Well that told me!!!

I moderate all my comments after having the Internet trolls attack my blog with all sorts of nonsense wanting me to buys drugs, fake handbags and other delightful stuff.  I also don't like publishing anonymous comments unless someone puts their name there but yesterday someone who didn't put their name to their comment hit a nerve and I published it.  Here is what he or she said:

"Do you have heat in your house? Is your roof leaking? Are your windows frozen? Have your water pipes broke due to the extreme cold? Did your car start up today? Have a dead battery, flat tires or worse yet, just a dead car? Can you prepare food in your kitchen? Do you even have a kitchen? Can you prepare and eat hot foods? Do you have food? Do you have money to buy the food or do you have to wait on a line outside in the cold? Do you have clothes that are warm? Are you ill? Do you have the flu or worse yet, pneumonia? Anyone in your family sick, ill facing death? Anyone in your family living on the streets, unemployed or starving to death?
So, let me get this straight: you're just upset cause it's cold out? Well, la de dah. La de dah.
Count your blessings and keep quiet."

Have to say they are right, things could be a heck of a lot worse and honestly I have nothing to complain about as I do have heat, food, and transport and although I am still fighting a nasty cough and cold, it isn't life threatening.  So yes I should count my blessings; but should I keep quiet?

Well this is MY blog and I can write about anything I want on MY blog.  I am not forcing anyone to read it, so why post negative comments?  Don't read MY blog if you don't want to here me whine about the weather and how bloody cold it is out there.  I'm British born we complain about the weather all the time it's part of who I am!!!!

So I am going to think about what I should write about tomorrow.  Better make sure I don't whine about anything though, otherwise I will be in trouble again.

P.S. Winter storm on the way here.........that's nice (Mrs. Brown says that, but what it really means is **ck off!!!)

A really bad day

I had a bad day on Wednesday.  The wind was howling all day and despite the thermometer saying it was warmer it felt a heck of a lot colder too me.  The snow drifts across the driveway was just too much for me to handle.  I have had to call the post office to ask them to hold the mail as it's nigh on impossible to get close to the mail box now due to the snow plow dumping all the snow and the actual snow drifts.  

To say I am totally fed up with this weather is putting it mildly.  I am getting close to the breaking point.  I very nearly sat down in the middle of the driveway and had a cry.  I went inside instead and sulked and felt sorry for myself, as I hadn't put my snow pants on, so I would have got a wet butt sitting in the snow in my jogging pants.

Dh did manage to get the rest of the driveway cleaned out and he ran me into town to get the mail, so felt a bit better after all that.  I am also getting cabin fever as well.

Off to see Miss Nora today (as long as I can get out of the driveway) so that will brighten my day today.

I sound like a broken bloody record.......

this weather is just plain depressing.  The wind has been blowing a gale up here, which in turn blows the snow all over the driveway and blocks us in.  Dh has a pick up truck so he can get out, but my little car will not drive over the snow drifts.  So I had to blow out the driveway again on Tuesday and know for a fact it will be to do again today.

Did some more decluttering and have a lot of things to drop off at the charity shop today.  I am getting rid of a lot of older Christmas lights.   I also got a lot more things put away in the kitchen.  It is looking so bare, but clutter free is best on the counter tops right?

Finally I know you have all been wondering about my legs........I made the first pass with the razor on my legs on Tuesday.  Figure by the end of the week my legs should be hair free!!!!  Already feeling a bit colder down there!

Winter Freaking Wonderland............I think not!

Not sure about the rest of Canada, but I think I can safely say that if you live in Southern Ontario by now you are probably well and truly fed up of this winter?  I know I am and if I never see anymore snow it won't be a big loss.

I have had to blow out the driveway the last three days in a row.  I am having to dig out the mail box and it is four feet high as the drifts are covering it.  It's bloody cold and the heating is never off.  

The poor horses haven't been out in the paddock in weeks as under the snow there is ice and it's much too dangerous for them.

All my skin now is as dry as sandpaper.  Just put body lotion on myself.  One problem with that is you see how long your hair is on your legs.  I am at the braiding stage and it's only the end of January.  I normally don't shave my legs all winter, but may have to give in soon before it's trailing along the ground after me....LOL

Just in case you haven't gathered I HATE WINTER!!!!

All systems go.......

We now have a date of when we are putting the house on the market.  February 7th should be the date.  So we need to have everything done and sorted out by the 2nd of February, as I am assuming Sarah our real estate agent will be popping by on the 3rd (Sarah if you are reading this could you let me know?) the photographer will be in on the 4th or 5th and the house on the market on the 7th.

Sarah said we should put it on sooner rather than later, as there is very little inventory in our price range and there are qualified buyers out there looking to purchase.  We have had good luck in buying and selling houses in February BUT the weather has never been as bad as what we have at the moment.  I spoke to our farmer friend and he said he would pop by on Friday to have another go at clearing out the driveway so we can get right around the whole "P" shape of it.  As at the moment the curve is all blocked in.

So this week is more cleaning and decluttering and some reno work.  Dh has made a start on putting the baseboard together in the dining room.  That is a difficult job and one I can't finish until he has all the parts up on the wall.

As it is bitter cold here I cannot clean the outside of the windows.....yes I have tried.  Does anyone have any ideas on how to clean the outside of windows when it's crazy cold? 

I need to call in at the grocery store and see if I can scrounge up some boxes as well, as I am running short and have more things I want to pack away.  I really do not want to have to buy flipping boxes.  Do need to purchase packing tape as that is in short supply around here as well.

Otherwise things are pretty quiet around here!!  I missed the email for the book review for last month, but did manage to order some for the coming month.  I have been busy with my Swagbucks after a quiet December of it.  Hoping to get enough saved up for three $5 Amazon e-cards before the end of this month.  Did manage to cash in for the usual $25 in Amazon e-cards this month already.  Not sure what I am saving up for at the moment. If anyone wants to join up to earn free things click on this link.  If anyone has any questions please ask away.

Did manage to put $51 in my 52 weekly pot this week.  I am on schedule with that but not doing it week 1 through 52, just crossing off what money I have against what week there is on the calendar.  You can read more about that challenge here.

Artwork over the fireplace.

The Home Stager suggested a larger piece of artwork over our fireplace and I agreed with her.  So I decided to borrow the painting below from our dd.  She "won" it at The Drawing for Art event that we go too every year.  It looks gorgeous there, but as it's an original piece of art which is probably worth a few hundred dollars I am concerned with the heat coming off the fireplace and worried about the soot from the fireplace making it dirty.  So we decided to go out and see if we can get something similar.

 

Last weekend we saw this print and the colours were right.  However when we got it home it was much too big.  So we took it back yesterday.

We ended up buying this one instead.

The price was right at $39.99 and it is the right colour.  Dh is taking down the light fixture; that too was suggested by the Home Stager.

One question that was asked yesterday was are we moving closer to the kids.  Dd, hubby and Miss Nora, live around 90 minutes from us, we are moving around 10 minutes closer to them.  We do not want to live in the area they live and there is a possibility that dd hubby's work location may move to the west of the city.  

 

Our son lives around 40 minutes from us, again that will be cut by around 10 minutes.  Our little Princess and her family will be around another 10 to 15 minutes further away, so it will probably take us around 75 minutes to get to their house.  Also on a positive note, dh's commute will also be 10 minutes shorter.  It takes him a full hour to get to work.

 

By the way this weather sucks....just thought I'd mention that.

Pros and Con's of this house.......

There was a comment yesterday that we would not want to move with us doing all this work to the house and it got me thinking about the pros and con's of this house and what we will and will not miss when we move.  Notice I say when and not if!!  When we decided to put the house up for sale it was not a spur of the moment thing but something we thought long and hard about.

We will really miss this house of that there is no doubt, but like with every house it has it's pros and con's.  So for fun I thought I would list some of them.

PROS:

The views, they are million dollar views.
The sunsets and sunrises, again priceless.
The wildlife, especially the birds.
The horses in the paddock behind us.
The neighbours, we have such good neighbours that we know we can turn to if we need them.
Not having those neighbours breathing over your shoulder every hour of every day.
The style of house.
The wood fire, nothing better than standing in front of it warming your butt!!
The land, owning 5 acres, never thought we would ever do that.
The layout, it fits our style of living perfectly.
Love the area we live in.
Good commuting for dh.

CON'S:
The wind, we are in such an exposed area that the wind just howls and covers the driveway in snow!
The long driveway, is a pain in the butt to clean off when it snows.
The upkeep of a century home; and there are still more renovations to do.
The oil bill to keep this place heated, especially in the dead of winter.  Last month's oil bill over $500 and we only have the thermostat set at 18 oC/64.4 oF. 
The delivery charges for the hydro/electricity are crazy, last month we paid close to $90 just for the delivery charges.
Looking after five acres of grass/garden, not a five minute job.
The wood fire, is a dirty dusty thing to have, no matter how careful you are when you clean out the ashes.
The size of the house, we don't need all the rooms, so a smaller house would suit us just fine.

Ill health is the major thing that is driving us to move house.  We can live with all the pros and con's; but when the mind is willing but the body ain't it's time to do something about it.

Will we miss this house, absolutely, but there is more to life than constant renovations and working around the house.  It's time dh took some time out to relax and if he can maybe take up golf again.  He has a problem with his rotator cuff and there could be a tear, an MRI has been ordered, so another reason he has to relax!!

It's been a while......

since I featured one of the "Home of the Week," posts. This $1.9 million Edwardian home shows so much promise from the outside but when you see the inside all you want to know is "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING???"  Seriously why decorate an old home like that?  It could be worse I guess they could have ripped out ALL the period features?  I'll pass.

The "condo of the week" is on for $620,000.  I am not "into" these industrial loft like accommodations, though will say the polished concrete floor does look nice in the photos.  However what it looks like in real life may be totally different.  Never had polished concrete floors, so no idea how durable they are?

Love this photo of Miss Nora.  She's probably thinking to herself; "gosh it's hard work being a baby!"

She's starting to sleep a tiny bit longer through the night.  Dd tries to have her in her crib by 8 pm to 8:30 pm on a night and she can sleep for 5 or 6 hours.  Then she'll be up for a feed a couple of hours after that and then is generally up again a couple hours after that.  Miss Nora is coming up ten weeks old now.

Then finally just when you think my life can not get any more exciting I spent a delightful half hour emptying partial cans of old paint into other cans so I can put the empty cans into the recycling bin.

I ended up with putting five empty cans into the recycling bin and now have a total of six cans in the garage waiting to go to the hazardous waste drop off in May.  Still have a couple more cans to go through but they can wait for another week.

Dining Room photos.......

Immediately to the right when you come in through the front door of our house is a room that would have been used as a parlour or front sitting room when the house was first built.  Over the years this room has been used for a number of things, including a parlour, dining room, office and bedroom.  When the home stager came through the house she suggested turning it back into a formal dining room.  Which is what we have done.  The door is called a Dutch Door and is pretty common around here.

Although there wasn't much to do in this room other than, repair some plaster work, paint and do a little prep on the floor.

I hung the sunset and sunrise photos in this room.

As you can see in this photo there is another door in the room.

It's a pocket door which leads into the main floor bathroom.  One of the prior owners couldn't manage the stairs so they turned the parlour into a bedroom and made the room behind it a bathroom.

We had the mirror on the table in the bathroom.  It was much too small so the home stager suggested using it as a mirrored tray on the table.  Which believe me it's a lot cheaper than buying an actual mirrored tray.  So if you have an old mirror hanging about put it in the middle of the dining room table with some candlesticks on it.

We had to buy a table and four chairs which cost us $226.  Luckily we had another couple of chairs hanging about which go well.  The other major expense is we were missing around 16 feet of baseboard.  No idea what the prior owners had done with it?  The problem is this is not just any old baseboard.  The baseboard is over 14 inches high and comprised of three pieces to make up the height.  We have ordered it from the guy who redid the kitchen and it has been a challenge for them to make it.  We should be getting it back this week; I dread though to think how much it's going to cost.  Anyone with a carpentry background will know how labour intensive this would be to make.

One of the joys of this house are the deep windows we have all over the older part of the house.  This room is also cool so cyclamens grow like mad and do well in this room.

I am not sure how much more has to be declutttered from this room?  Also not sure if I should set the table to look as though we are ready for afternoon tea?

Before and after of the mud room.........

You can see some before photos here and here

Here are a couple of before photos:

Well as you can see the major change is there are now closet doors on the closet and no holes in the drywall above the closet.  

 I had painted the door to "nowhere" last Fall but dh put a frame around it to finish it off.  The door still does not open but does look more finished now.

 I bought a couple of cushions for the bench; dh curses them up and down everytime he sits on the bench!!

 We finished off and painted the frame to the door leading into the kitchen.  That was the original back door to the house, so we have exposed wall there.

Another view of the exposed wall.

 This is inside of the closet.  We reused what was already there.

The door to the outside and the window. 

Total for this project, probably in the range of $250 to $300.  The closet doors were around $120 and we needed a lot of trim and we had to buy drywall and plaster.  I did just use what paint I had on hand and we did use whatever wood we could, but there was barely any trim work in this room.

Looking at houses...............

So on Sunday we went to look around five houses.  Of those five we had already been inside three of them before.

House number 1 is a semi and has TOP of the line appliances and a lovely kitchen.  The house has barely been lived in and still has a new paint smell.  The couple split up and it has a VERY unloved feel to it, but the potential in this house is good.  However we have discovered it has more or less sold as there is a conditional offer on it which although expires next week looks like a done deal.

House number 2 is also a semi and again has a dream kitchen and is very well kept.  It is above our price range but is doable.  There is nothing to do to this house as it's gorgeous.  On the negative side though there is a squeak in the floor in the kitchen that CANNOT be fixed and the bottom of the basement stairs squeaks, which can be fixed.  Also the dining area in this house is tiny; but we would make do.  The only other sort of negative is the master bedroom is at the front of the house on the main floor.  Otherwise very little to do and on a quiet part of the subdivision.

House number 3 is a detached house and backs onto the golf course.  It also has a walk out basement which is also a great plus.  BUT and it is a big but, all the windows on the back of the house, which is North facing needs to be replaced.  They were all covered in plastic.  Also the master bedroom only had a shower and no bath.  The basement bathroom only had a tub/bath and no shower.  Both bathrooms would need major work.  So we can see spending $25,000 in that house and it is at the top of our price range.

On a side note, it was sort of sad as we thought one of the owners may have had a memory problem as on the door to the garage was a list of things to remember to take with you; followed by Love You and finally KISS.

House number 4 is detached and one we had seen before when we went for an open house, only to discover that it was the owner that was showing people around.  So although we went around with him you tend to feel sort of in the way and don't get a good look around.  This time though the owners weren't there so we got a good look and I loved it as much as I did last time. Its the perfect size for us with two bedrooms and a loft area which will be great as a sewing room. The only down side is that there is a conditional offer on it until March 17th.  Our real estate agent is going to see what the scoop is behind that.

House number 5 was also detached.  It had a gorgeous kitchen with lots of upgrades and terracotta tiles on the floor.  The living room/dining room was lovely as well and felt nice and cozy.  The master bedroom was a good size, but the ensuite bathroom only had a bath in it; we need a walk in shower.  All the stairs to the loft and the loft itself had navy blue carpet on it.  The stairs going down to the basement also had navy blue carpet on it.  To replace all that carpet would probably cost in the excess of $5,000.  They had put linoleum in the basement family room......not a good look.  All the basement needs redoing and is a lot of work which we don't really want to do.

So what this means is house number one, we may as well forget about and class that as sold .  House number four is my favourite and I would move in there tomorrow if I could.  House number two if they drop the price that is my second favourite.

House number four is for us and I can see us living there no problem and it feels like home and is on a quiet street.  Also would be as comfortable living in house number two and that too is on a quiet street.  Would prefer the detached over the semi, but both have negatives and positives.

Sarah, our real estate agent has advised us not to put a conditional offer on a house as that would just put extra pressure on us to sell our house, which makes perfect sense.  It's already stressful selling the house without that extra pressure.

So if you prayer, pray that house number four will be ours, and that we sell our own home pretty fast when we put it up for sale.  Will say though the weather is terrible where we are with very, very high winds which is blowing the snow all over the place.  So not a good time to put the house on the market.  So we are praying and hoping the weather settles down so we can put the house up for sale soon.

Should also add that a couple more houses have hit the market, so more and more will come up as and when the weather improves.

So there you go.  I would envision us going to look at more houses before this is all done and dusted.  I go by my gut feeling and whether or not it feels like home to me.  I did go into a home the other week and loved it; including all the blinds and paintings, even the ornaments and furniture.  She even had a Moorcroft vase on her fireplace that I loved!!! Turned out she was British; we must all have good taste...LOL  That house sold as it was immaculate. 

I'm sick............

Actually it's more in my ears and throat at the moment.  I really could do without this {{{SIGH}}}

Oh well, onwards and upwards as they say..........enjoy your Sunday, we are going to look at some houses this afternoon.

Big weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

We had our real estate agent over yesterday, her name is Sarah.  She wanted to pop by and see our progress.  She seemed pleased with what we have done; as we are.  During the course of the conversation the home stager situation came up.  As I explained at the beginning she charges $125 an hour and I wasn't in love with the woman.  Anyway, Sarah said there was no need to bring her in as between us we could do the rest to get ready for the photos.

Immediately I felt so much lighter and happier. I must have been worrying deep down about having to deal with her again.  Its not that her suggestions weren't right, believe me they were very, very helpful, but she was just a very overpowering person to deal with.

So we have decided to put the house up for sale around the middle of February, but it could be earlier or later depending on the weather.  Also our driveway is an ice skating rink and very dangerous, and there is no salt to be found anywhere at the moment.  I got a lead there should be some coming in the beginning of next week at our local Home Hardware so will call them.  We are putting ashes down at the beginning of the driveway as dh put his brakes on the other morning and went straight out into the main road.  Luckily it was just after 4:30 am so there wasn't much in the way off traffic.  We just don't want anyone falling on our driveway and suing us!!

We are not finished all the jobs, should be done 90% of them in the next week or so.  The mud room will be done by the end of next week.  I will then be able to take photos for you.  We will then be waiting for the trim to come back from Hope Acres and our kitchen table also from there.  Hopefully they will be back by the end of the month.

The house just then needs to be primped and polished and the final staging and decluttering done.  I do feel as though I can see the light at the end of the tunnel finally.

So that is where we are at the moment with the house.  I also got rid of another bag of clothing for another 25 things to leave the house this week.

Keep Calm......

We all know that is the answer to everything!!!!

Here are my deals of the day....

Went to see dd and Miss Nora on Thursday, so we went a did a little shopping.  Our first stop was the Target Store in Ajax.  I have never been to a Target store before and must say I was impressed.  I picked up this Nate Berkus vase for $7.49.  The guy at the cash out said his wife had just bought one very similar and paid over $30 for it.

 I have been wanting an Amaryliss and didn't want to pay $20, this one was on clearance at $4.49

 Homesense was next and I picked up this artificial arrangement.  It's really very pretty and I have put it in our bedroom.

 Dressing the bed in the bedroom is a pain in the butt.  I picked up the beige fake fur pillows.  The green cushion came with the bedding set, but I am not a fan of it?

12 Months old and 2 Months old........

Both grand children celebrated milestones this week.  Our little Princess turned a year old on Sunday.  Hasn't the year just flown by?

On Sunday they had a little party for her and this was her birthday cake.  You know those programmes that feature the fancy cakes, well this cake looked like one of those.  It was stunning and it tasted yummy.  It was a chocolate cake with almond butter icing.  Her name means "Having Deep Roots," that is why they made the tree trunk and she loves animals.

Today our Miss Nora turns two months and is a whopping 10 lbs 8 oz.  She was 6 lbs 1 oz when she was born.

The latest craze is "Baby Mugging," and here is Miss Nora's contribution!!!

Friday the 17th of January is 2nd Annual Ontario Blogger's DAY you can read more about it here.  Hope to see you there!

Update on Bell Canada........

So the young guy arrived on Monday very enthusiastic climbed up to the satellite dish no problem despite the wind and ice.  Changed all sorts of things but NOT the connections on the cable from the dish to the house and figured he had fixed the problem.....YEAH for enthusiastic guy.  Turned off tv when he left the house and prepared lunch which took all of five minutes.  Went back into the family room and turned tv on; back to freezing and skipping again.........BOOOOOOOOO!!!

He was still outside in his van doing whatever, so I ran skated outside (driveway an ice skaing rink at the moment) and tapped on his window and told him what's what.

His response: "I'm sorry I have closed off the work order I can't come back in to look at it."

Me, after a minute of utter disbelief, "Okay fine I'll call it in again!" And I skated back into the house.

Got back on the phone again this time to the Montreal call centre and after telling him what's what he said he would send me a new box???  So I told him I don't want a new box I want a guy to come out and change the main cable or at least check and change any connections on the cable as there is nothing wrong with the box!  Suffice to say me and the guy from Montreal were NOT happy with one another but finally I got my way.

Another guy from Bell came out Tuesday morning and I told him what's what and within a couple of minutes, he had found the problem a corroded connection on the cable; at this point I threw my hands up in the air and said,"finally someone actually listened to what I had to say."

So he changed the cable and connections and went on his merry little way.  We explained to both Bell guys dh is an electrician, so he knows a little more than the average customer when it comes to this type of problem, but the first one just didn't listen.  The first clue that it was a household with someone who knew what was going on should have been the coaxial cable strung throughout the house, as it's not something your average homeowner would have on hand, other than someone who works in the field or maybe an electrician!!!

So there you are another annoying story about Bell.  If we move into town we do have another option for our tv etc.  However it is Rogers, and honestly as we have been with them, I am not sure which of the two would be the lesser of the two evils at this point???

Crazy buys painting trim and sanding, both icky jobs to my mind {SIGH}

Photos taken in the car and Bell Canada.......(RANT!)

When coming back from town, the sky was very dramatic, so took some photos.

The satellite was playing up on Saturday.  The picture was pausing and the talking was skipping.  So called Bell Canada and spoke to a lovely lady in Orillia who walked me through a series of things and then told me it was probably due to the fog and it should get better later in the day.

Second call, spoke to a lovely gentleman in Montreal, who after repeating everything we had done prior, tells me I need a new box and put one on order to be delivered on Tuesday?  We were heading out so went upstairs to get changed and decided to see if the TV worked in the bedroom; it did.  So dh decided to switch out the boxes until we get the new one on Tuesday.

Come back in and dh switches out the box and it doesn't work in the family room?  Dh checks a couple of the connection's outside, but it is too slippery and too windy to go up the 30 foot ladder to reach the actual dish.  So I talk to a lovely gentleman in Toronto this time, and after repeating everything we had done the two prior times and then talking to dh to make sure he had connected everything correctly (which by the way didn't go down well!!) decided that it must be the wire outside and we need to get a technician out.  They should be here on Wednesday.  That did not go down well with dh so on Saturday night he set up a new coaxial cable from upstairs to the family room, so that we have TV down stairs until they come and repair it.

Meanwhile the Toronto guy tells me the Montreal guy never ordered a new box for us?  Thank goodness dh is very, very handy.  Now I just have to make sure I don't trip over the cable.  The house looks as though a bloody bomb has dropped in it; one day it will be tidy again!!!

Still decluttering and a blast from the past.....

Found a home for the 100+ Prima magazines.  I dropped off a pile of stuff at our charity shop where I participate in the window auctions and mentioned to her about the Prima magazines and she said please drop them off there.  Also have a pile of This Old House magazines and she wants them also.  So I need to drive up there next week and drop everything off.  It is very liberating getting rid of all this stuff and it less to move to the other house.

I do need to go through the Christmas stuff and donate a lot of that as well.  Wrong time of year though to donate Christmas things, but again I don't want to move it.  I have decided less is more though!!!

One thing I do when painting is play music on the tv. This is one song that I thought was so nice:
Even the picture is lovely.

Do you remember this song?

Ostrich Style Travel Pillow???

There was a deal on Wagjag for one of these.

Now between me and you, if I saw someone wearing one of these I would be a bit sceptical about their sanity.........but that's just me!!  They are probably very comfortable, just look very strange.

Still painting!!  Should be done the walls today.

A great thing to use when painting....

I use disposable paint trays when decorating.  I ran out the other week so asked our son to pick one up.  He came home with this one.  It's three paint trays in one.  A paint tray and two disposable linings and all for $2.  When you finish painting, all you have to do is pull off one of the liners.  The next time pull off the second liner and then you are down to the tray itself.  Once you have finished with that you can dispose of the tray.

He got it from the dreaded Wal-Mart which is the only down side.  Otherwise I give a ten out of ten for this one, not only for the price, but also for how durable it is.  Some of the disposable paint trays are so flimsy, you have to set it inside of a heavy plastic paint tray.

I am on painting the mud room at the moment.  It was all to prime ceiling and walls.  I am painting the inside of the closet the original colour of the kitchen and the main walls of the mud room the kitchen and the living room colour as I don't have enough of that paint to do the closet as well.  Wonder if the Home Stager will notice!!!

Eyelash Perming and other things.

Have you ever heard of or done eyelash perming?  I hadn't until my niece was talking about it on Facebook.  I couldn't even figure out why someone would do that until she said it saves you using an eyelash curler thingy to curl them???  After reading about it here, I will NOT be getting it done anytime soon........icky, icky, icky.

Nora is growing and is finally out of newborn diapers and into size ones.  Dd has her six week check up this week so will get Nora weighed at the same time.  We haven't seen them since Christmas.  We will be seeing them this coming Sunday at our little Princess' birthday party.

Saw this on Facebook and actually could actually relate to some of these:

However am I wrong, but shouldn't the YOUR in the title be YOU'RE?

Finally I am saving up my Amazon.ca gift cards as I want to purchase an e-reader.  In my hopes of decluttering the house, I figured having an e-reader was a way of not having as many books in the house.  Any advise?

Answering a couple of questions......

Why don't I just burn the paper I am shredding?

Well it clogs up the fire I find.  As per the waste people I can put the shredded paper in our organics bin:

So it may take a few weeks to get rid of all the bags but it's as good a place to get rid of it I think?

Got a lot more shredded on Saturday and got a couple of drawers cleaned out as well.

Have we been house hunting?

Yes and no.  We know what subdivision (estate) we want to live in.  We have been to many open houses so we have figured out what model home we like.  However until we have a firm offer on our house we won't go house hunting in earnest.  Now as this subdivision is for "Active Adults," I can safely say that there is always some houses up for sale due to people dying, going into retirement homes, just moving because, moving down south to the warmth or moving up north to their cottages.  

At the moment there are a couple of houses on the market that we like, so we know we will find something.  Within the next month the housing market will pick up, so we are expecting more houses to come on the market.

How does the decluttering challenge work?

All I am doing is trying to remove 25 things per week from the house.  So that at the end of the year you will have 1300 less things in the house, whether it be clothing, books, Christmas Decorations and just stuff you don't use anymore.

I need to be more consistent in removing things that I don't use and one of my big things is magazines I have a habit of hoarding.  Need to find a home for over 100 Prima Magazines; any ideas?

As it's freezing cold still it was a good day for a stew on Saturday.  So I made Lentil Stew with garlic bread for supper.  Click on this link for the recipe. Both Vegetarian and Vegan friendly.

I also managed to visit a few blogs on Saturday, hoping to visit many more today!!

Shredding, shredding and more shredding.....

I have two big garbage bags (we have to use clear bags in Dufferin County) so far of shredded paper.  I have gone through the personal tax files, that more or less accounts for the bag in the front.  

We have bought two new homes in the past directly from builders.  I had forgotten how much paperwork that accumulates.  Found it interesting the faxes that were sent back and forth concerning problems.  Then of course the paid bill drawer, got six months worth of paid bills shredded. 

The four big files on the coffee table have to do with insurance and mutual funds.  I am going to get dh to sort those out, as I am lost with them.  Plus if it were up to me I would shred most of them!!!  We had a plastic filing box similar to this one:

We used it for receipts and warranties.  It wasn't very full and when I cleaned it out, it had only a few things in it, so gave it to ds and I will put the receipts and warranties from there into our filing cabinet.  I can safely say I have gotten rid of 25 things from the house this week!!

It is also my brother Nicks birthday today.  He has a blog here if you want to pop by and wish him Happy Birthday.  While you're there tell him to pull his finger out and start posting a bit more on his blog!!!  I'll let him tell you how old he is; but here's a hint it's closer to 50 than 40!!! 

Happy Birthday Nick and sorry about not mailing you a card!!!!  I am putting it down to my age and getting more senile!!!