Beautiful Inspirations

2011-11-15T23:16:00.000-08:00

Taking a technology break.

We all need one once in awhile.

Will be back in the New Year with new projects and life updates.

Enjoy the rest of 2011!

Stuff. And Some More Stuff.

2011-11-14T10:38:00.000-08:00

Thanks for your input on fabric choices for the new bunting in Hannah's room. I appreciate it! It's so interesting seeing everyone's different points of view and style.

I asked the kids what they thought, and this is what they picked.

Ella's picks: She said it's because she likes flowers. Apparently vintage flowers.

Hannah's picks: She chose her Halloween costume fabric right away, and I made her pick a third. All small prints.

So far I like this combo.

At first I had this fabric in there too, because I really liked the dark pinks and red. They would work perfect. But there is just something about the forest green that throws me off. I don't like it.

I am probably over thinking this.

Anyway...

Ella has had a fever the last couple days. I keep waiting for the barf, but nothing. In fact, right now she is bucking like a bronco on her mattress. She must be feeling better. I think she is getting cabin fever.

Last night while her fever was still high, we moved her mattress in beside our bed so that we didn't have to get up multiple times a night. I would just reach out and check her temperature, and then fall immediately back to sleep. Around the middle of the night the fever broke. Now, we have to figure out how to get her mattress back into her own room. She's not going to go easy, I can tell you that for sure.

We woke up to snow on the ground, which means much more indoor time (panic), which means I bought the huge triple pack of Lysol wipes from Costco (I will be a germaphobe this year and feel no remorse. I cannot relive the constant illness we went through last year). Indoor time also means planning craft time with the kids. I have to do this, or I am inclined to let them watch tv all day. Every day. The temptation is just too strong. So if you have any fun indoor activity ideas, please share! Us stay at home moms need to band together, and maybe start a winter support group. We will get through it!

I had a paper mache project planned for today. Never done that before. Probably because the temptation to paper mache their mouths shut is just too strong. Ok, my youngest just came up and gave me a kiss for no reason, so I'm sort of regretting the last comment now. Sort of. Yes, paper mache could end very badly, but I found this idea online to make bowls, and I want to make one too, so we are going to attempt it. Maybe tomorrow.

Today, we are hanging out in bed and watching Dora (and I am secretly catching up on all my favourite blogs. The girls call it my 'work'. Ha, ha, ha. Tricked you, you silly children!).

like I said, cabin fever

How is your Monday going?

Why I Love Spanx And Melissa McCarthy

2011-11-13T08:35:00.001-08:00

Help, Please!

2011-11-09T11:40:00.000-08:00

I've mentioned before that I'm not happy with the way the banner in Hannah's room turned out. It's ok...at a distance, but I pretty much free-hand cut and sewed them, without a guide. They are a little wonky. It also bugs me that they match too well with the rest of the room. I think rooms look the most comfy and enchanting when they appear to have been added to over time.

When every single thing matches, it looks like it came from a sears catalog. You know, when you buy the 'bedroom suite', so all the furniture matches, and then the matching bedding, curtains, lamp, and laundry basket, and you end up paying it off for years, because it is so flippin' expensive? What's up with the prices? Are they lining those curtains in gold? Before you think I'm off to burn Sears to the ground, we do occasionally shop there, and what Canadian kid didn't grow up giddy for the Sears Wish Book to come before Christmas?

Knock, knock. Tangent? Are you all done in there?

This is what Hannah's room looks like

Aqua and a bunch of different pinks, with some wood tones here and there. I wouldn't mind adding a couple more colours in her future bedding (a project for another time) and the banner.

My problem is that I have a bunch of fabrics I like, and so far I can't pick which ones to use.

I'd like to use an odd number of fabrics(maybe 3-5), and I'd like it to be vintage-y and colourful.

So if anyone is interested, I'd love some input. Which would be your choices?

If You Are Hurting...

2011-11-07T14:01:00.000-08:00

Unredeemed

The cruelest world
The coldest heart
The deepest wound
The endless dark
The lonely ache
The burning tears
The bitter nights
The wasted years

Life breaks and falls apart
But we know these are
Places where grace is soon to be so amazing
It may be unfulfilled
It may be unrestored
But when anything that's shattered is laid before the lord
Just watch and see
It will not be unredeemed

For every choice that led to shame
And all the love that never came
For every vow that someone broke
And every lie that gave up hope
We live in the shadow of the fall
But the cross says these are all
Places where grace is soon to be so amazing
It may be unfulfilled
It may be unrestored
But when anything that's shattered is laid before the lord
Just watch and see
It will not be unredeemed

Places where grace is soon to be so amazing
It may be unfulfilled
It may be unrestored
But you never know the miracle the father has in store
Just watch and see
It will not be
Just watch and see
It will not be unredeemed

The cruelest world
The coldest heart
The deepest wound
The endless dark
The lonely ache
The burning tears
The bitter nights
The wasted years

Life breaks and falls apart
But we know these are
Places where grace is soon to be so amazing
It may be unfulfilled
It may be unrestored
But when anything that's shattered is laid before the lord
Just watch and see
It will not be unredeemed

For every choice that led to shame
And all the love that never came
For every vow that someone broke
And every lie that gave up hope
We live in the shadow of the fall
But the cross says these are all
Places where grace is soon to be so amazing
It may be unfulfilled
It may be unrestored
But when anything that's shattered is laid before the lord
Just watch and see
It will not be unredeemed

Places where grace is soon to be so amazing
It may be unfulfilled
It may be unrestored
But you never know the miracle the father has in store
Just watch and see
It will not be
Just watch and see
It will not be unredeemed

-Selah

Listen to it here

Remember Our Bedroom?

2011-11-04T11:08:00.000-07:00

A loooong time ago....like last year, I blogged once in awhile about the progress in our master bedroom. I tend to get side tracked very easily, and usually have around 5-6 projects on the go at once. I am sure some of you can relate. I get especially side tracked with our bedroom, because despite all my best intentions, it always ends up being the dumping ground room. Again, I am sure many can relate.

When we started the renos in our basement, Matt brought his desk upstairs into our bedroom. At first, I was mad. Like, pouting mad. I so did not want our bedroom turned into an office. Have you ever seen the office of a house designer/builder? Neat and tidy are not the first words that come to mind. But, my dad (who has been absolutely amazing in helping us de-clutter and get our house into order) pointed out that Matt would obviously want to keep the bedroom romantic as much as I would, but where else were we going to put the desk? I felt sorry for my hard working hubby then. So the desk came in and I just close my eyes every time I walk by it. It was ok, because we were going to be building a house in the next year, and I would get my beautiful, romantic, zen bedroom, and the office would be somewhere I never had to see it.

Except now we are not building a house. We are staying here. In this big, lovely house with no office. Sort of a problem when one of your businesses is run from home. So, in this whole effort to make this place more homey and 'us', I came up with a solution. The office has to stay in our room. We are blessed to have a very large bedroom, so there are no other options. But if that is going to happen, then at least it's going to look pretty.

Before I go on, here is what that side of our room looks like

Now you may understand why I've never shown it to you. What a mess. I have enough trouble sleeping without looking at this chaos, thankyouverymuch.

How could I keep a desk in our room and still feel like it was somewhere I could sleep? I started looking into options, and this is what I fell in love with

A wall to wall desk that we could both use. My 'desk' area is currently at our kitchen island, and it would be nice to have a real space. I would like to have a cupboard on each side, a bank of drawers in the middle, and a stained top. We could finish the bottom of the pieces to look more like furniture, like some of the above photos, and less like kitchen cupboards.

The first inspiration photo is from Young House Love, and they found their cabinets at a second hand store for a few dollars each! Wow, I would love that kind of deal. Unfortunately, I think that is a pretty rare find. We are looking into picking up some Ikea cabinets and modifying them to our liking. We will see. We are still in the dreaming and brainstorming stage.

The other thing you may notice is that the wall the desk will be on is huge. I have always struggled with what to do with it. It is a great, grey blank canvas right now, and you can only do so many gallery walls in your home - we have one in Ella's room and one in progress in our hallway.

I LOVE wallpaper. Especially vintage inspired wallpaper. You can even check out my Pinterest board dedicated to it. But A: the guy who shares my room would probably not enjoy it as much as me, and B: wallpaper is expensive. I'll save that idea for my 'one day office'. Then I thought about doing a stencil that was subtle yet impacting. To be honest, I couldn't find anything I loved more than the one used at Young House Love. I had plans to flatter those guys with a full credited reproduction of their office. It's just so pretty. But, you may notice in the photo of our room, that there are a pair of gorgeous curtains (that I meant to blog about 8 months ago when I got them for my birthday, but they are currently hanging by thumb tacks. So I didn't). I just couldn't picture that stencil next to those curtains. And while Matt is amazing with giving me creative license in our house, I know it wouldn't be his first choice.

Then, I came across this from one of my favourite Canadian bloggers, Rambling Renovators

Isn't the detail on the wall gorgeous? They did that themselves. Beautiful!

Matt loves architectural detail, so I knew he would be sold on this idea. Sure enough, there was no hesitation. Even better, is that he said it would be very simple to do and more importantly, inexpensive.

So my idea is to have this detail on the wall, with a wall length desk in front of it. I even love that we could hook up sconces on the wall for each side of the desk, which will free up more desk space for both of us.

Want to see my super professional to scale drawing?

Please don't judge me. I just really like having a visual.

So what do you think? It's a big project, and one we can't afford right now, but I will keep scrounging for deals, and hopefully soon we will have a practical and pretty space.

Seattle Girls Weekend

2011-11-02T11:22:00.000-07:00

Seattle was awesome. Hmm, I feel like I've said that before. This time I went by myself with a girlfriend, so it was a whole different experience.

Like, it only took us about 15 mins to drive down, instead of the typical 7+ hours.

I was so shocked when we crossed the border. The hours had flown by. I think it may have been the lack of screaming, fighting, potty breaks, and just-need-to-get-out-of-this-vehicle-before-I-lose-it breaks. I didn't realize road trips could be that pleasant. I don't know if I can go back to the old way, now that I have tasted the good life. I may have road trip princess syndrome now.

We did some outlet shopping, and then went to The Cheesecake Factory for supper...and dessert. Tuxedo cheesecake, holla! There was a large table of people next to us with a toddler that enjoyed randomly screaming at the top of it's lungs for no apparent reason. Another table close by asked to be seated somewhere else. I was thinking about explaining that I was on a no toddler screaming vacation, but I was afraid they might key our nice British Columbia plated car.

The next morning, we went to the Women of Faith conference. Stacey and I were both a tad apprehensive that it would be a bunch of women with teased peroxide hair and too much blue eye makeup, but we were very pleasantly surprised. When we walked in, the worship had started, and I gotta tell you, hearing five thousand women all worshiping together brought tears to my eyes.

Yep, even I got in some of the pics. I kept forgetting my camera and Stacey kept remembering hers, so I got to be her very uncomfortable subject quite often.

I loved the women speakers. They spoke with authenticity and grace. One minute they would have us holding our stomachs in laughter, and the next you could hear a pin drop as they spoke truth into all of us. The first speaker we heard was Patsy Clairmont. I had never heard of her, but when this tiny little woman climbed up onto the stage, the whole place erupted in applause. I wondered why. This is why:

This isn't from our conference, but it doesn't matter. She always speaks like that. God has given her a gift. Do you know what is even more amazing? She is a former agoraphobic. And now she speaks in front of hundreds of thousands of women every year.

Selah was there and gave us a little concert. They were awesome. Man, if I could sing like Amy Perry, I would never stop. You have to hear her sing live. She is also hilarious. In between songs she told a story about pregnancy hormones (she is about halfway through her first pregnancy) that had me laughing so hard, I had tears streaming down my face. It was just so true.

The lead singer of Selah is Todd Smith. I've read his wife's blog for awhile now, and she is such a beautiful woman of faith. They have been through some very tough things and clung to God through it all. You can read their story here. I also recommend reading the rest of Angie's blog. Highly recommend.

Guess what? Angie Smith is going to be one of the speakers next year! That sealed the deal for me. I am definitely going back. And Selah will be there as well. It's going to be great.

It only rained once while we were there, which I get such a kick out of. It is sunny every single time I visit Seattle! During the one rain storm, we braved the weather and went to The Crab Pot. It was....well there are no words, so I'll let the pictures do the talking:

Yes, we ate it all. And it was great, because everyone else was wearing bibs and had smashed crab in their hair too. It was worth every penny spent and the soaking feet.

I love me some crab meat.

We also took a walk through Pike Place Market at night. We gazed at fresh ornate $10 bouquets of flowers, we tasted chocolate pasta, and visited the original Starbucks.

The only downside to the whole trip was that we were treated horribly at the border...back into our own country! Insert swear word. It was awful and I didn't stop shaking for about an hour. And now I keep envisioning drop kicking that guy and giving him a purple nurple. Forgive, Kari, forgive and move on.

Every woman needs a road trip with a girl friend! Thanks for the memories, Stace!

A Flapper, A Gentleman, And Two Superheroes

2011-10-26T07:30:00.000-07:00

We went to a Halloween party last weekend, and for the first time since we've been together, Matt and I dressed up. I never thought he would agree to it, but he put on an accent and everything. You'll see.

Today, while the sun was out, I dressed the girls up again and took them out for pictures. The photos below are a mix of the two days.

The girls costumes were very simple to make, and I'll be able to reuse the fabric when they are done with them. Matt's costume consisted of dress pants, a thrift store dress shirt, and a bow tie that I (barely) made out of satin. We tried finding him some suspenders, but they all kept flying off his shoulder and hitting the shelf behind him. My costume started with a thrift store night gown that smelled like old lady perfume, which I cut up and then added pieces and patches out of an old scarf and a sequin shirt from the thrift store. I was afraid it would come apart the whole night, but the glue, thread and elastic managed to hold it together for the evening. I decided to go all out with hair and makeup. I even pulled out false eyelashes for the first time. It was so fun. I was going to do a tutorial, but let's face it, I had no idea what I was doing. Lots of hairspray, eyeliner, and dark lipstick. That's my advice for a flapper outfit.

Costume parties are fun. Once a year.

A friend and I are heading out tomorrow morning, bright and early, for a girls weekend in Seattle. We will be shopping, eating, and attending the Women Of Faith conference. Back next week!

Quotage

2011-10-24T09:14:00.000-07:00

“I’ve got two daughters who will have to make their way in this skinny-obsessed world, and it worries me, because I don’t want them to be empty-headed, self-obsessed, emaciated clones; I’d rather they were independent, interesting, idealistic, kind, opinionated, original, funny – a thousand things, before ‘thin’. And frankly, I’d rather they didn’t give a gust of stinking chihuahua flatulence whether the woman standing next to them has fleshier knees than they do. Let my girls be Hermiones, rather than Pansy Parkinsons. Let them never be Stupid Girls.”

-J.K. Rowling

Tour Of The Finished Undecorated Basement

2011-10-21T11:34:00.000-07:00

Part of staying in this house we're in, in this town we didn't plan on living in (sorry, weak moment. Still getting used to it) is to make this place a little bit more 'us'. There are things we haven't done around here, because we planned to stay only a short time. Namely, getting rid of everything that is beige - the colour future buyers are supposed to see their stuff in. But didn't. Too bad, buyers. You're missing out!

So after the drywall fiasco, renos went along with ease, and we now have some usable space downstairs. I thought I'd give you the tour.

When you first come to the bottom of the stairs, you see this big closet. The wall to the right is the beige colour that is all over our house. I love grey, so I picked a grey for the basement that was warm, but would still contrast nicely with the beige. It is called 'Pewter Grey' by CIL (found at Home Depot). I also did not want dark floors like we have upstairs. It would be too difficult to find the exact colour in laminate to match our hardwood upstairs. Plus, that dark stuff is SO hard to keep looking clean. So we talked to the guy we always go to for flooring, and he found this stuff for us. It is so nice (please ignore the blue extension cord. It's an internet thing that we are still trying to work out).

A good representation of the colour combo

Inside the closet is all of my project stuff and a few Christmas boxes. This way, I have easy access to fabric, wrapping paper, paint swatches, and a million other things. No, it's not pretty to look at, but that's why we have the closet doors. No one ever has to look at it, except me (the organization of this closet is on my 40 Bags list).

At the bottom of the stairs, you turn right and you can see down our hallway. The rest of the basement is now a rental suite, where we have an awesome tenant living quietly.

The first door on the right is the electrical room. This is where we have almost all of our storage. This isn't a great picture, because all of the boxes are hidden, but I still can't believe that our entire basement was filled with storage stuff before we did our 40 Bags In 40 Days. And now this (and a bit in our garage) is all that is left. What a huge load off our shoulders. Much more manageable.

Next to the electrical room is a linen closet that I still need to put to use. I am very excited about this, because my linen closet upstairs is quite small. So, I'll keep everything we use daily in that one, and all extras here. Matt even put a shelf way up high for extra storage. It's only half as deep so that I can fit things up past the top of the door frame.

Directly across from the linen closet is the bathroom. I really, really like this bathroom. I know that's weird, but it's just so pretty. I chose a colour called 'Celtic Grey' by Behr Premium Plus. It is a soft green-ish, grey-ish blue. We chose 12x12 tiles for the floor because of the price. I love how they pull in the wall colour and the laminate floor colour.

Hey, guess what? Vanities are ridiculously expensive. And most are ugly. We got an awesome deal on this one at Canadian Tire, and I really like it. It has a espresso finish with a large ceramic trough sink on top. It is fairly shallow, but for a basement bathroom, that works just fine. I also love the oval mirror (as opposed to the standard slab of glass we have in our bathrooms upstairs) and the lights were the only bathroom lights I liked at Home Depot. They were a great price, and the perfect choice. I wish I could put them upstairs too. What do you think of my bouffant? I apologize. I tend to look like a hungover 50s housewife in the morning. Seriously. Ask anyone who has lived with me.

My husband taught me that if you want your fiberglass shower surround to look a little more custom (without the cost of a tile surround), you put an edge of tile around the tub surround. It really does finish the look, doesn't it? And, hooray! It's cheap!

Next to the shower is the shiny, new toilet.

I am sure you can see why this is my favourite room. I may just sneak down here to hide from my kids once in awhile. It even has multiple seating. And a lock. What more could you ask for?

Yeah I know, it's a wall. Whoopa dee doo da. But I wanted to point out this little nook, because it is where we are planning to put our bookshelf. Access to books, without taking up precious space upstairs. Can you see the drywall dust on the floor? I cannot escape that &#$&^$@ stuff!

At the end of the hall is the bedroom. This room will be used for guests (my dad comes and stays with us a few weekends out of the month), but it will also be the kids' playroom. I have big plans for this room, and I'm looking forward to blogging about it.

It is the same colour as the bathroom, but it looks a bit different in natural light (this picture below shows the true colour best). I think it's such a cheerful paint colour. Perfect for a playroom/guest room. I asked Matt to putt shelves in the closet, rather than a rod, so that we would have storage for the kids' toys.

And that's the end of the tour.

This is going to create some fun projects. I am really excited to put some holes in these walls.

Don't tell Matt.

Plans Are a-Changin'

2011-10-19T11:18:00.000-07:00

Remember when I blogged about us building a house this coming year? Well, plans have been put on hold indefinitely. For a whole bunch of reasons, it hasn't been lining up. When I wrote that post and shared our excitement, Matt and I had felt completely led by God. We felt released. A couple weeks ago, we both separately felt like God was telling us not to go ahead with it.

I definitely asked why. Why did we feel released to go ahead with it all those months ago? Why did we tell people? Why did I attach myself to the idea of building our dream house?

Does it mean we have a fickle God? Absolutely not. I don't pretend to know why God does things the way He does sometimes, but I do know that these past few months have been a time of growth for us. Growth that couldn't have happened otherwise.

A couple of months ago, I would feel a panic attack come on any time I thought about not moving back 'home'. We didn't belong in this house, this schedule was too much for us, I never ever wanted to live in this town. But lately I've been making this house our own, and spending time with our neighbours (we have great neighbours), and I started to relax a little.

When Matt and I finally admitted how we were feeling to each other, and prayed together, I felt at peace. I know that in the past I've said I felt at peace about living here, but that peace had conditions. Those condition being that our time here would be short term.

Now we don't know.We still want to eventually move back to our hometown. We would really love to raise our kids there. But, for now we are going to actually 'live' in the town we are in.

There is more to this story, some that is too premature to share, and some that can't be shared at all. It is scary. Actually, it's terrifying. And I can feel myself wanting to take hold of our current situation and fix it...or run away. But then I take a deep breath and read this:

And this:

I Pray...

2011-10-18T18:13:00.000-07:00

“I pray because I can't help myself. I pray because I'm helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time- waking and sleeping. It doesn't change God- it changes me.”
― C.S. Lewis

Weird And Funny

2011-10-14T10:14:00.001-07:00

I may have to go to this extreme today to clean out my pantry and fridge...

Good Enough

2011-10-12T10:16:00.000-07:00

We recently discussed this in our bible study, and it struck a chord with me (more like a booming gong). I wanted to share, and maybe hear some of your thoughts as moms, if you feel so inclined.

Found at Manna For Moms. It's a great website for moms. Check it out.

Good Enough

As I write, I’m listening to children’s music about the color yellow blasting from the CD player in the kitchen. The kids have been in the kitchen and dining room for an hour now, alternately dancing to the music and playing with other toys.

Are they having a good enough time?

There’s a lot of laughter at our house. We make silly faces and tell silly jokes; we say silly things and laugh together. Sometimes, we chuckle in delight or laugh so hard we can’t stand up straight.

Yet at times, I wonder…on the whole, are they happy enough?

Every night, I tuck them in bed. Sometimes, I sing over them. Always, I pray for them. Then, I tell them, “You’re great kids, and I love you, and God loves you.”

But are they secure enough?

Most of us moms struggle, at least from time to time, with wondering if we’re doing enough. Are we providing our children a good enough childhood? Are we good enough moms?

The question is so important because the answer matters so greatly. We don’t want to fail our children. We want them to be deeply convinced that they’re loved and lovable, to have the right kind and amount of self-esteem, and most of all, to love God and be like His Son Jesus.

But how can we know if the job we’re doing as parents is sufficient to produce these results?

The issue becomes especially complicated for a mom who didn’t experience love, stability, and security in her own childhood. This mom knows what kinds of things not to do, but she doesn’t fully understand how a strong and loving bond is produced because she never saw it in action. When she makes a mistake, she’s never sure how bad of a mistake it is. So she lives with the constant, nagging fear that the things she’s doing might not be enough to give her children what she never had.

Precious mom, let me share with you what God, in His grace, taught me.

We don’t have to live in constant torment that we might not measure up. Our life as mothers is meant to be so much more than endlessly trying to measure up to society’s expectations, our best friend’s abilities, or even our own standards. The only One we have to please is God, and He does not make it difficult to know whether or not we are pleasing Him.

For one thing, He sets forth some clear, specific guidelines in His Word, the Bible, about how we should treat our children. We don’t need to wonder whether or not we should forgive our children or treat them kindly. That’s spelled out as plain as He could make it.

For another, when we have the Holy Spirit in our hearts, we have God Himself and His wisdom available right inside of us to tell us when we aren’t doing right. And we can be completely certain that He will tell us when we’re doing something wrong, and He’ll tell us specifically.

God’s ultimate desire for us is that we be conformed to the image of His Son—in other words, that we act like Jesus. So if anything we are doing, or failing to do, gets in the way of that, He’ll tell us what it is so that we can repent of it and uproot it from our lives. God won’t leave us with some vague, undefined sense of guilt. He won’t tell us we’re doing something wrong or insufficiently, then refuse to tell us what, exactly, He’s talking about.

What that means for us as mothers is that since God is the only person we ultimately have to please, if He’s not telling us we’re doing something wrong, then we are good enough.

The next time we wonder whether or not we’re being the kind of mom we should be, let’s simply ask Him. If we’re not, He’ll tell us. If we are, He’ll tell us that, too.

May we learn to rest in the fact that though we’re not perfect, we can be the kind of mom who pleases God. And ultimately, that kind of mom is good enough.

James 1:5—If any [mom] lacks wisdom, let [her] ask of God, who gives graciously to all without finding fault, and it will be given [her].

The part that stood out to me more than anything was this sentence: ...since God is the only person we ultimately have to please, if He’s not telling us we’re doing something wrong, then we are good enough.

There are a hundred opinions on how to raise children; what their sleep schedules should look like, how healthy they should eat, which schools they should go to, the list goes on. And on. And our worst flaw as females is comparison. Bitterness takes root and walls go up. Instead of celebrating one another's achievements, we put ourselves in competition with each other.

That bible study I mentioned at the top? Well this week was the first time I've gone in years. Years! A long time ago, I put up walls to protect myself. I was comparing and I did not trust. God has been telling me to go back, and thanks to some gentle but firm encouragement from my mother in law, I went this week. People are not perfect, and trust is definitely not built in a day. I went shaking with nerves when I walked in, but I ended up being so blessed.

We read the above story, and a burden was lifted. The only one I really need to answer to is God. If I am drawing close to Him, He will tell me the kind of mother and woman I need to be. In every other way, I am good enough.

Thoughts?

Fall Decor And Cookies

2011-10-06T13:00:00.000-07:00

Inspiration for my Fall decor this year

How that translated in our home on a budget

Front entrance of our house

Now onto THE cookies. They are called Caramel Stuffed Apple Cider Cookies. The name says it all.

I wanted to blog about them now, so that you had a day to make them before Thanksgiving (lots more time for my American readers).

If you bake, you will most likely have most of the ingredients in your kitchen.

The two special ingredients you'll need to buy is a bag of those little Kraft caramels, and a box of the individual apple cider packets. We buy the great big box of Alpine Spiced Apple Cider Instant Original Drink mix from Costco, and it works great. I think you can also buy this brand in smaller boxes at most grocery stores. Just make sure there is at least 10 packets in the box you buy.

Recipe originally found here

Ingredients

1 Cup softened butter
1 Cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
10 packets apple cider mix (Alpine is the best brand)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 Cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 bag Kraft caramels

Mix together butter, sugar, salt, and 10 packets of apple cider mix

Beat in eggs one at a time. Add vanilla and mix well

In a separate small bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon

Gradually add dry mixture to wet mixture. Mix until just combined

Refrigerate for about an hour so that the dough is easier to handle (if I don't have time, I stick mine in the freezer for about 15 minutes while I unwrap all of the caramels)

Scoop out cookie dough about the size of a walnut. Press the caramel into the centre of the dough and seal the dough around it.

Place on parchment covered cookie sheet 2 inches apart

Bake for about 12-14 minutes until the cookies are just barely browned on the edges. Do not overbake.

Slide the parchment paper off the cookie sheet and allow to cool for a couple minutes, then transfer onto cooling rack.

Makes about 3 1/2 dozen cookies

These cookies are best eaten warm, when the caramel is all gooey, so pop them in the microwave for a couple seconds before you eat them. I've also frozen these to save for later, and they seem to thaw fine. But, the best thing to do is just eat them as they come out of the oven. Heavenly.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Two Totally Awesome Random Things I Found On The Interweb

2011-10-05T11:00:00.000-07:00

How to have fun at a wedding...

This woman celebrated her birthday by performing a random act of kindness for every year of her life so far. It is so wonderful and inspiring, and a GREAT way to spend a birthday. Check it out

Just two things that happened to make my Wednesday so much better.

I hope yours is going great too.

Thoughts

2011-10-03T11:52:00.000-07:00

It's too rainy and dark to take pictures of our Fall decor, which was my plan for today. I was also going to share a recipe for the most delicious Fall cookies EVER. But I'm too busy lounging in bed.

Here's the colour combo that I used as inspiration this year.

I'm not into lots of orange and yellow in my house. Although I do love it at my mother in law's place. It's somehow happy and festive there.

Anyway, tomorrow I'll get my act together. Today I'm just going to read my magazine and watch cartoons with the kids, while drinking the peppermint mocha that Matt surprised me with from Starbucks. Actually I asked for it. But he still brought it! And he got my complicated order right, thanks to the modern invention of the cell phone and it's texting capabilities.

Grande half sweet extra hot peppermint mocha no whip with an extra shot of espresso, please. My phone didn't recognize the word 'espresso'. It's dumb like that. And I am now going to jump on the iphone bandwagon as soon as my contract is up (in 2 yrs) because of it. I'm petty like that. It's also why I have to bite my tongue every time I ask for extra espresso at Tim Hortons.

C'mon Timmys! You're a coffee shop!

Wait, what were we talking about?

Images from my Pinterest page

Quotage

2011-10-01T12:42:00.000-07:00

This is part of a quote I found on Pinterest.

Sometimes it's not even the pain, but the fear of pain that holds me back.

Something to think about.

Beauty Should Be Celebrated

2011-09-29T00:00:00.000-07:00

What a novel concept; that we should celebrate what God's given us, instead of trying so hard to achieve something we're told we should have, which by the way is fleeting, to be successful.

Absolutely love this quote.

40 Bags In 40 Days

2011-09-26T14:12:00.000-07:00

I don't think I've mentioned it, but for the entire summer there have been renovations going on in our basement. It was unfinished when we moved in, but because we need the income, we chose to put a rental suite in and also keep a small area for ourselves. A good friend of ours is renting the suite (actually he works for Matt, so I know he's been put careful thought and effort into the building of the rental), and the area that is ours will include a spare/play room and a bathroom.

I'll just level with you, I know we're in the business and all, but I. Don't. Like. Renos. For 4 months now, there has been noise and mess, and no access to our storage which was previously in our unfinished basement but is now stuffed in the garage.

The moment I snapped happened about a month ago. Our painters were generously vacuuming up all of the drywall dust that had been sanded down, and didn't realize that the bottom of our stairs were not blocked off with plastic. I got out of bed that morning, came out of our room and immediately started to hyperventilate. The drywall dust was so thick in the air, that I could not see my kitchen. Our floors were white as snow. I completely froze. I grabbed my phone and called Matt to tell him what was going on and he said, 'Go down and tell them to turn off the shop vac!!!'

Oh yeah, I guess that would be a start.

They felt terrible, and it really wasn't their fault, but I was so upset I was shaking. We had to be somewhere, so I swiffered a path to the door and we got out of there for the morning. When we returned a few hours later, the path had disappeared. All of the drywall dust had settled, and it was everywhere. On our couches, in our carpet, on our clothes, even our window screen had turned white because I had pointed the fan towards the window to try to get some of the dust out.

Here's a patch of the floor half wiped, before everything settled. It turned out to be about twice this bad.

Anyway, I moved everything out, wiped everything down, Matt cleaned the carpets, and we still need to have someone come and clean out our air ducts before we use our heat this winter. So you may see why I lost it.

Generally, mess doesn't get to me. I'm not tidy or organized, and I've always been weirdly proud that I can be spontaneous. But, in the last few weeks, I've felt completely strung out and I couldn't figure out why. I talked to a friend about it, and I realized I NEED SOME STRUCTURE! I was like the toddler who is miserable and whiny and doesn't know why and the mom is patiently saying 'you need a nap' and the toddler is like 'I don't wanna!'. Well, I needed structure and I was stomping my foot saying 'I don't wanna! Spontaneity is the only fun thing I have left from my early twenties!'. Yeah, have fun with that one, psych majors.

So, even though I couldn't control the renos downstairs, I could control what was going on upstairs. I needed to organize my house. It was chaotic. I needed to set some goals, but I wasn't sure how to do it in an organized fashion. I went to Google and found '40 bags in 40 days'. Basically you write down 40 areas in your house that need to be organized, and in each area you walk away with a bag of stuff to donate or throw out.

Oh wow, I cannot believe the freedom I have felt this past week while doing this. Here's my list:

See #17? There is a story behind that. So, Matt has a habit of throwing everything he owns on the floor beside his bed. Even when he had drawers, nothing went in the drawer. What's with that? I know I can hear a collective 'Amen sista!' from all the wives reading this. So, rather than give him the stink eye every time he did it, I went and bought one of those shallow rubbermaid bins and put it under his side of the bed. Every few days, I load up everything on the floor; mail, change, golf tees, ect. and toss it in the bin. But it's become a bit of a mess and needs to be organized, so I put it on the list. Knowing I would blog about the 40 bags list, I didn't want to call it 'Matt's box under the bed', because I knew where people's minds would go, so I just wrote 'Matt's box of randoms'. The other day, my mother in law (who is also participating in the 40 bags challenge) was looking at my list and was going to say to me 'Kari! I was going through your list, and I thought I should warn you not to blog about it, because you wrote 'Matt's box of condoms'! I know Matthew had a vasectomy, so I realize you won't be needing them, but goodness, do you really need to devote a whole day to getting rid of condoms? How big is this box?' Thankfully she re-read it and realized her mistake, but still felt the need to share this story with me as I stood there blushing and saying 'Mom! stop!'. Anyway, it's 'random stuff'' now.

So far, I am about a quarter of the way through the list and I have an entire van load of stuff to take to the thrift store and two large black bags of garbage to throw out.

I even went through all of my newborn to size 2 clothes that I've been hanging on to. A whole bunch went to the thrift store, and the really nice ones, I'm going to try to sell. If you're local, and want girls clothes, I have them for cheap!

This is what two little girls wardrobes consists of

I will miss you, adorable baby shoes

It's worth it to have everything organized and in it's proper place. Some days I do a couple things on the list, and other days I don't do anything. I keep it taped to my pantry door and walking by and seeing the checkmarks makes me feel like I've accomplished something.

The renos will be done by Wednesday, which is great because my good friend Rebecca and her kids are coming that night to stay for a few days. Yeah, we're not cutting it close at all! By next week, this house will be running like a well oiled machine. Martha Stewart will be green with envy (or maybe it's just that horrible green turtleneck she wears).

If you have done 40 bags in 40 days, what was your experience? Were you as in love as I am?

If you haven't tried it out, but plan to, let me know how it goes!

Autumn

2011-09-23T07:43:00.000-07:00

It's the first day of Autumn!

I know many people are mourning the loss of summer (especially since it seems to have been a short one), so I may be one of the few who is excited about this season.

I love Fall. It's the time of year for a fresh start, cute sweaters, and hot pumpkin spice lattes. I love the crisp smells, the brightly coloured trees, and the fact that I can snuggle under our big down duvet and enjoy a deep sleep.

I don't make New Years resolutions because I never feel motivated at the beginning of January when Christmas is over and now it's just winter. Bleh. No wonder so many resolutions fail. Who feels like doing anything new when you have to put 4 layers of clothing on just to step outside?

But, Fall is when school always started and you had fresh pencils and lined paper and new school clothes. So maybe it stems from that. The point is...

wood fires, scarves, football (meh, whatever floats your boat), a new season of Modern Family, white pumpkins, apple cider, big piles of leaves!

It's the best.

If you want to, you can see more on my Autumn Pinterest page

Community

2011-09-21T08:43:00.000-07:00

Powerful stuff. I crave real authentic community.

Celery Stamped Curtains

2011-09-19T08:10:00.000-07:00

One of the final steps in Hannah's room has been to add curtains. I wanted something different and homemade (actually a friend recently told me to always say 'handmade' vs 'homemade' because homemade makes it sound like your two year old did it).

Anyway, I found this idea on Pinterest, where you use the end of a bunch of celery to stamp paper, and I thought, hey why not try it on fabric?

I originally wanted something super light weight and flowy to use as curtains, like maybe muslin, but when I talked to the lady at the fabric store, she said that the paint would bleed through the weave too much, and I would lose the shape of the stamp. So she helped me pick out a simple white cotton that was super cheap.

To start, I unrolled some painter's plastic and then laid my fabric on top. Actually, the very first thing I did was send the kids to their grandparents for the night. This was not a project I could pull off with them around.

I chopped my celery about 3 inches from the bottom, where I thought it would make a good floral pattern.

I used a disposable casserole pan for my paint. I started with some of the same paint I used on Hannah's dresser and shelf, and then added water and mixed it to a fairly thin consistency. At first I tried dipping the celery into the pan of paint, but that made it super drippy, so instead I grabbed a foam brush and wiped the paint on.

With no pattern in mind, I just started stamping. I usually got two good stamps out of one paint job.

The idea is to have it look playful and whimsical.

One tip I have is to have some paper on hand at the very beginning to test a few times. This way you know how much paint you'll want to use, and you will soak up all of that celery juice, before you stamp your fabric. Oops:

It's ok, it was right at the top so I just folded it over for the hem. After hemming the bottom and sewing a pocket at the top to hang them on, I ran out and bought an oil rubbed bronze rod. There was not a white rod to be found anywhere ( I have found this to be true many times before. Where have all the white rods gone??), so I went with the ORB, because it fit in better than black or shiny brass.

If it's possible, I like to hang curtains as close to the ceiling as I can. It gives the illusion that the window is bigger.

These ~~home~~ handmade curtains finish off this wall so well. It's the first thing you see when you walk into Hannah's room, and they make me smile.

I have to thank my husband who calmly took the drill away from me when I attempted to hang the rod myself, and instead left a huge hole in the drywall and threw a tantrum like a 2 year old when I couldn't do it. If he hadn't been there, this project would be bunched up in an angry ball at the bottom of the garbage can.

I feel like partying at:

Christina's Adventures 20 Below Thursday
The Shabby Nest Frugal Friday
Chic On A Shoestring Flaunt It Friday
Simply Designing Simply Link Party
Just A Girl Show And Share

Workin' It Like It's 1999

2011-09-16T11:22:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted all week because I just started this work out:

And I haven't been able to move. It hurts to type. It is awesome. I love it.

I used to work out a lot (a shock, I'm sure, to those who have only known me post baby) and the endorphins made me a much more pleasant person. I need to get back to some healthy ways of life. I miss it.

More on that next week...

And that is about all I can type. Ouch.

First Day Of Preschool {year 2}

2011-09-13T09:25:00.000-07:00

Ella just left for her first day of school.

Matt took her this time, and part of me is glad to have the time with just one kid at home (we live too far from school to come home during school mornings. Hannah and I normally do a lot of window shopping.), but part of me feels as if I'm missing out. The reason for this change in schedule is a very sick swagger wagon. What? New transmission? That sounds lovely. We were wondering what to do with all this extra money we have laying around. I'm getting off track...

Preschool.

Ella is the shy kid in crowds. She's timid and quiet. I was EXACTLY like her. I tell Matt all the time that I know what she's thinking. She processes things a bit more like Matt, but she reacts just like me. Last year there were many mornings of tears and clinging to my shoulder. I struggle with wanting to cling back and say 'I know, baby. Crowds are terrible. Let's go hide at home and read books. Run!'.

I want so badly to protect her. From what? I really don't know. I suppose I just want to preserve her innocence and I dread her going through the process of going from shy to confident. Cause let me tell you, it took me almost 30 years, and I'm still trying to figure it out.

But, my responsible head tells my heart to smarten up already. This is the best thing for her. It's a great environment, with wonderful teachers, and *gasp* a craft every. single. day. Oh yeah, there's also that thing where I can't control what happens. I'm not in charge. But Ella has a Heavenly Father who is. He designed every freckle on her face, every hair on her head. He already sees what lies ahead in her future; the joys and the sorrows. He has a plan for her. And when I think about that, really think about it, my shoulders relax in relief.

We are going to be just fine.