hiatus

I'm on a spending hiatus. Not because I'm a compulsive spender, but because the winter blahs make retail-therapy all too easy to justify. And because there are lots of expensive projects on my to-do list. And because I just don't want more stuff. Months of hibernation, surrounded by all of my current stuff, has me feeling a little suffocated. Less stuff must equal more air, more peace. More zen. Or something.

A vacation is so much more appealing to me than more stuff. A fence is more necessary to me than more stuff. A pretty bedroom is more important to me than eating out or that thing from Old Navy that I just had to buy because it was so cheap and I would never have bought it except that it was on clearance and I'll probably hate it in 3 weeks because it will prove to be so cheap.  So, spending hiatus it is.

          

Instead of buying special Valentine packaging and ribbons and sprinkles and special treats and what not, I made do with the odds and ends on my craft shelf and in my pantry. Instead of throwing a big shindig for Nanuk's 1st birthday, we are keeping things small, sweet and simple. Instead of buying the beautiful lamps that would look really great in my light-and-style deprived living room, I'm tolerating the el-cheapo random light fixtures I currently have even though I think my living room looks like it belongs to college students. Maybe the lamps will get marked-down before they are sold out? Instead of fun high-maintenance treatments at the salon, I'll go the close-to-natural route (what grey hairs?). Instead of eating out once per week (even on the cheap), it's once or twice a month. Still on the cheap. Sticking to essential purchases only. Little things, all of these minor sacrifices for the greater good, but together perhaps they will equal the greater good. And a handsome fence to keep my wee babes corralled.