what's happening around here?

I had a scrapbook date with a friend at her house.  Hunter got to tag along.

She enjoyed many hours of cuddling with this sweet little six week old boy.

Momma was able to get some scrapbooking done.

Hunter gained some little baby skills.

I was so happy for her to have this experience because we don't see tiny babies very often.

For a lot of households, spring brings a nice break from winter activities before the summer activities start.

Not in our house however.

Welcome to spring hockey.

It compresses the same number of games of winter into half the time.

And my two boys show how much they hate this schedule by the sad looks on their faces.

I spent 'National Scrapbook Day' doing the appropriate activity.

My project was our little trip to Colorado.

I will share when it's finished...and that will be soon I hope.

I really love scrapbooking mini albums.

There is such satisfaction in a  project that can be tackled and completed in a day or two.

I made this new dish for my family one night for supper.

(I'm from the Maritimes, and we say 'supper'. Dinner is lunch.)

This recipe was snipped from an issue of Better Homes and Gardens.

It was called Chicken Chili and it looked so good.

But it fell flat in flavour.

Peanut butter.  Coconut milk. Chili powder. Cayenne powder.

Fresh cilantro.

All the right ingredients, yet the taste was not there.

Ron didn't find it appetizing.

Hunter tried to fix it with more spices.

Tyler wasn't interested.

It got a thumbs down and into the garbage it went.

Darn tootin'.

Here I am working a bingo for the skating club.

I am sitting in the big uppity-up chair of the bingo chairperson.

It sounds like a special job, but really it's not.

It just means you get to arrive early, count more money, and leave later than everybody else.

The big guy in this picture had a birthday.

Yes.

 That's a Dairy Queen cake.

It's the requested confection for his birthday.

I secretly think he likes this cake because it goes into the freezer downstairs in the storage room.

The storage room located right off the TV room.

This means less walking for a midnight snack while you watch your fav shows or movie.

We got this overnight snowstorm and awoke to this on May 4.

Just when you think spring is here, the black abyss of winter sucks you back into the icy cold.

(But really I have to confess... it was raining and windy when I went to bed....and I slept like a baby because the sounds outside my window of soft rain, wind and then snow reminded me of  the sounds of home in the Maritimes...and I felt strangely comforted in my nice & warm, flannel-sheeted bed.)

I threw Tyler's winter boots away 2 weeks ago thinking we were done with winter and

 they would be too small for next winter.

The boots he hated wearing all winter suddenly became his most prized possession.

Throwing away winter boots in April. Mommy..what were you thinking?

Hunter made this dish for our family while I was at Bingo.

It sure was nice to come home to a wonderful meal.

She made a chicken & olives dish from Martha's new book, "Fresh Flavors Fast".

It was delicious.

This recipe is a keeper.

And so is the daughter who made it.

I have started a little makeover on these yucky-looking stairs.

These are the stairs that go to the downstairs TV/Family room.

The prep work of washing and taping off took longer than the actual painting.

As life interrupts the painting marathon, I am still  working on them.

And after all the hard work on the stairs, I needed a big 'ol brownie.

 So I made a pan of apple brownies.

I love this recipe.

It's basically a brownie blondie recipe with 4 cups of chopped apples.

And cinnamon.

 Lots of cinnamon.

Apple pie spice works nicely too.

And a little drizzle of icing.

 If you are going to take the time to make squares, then you should make a 9x13 pan.

The pan lasts longer and there are lots to pack into lunches.

Except.....well... it really does not  last longer.

It gets eaten just as fast.

a mini-scrapbook...

While cleaning and organizing my little scrapbook space, I came across this little scrapbook I made a few years ago from an altoid tin.

 It was a really fun & easy project.

Just take an empty altoid tin and wash it.

Assemble some scraps of cardstock, some ribbon and whatever little embellishments you have and 2 punches.

For this project I used the Marcy Uchida circle punch (2 1/4 inch size, which fits perfectly into the tin) and an EK Success Flower Punch.

You also need a set of little pictures to go inside the scrapbook.

Walmart makes this easy with the various size miniature prints you can make under the 'collage' setting at their in-store photo kiosks.

You start by punching a circle out of cardstock to cover up the altoid label on your tin.

Embellish the circle with a punched flower, a brad and some ribbon as shown.

 Or whatever other creative ideas you have. I am all about making a project your own!

Inside the tin is your 'mini scrapbook'. Punch as many circles for the scrapbook as you like. I recommend around 6-7 circles.

Place an eyelet at the top of each circle page to provide a place to insert ribbon to tie the scrapbook pages together.

Then build each page however you like. On each page of my mini, I have included a picture, a punched flower and a button. I have inked the edges of the flowers and circles for a little added dimension.

Building the pages is your time to play.

Mix and match colors! Switch up embellishments!

This project makes a great little gift for Grandparents. Or a nice little purse-sized scrapbook.

It would also be a great birthday party craft.

You only needs some tins, cardstock scraps, a few punches and whatever else you have on hand for embellishments.

This is one of my favorite projects ever!

This post has been linked to these great parties:

Get Your Craft On @ Today's Creative Blog

 

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.