Crafty Cards

Just for fun... here are some of the cards I've made recently! I'm getting to the point that I don't really buy cards at all anymore. I'm sure that will change one day when my hours are taken up by diaper changing, feeding, and napping - so I'll enjoy it while I can! 

Homemade Gift for Mama

When you live far from home, it can be harder and harder to celebrate with the people you love. It's my beautiful mama's birthday this week, and I wanted to do something special for her.

Unfortunately, shipping from Alberta to Ontario costs a pretty penny! So instead of buying and shipping something, I decided to make something and ship it!

Packaged and sent out early! Although apparently Canada Post says it will be late :(

I decided on a picture frame because I had a nice shadow box lying around (form a garage sale last year!), and I always have a abundance of paper crafting items! I crafted up this little gem and sent it in the mail along with my second handmade dishcloth! Luckily for mom, the second one looks much nicer than the first one did. Sorry in advance for the holes though!

Her gift :) 

Brand-spanking new dishcloth! 

I had so much fun putting together something meaningful. Everything I used was already in the house too! So I didn't even need to spend any money (except on the darn shipping costs!).

Happy Birthday Mama!!!!! Love you :)

xoxo

Dad, Mom, & I at my wedding :) She's so beautiful! 

Something Old, New, Borrowed, & Blue

Is this an old-fashioned tradition? 

Do other people still do this?

Regardless - I was hoping to fulfill tradition on my wedding day. 

I wanted something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue. 

The "blue" and "new" items are the easiest I think. Blue underwear? New dress? Bam, you're done. Can't really say the same for the other categories. Old dress? Borrowed underwear? 

Not too appealing for the wedding night.... 

Luckily my mama saved the day. She flew out prepared to help me by loaning me her necklace that she had been given as a birthday gift by her siblings and parents. She also dug out some old jewellery until we found the perfect broach that her grandma used to wear. We snuck it under the layers of my dress so that no one knew it was there except for us - but it was meaningful nonetheless. 

Something Old

Something New

Something Borrowed

Something Blue

11. Completely Redecorate Our Bedroom

Honestly, I really love our bedroom. I love the vaulted ceiling, and the space, and the fireplace. We just want to make it our own space. 

Here is our room as it is right now:

No carpet beneath the bed. Old duvet. New lamps. 

Fireplace! With Daisy's bed below of course. Not too much excitement above the fireplace.  

Jewellery. Goal: unclutter. 

We just recently hung up my jewellery canvas piece :) 

GOALS for the space:

1. Built-In shelving above the fireplace <Enter Mr. A>

2. Green and gold colours throughout

3. Re-paint walls - including a feature wall

4. Create a clever bracelet holder <enter Mr. A>

5. Curtains up at the side window

6. Large carpet below the bed

Here are the colours we've chosen for the space: 

 The dark green is for the feature wall. 

The light green is for the rest of the walls. 

The gold tones are for my accents and pillows. 

The background is a pillow case from our new duvet cover (thank you wedding gift money!).

Delicious Homemade Pita Chips

Yummy! And sooo easy!

Ingredients: 

- whole wheat pitas

- honey

- olive oil

- salt & pepper

Steps: 

1. Whisk honey and oil together (ratio of 1:1, 1 tbsp of each covers 2 pitas)

2. Brush onto both sides of the pita

3. Cut pita into 8 pieces, and spread out on a baking sheet

4. Sprinkle with salt & pepper

5. Bake at 350 degrees for 5 minutes

Tastes great with a tossed salad or soup! Yumm :) 

Here's mine with lentil soup, topped with sour cream & cheese. 

Night In

I lead a busy life - My husband leads a busy life. 

I have lots of away from home hobbies - My husband has lots away from home hobbies. 

I have lots of stay at home hobbies - My husband plays x-box. 

We have lots of people we like to entertain for. 

Obviously we have a lot of things keeping us away from each other, or just busy in general. We make it a point to spend an evening together whenever we can. I think it's SOOO important to have a social life, outside of your spouse. To have your own friends and interests. But if that starts to take away from you enjoying time together, or sharing hobbies/interests, than it can be detrimental. 

My husband and I make it a point to spend an evening together every week. A WHOLE evening. Not just half a night after he works late, or half a night before I go scrapbooking. We don't formally write it down (although as life gets busier we may have to), we just make sure to carve out an evening. 

Sometimes that means going out on a nice date, but often it means curling up at home together. Catching up on our days, relaxing, giving the dogs lots of attention... 

I relish these evenings. 

It is so important to me for us to relax together and enjoy our time. 

Here are some pics from one of our recent "Night In"'s:

All the ingredients for a great night are present:

1. Mr. A

2. Cozy blanket

3. Popcorn

4. Beer & wine (drinkers choice!)

5. The puppies

6. A new movie

How could we go wrong?!?

Handy Husband [Part 2]

My daunting goal of redecorating my bedroom (as one of my 13 of 13 goals) will inevitably turn into a large series of smaller, more attainable goals.

This weekends plan was simple - help my bathtub! I LOVE this tub, but I hated that my bath "stuff" had no where to live. It all just sits willy nilly at the side. I did find a plastic tub to store stuff in at the side - but I'm still unsatisfied with the presentation. 

Here's the before pic of the tub: 

Here's my make-do plastic "stuff" holder. 

Solution: Get wonderfully handy husband to install a shelf!

We found a great shelf and my man installed it right away! We hummed and hawed a bit about where to put it. Above the tile? At the front by my head? At the side? In the end, we decided to hang it under the window.

Here he is! Hard at work...

Ta-da! Amazing shelf (below)! 

The next step is to find two cute baskets to hold all of my goods. This shelf has a nice little rim on it, but I'd still like pretty baskets. We looked around a bit this afternoon, but nothing struck me as working quite right, or fitting the shelf quite right. VERY happy with the results :) Bubble bath, here I come!

Handy Husband [Part 1]

I am blessed to have such a handy husband :) He's seriously the best! 

In our house, our master bathroom and bedroom are not really detached. Our bath is actually at the end of our bed (crazy, I know! But also amazing when you think about it... ). Consequently, when the bath is not being used, it becomes a large shelf for clothes. You know... the clothes that aren't clean anymore so you don't want to put them away, but they're not quite dirty, so you just pile them in a corner... those clothes. 

Anyway... as a solution, my husband came up with the idea of building some additional hooks for our bedroom closet. EASY place to hang half-dirty clothing. Aaaand, if you know us, an idea isn't just an idea... so we got to work. 

He built everything, and then called me in to help sand and paint. Here's some pics of his process: 

Some putty before painting.

And more putty. 

Finally, I'm doing some work. 

The bonus little boards are to hang jackets, etc. in the laundry room, and the garage :) The big one is for the closet! 

Putting up the final product! 

Looks amazing! 

Already being put to good use! 

Thank you times a million to my amazing handy husband :) 

Bonus Picture: My dogs were barking all afternoon at a deer in my neighbours yard. Here's a pic of the lovely fellow. His friend got away before I snapped the pic. Just a regular occurrence in my neighbourhood :) 

Blueberry Cream Cheese Breakfast

Super. Easy. Breakfast. And delicious! 

Ingredients:

- bread

- butter (for outside of sandwich) 

- blueberries

- cream cheese (we used strawberry!)

- sprinkle of sugar over blueberries) 

Put it all together. 

 Grill it. 

(a sandwich grill would be even better!) 

Eat it! Yummm :) 

Easy peazy lemon squeazy! 

It's just nice to have something different every once in a while. This was a good alternative to eggs and toast. 

Before and After Wedding Inspiration

I was reviewing some of my wedding photos the other day, thinking about all the lovely details and how they all came together perfectly. 

It got me thinking about all of the planning and preparations that went into that day, which made me pulled up my Wedding Inspiration Board. I had made this inspiration board within the first month of preparations! Before I actually had any real plans - I had these ideas. 

Here it is:

Looking at this board, I can't believe how many of the details and ideas from my wedding day started here!

Here are just a few of the ideas that stayed the same:
- Wooden slats and mason jars for centrepieces
- Orange bridesmaid dresses
- Tags with buttons on them for the wedding favours
- Bold & bright flowers
- Burlap decorative pieces
- Etched wooden Mr. and Mrs. signs
- Burlap banners for pictures and decorations
- NO seat covers (hate them!)
- Brown pocketfold invitations
- Cute, subtle owl theme
- more rustic elements

Here are how the details came across with the flare of my husband & I:

1. Wood and mason jars for centre pieces

2. Orange bridesmaid dresses

3. Tags with buttons on them for wedding favors 

4. Bold & bright flowers

5. Burlap decorative pieces

6. Mr. & Mrs. etched in wood

7. Burlap Banners

8. No seat covers

9. Pocketfold invitation

10. Cute, subtle owl theme

Other Rustic Elements:

Obviously it all worked out perfectly! BEST WEDDING EVER! (In my humble opinion... lol). 

HUGE thanks to my husband for putting many hours into the many wooden decorative pieces you see above. And a HUGE thanks to our photographers, Beauchamp Photography, for taking such amazing pictures of all of my details :)   If you're looking for a photographer in Grande Prairie, I highly recommend them!