Coast to Coast Canada - Part 1, PEI

We went coast to coast this summer. We live on the east coast of Canada. Our family lives out west. And we had 2 vacations. The first was camping on PEI which we try to do every summer. The second was a flight out west to BC to see family. Both vacations were really wonderful. Here's a little taste of both.
First PEI, camping with friends:

 Big Bike Ride

 Spaghetti Supper

 Lazing around the campfire

 Ready to boogie board

 We bury J every year

 The manditory pic of my kids on the beach

 Me with my sleeping beauty

 A Canucks fan on the red sands of PEI

 Enjoying the beautiful scenery

 Gorgeous View

 A little local brew

 Of course we roasted marshmallows

 Anne - oh wait, that's me

 A fisherman's salute

 Cows! - No trip to PEI is complete without it - best ice cream in the world!

 

Photo Wall

This little project cost me very little and was a lot of fun to do.  I had all these frames in a box.  I had piles of photos sitting in their envelopes.  What good was that to anyone really?  I decided to devote part of my summer holiday time getting stuff up on the walls, making our home a little homier. 

Once I chose the right pictures for the right frames, I laid them all out on my bed and played with the order they would go up on.  I'm pretty pleased with the results.  The 'S' is our last initial.  I found it for $1.50 at Michaels and painted it black at home (I used sticky tac to hang it).  The letters for "Family" I cut out of a piece of black wall stick on strips (see DIY Wall Stick-Ons).
One of my favorite parts of the wall is the 2 pictures of my husband and I side by side.  One is on our wedding day and one is just before our 10 anniversary - similar pose, 10 years later.

Haters Gonna Hate!

I get a kick out of them.  You know who they are too.  The haters.  I find them hilarious.  They spend their time stalking out articles on Yahoo! et al just to state how horrible things are.  You know, because they are so superior to the rest of us.
They come in many forms.
Form 1 - the Yahoo! readers who critique all articles ever written by a Yahoo! writer.  Granted, I've read my fair share of poorly written, poorly edited 'news' but, don't you find it comical the amount of people who write comments about how lame Yahoo! writers are?  Really?  Then why do you continue to read it?  And then spend your precious time writing about it?
Form 2 - the "This is news?" people.  Those who stalk celebrity articles: who broke up, who wore what dress better, whose child is now driving, who wrote a break up song about someone else...If you don't think an article is worth it, then why are you clicking and reading enough to comment?
Form 3 - the find a topic (usually Facebook), read the article and then claim how much better you are than the rest of us because you generally disapprove of and would never partake in the topic at hand.  Yes, yes you are so much better than me because you don't use Facebook, how silly of me to use it myself. ;)
Form 4 - The anti-bloggers - those who pour over blogs (which last I checked were personal journals written for the general amusement of those who write them) and then proceed to bash the blogger's point of view, or, feel the need to correct them on something.  Well, whatever works for you I guess.  I just find you amusing.

Kid's Art Wall

 My son had this large, blank space on his wall that was begging for something - just what, I wasn't sure.  I'd played around with the idea of bookshelves, of storage shelves and art displays.  This idea I liked, I liked a lot.  It was very simple to do and quite effective.  Everything I needed, I already had in the house (which was a bonus).
I used the same idea I just finished with in the kitchen with the DIY Wall Stick-Ons for the wall title.  Then I measured and cut lengths of hemp rope (left overs from my jewelry making days found in my craft box), knotted the ends and pinned them to the wall.  I attached clothespins on the lines and clipped up some of my son's most recent art (he just finished a week at "Bug Zone" Bible Camp - can you tell?).  He likes it, I like it (and his brother likes it too and has asked for his own version to go up in his room next).
One more project down - how many more can I get done before school starts again?

DIY Wall Stick-Ons

We've all seen them around, wall stick-ons (I don't know if that's their real name, but that's what I'm calling them. You know the vinyl stick on art pops that just adds a little something to your room. Most of the phrase ones say something like "Family" or "Live, Laugh, Love" in a fancy font. I liked this idea a lot, but I wanted my own words of choice up there.

I didn't find these words in a store (though I did look), I made them.  I bought a plain black strip of Wall Pops from Kent (my local hardware/everything store).

And because I don't own a Cricut (though it would be awesome and so much easier if I did), I typed the words I wanted out in Word, chose a font I liked and made it big (this is Matura MT Script Capitals at about a 100 pt size).  I made sure the font I chose would be thick enough to cut out by hand.  Once I had my words, I cut around them and attached them to the wall strip with tape rolls.

I then took to the task of cutting out each letter by hand.  This was time consuming, but I was watching the Olympics as I worked.  I kept each letter in a bowl as I went to keep track of them.
Once completed, I counted out how many letter spaces I had and worked from the middle of my space out to lay out my letters, carefully removing the paper and tape on top.
I'm pretty pleased with the results.  And I have lots of Vinyl strip left.  I plan on making another phrase to hang over a doorway in our living room and have a few ideas for the kids rooms as well.

 

Little Girl Pedicure

Both of my boys were out at a friend's house this morning so my daughter and I had a little bit of girl time on our hand. We decided that we would do our toes. She has been intrigued by me painting my toe nails this summer (really the only time I do it) and has been wanting to colour hers too. I didn't want to use my nail polish on her (she is only 2 and a half) and I remembered my sister-in-law telling me about a non-toxic, child safe polish that was out there. When we visited with her earlier this summer I asked her about it. She gave me a bottle that her daughter was no longer using. It's called 'Piggie Paint'. She bought it at a children's specialty shop. This morning was the first time we tried it out. It went on really easily and my daughter was quite happy to sit in her Tigger chair, admiring her toes while they dried. I think she liked it. This afternoon, she kept taking off her sandals to take a peek. At bedtime she asked if we can do her fingernails tomorrow :)

 

Handprint Art - Great Gift!

I first saw this idea on Pinterest and knew it was something I would want to do. We turned it into two presents. One for my father-in-law and one for my parents. The first is the picture we did for my father-in-law. It has handprints from all 5 of his grandchildren. Each of their names and ages are beside the prints.

The second is the one we did for my parents, using their three grandchildren's prints.

We found everything we needed for this project at Michael's: the frames with the matting inside, the matting board for the prints (I just cut to size), the white paint and a silver marker (for the names and ages). The picture with the 3 hands, we left the matting in as is, but the one with the 5 hands we cut the borders set for the pictures out - this just made it easier to fit all 5 hands - my daughter is 2 and my nephew is 19 so the sizes vary a lot with that one. Both sets of grandparents were quite pleased with these gifts. I'm thinking I'd like to have my own to hang in my own house too!
 

Shopping with my Little Girl

Yesterday I popped into Carter's/Oshkosh with my 2 and a half year old daughter. I don't think I've taken her shopping with me recently because I was just floored with her reaction going into the store. "oooh! Look at the pretty dress Mama!" "oh Mama - bows!" "look necklaces Mama! "butterflies!" "you like this pretty shirt Mama? And on and on she went. Very pleased and very delighted with all she saw. Such a contrast to taking the boys into the store at the same age. They were more the hide under the clothing racks type and giggle about it. Never were they actually interested in the clothes. Even now, as long as the look "cool" and are comfortable they are pretty content.
We did come out with what we were looking for, another pack of her much loved "bow sockies".  They are her favorite and she wears them all the time.  But as one of one pair went missing on vacation and one of another pair has a hole, it was time for replacing.  I'm hoping to catch them on sale one day and stock up.

 

My Hubby's now a blogger!

After watching me blog for some time and toying with the notion himself, my hubby has taken the plunge and joined the blogging community. Like me, he has a need to separate out his thoughts and has created multiple blogs. His blogs are Flavorite Savors (foodie style), Jonathan's Ramblings and Reasons, (general thoughts and occurances), Voice of the Text (insights in his theological studies), and Daily Reading Reflection (his own reflections on his daily bible readings). Welcome to the community honey!