It is happening as the bears forecast

The Canadian banks are now on credit watch from Moody's due to the housing bubble...

'The rating agency is now reviewing the banks because they “face challenges not fully captured in their current ratings,” including concerns about consumer debt levels, housing prices, macro-economic risks and the weight of their capital markets divisions within their business mix."

In layman's terms..the banks have leant too much to people well over their heads in debt, especially in the bubbly housing sector, and too much of the rest of their income comes from professional gambling departments ('Capital markets divisions')

The only one missing from the list was Royal Bank, as it has already been down-graded!

Facebook Updates

Hey Guys! Just a quick note. If you want to stay up to date on what I'm posting on Facebook, here are a few simple steps to keep "in the know."

1. Click on the Fussy Monkey Business Page

2. Click on the gear symbol next to the "Liked" button

3. Click on "Add to Interest Lists"

(see picture below)

That way you never miss a post:o) 

Stay tuned for a tutorial on how to can applesauce...you won't believe how awesome my house smells right now!!! And how easy it is to do!!

Sorry for the lack of posts

BUT in case you have a few minutes and don't mind taking some gravol to prevent nausea, here is the bloated face of greed claiming he is not a convicted criminal, is proud to have been in jail, and threatens to beat up the interviewer.

But later he says Ok even if he is a convicted criminal he thinks he should be a Lord and make laws.

He used to love everything US and was down on Canada, now he says the US is corrupt. Poor fellow, you almost feel sorry for him his arrogance reaches delusional proportions.

To use a Britishism...What a complete and utter wanker he is...

Sorry to do this to you

Getting Crafty-A Fall Party

Fall is here, and I love it! Whenever there is a new season, I feel the need to have a party. 

I invited a few of my girlfriends over, and we had a fall crafting party. Since it was in the afternoon, I kept the menu simple, and just made desserts.

We had S'more Cups, Pumpkin Maple Trifle, Caramel Corn, and strawberries. I also made some delicious apple cider that made my house smell wonderful.

 For our craft, we made owls. I found the inspiration at The Diary of Daves Wife. 

I got all of my supplies from Hobby Lobby.

 Here is a candid shot of the girls hard at work...punching, mod podging, and painting away.

 And another shot of them hot-gluing the ribbon on the backs of the owls.

 Their owls turned out really cute, and they were all proud of what they came up with. I love it when they leave with smiles on their faces;o)

Here is a shot of mine.

 They were so easy to make, and it was so fun to sit and gab while crafting the afternoon away.

When everyone left, they got to take home a jar of homemade apple butter.

I can't wait to have another crafting party. It's good for the crafting soul;o)

I'll be sharing some more sewing projects throughout the week. I can't seem to stay away from my sewing machine for very long...I'm lovin' it!!

Patina Monogram Tutorial-Sisterbug Monograms Product

My friend Kera, from Sisterbug Monograms asked me a few weeks ago if I would be willing to get creative with some wooden monograms. I always jump at the chance to get my craft on, so of course I said YES!

So then, I had to come up with the perfect finish....what's a girl to do? 

A couple of years ago, before Pinterest(WHAT? There was a time before Pinterest?), I ran across this really awesome tutorial at Brassy Apple on how to do an aged paint technique.

I knew that this would be the perfect paint treatment for my gi-normous "Dub-Yuh."  

Today, I am showing you the step-by-step process that I went through. 

The monograms come in a natural finish..or to us country folk, "not done up".;o)

 So because they are un-finished, you need supplies to make it even more awesome.

For your supply list, you will need:

-Acrylic paints, I used 4 in all

-Sponge Paint Brushes

-Dove Bar Soap

-Sand Paper

-Blow Dryer(to make the paint dry quicker) &

-Paper Towels

The four colors I chose were Metallic Red, Turquoise, Mustard Yellow, and Brown.

I chose the metallic red as my base coat. 

After painting the entire letter, sides and all, I used my blow dryer to speed the drying process. A great trick for those of us who are extremely impatient...of course, I have never heard of anyone who actually enjoyed watching paint dry:o)

Once the paint was dry, I rubbed the bar soap in random places. These are the spots where the red will shine through.

The next step is to paint with your second color. I chose turquoise. 

I used the blow dryer once again to dry the paint.

And then I sanded the areas where the soap was applied. You can see where the soap is, even though it's been painted over. If by chance you can't, you can just run the sand paper over the entire letter, and the paint will pull up really easy where the soap is.

Now, I thought about leaving things as is. It looked fine with just the red and turquoise, and some of you are probably saying, "Girl, you should have left well enough alone." But, I decided to add in my third color, mustard.

 I rubbed more soap on the turquoise areas, and then painted the mustard yellow around all of the red.

 Here is a closer view of what I am talking about. It doesn't look all that fantastic, which is perfectly fine, since this is supposed to be an aged painting technique:o)

 After the yellow dried, I sanded once again. 

The colors were still a little too stark for me, so I decided to continue the aging process.

 That's where the brown came in. I simply dabbed a paper towel into some brown paint rubbed it on, and then immediately rubbed it off.

 In this picture, you can see that the left side has been "dirtied up" a bit, and the right side has not.

 And here is the final product. An aged "W" or dub-yuh, as they say down here in the south.

 To give you a little perspective on how enormous this thing is, here is a picture of our front porch.

I also had one made with my Fussy Monkey Business logo. 

I used a stencil on this one.

I dirtied it up a bit too, but it's hard to tell in this picture.

 I didn't get a picture of Kera's finished monogram, but here she is hard at work on hers...she's probably going to kill me because she didn't know I was snapping pictures of her as well:o)

So swing on over to Sisterbug Monograms, and place your order for a fantastic wooden monogram. They range in size from 8 inches all the way up to 36 inches. It's never too early to start Christmas shopping!!

A big thank you to Kera for giving me a chance to get creative, and thanks to Brassy Apple for the inspiration and  fantastic tutorial!!

Fraser Valley Sept stats

Similar to Vancouver, sales have evaporated - down 20% MOM and 26% YOY.

Over-all Average price down YOY

Detached median down, but average and benchmark are still up YOY.

MOI has moved up briskly to 12

The news release blames the Federal Government's changes.

Reversal Trend Stocks

In stock investment, you should learn how to see the mega trend.  When it is generally a bull trend, you simply buy some blue chips and it shall earn you some good money.  When bear comes, you took your profit.  As long as you don't stay too close to the market, this can rather easily be achieved.  Just walk around a wet market and ask 10 stalls how the market is.  You will be surprised how closely their non-professional opinions are related to the real market performance.

Then you must realize NOT ALL stocks are the same.  Even during an obvious bull run, there are some stocks going down.  Like wise during bear runs.  Some stocks will still go up.  Finding out these 'Reversal Stocks' is important for a full time traders.

The reason goes like this:  there is a fix amount of money floating in the market.  The mega fund managers simply CAN NOT withdraw TOTALLY from the market even if it is GUARANTEED a bear market.  They are required by law to keep investing ie. 70% of their fund.  So during bear market, they will focus on a few stocks to minimize loses.  As a result, during bear market, a few stocks will always be on a up trend.  And not surprisingly, those are the stocks didn't join the previous bull run.

As long as you have done your fundamental analysis, knowing mega trend stocks and reversal stocks allows you to invest both during good and bad time.

In Case You Missed it...

The REBGV News release

SFH HPI down 0.5% YOY Down almost 1% MOM
Apartment HPI down 0.7% YOY
Attached HPi down 2.7% YOY

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

VANCOUVER, BC - The summer of 2012 drew to a close in September with home sale activity well below historical averages in the Greater Vancouver housing market.

        

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that residential property sales of detached, attached and apartment properties reached 1,516 in September, a 32.5 per cent decline compared to the 2,246 sales in September 2011 and an 8.1 per cent decline compared to the 1,649 sales in August 2012.

September sales were 41.6 per cent below the 10-year September sales average of 2,597.

“There’s been a clear reduction in buyer demand in the three months since the federal government eliminated the availability of a 30-year amortization on government-insured mortgages,” Eugen Klein, REBGV president said. “This makes homes less affordable for the people of the region.”

New listings for detached, attached and apartment properties in Greater Vancouver totalled 5,321 in September. This represents a 6.3 per cent decline compared to September 2011 when 5,680 properties were listed for sale on the MLS® and a 31.6 per cent increase compared to the 4,044 new listings in August 2012.

At 18,350, the total number of residential property listings on the MLS® increased 14.1 per cent from this time last year and increased 4.5 per cent compared to August 2012.

“Today, our sales-to-active-listings ratio sits at 8 per cent, which puts us in a buyer’s market. This ratio has been declining in our market since March when it was 19 per cent,” Klein said.

The MLS HPI® composite benchmark price for all residential properties in Greater Vancouver is $606,100. This represents a decline of 0.8 per cent compared to this time last year and a decline of 2.3 per cent over last three months.

“Prices in the region remain relatively stable overall, although we do see some reductions in the areas that have had some of the largest price increases over the last year or two,” Klein said.

Sales of detached properties on the MLS® in September 2012 reached 594, a decrease of 37.9 per cent from the 957 detached sales recorded in September 2011, and a 31.4 per cent decrease from the 866 units sold in September 2010. The benchmark price for detached properties decreased 0.5 per cent from September 2011 to $935,600.

Sales of apartment properties reached 676 in September 2012, a 26.7 per cent decrease compared to the 922 sales in September 2011, and a decrease of 30.4 per cent compared to the 971 sales in September 2010. The benchmark price of an apartment property decreased 0.7 per cent from September 2011 to $368,600.

Attached property sales in September 2012 totalled 246, a 33 per cent decrease compared to the 367 sales in September 2011, and a 35.8 per cent decrease from the 383 attached properties sold in September 2010. The benchmark price of an attached unit decreased 2.7 per cent between September 2011 and 2012 to $458,600.

.......................................

So now that it looks like it is really happening is anyone else getting a teeny bit anxious about it all? Why? for two reasons. The first is that we were here before and the Government shenanigans brought an abrupt end to the correction and re-inflated the bubble. The second is that this correction is starting from even higher levels which means the affect on our economy, Tax receipts, employment, growth etc may be even more significant.

They say....be careful what you wish for in case it comes true!

Larry's numbers are out

Kudos to him once again.

The Average slipped from last month's bounce up. 

But as he also alludes to in his commentary, with sales down 30% from last Sept and inventory being up double digits from last year, things may look better than they really are due to the big sales.

The HPI may tell the story this time, despite all the concerns expressed in many venues regarding it's veracity.

Fall Art-Finger Paint Tutorial

A few days ago, I helped out in E's kindergarten class. Once a month they have "Funtastic Friday." It's hands on learning, and it is lots of fun.

I helped them make really adorable shirts that they will wear on the field trip to the pumpkin farm at the end of the month. 

I loved the shirt so much, I decided that I wanted the kids to do it on canvas and use it as part of my Fall decor.

These little paintings were easy to make, and the kids loved getting their hands dirty.

 Here's your supply list:

Paints- Brown, Green, Orange, Red and Yellow

2 Sponge Brushes

Paper Towels or baby wipes

Canvas

Paper plates to squirt paints in

Willing participants;o)

 Just a dab of each of the paints will do...this was actually too much paint for the both of them.

 You'll first want to paint the entire hand, and just below the wrist with brown paint. The kids get a kick out of this because they say it tickles:o)

 Once all of the hand has been painted, flip it over with fingers spread apart and press firmly on the canvas.

 You can see how much of her hand I painted in this picture.

 Next, let them dip their little finger tips into the paint, and start making leaves..(here's my little photographer..didn't he take great action shots?:o)) 

 The red dots are supposed to be apples...When they get all of their leaves painted, then it's time for the pumpkins at the bottom of the canvas.

 You will use your second sponge brush and paint this part of their fists orange.

 Make sure they keep their little thumbs out of the way

 Turn the canvas upside down and press their fist firmly against the canvas, just to one side of the tree trunk. Repeat on the other side. 

This is what they should look like when you're done.

I then added the finishing touches. I outlined the pumpkins with brown, gave them green curly-q's, and added stems to the pumpkins and the apples. 

Easy and fun Fall art for everyone to enjoy.