It's the most wonderful time of the year.....

Is it back to school that has me excited? No!

Christmas? No!

Birthday? No!

Shawville Fair? HELL YA!

The annual Shawville fair has to be one of my favorite times of the year. Although I am not partaking in a whole lot of the festivities this year it still makes me giddy at the thought of beavertails, derby day, big white tent and the official end of summer!

Yes, for years the Shawville fair has marked the end of summer. Usually, this would make me sad because I'd have to go back to the reality of school. Not anymore. Now I look forward to colder weather, holidays, and the end of the busy golf season.

I have been in a pretty BLAH mood for the last couple of days. My mood has hit an all time low. My grandma underwent heart surgery on Wednesday and I ask you to please keep her in your thoughts and prayers over the next couple of days.

I'm sure that this weekend will make me more "chipper" but before then I have to go through two nights of work while all of my friends are enjoying the fair festivities...booo...ha ha!

Of course, like last year one of my favorite things to do is plan outfits for the fair! Layering so that during the day you can stay cool but still have something available for the chilly nights. I have a brand new pair of boots that are waiting to make their debut on Sunday night!!

This is my very first blog entry from last year. Wow! Almost a whole year since I started this journey of blogging. Of course it was also about the Shawville fair. ha ha! I just wanted to take a second to thank all of my readers. I never thought that a year ago that writing down my little thoughts would interest some of you but I am glad that it does. I really enjoy looking back at some of my posts from the past and seeing where I was in life. I can't wait to see what the next year brings and again THANK YOU for reading about what I have to say.

I hope EVERYONE has a wonderful (long) labor day weekend!


Bring on the Beavertails, yum!!

xo

What A Weekend At The Cottage!!

As I had mentioned in my Monday post Ryan and I had an amazing weekend! It is rare to have a weekend where we both don't have to do something in the summer. No work, no responsibilities, nothing!

A couple of friends (Hi Amanda and Josh) have a family cottage on a lake near home called, Johnson's Lake. It is seriously a BEAUTIFUL spot and they invited us (and Tucker) to spend the weekend there with them.

After work we loaded up all of our stuff for an exciting weekend. Tons of yummy food, drinks and of course some clothes.

We got there Friday night and spend the evening having supper, sitting by the camp fire and playing a card game called Sequence! We were all pretty tired thought from a busy work week so we weren't up too late.

Saturday morning we woke up at 10:00 AM....10!!! Can you believe it? I think I was in High School the last time I slept in that late! I was so energized! We had a quick yummy breakfast of bagels, cereal and fruit. After breakfast, we changed in our bathing suits and shorts and headed out on the dock to try to catch a couple of fishies! By the time we were bored with that it was time for lunch! Ryan and I made our homemade pizza with Caesar salad, yum!

It was getting pretty hot out so we all loaded up a cooler with beverages and headed out onto the water! We toured the lake for a while but then got the tube out! It was so much fun but so scary too! ha ha! I was the ONLY one out of 4 of us that got knocked off. Ryan said I looked like a rag doll flopping around on the top of the water! ha ha!

Can you see the fear in my face? ha ha!

Saturday night we had some yummy Quesadilla's for supper and spend the rest of the night by the fire eating s'mores, drinking and playing Sequence. Let's just say we stayed up a little later in compared to Friday night. Ha ha

Sunday morning we woke up, got things packed up and had bacon and french toast for breakfast! After everything was ready to leave we decided to take one last boat tour and someone decided to take one last tube ride! Ha ha

Over all, it was an amazing weekend! Even though it was late nights I still felt rested and relaxed. Tucker did very well in the great outdoors but he was a sleepy little puppy when we got home. This past weekend felt for us, like the last weekend of summer. In September Ryan works every weekend so we will no longer have free weekends! I can't think of a better way to spend my last weekend of summer then with great friends, on the lake!

Josh is leaving for work in Calgary as of today for new job position he has been offered. I know he will do great in anything he does and we wish him (and Amanda) all the best in the next year on this adventure!! Love you guys!

Hope everyone is having a great week!

xo

Dare # 46

Oh weekend! You end way too soon! I sure hope the week flies by again this week! I sure had an action packed weekend but that is for a later post.

How did everyone do at exercising last week? I did really good. I was up every morning at 4:30 and squeezed in a short work out! It was great. Come the weekend however I never got the chance.

Here is your dare this week:

Dare #46

Introduce yourself. Leave a comment (if not a member just hit anonymous) and tell me who you are and where you are from. It will be nice to "meet" you!

Hope everyone has a great Monday.

xo

Dress Re-Vamp

THANK GOODNESS IT IS FRIDAY!

Is anyone else as excited as I am to see the work week come to an end? I am in disbelief that this is the final full week of August. It is not that I am sad to see summer go it's just that now looking back it seems to have passed so quickly.

A while back I had purchased a dress on a clearance rack for $3.00. I loved the fabric and I thought it would look good on me. When I finally took it home I tried it and YUCK, it looked awful. The neck line was WAY to high for a big breasted woman like me!

I decided instead of throwing it out I would try my hand at my very first clothing alteration.

I went through my closet and found an old, black, button-up shirt that didn't even fit me anymore. Again another sale item that looked awful! The puffy sleeves were not flattering at all! I mean, who wants to look like a line backer? Bleh!

The first thing I did was cut off the bodice of the dress. I hated the little crochet part at the top so I just threw it out!

After that I cut off the sleeves and took in the raw edges around the arm holes.

And then....it sat for two months.

You see I wanted to shape the dress to my body but if you don't have a dress form to use it is really hard! I had heard that there use to be one at the old farm house where my brother lives. My aunt had it and she let me borrow it to complete my dress. One day I walked into my kitchen and this thing scared the bejeebers out of me!!

Finally, I was able to finish my dress.

First I attached the bodice to the skirt and sewed it together. At the same time I took it in a little on the sides and on the arm holes.

I looked back at it to inspect...something was missing. I decided it needed a sash. I had some extra black fabric left over from the diaper bag that I did. I made it four inches thick and sewed it inside out. Once I was done sewing I turned it right side out again and attached it to the dress.

I secured it in place and VOILA a brand new old dress!

I was pretty happy with the out come considering it was my first piece of clothing that I completed.

Before

After

I am currently starting a new dress from scratch. I guess I'm getting a little braver! :-)

I hope everyone has a FABULOUS weekend! It is suppose to be beautiful here and I intend on making every moment count in the last of this nice, summer weather!

xo

Dear....

Dear Jillian Micheal's,

You are a pain in the butt...literally.

My ass hurts today from your 30 day shred.

I know that it is a good thing but please

ease up a little won't you?

Would you be kinder if I bribed you with cookies...?

No eh? Well it was worth a shot!

Love, Sweaty-McSweaterson

Dear Summer,

I am SO over you. Don't take it personally but

you are so 2010! You need to stop and let your cousin Fall

make it's grand appearance. My boots, pumpkin recipes,

leggings, cozy sweaters, decorations, birthday and

fall smelling candles are patiently waiting to

make an entrance. Don't think I am taking you for granted!

You have been wonderful and full of memories,

thank you

but move on!!!

Sincerely, Fall Lover

Dear Ice Cream,

Can you stop looking so yummy?

Sitting in my freezer right beside your friend

Mr. Chocolate Syrup. I can't handle

your teasing and I think I might get in trouble.

I am in a relationship now with fitness and so

we can no longer see each other. I'm sorry.

If you are confused you can read letter to Jillian above,

it might explain better.

Thanks, Sugar Lovin' Girl

It's the middle of the week...woo hoo! Hope everyone has a great Wednesday!

xo

Dare # 45

I don't know about you, but I am actually o.k to see the work week come again. After a successful weekend I don't mind going back to work. I spent most of my Saturday/Sunday cleaning the house and organizing a bunch of my stuff.

For some reason I am so not a "spring cleaning" kind of person. I guess it is because I am so busy at work that time of year the last thing I want to do is anymore work. Although it is still busy I feel as though have more energy in the fall to get the house clean and organized before being couped up all winter. It was a great weekend to do so as well being that it rained all weekend.

Anyways, on to the dare this week.....

Dare #45

Do some sort of exercise every day this week.

This one is going to be hard for me being that I have some activities during the work week that will force me to get up EXTRA early to work out in the morning instead...wish me luck!

Last week we were invited to a delicious supper at a friends house (Hi Sharon!) It was a colder evening so I got to put on some "fall" clothing. It was perfect for my dare last week. Basically my fall wardrobe consists of jeans and comfty sweaters! Like this....

Hope everyone had a great weekend!!

xo

A Week Ago Today.....

A week ago today I woke up from an AWFUL sleep! I am never sleeping on the floor of my basement again, but maybe I'll sleep on the couches when they get here. Not to mention Friday was the last official day of my holidays!! Aww....

Ryan loves golf and being in the Golf industry I also enjoy a round every once in a while. We wanted to incorporate at least one game before our holidays were over.

We decided Friday was the perfect day and invited friends, Josh and Amanda, who were also off, for a game at the Pontiac Golf Club.

We were going to be playing at 10:20 AM so that we could have lunch after our 9 holes.

It turned out to be the game of my friggin life! ha ha I have never played so good in my life!! I guess the practising is paying off.

We all had a really great time! There were a ton of laughs! Amanda and I drove a cart and the boys walked so Amanda and I had lots of "girl chat" time while we waited for the boys to catch up.

Everyone played a really good game and we were done early enough to grab some lunch.

One of the reasons we chose to go to Pontiac was because the food is friggin AMAZING!! The Poutines are to die for! (For my American readers that is fries with cheese and gravy, yum!) All of the food is really good honestly, you can't go wrong.

After lunch and a couple of drinks (yummy Caesars) we headed back home for guess what...Another nap! (ha ha Ya we are an old couple Stacey)

When we finally woke up I made some homemade cheeseburgers, yum! We decided to finally dust off our ice cream maker and make our very first go of homemade ice cream!

We were a little worried that it wouldn't work but it did, very well!! It makes soft ice cream but you can save whatever you don't eat in the freezer! You make the liquid yourself (we made chocolate) and then pour it in, tour it on, and VOILA! Yumminess!

It worked so good in fact that we made more ice cream the other night (Aug.18th) for my mom's birthday!

After cleaning up a little, we changed into some comfy clothes and headed for Gatineau for something I have ALWAYS wanted to do......

Go to a drive in movie.

Not only did we see 1 movie but 2! The theatre that we went to offers two movies for 1 price.

It was such a neat experience. I was convinced that the picture quality wouldn't be great but I was wrong. You tune into a radio station and listen in the privacy of your vehicle to the show, nothing is more romantic! We packed our own snacks and drinks so it ended up being a fun, and cheap date! You know how I like to save money! :-)


In fact it came to a total of $20.00!

Friday was such a busy day but really fun because we did a lot of things that we have wanted to do for a really long time. I mean I have had that ice cream maker for 3 years and had never used it!!! We got to visit with friends, get some fresh air, make ice cream, and spend time together watching a drive in movie!!

What a great holiday!!!

Happy Friday everyone! I hope you have a great weekend!!

xo