5 Tips to Minimize Paper Towels in Your Home

In the last few years I have become passionate about producing less waste in my life and home. I love the phrase, "We don't need a few people doing zero waste perfectly. We need a lot of people doing it imperfectly."

I don't think I will ever create zero waste, but I know I can make an effort to produce less--and it's actually pretty easy to make some changes! Eliminating paper towels was an easy change for me, but I know how intimidating it can seem!

I actually stopped using paper towels (for the most part, see below) like five or six years ago. I can't remember if it was because I wanted to be less wasteful or because I'm kind of a cheapskate and hated spending money on something I was literally throwing away. 

Have we completely stopped using paper towels? No! We keep them on hand for pet messes, but really that's the only thing we use them for. I consider this a major win! Look at us doing that less waste thing imperfectly!

It can take some time to adjust to any changes made in your home, so here are some tips that will help you with the transition to minimize your paper towel usage!

1. Move the paper towels to an inconvenient place. Maybe this sounds super simple, but it is a huge help! Ours are under the kitchen sink and towards the back. Because they are inconvenient, we don't reach for them when there's a spill or we need to dry our hands.
2. Leave a hand drying towel beside every sink. The kitchen sink, the bathroom sink, the guest bathroom sink. Put a hand drying towel there and you won't be tempted to dry your hands with a paper towel. We have six white hand towels for the bathroom and I change it daily. In the kitchen, I have a towel hanging on the cabinet door beneath the sink. I love using cute towels for the kitchen. (TJ Maxx always has cute ones and I love when people gift me cute kitchen towels.)
3. Stock up on kitchen towels and cleaning rags. I am the world's messiest cook and baker, and I'm in the kitchen pretty much every day. If *I* can rock not using paper towels, so can you! We have a drawer full of kitchen towels-- it has small rags, bar mop towels, and flour sack cloths. (They're all from Target.) Sometimes I go through the entire drawer in a week, and I just pop them in the wash. It's really no big deal. For cleaning rags, someone gave me about 30 shop rags a few years ago and they come in so handy! I keep them in a basket in the bathroom cabinet. Maybe that seems like a lot of rags, but I just folded 12 cleaning rags from the last few days. We use them A LOT.
4. Use cloth napkins. I LOVE using cloth napkins. I might just be eating a grilled cheese, but the cloth napkin makes it seem like a fancy meal. One thing I've noticed is that people don't like to use cloth napkins because they are afraid they will get dirty. Um, that's kind of the point. If you have pretty ones you want to keep in pristine condition, just pick up some at the store or Goodwill that you don't mind using. You can also make your own! (Sometimes when I have just a small square of fabric leftover from a project, I turn it into a napkin!)
5. Have a dedicated basket for dirty rags. In the kitchen, there is a basket beside the sink for dirty kitchen towels. In the bathroom, dirty cleaning rags go into the laundry bin with the bath towels. Having a dedicated place to put your dirty rags makes it easy on wash day!

There you have it! In your journey to quit paper towels, do give yourself some grace. It can take some time to get used to, but it is absolutely worth making the switch!

How to Start a New Hobby - Tips from a Hobby Collector

I'm a hobby collector. Jack of all trades, that's me. You know the quote, "Jack of all trades and master of none." Well, that's not the whole quote. The whole quote is: "A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one." I love that. Every hobby or skill I pick up makes me a better person. "Well-rounded," as one would put on their college application. I learn to appreciate life more with every hobby I pick up.

Photography taught me to appreciate golden hour and bask in the sun.
Coding taught me that there's more to something than what you see.
Plants have taught me that it's okay to mess up (and kill a plant)--it's only failure if you don't learn from it.

So, as a self-proclaimed hobby collector, here's my tips for starting a new hobby!

1. Research it just enough, but not too much. You don't have to know everything about something before you start. Sometimes it's just fun to jump in and learn as you go! (That's how I learned photography.) But it's nice to learn at least a little bit before jumping in. (I did some Google searches to see what kind of materials I would need for acrylic painting.) 
2. Find some tutorials. YouTube is seriously THE BEST PLACE for tutorials. I've used it for everything from editing photos to learning about plants to sewing. We live in a day and age where you have NO EXCUSE to not learn how to do something you're interested in. I made my first skirt (and a lot of others) from a fantastic YouTube video. And made several macrame plant hangers. And followed painting tutorials. Don't underestimate the YouTube. But you know what's probably BETTER than YouTube? Learning from someone you know. I just don't always know people (or live around people) who know how to do what I want to learn. BUT I joined a knitting group to learn to knit and it's been a lot of fun. (Even though I'm bad at it.)
3. Don't spend a lot of money on supplies. Seriously. Don't. You may not be into the hobby as much as you think you will be, and you don't want to waste a lot of money on it. You can learn with inexpensive materials and, if you end up LOVING it, you can spend a little money here and there to update or add to what you have. Examples: I don't paint a lot so I'm glad I bought cheap paints. But I decorated cookies for YEARS and invested into a lot of supplies. I'm also really loving sewing and have slowly acquired more tools and plan to invest and upgrade my sewing machine in the next year or so.
4. Decide that you don't have to be good at it. It's okay to do something because you enjoy it and not because you're good at it. I'm not good at painting (oh how I WISH I could create something out of my brain, but all I can do is copy people) but I ENJOY it. 
5. HAVE FUN. Have the biggest amount of fun doing it. Even if you're not good. Even if you're horrible. Even if you do it wrong. 
6. Don't compare your progress or skill level to someone else's. Some people are naturally better at some things than other. So while your best friend may pick up knitting in like two weeks, you may still be dealing with tangled ball of yarn three months later. (I'm the latter of these two people when it comes to knitting.) 
7. Understand that it can take time to perfect/get better at something. I think that's part of what I like about new hobbies--if I'm starting at the bottom, I can only go up from here! Part of the learning process is learning what works... and what doesn't work. And that just takes TIME. The more you do something, the better you will get at it. And it's okay if it takes a long time. If you love it, keep doing it.
8. You don't have to monetize your hobby. Every time I pick up a new hobby, people say, "You should sell that!" And while I know they mean it in all niceness, it kind of annoys me. I want to be able to do things just because I like them! Not to make money. So no, I do not sell skirts. I sew because I like to make myself unique skirts I can't find anywhere else. On the other hand, I did sell baked goods for several years to raise money for my missions trips. I was able to fully fund three missions trips that way. But I recently closed my side business, which leads us to...
9. If you don't enjoy it, it's okay to quit. My passion for baking and decorating cookies slowly faded after a few years and a few thousand cookies. People often ask me when I'm making cookies again, and I just smile and tell them I've moved on to new things. (Like sewing. For love, not money.)

For funzies, here are a few of the hobbies I've tried over the years:

• blogging (particularly book blogging and style blogging)
• photography
• writing (I did a few drafts of some fiction books--it was fun!)
• coding (HTML. Though I've experimented with a few other things.)
• baking/cooking (I had a side gig making decorated cookies for a few years)
• plants (not quite the same as gardening--I just love to love houseplants)
• scrapbooking
• watercolor and acrylics
• embroidery
• sewing (my current fave hobby)
• knitting
• macrame
• quilting (I'm working on my first quilt!)

And here are some things I want to try at some point in the future:

• making pottery
• crochet
• quilting
• woodworking
• gardening (flowers and food)
• birdwatching (and identifying)
• jam/jelly making
• candle making
• soap making
• applique 
• leather work
• making hair feathers

2020 Sewing Recap

I didn't realize how many items I created this year until I made a list. I thought it would be fun to do a post with everything I sewed this year! 

Masks

Casey and I made about 350 masks in March and April. Shockingly, this didn't kill my sewjo, but I was so sick of making masks and happy to work on some fun projects instead!

Skirts

Paris Skirt 

My grandma gave me this fabric and it's so cute! I bought the gingham fabric for the waistband for a bit of contrast and love how it turned out. 

Pattern: McCalls 6706 (I added 4 inches of length and a pocket)

Fabric: I think the Paris fabric is from Walmart, but I'm not sure. Waistband fabric is from Hobby Lobby.

Map skirt 

I've always wanted a map skirt and decided to make my own! Unfortunately I made this one (and the Paris one) a size too small and haven't gotten much wear out of it because it's uncomfortably tight. 

Pattern: McCalls 6706 (I added 4 inches of length and a pocket) 

Fabric: Quilting Cotton from Hobby Lobby

Plane Skirt 

As it turns out, this isn't my style and I don't wear this skirt a whole lot. But it's still cute!

Pattern: Gathered skirt using Gertie's tutorial with an added pocket

Fabric: thrifted bedsheet

Floral skirt

I love how this skirt turned out! It's such a pretty fabric. This was also my first make to include a label! I found some vintage labels with my name (Joy) and have had fun including them in my projects.

Pattern: McCalls 6706 (I added 4 inches of length and a pocket)

Fabric: Hobby Lobby on clearance. I got it for $3 a yard!

Burnt orange skirt

I wanted a fall skirt and this fit the bill! I wore it a lot during fall.

Pattern: Gathered skirt using Gertie's tutorial with an added pocket

Fabric: Quilting cotton from Hobby Lobby

Yellow Buffalo Plaid skirt

This was my birthday skirt! I saw the fabric at Hobby Lobby and planned to go get it to make this skirt for my birthday... then we were exposed to Covid and had to quarantine, so I didn't get to make this until after my birthday. Oh well--I still got to enjoy it!

Pattern: Gathered skirt using Gertie's tutorial with an added pocket

Fabric: Quilting cotton from Hobby Lobby

Christmas Plaid Skirt 

This was my last make of the year! I finished it up between sewing Christmas presents and actually didn't finish hand sewing the waistband until Christmas Eve. We woke up to a White Christmas and it was so magical!

Pattern: McCalls 6706 (I added 4 inches of length and a pocket)

Fabric: Thrifted tablecloth

Dresses/Pinafores

Red Gingham Dress 

My bestie Julianne challenged me to make a dress. She came over and we started a sewalong at 9:00 at night and finished around 2:00 the next morning. I LOVE this dress and wear it all the time. It's so comfy. 

Pattern: Cora Half Sleeve Linen Dress (free pattern) with darts

Adjustments: After making the dress, I decided the bodice was longer than I like. So with much trial and error, I shortened it. I also used my own gathered skirt pattern and added pockets. Omitted keyhole and button on the back. I think I also shortened the sleeves.

Fabric: From Julianne

Blue Dress 

This is the only photo I have of this one because I just don't wear it much. There's something about the fit that I just don't like. I think it has to do with the sleeves? I need to take it out and try to make some changes to it so I will like it!

Pattern: Cora Half Sleeve Linen Dress (free pattern)

Adjustments: I made the bodice shorter and used the version without the darts. I also used my own gathered skirt pattern and added pockets. Omitted keyhole and button on the back. 

Fabric: From Julianne

Apple pinafore 

I kept seeing the Fleur pinafore on Instagram and had to get the pattern and try it myself! I had like 5 yards of this apple fabric and decided to give it a shot. It turned out so cute! I made a few mistakes (like stitching in the incorrect place for the button placket, see above), but nothing too noticeable. This was my first time doing buttons and buttonholes and there were EIGHT.

Pattern: Untitled Thoughts Fleur Pinafore

Adjustments: I added an inch to the bodice, and I'm not sure why. It wasn't necessary. I also added some length.

Fabric: Casey's grandmother gave this to me.

Buttons: Hobby Lobby

Burnt Orange pinafore 

The apple one was so cute that I had to make another one! This was probably my most-worn piece this fall. It's so cute and perfectly fall. After the apple one, I realized how confusing it was to have the same fabric for both the outer layer and the lining, so I used a fun rainbow stripe pattern to line the top. I also made the top in a smaller size (size 2) but kept the skirt the same size (size 6). The yellow buttons on the side are vintage! I also added pockets to this one. I wasn't sure if I'd like the look of them, but I do. Plus... pockets. 

Pattern: Untitled Thoughts Fleur Pinafore

Adjustments: Added length; Did crisscross straps for the back and omitted back panel. 

Buttons: Strap buttons from Hobby Lobby; side buttons are vintage

Other

Purses

I've made three Full Moon circle purses and of course have no photos of any of them. I've got two more in the works. These were Christmas presents for friends.

Bunny

I made this bunny for my niece's first birthday. It turned out very cute! The pattern was free from a book I borrowed from the library, and it wasn't a very well written pattern. There were a few times that the instructions were so unclear that I just had to figure it out as I went. Very disappointing. But ultimately it turned out adorable.

Pattern: From the Sunday Sews book; I had to do my own thing for the dress because I never figured out the instructions. 

Fabric: Gray linen from Hobby Lobby; dress fabric was thrifted; dress lining made out of her mom's pillow case from when she was a baby

Neckties

I discovered this necktie tutorial and have made like 8 ties! Most were for Casey, but some were for friends and family. This is a quick sew and comes together beautifully. It is a great beginner project. Casey loves having unique ties, so we always keep an eye out for cool fabric when we're shopping. (Btw, the filter I used on this photo makes the fabric look a little weird.)

Pattern: MADE Everyday Necktie. She goes through the entire process in this video and it's so easy to follow! She explains how to create your own pattern, but I decided to buy hers. Totally worth it! It comes with both the skinny and regular tie options. Casey prefers the skinny ties, but I have used the normal size pattern for gifts.

Fabric: Chateau Sew and Sew in New Orleans (They had such cute fabric!)

Princess Anna Costume

By far my favorite and most time consuming make of the year!! I've wanted a Princess Anna costume since Frozen came out, and now that I know how to sew, I had to make one myself! Eventually I want to thrift a light blue top and embellish it to be even more like her costume.

Vest: I thrifted a velvet jacket and turned it into a vest, then added gold bias tape and hand sewed the embellishment. 

Skirt: Made a gathered skirt (with an Olaf pocket!) and then added some darts to take away some bulk from the waistband. The motifs were made with heat and bond and it worked very well! (I tried fabric paint and it didn't look as nice)

Cape: This was the biggest experiment and I am THRILLED with the results. I got a lot of inspiration from this tutorial but did not use any patterns. I made some mock ups before cutting it out of my fabric. I made the cape really wide so I could actually wrap it around me to stay warm.

Fabric: Fabric for skirt and cape were from JoAnn's. Fabric for motifs and fold bias tape was from Hobby Lobby. Cape clasp was from Walmart.

I want this costume to be an ongoing project. As I progress with my sewing skills, I'd like to update pieces or recreate them completely. I really want to work on the motifs on the bodice (it's hard tell in the photos, but it's crooked) and add some more details to the cape. I'd also like to get more of the pink fabric to make her hat. I used almost every bit of the 5 yards I bought for the cape!

Current Projects

• Two Full Moon Bags | I still have two to make for Christmas presents. All the fabric is cut and prepped, so now I just have to sew them.
• Striped Corduroy Fleur Pinafore | I'm so excited about this one! All the pieces are cut and interfaced and I think I finished the top part of it. 
• Quilt top | I'm making a rainbow scrap quilt (because I love to not waste fabric) and I'm about halfway done with the quilt top. 

Whew! That's a lot! I really had no idea I made that many things this year.  I never planned to learn to sew, but it has been one of the most fun creative ventures I've done. It's so rewarding and I really enjoy it. Here's to another year! It will be so fun to look back in another year and see what all I've made!

2020 Goals Recap

It's been so long since I've written a new post that Blogger has changed on me! I spend a lot of my free time sewing (and thus not blogging) and I'm okay with that. That being said, I really enjoy going back and reading my end/beginning of the year posts so I wanted to pop in and do that today.

As it turns out, NO ONE had 2020 vision and this year turned out completely unexpected. But not all bad! I do still try to block out March and April where I spent six weeks making masks. Shockingly, I didn't lose my sewjo. I was just so. sick. of masks. But I've sewed some fun stuff since, and I'll try to do a recap on that. (We'll see. ha!)

I honestly didn't even remember the things I wrote down at the beginning of 2020. It's been a long year and I decided to give myself grace on all the things I didn't do. But let's see how I did. 

Marriage

• Make sure to have one six-second kiss every day | I feel terrible saying we don't do this every day! Guess that just means it needs to be on the 2021 goals list...
• Two planned date nights every month | After a few months, we decided to bump this up to a date night every week and I'm so glad we did! We have date night every Tuesday and always look forward to it. Sometimes we go to a local restaurant and sometimes we stay in and do a puzzle or something low-key, but I love having the time to connect with Casey. Sometimes we plan something together and sometimes one of us does the planning. It's always fun to come up with something new and fun, and Casey always plans fun dates!
• Express my expectations | Unfortunately there's no real way to measure this, but I have definitely been trying to communicate better and more, even about tiny things. Opening up a conversation is actually what led to us doing date night every week, so there are definitely benefits to expressing my expectations.

Going Green

• Continue using reusable shopping bags, coffee mugs, water bottle, real china and silverware, limiting paper towel use, and refusing plastic straws. | 2020 has made this one a little more difficult. At the beginning of Covid, we stopped using reusable shopping bags because we weren't sure if it was a good idea to continue using them. Reusable bags aren't the norm here--I've literally never seen a single other person in town use them--so our town doesn't have any rules about them, but we didn't want to make any grocery workers feel uncomfortable. We have since started using them again and haven't had a problem (other than grocery workers being confused, but that's normal). I HATE using grocery pick up (which was our only option when we had to quarantine a few times) because they put every single item in its own plastic bag. I could rant, but I'll refrain. We use these plastic bags as trash bags, so at least they've been getting used.

We're still rocking the real china and silverware, but I need to do better at speaking up against using a plastic straw. We limit the paper towel use to pet messes which has increased this year because we are now kitten foster parents! Though technically our paper towel usage has increased a little because of this, I still am proud of us for being mindful of when we use them.

• Figure out what to do about recycling. I didn't do this and I'm not sure if I just lost vision or if it was a 2020 thing that I didn't feel like bothering with. Either way, I've decided we'll just pay the fee to have recycling pick up this year. The only packaging I've truly tried to be mindful about is egg cartons, and I try to get ones made of paper that I can throw in the compost pile. However, I met a neighbor via Facebook who raises chickens, and she said she'd be happy to take empty egg cartons, so I'm going to try to remember to give them to her instead! 
• Shop the farmers market regularly. We've tried our best to support the farmers market this year, especially through Covid. Our favorite booth is a lady who bakes all kinds of delicious pastries. We get some almost every week! I was thrilled that there were extra booths before Christmas, so we did some of our Christmas shopping there. I love to support local entrepreneurs! 

Personal

• Be a better friend | That lunch date with myself in March never happened because I was too busy making masks to eat lunch. (Apparently I'm still not over the mask-making trauma, ha!) We did have a friend move in with us a few months ago and she will be here until she gets married in April. It's been so fun having her here. We've also been able to have some friends over for small dinner parties (which sounds far more fancy than it is--usually I make spaghetti or breakfast for dinner then we hang out).
• Read at least one non-fiction book a month | Oops. I just checked my Goodreads and I only read (listened to) two non-fic books this year. I prefer to listen instead of read non-fic, and I discovered podcasts this year, so I've listened to podcasts and forgone the books. That being said, I've been listening to my Bible. (See below)
• Create a cleaning schedule for my home | Oops again. Okay, to give myself some credit, during November I decided to create what I considered to be my ideal daily schedule. Part of this includes cleaning time throughout the day, like doing dishes after breakfast and lunch, and spending time in the afternoon picking up around the house. On the days I follow this schedule, I've rocked it!
• Complete at least one sewing project per month. I just now looked back and made a list of everything I made this year. I'm SHOCKED at how much I accomplished! In addition to about 350 masks (which took me six solid weeks of sewing while Casey did most of the cutting), I also made 6 skirts, 2 dresses, 2 pinafores, 3 purses, a stuffed bunny, 8 (I think) neckties, and a Princess Anna costume for myself! I'm currently working on 2 more purses, another pinafore, and a quilt top.

Spiritual

• Read a new Bible plan | I'm 21 days behind and have 4 days to catch up (I'm going to listen to it while I do some cleaning). I HATED the Bible reading program we chose and was already regretting it in March. I'm going back to my One Year Bible next year and really looking forward to it. I did like that Casey and I did it together though!
• Grand Finale | Our church couldn't have our annual kids camp this year, so we weren't able to do this. But we have some great ideas that maybe we can use next year!
• Play more worship music at home | We have ROCKED THIS. Every morning when I get up I tell Alexa to play worship music and we play it throughout the day. We even got another Echo Dot so I could have it playing in my office, too. 

This took far longer than I expected it to, but I'm glad I sat down to do this. It made me realize that, even during a global pandemic, I was able to move forward and make changes that help me become the person I want to become. I believe that every small step contributes to a bigger goal, and I'm glad I kept stepping. Now it's time to work on a list of goals for 2021! 

Summer Sweets

There's something so magical about summer treats--ice cream, shakes, popsicles, snowcones (called snowballs here in South Louisiana but I still haven't gotten used to that). Funnily enough, I hardly ever eat these sort of things, but I'm glad I married a guy who loves that kind of stuff so I don't miss out. Turns out, my favorite summer treat is a yummy scoop of ice cream in a waffle cone. I've been on a mint chocolate chip kick lately, which is the ultimate refreshing flavor, especially when it's super hot out. And it's Louisiana. It's always hot out.

Casey learned about a milkshake food truck coming to town so obviously we had to check it out. And check that OUT. It was soooo messy but still yummy. (Nothing, however can ever compare to The Yard. That place spoiled me.) It was nice to just sit on the back of the car in a Mexican restaurant parking lot while ice cream and chocolate dripped everywhere as we tried to eat it before it could melt. Even messy can be magical.

Dreaming of Fall... In July

It's July 2. America will celebrate its independence in just two days. Tomorrow I will make my annual "apple pie for the Fourth of July." On Saturday I will wear my patriotic skirt (navy with white stars, just like the American flag) with a red, white, and blue plaid button up and a pair of patriotic sunglasses that say, "Party like it's 1776."

And yet.

Yesterday, on July 1, I found myself ready for fall.

Maybe it's because it's been SOME KIND OF HUMID this week. (Today's humidity is 52% and it feels soooo much better outside than the sauna that became Louisiana this week.)

Maybe it's because it's been SOME KIND OF YEAR these last six months and I'm ready for my favorite season.

Maybe (probably) it's because I ran to Hobby Lobby yesterday and they had all their fall decor and fabric out. (And Christmas. I ALMOST bought some nutcracker fabric... I think I'm gonna have to go back and get it.)

I want to buy all the cute fall fabric and make a million pillow covers. I want to pull out my pumpkins from the storage room. I want to burn fall candles and diffuser blends. (Okay, fine, I'm diffusing a fave fall blend right now.)

And also, I want to wear fall clothes. I'm already wearing boots (because boots are my favorite and I wear combat boots all year round), but I'm already looking forward to pulling out my tights and scarves and sweaters for the two weeks of fall weather we get in December.

*an aside*
When I was a teenager, I LOVED teen fashion magazines (I had subscriptions to Seventeen--my fave--and Teen Vogue) and I was always so confused by the "first day of school" outfits. They were always SO CUTE (again, I'm a sucker for fall clothes) but I couldn't imagine wearing a sweater on the first day of school. It was much too hot for that. And those knee-high boots? Cute as they were, you'd feel sweat pouring down your calves before the first bell rang.

I guess at some point I finally realized that other places have actual fall weather when school starts and I'm still a little bit jealous of it. But I guess it's okay. We have mild winters, which, as someone who does NOT like super cold weather, I'm glad for. AND I'm glad that we don't have summer weather year-round like my beloved Singapore.
*aside complete*

I'm literally so tempted to start decorating for fall, but I'm trying to be practical and wait a little while. I mean, it's completely acceptable to pull out the fall decor in September, which means if I want to decorate early, I can bring out the pumpkins mid-August. (To distract myself in the meantime, I think I'm going to give our room a mini makeover.)

If we're going for a mid-August fall decor launch date, that means I have just six more weeks to wait. Which means that I need to go ahead and make those pumpkin pillow covers. Guess I can work on that while I eat my apple pie on the fourth of July.

At-Home Painting With A Twist Date Night

I mentioned in my last post that my husband and I had a "Painting With A Twist" inspired date night recently. I went to a Painting With A Twist a few years ago and really enjoyed it, but I didn't like the painting we did. (I went with a group of friends and just went along with the painting they chose.)

We pass our local Painting With A Twist often when we walk downtown, and, while the paintings are cute, I've never thought one was cute enough to hang in my house. PLUS I'd want to do it with my husband which means we'd have not one, but TWO paintings that we'd wonder what to do with. So, cheapskate me could never justify a date night there. But then I thought, why don't we just do one at home?

So I went to my fave store, Hobby Lobby (when you collect hobbies, you frequently find yourself here), and picked up supplies. All the painting supplies were half off, and, honestly, that's the only time you should ever buy anything at Hobby Lobby. Everything goes on sale every few weeks. I picked up:

• a set of 20 (I think) acrylic paints
• pack of paintbrushes
• plastic mixer things (didn't really need them, but I read a blog post that inspired me to get them, and they were only a few dollars)
• watercolor paper (instead of canvas. Plus, I was out of watercolor paper, so it did double duty. Yes, I do some watercolor too. *points at self* Hobby Collector.)

My total bill was around $30, but I also picked up some other things, so probably the paint stuff we needed was around $20. Which, I might add, is about half the price for ONE person to do Painting With A Twist. AND I have enough supplies that we can do it again. Or I can do it again. I was wanting to take up acrylics anyway, so this was a really good reason for me to get supplies. 

After acquiring my supplies, I found a beginner acrylics tutorial on YouTube for us to follow. We didn't have the exact same brushes, but used similar ones and it worked out just fine.

And then... we painted! And had fun! And made a mess! (Okay, I made a mess. I'm a messy painter.) And we made some really cute paintings that I need to hang up in the kitchen.