In with 2020.......

Guess that says it all, and onwards we march into the 2020's.  Not sure about you, but I remember all the hype about going from 1999 into 2000.  Everything was going to crash and nothing would work.......but 2000 arrived and everything was fine.  I hope going into the 2020's it will be the same.

We will all be a little older, but with age I hope comes wisdom, so hopefully we're all a little wiser.

Our plans for this year are all still a little sketchy, but do have a couple of things we want to achieve.

House: finish renovating the downstairs bathroom.................that was only supposed to be a titivate the downstairs bathroom job, that has spiraled out of control...........more on that when it is all finished.

Titivate the upstairs bathroom.............HOWEVER...........after our experience with the downstairs bathroom I am truly afraid it will turn out to be a bigger job than we initially thought.  Also unlike the downstairs bathroom, I can't won't have it in an uproar for weeks on end........so hubby may have to take a week off to get the job done faster.

We will probably do other things around the house, but nothing planned yet.

Health: I must exercise more and lose weight to try and get me off these diabetes pills.  They are killing my stomach and I am not happy with them AT ALL!!  So it's all up to me to get off them......if I don't do the work it's my own fault.

Appleby Lane: I need to promote it more.  Make it's presence known on social media.  I also like the idea of podcasts, so may take a course in February at our local library.  I need to come up with new ideas and focus on what I like to do more, rather than what other people want me to do.  Which I guess is say no more often....LOL

Hubby is now working until he is 65, so four more years, so need to keep saving for his retirement.  I still use my savings pots for Christmas, Birthday's and my other pot.  Just used money out of the other pot towards buying a new vanity for the downstairs bathroom.  

Grocery shopping and menu planning..............grocery prices have just shot up I need to keep more of an eye on that and will do a blog post on that soon.  Menu planning has always been a weak point for me, but will will try and work on that this year as well.

Vacation..........not sure where or when we will be going away this year.  It will probably be in September (like always) but not sure where.......if anyone has any suggestions, we like to rent a cabin/cottage so we have kitchen facilities and have somewhere comfy to sit at night if that helps, we are open to suggestions?

One other thing I MUST MAKE AN EFFORT TO LEAVE COMMENTS ON OTHER PEOPLE'S BLOGS!!  I read blogs but hardly comment, I must remedy that this year!!

Happy New Year everyone!

Yarn Barf on Yarn Along

It's one of those terms I had never heard off until I started to knit.  This is what Yarn Barf looks like:

What's even funnier, Gillian was showing us on this post How to Wind a Skein of Yarn Yourself.  Guess I should have read that first before I started knitting.

I have read two books this week.  Rosewater and Soda Bread by Marsha Mehran, you can read my review here.

 Also The Vagrants by Yiyun Li, and you can read my review here.

I have been putting the binding on Our Little Munchkin's quilt this past week.  So very little knitting has been done.  I did go to The Knitting Basket to the sit and knit and got a little more done on my dish cloth:

However I have pulled it all out again, as I got lost in the pattern.  I find I can't concentrate on my knitting when talking.  I know don't talk, but it doesn't happen that way!  This dishcloth is proving to be a tricky thing to knit for some reason.........

So here we are now, just plain knitting:

I prefer the prior pattern and may give it a go again later when I spend more time concentrating.

For more Yarn Along with Ginny posts, please click on this link.

Look at the great deal I picked up on Saturday....

Yes it does look as though someone has cut all the flowers of these plants and indeed they have as they were dead.  However these are all either tulip or hyacinth bulbs and for the price I couldn't turn them down.  I have stuck them in the basement to die back and will plant them out in the Spring when the ground is warm.  Though I was just thinking about it, for you gardeners out there, should I wait until Fall?

Thanks for all your comments yesterday.  I wasn't angry, mainly bemused that someone could come up with such a dreadful comment without fully knowing the facts?

Sunday was a great day.  We never left the house all day.  Dh finished off the trim down the basement and stairs.  Now I have to fill in all the nail holes and sand and stain the wood trim that is inserted in between the tiles and wood flooring.  

I stained the stairs last week and the smell was horrible, not helped by not being able to open the windows or doors because it was so cold.  I am going to wait to varnish the stairs until I can open the windows and doors.

We had a cheats version of cabbage rolls for supper, the recipe is here.

If you have a moment you should pop by Cindy's as Lexus has just had puppies and they are gorgeous.  Her doggies have their own blog here.  For those of you who are mad about cats, Jane's 13 cats have their own blog here.

Gorgeous gift........

(The header photo is of dd wedding bouquet)

When dd and hubby came over on Saturday night they brought us the most fantastic gift a photo book of the wedding.  There are some stunning photos in there.  They also brought us a USB stick of the wedding photos, all 700 of them.  I have to go through them when I get time, as I want one enlarged to hang on the wall.  Here is the front cover of the book:

I am still having trouble commenting on people's blogs.  One Simple Farmgirl, you're one of them.  I can read your blog, but when I come to comment I get a white blank page and that is it?  I have no idea what the problem is, hopefully Blogger will figure it out, or if anyone knows what is wrong could you let me know?

Also just a heads up I am going to be having a really good giveaway on my blog in the next couple of weeks, and it has something to do with this: http://thatbritishwoman.blogspot.com/2011/11/new-paintings.html

Good news I am up to $30 in my Amazon.ca account thanks to Swagbucks!!!!  Have another $5 to come and hoping to cash in my swagbucks before the end of the month for another $5.

Hot, hot, hot......

We're in the middle of a heatwave at the moment, with temperatures to hit the mid-40's (100 oF+) by the middle of the week.  Thank goodness for a/c as there is no way we would survive in this heat and humidity.

Dh took me out to our closest major mall, Georgian Mall in Barrie, to see if there was any suitable outfits for this wedding.  Scored a big fat zero.  So I have decided to go downtown Toronto next weekend to see if I can find something.  For those of you in Canada, I popped into The Bay in the mall, and not only do they NOT carry plus sizes, they don't carry petite sizes, which I thought was rather strange.  I know it is a smaller mall, but you would think they would carry both plus and petite sizes?  We are going to check out this store as I saw a number of outfits I like on their site.

I still can't leave messages on these blogs:John D

Patricia from Piece By Piece  UPDATE, I CAN NOW POST COMMENTS ON PATRICIA'S BLOG!!

Karine

If you could allow anonymous comments, then I will be able to leave a message.  I am sure there are others I have the same problem with, I just can't think of them off the top of my head.

Finally, someone is looking very relaxed:

The heat is getting to Molly also.  However I have started giving her one Benadryll pill in the morning 25mg, and she isn't suffering as much with her allergies, so that's some good news.  Plus it's a heck of a lot cheaper than the vets pills I get for her.

Two videos to watch today.....

I first saw this on John's blog, it is just so funny. Make sure you have the sound on especially at the 45 second mark. I would love an English Bulldog as a friend for Molly.







Who doesn't love Boney M's song.....it's a classic




In answer to Fee's question yesterday, as I write this on Wednesday night, we don't have snow on the ground.  So you will have more snow than us in Somerset.  I will be quite peed off on Thursday morning, if I get up and we have a foot of snow mind you!!!

I am working on Thursday and Friday of this week.  A bit of a last minute thing, but it has come at a good time, as I got a letter in the mail and we can order trees cheaply through our township, so I will now have some money to get some.  We have the pick of :

Sugar Maple (3ft to 5 ft Potted) $22.50 each
White Birch (4ft to 5ft potted) $13.00 each
Hemlock (3ft to 4ft potted) $14.75 each
Red Oak (3ft to 4ft potted) $15.00 each

Now I do realize that I will be dead and buried by the time any of them grow to great heights, but thought I would like to do my bit for the planet earth.

We can also order bundles of trees, babies to 2 years of age, including conifers and hedging.  They come in bundles of ten and you have to order a minimum of ten bundles and they range in price from $9.30 for Eastern Red Cedars, up to $16.60 for Sugar or Red Maples.  There are also both White and Red pines, White and Norway Spruce.  Balsam Fir, Eastern Hemlock, White and Eastern Red Cedar, Red Oak, Black Walnut, Red Osier Dogwood and Witchhazel.

I will have around $200 to spend I think, and there is a $10 shipping and handling fee as well.  What would you buy?

The third cookie recipe was " Barefoot Contessa's Coconut Macaroons".  Well as I am not a huge fan of coconut, I am giving this one a pass as well.......lets hope there is something a bit better tomorrow!!

Advent Calendars and other stuff

One of the things my kids look forward to each year is receiving an Advent Calender from my mother in England.  Now granted they are nearly 27 and 25, but Christmas just wouldn't be the same without the Cadbury's Advent Calender.  They haven't arrived yet, but I am assured they are on their way. 

Now one year my mother thought she would pay a bit more for the calender's and buy the mixed chocolate one.  When dd started to open the windows out would pop these fruit and nut chocolates and the nut chocolates.  She was horrified as none of us like currents, sultanas and raisins.  She was even amazed when my mother told her that Cadbury's Fruit and Nut Chocolate was one of the best selling chocolate in Britain.  As dd said she couldn't even give way those chocolates.

So now my mother just sticks with the plain Cadbury's chocolate.  As I have told my mother, don't bother sending them, as it costs her more to mail them than it does to buy them, but she still insists and both my kids (the little stinkers) keep saying to her that Christmas wouldn't be the same without Nana sending over those Advent Calendars!!

Now the chocolates in these advent calendar's are so tiny it's crazy.  However when I was over at Shirley's blog she had come up with a novel advent calender for a chocolate lover like myself.  Pop over and have a look and you'll see why I thought it was just the best.

I spent a couple of hours on Tuesday morning catching up on people's blogs.  I think I got most people visited; but if I missed you would you yell at me!!

So I have figured out a way of uploading photos onto my blog again.  It's a bit of a pain, but not sure what else to do.  I am loading them onto Photobucket and going from there.

So in celebration of the fact I have figured out how to do this, here is a photo of Molly.  She has stinky ears again at the moment, so I am putting ear drops in her.  Must say stinky ears are a regular occurrence with her and she is not a fan of having drops put in her ears!!

Her stomach is also not happy with all the scratching.  I must remember to get some baby oil next time I am out to see if that will help.