The Only Thing Better Than a Sauna is... If It Weren't My House!

I arrived home from work tonight, with a thousands things on a my mind and a very clear "to do" list for the evening, to an unwelcome surprise.

As soon as I pushed the door open, I immediately knew something was wrong. The waft of warm air that greeted me at the front door was not normal. Those who know me, know my house is cold. Wear an extra sweater and sit under a blanket, cold. Turn the heat on just for company, cold. Warm air should never escape, because often there is no noticeable warm air in my house to begin with. I stepped into the kitchen, and I was engulfed in heat. Insanely hot, sweaty, smells-like-static, costing-me-a-fortune heat.

My furnace was racing, and it appeared my thermostat had long given up keeping pace, let alone controlling it. The temperature reading - "HI". The temperature was easily 100 degrees Farenheit. My thermostat is programmed for 68, and the fan was set to Auto. I turned the heat off, and 10 minutes and a panicked phone call to the bf and Service Experts later, the furncace switched off.

You can imagine my distress, opening every window and door, in mid-February, to cool my house down. I can feel the money being sucked from my bank account as I sit here, waiting for the temperature to return to near-normal. Although the thermastat can finally register the temperature, it's still 90 degrees.

For now, I've decided to wait and see what happens when I turn the furnace back on. My cats were in the basement today, so perhaps they knocked it to the "Haywire" setting. Perhaps, my furnace is shot. Either way, it will cost me $99 just for a specialist from Service Experts to come and check it out. My house may be cooking, but my brain is cool enough to know I should make sure there truly is a problem. Its not like I have no heat and my pipes are freezing. I can afford to see what happens when I turn the furnace back on.

My furnace is due for another maintenance. It's recommended annually, and I haven't had someone in to look at it since 2008. Since it's now 2010.... I am getting the message. Last time I called Service Experts of Niagara, but I doubt they're the cheapest. Does anyone have any suggestions to find a good heating & cooling guy?

Tupperware + Me = Soon To Be Organized Pantry!

Despite loving home parties and toting The Pampered Chef myself, I had never been to a Tupperware party. Until now.

I had a bit of a Tupperware wish list I've slowly been accumulating. I've kept my eyes open at Value Village and been able to score a couple of items, like this small canister.

I would really like a few more of these canisters for my sugar, flour and oatmeal.

I have also been looking for a juice pitcher, like the one I remember from my childhood.

I also really like their little mini containers with the snap-on lid. They're absolutely great for taking salad dressing to work.

Finally, they have these freezer to microwave containers. Also great for leftovers for lunch.

So, on the weekend, I attended a friend's Tupperware party. As a home party consultant myself, I enjoyed sitting on the other side of the room and taking in 'the show'.




I scored a couple free gadgets, including a "smidget" and a scoop to remove hard boiled eggs from the water.

Extra exciting - I won the Tupper Twoonie game and won $34 in free Tupperware! Their organization sets, which includes the new version of the round canister above, are on sale, so I splurged on a set for myself. I also bought myself the juice pitcher and put the $34 towards a few more containers for my pantry.

I can't wait to bring all my new plastic home and toss the dollar store containers and ice cream tubs for ultimate organization!!

E-Trade Baby Commercials

Enjoying a Saturday morning coffee and watching the morning news, we caught a feature on the Canadian baby that made it big in the E-Trade commercials. My curiosity piqued, I headed to You-Tube to catch them for myself. After watching a few, I already know their traders' portfolios are worth 8x the average investor's. I guess these commercials work! Nevertheless, they were good for a laugh this morning!

Here's a little sample of what E-Trade has put together to raise awareness about their online trading site. Enjoy!! Oh, and Go Packers! wait... Go Colts!

Things I Want

I've been browsing blogs and Etsy for almost an hour now. Partially, I'm procrastinating. I had the best of intentions to prop myself up in bed and start my article that's due Friday. Partially, I'm bummed out. I've posted so many times about what I want to do at my house. I'm constantly looking for inspirations, ideas and trying to visualize the next room in my house, but it's feel overwhelmingly apparent that I haven't actually done anything!

Sure, there's been small things. Even some big things when I've had help. Yet, there's so many projects. So many ideas, and my wishlist seems to grow longer daily. I'm not an obsessive-compulsive 'lister'. I do rely on them a lot to stay organized, and in the past 2 years, I've become an avid 'task' user in Outlook. There is satisfaction in stroking something off a list. It's like the cherry on top of a satisfaction sundae.

With all these ideas and inspiration out there, I started to make a 'wish list'.

                              It's                           utterly                      random.

items. services. projects.  you name it.

Last year, I made a dream board to visualize what I wanted to achieve. Besides the arts and crafts part (my favourite part), it didn't provide a whole lot of inspiration because it hung in my (unused) office.

This year, you guessed it! I made a wish list. I'm going to share it with you in hopes it will force me to start stroking some of these off!

• Home energy audit
• Insulate basement
• Shelves for either side of fireplace
• New stove
• Office reno
• New couches or coverings for my couches
• Window coverings - office  & guest room
• Electric toothbrush (this is the random part)
• Build a table
• Flat screen TV

A few specifically:

• This frame: IKEA Ribba Frame $19.99 For my BILD poster I'd like to hang above my living room fireplace.

• Bedroom art - I've been eyeing Van Gogh's Almond Branches poster on Amazon as possible bedroom art, should I actually not get around to painting my own art. 

What I Would Do With a Snow Day

This is taken driving west towards Montreal. The sun set behind this storm, which I drove into shortly after.

Winter driving never used to cause me to tense up and become stressed. Perhaps, this was because it was a practical requirement for growing up in the snow belt. You installed winter tires, under-coated your car and stashed bags of salt and extra boots in your trunk, and you were set until April.

More likely than not, some of that stress was relieved knowing that a winter storm often led to a snow day. Many a morning, I've laid under the warm covers at 6 am, waiting, hoping and praying for bus cancellations or school closures. I could comfortably predict, those mornings I couldn't see the barn from my farm house bedroom, I could stay in bed.

What I wouldn't give for snow days again! Not only do I live in the sub-tropic region of this province, but even the worst winter storms don't keep away the expectation of putting in a full day. Snow days 'bought' time. Everything was put on hold for a day (or days). Deadlines extended. Exams postponed. You were always guaranteed a week a season. Some winters, less, and when it was really a tough winter, more. One year, we stayed home for half of February.

A week stuck at home. No consequences and no recourse. No vacation time used and no paycheque withheld. I'd take it. I'd finally finish the 'odd jobs'. I'd build my table and finish my office in one, foul sweep. I'd put away the 'piles' in every room, finally scrapbook wedding photos and wash my curtains. I could get a lot done. Then I'd make cookies.. chocolate chip cookies. What would you do with your snow day?

It's Been One Week Since You Looked at Me..

Yep, the BNL's ballad is pounding the guilt just a little deeper as I type. I have not been completely missing in action; I spent the better part of one evening last week catching up on my 'homey' blogs, having an email convo with bf if I was capable of building my own furniture (I'm thinking table, he's got deck on the brain), and planning the colour scheme for my office (grey is winning).

I have managed to get over the new car angst yet again, however the guy has called me several times. It seems he REALLLY wants to get rid of this car (see below - I Want This Car!), so anyone in the GTA looking for an almost new Civic might want to check out Lease Busters for this one! I have also managed to get in another 3 flights, check out wallpaper at Lowes, take my Brownies on a supermarket tour, and interview a family for an article I'm writing. Did I mention waking up in the middle of the night to a lightbulb above my head for an "I got it"-type moment every couple of hours? You might say I'm a little busy and work has me a little stressed.

Y'all will remember IKEA's "Any Space Can Be Beautiful" contest they held back in the fall to celebrate the launch of the 2010 catalogue. They've revealed the Grand Prize winner, Tess and her Cowtown space makeover today at anyspacecanbebeautiful.ca. You can also check out the 'Before' and 'After' here.

What do you think? When I entered and voted for myself religiously for 2 weeks, there were some pretty scary-looking entries in dire need of some style help and cashola. If I remember the rules correctly, every vote landed you an entry in the draw, so it didn't guarantee the most votes got the prize. Regardless, I couldn't help but noitce how closely Tess' room makeover reaction parallelled that of the friendly space-trading neighbour that secretly detests their fencemate's decor choices. It certainly would not have satisfied my expectation of how to spend $15,000. Besides, where's the joy in winning $15,000 if someone else is spending it for you?! Was that clear in the rules??!

Student Debt Banishment Feels One Step Closer

As if to reinforce I can not afford a car, I paid off my final credit card this weekend. I am consumer debt FREE!!!! I am also a little excited, if you can not tell.

Having rid myself of the debt on two maxxed out credit cards, I feel like I am in control again and it feel amazing! I feel like I can attack my student debt head on, and I am inspired by all the bloggers out there who have paid theirs off in a year! !!!!! A year!! I am not so ambitious. Mostly because there are other things that are more important to me than getting rid of this debt, especially when the interest on it is so low. Home renovations (hello HRTC deadline fast approaching), maintaining my car (I am now saving for a $1500 timing belt) and building my 'rainy day fund'.

In September, when I started tracking my net worth, these were my goals:

Short Term (< 1 year)
- Pay off credit card debt (DONE!)
- Buy a new car. Save $2000 for a car down payment. I have a car worth ~ $4K, but it's in my father's name, so it is not recognized here as part of my personal wealth.
- Accumulate $2500 in savings

Mid-Term (Within 5 years)
- Pay off student debt
 
You can't tell from my Net Worth IQ graph (down on the right side of the page), because it's a straight line, but by paying off my credit cards and slowly decreasing my student loan, my net worth has gone up $6000. This is not much, and I've still a long way to go, but it is enough accomplishment for me to want to drive forward. I do think I should rewrite my car goal, however. Buying a car is easily accomplished. Saving to buy a car affordably is another thing altogether.