Pink of Perfection

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Talking about money is uncomfortable, at best, but worrying about money is infinitely worse. Constantly fretting about money eats away at our sense of well-being and security, and robs the joy from what would otherwise be the little pleasure-filled moments of our day, like picking up a cup of tea or snagging a bouquet of flowers at the deli. Money matters are top of mind for so many of us these days. Better to bravely look those concerns straight in the eye than let them torment you and keep you from falling asleep at night.

Mint.com syncs up with all your accounts so you can keep track of every dollar and look at your investments, savings, credit cards, student loans, and checking accounts all in one place. It may just change your life, and it’s free.

Pretty file folders (that won’t wreck your budget) from OfficeMax of all places for organizing all those papers that collect on your desk and stress you out.

I love Suze Orman. I find her approach to personal finance is empowering and unintimidating, and her Young, Broke, and Fabulous was exactly the book I needed a couple years ago (highly recommended). Her new book, an action plan for 2009, is available for free download here.

udandi and the craft of money is about living the thrifty life and loving crafts — a girl after my own heart. (via Meal by Meal)

What adjustments and clever tricks have you implemented to deal with economic downturn?

Let us just say, for the sake of argument, that you have not yet bought your 2009 planner. So swept up in the holiday revelry were you, that when 2009 hit with its resolutions and plans for greatness, you were without a place to jot tea dates and dream interpretations. This person was me until, oh, about 5 seconds ago, and if this person is you, too, fret not. You have many fabulous options.

I have kind of a cozy fetish, which we’ve discussed here before, but which continues to motivate many of the decisions in my life. Like, for instance, my insatiable appetite for period dramas about small English towns and novels about the Dakotas in winter. Basically, if the characters are largely relying on horse-drawn carriages, candlelight, and the goodwill of neighbors, I’ll probably like it. Particularly if there are a lot of kitchen scenes.

This cozy fetish is also why I love, love, love these holiday cards from Hello! Lucky. The letterpressed card fashioned after cross-stitch up top first caught my eye, but I am equally in love with the folk art-style woodland creatures above. Perhaps even more so.

Add to all this that I am nursing a crush on the couple behind Lab Partners, who designed the ring-a-ding-ding! style cards above with yet more cozy town scenes in winter, and well, you can pretty much see that I am a holiday goner.

Do you mail holiday cards every year? Is it something you always mean to do but don’t quite follow-through on (paging Miss McColl)? Are they another stressor on the “should-do” to-do list this time of year, or something you look forward to?

I doubt I need to tell you I’m a fan of the old-fashioned charm of letter writing. On a nearly daily basis, I find myself wanting to slip a little note in a mailbox that says: god, I miss you or I’m sorry I stood you up//haven’t returned your phone call/spilled wine at your party or cheer up, little one, things will be okay or holy hell, congratulations! or thank you so much for being in my corner or I hope your sniffles have passed. I end up saying a lot of these things via email (and sometimes, terribly, not at all, even though I think them something fierce), but sometimes that wonderfully convenient and instantaneous form of communication doesn’t quite get the point across in the fashion I’d like.

When I was recently having a hard go of it, EB sent me a card enclosed with a Depression-era (fitting!) recipe from her granddad. She certainly didn’t have to, and it was maybe even a bit of a pain to dig up the stamp and print out the recipe. But the card made me grin, the old-fashioned recipe thrilled me, and I went from moping to feeling cared about pretty much instantly. An email, I doubt, could have imparted such glee.

I know what sort of woman I want to be: I want to be a lady who sends notes. Spanning the distance between the life you envision for yourself and the life you actually live is often just a matter of follow-through. In other words, I need to order myself some pretty note cards and a roll of stamps. Because the times I got gold shoes in the mail from my best friend or someone thoughtfully sent me a book about redheads? It was a great reminder that we are so much in the thoughts of those who aren’t always at our sides. And that’s the best.

If you know of some other great sellers on etsy who do pretty, affordable, custom paper work, please don’t keep the secret to yourself — share in the comments!

Some people adore the long holiday build-up: Christmas music in the drugstore, red cups at Starbucks, the trees and wreaths lined up for sale on city sidewalks. It’s safe to say I like the rising action more than the day itself. I love the anticipatory excitement, running elfish errands, making delectable treats, all the ribbons and wrappings, and thinking hard what gifts my loved ones would like most to receive.

And while I loathe a braggy Christmas letter, I adore the the cards themselves. Stacked up on mantels and pushed in the rim of a mirror, they are a visual reminder of the people in your life who care enough to still use stamps. This year I received some artistic help from Stencil 1 for my outbound batch. This isn’t the first time I’ve espoused the merits of stencils, but I’m happy to say it again: I can’t draw, therefore, stencils save the day. You’ll only need cardstock, pinking shears, a short stiff brush, and some tempura paints. I just held the stencils down, but you could use masking tape to keep the stencil firmly in place.

And look how durn pretty they are! I can’t wait to send these out to the friends who are farther away than I’d like and to even the ones who live around the corner.