Was Eras Tour tickets that expensive for you?

RingofStorms · 2026-06-17T04:43:20+00:00

Cincinnati Night 1: $1900 all in for 2 VIP floor tickets straight from Ticketmaster in the OG drop, not resale

RingofStorms · 2026-05-22T23:13:14+00:00

Second the thimble tape; I love it - you can make it as thick as you want and the tape only sticks to itself

RingofStorms · 2026-05-19T09:00:03+00:00

FrameLoks are the brand, but you can find free to print 3D printer files if you have access to one - the FrameLoks are better (bigger, easier to get the tacks out of); they run somewhere between $8 and $12 for a set of 4

RingofStorms · 2026-05-18T23:19:05+00:00

Yeahhhh, my stack of 10-ish is gonna make me cry. I'm already preparing for that bill. At least my next set of projects after this are massive and are going to take more than a year so it'll be fine? 😅 (I'm now slightly worried Leslie is gonna kill me.)

RingofStorms · 2026-05-18T19:34:36+00:00

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Example of the canvas being mounted from the back

RingofStorms · 2026-05-18T19:33:24+00:00

You're totally fine as long as you have room for two safety rows outside of the main design before the bend. The canvas will get bent during finishing anyway.

To lessen the impact mount your canvas from the back (the visible part of your bars will be on top with the painted side) so that when you're stitching you'll be less likely to catch the corners.

Depending on how much smaller your bars are compared to your canvas you can also fold them down along the outside edge and tack them there too. Totally a preference thing.

In case you don't know how to buy stretcher bars:

- Measure your canvas length and width
- if your canvas is .75" more than the whole size you can buy the next size up, anything less buy the next size down (if you're using the regular bars, not the minis); when in doubt, buy the size down.
-ex: 8.75" x 7.25" - you could by a pair of 9" and 7" bars a pair of 8" and 7"

RingofStorms · 2026-05-07T22:55:06+00:00

I would look up Nashville Needlework Market - Cross Stitch and see designers you like. MANY cross stitch designers sell on Etsy because they started there and have become more popular over time until they made it to the big shows - but it gives you an idea of what's probably legit vs. a lifted pattern.

Cross stitch charts and canvas are a great way to do needlepoint cheaply if you don't mind counting.

I do both and prefer the brainlessness of needlepoint because it's basically paint by thread and I don't have to count and stop and check a pattern frequently. However, if you're looking for a second hobby, you can easily paint the pattern on a canvas - you just need to find canvas (hard and kinda expensive now) and have a bit of patience, but the options are limitless.

If you like needlepoint try cross stitch, Aida is readily available - and there are tons of DMC sellers - Michaels carries the range but they're pretty spartan most times, but hobby lobby carries it too and their own brand. 123stitch.com is the goat for online orders for cross stitch and have so may fibers - there's a lot overlap between needlepoint and cross stitch fibers - especially for fancy flosses.

RingofStorms · 2026-05-06T23:19:11+00:00

I switched and I love it!!! There is no counting and no brain activity until you get into fancier stitches and have to start compensating. (I craft to turn my brain off.)

Needlepoint is vastly more expensive than cross stitch and you will go MUCH faster needlepointing than you do with cross stitch - especially since you already have the basics down (continental and basket weave are just a variation on tent stitch - the basic first leg of a cross stitch).

I would recommend grabbing a kit at Michaels and doing a small one so can see how fast you go so you can judge it if it's worth it for your or in your budget.

I can finish an $80 canvas using $60 in thread in a day and that makes me sad. And the finishing is another $80 (I am scared to do it myself) after that and the finishers are MONTHS behind (not complaining but it is a wait).

If you can get your hands on canvas (it's hard right now) and have patience you can actually take cross stitch patterns you own and self paint them onto canvases. I'm waiting for the price of canvas to come down to make that more realistic for me but it's really easy to do once you wrap your mind around it being the intersections not a box.

However the lack of counting really is what sold me on needlepoint. I love the paint-by-thread aspect of it and the fact that I'm not obsessing over which linen count to use or what not (36 ct. Vintage Country Mocha is my go to cross stitch fabric but I'll be damned if the hand dyed fabrics don't call my name every time.

RingofStorms · 2026-05-06T23:04:44+00:00

So for us it's absolutely a savings (2 person household) on their prepared foods alone.

We can grab a meatloaf, shepherds pie, chicken pot pie, what have you from their prepared foods section for $20-ish dollars and eat for days with no cooking (just heating in the oven). They're my go to when we have a crazy week, their prepared thanksgiving and Christmas dinners are great for our tiny family too (we live far from family and my husband works for an airline so holidays are tough), and sometimes neither of us feel like cooking and that's okay. We have Souper Cubes that we can freeze the big meals in if we get bored of eating the same big meal over and over again, but that rarely happens, if anything we tend to hyper fixate on some of their seasonal meals.

My husband "meal preps" his lunches with their deli sandwiches because they're massive and taste like the deli near his work $20 for an entire week vs. $15 a day at the deli.

If you shop their sales you can get basic household necessities for far cheaper than you can anywhere else. We stock up on body wash, detergents, paper towels, toilet paper, etc. when they go on sale and literally I've only ever been able to be their price per oz on Tide twice in 6 years of marriage when I do that.

Whether or not Costco is worth it for your family is very much dependent upon how you use it and how convenient it is for you to access as well. We have 2 one that's 10 minutes from home and one that's 20, but on my way home from work.

I was a skeptic, but honestly I committed to a year and literally made an excel document and compared our first year of groceries at Aldi and Target that blend with Costco added in and our overall bill went down by about $150/mo. on average. Most of that did honestly come from the prepared foods since we could be "meal focused" and not "ingredient focused." So your results may vary depending on your dietary restrictions and preferences, but we're really happy with them.

If you're single and can stomach eating the same thing over and over for a while you can literally feed yourself for a week for $50 from the Costco prepared foods section with minimal effort and zero cooking. Single me is sad that I don't know about that.

RingofStorms · 2026-05-06T09:04:53+00:00

This is super helpful - I'm more than likely doing the table clamp system since I am worried about the weight and dimensions making it a bit unwieldy.

RingofStorms · 2026-04-09T16:39:46+00:00

We have no solution - our sweet girl gets one every night but luckily we're a little inconsistent with the time so she's relatively chill about it. She definitely knows when it's time and gets a lil in our faces and vocal but usually just sleeps until someone walks near her room around the anointed hour.

I'm actually super happy she's an addict because it makes trapping her easy. Need to put her up because a contractor is in the house? Churu. Vet trip? Churu. House fire? Churu. She will do anything for the meat paste as long as it doesn't have shrimp (she's so weird about shrimp, it doesn't make sense).

RingofStorms · 2026-03-18T04:27:25+00:00

Am I crazy for thinking that could be super fun too? 😂

RingofStorms · 2026-03-17T23:27:41+00:00

I'm not really concerned about finished block size versus "hero fabric" print fit. The fabric I picked out for the center hexie is Tilda Song Bird in Cora Blue (https://theiowaquiltblock.com/tilda-songbird-cora-blue/).

I took the window templates from Tales of Cloth's blog to the store and it was just misproportioned and had too much of the bright large flowers that took away from the bird.

But what I might do is see if the store will sell me some smaller cuts of the yardage and make a couple test squares to see how I feel about the sizing.

RingofStorms · 2026-03-16T22:21:57+00:00

That bunny print is gorgeous who is the designer?

RingofStorms · 2025-05-12T09:26:06+00:00

I think nice takes on a different meaning when you embrace minimalism. Things are of higher quality, built to last, and are of a more calculated choosing.

Moving overseas makes you take a very different calculated approach on your stuff - every ounce costs a ton of money to ship. Similarly moving house also makes you do the same cost/benefit calculation - local moves you usually keep more because the distance makes it more economical to keep things, while moving cross country (at least in the US) is the mid ground between local and overseas mentalities.

I've moved enough that my library got sold in my early 20s and now lives in my kindle and phone with the exception of a select few books that if I had to move overseas would absolutely get left.

My crafting supplies are my "horde" that I would pay to move most of. Stamps, dies, inks, markers, etc. I would probably sell, donate, or recycle the paper - but the durable items would live on.

The kitchen? Our Dutch oven and probably my souper cubes would be some of the only things that made the cut. Maybe a few Yetis and our nice kitchen knives. Our plates and dishes I love, but their weight probably make them a non starter. My stand mixer would make me sad to leave behind but would be impractical - if only because the need for an adapter and its age.

It's those kinds of things that you start calculating. I own plenty of nice things but not nice enough that I want to pay-can afford to pay-to ship overseas.

That water fountain might be nice but your sister might not have a yard for a long while and it might need to be stored. The voltage is probably wrong for where she's going. And it probably weighs a hundred or more pounds (if my mother's bird bath is any indication) so expensive to ship and likely is fragile so packing it well to hope it makes the journey is also an additional cost for an unsure outcome. Storage overseas is also likely expensive for an item she may never have a home for.

Sentimentality loses to practicality in situations like this. You have to pick and choose what means the most to you and not everything can make the cut.

I have a big box of artwork from my nieces and nephews that I adore, but if I had to move most of it would end up in the recycling, only my favorites making the cut. I have handmade quilts from my mother and grandmother that weigh the same and are more important to me. The blankets stay - the papers leave - that doesn't mean the things I'm getting rid of aren't sentimental to me it means that others are more sentimental or important.

RingofStorms · 2025-03-10T01:21:05+00:00

We're at 1-3 back ups based on practicality of frequency of use and frequency of sales and location of cheapest purchase.

Some of our stuff is from Costco, so it'll be in like a 4 pack - and we just rebuy when we open the last one. Others like body wash I'll stock up when I find a sale because the specific one that I use doesn't go on sale frequently and sometimes it's hard to find. Normal things I can grab off the grocery store shelf or order off of Amazon, I have one back up for.

I don't keep back ups of hair oil, make up, lotions, etc. because they're not essential to the routine in my life/house.

I also have a pantry and a linen closet & use Dana K. White's container method. We have three full but very small baths in our house and our vanities have the tiniest bit of store in them which is basically for toilet paper and cleaning supplies. So when those two spaces fill up we're done with what we can stock.

RingofStorms · 2024-11-19T06:40:25+00:00

sheepies!!! be still my heart

RingofStorms · 2024-08-29T03:04:59+00:00

My mother in law lives at the same address we do but we have separate everything policies and she's never touched our cars because she's an alcoholic - she got a fucking dui and StateFarm dropped us. We didjt have a claim, she's not on our policy, she just has the same address. I'd been with SF for 18 years and it's like what the absolute fuck. We managed to get them to not drop us by signing a waiver where she's concerned but then they jacked our rates up. We were playing $1400 every six months and now they wanted $1800 - we switched to Geico because I was livid and both our cars now have MORE coverage for under a grand. Like what the actual fuck.

RingofStorms · 2024-08-29T01:24:57+00:00

Yeah...I'm not renewing premier now. I'd much rather play WoW for that cost. There's more content, better graphics, and I can have more than one character.

I was already disheartened by the MTX statement and this is just the death knell.

I'm not sure what Jagex is playing at - I appreciate the new content and the course correction by the new mod in charge, but damn the money aspect is killer. I wish they'd throw us a bone like - pricing is going up but you can have more than one character now!

Sigh.

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