Whew!!!!! A Busy Weekend!

No I didn't become a firefighter but I did get a bit of a taste of what it is like with a visit today to a local fire station. At a cancer support centre fundraising event last fall, one of the prizes up for auction was a meal and tour at a fire station. So today 6 of us went to Station 2 and suited up! Yes, boots, pants, jacket and hat(photos in the slide show below)! We did try the oxygen tank separately and we won't mention how heavy a bag of hoses is or many of the other tools a firefighter has to carry. We did climb across the aerial ladder in full gear after which the basket was extended for about the equivalent of 10 stories! We also got a taste of how heavy a hose is when its only at half pressure. Then we rode around a large block in a pumper truck and finished with a tour of the station. Pat, one of the firefighters, prepared some awesome food for us, including, prosciutto and goat cheese wrapped asparagus, coconut shrimp, mandarin almond salad in endive boats with grilled pineapple, vanilla bean ice cream and rum sauce for dessert. It was a terrific afternoon! And the Fire Dept photographer was there, so although I did get a few pics, they will send us some more and I'll be sure to share them!

Then yesterday we participated in the 5 km ALS fundraising walk(thanks to all of you who sponsored us!), then made a quick trip to Ikea for shelves and a desk for Brittany's room and finally went to a surprise 30th anniversary party for Jeannie and Rob(they were surprised!).

Friday night we battled the traffic (both ways) and attended a Blue Jays game. This was my first time watching a game from a box and boy was that comfortable with a great view! Unfortunately the Jays lost though.


Here's a few pics I took this weekend:

And now its Sunday evening, I'm doing laundry and making sure Brittany is ready for her school trip to Quebec City that leaves at 6 am tomorrow morning!

Altered Watering Can

Tonight was another gathering at Go Scrapping this time to reveal our dollar store watering can creations.

I'm pretty pleased with this creation, I used up some chipboard I had, painted then layered flowers and buttons on. I then added some glitter with Stickles. I attached them to bamboo skewers with wire and glue then arranged them in some oasis I attached to the inside of the can. I arranged some basket filler to hide the oasis foam once all the flowers were placed. I added a bit of ribbon to the handle and some paper and flower embellishment to the front of the can along with the sentiment of 'wishing you well'.

All of us had the idea of adding flowers to our watering cans although Karen kicked hers up a notch and created a wind chime. I'm sure she'll have pics of all the creations on her blog soon.

She taught us a great resist technique and I'll show the end product in another post very soon.

And next month's challenge is to create something with eyeglasses! Yes you heard me, eyeglasses! I really need to think about that one!

Quick and Easy Baked Rice Pudding

I love rice pudding. Do you think most people like rice pudding? OK, some people don't like it with raisins but I certainly do. Recently I had some leftover rice and went searching for an easy rice pudding recipe. I found one, not sure where now, for a baked rice pudding. So I tried it and did like it. If I were to make it again(and I will), I'd stir it more frequently than it suggested, add more rice and maybe add a bit more cinnamon but other than that it was good.

Here's the recipe:

3 slightly beaten eggs
2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups cooked rice (I'd up it to 2 cups, maybe even 2 1/2 cups)
1/2 cup sugar ( maybe a tad more with 2 1/2 cups rice)
1/2 cup raisins(again maybe a few more with more rice)
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
ground cinnamon

Combine eggs, milk, rice, sugar, raisins, vanilla and salt. Bake in 10 by 6 by 2( I used and 8 by 8 by 2) dish at 325 for 25 minutes, stir, sprinkle with cinnamon.Continue baking till knife inserted halfway between centre and edge comes out clean.(Next time I'd stir every 15 minutes or so over the entire baking time of 45-50 minutes. Serve warm, if desired. Serves 6.

Enjoy!



PS My photo of the rice pudding was not good so I used one I found on the internet. My pudding looked very similar but did include raisins.

Backyard Renovation - After

Finally, here is the slideshow of our backyard as it looks now. Actually, I took these photos on May 24 and in looking at them today, I've noticed how much things have really grown already! The Fringe Tree is now in bloom as are some roses. I've added dill and nasturiums to my herb plot since as well. There are still a couple of shrubs to be planted and a medium sized fountain to be installed. I'll post some more photos in a couple of weeks to show some closer views of some of our special speciman shrubs/plants and the fountain.

For now, Steve and I are really liking how the yard has come together, it beautiful to look at and with the larger pines that surround our yard, is very private. We even have a chipmunk who has now moved in! I'll try to get a pic of him sometime. I'm really looking forward to spending lots of summer afternoons in the yard reading or maybe just relaxing!

Hello Sunshine!

While scrapbooking yesterday I created a couple of cards in between layouts.

The first is 'hello sunshine' for DCM where we were to create a card based on weather.



This card is created from one sheet of paper! I cut the sun and clouds out and mounted them on foam dots. Sunshine was created using a quickutz font(Emily I think) and I also used the threading water border punch.



Hello is stamped with a CTMH stamp. Overall this was a quick card to create and very cheery in appearance I think.

Then I made 'sending my love' for the Use It challenge this week. Carla suggested we use only scraps, bling, diecuts and 4 or more patterns.



I used various Prima scraps from one of my Bad Girls kits, then created butterfly diecuts with the Martha royal butterfly punch. I blinged up the butterflies then of course used the threading water punch again!



Sending my love is stamped with a CTMH stamp and accented with a blingy(sp?) heart! I really like how these Prima papers all work so beautifully together.

Crop for a Cure

I'm just back from a fun day of scrapping with proceeds to fight cancer.

I Did get a fair bit accomlished and socialized too. Since it was in St.Jacobs we hit up a couple of stores, I'm loving The Weathered Gate right now.

In a Pinch as well as the Scrapping Turtle were at the crop with In Pinch offering this free make and take:



I'm really liking this card and the stamping of the envelope too!



Will share more tomorrow!

A Couple More Planters and a Picnik

Here'a a couple more planters from our garden.

I always plant the birdbath with flowers and last year I was so pleased with the impatiens decided to do them again.



Then we've had this big terracotta pot that sat on our deck filled with herbs for many years. As I now have a garden spot for herbs, we moved this to an open garden spot and filled it with some of my favourite annuals, daisies, heliotrope and fushia.



On a completely different note, I've been toying with the idea of asking for Photoshop for my birthday and found a free online photo editing tool called Picnik.

Here's what I did to the planter pictures using Picnik and the free focal black and white option.






Pretty cool eh? I think I could get into this photo editing stuff!

Something We Should Read Every Week

Written By Regina Brett, 90 years old, of The Plain Dealer, Cleveland , Ohio

"To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me... It is the most-requested column I've ever written. My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone...
4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.
8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first pay check.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.
12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.
16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.
19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.
24. The most important sex organ is the brain.
25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words ’In five years, will this matter?'
27. Always choose life.
28. Forgive everyone everything.
29. What other people think of you is none of your business.
30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.
31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
32. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
33. Believe in miracles.
34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.
35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.
37. Your children get only one childhood.
38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.
41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
42. The best is yet to come.
43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
44. Yield.
45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.

Listen to Your Heart and Thanks for Being You

I decided to create a couple of cards based on this week's CPS sketch as well as Laura's sketch at 2S4U. Two sketches is having a card showdown so we'll see if I break the top 30( I think the competition is pretty tough though).

As usual I dug into my stash to create both cards, I love creating cards using only what I have on hand!

Listen to Your Heart


This is my card for 2S4U and it features stamps by Tim Holtz, love their distressed look. I popped the stamped images up over two layers, one of my favourite techniques.

Thanks for Being You



This is my card for CPS and features stamps by Inkadinkado. I'm still liking the circle punch and spellbinders dies!

I'd love to know what stamps you like that you keep using over and over?

Backyard Renovation - During

The slide show below shows the state of the backyard after the old deck was ripped out, gardens removed and prep work done.

All this work was done last fall shortly before we got our first snow fall of the winter season.

After pics will be posted soon.

Blooming in the Garden Today

Dianthus



Weigela
Lilac
Delphinium
Iris
Poppy

Backyard Renovation - Before

Late last fall and continuing into this sping, we have undertaken a backyard renovation.

I'll show the before, during and current over the next week or so in a few posts.

The slide show below shows the 'before' state.

When we moved into the house it had a one level(upper deck) and we added a second (lower) level wood deck. As the house is now about 25 years old the upper level deck and pergola were really starting to show deterioration and required a lot of maintenance. So we bit the bullet and had all the decking and pergola ripped out. We also removed a couple of trees to reduce crowding and make room for a hot tub(Steve's wanted one for years) and new garden beds.

Another goal of our the redesign is to reduce yard and deck maintenance, we'll see if that works!

During photos to be posted soon!

It Arrived!

Remember this?




I submitted it to the Papercrafts blog and it won.


Well my prize recently arrived and included 2 magazines, glitter, stamps and flock!



I've enjoyed browsing through these magazines and found some great inspiration. The card purse from yesterday was designed after one I saw in Card Creations. I've got some other fun ideas brewing too! Stay tuned!

Monogram Card Set

This week's Be Inspired at CCC is to create a monogram card set or card.

I decided to go for it and create a set!




I used an 'R' stamp I received for my birthday last year, along with some new African gold embossing powder to create the monogram. Then using my cuttlebug and spellbinders cut them out.



I then used some Amy Butler paper and various embossing folders and border punches to create four cards.



I finished up by creating a holder for the cards. Hmm, I guess I'll need to give these cards to someone whose name starts with 'R'!

Have a great day everyone! Enjoy the sunshine!