Presents for Boys

I made some stuff to give to some boys over the last little while.  So I thought I'd share.

I made another Hipster Hoodie for one of Squiggles' little fiends birthday.  I actually used my machine this time, not my mom's like with the first one.  And I think I got the settings right because it turned out just as good!  This one used some more of my stash green knit along with a hacked up H&M t-shirt.  Didn't end up being able to get the stripes on the left angled as much as I wanted, but it still looks good I think! Right?

I have a one of these cut out for Squiggles too.  I might just make it during Elsie Marley's Fall Kids Clothing Week challenge.  Want to join in?  Check it out here, or click on the image on the right!

I also made another one of Make it Perfect's awesome Peek-a-boo Toy sacks for another one of Squiggles awesome baby friends (see previous sacks here).  I used some of my recently acquired new fabric.  Love the plaid!

Lastly, I made a certain Mr. Bear a little something.  A simple little wallet using this tutorial on Noodlehead.  His old one was falling apart, and he wanted something not to bulky.  So I cut into some of the awesome Kokka robot fabric I got in July along with a little co-ordinating plaid, and voila!

My cutting wasn't super square, I was in a hurry to make it in the hour and half I had while Mr. Bear took Squiggles for an evening walk.  One thing would help my crooked cutting though... Family members take note:  I would like a rotary cutter, self healing mat and one of those see through quilters rulers for Christmas please :).

I've been busy these days, the change of seasons is inspiring I think, so I will have lots more to show you all soon.  And I might even have actually almost cleaned and organize up our office (previously seen in it's clutterly glory here)  yay!

Progress and a few steps back

So we succeeded in selling some stuff in the last few weeks.  Joined in our neighbourhoods annual garage sale and had some success.  Said goodbye to an old teak coffee table that my parent bought some 40 years ago.  But also said goodbye to a good chunk of books and records, two things that make up a lot of our clutter.   Also made some good money selling records outside of the sale to local shop in particular.

And on a heritage note, while I did not plan to buy anything from anyone else, I did snag to transom latches to replace a couple of broken ones on our casement windows.  Nice! (but please excuse the crappy photo, I'm still working on my picture taking stills)

But there is still way too much stuff here.  Trying to decide wether we should have another sale, or donate.  I think we'll wait a bit and see.  it's all stacked away in the basement for now.

Or most of it is.  Some of it is still strewn around the house, which is not looking clean and free of clutter at all.  So a few steps forward and a few steps back!

We did make a dent in our office.  two bookshelves are now empty (with many of the books stored away, can't quite get to parting with them all yet)  It just now needs a bit of a reorg.

But I realized I took no pictures of any of this!!  Well I suppose I could take a shot of the partially empty bookcases, but there is still other clutter around, so I think we'll wait till it's more tidy.

I've also almost finished two other crafty projects :)  I will blog about them shortly!

But for now, I must get cleaning, I'm back at work in just over 3 weeks, and I'm determined to have most everything pared down before then!...

We love food, perhaps too much

Last night we went out for dinner.  It cost a good chunk of money, and we had a coupon.  But it was oh so yummy and allowed some much needed adult time.

I admit that one my husband and I's biggest weaknesses is food.  We both love it, and in particular the ritual of eating out.  I'm not sure where this came from though.  When I was growing up, we ate out maybe twice a year. And normally that was a meal at the mall, which we traveled too twice a year for spring and fall clothes shopping (The nearest mall was an hour away)  There was also very, very few choices to eat at where I grew up, So when I moved to the big city for University, restaurants and take out were plentiful and convenient.  I've also always had good paying jobs, even through University, so I could afford it.  Or so I thought.

Eating out is the one part of our budget we are having real trouble paring down.  And I think if we could, we'd see our debt disappear much faster.  Mr. Bear is an awesome cook, and we get fresh local organic produce delivered every other week to cook with.  And I love to bake, so eating at home should be easy.  But it isn't.  It is very easy to find excuses to eat out.  "Oh we have errands to run after work and so we'll be home too late to make dinner, so lets pick something up".  Oh we had a hard busy day today, lets eat out to avoid the clean up etc."  And I admit, I'm the worst offender!

That said, I think food should take up a good chunk of your budget.  All this talk about rising food prices is interesting to me.  Historically food would have taken up a massive chunk of  a households income, but nowadays we expect it to take a tinier and tinier portion.  Presumably to leave more money to buy stuff we really don't need.  So while I don't mind spending money on food per-say, eating out as much as we do is still too costly.

Anyone have any tips on keeping dining out costs down?  Our current plan is to set a very tight budget for casual/spontaneous eating out, and also to set up regular (monthly) date nights for Mr. Bear and I to get our fix of formal restaurant dinner meals.   But I'm not convinced it will work... yet...