Did Granny New Year find you?

Happy New Year All,

Did Granny New Year find you?

I’m hoping everyone’s New Year will be off to a great start.

There is always promise, hope and of course, new year's resolution to be had. I don’t usually go for this sort of thing because I know it’s just a huge letdown when I break my promises to myself. Which is why I mostly don't announce them to the world.

Anyway, this year I’ve decided to post a few.

1. Have the mortgage paid off by the end of this year.
2. Find a forever fur friend pet. Yup the witch has been looking for a small dog or fun loving cat or even a bunny who needs a good home.
3. Lose some weight and eat even more healthier than we do. Sorry Hubby I’ve found lots of great tasting veggie recipes with kale. Plus walking a dog will help, right!!!
4. Buy a set of snow shoes so we can enjoy the outdoors more in the Winter.
5. Paint the upstairs bathroom and add a new mirror and shelf. Oh Hubby I have some plans for you. Don’t worry this will be easy compared to the Gazebo you built us.
6. Finally buy a generator.
7. Host a murder mystery party
8. New lamps for computer room and down stairs.
9. Try to do acts of kindness more often so I can watch the recipient's reactions. I find they cheer me up more just giving them anonymously .
10. The last one I won’t be sharing with anyone but myself because it is the hardest and most personal decision I will be making. I don’t need the added pressure of having printed it out if I fail.

So there you have it the goals and challenges for 2014.

Thanks for all who still hung around during my absence. That’s what great blogger friends do. (Canadian Saver, I miss you!)

I’ll leave you with a few pictures of my beautiful Amaryllis

Last Groceries For The Year.

Well, this week we did our last shopping for the year. For a change, I was able to go with Hubby who usually does it by himself after work. Shopping is just another chore for him but because I only go while I'm on holiday I always look forward to it. I love to go and read all the labels and squeeze all the fruit; Hubby just fumes and tries to get it over with as quick as possible!

"Grocery" shopping at Shopper's Drug Mart

This week Shopper's Drug Mart had great sales on coffee, peanut butter, paper towels and toilet paper. I saved $56.90 on just 14 items! As an added bonus they were having one of their 20X Optimum point promotions and now I am only a few points shy of saving another $60.00. It still feels weird though to be doing this kind of shopping in a drug store.

Shopper's bill

We were shopping in the Big City this week, and because it is cold outside, we were able to get to our favourite fish mart. They close so early on the weekend that we are usually not finished with our day by that timeand you really don't want to have a bag of fish sitting in a hot car for hours so we come home fishless. This week Hubby bought six pieces of salmon side fillet (enough for three meals) for about $24.00. I'm looking forward to a salmon dinner later in the week.

Yummy, yummy salmon fillets!

The rest of the shopping.

The rest of the shopping was done at the regular old grocery store and while the bill was over $108.00 it did include some expensive items like freezer bags, parchment paper, cocoa powder and corn flake crumbs. Nothing much was really on sale except for the cheese slices and the steak (4 striploins for $11.50). I'm all set now for a good start going into January. It's time to use up the freezer stuff. You know the items bought weeks ago that have migrated really far down to the bottom of the freezer. Yeah,  those items. Time for them to come to the top and get ready for menu planning. I'm not going to buy any meat for at least two weeks.

Superstore grocery bill.

I don't know about you but I  haven’t made any resolutions for 2013 because I really don’t stick to whatever plan I come up with. That in itself can feel disappointing. Lead a good life, appreciate what I have and love the people around me, that's essentially what I try to do every day anyway. So I'm going to go with that. What about you, dear reader? Have you made any resolutions, or any that you think you will be able to keep?

One thing that I am going to do next year is to try some new recipes. This week I am going to make a dish from the Pioneer Woman's site for "Zannie's Black-Eyed Pea Dip". It looks delicious and a good way to start the New Year off with some good luck from eating the black-eyed peas.

So, New Year's Eve is tonight and usually I would maybe have a visit from Granny New Years but, honestly, I have it all and don’t need anything else but love, good health and great friendships and the odd funny joke and a game to be played. C'mon Granny, bring me all that you can of that! Life is good.

Happy New Year!!!

Best Wishes For 2012!

We were out for a drive yesterday and this caught my eye from the passenger side window. This guy was prepared for any possibility! I had to take a picture. It’s was just too funny.

Roadside email inbox. Funny!

When I got up this morning I discovered that Granny New Year had arrived while I was sleeping. She keeps some late hours. I know because we were out in the back yard lighting off fireworks until almost 12:30 in morning and there was nothing on the kitchen counter before I went to bed. This year she brought me a book about sea glass and it should keep me going until the weather is a little moe suitable for beachcombing.

Granny New Year came through again.

Anyway, I just wanted to wish all my family and friends (including you readers) a Very Happy New Year!!

Enjoy.

Welcome to 2011!

This is the first time my Christmas amarylis has produced 5 blooms!

Granny New Years has come again in a small and quiet way. What you don’t remember "Granny"? Check her out in last year’s post here.

Granny New Year Present

A new puzzle book, thanks Granny!

Hubby had a visit from Granny, too. Well, sort of. He finally bought himself a new table saw with the extra cash he received in December. It will replace the $50 Black and Decker saw he has been using for the last 25(!) years. The poor old thing (the saw, not Hubby) fell off the tool trailer one evening during the gazebo build this summer and broke the table top. The stubborn old bugger (Hubby, not the saw) would still be using it if not for that. The saw got great reviews and the price actually went down $1oo from the time he first started drooling on it in the store. Granny works in mysterious ways!

A life-time warranty and great reviews, oh yeah!

Hubby’s new saw over by the stack of the gazebo’s cedar deck boards.

We had a fantastic year with lots of fun, laughter, great food, good weather, late night fire pit parties and just a deep down happy feeling in my stomach. LIFE IS GOOD!! I really don’t see how things can get any better but I’m going to give it a huge try. So I looked back over some of the goals I wanted to accomplish for 2010 and it seems like I have met the challenge head one.

I wanted to have more “No Spend Days” and I managed to keep from spending anything on 106 days for an average of about 2 per week. The same went for “No Drive Days” and while we had a bunch we didn’t record the number anywhere. It’s a little tricky anyway because I car pool and pay on Friday so really I’m not driving.

The meal planning was a great habit to pick up and we still do this daily because when we don’t it really screws things up. We end up running into the store to buy something on the way home from work. So there are lots of positive reasons to continue with this goal.

We bought a new BBQ for all our outdoor cooking needs. I love it; it’s much better looking than the old hunk of junk. Hubby is still getting used to the smaller BTU’s and slower cooking times but he gets the food cooked.

Losing weight has become an up and down cycle with me. I want to lose 10 pounds and will continue on this goal. My new job involves a lot of sitting on my ass and I’m not used to this. I plan on requesting a new work table so I can stand more during the day. I need to spend less time at the computer at home, too.

So now we are at the nitty-gritty of this year’s new resolutions. I honestly don’t have many.

I will continue with the old goals because they work.

I want to set up a daily savings plan with a charitable organization. I have a few I’m checking out.

I want to take up running; VERY, VERY slowly at first till maybe I have enough stamina to run a small 5 km race. We have a company challenge coming up and I would love to be able to participate without me looking like a complete running moron.

I want to have more dinner parties with friends.

I want to cook a new meal or baked item every month and share it with you all.

I want to save more money in my Goofy account so one day we can visit Disney World and go first class all the way.

I want to watch more football games so when the Super Bowl rolls around I’ll have a team to cheer for because honestly the Oakland Raiders just aren’t going to the Big Game again this year.

Happy News Years everyone, may the best be awaiting you in 2011.

New Clothes. Thanks, Granny New Year!

Here's just a short post to show off my new clothes.

I went to Sears and found quite a few bargains and clothes that really do look nice on me. Everything mixes and matches well, too. I was so pleased and I still have a few dollars left from Granny New Year, so next time I'm out I would like to find a nice top and sweater set and some comfortably shoes. I'll probably be able to find a jacket to go with all my pants at the Village along with a few more blouses. Plus, I received lots of gift certificates from the Village for Christmas so I won't have to spend any money out of pocket. Sweet deal for me.

The weather has been whacky, lately. One day we are BBQing on the deck (I know, I know, but the old thing is still out there) with the grass all green and temperatures way above zero and the next day we are getting buried with snow, then rain, lots of rain.

Today will just be the regular Sunday routine - cooking, cleaning, laundry ,baking and maybe some meal planning. That will keep me busy enough but then I haven't done much while being off. I'm back to work tomorrow after having had such a wonderful break, so I guess I'd better try and get my MoJo on. It's going to be forever until my next holiday, that is as long as I don't get snowed in.

p.s. I've got the baking done already. Here's a picture of them before I go.

Granny New Year Came Sometime Through The Night.

Wow, what a beautiful full moon last night! It was actually a blue moon and there won't be another one of those on New Year's Eve until 2028, so I hope you saw it, too. We rang in the New Year out in the driveway trying to take some pictures of it but they didn't turn out very good. The night was truly beautiful, though and we did get a couple of shots which lit up the diamonds in the snow on the front lawn.



Granny New Year did come and I was really surprised because I received some money to buy new clothing (and not thrift store clothing!). I don't know where to start. I always buy from Value Village and other places like it and now I'm going to have to figure out where new clothes come from. This may be the biggest challenge yet for me in 2010. Don't laugh because I'm serious.



Hubby received some goodies (a tray of his favourite iced lemon cookies, nicely decorated in Christmas-sy colours) and a solar powered radio for his shed. Granny New Year knew just want he wanted.



Speaking of Granny New Year, the tradition has been handed down from my Great Grandmother, Ludivine. I have always loved that name, she was usually just called Luddy (of course, not by me).

She was Scottish and their tradition was to extend the spirit of Christmas giving by having a small present to open on New Year's Day. It usually arrived in your stocking and was a small toy, nuts, fruit or chocolate. Times were tough back then and really your stocking was all you had. Try explaining that to today's generation.

Hope you enjoyed me sharing this with you. Maybe Granny New Year will have a few more places to visit next year.
Happy 2010, everyone.