So before my budget goes into lock down for the fall, I thought that I would get myself a little treat. Because:

a) I experience willpower intermittently at best &

b) I’ve switched most of my jewelry over to gold & brass, and my glasses are silver

I’ve been loving my contacts, but I still love my glasses fiercely and since I’m feeling a little bolder these days I thought I would try to find a pair of glasses online that was a little more me…

I ordered these from Warby Parker earlier this week, and I can’t wait for them to come!

They have so many cute options and the prices are really aggressive- here it would cost me $85 CAD just to buy the lenses, and I got the lenses, frames & shipping for just a tiny bit more! They don’t ship to Canada, but if you have a friend in the US it’s worth looking at.  If you don’t have friends in the US, I would recommend starting a blog :)

Ever since I was a little kid I wanted glasses, I used to wish as hard as I could that my eyesight would fail so I could have awesome pink frames as a little girl in my grade two class. While I’m skipping the pink, I still love the look of glasses- it’s just one more jewelry option in my mind.

Maybe I should show you the collection of frames I’ve amassed I was 19- some of them are pretty scary!

I live in a small city, come from a small school and have worked in offices where I’m much younger than my coworkers for a long time. I love my life and my friends, but in the past year my core friends have moved to opposite coasts or have very limited time to be in touch, which has left me with some friend shaped holes in my life. It’s been something that I’ve been working through since the spring- I’ve been developing new friendships and putting myself out there a lot more.

Sometimes it’s so good to put the getting to know you aside for a little while and see people who already know your back story, where you don’t have to explain because the knowing smiles are already on their faces, and your quirks just make you more yourself.

Last weekend I went to Minneapolis to meet three girls I’ve met through blogging over the past three years – Mandy, Nora & Lisa. This is what our weekend looked like from my lens…

We had an outstanding time, from buying way too much wine to my packing my suitcase full of Old Dutch Ketchup Chips so they could get a taste of Canadian kitsch. It was a crying at the airport & wishing there was an island that all my favourite bloggers could live on kind of weekend, and the perfect end to a breathless summer.

As soon as I buy that island, I’ll let you know. Bring lots of books, reality TV show recommendations & polaroid cameras, okay? :)

There’s nothing better than receiving a beautiful package in the mail, even if I sometimes wish I could have them delivered instantly. I’ve been waiting for my mustard yellow Kylie messenger bag for a little while, and  when I got home yesterday I had to check the post office. It arrived!! I love everything about it, down to the Malaysian stamps on the package. These are them, along with some two vintage pieces I’ve been saving for show and tell…

My new messenger bag that came with the stamps is amazing, I can’t wait to hit the streets with it!

I hope you’re having a great week- I have pictures from my weekend trip to Minneapolis all ready to post tomorrow morning, I can’t wait to show you some State Fair pictures. There was so much food on a stick that it made me dizzy- dizzy and then very hungry ;)

Managing finances as a couple can be tricky business. In our house we’ve traded off being the breadwinner, we’ve saved, overspent, and tried lots of different methods for managing our money. Because we moved in together quickly, talking honestly about money has always been something Jesse and I have had to manage, and for that I’m really thankful. While we’re not always on the same page, and it’s not always easy we’ve become pretty good at it.

Our only real rule is that all major life and financial decisions have to be made over nachos at our favourite Mexican food place. No seriously, it was in our wedding vows.

With all the changes going on around here I’m switching to part time work and am going to rely more on freelance work for my income. Which is amazing! Because I need more time for blog designs & soon I’ll need dedicated time for my etsy shop too. It’s been really interesting so far, and we’ve been making some changes to how we live that I thought might be fun to share. So this is what we’ve been doing, behind the scenes to streamline our spending…

With plane fares being what they are in Canada, we have to really limit our travel this year. This year has been great, but we’ve been a little reckless with how much we’re running around and need to chill out on the spur of the moment road trips and planning big get aways.

What this looks like for us:

• Paying in advance when we have the money. When we booked our stay at Disney for later this year, we booked the dining plan for the first time which means that our trip & our food were actually paid off in the summer. We can just go and enjoy ourselves without bearing the full cost right after the trip.
• Take a local holiday. Renting a little cabin and running away to the lake in the summer sounds just about perfect to me, and there are all kinds of rural bed and breakfasts around. We don’t need to change time zones to have a good break, and this way we can bring the dogs! Hello, no boarding costs!

Jesse and I are very lucky to have very little debt. We’re really serious about not buy things on credit card that we can’t pay off in that month. While I don’t have great willpower, I can’t handle the stress of unpaid bills! But there are definitely places where we can do better.

What this looks like for us:

• Get rid of a car payment. We’ll be paying off one of our cars this year! Switching to only having one car payment is going to be a fantastic feeling and sticking with two cars will keep me from getting bronchitis in the winter (the cold + our transit system’s delays = my lungs want to move to California)
• Save for everything else. From vet bills to home repairs and the cars, everything that has the potential to hit hard now has a space in our budget. When something happens (and it will!) we already have a head start, and that gives me a lot of comfort.

When our budgets are seriously realigned I’m guilty of getting down on myself and feeling “hard done by”… which generally leads to me wandering through shops and buying jewelry. Having a little wiggle room planned helps me feel pampered and keep me from steamrolling my budget.

What this looks like for us:

• Buying seasons of TV shows to catch up on. We’ve been watching Bones from its first season, one episode a night, and Angela and Hodgins are THE CUTEST EVER. And season two of Buffy The Vampire slayer is my happy place. Lots of entertainment, and it costs very little.
• Buy high quality, low quantity. I can’t make a big investment in my closet right now, but I love buying new cardigans and blouses in the fall, so I’m choosing a few vintage or thrifted pieces that will last and leaving it at that.

This is definitely just the tip of the iceberg for us, because we’ve been making some big shifts lately. We’ve cut back on going out, we’re meal planning, and living with a minimalist mentality. But I love having a plan that reflects how I want my life to be: packed with experiences, light on stuff, and full of happiness.

And also with a bottle of Pinot Noir tucked away near by, just in case.

What’s your favourite little indulgence?

Mine is vegan marshmallows, be still my heart!

{image: bugs and fishes; tape strips: pugly pixel}

My neverland is temporary, where blog comments turn into e-mails that turn into phone calls and plane rides. Where a weekend becomes that summer camp I never got to go to, and the pixel pictures of  girls become real people. It’s hugs at airports and hotel keys, anticipation and connection.

Neverland lives outside the day to day, outside of work and expectation, and every now and then I’m lucky enough to conjure it up for a weekend. :)

See you on Monday!

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The best part of moving from my tiny little craft room into a big, bright working space has definitely been the decorating. There’s still a lot to do but once it’s painted and arranged a little, I’m going to give you a tour! I’ve been looking for some vintage pieces to add some more character to my space and this weekend I got really lucky. I went out to a vintage sale hosted by Jill from Lune Vintage where she was selling some of the wares from her previous studio. It was heavenly! I grabbed some great finds for my studio space- a pretty little blue throw, a weird and wonderful bird for the portrait wall I’m making (can’t wait to show you!), and a vintage typewriter that makes me weak at the knees.

I love tucking little pieces of inspiration wherever I can, and my new typewriter is going to hold my favourite quotes.

The best thing about this weekend was giving myself some space to just have fun, catch up with friends, and rest up. There has been a lot going on lately, including some big changes that I’ll be writing about tomorrow, and I have a big week planned- including joining in on a local art project, knit night, and my first solo road trip! The end of August is going to be incredible, even if I can’t wrap my head around how the summer is already ending. This year has gone by faster than any I can remember!

With so much on the horizon, a lazy Sunday full of inventing new crochet projects, tea, baguettes and fancy cheese was exactly what I needed.

Did you get what you needed this weekend?

If not, I bet that a baguette would be a step in the right direction :)

There’s something about rainy weekends that make it easier to get things done. In the past few days I did more blog design work than you could shake a stick at, got my resume updated, and even remembered to return my latest batch of library books on time!  There is so much coming up in the next few weeks that getting through items like that on my To Do list is a huge win. I’m working on getting my etsy shop ready for launch, I have two little trips coming up and a house guest coming in September. It’s all exciting and wonderful stuff- but to get through it all in good time I’m starting to batten my hatches and just work through my To Do list with as much energy as I can muster.

That being said, the weekend did have some intrigue in store. Sometime on Friday night my car was broken into. Someone let themselves into our backyard, popped the car doors open and turned everything inside out. Thankfully there was nothing valuable for them to take, but it was strange to wake up and find everything upside down. I found a formidable padlock that’s keeping our big gate closed from now on. It boggles my mind a litte- have’t people stopped keeping their valuable possessions in their vehicles? Did they mistake my Ford Focus for a Spanish Galleon?

(I always forget to lower its sails, I was probably asking for it.)

After I got my car cleaned up, Jesse & I went out of a really fun errand. I’m a huge boardgame geek and so we’ve been scouting 2 – 5 player games to play in the fall. We settled on one called Smallworld this weekend and went out to the historic downtown of our city and bought it along with my favourite chocolate covered cakettes. We spent all Sunday reading through the rules, playing, eating popcorn and refusing to leave our pyjamas. It was my perfect Sunday & I’m so happy to have a new game to play! Smallworld party anyone? :)

There has been a lot going on lately, and when that happens my favourite thing to do is dig into the things that ground me: cooking, crafting & hanging with my family. I’m looking forward to a week of all three.

The rain is doing its best to wash us into the sea.

If you see a house sailing by with handmade sails and puppies curled up in the window, please wave.

I’ll do my best to throw down a line so we can have some tea together :)

I have to take a moment, just for a second. I’m really happy with my blog, but lately there’s been one thing that’s been driving me crazy: when I started this blog I made a semi-spur of the moment decision to just call my husband “Mister”.

It came from my nickname for him – I tend to call my close guy friends “Sir” or “Mister” and my close girl friends “Lady” or “Miss”, so I’ve been calling him Mister in day to day life for a very long time.

But now when I write “Mister” on my blog it feels… cutesy. And a little derivative. And like I’m forcing something that I’ve outgrown.

So, I’m making a change. While he’s also my Mister, Mister’s name is actually Jesse and that’s what I’ll be calling him from now on.

[ ps  - he's pleased to meet you :) ]

I’m one of those people who tends to make big projects for herself. I like having something to work on, I loooove finishing things, and I like challenging myself. For instance, I recently decided that over the fall I’m going to become outlandishly good at making French pastries. (You’re welcome, future house guests!)

And I tend to be really good about follow through. I take my little projects to heart from start to finish. There’s only one project that I’ve taken on that I’ve really let get out of hand.

Scrapbooking.

I think it started out simply enough, I just fell in with the wrong crowd. “It’s just a Stampin’ Up! party, you’ll love it!” they told me, and before you knew it I had gone from casually buying paper to hunting down the right kind of heat embosser. I think we all know someone, maybe even someone in our own family, who has been caught up un this kind of thing, and all I can say is that it’s a slippery slope.

While that in and of its self might not be a problem, one of the side effects has been: I’m convinced that if I just keep saving pictures and ticket stubs, eventually I will be able to scrapbook all of my photos. Not all of them from last year, or all of my wedding photos. All of the photos I’ve taken since my sister graduated from Tiny Tots when I was six. So I just keep taking pictures, ordering the photos, and setting them aside.

Intellectually I know this doesn’t make sense and will never happen. I know that unless I take drastic action, the rubbermaid full of photos and grade eight dance tickets will be handed down in my family as evidence that the harrowing tale of Auntie Kyla’s adult onset obsessive compulsive disorder was actually true.

“LOOK!” My great-grandchildren will say, “This is invitation to her university convocation, with the measuring tape from her cap still attached to the extra RSVP card!”.

“What was she going to do with that?!” The youngest will ask, before bursting into frightened tears.

I just can’t let that happen. My phantom great-grandchildren need a better role model.

This weekend I was feeling extra ambitious, after work on Friday I made refrigerator pickles, and I worked on blog designs projects over the weekend – it was fun & very normal, not a scrapbooking thought in sight. And then mid-Sunday, completely out of the blue, it hit me: I need to let this ridiculous idea die, and just buy some photo albums. When I give myself permission to do that I’ll be able to rest in the knowledge that their archival paper will preserve both my photos, and my sanity.

I was out the door shortly after, bought the albums, and cruised through four years worth of photos (& junk!) yesterday. I don’t know how I’ve let this go on so long when with one more sitting this whole project will be finished. It’s a very silly thing, but you know what? I’m so relieved it’s finally off my plate.

Do you have an impossible project lurking in your home?

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