New Name, Same Blog: Home Prep With Tricia

OK, you may have wondered where I have been for the past, oh say, a month or two, maybe three.  I have been thinking.  It all started when I changed this blog’s name from Tricia’s Baskets, home of all things Longaberger, including the products, sales, and whatnot, to At Home with Tricia's Baskets. I had said all this time that the name was a way to transition from the decorating with Longaberger feel about this blog to other brands, decorating with what you have, Ikea, organization, and traveling to name a few.  Well, it is time to abandon Tricia’s Baskets for real this time.  It all started with a journey, a Disney Journey. 

Planning for a change-Photo by
DarkWorkX for Pixabay

Back in September, I believe it was, I set out to talk about how to go from “I’m Going to Disney World with my family” to “We are getting ready to ride Dumbo”.  Let me tell you what a failure that was, and I very rarely admit to failure.  It was a total disaster on my part.  I will write about it later, but the problems stemmed from failure to inform a family member until the last minute and feeling guilty about it to enforce the money paying schedule to members who were paying, to finally swallowing my pride, and calling Disney World reservations to cancel the trip in October.  This to me was no way to do any type of prep, both in the home or getting ready for a trip.

This gave me an idea: Change the Name, again.

I know there are tons of information out there about preparing for something, like finance, Home buying, decorating, and travel, but in one place?  It is possible for me to entertain and to inform.  I have tackled this in the form of Simply Organized Crafts (Now Simply Organized Business on Facebook), where I covered these same topics, except travel, which was in the form of “Traveling to the Mouse’s House”, a blog about traveling to Disney World with a large family.  I really did not want to have 5 blogs also include My Ambiance Life, and P. Lynne Designs (which is becoming a selling website).  So out of the ashes comes Home Prep With Tricia.

Home Prep With Tricia is basically At Home with Tricia's Baskets and Tricia’s Baskets without the Longaberger products.  If you want to learn more about the blog’s purpose, you can read here.

The name is shorter for both me and you, but mainly for you.  I want you to remember the name, and the average human cannot remember a title any more than 4 words, and they have to be short and sweet.  The name gives purpose, even though there is some traveling sprinkled in there.  I will focus on budget decoration, budget organization, working inside the house (I refuse to say the “C” word (cleaning), and traveling.  It sounds like a lot, but really it isn’t.

come and relax a while -Pixabay

The platform is changing, and I have the groundwork for a WordPress platform, which is on the SiteGround hosting site, so that means that the blog is moving.  Yes, I know most people use Bluehost, but this comes highly recommended by one of my mentors, Renae Christine.  As a side note:  I do not recommend HostGator at all.  I had a really bad experience that I will and have talked about over on my other blog, My Ambiance Life.  This resulted in someone stealing my site, placing Malware on it, Google rejecting it, and HostGator not caring.  It was a terrible 5 months back in 2018. I also have some choice words for Google about Blogger, but they are mild in comparison to my choice words about HostGator, and I highly recommend the host site to someone who is just getting started with a website or blog, and they do not want something technical because WordPress can get very technical, and if you are not ready, then again, I recommend this website host. 

Well, I had said that this was going to be a “short and sweet” post.  The blog name will come when I switch over to the new platform.  I am typing after Midnight, Eastern standard time, so I do not have the time to set things up.  I will start placing this week, hopefully, no later than next week.  Once that is done, and the announcement of further changes and additions will be made on Home Prep With Tricia, and there will be some changes in the future as this blog grows in its new home.

In the meantime, thank you for being patient with me and this blog.  If you read my other blog, My Ambiance Life, I made the announcement of things to come on that blog as well.  Also, come and leave a comment or two.

Part 3 Decorating the Home and Taking Care of Family During the Holidays

The holidays are about decorating, right?  You are only half right.  In fact, I would be happy if the house was not decorated, meaning I am not going to stress out if I do not have any decorations.  You do not have to be elaborate with the decorations.

This reminds me of a little story called, “A Charlie Brown Christmas”.  In the story, turned in a 30-minute television special in 1965, Charlie Brown is in search of the Christmas spirit, so Lucy suggested that he direct the Christmas play.  Meanwhile, Snoopy, his dog is decorating his doghouse.  Now, how many dogs you know who can do that?

If you know the story, you will see that Charlie bought a little tree, whose pines keep falling, and brought it back to the school, to which the other children made fun of the decision he made.  So, after his friend, Linus talked about the true meaning of Christmas, Charlie Brown took the tree and gave it an ornament from Snoopy’ s doghouse, which won first place.  He places the ornament on the tree, and it falls over, devastating him more than when the children made fun of him.  If your decorations feel like Charlie’s then you are missing the point of my analogy. 

If you have very little decorations from the beginning, you can always do what the children did to the tree after Charlie left.  They were secretly following Charlie Brown to see what he was going to do next.  When they saw him walking sadly away they decided, with Linus’s help to fix the little tree, and when Charlie came back to the tree, it has been transformed into this beautiful little tree, and they wished him a “Merry Christmas” and sung.  One day during the season on the My Ambiance Life blog, I may talk about the true meaning of this cute, little show.

How are your decorations?

Obviously, in the story, we see two decorators, Charlie Brown and Snoopy. Charlie decorates very little, entertains very little (See A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, equally as funny, yet meaningful).  He is not the life of the party, and this is the same kid, who is modeled after Charles Shultz’s childhood, who got rocks in his Halloween bag (It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown), never got to kiss the little red-headed girl (You’re in Love, Charlie Brown, It’s Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown, and Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown), and finds out that he is not the first owner of Snoopy (Snoopy, Come Home).  If this is you, take solace in knowing that you are not alone.  Snoopy, on the other hand, loves to decorate, cook, and dance.  This is not a chore for him.  Nothing phases him, and he is glad to do it.  Snoopy also takes care of his own (to a certain point).

This is not a comic strip.

Of course, I am comparing real life to a comic strip, and we are not adults who go “Blah, Blah, Blah” when we talk.  This is the real deal, and this is Part 3 of a 3-part series on the holidays.  Part 1, covered on My Ambiance Life, introduces you to the series, and in another post, talks about taking care of you and your mental health during this time of the year.  Part 2, which is on P. Lynne Designs blog, talks about going homemade for gifts and decorations.  In Part 3, I will be tackling how to decorate and entertain on a budget, organizing everything, and taking care of your family during this time.  I hope you will take from this tip on how to decorate like Snoopy on a “Charlie Brown” budget.

Decorating on the cheap (or fake it til you make it).

I like nice things, and I love decorating even more.  Sometimes, especially the last couple of years while I am trying to pay bills and putting together my business, P. Lynne Designs, I may not have the fancy stuff to decorate and make my home livable.  In fact, sometimes it is hard to do so.  I know what I like and do not like.  I try to come up with ways that I can do that on a budget.  December is the month where I draw up my budget for the next year, so I have to know how much I am allowing myself to spend on new decorations.

Last year, I went to Dollar Tree, and in a way, I have become sort of a Dollar Tree snob.  Now, I do not buy everything at Dollar Tree.  I do go to Target, Walmart, Ikea, and even At Home if have to.  I also look to see what I can make, now that I have a Cricut Maker to use and a new sewing machine.   This year, I have to be careful because of the cat.  I want to make sure that I do have cat-friendly products, so I nor my nephew have to run to do an emergency run to the vet.  I am also working on a budget of $200 (low end) to $500 (high end), but closer to $200. 

One of the things I do advise to signup with lots of rewards programs.  I have signed up with Ebates, Be Frugal, Dosh, and Acorns.  Each one of these programs, I linked my debit card to that program.  The way these programs work is you shop as normal.  When you go to a store that one of these programs are attached to, you will get money back.  It may not happen right away, but it is like paying yourself for shopping. 

Ebates (which I have been with since 2010), sends a “big check” 4 times a year, which I am not happy with (I want to be paid once a month, LOL), allows you to shop both online and in store.   With the in stores, you have to activate online in order for your card to tell Ebates you have been shopping.

Be Frugal works the same way as Ebates, except you do not have to enter a debit card on your account.

Dosh and Acorns work the same.  You put your card number in, and every time you shop, you are automatically given a cash back to our card.    

Entertaining your guests.

Plan your holiday dinner NOW, if you have not already started.  You can find some great deals similar to the ones I mentioned above.  I am a member of Kroger and Giant Eagle rewards program.  If you do not have time to shop, use the delivery programs, such as the ones that Kroger has or Shipt.  Be mindful of food delivery services as some do have a fee. Shipt is $99 yearly or $14 monthly.  So, if you do not have it in the budget or will be shopping on the way home from work, this may not be a good fit for you and your budget.

The way to create a budget is to figure out how many people you will have over for dinner then figure out the cost per person.  in the case of my family, which includes my parents, brother and wife, sister, me, oldest nephew and girlfriend, my brother’s youngest, and my sister’s two children (oldest is my brother’s child), this adds up to 11 people.  I am going to round up the price from USA Today estimate of $49.87, reported in 2016 to $55.00 in 2018, and we have the cost down to $5 for each person.  Of course, you may have more or less depending on where you live.

Last on this part is family.

Family, rather you are married, single with or without children, or with a partner, is important especially this time of the year, and it is important that you do not leave them out.  So, I combine this segment into something I like to call, “divide and conquer”.  

The way it works is a combination of organizing teamwork and individuality, and everyone has to cooperate to get things done.  You are the overseer of all things.  In decorating, do the task at the same time, but assign each person with a task.  Someone gets and decorates the tree, another hangs the garland around the house.  You have little children, they can set things up like the nativity scene, the Menorah, or unity candles for Kwanza, anything that is safe for them to do.  No glassware type stuff and only if they can handle it. 

For cooking, you can have a potluck if you have extended family.  You provide the meats and main stuff while you have someone bring in the side dishes.  See how that works.   If you are sending out cards, one person can address the cards while the other can sign the cards.

In between all of that hustle and bustle, rest, take in a movie night with your family.  See other decorations or have story time with the kids.  Do not forget some coupling times as well.  It is more important to be with family then to plan for the annual holiday party at your house.  Have a family get together with the kids.  My family gets together on Christmas Eve, have our main dinner, maybe open one present (save the rest for in the morning), and have movie night of whatever is on Netflix or Hulu.  Not sure about this year since mom and dad are asked to do the reading of the final advent candle at church, but we will make it work.

This concludes this series on making the holidays work without the stress.  Please check out part 1 on My Ambiance Life and part 2 on P. Lynne Designs blogs.

Until then, my Peace come upon the Earth and have fun.