For our anniversary we headed to Banff, stayed in a sweet suite (hee hee) with a wood burning fireplace and had a wonderful time. We experienced fine dinning, (eating things I can't pronounce that came from all over the world and made my tummy ache), began cross country skiing with a friendly deer, but my bindings broke, and tried some tricks on our snowboards. You can laugh, but I don't want to see you laugh in front of me…. ;) We took a class and learned beginner rails and jumps. Take a look!
Some other things that I am working on this week are:
(sneak peeks below)
1. My (second oldest) daughter's bedroom
2. A Valentine Birthday Party
Stay tuned for some more painting stripe pointers, and some more birthday planning ideas.
On a more somber note...
Once again, sadness has fallen on our family with the passing of Brian's Dad. My late husband's father used to live with us. We spent a lot of time together in the past: family vacations, dinners, water fights, trips to the zoo, batting cages, go-carts, eating lots and lots of ice cream and frozen treats in their various forms, Mario Cart and numerous Wii games, book reading, joke telling, he even tolerated the girls putting bows in his hair and crazy make up on his face. (Which he would photo shop to look like he was beaten up) He had a great sense of humour, enjoyed cross word puzzles, loved to learn more about the sky, whether he was talking flying with Brian, reading the stars or studying up on space. He is greatly missed.
My Brian and his Daddy. Reunited in Heaven.
A Beautiful Life
I am trying to find peace, enjoy my life and be happy. I get hit hard with trials but I want to keep a positive perspective, a happy smile…this doesn't always happen, nor does it happen right away, but I am keeping busy and doing my best to live in the moment more and more. With the help of the Lord and through prayer, life goes from being endured to being enjoyable. Here are some pictures of living in the moment today and appreciateing the little things.
Meringues from the Duchess. These are, as one of my best friends said today (and I hope she doesn't mind me quoting her), "Adult Cotton Candy". They melt in your mouth and then they are chewy. So addicting. What a talent to be able to make these treats that in turn make people like me happy.
These are the chocolate variety.
Some items I picked up at the Duchess. (Which I must say, they had just shut their doors and were kind enough to open them for me to run in and make my purchases quickly. Super fantastic.)
Here a few little items that I picked up at HomeSense to begin my Valentine Decor...
This little cutie sparkles with the sunshine. My under $20 purchase. (I found another one similar online for $75)
Red is such a great front door colour...
Another little V-day purchase!
And lastly..the French chocolate cookies. They were fantastique!
I hope you are all trying to find ways to "be happy in the journey!"
Wow! I can't seem to keep myself busy enough. So in 2 days (with the help of my Mom, Dad , who fixed my level problem, and husband Kevin with the TV installation), we transformed our son's bedroom.
When doing lines…I realized my mistake and will try again when I attack my daughter's room. But in the end it looks pretty fabulous. He is happy and so far it is super clean.
I also found a fantastic room planner from Pottery Barn Kids. Just type in the room measurements, the size of the furniture you have and what you plan on buying & play around with your look. Since we added furniture to his room, I wanted to be sure it wouldn't look out of place and over stuffed.
Use your level, and tape measure. Make your first line as straight as possible. My Mom and I then measured up 1" from our first tape mark…all the way around the room. Were there adjustments? Oh, yes my friends. Was it work? Yup. Was it a lot to do in two days? Nope. Super duper fun. Did I learn what to do next time? Yes. My tape was not the correct one. (and you really should search the internet and not just rely heresy) Our first line was in dark green and the tape itself isn't a consistent width. The lighter green was. It peeled of nicely but apparently you should use the blue tape for doing stripes. Make note friends.
Also, of GREAT importance that I learned after I had peeled off the tape:
When you are doing stripes: place tape, then roller over all the tape in the colour of your back ground or current wall colour. This sets the tape and will prevent bleeding through.
Above is where we hung vinyl that Kevin's Mom & Dad had purchased for him. (This was really a big family project, wasn't it?)
The final taping and picture frame placement.
My friends at my favourite store - Rona - mixed up some great paint from my jersey. Note - use paper samples, as fabrics are much harder to match. I left the codes for you friends out there who may want to do an Oiler's themed room.
The final painting with out removing the tape. Note - remove tape 1-2 hours after painting. We found that the paint rollers were much too wide and would have run into our next colour so my sweet hubby, Kevin purchase some sponge rollers for me. These were smaller and earlier to use.
The almost completed room.
We are waiting for new sheets and a duvet cover to arrive. We purchased a new duvet from Ikea. Nice and cool for him.
Some more vinyl from that same purchase.
And…look up above! Now when he is resting he can contemplate what Wayne Gretzky has said. "You miss 100% of the shots you never take."
All the best in your future projects… Now what shall I work on next…?
Blinds. Yup. But not everywhere yet. Here's what I came up with (with help, of course). I hope you enjoy and perhaps get further ideas if you are searching for window treatments too.
I was excited, to say the least. So, I have lots of photos to share.
Before: Master Bedroom 360'
Our French double doors. New chair.
(A very early morning.)
Look at the trees in the background.
You can see the ensuite in behind.
At the top of the stairs.
Before: The Teens Room
Oldest
Next oldest
Son
AFTER PHOTOS:
Eldest
Love the purple
this fancy pink goes sweet with her bedding, and will probably end up as a throw pillow too
Our Son now has some darkness
The master finally has beautiful window treatments!
Can you see the wonderful beading on the bottom?
Master room. Yay!
Once again, the beading.
MASTER ENSUITE
These are velcro valences. (These do not close but make the room look finished)
This beading is slightly different than the master bedroom due to the fact that there was none left to be found.
Anyhow...Hope you enjoy viewing parts of our home.
