Winter Blues

I love blue.  It is my favourite colour.  I was really drawn to blue in this capsule wardrobe.  I have tried a "Canadian Tuxedo" along with a couple of my favourite blue sweaters.  

Happy Wednesday, friends!

Small Shop Feature- Lions and Lambs

My capsule wardrobe has 3 items from the Lions and Lambs shop.  I have been extremely pleased with the quality and style of items from this shop.  Charlotte creates women's clothing, children's clothing, blankets and so much more.  You can find her shop on Facebook.

Off the Shoulder Top

This top feels like butter.  It is so soft.  I love the style and fit.  I wore this to my daughter's first birthday party and my brother-in-law's 30th birthday party.  It is comfortable and beautiful, the best of both worlds!

Nursing Sweater

I seriously wear this top 2-3 times a week.  It is warm, comfortable and perfect for discreet nursing.  It is also cute to boot!  My daughter has a matching grow-with-me romper that is just too adorable.

Cardigan Sweater

This was supposed to be my Valentine's Day outfit, but it was super cold so I went for pants instead!  This cardigan is beautiful with it's feminine floral edging and is also cozy. (Are you sensing a pattern?  Ha ha!  Cozy is important in Canada!)  This cardigan is the perfect length for leggings because it covers your tush perfectly!

I love the Lions and Lambs shop and I hope you will check it out!   Happy Wednesday!

*** I was not compensated for this post.  I truly love this shop and wanted to tell you all about my friend's awesome clothes.***

My Messy Little Secret- Clutter Cleanout

This weekend, I tackled my messy little secret.  My desk.  In the busyness of every day life, I let my desk became quite the dumping ground.  I threw papers in, with the intention of dealing with them later.  If we had company, I would shove my messes out of sight in my tiny secretary desk.  Needless to say, something had to change.  In addition to the terribly messy desk, my 'command center' in the kitchen had also become out of control.

I think that we have to be honest with ourselves when something isn't working.  My command center was messy and was causing me stress, rather than relieving it.  I had a few hours to myself so I decided to make a change.

I took everything out of my desk.  I have a drawer in this desk that I use, as well.  I threw away any garbage, recycled a lot of paper and moved a few items back to their place elsewhere in our home.

I didn't take any pictures of my command center, but I removed all of the papers from my command center and went through them.  I then moved everything into my desk. My command center binder is in my drawer, along with my budgeting binder and notebook.

This project really brought me a lot of calm.  It is one of those things that I wish I would have done a long time ago.  I now have a functioning desk and command center.  I think that this project will go a long way in making my every day life better,

Frugal Friday- Planning for Your Financial Goals

Every year my husband and I sit down and make financial goals.  We make financial goals for the year that we are in, we set goals for 5 years down the road and 10 years in the future.  Our goal setting helps us to be on the page when it comes to our finances.  Communication is key when you share your finances with your partner.  Today I am going to tell you how my husband and I go about setting our goals.

1.)  Decide on your priorities.  The first step to setting goals is to determine which goals are your priorities.  Is it to get out of debt?  Increase your savings?  Start an emergency fund?  Our first priority is always to do something responsible with our money so that we can increase our net worth.  Last year we decided to increase our savings and become consumer debt free.  We paid off our vehicle early and built our savings account.  I can't tell you the difference it has made for us to not have a vehicle payment.  Our mortgage is now our only payment.  That is incredibly freeing.  This year we want to increase our emergency savings from 3 months expenses to 6 months expenses.

After we decide on our financial priority we figure out how to reach our goal.  We then incorporate our goal into our budget so that it becomes a 'must do' with every paycheck. 

2.)  Decide on secondary goals.  When I say secondary goals, I mean goals that will take a backseat to your main goal.  My husband and I would like to install central air in our home this year.    We are really hoping to be able to reach our goal this year, but it will only happen if our main goal stays on track.  Once again, we go through our finances so that we can determine what we need to do in order to reach our goal.

3.)  Plan for the future.  We have some big goals for the future.  The beauty of setting goals for the future is that you are free to dream big and can adjust accordingly.  We would like to take a family trip to Maui in 2021, remodel our kitchen in the next ten years, and take our children to Disney World in the next 10 years.  We dream big and then decide what it would take for us to reach those goals.  I got a quote from a local travel agent for the cost of a Maui trip.  We also got ballpark figures for our kitchen renovation.  Numbers make it much easier to decide what is plausible.

Our yearly (and then monthly) chats help my husband and I decide how to use our finances and work towards common goals.

How do you set your financial goals?  What helps you to stay on track?  I would love to hear all about it!