Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Bathroom Renos

Out with the old - a temporary home in the raspberries.

I love my handiman!
The toilet found a new temporary home in the tub!


Putting in the flooring.

Yay!

And with the new vanity / sink...

and fixtures!
 Now all we have to do is pick out new towel racks & toilet paper holder & put those up.  We also want to pick out a new shower curtain (and maybe get one of those curved rods?) and new towels.  Haven't decided on a color yet, but we could use new ones, and we planned to get some to go with the 'new' bathroom.


Friday, September 23, 2011

Last Minute Birthday Gift

You know how some people always have great gift ideas?  Yeah, that's not me.  I've had my moments of brilliance (like the year I made dress up clothes for every party she went to), but coming up with something for a party is more often painful.

Madeline is going to a birthday party tomorrow.  Tonight I asked her if she had any idea for a gift, since right after supper she was going to youth group, then to sleep over & spend the day at Grandpa's while I am at the ladies thing at church, which of course ends in just enough time for me to pick her up to go to the party, leaving no time for shopping...  And of course neither of us thought of it before the last minute...  But she had a good idea just off the top of her head, so that saved the day.

"What about a origami $10?" she said.  Nice.  I can do that.  $10 has always been our limit for what we spend on gifts - cheap, but if you get creative, you can still come up with something.  Last year we were going to give money as a gift (less personal, and zero creative, but practical - I love getting money!) and I had a brilliant moment when I decided that I could origami it into something so it was still a cool gift, even though it was just cash.

And I, with no cash ever in my wallet, just happens to have a $10 bill today.

So here is my masterpiece:


I think folded this way it looks like a bad Hawaiian shirt.  I'll have to try 'face in' for the next one.  If you'd like to give it a try, this is where I found the tutorial.

And since we needed a card to give the gift in, and I don't know if she'll find stuff to make one at Grandpa's tomorrow, I raided my stash for a few that she can pick from.  These were in my 'copy before I give them away' pile, so I did the smart thing and took photos.  Now I can actually use them, and still make more, and I can share them with you, too.  The cards are plain ol' white cardstock - I bought a ream of the stuff - and the patterned papers were in a pack of Japanese papers I got for Christmas last year.




Do you have any good standbys when it comes to birthday parties?  I'd love for you to share them with the rest of us.

happy little cards




I've had my eye on these little beauties for a while.  They're from a company called Moo, and you can order a pack of 100 with 100 different images on them.  I wanted to do something a little more professional for my magic bags than the homemade tags I've printed off till now, and so I finally ordered some.  I got them made with the pack of digital scrapbooking paper I got for another project, from Tracy Ann Digital Art.  there are 10 colors, so it came with 10 of each.  I've been handing some out, but I have to remember to keep enough for attaching to the bags!!

Sunday, September 18, 2011

This and That

Highlights from the week:

* Book club was here on Thursday.  It was fun to have all the girls together again and make our picks for the next year.  Chocolate Zucchini Cake dominated the snack table.  Baby Anna made her first book club appearance, which was a nice treat.  M got to be down here with us for a while, too, which she loved.

* Going to Briercrest for the alumni basketball weekend.  I went out Friday night and got to see a few of the girls I played with - I didn't play myself, but kept them company on the bench and we had a good visit staying up late in the hotel after.  When I was pregnant with M, I played the whole time - think the season ended when I was 4 or 5 months.  I figured since I am 5 months now and have not been playing the whole time, it would be smart to sit it out.  I took a drive around town and a walk through all the buildings, checking out all my old routine places - boy, lots of memories.  Lots of people came to mind...  I remember so many of you and all the good times we had.

* Played in a golf tournament yesterday - I'm not sure this was a highlight, really, since I had lots of terrible shots, but the people part was good!  Sean won the longest drive - 350 yards!

* Went to check out the new Lowe's store & came home with a new vanity / sink for our bathroom reno.  Looking forward to redoing that room.

* I won Rider tickets - thanks Conexus Credit Union!  There was a link to enter on the site where I do my online banking, and I won.  Sweet.  They are for the game this Saturday, and I'll be at the Women's Day at church, so Sean and his dad are going to go.  It's Sean's birthday next week, so this can be an extra treat for his bday week.

* I started chopping down my Caragana bushes today - it was nice to spend the time outside, but also so nice to tackle that job.  We've lived here 11 years and I've never done a thing to them (oh, my poor gardening skills...)  They're still leafy up top, but bare and scraggly looking where we have to walk by everyday.  I looked into pruning info this summer, and found that this is the time to do it, so I cut a bunch today and tried not to fill too many dumpsters out back - next week I'll finish them up.

* Mmm - Just pulled some cookies out of the oven.  Gigantic chocolate chip ones.  A treat for our lunches this week.  I made amazingly rich peanut butter brownies for book club, too - so good.  I will keep the recipe for this one, but will wait a good long time before I make them again.  A little too good.  Speaking of yum, we went out to Dessart tonight for ice cream.  :)  On the not sweet side, I'm trying a new crock pot beef stew recipe tomorrow.  I have never found a great one, but I've decided this fall I will hunt till I get one that works for me.

* I spent some time this afternoon down in my studio going through stuff - another bunch of went out to the donate pile.  I am going to have to put some serious thought into what I am doing with all my stuff.  I don't have a crazy amount of scrapbooking or sewing stuff, but it's all in its proper place now, and I am going to have to figure out a new place for it all.  My desk and one bookshelf would fit in the new space, but we may leave that bookcase for M - I think we'll have to start moving it all to see how much storage she needs and what I will need to get for my new spot.

What were some highlights of your week?  What did you make?  Bake?  Who did you see?

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Little Baby on the Way Book

I took a free inspiration class over at Big Picture Classes called Words to Live By - the purpose was to get creativity flowing by doing a 6x6 page on a different word each day, led by each of their teachers.  I did 10 of the 12 pages, and focused on this little one that's coming.  It was fun to play around, and will be nice to have a little something to remember this time by.










Sunday, September 11, 2011

A Weekend in Winnipeg









We had a great time last weekend with the whole family.  This is the first time most of them have seen me with my baby belly - it was fun to show that off. 

Other than just seeing everyone, some highlights of the weekend were golfing with Sean, Dad & Dave, playing train dominoes till late into the night, and playing with little Zach.

I probably should address the football issue.  You'll notice a lot of Bomber gear in these shots (including Si's blue & yellow braces!) - the Labour Day Classic is an annual game between our two city's football teams.  They were 7-1 going into the game and Saskatchewan had a terrible season start and was at 1-7.  Lots of swaggering going into it from the Winnipeg side, I understand, although I generally abstain from all things having to do with the rivalry between the two teams.  So there we were, Sean watching the game with all the Bomber fan relatives - and the Riders win.  That game, played in Regina, is always followed by the same teams playing in Winnipeg the next weekend.  Apparently the Riders won again today... (sorry, guys!)  Good thing they're both going back to their own divisions to play after this.

Can't wait to go back!

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Update...

Ten days since I posted last - I realized that yesterday and wondered why, then realized it might have something to do with this time of year...

Let me fill you in on what life is like around here these days:

Madeline started grade 7 (Tues, August 30)
And piano lessons started the same day.
My bump is growing.

Bought my first maternity clothes today.

The neighbor has the new fence finally up!  Not finished yet, but it's progress.
We are going to perinatal classes once a week - some things are good to know, some of it feels like too much information... It is a fun date night, though!

We are on the hunt for a new piano.  Ours is terrible and needs replacing; we do have a free one offered to us that we have to decide about.

We go back to two services at church this week; between that and getting a community newsletter out, I've been putting in longer than average days.  Now that we've got this series up and running, it should go back to normal... Oh, except for the women's conference in two weeks.  :)  It's all good.

M got the teacher she wanted and all her friends are in her class, so she's a happy girl.  We have to decide on swimming lessons and / or indoor soccer and get her registered, then we're in full swing for the year.

We took a little trip to Winnipeg last weekend for the long weekend - that will be another post coming soon with lots of pictures...

Next on the agenda around the house is the bathroom.  We have to take out the toilet to put in the flooring, and the sink is cracked, so we have to replace either that or the whole vanity.  We are also looking to update the medicine cabinet / mirror situation.  There is a Lowe's store opening her right away, so we're in process of looking around at Rona & Home Depot to price out what they've got, then we'll check out the new store when it opens.  Then, let the renos begin!