I've been struggling to get this post done for about three weeks now, and I'm still not sure exactly why. True, I've had a lot going on in the real world, but I've been tired before and still managed (mostly) to post as scheduled. It's been three weeks of inner and outer ups and downs ... at work, at home, and with both my physical health and my moods / emotions. But I've blogged through those before, too. So what's different this time?
The weekend after my last post was our office move. Not a bad thing in itself - the space we were in was far too big for just the six of us, and the new office not only fits our needs better but is in a much nicer building, with a gorgeous view of Coal Harbour and Stanley Park. True, it means getting a bus to and from the downtown Skytrain in bad weather - it's a lovely walk on a nice day, though! - but that only adds about ten minutes each way to my commute, and the views alone are worth it. But the moving process itself was fraught with frustrations. On the Friday, we had no phones - that was the day our phone service was shifted to the new office. And naturally, in spite of spending two weeks warning everyone (and adding a warning to our e-mail signatures) that we'd have no phones on Friday but would still be in the office and reachable via e-mail, we were deluged with offended e-mails complaining that we weren't answering the phones ... sigh. Then on Monday, we had phones but for most of the day we had no internet. Now, literally everything we do, every program we use, is internet-based. So we could take calls, but that was pretty much the only thing we could do. And within an hour of finally getting the internet working, our booking system went down for the rest of the day ...
The weather has been cold, wet, and gloomy. One or two nice days, but overall not pleasant at all. I did manage to salvage enough apples for a dozen quarts of applesauce, but the tomatoes are pretty much a write-off, and nothing else even tried to grow - except the ubiquitous chives! I don't think they can be killed!
Right after the move I caught a nasty cold, probably from one of the all-too-numerous people on the Skytrain who think it's okay to cough in other passengers' faces. Nothing too serious, but by the time I got home every evening I was feeling pretty washed-out and used-up. I kept my germs to myself, and didn't give the cold to anyone else, which pleased me.
As I expected, nothing more happened in the basement until literally the night before the installers were coming to replace the furnace. I'd already moved everything I could handle without help, and having Big Guy lose his temper with me because he actually had to shift his big heavy things himself ... let's just say his running commentary was not well received. However, during the whole process I did get four more big bags of donations weeded out, and I'm still working on adding to them.
If I'd been told when they started that the furnace guys wouldn't be finished the same day, I think I might very well have packed a bag and spent the weekend at my Mom's place. Ditto if I'd known that Big Guy had not, after all, lined up a gas fitter to reconnect the gas lines after the installation was done. Yeah ... two days with no heat, no hot water, no stove, and all the microwaveable meals we'd bulk-cooked and frozen were inaccessible because, apparently, the best place to pile all the toolboxes, spare furnace & duct parts, etc was on top of the chest freezer. I suppose it could have been worse - I still had my coffeemaker. Still, peanut butter & jelly sandwiches for lunch and dinner two days in a row didn't do a lot for my mood or my digestion. He finally did find a gas guy willing to come out on a Sunday afternoon, so at last we have heat, hot water, and a working stove again. The best part? I'll get to watch our winter heating bill come in at not quite half of last year's, since the new furnace is more than twice as efficient as the old one. And it's so quiet you can't tell it's on unless you stand on a heat vent!
Righteous indignation being a great motivator, I got a lot of cleaning and clearing-out done in my workroom over those two days ... the family refers to my bouts of anger-based activity as "working furiously". I'm not quite ready to post the "after" pictures yet, though (you can see the "before" pics here).
My birthday had its ups and downs, too. Mom got me the lecture series on geology, tectonics and climate interrelationships I'd been jonesing for, and daughter J gave me beautiful flowers and a gift card to Chapters - she knows what I love! Big Guy brought home three birthday desserts - he said he couldn't remember what I like and wanted to cover all the bases, so there were cheesecake, Nanaimo bars, and a coffee-almond torte. Seriously? Almost thirty years and you don't know what I like for dessert?? So I was torn between being charmed by his thoughtfulness and resentful of his lack of attention. And then I felt guilty about the mixed feelings. And later I felt more resentment, and more guilt ... he'd bought me not the one fall hoodie I wanted, but two - black and super-dark brown, just like I wanted - but he didn't bother unfolding them or looking at the tags, so they are both about three sizes too small. And he promised we'd go exchange them today, only now he's suddenly "too busy". Busy with what? Reading a cookbook. Yes. He's decided he wants to deep-fry our Thanksgiving turkey. Should be ... interesting.
I've decided to scale back a bit on Hallowe'en this year. We'll still put up some creepy fun stuff around the front door and hand out treats, but I just don't feel up for our usual all-out over-the-top decorating. Partly because this year everyone will be at work all day except me, and I want to use the quiet time for more appropriate Samhain reflection. And partly because Big Guy's job has lasted months longer than it was originally supposed to and we don't know when the axe will fall and want to spend as little as possible on non-essentials as we prepare for his layoff. Oh, and of course we'll do several pumpkins - which will get cut up, cooked, and frozen the next day, as usual. I've never cared for pumpkin pie, but I make a pumpkin-cinnamon-raisin loaf that's very popular with family and friends. I might even give some frozen pumpkin puree to sister S for her pies, if she asks nicely!
Next weekend the guinea pigs will come inside until spring; the indoor cage sits in front of the living room window, so they still get fresh air and what little sunshine there is. Now that we have three of them (female-free-to-good-home, we couldn't resist!), the old indoor cage is far too small. Luckily, the vet clinic daughters P and J work at was tossing a perfectly good indoor cage big enough for all three, so she called, Big Guy drove to Kits, and the pigs have a nice roomy safe space until they go back to the outdoor hutch next spring. And the price was right - free.
Yes, even though J is back to cooking full-time, she's decided to hang on part-time at the clinic for as long as she can stand to; she wants to get those student loans paid off quickly, and more power to her! Like me - and unlike Big Guy - J sees debt not as just a to-be-expected part of life, but as something to be dealt with and eliminated as soon as possible.
I got a letter from Visa last week, telling me that they had doubled my credit limit. Since I never ever carry a balance, it really doesn't matter; whenever I use the card, I go online as soon as I get home and transfer the same amount from my chequing account, so my statement balance is always zero. And I only take the card shopping when I know in advance what I'm going to buy and how much I'll be spending. I suppose I'm fortunate in that I've never been tempted to be a buy-now-pay-later shopper ... I just don't like to carry large amounts of cash. It's good to know, though, that if a true emergency arises I have enough credit (I hope) to take care of whatever it is.
Right now, though, I have to go deal with three loads of laundry and a grungy kitchen floor.
Showing posts with label spending. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spending. Show all posts
Monday, October 10, 2011
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Debates & Decisions
When it comes to money, Big Guy and I are not always on the same page ... sometimes I don't think we're even in the same book! This can often lead to what I prefer to call "spirited debates".
Our television is twenty years old. Granted, that's still two years younger than my car and fifteen years younger than the freezer, but it's starting to suffer from electronic senility; the picture wobbles now and then, the vertical hold is losing its grip,and volume control is becoming a sometime thing.
However ... the big chest freezer, as noted above, is almost twice as old. And it is also starting to show its age. The gasket is starting to leak (unless you lean really hard on the lid when you close it), it takes longer to freeze things all the way through, and doesn't freeze anything as rock-hard as it used to. This is rapidly - in my view - going to become an active health hazard due to incomplete/insufficient freezing of food, and I can see myself very soon simply refusing to eat anything that was in it. Plus, due to its age, it cost a lot more to run, even full, than a new one would.
Now, we rely very heavily on that freezer. We buy in bulk on sale, we cook and I bake in bulk, he hunts, we go fishing, we have a garden and fruit trees - we need a freezer we can depend on. And this one is rapidly approaching the point where we can't depend on it.
Here's where the "spirited debate" ensues ...
He sees the television in the living room every day. He doesn't see the freezer in the basement every day. Therefore the television takes up more space in his conscious mind, and so to him is more of a priority on the list of things needing replacement. Every point I try to make about food safety versus mere entertainment is countered with "There's nothing wrong with that freezer" or "A little freezer burn never hurt anybody" or "Ice cream is supposed to be scoopable" or "That just means things don't take as long to defrost, that's not a bad thing".
Standoff.
Big Guy's take on things is that we need a new television but I want a new freezer for no good reason that he can see.
My take on things is that we need a new freezer, and a new television after we replace the freezer would be nice if we can afford it.
And people wonder why he doesn't know I have a nice healthy savings account ....
Our television is twenty years old. Granted, that's still two years younger than my car and fifteen years younger than the freezer, but it's starting to suffer from electronic senility; the picture wobbles now and then, the vertical hold is losing its grip,and volume control is becoming a sometime thing.
However ... the big chest freezer, as noted above, is almost twice as old. And it is also starting to show its age. The gasket is starting to leak (unless you lean really hard on the lid when you close it), it takes longer to freeze things all the way through, and doesn't freeze anything as rock-hard as it used to. This is rapidly - in my view - going to become an active health hazard due to incomplete/insufficient freezing of food, and I can see myself very soon simply refusing to eat anything that was in it. Plus, due to its age, it cost a lot more to run, even full, than a new one would.
Now, we rely very heavily on that freezer. We buy in bulk on sale, we cook and I bake in bulk, he hunts, we go fishing, we have a garden and fruit trees - we need a freezer we can depend on. And this one is rapidly approaching the point where we can't depend on it.
Here's where the "spirited debate" ensues ...
He sees the television in the living room every day. He doesn't see the freezer in the basement every day. Therefore the television takes up more space in his conscious mind, and so to him is more of a priority on the list of things needing replacement. Every point I try to make about food safety versus mere entertainment is countered with "There's nothing wrong with that freezer" or "A little freezer burn never hurt anybody" or "Ice cream is supposed to be scoopable" or "That just means things don't take as long to defrost, that's not a bad thing".
Standoff.
Big Guy's take on things is that we need a new television but I want a new freezer for no good reason that he can see.
My take on things is that we need a new freezer, and a new television after we replace the freezer would be nice if we can afford it.
And people wonder why he doesn't know I have a nice healthy savings account ....
Sunday, May 15, 2011
The Return Of Randomness
I haven't posted for a while, for several reasons.
1) The death of our beloved pet hit me very hard. She was such an important part of our lives for eighteen years, and we are still devastated and heartbroken. It's only in the last couple of days I've been able to talk about her without weeping ... and kind words about her from others are still enough to set off the tears.
2) I'm finally starting to recover from what I thought was just a nasty cold but turned out to be a serious bout of bronchitis. It started to fade, then came roaring back, and left me with no energy to do anything except go to work, come home, and lie down. I've finally stopped coughing, but I still get tired much faster than I'm used to.
3) In spite of everything else, I still had to go to work every day; we are an office of 5, only one of whom could have covered for me. She was out of province (business), which meant that instead of taking sick days, I was there far more hours than usual covering for her.
You may have noticed that I've rearranged my sidebar items. I realized that I really hardly ever spend money on anything I don't need. The cough medicine, for instance, turned out to be the only way I could get even three or four hours of sleep per night, and certainly I never would have made it through a single day at work without it. So I've removed it from the (renamed) "Extra Spending" list. You'll see, though, that I've added my annual purchase of coffee direct from the plantation in Costa Rica. Yes, it looks expensive ... but I don't drink it every day; it's my only real "treat" and believe me, I'll make that twenty pounds of (in my opinion) the world's best coffee go a long way. I'll also be giving some as birthday or Yule gifts to a select few who appreciate it as much as I do, and sharing it with fellow coffee lovers on movie nights. Break that annual expenditure down to $13.25 a month for personal treats and gifts, and it's eminently affordable within our current budget.
I've also decided to keep track of what I've labeled "Serendipitous Income" - money from unexpected or unplanned sources. On-line surveys, coupon and club card savings, deposit containers found and redeemed, that kind of thing. I will include any overtime I get paid for, because I don't go to work planning to stay late. I will not, however, include my tax refund when it comes in, because I did plan for it, and have plans for where it will go. The overtime from May alone will cover my new passport and my coffee order, and still leave over $200 to go into savings.
Project update: there isn't one, really. The sweater is put together at last, but the darning in of loose ends has still to be done, and the workroom organizing is on hold until I'm healthy enough to haul boxes around without wheezing. For the same reason, the basement-clearing project is also on "pause" - though whenever I go down to do laundry, or tend to the litterbox (yes, we still have one cat), or get something from the freezer, I'll try to remember to do one thing towards the cleanup, even if it's just putting away an empty canning jar or two. Baby steps.
Spring gardening hasn't even started yet; we've had a month of low temperatures, sunny weekdays, and rainy weekends - frustrating, since weekends are the only time we have for garden/yard work. But we'll get there eventually. My fruit trees all blossomed nicely, and I'm hoping there were enough dry days for the bees to pollinate well and so get us a good crop. We don't expect any cherries or pears for a couple more years, but the black currants, plums and apples - we hope - should do well. I don't know if the growing season will be long enough, or warm and dry enough, for a decent tomato crop. The herbs will go in containers this year and with luck I'll find a way to keep the squirrels from nibbling them all down to nothing again. Rhubarb always does well - I don't think we could kill it with napalm - and I'd like to put in some raspberry canes.
The coupon insert in this morning's paper had several good two-for-one offers on laundry detergent, (recyclable) plastic food storage containers, and other household basics. An hour after clipping the coupons, I found out that a very dear friend and her husband are both out of work and really struggling financially right now. So I will use the coupons this week, and set what I buy aside for my friend. And I'll raid my stockpile of toiletries as well, and add some of our homemade jams and pickles from last fall. I know she won't be offended; we've helped each other out like that countless times over the years. For us, that's always been a really big part of what friendship is about - being there for each other. I'm only sorry I can't do more, and sorry that it's not later in the year so I could take her apples and plums and tomatoes too!
Now I think I'll go do some mending. That pile has to get smaller eventually!
1) The death of our beloved pet hit me very hard. She was such an important part of our lives for eighteen years, and we are still devastated and heartbroken. It's only in the last couple of days I've been able to talk about her without weeping ... and kind words about her from others are still enough to set off the tears.
2) I'm finally starting to recover from what I thought was just a nasty cold but turned out to be a serious bout of bronchitis. It started to fade, then came roaring back, and left me with no energy to do anything except go to work, come home, and lie down. I've finally stopped coughing, but I still get tired much faster than I'm used to.
3) In spite of everything else, I still had to go to work every day; we are an office of 5, only one of whom could have covered for me. She was out of province (business), which meant that instead of taking sick days, I was there far more hours than usual covering for her.
You may have noticed that I've rearranged my sidebar items. I realized that I really hardly ever spend money on anything I don't need. The cough medicine, for instance, turned out to be the only way I could get even three or four hours of sleep per night, and certainly I never would have made it through a single day at work without it. So I've removed it from the (renamed) "Extra Spending" list. You'll see, though, that I've added my annual purchase of coffee direct from the plantation in Costa Rica. Yes, it looks expensive ... but I don't drink it every day; it's my only real "treat" and believe me, I'll make that twenty pounds of (in my opinion) the world's best coffee go a long way. I'll also be giving some as birthday or Yule gifts to a select few who appreciate it as much as I do, and sharing it with fellow coffee lovers on movie nights. Break that annual expenditure down to $13.25 a month for personal treats and gifts, and it's eminently affordable within our current budget.
I've also decided to keep track of what I've labeled "Serendipitous Income" - money from unexpected or unplanned sources. On-line surveys, coupon and club card savings, deposit containers found and redeemed, that kind of thing. I will include any overtime I get paid for, because I don't go to work planning to stay late. I will not, however, include my tax refund when it comes in, because I did plan for it, and have plans for where it will go. The overtime from May alone will cover my new passport and my coffee order, and still leave over $200 to go into savings.
Project update: there isn't one, really. The sweater is put together at last, but the darning in of loose ends has still to be done, and the workroom organizing is on hold until I'm healthy enough to haul boxes around without wheezing. For the same reason, the basement-clearing project is also on "pause" - though whenever I go down to do laundry, or tend to the litterbox (yes, we still have one cat), or get something from the freezer, I'll try to remember to do one thing towards the cleanup, even if it's just putting away an empty canning jar or two. Baby steps.
Spring gardening hasn't even started yet; we've had a month of low temperatures, sunny weekdays, and rainy weekends - frustrating, since weekends are the only time we have for garden/yard work. But we'll get there eventually. My fruit trees all blossomed nicely, and I'm hoping there were enough dry days for the bees to pollinate well and so get us a good crop. We don't expect any cherries or pears for a couple more years, but the black currants, plums and apples - we hope - should do well. I don't know if the growing season will be long enough, or warm and dry enough, for a decent tomato crop. The herbs will go in containers this year and with luck I'll find a way to keep the squirrels from nibbling them all down to nothing again. Rhubarb always does well - I don't think we could kill it with napalm - and I'd like to put in some raspberry canes.
The coupon insert in this morning's paper had several good two-for-one offers on laundry detergent, (recyclable) plastic food storage containers, and other household basics. An hour after clipping the coupons, I found out that a very dear friend and her husband are both out of work and really struggling financially right now. So I will use the coupons this week, and set what I buy aside for my friend. And I'll raid my stockpile of toiletries as well, and add some of our homemade jams and pickles from last fall. I know she won't be offended; we've helped each other out like that countless times over the years. For us, that's always been a really big part of what friendship is about - being there for each other. I'm only sorry I can't do more, and sorry that it's not later in the year so I could take her apples and plums and tomatoes too!
Now I think I'll go do some mending. That pile has to get smaller eventually!
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Joining The "Not Buying It" Crowd
I really didn't accomplish much this week besides going to work, doing my job, and coming home to collapse. I've had a horrendous cold since early in the week. On Tuesday I was just sneezing and a little sniffly, which prompted me to wonder if I was finally developing the hay fever that the rest of the family suffers with every spring. But no ... Wednesday at work I went through one boxes of tissue in eight hours, Thursday's count was two boxes, and by Friday afternoon I'd lost count. Friday night I started to cough, and I spent Saturday on the couch hacking, wheezing, and going through a couple more boxes of tissues. (good thing I got them in bulk, on sale, with a coupon!) It's tapering off now, but I'm still exhausted enough that today I did the dishes in several installments, because after ten minutes standing in front of the sink I just had to go sit down for a while.
Big Guy did what he always does - he made a big pot of from-scratch chicken soup and kept bringing me bowls of it - lovely stuff, full of bite-sized chicken chunks, onions, celery, carrots, lots of garlic and ginger, and egg noodles. It makes me feel better, at least for a little while ... in fact, I'll be taking a thermos of soup to work for lunch tomorrow.
I spent a lot of the weekend browsing a variety of blogs, following links from one to another, and I was surprised at how many bloggers are on the "Not Buying It" bandwagon. Not because it's a novel idea - I've pretty much lived that way for most of my life - but because so many people use that particular label. Is it easier to be frugal as part of a group? Does not spending money feel more comfortable if you can see how many others aren't spending money either? I'm not putting them down for it - in fact, I can't help wondering if I'd do better at the whole saving/not spending/paying down debt thing if I followed their example.
So ... as of today, I'm going to actually track every cent I spend, and post the details - starting with the generic cold capsules I hauled my poor aching, wheezing self out to get this morning. Maybe someone can suggest areas where I could spend less, or even items I could eliminate entirely. I don't pretend to be an expert, and I'm always open to new ideas. Oh, and just so the tracking will make more sense - Big Guy and I have an arrangement. Since he does almost all the cooking, he pays for the groceries, and I pay the household bills - hydro, gas, phone/cable/internet. So those categories won't show in the sidebar, and neither will our mortgage payments. What I'll be tracking is just my own personal spending, not the household budget. The goal is to make myself more aware of what I'm spending on "extras"; we're already pretty darn careful about what we lay out for necessities. For instance, the coffee we buy as part of the regular groceries won't be listed, but if I treat myself to a pound of a specialty blend I will show it. I'm still debating whether to show what I spend on my monthly transit pass - it's expensive, but it's necessary. Driving to work (especially with the cost of parking downtown) would cost at least three times as much ... so I don't think the pass can really be called an "extra". What do you think?
I'm also making a list in the back of my current all-purpose notebook of all the things I have enough of that I don't need to buy more no matter how good the sale price is. Thanks to my long-standing habit of stocking up when the price is right, it should be at least two years before I'll be buying office supplies, shower gel, deodorant, hair ties, shampoo, sewing notions, underwear, garbage bags, greeting cards ... the actual list is far more detailed, but you get the idea.
I will have to bite the bullet very soon and buy a new pair of running shoes. Actually, skateboard shoes, which are far more comfortable (they're wider, and I have square feet and a ridiculously high arch) and don't have the big ugly clunky soles that almost all women's "running" shoes seem to have these days. I pretty much live in those shoes, unless there's snow - our neighbourhood doesn't have sidewalks except on the main streets, and I'm not about to ruin my good/dress/office shoes by commuting daily through mud, gravel, and roadside dirt in them. A pair of the brand I like best will run me about $75.00 on sale, but once every two years or so turns that from an extravagance into a practical budget item. Especially since it allows me to make a nice pair of dress shoes last up to ten years. Yes, seriously. Shoes I like, that fit properly and don't hurt to walk in, are hard to find; when I do find a pair, I make them last as long as possible. I don't care about fashion - and some of the recent and current styles are downright ugly - my "good" shoes are plain, comfortable classics that will always look suitable for whatever I wear them with.
Apart from the shoes, there won't be any clothing in the list. This goes back to my New Year's "resolutions" - to work with what I already have. As each new garment is started, it will be added to the "Current Projects" section of the sidebar, and I'll try to post a picture of each one when I finish them. The sweater is almost finished, so (touch wood) next post will include a picture. I'll also be adding a "Finished Projects" section - sometimes I feel like Alice, "the faster I run the behinder I get", and it will be nice to look at that list and reflect on what I have accomplished.
Big Guy did what he always does - he made a big pot of from-scratch chicken soup and kept bringing me bowls of it - lovely stuff, full of bite-sized chicken chunks, onions, celery, carrots, lots of garlic and ginger, and egg noodles. It makes me feel better, at least for a little while ... in fact, I'll be taking a thermos of soup to work for lunch tomorrow.
I spent a lot of the weekend browsing a variety of blogs, following links from one to another, and I was surprised at how many bloggers are on the "Not Buying It" bandwagon. Not because it's a novel idea - I've pretty much lived that way for most of my life - but because so many people use that particular label. Is it easier to be frugal as part of a group? Does not spending money feel more comfortable if you can see how many others aren't spending money either? I'm not putting them down for it - in fact, I can't help wondering if I'd do better at the whole saving/not spending/paying down debt thing if I followed their example.
So ... as of today, I'm going to actually track every cent I spend, and post the details - starting with the generic cold capsules I hauled my poor aching, wheezing self out to get this morning. Maybe someone can suggest areas where I could spend less, or even items I could eliminate entirely. I don't pretend to be an expert, and I'm always open to new ideas. Oh, and just so the tracking will make more sense - Big Guy and I have an arrangement. Since he does almost all the cooking, he pays for the groceries, and I pay the household bills - hydro, gas, phone/cable/internet. So those categories won't show in the sidebar, and neither will our mortgage payments. What I'll be tracking is just my own personal spending, not the household budget. The goal is to make myself more aware of what I'm spending on "extras"; we're already pretty darn careful about what we lay out for necessities. For instance, the coffee we buy as part of the regular groceries won't be listed, but if I treat myself to a pound of a specialty blend I will show it. I'm still debating whether to show what I spend on my monthly transit pass - it's expensive, but it's necessary. Driving to work (especially with the cost of parking downtown) would cost at least three times as much ... so I don't think the pass can really be called an "extra". What do you think?
I'm also making a list in the back of my current all-purpose notebook of all the things I have enough of that I don't need to buy more no matter how good the sale price is. Thanks to my long-standing habit of stocking up when the price is right, it should be at least two years before I'll be buying office supplies, shower gel, deodorant, hair ties, shampoo, sewing notions, underwear, garbage bags, greeting cards ... the actual list is far more detailed, but you get the idea.
I will have to bite the bullet very soon and buy a new pair of running shoes. Actually, skateboard shoes, which are far more comfortable (they're wider, and I have square feet and a ridiculously high arch) and don't have the big ugly clunky soles that almost all women's "running" shoes seem to have these days. I pretty much live in those shoes, unless there's snow - our neighbourhood doesn't have sidewalks except on the main streets, and I'm not about to ruin my good/dress/office shoes by commuting daily through mud, gravel, and roadside dirt in them. A pair of the brand I like best will run me about $75.00 on sale, but once every two years or so turns that from an extravagance into a practical budget item. Especially since it allows me to make a nice pair of dress shoes last up to ten years. Yes, seriously. Shoes I like, that fit properly and don't hurt to walk in, are hard to find; when I do find a pair, I make them last as long as possible. I don't care about fashion - and some of the recent and current styles are downright ugly - my "good" shoes are plain, comfortable classics that will always look suitable for whatever I wear them with.
Apart from the shoes, there won't be any clothing in the list. This goes back to my New Year's "resolutions" - to work with what I already have. As each new garment is started, it will be added to the "Current Projects" section of the sidebar, and I'll try to post a picture of each one when I finish them. The sweater is almost finished, so (touch wood) next post will include a picture. I'll also be adding a "Finished Projects" section - sometimes I feel like Alice, "the faster I run the behinder I get", and it will be nice to look at that list and reflect on what I have accomplished.
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