Organizing Keepsakes...

 A few years ago I spotted these attractive suede boxes at London Drugs. 

 I loved the combination of the suede and leather look and the antique-looking handles.

  I thought these boxes were perfect for the upper shelves of our closet.

A place where I like to store special keepsakes because I know that they are dry, warm & safe.

 In these boxes are things like elementary school pictures of Ron and I, baptism candles, tiny baby clothes and such.

Problem was.....I didn't have these boxes labelled.

 Bad idea.

Everytime I needed to locate something....I had to peek through all the boxes.

I finally took a few hours and solved that little problem.

With a black sharpie pen, tags and some ribbon, I had all the boxes sorted and labelled, and back into the closet in 2 hours.

It feels so good to look at those tags and know what is in each box.

Notice the wall that is partially painted?

 That is another project that needs to be finished.

And guess what?

I recently learned from watching Cityline that when painting a room, it is best to leave the interior of closets neutral so when you paint a room, you don't have to go throught the hassle of emptying a closet to paint it.

Brilliant! I wish I had thought of that sooner!

Greek night at our house....

For some reason this morning, Hunter and I both got up with thoughts of Greek food.We decided to make tonight a "Greek" night at our house.It was a collaborative effort between her and I. Using a new recipe from "Fresh Flavours Fast", she made the greek chicken kabobs.Marinated in greek spices, fresh oregano and mint...they were yummy.She also made the lemon-scented rice.

I made the greek vegetable salad. Yup. I got off easy. Except, it seems now that whenever I cook with my mother or my daughter, I ended up being the 'sous chef'. Why is that?

My favorite part of the meal, however, was how she stood over her father while he barbequed

the kabobs to make sure that that he didn't burn them. Or turn them black.

Yes. He does that.

We also served soft pita bread and tatszki of course.

It was a delicious family meal.

Such a nice finish to the weekend.

There was even enough to package up for school lunches for Hunter.

Awesome.

Random Acts of Kindness......

When we were in Colorado, we happened to be leaving a mall when we drove by a homeless man with a sign asking for money.

Hunter's voice came from the backseat of the car, "Mommy, can we give some money to that man?".

I said, "Of course".

There was a time when homeless people used to scare her when we met them on the street. She was always afraid of these individuals because they looked and smelled different.

Our car happened to be stopped while we waited for traffic lights to change to green. We both dug into our purses to give money to this man. I came up with a twenty and Hunter came up with six dollars.

We handed it out the car window to the man, and he gave us a toothless grin and a thank you.

My heart felt both glad and sad at the same time.

This is a man who looked like he should be retired and puttering around his yard with gardening tools. Or off golfing.

Instead, life's circumstances have put him on a street begging for money.

A private discussion later ensued between Hunter and I about our act of giving. I told her I was proud of her for wanting to show compassion by giving this man some money. We agreed that this man looked so sad to us.

I explained to her that the spirit of giving comes from the heart.

The act of giving should not be screened or censored by  judgements, assumptions or hidden agendas.

We gave to this man because it felt right in our hearts. We didn't make judgements about his life and whether or not he deserved our generosity. Nor should we.

It was simply a random act of kindness.

Nothing more. Nothing less.

I came upon this great post  about 'Random Acts of Kindness'. This post readily embodies the spirit of giving.

I think I may adopt a 'Random Act of Kindness' as part of my next birthday celebration. I am going to  encourage the kids to adopt this tradition as well.  I hope they learn from me to always give before you take.

Colorado Springs...

Hunter and I just returned from a 4 day trip to Colorado Springs in Colorado.

It was a short trip, but very fun.

We went to Colorado to watch the ISU World Synchronized Skating Championships.

23 teams competed for the title of World Champions.

Teams came from Germany, Switzerland, Finland, Sweden, Croatia, Austria, Australia,

New Zealand,....just to name a few.

Canada had 2 teams competing in the Championships.

We had quite a large cheering section for the Canadian teams.

A group of about 25 attended from our synchro club here in Alberta.

Colorado is a gorgeous state.

Full of beautiful landscape.

It reminds us of the rockies here in Alberta.

In between the skating events, we took time to enjoy the local sites.

We visited a rock park called "The Garden of the Gods".

It's a park of rock formations that are thousands of years old.

Spectacular to see in real life.

The red clay-look of the rocks remind me of the Bay of Fundy mud we see in Nova Scotia.

The park had a walking trail of about a mile long where you can observe most of the rock formations.

The formation below is called "The Three Graces".

The weather was perfect for our walk through the park.

We even came upon a wedding.

We marveled at the beauty of these gigantic rocks.

Canada placed 4th and 5th in the Worlds.

Finland placed 1st and 2nd.

Team USA placed 3rd.

It was a really enjoyable 4 days of skating, eating out, hanging with friends,

seeing the local sights and shopping.

A  great girls trip!

a travel scrapbook...

A few years ago I attended a scrapbook convention.

This was one of the projects for a class.

A mini travel scrapbook.

I simply adore this little book.

I love the crispness of the white & black colour scheme.

 I intend to make a project like this.... a mini travel scrapbook in a black & white colour scheme.

This scrapbook was made by Danielle Johnson with her 'Art Warehouse' line, which is now more than a few years old and may be hard to find. But I love it just the same.

a note to self....

Can you please finish this pretty quilt that you started for your mother over 2 years ago? It is so close to being finished. It just needs a bit more quilting. Then the binding.

And then it is finished.

Maybe a few hours of work is left.

Please finish me soon!

my happy homemaking heart...

Here are some new things this week  that make my little homemaking heart go pitter patter. My wonderful husband picked this up for me from Costco a few days ago. Hunter and I had a little tug of war over it when it arrived home, but I let her have it since she's so cute & all. Besides, what mother doesn't want to encourage their offspring to cook for the family?

I also bought a bottle of this. Why love it? Well, you might not be able to tell from the picture, but this is not large jug. It's a jug the size of a mustard bottle. And 4 little squirts does one load of laundry. But again, may I repeat.....no large jug that hurts your wrist when you pour it, or makes a sloppy mess. ( Mom...you really need this!)