<p>Quality chocolate can be “expansive”, too!</p>
<p>Yes, stash. Since I live in New England, it’s good for insulating properties (what if we had a power failure? We could use the YARN to keep warm!) as well as for knitting.</p>
<p>I do knit as often as I can. Darn day job - I’d knit more if I could!</p>
<p>I’ve fantasized about using a storage system for all my yarn that would help to insulate my house at the same time. Maybe drop down bins that add to attic insulation? Or a shallow continuous closet with shelves along an outside wall to add to the wall insulation? Build it for me and I’ll have no problem getting any extra yarn I need to fill it up!</p>
<p>5 cats. All rescues (2 otherwise certain death) but I won’t add up how much $ in food, litter and vet bills. An accumulation of cats. A stash of cats. I think this qualifies under “some might disapprove.”</p>
<p>Oh yay - there are many of us!</p>
<p>So anybody else on Ravelry?</p>
<p>Redpoint, I have two cats who now that the human boys are in college run the house. And they like yarn too which doesn’t always work so well together.</p>
<p>
That would be a clowder of cats.</p>
<p>
Depends on whether you’ve crossed the “cat lady” line. ;)</p>
<p>When I said I was completely out I realize now I really meant completely out of yarn I want to use, I have entire skeins of leftovers but not enough to make something I would want to make with those yarns.</p>
<p>Have you thought of knitting squares for a quilt?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Oh no! Cold press and hot press paper, artist tape, masking fluid, French easel, fold up stool, drying rack, backer boards, frames and mats. Brushes - flat, round, rigger at a minimum. And that’s just for watercolors.</p>
<p>There’s nothing wrong with being a cat lady! </p>
<p><em>set out porcelain cat dishes and rings cats’ dinner bell</em></p>
<p>Cats and creativity. Now we’re talking. 
</p>
<p>Think of all the savings on therapy.</p>
<p>My mother had to be put on a 12 step program for yarn. When we moved her, we found it everywhere - under beds, in closets, in hampers, on the top shelf of the closet, behind the Christmas decorations, in cubby holes…</p>
<p>I gave a lot of it to a friend who said “this is not odd bits of yarn; there are many skeins from the same dye lot” and I had to tell her that, for the safety of everyone, we needed to get it out of the house.</p>
<p>"There’s nothing wrong with being a cat lady! </p>
<p><em>set out porcelain cat dishes and rings cats’ dinner bell</em> "</p>
<p>^^^Exactly :)</p>
<p>I love animals and belong to several animal-lovers groups. Every so often the question comes up - how many is too many, and the answer you always hear is that as long as you have the appropriate amount of space, time, and money to dedicate to every individual animal every day, you are good. Personally, I have 4 animals. That’s my limit (for now?) :)</p>
<p>My two splurges lately: A massage every three or four weeks. Since I’m a runner, I get very tight. So the massages can be kind of painful, but I feel better afterward.</p>
<p>Coloring my hair. I’m just not ready to be gray at 51. My hairstylist has strict instructions to let me know when it starts looking fake.</p>
<p>mathmom, the art supplies are an avocation, not a splurge.</p>
<p>Vacations, we splurge big on a family trips after deployments and just travel in general, we don’t live near family so we spend whatever we have to to go home. With the short notice that can happen in the military, travel can be a lot.</p>
<p>Cats… I will be “acquiring” 2 additional ones - personally imported from Central Asia. Talk about outrageous spending! But they are my adopted “grandkitties” (plucked by D from a dumpster and nurtured back to (fat cat) life).</p>
<p>I don’t consider my art supplies a splurge since most years I sell enough art to pay for the supplies. But you can spend plenty if you put your mind to it!</p>
<p>Bunson burner - My S and his GF - who are now living with us while they get enough $$ to set up an apartment ( no splurge there!) - brought home two alley cats with them after teaching English in China for two years. They spent untold amounts of money on these cats to bring them back to life… fleas, worms, mange, you name it. And then they fell in love with them and spent even more $$ in getting them back to the US.
(I guess that is why they they are living with us for now. But I must say the cats are adorable!)</p>
<p>I splurge on coffee from Starbucks instead of making it myself at home. I feel guilty about this everytime, but I just enjoy it more when I get it at the store!</p>
<p>wrapping paper</p>
<p>I just love looking at it, shopping for it and then HATE parting with it when its time to wrap.</p>
<p>My kiddos used to/still do tease me to some extent that I would fuss over the wrap for the smallest and most inexpensive gifts. Granted we didn’t have a whole lot to spend when they were growing up but I just loved the wrap and especially fabric ribbon. Have a “ribbon” box that is now over 30 years old. Keep them until they are falling apart!</p>
<p>Silly, I know. I don’t drink soda, or coffee or any alcohol, don’t wear make-up and we drive older cars, Subarus 2003 outback and a “new to me” 1996 Forester. Was sharing the outback with son in med school but now his rotations are hundreds of miles away so I really needed another vehicle. </p>
<p>So they can keep teasing me about my wrapping paper fetish! I do love really, really nice linens but since we are now down to just 2 beds I have liquidated many of my “beautiful” linens. Sigh.</p>
<p>Kat</p>