Merry Christmas!

I know it's Christmas day, but I just thought I'd pop in for a quick sec to wish you all a Merry Christmas! Hope you got something nice! :)

My New Toy

Guess what I got today? One hint... it starts with 'C' and ends with 'ricut'! I'm SO excited! I have a few projects I'd like to try, but I promised my hubby I wouldn't start playing with it until after Christmas... as it's my present. The lady I bought it from included 2 extra mats, a new blade, and 6 awesome cartridges! Hooray for awesome people!!!
Anyways, I look forward to sharing my projects with you.

New kitchen floor

So I just posted that our house is for sale, and has been for a while. We had the UGLIEST lino EVER in our kitchen. I'm not sure who would EVER have chosen to put something that horrible in a home. It probably wasn't that bad... but I hated it. When we got married 5-1/2 years ago, I thought painting the kitchen green was a great idea. I also like the orange cabinets then, too.
Our house wasn't selling, we were sick of getting lookers and them all saying the same thing. "The paint needs to be re-done, and the lino needs to be replaced." We decided it was a good idea to buy some cheap lino, get it installed, paint the kitchen a nice, neutral grey/brown, and see what happened.

Please don't mind the mess. Here is before. See what I mean about the 'orange' cabinets?

Another before.

A before shot of my wonderful lino.

I finished painting!

New paint, old floor.

Better view of new paint, old floor. I already LOVE the new paint! Don't know why we didn't do this years ago! It even makes the cabinets look less orange!

 Here is where the 'afters' start. I'm SO in love with my new kitchen, my husband is scared I'll never want to leave!

This is the new paint and new floor together. Ahhh... it looks SO much better.  Even better now  that the table  and stuff is back in there, but my kids are eating right now, so I'll have to get a picture of the dining room later. 

Another view of the paint and floor...

Don't mind my goober child. He was SO excited to play on the new floor!

Ahh. The stove is no longer in the garage!

LOVE the picture I found for above the sink.

Like my key holder?

Well, there 'ya have it. My new kitchen! As I get stuff cleaned up and moved back in, I'll take some better pictures. I just love it! I really can't believe we put off doing this for so long!

Waiting...

Our house has been for sale since July. We were super excited to move... to start over in a new home, to paint, to make something ours... for our boys to have more of a yard to play in. A couple weeks ago, our realtor came and told us that the people that lived in the home we were really interested in were interested in trading homes with us. We were so excited! I boxed up almost all of the kids' toys, we put a bunch of stuff into storage (ALL my crafty stuff), and we waited. A week before our set moving date, something didn't work out on their end, and the deal fell through. Now, I'm taking stuff back out of boxes so my kids can at least play, but the crafty stuff is still tucked away. I just want to be creative again!
Anyways, I'm not sure what I was hoping for out of this post. Maybe just to vent? We have someone else interested in this house now, and we've found something else. It's an old home... built in 1958, but it has so much character! I really hope everything works out, because I can already picture what colors I'm going to paint everything. Is that bad?
I can't wait to give you all a tour of our new home... IF we get one... and show you all the work we've done.
Some day.
Hopefully soon.

New and Fresh!

Hi! I was getting a little sick of how my blog looked, so I decided to 'spruce it up' a little! It ended up being a major over haul, and a lot more work than I thought it would be. Things didn't save when I wanted them to, my kids would hit buttons and delete things... it was a crazy morning.
Anyways, I hope you like it!
Let me know what you think!

What I did with my window.

So, my last post was all about the window I refinished. Our house is for sale, so I decided I'd keep the color the same, and decide if it would look better in a different color in our new house. Not sure where we're going yet, so I guess this is a waiting game.
Anyways, my window looked a little naked on my wall, and I knew it needed something to perk it up a little. I love banners, so I made a simple one.

I used just simple scrapbooking paper, traced letters from my computer (because I didn't have a stamp big enough), and cut them out! Oh, and I rubbed ink along the edges to give it a 'finished' look.

This is a close up so you can see the ink on the edges.

There! Now my window doesn't look quite so naked! What do you think?

My Window.

Wow! It's been a while since I posted! Our house is for sale, and all my crafty/creative stuff is packed away in storage so to not make our house seem too crowded.
Although I haven't been posting, I have been following some great blogs. One of my favorites is Cozy.Cottage.Cute. I absolutely LOVE everything that girl does. She has a fondness for old windows, too. She put up this great tutorial for how to finish a window. She put mirrors in hers, which is  a good idea too, but I didn't want mine to be too heavy. Check her blog out.
A few months ago, I found a great old window at a garage sale for about $5.00. I've always loved the look of an old window finished just right, but have never loved the price that comes along with them. $100? For a crusty old window? I just couldn't justify it, no matter how great it looked in my home. After Sarah put up her tutorial, I knew just what I would do.
The $5.00 window I found looked like this.

It was in (mostly) great shape. The glass had little paint splatters on it, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get them off, or get all the grime off the glass. I decided the glass needed to come out. As I was taking the glass out, one of the inside window bar things (yes, that's a technical term) fell out. I used some 'No More Nails' to hold that in place, and, voila, it was good to go!

Next, I primed the whole window with 'Exterminator'.

I didn't sand before I primed, because I wanted the window to have lots of texture when I was finished.

After priming the window, I im-patiently waited for it to dry. Next came painting. I chose the cheapest white I could find at Benjamin Moore.

I waited... again... for paint to dry.

When it was dry, I took some sandpaper and sanded the crap out of it. I did the edges first, just to give it a natural weathered look. Then, I sanded the flat pieces lightly, just so the wood would show through a little.

Final result didn't show up as well as I'd hoped in pictures, but here's a couple shots. I think I'm in love!

My dear husband is not a huge fan of the whole 'paint something white and sand it all off to make it look old' thing, and he thinks I should re-paint this window dark, DARK navy blue or charcoal and try it again. What do you all think?

James' Farm Cake

Wow! Can hardly believe it's been so long since I posted something on here!
I finished the birthday cake for my son's 4th birthday party today. It's not his birthday til tomorrow, but I just wanted it to be done. He wanted a farm cake with "a barn and with cows and with sheep and with pigs", and this was the only way I could think of to do that for him. I didn't take pictures as I was making it, but here's the finished product. Oh, and since I HATE red food dye, I used strawberry jam to make the pink. Enjoy!

These are the cows... (mommy ones and baby ones, I've been informed)

These are the pigs... (again, mommy and baby ones)

And these are the sheep... (you guessed it)

And this is the 'almost' finished product. I just need to add a little fence (pretzel sticks), and we should be good !

I hope he likes it!

A Picture a Day for 7 Days... Day 3.

I love these pictures. They were both taken a few days ago. This is my little boy, Tyler. I just love the character in his little face! We go for lots of walks by the river here, and both my boys just love being outside. Tomorrow's pics will be of my bigger boy... I'm not playing favorites, I promise!

Thanks again for checking out my pictures!

A Picture a Day for 7 Days... Day 2.

One of the things I love most about living in British Columbia, is our GORGEOUS mountains. This one is Mount Cheam. We get to see this beauty every day!

Thank you for popping in to take a look! Be sure to check out the other blogs participating in this photo 'challenge'.

Dawna from That Country Place

Mamamonki from Adventures of Being a Mom

B&B's Mama from B&B's Nest

Robyn from Out of Ours

And, of course,

Sarah from Cozy Cottage Cute 

A Picture a Day for 7 Days... Day 1.

I got this idea from one of the blogs I follow (Cozy Cottage Cute), and thought it would be easy enough to do myself. I'm kind of in the middle of lots of little crafty things right now, but nothing finished to post.

So, here goes! My first photo, of 7. This was taken yesterday while we were walking by the river. The blue herons are nesting, and I just thought it looked so cool!

Yes, those are all heron nests. Another month and all the baby herons will be hatching, then they'll be gone until next year.

I'm working, I promise!

I've got a few things in the works right now that I'm planning to get done tonight. With hubby off working nights, that leaves me with lots of time for finishing things off. First up? A crocheted soft girly flower to go with my softer brown baby hat. After that, I've got to make 2 frog toques for a friend's little boys. Hopefully I'll get them done and have pictures up tomorrow!!!

A Coat Rack and a Mini Chair...

After deciding (months ago) to paint the downstairs of our hose I took everything out of the entranceway, painted a single coat, and that was it. I knew it needed another coat, but I lacked motivation. Anyways, it's now several months later, and we've just been throwing our coats, mittens, toques, scarves... everything... onto our big chair in the living room and the end of the banister. I was getting kind of sick of it, so I went out and bought some wood and some stain today. I made a coat rack that I am more than proud of! I think it turned out great! I even made a shelf on top so I could put our mittens, toques, scarves *winter gear* in little baskets and keep them on top! Pretty clever, eh? Here's what it looks like...

Here it is!!! All stained and perdy...

I did SUCH a good job, it didn't even fall when I hung stuff on it!

Now to just put the baskets on top, and it will be finished!

 I picked up this tiny little kids chair for $2 today. Yes, only $2. I wasn't sure I liked color, because it was more pink than red. Oh well, I had already bought stain, so I could fix it!

Before I did anything to it.

I LOVE what the stain did to it! Especially on the seat. I just wiped it on and wiped it off, letting it get thicker on the edges.

I decoupaged some newspaper-looking scrapbook paper to the legs, although now I think I shouldn't have.

Another shot of the seat, just because I love it so much.

And there you have it! I'd say I've had a pretty productive afternoon!

SO excited!!!

Wanna know why? Last night, at my Epicure meeting, someone fell in love with Tyler's frog toque... and ordered 6!!! Yes, you heard me, she ordered 6! My first order!

An Owl...

So I made Tyler his frog toque and was wondering what to make for James. He came with me to the wool shop and picked his own colors and told me he wanted an owl. The pattern is the same as the frog one... it's just a standard ear-flap toque.

 I'm quite pleased with how it turned out, and I must say that I'm getting quick, too! This one only took me 2 hours!

James, showing off his new toque. Sorry for the 'lack of shirt'.

A close up. I just LOVE my boys' blue eyes!

And a 'still shot'.

Well, that's my latest creation! Please feel free to let me know what you think!

...Ribbit...

What a productive crochet week this has been! 2 little girl hats with flowers and this absolutely adorable little frog toque for my littlest man. I kind of went by this hat (she had a pattern, I just don't remember where I found it now) and made it more 'frog like'. Tyler's got to be THE cutest little frog EVER!

Sorry it's so blurry... he's a very wiggly baby!

Love how the eyes turned out.

A still shot. Cute, eh?

I love that I've decided to try my hand at hats and things! Making those little stuffies was fun, but really, REALLY tedious. Let me know what you think of these!

Today was a crochet kind of day...

I found this great little crochet blog the other day called The Dainty Daisy. Instantly, I fell in love. She has SO many beautiful things! Anyways, she has this free pattern for a shell stitch beanie, and I figured I needed to try it out right away. I only have boy babies, so I never get to make flowers, ruffles, or ANYthing pink, but I made an exception here. Isn't it darling?

 I thought a cute little pair of Mary Jane shoes would go absolutely perfect with this, so I looked and looked and came across this pattern. I don't remember where I found it now, but here she is! I just love it! I want a set for myself!

Another shot of the flower. I just love it!