This Week

This week I have thoroughly enjoyed tulips in our bathroom. They are drooping but still very colourful and beautiful. I will keep them until they fall apart then add them to our compost bin.

This week the weather cooperated and I was able to ride my bike to work Monday through Thursday. I have missed my bike rides over the past few months. Biking to work is a perfect way to start and end the day. Once I start biking, I don't like to 'waste' a good weather day by driving. Luckily it rained on Friday as I had to drive to the gym after work. 

This week I decided to cancel my gym membership at The World Gym in London. My hubby and I have really good monthly rates but I just don't like going. I prefer spending time outside on weekends and I like to go home at the end of my work day. I thought I might use the pool which is really very nice but I only swam a couple times over the winter. In the end, I decided to cancel my membership which saves us $500 per year. I will continue to keep active with things I love; biking, hiking and walking the dog. Plus we have a really good 'home' gym if I want to exercise even more.  

At the start of this week, I put my crochet aside and focused more on my clutter clearing goals. I have been making regular runs to Goodwill but decided a few of our things might be worth selling. Since our 17 year old does not yet have a job, I told him he could keep any money he makes from the sales if he creates Kijiji postings and manages the sales. I gave him a Black and Decker Bread Maker (asking $25), a covered cat litter box (asking $5) and a large metal dog cage (asking $60). He sold the cage for $45 yesterday so now he has added his X-Box and games to the pile of items for sale. 

I also made a sale this week. I have three winter dog coats that don't fit our poodle but I thought they might be of value to somebody. Our son didn't think they would be worth his effort so I posted them and sold all three for $15. 

I added my Rollerblades (Women's size 7/8) and a Sunbeam Crock Pot plus Little Dipper Warmer set to the list of items for sale. I don't like to roller blade and I already have two other crock pots. 

I also spent some time this weekend clearing out drawers from a desk in the basement and sorting through memorabilia in an old trunk. The desk is empty and the trunk is lighter. I managed to clear out some of my childhood mementos but not my kids' stuff. I will go through it again another time. I really feel like I'm making progress.

After all these clutter clearing efforts, I finally settled down to crochet the dress for Sweetie Bear. I used a dress pattern by Yellow, Pink and Sparkly found here and made a few alterations so it would fit this larger bear. I increased the starting chain to 37 from 29 and added two more rows to the bodice plus two more rows to the skirt. It fits Sweetie Bear and looks really cute.

Sweetie primping in the mirror

Sweetie tip-toeing through the tulips.

This week has been fabulous and productive. I have enjoyed my cappuccino while working on this blog post and the weather has warmed up so it is time to get ready to ride ... a nice ride west of the city sounds perfect for today.

This week I plan to make pom poms in a variety of sizes and colours to decorate our wreath for spring. I'll be sure to post a photo when I'm done.

Baby Stuff & More

Only one more week until we're in Boulder. I can hardly wait to meet my granddaughter and see my little grandson again.  My daughter sent some lovely photos but it's the hugs and cuddles I'm so looking forward to while we're there. 

Granddaughter and Grandson - Can't wait to cuddle.

Today I finished a nice assortment of baby headbands. There are 13 in total varying in size from 14" to 16".  The on-line sizing chart suggested 12" for newborn, 13" for 3-6 months and 14" for 6-12 months.  Luckily I checked with my daughter before cutting the elastic as this baby started out with a 14" head. I also made a simple banner to be used as a photo prop. I toyed with the idea of adding crochet flowers but decided simple was better. 

Crochet headbands (4 total)

Assorted elastic headbands (8) and simple banner (sage and grey)

Elastic headband with layered crochet flower

We went shopping recently and bought a few girly baby clothes. We've also been collecting a nice pile of gifts to take. I have a pink snowsuit from a friend at work, something from GG and other GG and a gift from our neighbour. I brought the large suitcase upstairs today and it's already half filled. There is still plenty of room for my clothes so no worries.

Dress with 2 pair of tights

Dresses - so cute

Onesies - 2 different sizes

Sports shirt for our grandson

Snowsuit from friend - never worn

Gifts from GG and Other GG for both kiddies

Gift from our neighbour - Wonder what it is?

This week I also decided to reduce clutter in the house. I read a few 'simple living' blogs to get motivated and started with clothes. I had collected a couple bags of clothes over the winter and with one more sweep of my closet and my son's closet ended up with three big garbage bags full of items for Goodwill. It felt great to get them out of the house. 

I then decided to go through my book cabinet and get rid of books I do not plan to read again. I had four boxes full of books, one box full of paper for recycling plus another box of old text books. Today we took the books to two different used bookstores. The Book Addict and Basically Books went through the boxes, selected what they wanted and paid in cash. At the end of the day, I was down 2 1/2 boxes of books and up $66 cash. In case you're wondering, they give 10% of the cover price listed on the books.

Book Purging Party

There are many, many more books in our library. I plan to go through them and visit a couple other book shops in town before donating the rest at either Goodwill or Value Village. The text books are good for recycling only. We were told to remove the covers and put 'guts' out with our weekly paper collection. My husband is now on board with getting rid of book clutter, although I did have to pry him away from looking at Basically Books. He almost bought a used book on car repair until I reminded him we were there to purge not acquire.

The last thing we cleared out today was an old TV from our son's room. It had been unplugged and piled in our spare room for months. Staples recycles electronics so that's where we dropped it off today. I think there are more electronics in the house that should be gotten rid of but I'll leave those for another day. I am very happy with the progress I've made this week. In fact it feels so wonderful that I'm totally motivated to keep at it. 

Old TV - finally gone

Now I just have to come up with my next crochet project. There are so many options, it's tough to pick just one.