Friday, January 31, 2014

Brooks' moves

Kenna borrowed the camera to take a video of Brooks singing a song. Instead of a video, we have lots of pics:-) I think you can actually get the gist of how it all went down, if you scroll through quickly:-)



















Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Snowmaggedon

Well, I don't watch the news much, but I have a feeling global warming is "so last year". Bring on the polar ice caps! I haven't checked for the official records, but this year has been record breaking. In 2010, we had a storm that gave is 10", and that broke 30year long records...not sure if this one topped that storm of 2010 or not but...over all this winter has been worse than...any winter we've had since moving here in 2004. It's never been so cold, for so long, and then 2 "significant" dumps of snow...totally shoulda bought mittens. Haha.

Tuesday: School was let out early in preparation for the coming snow. Brian made it home for dinner, and enjoyed some Grey-Grey snuggles too.
At 5pm, it started to flurry. So at 5pm, there was no snow. At 10pm, there was about 3.5"
Wednesday: Brian calls the Broken Egg Bistro at 6am (location of his weekly men's breakfast). It would seem they are not open. Breakfast canceled. People started calling and texted for work. It's pretty much canceled. Got an email in from church. It's canceled for tonight too.

Things you forget about snow: How bright and reflective it is. Waking up in the night both Brian and I thought a light was on. It was just the snow outside.

Brian decided to head into work around 8am. He said the roads were very messy.
8am - we got about 8" in our front yard. It seems deeper in places, so not sure how the overall measuring should go. 8"-10" I'd say.

You can tell the part that is not frozen:-) The ice looks deceivingly thicker than it is. Kids beware.
The problem: I know that people up north laugh...and I do too:-) This is not a lot of snow in the grand scheme of it all. But here is the issue. No boots. No mitts. No vehicles (or tires) ready. No snow plows. When you are not prepared for snow in any amount, it is a big deal. And preparing for snow you almost never get is a waste of money. So laugh if you must. It is quite comical, really.
It's simply gorgeous
No ice scrapper? No problem. A broom and an old credit card do the trick:-)
Next year I'm going to have boots, snow pants, mittens, car stuff...and I won't even use it once, right?!

Our house in the snow



Brooks is the snow lover in the family:-)








I'm not going out there!

Cars2, "comf" blanket, and corn chips at 8:30am. Why not? It's a snow day!

Monday, January 27, 2014

Snow

Well, it's officially been the coldest winter on record here, and the snow has lasted the longest too! This morning I took a picture of the lawn, which had just a little snow remaining, from Wednesday's snowfall.
This afternoon I took another picture, because it's completely gone.
I can't say I'm too sad about that...except they're calling for another snow storm, on Wednesday. Yaaaaay;-)

Cup Places

Having lots of kids running around = lots of dirty cups. My upper dishwasher tray is usually totally full, while the bottom tray is half empty. Mostly, it's all the cups.

So turning two not useful things into something useful. 1) the counter beside the stove. 2) odds and ends coasters with no "matchers" from my Christmas crafts

I had 4 coasters left and they were all "throw aways". The kids and I painted them, and then I sprayed them with the matte sealer to seal it in (just like the coasters)

 
And just as easy as that - a place to put your cup. Then everyone knows you aren't done with it, and no else drinks from it, etc. And you can keep the same cup all day instead of getting a new one each time. And the whole system fits perfectly in that little bit of counter space that is useless for anything else.

I had coaster demo's left over - 2 of them! I'm using the "B" one for Brian, and the flower one for Sonny&May

Sweet Marie Bars

If you want your children to rise up and called you blessed - make these. Works for me, every time:-)
 
They are no-bake, so other than a bit of low temp stove top attention, children can do this without help. (Kenna can make these, I just turn on/off the burner and keep my eye on her for safety, but she's learning very well how to be careful and safe)
 
1/2 C peanut butter
1/2 C brown sugar
1/2 C corn syrup
1 T butter
2 C rice krispies
1/2 C peanuts
ICING:
1/2 C chocolate chips
1 t butter

Warm peanut butter, brown sugar, corn syrup and butter until well softened and mixed. Add Rice Krispies and peanuts. Press into 9X9"pan. Melt chocolate squares or chips and some butter until well blended. Spread over squares.

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Calling the Cheer

Kenna got to "call the cheer" today at half time. This is a big deal, because she sets the pace and tells/reminds the other girls on the squad what to do. She was a little nervous, but she did great! She started her 2nd weekly practice today - and will be learning stunts. This is going to be adorable! (Especially once she ropes Brooks and Grey into doing her routines/stunts with her:-)

Thursday, January 23, 2014

My Wedding Invitations

*warning* this post has a lot of pictures, maybe more than necessary, sorry!

Our wedding invitations. At the time, I liked them. I saw something similar back in 2003, and I decided I could make them. I wasn't really very crafty back then, like at all. But I've always had a pet peeve for homemade things looking...homemade. I think I did a decent job of it, really. A year or so ago I pulled out a wedding box full of invitations extras - And I wasn't really impressed.

I wish I'd been as crafty then, as I am now.

Original invitation pics:



All the enclosures
The invitation to the reception
Inside of reception invite

RSVP card

RSVP envelope

Extra bbq party invitation for all out of town guests

Hotel info, and church locations

Front of hotel info sheet

Back of hotel info sheet


Belly band, holding all the enclosures together

missing the bows, but showing the details, I embossed this

I made - thousands of these little itty bitty bows. Using hot glue. And I had extremely long nails back in those days. It took me forever, and I totally scalded my fingers
Surgery time! I opted for sticky strip instead of hot glue this time;-)
 All done. Can you see the difference to the original? The left hand "white space" is much smaller now, and, I think, a better balance. This was my main dislike.
Fixed

Adding some colour on colour texture with Versamark and Glassy Glaze enamel 



I added the same heat embossed texture to the reply card

removing the bow, I added colour and pearls to the reception invitation


The 3 main elements of the invitation

The "extra" elements - the hotel information, the bbq invite and the reply envelope

Response card and envelope


New belly band, vellum, with heat embossed texture added

enclosures, ready to go!

Ready to go in the envelope!
 Now for display - I had this old shadow box with pics of Kenna in it...
 I made a new false back for it, using black cardstock and lace
 All done!
 
 Now on display in my house!



 
Overall, I am happy with my original invitations, and who knows if I'd choose that again - I'd certainly not NOT choose it, so I think that is saying something:-) With the few tweaks I made, improving the originals, but not really changing them much...I just think they are a little more "me" now.

This is how I would have done them 11 years ago, had I had the knowledge and skill I have now:-)