Sunday, January 29, 2012

weekly dozen

a good friend of mine, a faraway friend who despite distance and a lack of constant communication, remains a very very good and close friend, started a group of us off in the New Year doing a weekly dozen list.

this is a list of 12 things that we have been thankful for in the last week.
there are 8 of us.
me, the above good friend, her sister (also a good friend), their cousin in law (who, though briefly meeting at first good friend's wedding, i would consider a good friend as well), a good friend of the first 2, 2 good friends of the good friend's sister, (still with me?), and a new good friend of the first good friend.

i have met 4 out of the 7 (7 not including me). I have heard of 2 others through facebook and emails and conversations, and 1 is a brand new friend.

5 of us are moms, 3 are god-moms to one of the others kids.

this is confusing.

the point is this:
i am loving being part of this little email group. i look forward to Sunday when i get to let these lovely ladies know how my week has been, and it is a good practice to reflect on the week and pull out some of the moments to be thankful for. big moments, and small moments.

when i was in high school and journaled like it was going out of style, i went through a time where i wrote 10 thank yous each evening. it was a very good way to remember to be thankful in all circumstances, and to always thank God.  again, there were big things, and small things.  for some reason today i can picture the words of this thank you: "Jen always says 'bless you'" - she sat behind me in english and always said bless you when i sneezed, and one week it did bless me indeed.

how do you keep track of the thankful moments?  do you journal, blog, email, talk to someone regularly? 
it seems like a practice that we should all make an effort to have in our daily/weekly lives.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

small style #34

it's been pretty nice to have miss Isla back to her usual happy go lucky self :)

she's back at day care, and lovin' life.



this is another new trick
she makes this face and says: "hoo hoo hoo"




all dressed up and ready to go to day care for the day.

shirt: Old Navy, consigned
jeans: Old Nacy, borrowed
slippers: Robeez, consigned

bellaclava: Joe's, $1.99!
jacket: Mexx, from Auntie Danielle & Uncle Alex :)
mittens: Roots, consigned


i surely love the thrifty-ness that i have been able to adopt when buying 'new' clothes for her.
i also love love love Isla's new coat, it's warm, it's long, it's fur trimmed, 
and bee-u-ti-ful!
thanks Auntie Dani and Uncle Alex!



Thursday, January 19, 2012

small style #33

i am happy to report that miss Isla is no longer sick :)

sadly she decided she would share it with me :(

booo.

here she is on a happier day:

 as you can see,
she's learned a new trick!



upside down Isla is very funny
and very cute.

sigh.
lovely girl.

shirt: Gap Kids, consigned
pants: Carter's, borrowed

i love small style
check out how cutey-cute Finley is over at Mama loves Papa today ;)


Sunday, January 15, 2012

oh my.

call me embarrassed.
has nobody noticed that none of the books on my list have changed since the fall?
(and that the title of said books was 'fall reading!)

well, i have remedied that today.
i have also added a new book list (like Edie)
where i'll keep track of the books that i have already read this year.

i'm currently reading Elizabeth I by Margaret George.
over the past few years i've fallen in love with historical fiction.

this book is loooooong. it is interesting, but not riveting or adventure filled.
i am halfway through.

i'll let you know what i think once i'm all done.

what are people reading or anticipating reading during these chilled months?

Thursday, January 12, 2012

small style #32

well,
we have a little small style, sick baby style this week.

poor miss Isla.
it's been rough, she started with a fever on sunday morning, 
and then tuesday her eyes got all red, and then the cough came, and the mucus.
yuck.
wednesday i took her to the doctor, turns out the wee lass also has an ear infection :(





needless to say, these pictures show a sad little Isla.

watching yo gabba gabba


a few tears throughout the week

poor wee lass.

shirt: Gap, consigned
pants: Gymboree, consigned


here we go!

new year.
new goals.
new time lines.


as you know by now, we moved into our friend's basement in november.

it has been going amazingly well!
which is awesome, because it is 4 adults and 4 kids in one house.
that is a lot of bodies.

the reason that we did it is to save money to be able to
-pay off our line of credit-
and
-save to buy a house-

we sat down at the end of december and finally worked out a budget.

we are following Gail Vaz-Oxlade's book 'Debt-Free Forever'
we haven't really read the whole thing, 
but after watching many episodes of 'Til Debt Do Us Part' while on mat leave
i really liked her percentage pie chart on where money should be going.

here is Gail's:

we rejigged ours a little to be able to pay down more debt 
and because our housing costs are significantly lower right now.

here is ours:


nice huh?
we had to move a little more into life because life includes day care and allowances and cell phones and such.

but we have our plan now.
we initially thought that it would only take 6 months to pay off our debt, but now it looks like closer to 10.
we think we forgot to factor in day care costs... which are costly!*
$700 for 4 weeks!
yikes!

but we love knowing that Isla is well cared for and that she loves going.
(i am also aware that some day care is waaay more costly, so we are thankful for that too!)

is anyone else sticking to a strict budget this year?
or at least attempting to?
any tips or spending secrets?



*Thom thinks that we actually had planned on not saving during this time, just putting all our extra money straight onto the line of credit

Monday, January 09, 2012

style inspiration

as promised, 
here is another edition of
"hey, i wish they made that in my size!"

style inspiration


























 scarf: what's so bunny?, modcloth, $18.00
 coat: woodsy wonderland, modcoth, $90.00
 hat: sweet dream beanie, roxy, $20.00
back pack: baggu, urban outfitters, $33.00
 jeans: sweetheart skinny, old navy, $39.50
  mittens: columbia, sport chek, $39.99
 boots: merrell, the shoe company, $200.00 (on sale for $169.99) 

i could have gone with ugg's or emu's for the boots, 
but i can't get over the fact that they 
SUCK FOR CANADIAN WINTERS!!!

you need waterproof here people!

ugg's in winter in canada is a pet peeve.
for sure.

Thursday, January 05, 2012

small style #31

small style evening style!
wearing Christmas pj's from Gramma Kiki



Isla loves hew new (to her) animal alphabet kingdom!


enjoy her enjoying it, 
she is pretty funny, 
and such a ham now! 

pj's: Joe Fresh
socks: Old Navy

thankful for Morgan who is at least keeping me accountable to one post a week right now!

see her cute kids and some others too!
over here: