05 January 2010
Budgeting = Yuck!
The big New Year's resolution that Kirk and I have been talking about is creating a budget. We are both terrible with money and realise it's time to do something about that.
Although we have a half-decent income, we have lots of debt that just doesn't seem to be paying itself off. Obviously we're wasting a bunch of money each month that could be going into debt-reduction and savings. My task today was to gather up all of our financial information and try to come up with a workable budget and a two year plan to pay off the debts and put some money aside. Ugh!!
I started by downloading some budgeting software. I chose Buddi (despite its stupid name) because it's simple, free, Canadian, and it works on OSX. It's super easy to use, so I set about collecting all of our information (easier said than done - I use three different banks) and plugging in the information. Holy crap! We are wasting SO much money! I was horrified!
Things change today. No more online shopping for me. No more lunches out for Kirk. This will take some adjustment, but it's worth it in the end, right?
02 January 2010
Hum Drum New Year
I'm feeling a little blah today. It's raining. The frenzy of the holidays is over. My brother and sister-in-law are back in Toronto. Kirk is back at work. I took the Christmas decorations down this morning and the bare tree is standing in the corner, waiting to be taken to the chipper tomorrow (which kind of makes me feel like a jerk). I'm sitting alone on the couch.
I need a new project, so I've decided to do a portrait of a very good friend of mine. I'll be painting it with acrylic on a 11" square piece of watercolour paper. I'm not going to say who it's supposed to be, in case it ends up not looking anything like her :) Then it'll just be a portrait of a pretty girl.
I need a new project, so I've decided to do a portrait of a very good friend of mine. I'll be painting it with acrylic on a 11" square piece of watercolour paper. I'm not going to say who it's supposed to be, in case it ends up not looking anything like her :) Then it'll just be a portrait of a pretty girl.
26 December 2009
This Week in My Kitchen: Cookies and Pies!!
Mmm, Christmas baking! I'm not the best baker, but I'm slowly improving. This year I kept it simple, with a couple of batches of cookies and two pies.
Cookies: Ginger, Oatmeal Peppermint Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Kahlua, Thumbprint
Last week my friends Meghan and Stephanie came by and we had an evening of baking cookies and drinking wine (two of my favourite things!). We used my go-to cookie guide, ExtraVeganZa by Laura Matthais
There were a few mishaps, but everything tasted good and we made enough to give as gifts and to pig out ourselves. When I was a kid I used to bake cookies with my grandmother quite a bit. She passed down her not-the-best baking skills to me. We always had a few weird looking cookies and ones that just didn't turn out. To this day, I call imperfect pastries "Nanny Cookies". We had a few Nanny Cookies this time around, and it made me really miss her (she passed away when I was seventeen).
FEATURED IN THIS POST:
Cookies: Ginger, Oatmeal Peppermint Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Kahlua, Thumbprint
Last week my friends Meghan and Stephanie came by and we had an evening of baking cookies and drinking wine (two of my favourite things!). We used my go-to cookie guide, ExtraVeganZa by Laura Matthais
There were a few mishaps, but everything tasted good and we made enough to give as gifts and to pig out ourselves. When I was a kid I used to bake cookies with my grandmother quite a bit. She passed down her not-the-best baking skills to me. We always had a few weird looking cookies and ones that just didn't turn out. To this day, I call imperfect pastries "Nanny Cookies". We had a few Nanny Cookies this time around, and it made me really miss her (she passed away when I was seventeen).
Nanny Cookies: overzealous portioning results in one giant cookie
perfect oatmeal peppermint chocolate cookies
chocolate kahlua cookies ready to go in the oven
check out the chocolate-chippiness of this one
chocolate kahlua and thumbprint cookies
gift basket for my landlords
Pies: Pumpkin and Pecan
This year I made a pumpkin pie from the frozen remains of our halloween pumpkin, and pecan pie (yes, vegan pecan pie is possible and delicious!). Yum!
draining the halloween pumpkin - I saved & froze the juice for later use
pumpkin pie
pecan pie
a delicious grape pie my landlady made with the concords that grow in our yard
FEATURED IN THIS POST:
The Giant Guestroom Painting, Pt. 4
My goal for the giant guestroom painting was to finish before Christmas, as we have our first house guests over the holidays, and I did it! Woohoo! I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, especially considering I've never attempted anything of this magnitude before. Sorry about all my crappy photography. One day I'll learn how to take a decent photo.
Here are some shots of the other bird art I currently have in the guest room:
4"x4", by Cara Sheppard
4"x4", by Cara Sheppard
5.5"x6.5", by Minimum Wage Art
both 5"x7", by Cara Sheppard
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