Martha Mondays Link Up Party & Features (5/20)

Welcome to another week of wonderful links!
 

I love these Chocolate Rose Biscuits from Cath's Cookery Creations. Just a few more minutes of effort to pipe rosettes can really transform a simple cookie into something spectacular! 
 

Glued to my Crafts shared this awesome Portable Compost Bin! 

And the most popular link from last week's party is...
 

 These yummy looking Cinnamon Biscotti Dunkers from Lemon Tree Dwelling!

Feel free to submit as many links as you wish – but... Please respect the “Inner - Martha” vibe and stick to recipes, DIY projects, crafts, and other creative (made by you) things.

I've been getting lots of links that do not fall into these categories, and whereas I do appreciate those kinds of posts - this is not the venue to link them up!

Any link that does not fall into these categories WILL be deleted!

My favorite submissions, as well as the most popular submission, will be featured on the next week’s party.

The party will be open from 12:01am on Monday(s) to 11:59pm on Wednesday(s). Come back every Monday and link up your best creative posts from the week!

The “Rules”
• Link directly to your specific post, not your blog in general.
• Please only submit recipes and/or crafts that are your own.
• No giveaways, no shops, and no ‘inspiration’/‘general’ posts, please.
• Be a follower of Watch Out, Martha!
• Link back to WOM (either by grabbing my button or by a simple link to the party) in the body of the post would be appreciated! *Disclaimer: If you do not link back in the body of the post, you will not be eligible to be featured next week.
• Leave some love! Comment on other linkers – everyone loves getting comments on their posts!

Annnnd it's that time of the week again.

The time of the week when I'm trying to get stuff done, and my Internet decides not to work any longer. 

I'm on my phone, so I can't do the whole linky tools code for the party... I'll post it in the morning before I leave for class. 

One of these days I'll have that crap fixed!! 

Martha Mondays Link Up Party & Features (5/13)

Has anyone else been having issues with Blogger tonight?

I realized that I had forgotten to post the features last week, so I went through and got that all written up and finished. But when I went to put the most recent features in the post, I couldn't get the pictures to load! I tried everything I could think of, and nothing is working. I've been sitting for over an hour trying to get the dang things to load, but no luck.

Why is it that the internet (or Blogger) always hassles me Sunday nights when I'm trying to get the linky party up and going? I feel like the universe is out to get me!

At any rate, here are the features from two weeks ago. I will try to get the features from last week put in tomorrow sometime. 

I'm going insane over here.

Oh! And a very HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY! 

I'm loving this Limoncello Cocktail Cake from Cooking with Curls... I'm also loving that pan!

Paper Daisy Designs showed us how to make this absolutely awesome Rustic Sofa Table!

And the most popular link from two weeks ago goes to...

 These Tissue Paper Flower Favors from Crafty Journal!

Feel free to submit as many links as you wish – but... Please respect the “Inner - Martha” vibe and stick to recipes, DIY projects, crafts, and other creative (made by you) things. 

I've been getting lots of links that do not fall into these categories, and whereas I do appreciate those kinds of posts - this is not the venue to link them up! 

Any link that does not fall into these categories WILL be deleted!

My favorite submissions, as well as the most popular submission, will be featured on the next week’s party. 

The party will be open from 12:01am on Monday(s) to 11:59pm on Wednesday(s). Come back every Monday and link up your best creative posts from the week!

The “Rules”
• Link directly to your specific post, not your blog in general.
• Please only submit recipes and/or crafts that are your own.
• No giveaways, no shops, and no ‘inspiration’/‘general’ posts, please.
• Be a follower of Watch Out, Martha!
• Link back to WOM (either by grabbing my button or by a simple link to the party) in the body of the post would be appreciated! *Disclaimer: If you do not link back in the body of the post, you will not be eligible to be featured next week.
• Leave some love! Comment on other linkers – everyone loves getting comments on their posts!

Martha Mondays Link Up Party (5/6)

Welcome to another week of Martha Mondays! 

I finally got the code from Linky Tools (only took how long??), and I'll have the features up later today. Thanks for your patience! 

Feel free to submit as many links as you wish – but... Please respect the “Inner - Martha” vibe and stick to recipes, DIY projects, crafts, and other creative (made by you) things. 

I've been getting lots of links that do not fall into these categories, and whereas I do appreciate those kinds of posts - this is not the venue to link them up! 

Any link that does not fall into these categories WILL be deleted!

My favorite submissions, as well as the most popular submission, will be featured on the next week’s party. 

The party will be open from 12:01am on Monday(s) to 11:59pm on Wednesday(s). Come back every Monday and link up your best creative posts from the week!

The “Rules”
• Link directly to your specific post, not your blog in general.
• Please only submit recipes and/or crafts that are your own.
• No giveaways, no shops, and no ‘inspiration’/‘general’ posts, please.
• Be a follower of Watch Out, Martha!
• Link back to WOM (either by grabbing my button or by a simple link to the party) in the body of the post would be appreciated! *Disclaimer: If you do not link back in the body of the post, you will not be eligible to be featured next week.
• Leave some love! Comment on other linkers – everyone loves getting comments on their posts!

Martha Mondays Delayed

I'm having some issues with Linky Tools/maybe my internet this weekend, due to a ridiculous storm we had. I've been trying to get things to load all evening, but to no avail. Blogger however, is working right now (albeit quite slowly), so at the very least I can post this message!

I'll try in the morning to get the linky party and features up before I leave for class.

I guess my internet just doesn't like Sundays, because this happens to me all the time! :(

Thrifty Thursdays: Let's Take a Look Back at April

I'm about to get real with you. I've been pretty terrible about tracking my personal finances since my divorce.

I still pay all my bills and my credit score has actually gone up a few points (yay) AND I've socked away quite a bit of money for the future... So, it's not like I'm spending my way into massive amounts of debt or anything like that, but I've definitely been a spontaneous/indulgent spender.

This morning, on a whim, I decided to download my April checking account transactions and categorize them in an Excel spreadsheet to see what I was spending the most money on. Whelp...

$346.70 on eating out.

For one person. This does, however, include all girl's night festivities (which includes drinks and such) and trips to the grocery store (which technically isn't eating out, but since I don't have to pay for food at home right now, I count it). That's outrageous, and has to stop. Water and complimentary bread basket on girls nights from now on! I guess I'll just volunteer to be the DD, unless a cute guy offers to buy me a drink :)

$579.93 on shopping. 

Yikes! This does include my Target card bill (yay for saving that whole 5%), and that's where I buy all my shampoo, vitamins, coffee/coffee creamer, razor blades, body wash, and other things that are necessities of life. Those items don't really count as shopping, but since it would be too time consuming to pour over my Target statements and determine what's necessary and what's not, it's all getting grouped the same for right now. And let's face it, I buy more unnecessary stuff at Target than necessary stuff anyways. I also went on a little almost-summer shopping spree...

$296.53 on gas. 

This is somewhat unavoidable right now, as I drive 90 miles round trip to school, 3 days a week - that alone uses 3/4 of a tank. I've gotten pretty good about stretching that last 1/4 of a tank for the remainder of the week, but I could do better. Today, I was going to head off to the gym and then later head over for an agility class at my CrossFit place. I decided to wait it out and go to the gym after the agility class, saving myself a trip. I kind of feel trapped in the house right now! 

$19.07 on RedBox rentals. 

Yes, it's way cheaper than going to the movies (which I had also thought of going to today, guess not) but I also pay $29.00/month for HBO and a DVR. I'll be recording movies during the day to watch at night from now on!

$50.00 at Starbucks. 

I love my coffee, we know this. I listed it under necessities above, it's that serious. But, I do have an awesome French press and some (Target purchased) ground Starbucks coffee and yummy creamer here at the house. And I have some super cute to-go cups as well. Sorry Starbucks, but I'm breaking up with you. You will be greatly missed!

$143.19 on "pampering". 

This includes the $20+ I spend on my normal gym membership, because I could cancel it or drop down to the basic membership at $10/month, but I like the perks. It also includes a one-time Groupon purchase and a very irregular pedicure (I normally do them myself). So, this number is normally just the $20 for Planet Fitness on a normal month. Doesn't make that number any easier to swallow though.

$622.01 on normal/reoccurring bills. 

This includes items such as Cassie's food, my HBO/DVR, my Massage Envy membership (which I'm canceling), CrossFit (NOT canceling that, it's worth it), storage unit fees, and the like. Normally this number is only about $350, but last month I finished paying off my Visa card (which is where they are all charged to), hence the extra couple of hundred. This number doesn't include my cell phone, car insurance, or Cassie's Banfield Wellness program fee, which the ex-husband has been paying for since the divorce. Come May 13 - I'll be paying for those items again. Guh. That's gonna suck.

Well, I'm sure you all enjoyed that foray into my personal finances and spending habits. I told the girls about it, and warned them to not let me buy clothing, Starbucks, crazy expensive meals, and things like that anymore. I'm hoping that by getting it out in the open, I'll be better at sticking to a safer budget!

Also, when it comes to Thrifty Thursdays, I'm thinking of re-vamping how I do it. Normally I just share what I found out and about at the thrift stores, but since I need to curb my spending - that's going out the window, too. I have a few posts ready to be published, so this won't be the last one of that variety, which will give me a chance to think about how to go about doing this. 

Any suggestions?

Bow Print Top - $4.00

It's a little bit big for me, but I'm hoping I can tailor it a little bit to make it work. 

 

Yellow Tank Top (BCBG) - $3.50

Perfect for summer!

Purple Tank Top - $3.50 

I really don't have a lot of purple, so I figured this was a must-have since it would be great for summer and is SO cute!

Seersucker Shorts (J. Crew) - $4.00

Like most of the Bermuda shorts I've thrifted, these are getting turned into regular shorts. I'm just not a Bermuda type girl!

Thanks for bearing with me on this super wordy post, I hope you keep checking back to see how I'm doing on my new financial goals! :)

Martha Mondays Link Up Party & Features (4/29)

 Good grief time is flying! 

Can you believe it's almost May already?? 

Speaking of time flying, last night was my 10 year high school reunion. What the what?! When did that happen? I didn't end up going, but it's really made me start thinking about how time goes faster the older you get.

I remember when summers used to last forever and Christmas was always impossibly far in the future. Hardly seems that way anymore, huh? I'm not-so-slowly approaching 30, and I still have SO many items to cross of my 30 Before 30 List! 

So, this summer I'm going to get back to it. One of those items is posting more regularly on here, which I was doing well at for awhile but then I totally fell off the wagon. 

What sort of goals do you have for the summer?

With A Blast showed us to make this super awesome DIY Portable Fire Feature!

Champagne Floats? Yes, please! While Wearing Heels shows us how!

 And the most popular post of the week goes to...

This Butterscotch Apple Fluff from Simplee Sue!

Feel free to submit as many links as you wish – but... Please respect the “Inner - Martha” vibe and stick to recipes, DIY projects, crafts, and other creative (made by you) things. 

I've been getting lots of links that do not fall into these categories, and whereas I do appreciate those kinds of posts - this is not the venue to link them up! 

Any link that does not fall into these categories WILL be deleted!

My favorite submissions, as well as the most popular submission, will be featured on the next week’s party. 

The party will be open from 12:01am on Monday(s) to 11:59pm on Wednesday(s). Come back every Monday and link up your best creative posts from the week!

The “Rules”
• Link directly to your specific post, not your blog in general.
• Please only submit recipes and/or crafts that are your own.
• No giveaways, no shops, and no ‘inspiration’/‘general’ posts, please.
• Be a follower of Watch Out, Martha!
• Link back to WOM (either by grabbing my button or by a simple link to the party) in the body of the post would be appreciated! *Disclaimer: If you do not link back in the body of the post, you will not be eligible to be featured next week.
• Leave some love! Comment on other linkers – everyone loves getting comments on their posts!