Pocketful of Memory Cards

Saturday morning, I told my hubby we needed a decent desk for the office.  Currently I'm using a table covered by a computer, printer, office supplies, no keyboard tray and no room to work.  I suggested we go to Costco.  He balked at the idea. "I don't want to go out," he said in a grumpy voice.  I'd noticed my normally active and easy going hubby had been a little down and low key lately, spending most of his free time parked in front of the TV watching American and European football with the odd hockey game thrown in for variety.  Though there were recent rumours of sunshine, the first few weeks of the New Year were mostly  overcast, grey and even foggy for a couple of days.  I diagnosed my hubby with the January Blahs and immediately went to my laptop to have a look at the Big White webcams. For those of you who don't know, Big White is a ski hill about a forty minute drive from Kelowna out Highway 33. The internet showed sunshine and b...

I enjoyed today's post on Young Love and was inspired to do one myself as I too am a fan of questionnaires and self-reflection. We both did one last year as well.  Hope you did one too, as it's fun to look back and compare.   Taking Stock II Making : birthday cards.  With my 2014 goal of not buying anything new, that includes family birthday cards so I’ve been printing some of my photos that are relevant to the receiver, pasting them to a blank art card and writing personalized notes with them.  Such fun! Cooking : potatoes.  I’ve pinned some yummy potato recipes on Pinterest and I’ve been trying them out.  Not really having success so far in terms of presentation, but they taste good!   Drinking : really good coffee blend (Ignition) from Cherry Hill Coffee in Kelowna.  And Market Spice Tea from Teaberry's . Reading :  The Firebird by Susannah Kearsley and listening to Double Feature by Owen King....

While taking out the garbage yesterday I noticed how many different little tracks and footy prints there are all around our front yard. Pulling the recycling to the curb  The quail march all over our lawn through every season. Wouldn't you fly over the stairs if you were a bird? Me and the birdies back and forth along the path as we go about our daily tasks. Big doggies walking past the house. Our kitties running down the driveway. A racoon whose footprints stop at... ...a broken mirror waiting to be tossed.  I would love to have  witnessed what happened when they saw their reflection. Lots of dog tracks at the corner by the Wishing Tree.  Someone lost the their.. "thing that you hook on your boots when you're walking on ice".  Looks like it  could match the print near the cat feet once it was stretched over a boot.

Well it's still early days in my 2014 goal to reduce my commercial consumption, but so far I think I've met my challenges quite well. The first thing I was faced with was a birthday card for my husband.  I often buy one at the same time that I buy his Christmas card, but I wasn't quite as organized as I usually am.  I decided to make a card.    I printed a photo that was taken on our trip to Venezuela to celebrate hubby's 50th birthday and adhered it to the front of one of the art cards (blank on the front, and the inside) my daughter had gifted me a few years ago.  The photo was a bit small for the size of the card so I cut the card to fit (you quilters will likely be horrified to see me using my cutting wheel on heavy paper).  Then I used a fancy pen to write a personal note inside. The next task was to find myself a pair of jeans.  I have two pair and one of them is that style that's a little lower cut on the hips.  I have no hips to...

I did mention in my last post that I plan to say "yes" a little more often in my life, but I'm not really considering it a New Year's resolution, just a good piece of advice that I'm taking.  I don't like to make Resolutions , there's something intimidating about that word.   I do often give myself a goal or challenge each new year -  you might call it....... a resolution.   This year, I've decided I'm going to do my best to decrease the size of my consumer footprint.  The idea began (as so many good ideas do) when I was listening to CBC radio.   Radio West's Rebecca Zandbergen was saying that she and her family were drawing names for Christmas gifts and they were restricting themselves as well by not giving any "new" items.  It made me think about the clothing stores and thrift stores and other stores selling pre-loved items in town.  I'm always complaining about the glut of "stuff" at the mall and in our closet...

It's been years since I've seen in the New Year, but last night, despite a wretched cold, I hung out with my hubby and my daughter on the couch while we watched movies, munched on chips and dip and drank bubbly beverages until we switched to a delayed Niagara Falls feed at two minutes to midnight to ring in the New Year. My daughter picked the movies, one of which was Yes Man .  We'd all seen it before, but she thought it was a movie with a message appropriate to the beginning of a New Year.  If you haven't seen this movie, it's well worth viewing.  If you have seen it and you're over 40 you've probably don't remember most of it so you'll still enjoy it the second time 'round. (FYI, though it's rated PG13 there is one scene that might be objectionable to some.)   The movie is about a loans officer named Carl Allen, played by Jim Carrey.  He' a lonely man who has given up on life until he is convinced to say Yes to everything....