Lost Socks

Finally getting to post this after writing it on Tuesday night. Sorry for the delay, without further adieu.

As promised here is a little tutorial for the craft that I hosted for some wonderful ladies. First however, I would like to send a little shout out to friend Josee, constantly in my thoughts and prayers!!

I think there is something seriously wrong with my dryer, I always have socks missing! I have a really great laundry system. Different baskets that my dirty clothes go in. Whatever happens between carrying the baskets down to the laundry room and then putting them a way, usually results in a missing sock.

When I saw this on a fellow crafters website as a kit that you can buy, I thought, perfect, I need one.

I have trouble getting motivation to just go and make one for myself. In order to force myself to make one I decided to get supplies so everyone at the next craft night could make one too!

It starts with one long pine board that you can buy at Home Depot for $2. I then got my handy, handsome assistant to cut the boards so that each one was about the size of a piece of printer paper. We then painted the outside of each board white.

All the supplies.

The very first thing that needs to happen is hammering a alligator hanging clip to one side of the board.

Measure a piece of scrapbook paper to fit the board. Cut.

Apply a thin layer of Modge Podge to the side opposite of the alligator clip and press on the scrapbook paper. Apply a thin second layer of Modge Podge on top.

Lay out your letters on top of the board and then apply one more thin layer of Modge Podge over the letters.

Let this start to dry. In the mean time measure some hemp twine (thanks for the twine Sharon). Apply the two ends of the twine with hot glue to back side of the board.

Get 3 to 5 clothes pins and place them on the board. When you like the placement secure the clothes pins with hot glue. You will want to hot glue these clothes pins because the twine will not hold the weight of 3 or more socks.

If desired, make a bow out of ribbon and hot glue onto your board.

Jilly

Stacy

Sharon

Holly

Didn't all my fellow crafty ladies do a great job?

This is a super easy yet fun craft! I would recommend anyone making them. If you do, enjoy a place for all those misplaced socks!

Happy Friday!

xo

Fun, crafty, weekend!!

Happy Monday everyone!! It's official, weekends pass way too quickly!

I had a weekend full of activity which is why it went by so fast! The activity started shortly after I was done work on Friday! I was hosting another women's craft night at my house! This is what we were making, more on that tomorrow!

Saturday I had the whole house to myself, all day! Ryan went to a snowmobile fundraiser for prostate cancer and I spent the day cooking and crafting! It was really fun!! For friends Lisa and Luc, who just had baby girl Sydney I made this new baby blanket and hat that I got from this tutorial!

It turned out so good and I love making this hat now, especially with the girly flower!

Lisa and Luc also have an almost 3 year old son. Needless to say they are going to be very busy. That is why along with the new hat and blanket we also gave them a couple homemade freezer pizza's.

I had been feeling anxious about Sunday all week. WAY back, when I posted my 101 list, one of things was to go skiing. I am not a skier, in fact, I'm not all that adventurous. Being that I lack in gracefulness any activity (like skiing) that requires balance was going to be a disaster!

That didn't matter. I put going skiing on my list to face that fear of 1. falling on my butt in front of a punch of people (ie: making a fool of myself) and 2. getting hurt.

Ryan agreed to come with me and since neither of us had been out skiing for over almost 10 years it was going to be an adventure!

The day was beautiful! I'm proud to say that I only fell 10 or so times and there was no trip to the hospital.

Actually, I did discover, when I'm moving it was easy to not fall, then when I try to stand still, this is what happens:

Here is a video to prove it!

Now, I can officially say, I have crossed off number 13, go skiing!

How was your weekend? Wishing you all a great week!

xo

Stupid Blogger

Good Morning! Just a quick note to tell blogger that it can shove it!! I had this beautiful tutorial post all ready for you all yesterday morning and now it won't let me upload any pictures!

Being that a tutorial isn't much of a tutorial without pictures, it will be delayed for a little bit.

Happy Wednesday!

xo

Bad News And Good Babysitting!

Happy Friday!! I am so excited to see this day come!! It has been a hard week and adding a cold into the mix hasn't made it any easier. I literally cannot talk, at all!! I don't sound like a man, I don't sound like a heavy smoker, I just kind of squeak out my works. Stupid throat!

This time last week I found something startling, shocking and horrific!! Words can't describe the traumatic effect it had on me.


I found my first grey hair!!!!!! AHHH!!!

I then pulled it out. Unfortunately, Ryan informed me that if you pull it out I'm now suppose to get 7 more?? GREAT!

There was on HUGE highlight from this week! On Tuesday night my brother and SIL (sister in law) asked me to babysit for them as they went out for a belated Valentines supper.

Ryan and I jumped at chance to spend some extra time with our niece Faith!

We always babysit at their house since it is right across the road from mine. This way they never have to cart a bunch of stuff over and Faith is always more comfortable in familiar place.

I made supper that night for the three of us. After supper was done, Ryan and Faith must have had alot of energy because they played Superman.

Ryan tied a sheet around his neck, and Faith an apron! They chased villains, saved Lois Lane (Me) and Superman Faith put Superman Ryan down for a sleep.

After lots of running around it was time for bedtime stories! Yes, storieS. I think Faith made Uncle Ryan read about 15. ha ha He just can't say no.

After putting Faith to bed I snuck back downstairs to watch some T.V with Ryan when I found him asleep! I sent him home to bed and relaxed until my brother and SIL came home.

It was a super fun evening. Faith, being almost 2, is so much fun now!! She's talking (real talk and gibberish), playing pretend and a little ball of energy!! Being around such a happy little person defiantly made my week!!!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

xo

A Very Special Valentines

Happy (hump) Wednesday! It seems that my body has decided to let in a nasty cold despite me pumping it with vitamins!! Bleh!!

Monday was "officially" Valentines day! And I have to say, yes this holiday is a million times better when you have someone in your life that you love.

***CUE CHEESY MUSIC***

As I had mentioned yesterday, I have Mondays off! This allows me a quiet stroll through a grocery store every week and lots of things picked up that I need!

Do you know how hard it is to remember light bulbs when you usually only go to a store once every 3 weeks!?

On Monday, I went and did some errands and then picked up Ryan after he was done work at noon. We decided to have yet another valentines meal together. This time we went to Lonestar. (I had a craving for it after Stacy talked about it at the curling rink)

We had a yummy meal, and in the spirit of all things love, they had red nacho chips!!

We had really good intentions of fun Valentines activities.

1. Let's go skating on the canal!!

Excuse: It's raining and I'm getting sick.

2. Let's go see a movie!!

Excuse: There is nothing that we can agree on to watch! (He totally didn't want to see the Beiber movie with me, boo!)

3. Let's go to a museum!

Excuse: Ryan, after working since 2 AM didn't feel up to it and couldn't promise he wouldn't fall asleep!

Finally, we came up with a solution that we both agreed on! Let's go home, lay on the couch and watch One Tree Hill season 2! It was perfect, we were all snuggled in watching episode one. Just when the theme song came on (I don't wanna be anything other then........STUCK IN MY HEAD) we were both sound asleep!

So, you might ask; "O.K, great story Linds but what the heck is with your title of this post?"

Well, I'm getting there, hold your horses!! :-)

You see, when our sleepy butts finally got off the couch to make supper we got a very special phone call. Friends Lisa and Luc were calling from the hospital to let us know their baby girl was born!

They asked us to go visit that evening and after supper we drove up to see the new bundle of joy!

You see, that is what made my valentines day so special. Being with friends celebrating the birth of their little girl, Sydney.

Congrats Lisa and Luc!!

Hoping one has a wonderful Wednesday!

xo

A fast weekend!

For the quiet winter months here at work, my brother and I made a new rule. Every Friday he gets off and I get every Monday off. This is only for a few months, but it has been heavenly being away from work and having a long weekend every week!!!

Ryan looked at me yesterday and said, "Holy frig that weekend went by fast". He's right. It did. We were so jammed packed with things to do that before we knew it, it was over.

On Friday, we did our trip for supper on the snowmobile. It was a pretty cold night out so we headed home right after supper.

Saturday was a big day!! I dropped Ryan off at the curling rink to join his team for their first game.

I then went to go get groceries but game back to join Jill, Stacy and Maddy to watch the second game.

See I did watch SOME of the game Ryan. I didn't talk the whole time! :-)

I guess Maddy got pretty bored of us ladies talking because she went off to the shuffleboard. She looked so bored and neglected!

In order to entertain her (and us) Stacy brought out the Yahtzee Junior! It was so fun and Jill got 5 Mickey's!!

We had to head home right after the game to get ready for a big night ahead!!

Our community is trying to raise some money so that we can build a new community centre, which we are desperate for! In order to raise some funds, they decided to have a fancy supper in honor of this guy: Rolly!

It was a celebration of all that Rolly does in the community. And like all the speakers said, he never says "no" to any job!! It is really people like him that make all the community events happen!

It was a great night celebrating such a great man. Plus there was a yummy roast beef dinner, wine and great music played by local talent! A great way to raise money!

Me, Candace, Steph and Amanda

Sunday morning, a group of girls and I went out to celebrate Steph's 23rd birthday!! Steph and I have known each other since elementary school and we are still friends today!

Thank goodness I had Monday off. After all the weekend activities I was looking forward to a day to nothing and to celebrate Valentines day with my hunny!!

I hope you all had a fabulous weekend!!

xo

Can You Feel The Love?

Valentines Day was never a popular holiday in my life as a kid. I think it was because since my parent's didn't make a big deal out of the day, neither did I.

Don't get me wrong, we recognized the day, it just wasn't that big of a deal in our lives.

It still isn't in my life. Ryan does lot's of super sweet things for me every day, not just once a year. Of course, we will usually go out for supper for Valentines day but never on the 14th!! Having to wait forever on a table because it is jammed with people is crazy!

This year, we are going to go on the snowmobile up to a local restaurant (in Ladysmith) and have wings instead. It is one of our favorite spots and I would personally rather go there then any expensive restaurant in the city!

This fall, after putting in the fire place in the living room (yesterday's post), we discovered there might not be enough room to put the entertainment units in the cabinets. Ryan suggested instead of altering it anyway, we just place the units on top. I might have sounded like a super big "bee with an ich" at the time, but I insisted that that space is clear. Here is why:

I wanted to decorate the mantle! It is now, my spot, every season to decorate accordingly.

As you all know, I'm cheap frugal, and to go out and spend a lot of money of Valentines day decorations was a "no-no" for me!! Why go out and spend alot of money when you can make them yourself?

See that "x" and "o", well after tracing letters onto a piece of scrap wood I had lying around, my dad cut them out for me. (If I had done it myself, I might not have had fingers left to type out this post) I painted them white and now I have a set on each speaker!

While, my handy Dad had the saw out, I had him cut me 4, 5"x5" blocks out of the same piece of wood. He handed them over to me, with a look of "your crazy how are you going to make something out of these blocks".

I painted these blocks white, then Modge Podged (I love modge podge) four (different but same color scheme) pieces of scrapbook paper onto the front. After cutting out L-O-V-E with my silhouette, I then modge podged that onto the front of each block. After it was done drying....TA DA.......

New Valentine Decoration! On my new favorite places to decorate, my fireplace mantle.

So, you see, even though Valentines day isn't really my thing, it was super fun decorate for and I've already got dad to warm up the saw for to start on St.Patty's day!

Have a great weekend!!

xo

House Tour- Another Room Done- THANK GOODNESS!

The livingroom (and dining room) off of the kitchen was an important room to me. You can view it right off of the main part of the house (the kitchen) and it is used alot!

To me, being able to re-do the livingroom meant that I was finally done "structural" renovations. ie: Cabinets, windows, new basement, foundation, etc. Re-doing the living room meant simply dressing it up with new paint, and furniture. Plus, it costs a lot less!

The project started when I looked in the weekly Canadian Tire flyer and found a fire place that I loved, for 60% off. Yes, please!

As I mentioned before, this house is very old and with that comes very big old trim that I love!! The trim originally had been painted white but when Mom moved in after she got married, she stripped it back to the original wood. Which was in style at the time (friggin 70's) but isn't my style. I loved white trim so that was my first project. Sorry Mom!

(Yes, she was upset)

Being that these rooms are part of the original house there wasn't a ceiling light in half the room. Therefore, we would always light the room by lamps. It wouldn't light up the room very much so I asked an electrician to come in and put a new ceiling light. Now, I have light without using all my plugs for lamps!

Dad hard at work one weekend helping me!

After re-varnishing the floors, painting the walls and ceilings. The room was complete. I ordered my furniture around my birthday (October) and the final part came in just 2 weeks ago! Now, the room is complete and I love it!

Before:

After:

This room is now used ALOT! Since it is right off the kitchen there is alot of times I am waiting in there for something to be done in the oven. The kitchen now flows into the livingroom and dining room. The room looks completely different then what it did before but I had to keep this old phone the same. (Yes, it actually works)

My Dad and Ryan worked SO hard to get this room done for me! Ryan thought I was crazy for picking grey paint but now even he likes the color. Mom's gotten over the whole "painting the trim" thing and now agrees, the white trim, brightens the dark room.

What I love most about this room is that it is so old and original. It still feels that way with old features yet modern touches that I added. Sometimes I sit back and think about the Hamilton family gatherings that happened in these rooms 100 years ago and the ones that are to come.

xo