Wordless Wednesday

The Tie Dye Jungle that Wasn't (A decorating fail)

So....

I had all these beautiful ideas for Graysen's room in my head.

But they didn't translate to the real world so well.

His "Tie Dye Jungle" is more of a..... well, I don't know what it is but Tie Dye Jungle it is not.

And I've given up on it.

Because I am frustrated, indecisive and lost.

(Mostly I am frustrated and lost by my indecisiveness)

Blech.

I always feel like the rooms I decorate look so unfinished.

I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that we have nothing but white walls.

Or maybe I just suck at decorating.

I don't know.

I was fairly pleased with how Graysen's nursery turned out but I am not so happy with how his room sits now....

What the hell is up with those leaves!?!?!

Originally, both leaves were over the crib. But that didn't look so hot.

Not that this looks hot at all either.

I am out of ideas and not about to have Ryan drilling holes all over the room until I find somewhere I like them.

Ugh.

This might be the only part of the room I am semi-happy with.

Ryan and I cut up the sheets from Graysen's birthday and stapled them to canvas. The shadow boxes are filled with the balloons from his party.

It took me forever to figure out the arrangement. And I'm still not 100% happy with it.

Ugh.

Okay, so THIS might be the only part of the room I am happy with.

Nope. Strike that.

I'm not happy with the placement of the giraffe, elephant and monkey. The giraffe needs to be facing the other way so it can be eating leaves from the left side of the canvas.

Stupid right-facing giraffe.

(I do love that Hippy Bear, though!)

This quilt was the inspiration for the room. This and the wall stickers. I had the wall stickers from Kadyn's toddler room and Ryan's Great Aunt made this quilt for Graysen.

I really love the quilt. I love that it was handmade by family.

I don't have many keepsakes from my childhood but one thing I do have is a small stash of family-made clothing and blankets. The main reason I kept them is BECAUSE they were handmade by family so it makes me very happy that the boys will also have a few handmade keepsakes.

So that's the room.

I can't help but feel that a coat of paint would complete this room. 

Or at least bring it closer to completion.

Right now, I'm leaving it as is. 

If I keep trying to fix it, I'll just ruin it more.

Fingers crossed some genius idea hits me soon.

Ugh.

Conversations with Kadyn....

Kadyn is a bit of a performer.

You might remember the birthday concert he put on for his brother.... that is every day life around here.

And it's pretty awesome.

Especially with Graysen the Dance Machine grooving along to his brother's jams.

Earlier this week, Kadyn decided to treat us to his rendition of 'Row, row, row your boat.'

It started out as expected.

But the ending?

"Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily...life is not so easy."

Oh, child.....

The Best $20 I Ever Spent

How happy is this little boy?

The cause of this joy?

A $20 tent from Ikea.

Wordless Wednesday

The Most Beautiful Sammich in the World

Remember that time I drunk ice-kayaked? I also mentioned a chicken and brie sammich.

The most beautiful sammich in the world.

I wish I could take credit for the amazingness that is this sammich but I cannot. I must give credit to Earls.

This sammie is so good I will put up with the scantily clad waitress tarts** employed by Earls just to have one.

Well, I used to.

The Cabin Experiment was so successful that I will be making this taste bud party on the regular.

(I've made it twice since the cabin weekend at the beginning of the month.)

And it's so delicious that you MUST make it as well.

Here's what you'll need:

Ciabatta buns
Chicken Breast
Brie Cheese
Granny Smith Apple
Fig Jam
Garlic Mayo
Lettuce or spinach

It is very important to note that substitutions are not acceptable.

They just aren't.

So don't do it.

There really isn't much to making this sammich but there are a couple make-or-break-ems.

The chicken MUST be pounded out quite thin - I'd say about 1/4" at most.

I like to put it in a freezer bag and smash it with a bottle of vodka.

(Because my rolling pin is buried in the back of my pantry and my vodka is right at the front of my cupboard above the fridge.)

The thinness of the chicken is a little on the crucial side.

Thick chicken is not something you want here.

You'll also need to core and slice a Granny Smith apple. (I don't peel it. You can if you want.)

Cook the chicken in a little olive oil and sauté the apples in butter.

You can also lightly butter the ciabatta buns and broil those a little.

Then assemble.

From top to bottom:

Ciabatta Crown
Fig Jam (You can make your own by chopping up dried figs and cooking the crap out of it with some sugar. Easy!)
Brie (and LOTS of it!)
Sautéed Apple
Chicken
Greens (lettuce or spinach)
Garlic Mayo (slightly sauté chopped garlic and add to mayo.)
Ciabatta Heel

And then?

DEVOUR!

And now I want one of these sammies for breakfast.

::Drool::



(**I've had some great servers at Earls. I'm just not a huge fan of their "Servers must have bits and pieces hanging out while on shift" policy. Especially when the girl looks like she's 12.)

Happy Family Day!

Today is Family Day!

In most of Canada anyway.

I guess some Canadians don't want to spend time with their families.

Manitoba is celebrating Louis Riel Day today.

Manitoba? Politicians are boring.

(I'm also looking at you, USA. Presidents' Day? Bo-ring)

PEI is celebrating Islander Day today.

That's kind of cool.

I'd celebrate that.

If I didn't live in a land-locked prairie province.

We're planning on doing some family stuff today.

Crazy, right?

Family stuff on Family Day?

Totally cuckoo.

First on the agenda is a family photo shoot.

I have a CanvasPop Groupon to use and I want a cute family photo. It's a DIY shoot and I'm hoping for some gooders!

(PS If you've never used CanvasPop, you should definitely check them out. I ordered a canvas of the boys last year and had a GREAT experience. I'm very excited to place another order.)

In honour of Family Day and the family photos we're going to attempt, I leave you with some awesomely awkward family photos (courtesy of awkwardfamilyphotos.com)

The funniest part about this one is that I have an almost identical picture of my mother and me. 

Except I was wearing a wide, floral fabric covered headband. 

I so was.

I'm so confused.

NARFTLE THE GARTHOK!!

Even that baby knows it's wrong for a grown man to voluntarily wear a diaper.

I think we'll try to recreate this one.

Conversations with Kadyn...

Kadyn has acquired a couple new pets.

He has named them Bon Voyage and LuLu.

(LuLu was mine when I was a little girl. I still remember how I BEGGED my mother to buy her. I might have even pulled the "If you won't buy me a REAL cat, the LEAST you can do is buy me this cat.")

Bon Voyage (Scout) is Graysen's pal, a birthday gift.

The "rule" in our house is that birthday gifts don't always have to be shared. Especially when Kadyn hoards all the toys and Graysen just wants one. Which happens often.

Earlier this week, Kadyn was playing with his pets, and hoarding toys, and Graysen wanted some Scout time.

Kadyn: Mama! Graysen took Bon Voyage!!

Mama: Aw, sorry buddy. I think Graysen wants some cuddle time with Scout.

Kadyn: Noooooo! His name isn't Scout! It's Bon Voyage!!

Mama: Oh. I'm sorry.

Kadyn. Yeah. And now LuLu doesn't have anyone to play with! What am I going to do!?!?

Mama: Grab one of the other stuffies, babe. LuLu can make a new friend.

Kadyn: No! I want Bon Voyage. Bon Voyage and LuLu are BEST FRIENDS!

Mama: They can still be best friends. LuLu can make new friends, too.

Kadyn: No, she can't.

Mama: Why not?

Kadyn: BECAUSE!!! (said in a tone that tells me the reasons should be obvious.)

Mama: I bet LuLu would love to make some new friends.

Kadyn: UGH!!

Kadyn then facepalms himself and shakes his head.

Kadyn: Mama! LuLu can't be friends with those guys. Bullseye is too curious. Pooh eats all the food. Baby Tad dumps all the water out of the watering can and fills it with dirt. And Elmo spills juice everywhere. You see?

Mama: Oh, yes, I do see. That's terrible.

Kadyn: Yes. It is. Very terrible.......So can you take Bon Voyage away from Graysen and give him back to me?

Gee, You knit?

What did 50 Cent say to his grandmother?

Gee, you knit??

(It's funnier if you say the punch line in your gangsta voice.)

(Don't lie, you have a gangsta voice.)

(Yes, you do.)

About 6 or 7 years ago I asked this gorgeous lady to teach me how to knit.

Whenever I think about that day, I smile. It's definitely a memory that will stay in my heart forever. And every time I pick up my knitting, I think of her.

Grandma O  (Or GG as the boys know her) is a knitter from way back. I have a few things she knitted for me when I was a kid safely tucked away. All these years later, they are still in mint condition and they almost make me wish we had a little girl to pass them onto.

Almost.

Unfortunately I kept up the knitting for only a short time. Another hobby that got pushed aside in the midst of college graduation, working, planning a wedding, having a baby....and here we are.

I'd been meaning to pick it up again.

I mean to do a lot of things.

Just before Christmas I found out one of the ladies sat down with her mother in law and learned how to knit.

I'll jump on that bandwagon!

I didn't stick with knitting long enough the first go around to make anything other than a scarf.

So I started another scarf.

I've been working on this since the week between Christmas and New Years. And I'm not quite half done. (It's going to be a rolled infinity scarf. I don't know if that's a real thing. I might have made it up.)

I'm so over it.

But I will finish it!!

Eventually.

To break up the monotony of straight knitting, I picked up some new wool, needles and a book of simple slippers.

I only managed a slipper and a half (in Ryan's big foot size) before I ran out of wool.

Oops!

On the bright side, it's a piece of cake pattern.

Kadyn asked me to make him a pair of slippers so we went to the store last week to pick out yarn.

Cute, right?

And I turned these out in only a couple hours.

I have a bunch of projects pinned and waiting.

I'm thinking either a hat or leg warmers with big, chunky wooden buttons next.

My goal is make this hat and sweater for Graysen by next winter.

Via www.purlbee.com

I die of cute every time I look at that picture.

Just die!

What about ya'll? Do I have any fellow knitters out there?

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Love Day!! (A Loverly DIY)

It's Valentine's Day, yo!!

I woke up to a super sweet hand-written love note from Ryan.

Nothing like crying at 7 am before you've even had a cup of coffee.

I love that man. He makes me FURIOUS sometimes but I love him. And so do the boys.

The 3 of us have been working on kick ass Valentine for Ryan. (Inspired by Pinterest, of course)

I wanted to share this sooner but the Husband reads my blog and I didn't want to spoil the surprise.

It was pretty simple and fun project but a little time consuming - mostly waiting for paint to dry.

Here's what you'll need:

• Canvas (whatever size you like, we used 18x24)
• Paint (whatever colours you like, we used black, white, red and pink)
• Card stock
• Brushes and sponges
• Craft knife and tweezers
• Self-mending cutting matt
• Spray adhesive
• Paper plates (We only needed one)
• Garbage bags or plastic sheeting 
• The hands and feet of small children

1. Make a stencil.

You're welcome to free hand the writing but I suck donkey balls at that sort of thing.

Choose a simple font, change it to an outline, then print on card stock. (I was running low on ink. Oops!)

2. Once you've printed the text, place it on your canvas to ensure it fits and all that jazz.

3. Cut!

IMPORTANT!!! Don't forget to save the middle parts of letters (b, e, o, p, etc.) 

This is the WORST part of the whole project. I thought my thumb and index finger were going to fall off halfway through and by the end I had no feeling in my right hand whatsoever.

My pain was eased by a half-time puppet show.

4. Once your stencils are ready, glue them to your canvas with spray adhesive. Go around all the edges (outside of stencil and around all letters) with your fingers or a clean paint roller to prevent any bleeding.

Fill in your letters then carefully remove the stencils and let the paint dry.

My stencils were kinda terrible (well, the spray adhesive was kinda terrible) so I 'fixed' the text with a small brush and painstaking precision.

HA!

5 & 6. The fun part!!

If you can do this outside - do it. Seriously. Otherwise find a spot close to a sink or bathtub (we set up shop in the kitchen) and put down a garbage bag or plastic sheet to protect your floor.

Squirt some paint onto a paper plate - we used both red and pink - and tell your kid to stick his hands in it.

GREAT PLAN, NO?!?!

It gets better. 

After handprints come FOOTPRINTS!!!

(This was actually much more fun and much less mess than I was anticipating with my crazy children so it should be a breeze for the rest of ya'll)

A NOTE: I put a couple books under the canvas before we did the hand/foot prints. The wood frame raises the canvas from the floor, the books just give support when the kids are pressing their hands/feet onto the canvas.

Let the paint dry, then go back for touch ups.

I finished it off with a few coats of red on the edges of the canvas.

This will be waiting for Dad when he gets home from work tonight. I'm so excited to see his reaction!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine's Day full of love and chocolate!!

Feelin' the Love

So....I may have had a birthday over the weekend.

Yeah, yeah.

Usually my birthday passes without so much as a second thought.

Literally every year for the past few years I've been told by one person or another, often my mother,  "Sorry, I forgot it was your birthday." Or "I was too busy/couldn't find the time..."

I'm not a person who expects statues, fiestas and parades in her honour but everyone like to feel special now and again - especially on the day of their birth.

This birthday ended up being really, really great.

I'm still smiling about it.

Saturday afternoon we did some shopping.

But this time?

I bought NOTHING but stuff for me.

Can you believe it?

I can't.

I scored a pretty sweet deal on a cute pair of Merrel boots - end of season discounts for the win!! And I did a little stock up of cleansers and cosmetics at Sephora.

I didn't buy a single thing for the boys!!

I'm so proud of myself.

Saturday evening Ryan took me out for dinner.

Big shout out to the severely inebriated adults who left their 4 kids sitting at the entrance to the lounge while they got sloshed. You guys really made my day special!!

After dinner we went to a comedy club.

So much fun. I laughed for at least 90 minutes straight and I so needed it.

I've been feeling so distant from Ryan lately (because he's been working like a freaking dog, I've been spending more time that usual with friends and we've been busy catching up on chores because of Ryan's ridiculous work schedule and my sanity breaks with pals) so it was really nice to spend some adult time together. I've missed my husband.

We had GREAT conversation at dinner - which DID NOT include the kids - and a great time at the comedy club.

Sunday three of my bestest friends took me out to brunch at a groovy cafe in my old 'hood. Nice atmosphere, cute trio of elderly gents jamming out to some Sunday Jazz, delicious food and amazing company.

After brunch we split up. The two ditchers hit the slopes for some skiing while Carmen and I got pedicures, did a little shopping and got our eyebrows threaded.

I feel so blessed to have these ladies in my life. Between last weekend at the lake and yesterday, I've been able to sit back and really, REALLY appreciate what I have in them. Without a doubt they are what got me through this last year. And I feel like I've been able to relearn how to be a great friend without any judgement for any screw ups along the way.

Love each and every one of them like sisters.

And now I feel this strange need to overhaul.....everything.

I think I may have had some epiphanies over the past few months. I'm doing a lot of Hmmmmmm-ing lately.

Another day.....


(PS I got my hands on some pictures from the lake weekend. Don't get all hopped up, it's nothing special, but check it out anyway!)

Have you ever drunk ice-kayaked?

Cause I have!!

Oh, what a weekend!

The first ladies weekend of the year and, man, is the bar set high!


We napped our asses off, laughed our asses off, danced our asses off and drunk ice-kayaked where one of us bruised her ass off.

And we totally out-partied a bunch of 20 year olds who may have resembled part of the cast of Jersey Shore.

Yup, we totally out-partied Snooki, Mike, Ronnie and Vinny.

I'm not even joking.

The Snooki-alike even had a bladder infection.

I shit you not.

All Snooks aside, what a fantastic weekend!

Our ladies weekends are always a great time but we outdid ourselves on this one.

The food - Chai waffles, BACON, Loaded chicken nachos and chicken & brie sammies with cabin-made fig jam and sautéed apples with sweet tater fries.

The drinks - Cake vodka, Red wine and Baileys

The fun - Napping, movie watching, fire-side conversations, frozen lake cruising, drunk ice-kayaking.....

I am so lucky to have found three of the most awesome ladies on earth.

We always have the best time no matter what we do.

And we can out-freaking-party a bunch of kidlettes ten years younger than us!

Yeah, we can!

Wordless Wednesday