've got three or four more ideas rolling around that I might put to the test in the next few months. For now, I'm not jumping into anything else too quickly. I have a long overdue haircut scheduled for Tuesday and lots of parties to take my new party dresses to this weekend.

Stuff and nonsense...

I'm not sure if it's the endorphins from yoga or the Happy Baby Pose that makes me laugh so hard in the middle of yoga class. This also happens to be my friend Katie's favorite yoga pose.

I want a Mr. Bento, even though I rarely bring lunch in such an organized fashion. My lunch usually consists of a pop top can of low sodium, low fat, Italian Wedding Soup (I love to pick out the little meatballs) or a chicken breast. I feel like I would create healthy, extravagant lunches if I had Mr. Bento. At the least, I could just take pictures of what I put into Mr. Bento.

Tearwater tea is very good for us, according to Owl at Home. Although, The Pig not having the healthy low sodium, low fat, only-kind-of-soup I like on the shelf is not on the list, so bursting into tears on the soup aisle this week was probably inappropriate.

I was so close to returning that fussy shirt/dress I bought at Target on impulse last week that it was in the bag with the receipt until this morning, when I decided to wear it. I'm glad I didn't take it back.

Last night I dreamed that Nora Ephron called and wanted to take me to lunch because she read my blog and thought I needed a reality check. I did just finish reading her latest book. I think it's because she seems like she wouldn't put up with (my) whiny crap, plus she's dealt with a lot more in her life than I have to date. I do not know what a reality check with Ms. Ephron would consist of, but I was looking forward to it.

I'm hoping to make roller-skating my regular Thursday evening activity now that the light lasts longer and it won't feel so late at 6:30.

Positivity, people! I'm full of it today. Take that any way you'd like.