My husband has put me on a diet!

That sounds much worse than it really is. He didn't tell me I'm overweight or anything like that. Nope, he went to see a financial advisor last Friday and for the month of March we have to write down every penny we spend. Apparently, we're "bleeding money" - in other words, we spend here and there and it all adds up. Well, no kidding!

When we first got married (over 17 years ago!), Mr. P was the spendthrift. Money slipped through his fingers and out of his pockets like you wouldn't believe. I, on the other hand, had pangs of guilt when I bought towels, for goodness sake! Over the years, I've become a little freer in my spending and he has become a little wiser. We've met in the middle, I guess. But it seems that we still waste far too much on unnecessary luxuries so we're going on a spending diet for at least a month and will write down everything we spend and see where our money is going. All I can say is it's a good thing I ordered all these goodies from Lara's Etsy shop before we decided to do this! (They arrived yesterday and are more beautiful than the pictures show.)

Speaking of diets... my family is in shock. They cannot believe I actually cooked a healthy supper TWO nights in a row! Good suppers, too. Last night was chicken, potatoes (Mr. P made those) and veggies. Tonight: pork chops with apple chutney (made by me last fall), brown rice with almonds and nutmeg, and veggies. I love it when the food I made turns out good. Mr. P had seconds - even of the rice. He usually complains when I make brown rice, preferring white Minute Rice to the "stuff that takes forever to cook". I figured that if the pork chops needed to cook for 45 minutes, I could just put the rice on at the same time. Wow, the logic! I really don't enjoy cooking very much but there's nothing like a delicious meal made at home. Right now I have banana bread in the oven. 35 minutes to go. I'll take a picture and post when it's done so you can drool over it.

And now a project update. I finished my scarf from the pattern posted by golden bird. Here's a goofy picture of me wearing it. Yes, I took the photo in the bathroom using the mirror, just like a giddy teenager. Please ignore the strained smile, the orange sweatshirt I am wearing (I have work clothes and home clothes. I am home right now.) and the strings hanging (I haven't woven them in yet).

I plan to do something special with this scarf, inspired by heylucy. I love what she did to her scarf so I'm thinking of something similar. I just need to find some vintage lace - the buttons I have in abundance!

And I sewed some scrappy borders onto my skier test block. That's as far as I got with that. Monday night was open house at school, last night was a "gym night" (not to mention I cooked supper - I'd forgotten how time-consuming it is to eat properly), and tonight... well, I'm spending some time with my invisible friends from blogland.

So, here's the banana bread. I think "bread" is a misnomer. This is loaded with sugar and fat. I usually make 2 loaves - one for home and one for work. Look at all those chocolate chips. You know I won't be eating any of this - it's on the forbidden C list. That's okay. I prefer my bananas yellow with a touch of green, not mushy.

Ciao. (I'm practicing my Italian for the trip)

☺