Eleven

That's how many months it's been.

Not the face of someone hurting for more clothes. Not at all.

And yet...I don't know if it's really been enough of a challenge.

I mean, it hasn't really made me cry in my pillow or anything. Not that it should, but I've overcome things before that have, and now those things feel like accomplishments.

Like making a cheesecake for Thanksgiving. Okay, it didn't make me cry in my pillow, but rather tear up on my apron.

But that was just because the Pam I oversprayed into the springform pan was dripping all over our oven.

And that $#!t's flammable. And smoke makes your eyes water. And therefore making a cheesecake was challenging enough to make me cry.

I think that pecan torte in the background makes it look nicer, don't you?

Luckily it turned out rather tasty. Thanks, Real Simple. Though your directions were vague ("bake until just set" = "Shannon baked, then shook the cheesecake to see if it jiggled real bad"), your photo of gingersnap cherry awesomeness made me feel all warm and domestic and inspired me to bake.

Ever so slightly prettier than mine. Good Foodography I guess!

And thanks, Meg, for your hilarious post about Thanksgiving in another country; you inspired me to mention this foray into the kitchen.

But I digress. It's time to wrap up this year. It's time to think about the challenge of not buying stuff and whether or not it was a real challenge. It's time to think about what's next.

I don't know what to do next.

I thought about going another year without buying stuff. Yeah, it would be hard, but I kinda feel like that would be a boring rerun.

And this year has changed a lot of my habits. Perhaps permanently. I take better care of the clothes I have. For some reason I am more selective in the other things I purchase, like toiletries and food. I enjoy shopping and looking at magazines more now because it's fun to figure out how to mimic styles with what I already have.

I enjoy things that I never thought I would before. Like, well, having a kitchen. Like filling the kitchen with smoke. I mean pies.

Yeah, okay, so this month will be a little bit reflective. I'd like to see what this experiment has accomplished. I want to contemplate what I should take on next. Because frankly, I'd hate to think that cheesecake was a bigger challenge than the whole of 2010!