Follow up on last week's challenges:

Financial Goal Week One: Instead of buying something you need this week, find a way to "make do". Do you grab a coffee each day on the way to work? can you brew at home & use a travel mug? Run out of an ingredient for a recipe? Can you find a substitution? There are many ways to "make do" each & every day... track how much you would have spent.

For this I am going to skip grocery shopping for a week. There is plenty in the house to eat and we'll make do with what we have on hand.

I did end up buying some ground beef and three cans of tuna which cost $13.  I normally spend $75+ so I am going to say I succeeded here.

Decluttering Goal Week One: What "thing" clutters up your home the most? Is it clothes? Toys? Books/magazines? Kitchen Stuff? Knick-Knacks? Find a way to get rid of some of these items! Be sure to snap a pic of your declutter!

Here I am going to clean out the Christmas Decoration Boxes. We have enough decorations to sink a ship. The only down side of this, is I will be packing them away to either sell or donate later in the year, as no one wants to either buy or accept Christmas Decorations this time of the year. They will be boxed up though ready to go in November of 2013.

Now with this there was a slight change of plan.  It has to do with my hands, which I'll explain more about tomorrow.  So my challenge was changed to sorting out the Christmas cards.

From the pile above I am left with this below, which are the letters, notes and photos.

I input all the info into an Excel spreadsheet, so I can see who sent me what for next year.

Will say after the letter I sent everyone, I did receive more letters and emails than the year before.  I am still going to prune more down though.

Finally I would like to thank Freya101 for signing up under me at Swagbucks.  No idea who you are, but if you have any questions, please let me know?

Random photos.......

The sunrise on Friday morning.......

My new laptop, which dh is setting up for me:

 

Christmas Balls, not sure what I am going to do with them? Have two boxes of each colour, eaight of each size of ball in each box.......any crafty ideas?

Horses with their sunglasses on to remind me, that eventually this bloody snow will go!!

Haven't been on the computer much as my hands are sore.  Will update you on them on Tuesday after I have been to the doctors on Monday........

Fed up of Winter yet?

I am.............nothing else to say...........back tomorrow

Year in Review for the "Home's of the Week,"

Toronto Life has put together their 10 best Home's, Condos and Cottages for sale in 2012.  Lets just say I don't agree with them, and I can bet you won't either.  However if you are a fan of this feature it will be fun to go back and look at some of the lovely places and cringe at some of the eye sores again!!

So here we go; "The 10 Best Home's of 2012."  Number 3 was my favourite, and absolutely hated number 9 and 7.

"The 10 Best Condos of 2012."  Loved number 4, but honestly the rest I can live without, they're all over priced for what they are.

"The 5 Best Cottages of 2012." For some reason they only come up with five cottages instead of ten?   The five that they picked all leave a lot to be desired.  Also the word "cottage" used for some of these places is so wrong, they're bloody mansions!  Still if you have a favourite let me know I'll take a second look at them.

Have managed to cash in for 4 $5 Amazon e-cards through Swagbucks so far this month.  Working towards that fifth one you who are on the computer a lot, you could be earning Swagbucks at the same time?  If you do sign up please would you use my referral link: http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/Appleby

It's my older of my two brother's birthday's today.  Happy 40 something Birthday our Nick!!!  Often wondered if its a good thing having a birthday around Christmas time?  Before Christmas people are busy with Christmas itself and you're getting presents for Christmas anyway, so I bet a lot of people combine presents which must suck?  Then just after Christmas people have no money, though the sales are on, so I guess you may get a great gift because it was on sale?

Does anyone have a birthday either in December of January?  Also in Canada, the school year intake date is January 1st.  So January birthday's are the oldest in the year and December birthday's are the youngest.  I know two cousins, one birthday was November of one year and the other was Janaury of the next.  The one in November started school in September of 2012, but the other one had to wait until Spetember of 2013, despite only being two months apart in age.

I told poor "R" that she should try to have another baby by December of 2014, as although there would be nearly apart in age, they would only be a year apart in school.  As she pointed out it would be helpful to have this baby first.....LOL

Yes, she's still pregnant and although the baby isn't big 5 + lbs both are healthy.  She finishes work today to go on maternity leave, so I will probably see her next week sometime.  Her due date is the 18th, so two more weeks to go.

$100 doesn't go far in the quilting world....

I had $100 to spend in Christmas money so I decided to stock up on some Sulky thread that was on sale.  Unfortunately only certain colours were on sale, they are normally $8.99 a reel, when did thread become so expensive?  I use grey though to piece things together and I need the beige for a couple of projects I am going to be doing.

With the other $50+ I bought five metres of fabric.  I got everything on sale for $10 a metre as it's normally up to $17 a metre.  The store is closing down.  This fabric is for a certain project but I can't tell you what at the moment, but they are fun prints aren't they?

Even after buying everything on sale I still went over the budget by spending $101.68 :o(

On Wednesday afternoon I ventured into the attic to mend a pair of dh's pants and then decided to get my quilt block sewn for the mnth of December , as the club meets on the 10th.  I really like this block it's called Clay's Choice and I love the oranges.  The key to this block is how you press your seams, follow the instructions carefully.  I have never sewn with orange before have you?

Spent part of Wednesday afternoon preparing a couple of meals.  I bought another bag of reduced mix veggie, same as these mentioned here  made broccoli and cauliflower with cheese sauce, that we'll have with Pillsbury Country Biscuits and the carrots we're having with homemade pasties, mashed potatoes and gravy.  The liquid in the jug is the water from the dish I steamed the veggies in.  I like to water my plants with it when its cold.  Heard it was good for them?

Oh, and my laptop has died.............I hope this isn't what's going to happen all through 2013, things dying?

Carla's Challenge and some more treasures.

This week's challenge is this:

Financial Goal Week One: Instead of buying something you need this week, find a way to "make do". Do you grab a coffee each day on the way to work? can you brew at home & use a travel mug? Run out of an ingredient for a recipe? Can you find a substitution? There are many ways to "make do" each & every day... track how much you would have spent.

For this I am going to skip grocery shopping for a week. There is plenty in the house to eat and we'll make do with what we have on hand.

Decluttering Goal Week One: What "thing" clutters up your home the most? Is it clothes? Toys? Books/magazines? Kitchen Stuff? Knick-Knacks? Find a way to get rid of some of these items! Be sure to snap a pic of your declutter!

Here I am going to clean out the Christmas Decoration Boxes. We have enough decorations to sink a ship. The only down side of this, is I will be packing them away to either sell or donate later in the year, as no one wants to either buy or accept Christmas Decorations this time of the year. They will be boxed up though ready to go in November of 2013.

On Monday afternoon dh drove me up to the charity shop to pick up my "win's" from the weekend's silent auction.  I got this matching pair of Carnival Sunflower Pickle or Relish Dishes.

Also was this FENTON CARNIVAL GLASS Marigold Holly 8" Bowl

It's an older piece as it has the straw marks in the bottom, but it does have a couple of scratches on it that does reduce it's value.   I paid $35 for all three pieces.

I also got this Alfred Meakin Tintern Jug which if from the 1930's.  It unfortunately has a couple of chips on the lip, but it is so pretty.

I do have a couple bids in for this coming Saturday.  A Shelley Cup and Saucer and a Fenton Hobnail Vase.  I am hopeful for the vase, but I think someone else will outbid me on the cup and saucer and you know what, that's fine.

Looking back and looking forward........

Must say I am glad to see the back of 2012, it wasn't all bad but we did have our fair share of lows.

My car died in April and where we live I need a car, so along came Betsy.  She is a great small car for me, but it now means we have a car loan.  Now granted it a 0% loan but it's still a debt.  We also had to fork out for snow tires for her at a cost of $1,100, but did manage to sell my old ones for $400 (I think?).

My step-father had his heart operation but during or just after the operation he had a stroke.  It was a very worrying time for us all.  Pleased to say he is a lot better, but he will never be "the same," and does have a few lasting side effects from the stroke.  It was the luck of the draw I guess as another older more fragile lady who had the same operation to same day, walked out of hospital as fit as a fiddle.

Dh has had a number of health issues over this year and some are still not resolved, mainly his knees.  So a second opinion I think is in order in the next few months, as his left knee is starting to spasm now, which is what happened with his right knee. 

We lost our dear Molly in October which was just plain bloody awful.  I still miss her and I am so NOT ready to get another dog.  Not sure if we will ever get as good a dog as what Molly was, temperament wise.

My hands are still not right, I see the surgeon again on Thursday for my bone scan results.

On a more positive note dd and son-in-law bought their first house in August and it's a joy to see their happiness in their house.  They are working hard to get it how they want it.

Ds is back with his girlfriend and moving into an apartment tomorrow; and seems a lot happier.

We love living where we live and are very lucky in that respect.

2013 is going to bring its own challenges I am sure, but we'll embrace them head on and take the good with the bad, as we always do,

It's a big year for us personally, as we celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary in June.  Not 100% sure what we are doing regarding that.......stay tuned though.

We pay off our mortgage this year, we are now down to 35 weeks, so that's exciting.

On a negative note dh's job may be experiencing some changes by the end of February.  We don't know for sure what will be happening, but as dh does not like change he is worrying himself silly about it all.  He should/will have a job, it just won't be exactly what he is doing at the moment, and he could be working less hours, which as he is hourly paid means a lot less money.

We will be welcoming a new baby in the family in the next couple of weeks, as "R's" baby is due by the middle of the month, so we're all excited about that.  Dd good friend is also expecting so I will be going to a baby shower in the next couple of months.  Dd and I are holding the cookie swap party at our house in December, already making plans for that.

We are going to make more of the garden this year, if dh will help me.  My back can't handle all the gardening on my own.

Overall I am looking forward to 2013 and what it will bring.  I hope you will follow along with me as I blog about it?

I want to wish you all the best of luck and love for 2013.  I appreciate you all for taking the time out of your busy days to pop by and see what I'm up too.

Gill