Froggy Outfit

Sorry that I have been absent from the blogging world for the past few days. That sinus infection really kicked my tale. While I have been away from you lovelies, I have been working on a few projects. I can't wait to share them with you this week. Tomorrow's post is super awesome, thanks to the hubs. He's my hero:o) So anyway, here is a new outfit I made for S.R. While on all the meds for my sinus infection, I had a weird reaction and couldn't sleep...at all. So, at midnight Wed. night, I cut out the pattern and fabric for this outfit. I eventually got to sleep at 4 a.m. the next morning:o) I needed an outfit to match the froggy hairbow that a friend had given to S.R. Don't you just love the froggy buttons??

Staying true to my vow of not purchasing anything for crafts unless absolutely necessary, I used fabric I had on hand from when I made this bag. I had just enough to do the top part of the shirt...I mean barely enough:o)

I love the skirted bottom of this shirt. It is so sweet:o)

I absolutely love making shorts. They are the easiest thing to make....EVUH!

S.R. modeling her new outfit while brushing her pearly whites.

View of the back side.

I had planned on embroidering her name on the front, but for some reason my machine was acting a little cra-zay. I think I am going to take it somewhere and have "Ribbit" embroidered across the chest in the curly font, so when S.R. grows out of it, I can sell it.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post. I am revealing the bench makeover from this post. It's G-R-R-R-REAT!

De-leveraging ourselves....part 1 of 4 or maybe 5

The above chart is in response to a certain reader who said:

Fish do you really think a 0.5% rate environment really changes how much debt people are going to take on?

I don't think so it is a fact, and there is lots of data out there to back it up.

The above chart is one of these, which is particularly useful because it compares us to the USA and UK.

All the Central Banks started cutting rates aggressively in the last three years, the Fed went first, then the Bank of England and then in 2008, early 2009 the Bank of Canada slashed rates in a complete panic. What do you see?

The UK and USA which were in deep doo-doo, and even with lower rates their consumers pulled their horns in. Despite the Central Bankers begging them to borrow and spend, they could see the terrible state of the economy and started getting their debt house in order. Borrowing dropped as a % of household income.

Meanwhile what happened in Canada??

We were in pretty good shape. But our consumers could see the carnage that was going on in the US and UK, and so they were just starting to follow the consumers in those countries in trimming debt.

BANG! The Bank of Canada starts cutting and they start piling on more debt, at the fastest rate ever in fact.

So what is the net result of the Bank of Canada's rate cuts. Well one result is that the Canadian consumer which started off with a much lower debt/income ratio than the UK and US, has caught up- just in time for...

1) A housing slow-down

2) Higher rates

3) A double dip recession

If any of the above three happen, we will be in same mess as the US.

Thanks Mark!

Time to clear up the confusion...

Changes in price from April to May (rounded up):

REBGV Benchmark Price:

All Properties : - 0.6%

Detached : - 1%

Townhouse : - 0.5%

Apartment : + 0.3%

Average Prices:

Detached : - 4.6%

Attached : - 2.0%

Apartments : + 3.8%

Here she is in all her Glory...

The GVREB May 2010 report. Lets hear it for the sexiest report in the last year!

April Detached Benchmark: $818,403
May Detached Benchmark: $810,175

Benchmark all Properties April: $593,419

Benchmark all Properties May: $590,662

Benchmark Attached April: $502,399.

Benchmark Attached May : $500,339

Benchmark Apartment April : $397,77

Benchmark Apartment May : $398,783

10% decline in sales from last month and last year.

48% more new listings in May, than a year ago.

Total listings up 10% from last month and 28% higher than last year.

Ok, so it's not time to whip off your clothes and have a thong part on your balcony, but it is a danged good start.

Detached Average price is down the $40K that Larry said (kudos again)

Now we also know why it took them so long to bring out the report. Those rascals in the FVREB had already taken the word abundance. So the committee had to come up with another word to indicate exploding inventory and declining sales. da..da...

May market offers buyers greater selection

Here is the whole report. Note there are some (-) signs appearing in the 3 year column (Chad). That would mean the benchmark is already down from 3 years ago eg Squamish detached and Maple Ridge apartment.

It's small yet, but from small acorns, mighty oaks do grow:

REBGV REPORT

While we wait for the REBGV stats

Here is some info from the REB of Victoria for May:

A total of 695 homes and other properties sold in May through the Victoria Real Estate Board’s Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®), down from the 756 sales in April. There were 879 sales in May of last year

As of the end of May, there were 4,521 properties available for sale - up from 4,229 at the end of April. The available inventory is now 19 per cent higher than the 3,789 properties for sale at the end of May a year ago.

I think that makes it 6.5 months of inventory (VREA check my math please)

Victoria Price Graphs

Some Fraser Valley Numbers...

Good analysis:
here

Report:

here

Here's my take. I love the up-beat title:

'FRASER VALLEY BUYERS ENJOY ABUNDANT SELECTION'

May that abundance continue in abundance.

Compared with one year ago:

2% less sales than May 2009 and 14% more listings.

Prices up 8-10% though from last May.

Less sales, more inventory and yet higher prices. I am thinking 5th wave divergence.

Compared with April 2010:

17.6% less sales over-all

7.3% higher listings

Benchmark price down 1% from April.

Median and Average prices flat for Detached and Townhouse from April 2010 ie 0, or +1 or -1%
Apartments are up 4%! Despite double digit less sales and 7.8% more listings!

A little bit of this and a little bit of that

This posting is a little bit scatter-brained, so bare with me. I have a sinus infection and I am on meds that make me slightly loopy...yes, Sudafed makes me  kinda crazy;o) Hoping to head to the doc today. Anywho, I have finally come to the realization that I have a serious problem. I buy projects and tuck them neatly away in my craft closet room, and then forget about them. Well, I don't really forget about them, I just think to myself, "oh that's gonna be great when I finish that." And that's usually about as far as it gets...for a very long...long...time:o) Well I have made a Summer Resolution, at least for the month of June.  

I am not going to buy any more projects for the month of June. I will only purchase something if I need it to finish a current project.

There, I've said it, and it's in green, so that makes it permanent, doesn't it??? I have soooooo many things on my list that need to get done like:

• Finish the bench that I bought at a yard sale 2 months ago
• Redo a vanity chair for S.R.'s room
• Paint the living room(pics of the paint swatch below)
• Finish memory game for E
• Make a recipe binder for internet recipes

That's just to name a FEW. My list is about as long as I am tall;o) Which is 5'6, by the way:o) So on to the project I completed yesterday...

I have had this coal bucket for over a year and have never really figured out what to do with it. I decided that I wanted some sort of arrangement in it, but I didn't know what. Yesterday while at Hobby Lobby I decided that I was going to do something about that empty bucket. Most of the floral dept. was 50% off so I got the twig balls and one sprig of the green stuff because I already had 2. I started playing around with it and came up with this:

Now I know that this makes you wanna run straight to Hobby Lobby b/c this is soooo beautiful and you want to replicate this piece(can't you just feel the sarcasm dripping from those words???). But it's serving it's purpose.

It's covering the telephone wires. Now some day I will actually come up with a better solution, but for now, it'll do.

Look at my little lady...you know she's gotta be tired holdin' that jug like she is...bless her little pea pickin' heart. And look...someone added to her load...

Yep, that's a baseball. I guess it was bothering the babies that her jug was empty:o)

Check out my paint swatch:

Comfort Gray. I am relaxed just looking at the swatch. I can't wait to start feeling better because I WILL be painting as soon as this post nasal drip stops dripping. Have a grand ole day my dears:o)