Whenever my mom comes to visit, I take the opportunity to send back with her to Nova Scotia a few little birthday gifts for people I love…which saves me in mailing costs. Plus, I am terrible at getting things in the mail sometimes. My Grandmother’s birthday is in early September and I wanted to send her something. She lives in a small one bedroom seniors apartment and, therefore, does not have a lot of room for stuff. Knowing this, I decided to send her something that I know she will love….a recent picture of her great grandkids. I snapped this picture while on Read More »
Working on my green thumb….
Whenever I hear people say that they can’t cook, the first thing I suggest to them is that if you want to be able to cook…..then you must cook.That’s how you learn.You try, and you have failures and successes, but gradually you gain the skills. I am taking my own advice when it come to plants and gardening. If I want to have those skills, then I must try until I get it right. For many years, I did not have any plants. I always killed them. So I got discouraged. Gave up. But when I visit friends who have Read More »
Menu Plan Monday and a recipe for our fav Strawberry dessert…
(photo credit: My Home Ideas) Now that fabulous weather has arrived, we have been eating our lunches outside. It is such a nice change. We have been experimenting with a lot of different types of sandwiches. All of which are so good. We like red onions, radish sprouts, avocado slices, different cheeses, olives, and artisanal breads. Yummy! Our menu plan for this week: Monday- Toasted Shrimp sandwiches with veggies & dip. Tuesday-Pita Pizzas on the grill. Wednesday-Pasta with marinara sauce and ground beef & salad. Thursday-Grilled chicken with caesar salad. Friday- Picnic supper. I thought I would share my absolute Read More »
a bistro set at a bargain price…
I have lived in this house for 5 years and I have always wanted a little bistro set for my small front porch. I have looked many times, but the price just never seemed to be in the range I was willing to pay. I did find a cute little folding tray table at Goodwill for $10. I brought it home and it worked fine with 2 chairs I already had…until it broke. {Sigh} Then yesterday, my mom and I were trolling around The Bay. {A Canadian Department Store} We happened to come upon some bistro sets. Made of painted metal with Read More »
just bloomed….
The peonies in my yard have finally bloomed. I have missed them for the last 2 years since I left for Nova Scotia for 6 weeks before they flowered. I absolutely love peonies….and they remind me of my beloved Grandmother. I picked a bouquet for the white pitcher. And cut a small bouquet for the powder room. There is nothing like fresh flowers.
just home….
I am just home from a 9 day trip through the Canadian Rockies with my family. We traveled 3101 km by car. We went through Jasper, The Fraser Canyon, Kamloops and onto Whistler. We returned through Salmon Arm, Kelowna, Rogers Pass, Lake Lousie & Banff. The scenery we encountered was breathtaking. Coming from Nova Scotia, almost all of this beauty was a first for us. We are very used to ocean beauty. However, the newness of the mountain beauty was quite captivating to us. Many of these pictures were taken from the inside of the car. “Love of beauty and of all lovely Read More »
freak lunchbox….
One of our favourite things to do when we visit a city is to scope out the local ‘candy’ store. Some places have fabulous candy stores. Our very favourite store is “Freak Lunchbox” in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This store has punch. This store has flavour. You absolutely cannot miss it’s “big personality” streetscape. It’s fun and unsual name…it’s bright colour scheme and it’s party atmosphere inside make it a must see destination. I have been in candy stores in other big cities…but this one is unforgettable. My kids love, love, love it here. Look at the inside…the candy glued to Read More »
My favourite little corner….my office nook.
This is my favourite little corner in our house. It’s where I scrapbook, write blog posts, surf the net, pay bills and read my favourite blogs. Until last year, my corner was an Ikea desk with a hutch. It was functional. It worked…but it was always a mess. Not pretty. It didn’t reflect me at all. I wanted to make it better, but I wasn’t sure how. I was reading a Better Homes & Gardens special publication when I stumbled on this picture of an office nook. It became my inspiration for my ‘new’ space. I loved the shelves above the Read More »
my little amy bulter project….
I absolutely adore this peony fabric from Amy Butler’s collection. I used it to make this fun, casual bag from her “Frenchy Bag” pattern. It makes me so happy to carry this around. I love it! This project took about an hour to cut out and about 2 hours on my sewing machine…and I am a beginner! My husband makes fun of me. He thought a sewing machine for Christmas would mean nicely hemmed pants. I beg to differ!
views of home….
Usually about this time of year, I am headed home to Nova Scotia with the children for a 6 week visit. But we are not going to Nova Scotia this year. I am feeling a little home sick. I have been looking at some pictures from home of my favourite views. Like: Kingsport Beach. Blomidan. I once had a summer job when I was a teenager planting these fields with cabbages. Only when I got older did I appreciate the real beauty of this field.
Organizing Your Children’s Year End School Papers
Since it’s that time of year with school ending and children arriving home with an overflowing backpack (and more) of ‘treasures’ from their desk…I thought I would share how I store and save my children’s school papers from year to year. I came up with this system about 6 years ago. My daughter had just finished Grade 3 and my son was still in pre-school. All of my daughter’s school papers were stored, messily, in an under the bed box. I thought that method was keeping me “organized”. As she was finishing her fourth year of school and I was Read More »
the story of the disconnection of the grade 8 brain….
Intriguing title, isn’t it? My daughter will want to kill me when she reads this. She won’t think this is very funny. On an ordinary school day, my oldest arrives home around 3pm. My son, although 4 years younger, does not finish school until around 4 pm. So on this particular day, when my daughter arrives home from school, we decide to take our 4 legged little girls for a walk, but we decide to drive to Tyler’s school and use his school as our starting point. This makes it easier as when we get back from our walk, as we meet Tyler at Read More »
a little gift…
Today is my little guy’s last day of school. We like to give the teacher a little year end gift to say thank you for a great year. Tyler loved his teacher. Madame Mariette. {My children attend French Immersion schools, so their whole day is in speaking and writing in French} Madame is wonderfully warm and kind-hearted to her students. She does many ‘little’ things for them…like making each child a special bag just for their gym clothes. And when Tyler’s gym bag suffered a big rip, she sewed it back up for him at recess. “Mom, Madame is so nice!” Read More »
ordinary days…
Nothing special happened today. We didn’t go anywhere special or do anything special. But it was a perfect day nonetheless. I am always so grateful for ordinary days.
I love lists….
I found these great monthly checklists on the Style At Home website. I think they are so pretty and I have printed some off to hang on my bulletin board. You can find the complete set of lists here. Today I am having a spray paint party in my garage. I have lots of picture frames I want to freshen up.
a little jewellery organization…
My ‘jewellery mess’ was a project that I tackled on the weekend. I was keeping my earrings in a pretty white bowl, but that led to a lot of digging and digging and digging. I could never seem to find two matching earrings. I would end up dumping the whole white bowl on the bed to find what I was looking for. This was a source of frustration to me because I am just like everyone else in the morning…. in a hurry to get dressed and downstairs to make a lunch or drive a child to school. So I went to the local Read More »
Easy Sloppy Joes
Sloppy Joes. I loved this meal as a kid. I never knew whether my mom made them from scratch or a package, but they were always so good. I haven’t made sloppy joes for my family much over the years. Maybe a handful of times. But then I stumbled on a recipe for homemade sloppy joes. This recipe was just the right punch of spicy, but not too spicy, and very,very tasty. The ‘joes’ disappeared in no time and everyone had happy tummies. Here is the recipe that I used…I think it came from “Taste of Home” magazine a few years ago. Sloppy Read More »
a time for work and a time for play…
I accomplished lots of cleaning/organizing this weekend. And when I was done, I treated myself to this…..(above). My boys were away at a hockey tournament this weekend….so the house was super quiet. Hunter, like the good girl that she is, has been studying all weekend for her final exams coming up. I took the opportunity to get down and dirty with some things on my ‘to-do’ list. I cleaned out the big closet by the front door. I cleaned/re-organized the storage/laundry room. Took a load of stuff to Goodwill. Cleaned out a full bag of trash from these areas. It felt so good Read More »
Melt your heart.
Day 52 in the Gulf of Mexico. I feel so sad. I find it so hard to look at and think about all the wildlife and ecosystems being destroyed there. I feel frustrated that we can send people into space and build nuclear weapons. But we cannot stop this. I am worried about my home province of Nova Scotia. I think of it’s beautiful shores and how it will be affected if the Gulf Stream carries the oil north. I went to my regular yoga class today and our teacher Jana had lots to share with us. She began our practice Read More »
What I love about my house….
This post was inspired by Grace over at Sense & Simplicity….who is one of my favorite bloggers. She did a lovely post about the things that she loved about her home and I am going to follow her example. First let me say that it took a long time for me to love my house. We had made a coporate move for my husband’s job…..placing us 3000 miles across the country and leaving our newly built dream home behind in another province. We had just completed a custom built home with a beautiful kitchen and I never imagined that we would be leaving it in just Read More »
A nice and new Saturday night ritual….
For the last few Saturdays we have been making this dish……the Pioneer Woman’s Pico de Gallo. All I can say is YUM-MEEEE! Fresh tomatoes, onion, cilantro, jalapeno peppers, lime juice, salt. So good and so fresh. We made this for dinner on Saturday and had it with bbq’d chicken breasts, french baquette with olive oil and a little red wine. It was so simple and so good. Later on, we had some more pico de gallo with tortilla chips for our movie night. The fresh chopped cilantro makes it so amazing. If you haven’t tried this recipe, I highly recommend it. Read More »
passionate about picnics…..
Lately, I have been obsessed with picnics…pictures of yummy food and beautifully packed baskets are swirling around my brain. Maybe it was the long winter with 2 {!!!} snowstorms in May or what…but I am dreaming of summer picnics with my family. I love this picnic with the tartan picnic blanket, the lovely wicker basket and the dainty food. The wine sure looks good too. This would make a nice backyard picnic for friends. The food is already set up for serving. Every picnic needs a well-packed cooler with frozen ice packs. This picnic is a feast of yummy-looking salads Read More »
I love when inspiration strikes…
There has been a blank wall in our powder room for 5 years. It has needed something, but I could never make up my mind as to what. I was thinking a large 8×10 {or bigger} picture. I have looked and debated over pictures at Homesense many times. The other night when I was flipping through an old Pottery Barn catalogue of bathrooms, I saw a picture which made me run for the hammer. The best part was that I already had what I needed: a small picture and a starfish. I love when inspiration strikes! This post has been Read More »
the lake of shining faces…
When Matthew was bringing Anne home to Green Gables for the very first time, she poured her heart out to him about all her wishes and dreams for the future, whilst charmingly describing all the pastoral beauties of PEI that her eyes could see. The first lake she saw on her way to the farm, she named the “The Lake of Shining Waters”..simply for it’s beauty and the way it made her feel. I will always refer to this day as the “Lake of Shining Faces”. On a bright, sunny Saturday, we took our boat out for the very first time. And by Read More »
a little mudroom tidy-up….
I have been on a mission around the house for the past few days. Tackling all those little jobs and areas that need attention. And the above is what was accomplished today. I had been staring at this little mess in the mud room for far too many weeks. There hung 2 bulletin boards…one for each child. I have found over the years that the best system for me for school papers is a visual system. In previous years, I have have kept notices, permission slips, etc. in a binder. And I have tried a system with papers in a file folder. But the best system Read More »
what you can do in a day….
You can admire the lilacs that grow in your yard. And wish that you had a pretty white pitcher to put them in. But wait. You do have a pitcher. It’s just not white. But with a can of spray paint….you can make it white. I love my ‘new’ pitcher. It’s just the perfect place for pretty flowers. You can tackle a project like this in a few easy steps: Choose your makeover object. Pick your spray paint. There are lots of colours to choose from. Take your object into a well ventilated place to spray. I use my garage…I Read More »
menu planning for the week….
(image from Amy Butler) Lately, I have been on a kick where I have been looking for meal ideas which are super easy peasy. For a long time, I have been cooking from recipes, but there are times when just simple and homemade will do. One thing that we really enjoy are pita bread pizzas. I just chop up ingredients and shred some mozzarella and then we can all choose our fav pizza toppings. And after putting the pizzas in the oven for 10-15 minutes and whipping up a green salad, our supper is ready. The meal plan for this Read More »
Kids’ Art Gallery Wall…
This is a project that I have been working on for a few months. I ‘ve been collecting my children’s art from closets and Rubbermaid totes in the hopes of creating an ‘art gallery’ in our lower level family room. I have been gathering up any frame not is use from around the house and snapping up any frames I could find on sale for $7.00 or less. The images below are but a few that have inspired me to create this project. I love the eclectic look of the different frames, mismatched frame colours, textures and variety of pictures. I think Read More »
menu planning for the week…
I love spring weather not only because of the warm temperatures but also for the gradual changes that appear in our meal choices. Although no one feels like a sandwich when the snow is swirling about, a paninni on the grill makes everyone happy when things are looking green and lush outside. And is there anything that hits the spot like warm sun on your face, a sandwich with a few chips and veggies on the side along with a tall glass of iced tea? My kids love this kind of meal. Monday-Steak, small potatoes in Montreal Steak Spice with a green salad. Read More »
Living with what you love….
I recently picked up the latest issue of Country Living magazine, and discovered an article about this new book…… I was immediately inspired to dispatch myself to the local bookstore to search out this book. The book wrapped it’s pages around me like a warm blanket. I love, love, love the sentiments inside it’s pages. It’s not about buying new, buying old or buying anything. It’s about displaying what you already own and love. Anyone who knows me, knows that I have long had an affair with pictures. Pictures from both the past and the present. This love is what has led Read More »
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