I have been a crocheting fool!

In the last week, I have spent most of my time crocheting hats.  I am quite addicted…mostly because they are so easy and quick and that serves my need for instant gratification, lol.  Second because I sold one and have interest from others wanting to buy…yay!!

Here’s a picture of the lovely Ms. M. (got permission from her mom to post the picture).  It’s a Flapper Cloche Hat with Flower (I turned up the brim). 

Here’s an adult Houndstooth hat that I recently made with a pattern from Playin’ Hooky Designs,  the bow is from Daisy Cottage Designs

Here’s another adult hat called a Twisted Beanie (also from Playin’ Hooky):

And another child sized version of the Houndstooth beanie with a daisy flower (this one is my favourite yet…the colours just pop together!)

I also did a couple of hats that would be more suitable for boys and girls who don’t like such girly looking things!  LOL.  It’s called a Strata hat and it’s another creation from Playin Hooky.  My boys love them and have asked for more hats in different colours!

I am working on a Facebook page and possibly an Etsy shop to sell them.  I just need some more professional looking pictures (I have to order some headforms).

I am thinking about doing some sort of giveaway…what do you think?  Would you like a hat custom made for you?  Which is your favourite??

Dreaded Challenge!!

After a week off blogging, crocheting my little heart out, I am back with our “Dreaded Challenge” from Carla’s Week 4 declutter challenge.

I have to admit, Amy did almost ALL the work.  She’s ruthless awesome when it comes to throwing stuff out or sending it off to be donated.  We decided on the master bedroom closet…

As you can see, we could barely get the door open to get in there and had to navigate our way through the closet to get to anything:

Now we can open it and there is floorspace!!!  My cedar chest holds summer clothes and in the summer it will hold winter stuff.  I would like to have it out on display somewhere, but there’s no place right now to put it.  (Isn’t my cedar chest amazing???  My grandfather made it and there are only 5 like it in the whole world…he made one each of his 5 granddaughters)

The shelves above were crazy packed with stuff:

Now they are fairly clear:

The floors under the clothes:

And now:

It took a good 4 to 5 hours to clean up and we purged 2 large bags full of clothing and at least one green garbage bag full of, well, garbage!!

All the pictures that were on top of the closet shelves are now going to be hung…it’s something we were waiting to do when we finally painted, but we’re sick of the family pictures being in the closet, so they are going to go up regardless of when we paint!  LOL.

As far as the financial challenge this month, we only managed to save about $800 out of the $1500 wanted planned to.   It’s not bad, of course, not many families this large could save that much.  However, Shane has a couple of big paychecks coming for March, so everything should work out ok and we will have the rest sometime around the 10th. Then the car repair will be paid for in full!!  I also did a really poor job of tracking spending for February.

Haven’t thought of what we want to do yet for March as far as goals go…but I would love to see some of the basement stuff decluttered!!  We’re also going to continue to try and sock as much extra cash away as we possibly can!

Have a good night everyone…will be back tomorrow to show off some of what I have been up to over the last few days.

That’s all for now

Totally neglecting my blogging duties!

I just noticed that I haven’t blogged since Saturday!  We were even nominated for an award while I was away.  Antie Eboo, I’m humbled and I promise that I will get to it within the next week.

I have become addicted to crocheting hats!  An on-line friend pointed me in the direction of a couple of great patterns.  I love this website:  Playin Hooky Designs  Here’s Charley in one of the hats:

And the side view:

And a smaller version for a toddler:

The flower is courtesy this free pattern at Daisy Cottage Designs

I am excited to say too, that I got my first order for a hat (one of the ones I made last Saturday for the girls)!!  I completed it and I will post a picture after I deliver it tonight (I don’t want you guys to see it before the customer, lol).  I want to start selling the ones above (among others), but I can’t do it here until I purchase my domain name.  I think I am going to wait to see how many word of mouth orders I get, and then see if they justify spending the money (it’s a small sum, but when you’re on a budget, every penny counts).

We had a wonderful weekend and a great family day.  We took the kids to see the new polar bear, who tuckered himself out playing and was sleeping soundly when we got there:

And I got to say goodbye to my beloved Elephants…they are leaving, not sure when, but they are being sent to more appropriate climate.

That’s all for now.  I have to make dinner (bacon and eggs, yum), take the big boys to scouts, then deliver the order.  We’re bracing for a storm tomorrow morning and the media is making it out to be a big one.  I hope they’re wrong, again.

Didn’t do anything today but create…

I didn’t even get out of my PJ’s!!

It’s not totally true, I did make sausage soup for lunch for Meri’s birthday celebration, but I did crochet all day long.  I started off making a hat for myself because I don’t particularly like the red one I made last month (it’s too big).  It turned out pretty cute, but I am not posting a picture because I look terrible today (no make up, hair’s not done, etc. etc.).

I liked it so much that I decided to make hats for the girls in the same pattern.  They match the leg warmers I made for them a few weeks ago.

Here’s Charley’s:

And here’s Meri in hers:

The kids are now off to bed, the big boys have gone to a 2 day sleepover, and we’re settling in to do pretty much nothing.  If the weather co-operates tomorrow, we think we’re going to visit the new addition to the Polar Bear exhibit at the Toronto Zoo tomorrow.  The female polar bear had 3 cubs in October, but sadly 2 passed away.  The third is doing very well!! Here’s a fun tidbit…one of my friends was at the zoo last April and she caught a picture of those polar bears ‘fooling around’…we’re pretty sure she caught the conception on film!!  LOL!  The bears were premature and their birthdate coincides with the date that she took that picture.  Seriously, you can’t make that stuff up!

Have a happy Saturday night!

Oh Boy, we have a 3 year old in the house

 

Today we have another birthday.  This rotten adorable little girl turns 3 years old today.

Meri was Amy’s surprise baby…they thought they took care of things in the reproductive department, Amy figured that there would be no more babies in her future after she had Charlotte in 2007.   Although it was a shock, we are soooo happy that things worked out the way they did.   Meri was the only one of our kids who had a home birth (although 3 of the 7 children were delivered by midwives).

Just minutes old

Meri is our little character…she’s stubborn and smart, mischievous and sweet, and her laughter (and her screams…oh boy is she LOUD) fills the house.  She’s been speaking in full sentences for about a year now and the stuff she comes out with is priceless.  So in honour of her birthday, I thought I would share a few things:

To Mama:

• I was made in a big machine and then Daddy came and took me out of the little hole (her mind works in mysterious ways, this child)

To Aaron:

• We’ll play rock, paper, scissors…I’ll be the rock and you be the scissors.  (that can’t be good…we all know what rock does to scissors!)

Conversation with Mama last May:

•  Meri:  “Mama, what we having for dinner?”  Amy: “Lasagna and Salad” Meri: “I like lasagna, but salad hurts my feelings”

To Amy:

• No Kisses, Mama!!  No kisses, dey make me barf!

Out in the backyard last August:

• Mama, don’t step on the toads, ok?  It make the toad yell. (have you ever heard a toad yell?)

Those are some of the ones we’ve written down, but she comes out with the cutest little tidbits all the time.  And of course she does things like this when we’re not looking:

And yes, she stacked the bar stools herself (at 2 years, 2 months) and climbed on top of them.  As she grinned from ear to ear she sang “I’m the King of the Castle and you’re the dirty rascal”…dear me, where does she learn these things?? (yes, I know, from the other children!)

Happy Birthday, Meredith!  I hope you enjoy your day tomorrow (we’re celebrating tomorrow because, well, it’s just easier and she doesn’t really know the difference!!).  We love you to pieces!!

Grumpy!!

I am just not a happy camper today…

Up until the end of December, I sold Avon products.  I signed up about 5 years ago and tried a number of times to build a customer base, with not a ton of luck.  I sold some here and there to people at work and did a couple of fundraising things.  I like the product and it was nice to get a bit of a discount.

But you know what?  I found I generally spent more than I made and when I sat down and looked at the numbers, I was spending about $50 more than I made every 2 weeks.  $50 every 2 weeks is $1300.00 a year!!!

So, I decided to deactivate.  I sent an email to the district manager asking her to de-activate my account.  I thought it was all settled.

Until this afternoon when I got home.

There was a nice big bag full of brochures for the next campaign telling me I can get FREE PRODUCT, and that I must place an order by Sunday.  That I need to place an order to keep my account open.  Your customers would MISS YOU.  Blah, Blah, Blah…

Apparently she’s going to call me this evening.  I just sent an email to tell her that I want to deactivate and asking for her to pick up the package she left today.  I just know she’s going to try and strong arm me into continuing.  Not. Gonna. Happen. 

Things like this make me grumpy…I don’t like to feel pressured.  GRRRRR.

Now that I have moaned and complained, you can go back to your regularly scheduled programming…

Off to Post!!

I rarely mail anything anymore.  I used to write letters all the time, but I have stopped doing that with the advent of email.

So when Carla posted her Bonus Challenge, I thought “Hey, I can do that”  I have something to give to someone and this is the perfect way!

So this is what I am sending off (sorry about the black, the person might read the blog and I don’t want to give it away).   The super cute sweater needs to go to a very cute little girl, don’t you think? I am sending it out today after work.

 

Hope everyone has a great day!!

Happy Monday!

Yeah, yeah, I know, Monday and happy should never go into the same sentence.  I figure if I pretend to like Mondays, I will eventually be able to tolerate them…right? Right?

*Crickets*

We have completed the 2nd week of Carla’s Challenge and have a really nice *family* space.  Amy decided that she would tackle our entertainment area.

It looked like this before:

And what it looks like now.

We threw out the entertainment centre that was broken and replaced it with 2 of our 3 high shelves turned sideways.  We moved the VCR up to the master bedroom to create a workout space.  We purged the games that we never play and got rid of some of the DVD’s and VHS tapes that the kids don’t watch anymore.  The 3 high shelves came from our scrapbook area, that’s why you see scrapbooks and our scrapbook idea books/magazines on the shelf.  But it looks so much less cluttered now. 

We piled all the crap stuff we no longer need into the van yesterday and went to Talize.  Here’s what the van looked like before we pulled out of the driveway (back and side views).  I love Talize in that their donation centre supports the Children’s Wish Foundation of Canada.

*Yes, our van is super dirty…it’s not a luxury we tend to spend money on…we’ll clean it in the spring when we can do it in the driveway.

We’re not finished purging yet either.  After we got home yesterday, while I was baking, Amy purged the girls closet and today she sifted through Andrew and Aaron’s closet.  By the time this month has ended I think we’ll have given away 2 vans full of stuff.  Not too shabby!

Sunday Night Chit-Chat

It’s time again for Sunday Night Chit-Chat hosted by Carla at My 1/2 Dozen Daily

With the return of the frigid temperatures, this is where I would rather be...

What are you?

Reading?

Nothing much…ugh

Watching?

We’re watching Enchanted (Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey) right now and I will be watching the Grammy’s tonight.  Lots of great artists performing tonight.

Listening to?

I have been watching the news all day and still cannot believe Whitney is gone…wish that she really could have taken the words to this song to heart and took better care of herself.  So sad…   :(

Cooking/Baking?

I made Apple Streusel muffins, Mince Pumpkin Loaf, Harvest Loaf, cranberry muffins
Happy you accomplished this week?

Took a whole lotta stuff to Talize to donate

Looking forward to next week?

Our Meredith turns 3 on Friday…we’ll be celebrating on Saturday afternoon!

Thankful for today?

My health and mental well-being…we so often take our health for granted

Finally Friday…

And so, we’ve made it to the end of another week.  I realized I hadn’t posted much about our spending for the month.  If you want to follow along, I do update this page every couple of days.

At the end of the week I had about $9 and change leftover from our $400.00 in variable spending for the week.  I put that into our sealed pot.  I topped up the variable spending and so far I have spent $20.00 for gas and $7.64 at Dollarama for cards and chocolate for some birthday gifts.  I gave Shane $50.00 for his gas and incidentals (like Hey you, we need milk, can you pick some up on the way home?).

We got our Ontario Sales Tax Credit in the account today, so that is going toward our car repair.  There is now $1875 in the account as of today.  We’ve only managed to save $75 of the $1500 I want to, but we are expecting repayment of Andrew’s expenses (which aren’t allocated for anything), and our Child tax credit cheques on the 20th.  We’ll see how things stand after that goes into the bank.

OH, and I am SO MAD AT MYSELF.  I double paid the water heater bill!  That could have been $120 extra in the fund.  GRRRR.  I am not going to bother getting it back, I will have to pay it again in 3 months, so that will be one less payment I have to make in April, LOL.

Off to pick up the boys from school.  Hope everyone has a great weekend!