The Nifty Foodie's Life

In 2008, I joined the bandwagon of bloggers who drafted a list of 101 goals to complete in 1001 days. Thinking back, I remember how far away 5/6/2011 would be, and how EASILY I could complete all of the goals on my sheet. I did over half of them, in the end…56 out of 101 of them to be exact. It’s a fantastic feeling knowing that I completed over half of my goals, but part of me wishes I tackled more. However, it’s time again to focus on the future…1001 more days.

2/10/2014

That’s the day that my next set of 101 goals will (hopefully) be met. I learned this time around that I need to have a much better mix of easily feasible goals with only a few harder-to-reach ones. Last time, some of them were a little too ambitious for me, and I sort of felt overwhelmed and just gave up towards the end.

So, without further ado…here’s the new 101 goals (where the progress will be updated here):

Family and Friends:
1. send Christmas cards to all family and friends for 2011, 2012 and 2013
2. make a part of every Christmas gift for family and friends one year
3. send package of goodies to a friend or family member just because
4. host a holiday meal
5. host a party just because
6. give my parents a wedding picture to hang in their house
7. donate blood 6 times (0/6)
8. make a wedding album for ourselves with the Groupon I have
9. be a tourist in my hometown (NOLA)
10. take boudoir pictures (post weight loss)
11. use nothing but reusable grocery bags for 20 grocery trips (0/20)
12. no internet for a weekend
13. drive the speed limit for 5 days
14. take the plunge and buy something designer
15. attend a sporting event
16. attend a concert

Charity:
17. donate 100 items I no longer need to Goodwill
18. volunteer for an animal adoption agency
19. volunteer at a kitchen on a holiday

Husband:
20. surprise him
21. go on a vacation with him that isn’t within driving distance
22. start a workout regime together
23. make him his favorite dinner and dessert by request 5 times (0/5)
24. get him a gift, just because
25. give him a week off of house responsibilities (I do the chores

Blog:
26. update one of my blogs 20 times in a month
27. get at least 15k hits in a month on one of my blogs
28. attend a blogger conference
29. do project 365 one year
30. guest blog for another blogger
31. vlog 3 times (0/3)

Professional:
32. learn a programming language
33. earn a certification
34. take 5 training courses in my job field (0/5)
35. attend an out of state professional conference

Arts and Crafts:
36. make wedding card scrapbook
37. make wedding shadowbox
38. make scrapbook of senior year at LSU
39. cross stitch baby sampler for a friend
40. knit a pair of socks
41. learn how to crochet
42. don’t buy any craft items for 6 months (0/6)
43. crockpot die some yarn
44. make t-shirt quilt from old college shirts
45. get my fabric stash down to 20 yards of fabric total
46. get my yarn stash down to 5 skeins of yarn total
47. get rid of all of my scrapbooking supplies after my current projects are done…not a fan
48. get a craft idea of mine published in another blog or a magazine

Health and Fitness:
49. reach 270s
50. reach 260s
51. reach 250s
52. reach 240s
53. reach 230s
54. reach 220s
55. reach 210s
56. reach 200s
57. reach 190s
58. reach 180s
59. reach goal weight
60. be able to lift 50 lb. weights in a shoulder press
61. take vitamins everyday for 20 weeks (0/20)
62. exercise at least 4 times a week for 20 weeks in a row (0/20)
63. give up caffeine for a week
64. complete the couch to 5K program
65. do Jillian’s 30 day shred for 30 days STRAIGHT
66. not weigh myself for 30 days (rely on measurements)
67. attend a spinning class
68. drink nothing but water for a week for 5 weeks (0/5)
69. run a 5k (completely running/jogging)
70. run/walk a 10k
71. attend a yoga class
72. donate ALL of my plus sized clothing once I no longer fit in them

Cooking/Baking
73. successfully bake a loaf of crawfish bread
74. learn to make Memaw’s spaghetti and meatballs
75. make fresh pasta
76. come up with a fun flavor of peanut butter
77. make pickles
78. update food blog 20 times in one month
79. make fruit roll-ups
80. make crepes
82. make a cookie bouquet
83. smoke/BBQ a piece of meat
84. win a recipe contest
85. create an original baking recipe
86. fry something without burning or undercooking
87. try a recipe with something sweet in a savory dish

Finances:
88. start saving for a baby fund!
89. own a share in stock
90. save 1/2 of my fun money for the month–4 times (0/4)
91. make a budget and stick to it for 6 months (0/6)
92. have an online shopping freeze for a month
93. actively coupon for 8 weeks (0/8)
94. bring your lunch to work all week for 8 weeks (0/8)

Home:
95. print a picture I took on a canvas and proudly hang it in our home
96. print pictures for all of the frames we own and hang them or find a place for them
97. recycle diligently for 4 weeks (0/4)
98. make cleaning a habit…do one 15 minutes cleaning task/day for a full week–5 times (0/5)

Spiritual:
99. attend church every Sunday for 30 weeks consecutively to develop a habit (0/30)
100. go to reconciliation 5 times (0/5)
101. pray every day for a month

Do you have a 101 goals page? How are you doing with it?

…however you name it, it’s another New Year. It’s also another new decade. Does that mean that my resolutions need to be 10x more awesome? I guess so!

Since I have my 101 in 1001 list almost done in May, I’m focusing my 2011 on those. As of 1/4/11, here’s my stats:

43 done
23 in progress
31.5 not done
3.5 can’t be done

So, I do have a good bit to go here, and the categories that need the most attention are:

Health/Fitness
Cooking/Baking

I mentioned yesterday that I’m redoing my priorities. Etsy isn’t my priority right now, so that got nixed. Obviously, I need to devote my energy mainly to my health. Cooking/baking will probably get done as well, but in my mind, I need to really ensure that I check some of those things off on the health/fitness category.

Stereotypical, I know. We ALL want to get healthier and better ourselves. I’ve made this a resolution for years, and the only time I got some success was pre-wedding. I showed myself that I can do it, so I need to just do it.

I rejoined Weight Watchers before Christmas. I’m hopeful that this will be my last time I’ll ever join again!  (I am the person who joins W/W for a month, then quits…then rejoins again.)

How many of you are on healthier resolution bandwagon this year? What are you doing to make it happen?

This past week, a good bit of “firsts” happened. “Firsts” are wonderful because they will never happen again and you will always look back on the first time such and such happened. They are bookmarks in your life, and while they are small bookmarks, your brain has them engraved in there for you to remember at random times.

I can recall my first hospital visit that happened in kindergarten after I sprayed nasal spray in my eye. I even remember my first food craft project, which involved me trying to convince the teacher that the animal crackers didn’t want to be glued to an ark, but rather, they would prefer to be in my tummy (early signs of a foodie or a fatty?). I can even recall my first needlecraft, which was a teddy bear cross-stitch that read “Welcome”. My parents still have this hanging by their door.

A couple of big firsts were involving the sewing machine. The pajama pants (#38) . I was supposed to finish these in June, but for some reason, June seemed like it was shorter than the average month. Why the heck is it July already anyway? I’m not ready for the Christmas in July ads.

Ok, back to the pajama pants. The pattern said “easy”, but this pattern was NOT easy. First of all, all they show are little pictures in steps. They don’t tell you how to get your fabric to look like that picture. I had to constantly reposition fabric after every step and repin. Annoying. Took me about 5 hours to make these. However, now that I know, I can probably pump out a pair in about two hours. I disregarded putting ribbon on them in the waist area, because I was fairly sure the puppy would see that as a toy and have something else to try to chew on.

Also, I finished the quilt top over the past weekend. Summer goal is *almost* done. All I have to do is assemble it together now.

We’re going to say I took a picture of the top upside down on purpose, ok? I’ll admit, my squares do not perfectly line up in some places (check out right of row 2 to right of row 3), but it’s ok. First quilt. The sole purpose is to keep my legs warm when hubs insists on keeping the fan on high in a room. My legs won’t care if squares don’t line up.

Last weekend was another “first”, which in no way was craft related. Remember my anniversary gift to the hubs? Well, he picked the paper that said “mow the lawn”. I’ve never mowed the lawn in my life, but I did it early last Saturday, which I’m sure was hilarious to my husband. (#33) There are no pictures of this “first”, because it would probably break computer screens and cause riots. A big girl fighting 100% humidity and temperatures in the 90s? Who wants to see that?

Have you had any “firsts” lately?

I remember when I was 10 years old, and I was offered a (small) job at the daycare next door to bring garbage cans to a fenced area on weekends after trash was collected. It was an easy  job, and I thought I was high-rolling with my $10/month salary. At the time, my biggest hobby was making friendship bracelets, so I’d always buy DMC floss in various colors whenever my parents brought me to Wal-Mart. Life was simple and $10/month was all that I needed/wanted.

When I turned 14, I started taking on baby-sitting jobs. I earned about $30-$40/night just watching kids make a mess of a house with their toys. Easy stuff…at the time, I even brought my newest hobby, cross-stitching to the homes and worked on that. After the kids went to bed, I’d just throw all of the toys in their containers and I was done. $30-$40 a night? I WAS RICH!

I won’t even tell you how rich I felt in high school, when I made $5.15/hour as a cashier. That was awesome AWESOME money.

Now that I’m in the real world, I’ve come to realize that I hardly ever SEE my money like I used to. Once the paycheck comes, an allotment goes to our joint account for bills/groceries, a good chunk of the rest basically pays off the dental work that I had done a year ago (remember to floss daily, folks) and the rest, well?

The Internet. Ahh, Internet. You make things so easy. No need to find a parking spot or lug bags around…no. I can just put items in a virtual cart, make an account that saves all of my information, and simply, 3 clicks later, my items are en route to my house. So convenient…so crazy. It’s so easy to spend $100 here and there on random things, and then you look at your bank account balance and feel like everything went way overboard.

So, last month, I decided to not make any Internet purchases (with the exception of my dog’s flea meds). The first few days were hard, and over the past 30 days, I missed so many great sales. I had to remind myself that with a sale, you are still spending money, and do you really NEED that?

No. I didn’t. All I needed that month were flea meds for my dog. That was my need.

There was a small crisis that took a good bit of thinking to get through. In the middle of the month, my iPhone case cracked (plastic). I wanted to buy mine off Amazon so badly, because we all know iPhone cases online are dirt cheap. I remembered my promise to myself, and ended up scouring Target and Best Buy for a deal. While not spectacular, I found an opened box iPhone case for $16. I know the Otterbox’s were $10 on Amazon, but I would have had to spend $25 to get free shipping. In my head, I saved $9, at the very least, since it’s nearly impossible to hit exactly $25 on Amazon.

July 1st is today, and I don’t feel tempted to attack a clothing store or accessories. Yesterday, I wanted to buy a cookbook that was 50% off, but last night, I realized my library carries it. I don’t need that $20 cookbook…not at all.

So, on my first day of the Internet buying ban being over, my debit card is nestled in my wallet for the day.

Since it’s a new month, I’m going to tackle a new venture that is a slow money drainer: coffee shops. It’s so convenient to make that my breakfast, but it’s absurdly pricey. So, this month, I’m giving up coffee shops. This should be fun….wish me luck with this one!

Have you found yourself spending too much on the Internet? How do you restrain yourself?

I know summer doesn’t officially start until June 21, however, most people identify the beginning of the summer season with Memorial Day.

Since that’s quickly approaching, I have some goals. The biggest one?

This.

Now, relax folks…don’t freak out. My machine hasn’t touched this yet! This is just fabric laid down on the carpet in the pattern I like. I know, the fabrics are not laid the same way…no worries, they’ll all face the right way when thread goes through the needle.

I’m going to admit I’m intimdated by this quilt. It’s a level 2 project in my S.E.W book, so I shouldn’t be so intimidated, but the word quilt is intimidating. They are so pretty and just perfect looking. Can I really do this? I surely hope so. My seam ripper is on stand-by.

I found all of these fabrics at Hobby Lobby for about $4.50/yard, which isn’t too shabby.

I have a serious addiction to that store and their remnant bin, by the way.

I can’t wait to see this project done.

No worries, I’ll share my other summer goals with you. I just need to save it for another post.