wow. this changes everything

I stumbled upon this recently as I was blog reading.

something every woman should know

I've been considering altering a couple pairs of jeans, one pair of shorts and one capris, that have me frustrated because they don't fit well at all. The waist is good, but the crotch hangs way too low and everything feels baggy and saggy.

I think I'm now going to take the plunge and use a pair of jeans that I actually love the fit of as a 'pattern' and try to fix these babies. I mean, I don't wear them, so if I totally ruin them, I haven't really lost out anyway.

Wish me luck!

If you live in Winnipeg, perhaps you can suggest a good tailor/alterations place. If the first pair is a disaster, maybe I'll take the other pair in to let someone else work on.

sometimes i can be spontaneous. for real.

It was Sunday and since we've been enjoying Thursday evening gatherings that our church does in the summer, we had a big expanse of day in front of us.

I had this urge to make the most of the beautiful weather and to try out my new swimsuit, so I suggested to Michael that we go for a motorcycle ride to Birds Hill and go for a swim.

So, we suited up, packed our towels and headed off.

Not sure what he's doing here.

The always popular arm shot, made easy because Michael has such long arms.

This was taken with the timer and a carefully placed camera (on the trunk of another car in the parking lot, with BC plates!).

The ride was good. The water was perfect.

cards and more cards

So, I've been inspired to make cards, since I got all that new stuff. I also had a card making evening with a friend.

Question: who is it appropriate to give a card to that says 'you're my favorite thing'? I bought the stamp because I liked it, now I made two cards, but I feel like the only person I can give them to is Michael. Would it be weird if I gave them to anyone else?

I also discovered that I have several 'e' stamps, so I thought I would use one in conjunction with my usual 'handmade' stamp on the backs of my cards. I just can't decide which one I like best. Take a vote and tell me which one you like. I'd open to suggestions on the positioning of the 'e' too.

my scooter and blueberry pie

I always wonder if I should do separate posts instead of lumping random things together, but they'd be so short. Plus it would bother me to have more than one entry on the same day (I know, I'm anal).

Selah sitting on the scooter.

I baked a blueberry pie (with berries from Abbotsford, which were in my freezer, thanks to my Dad). I have baked a pie only one other time in the five years we have lived in Winnipeg, and I can't recall if I ever baked a pie while we lived in BC. I thought it turned out beautifully (I had a great recipe from a friend, which helped a lot).

home ownership

So, for a while now, Michael and I have had a problem in our entrance that has been staring down at us. We have very different ideas of how to approach these sorts of things.

Thanks to a friend, Michael finally had a ladder tall enough so he could go up into the attic and see what the cause of the wet and now mouldy spot on our ceiling.

Check that out. That's a section of drywall in our attic that is exposed. It's supposed to have white. stuff. on. it. Otherwise known as insulation, a somewhat important ingredient in a Manitoba attic.

The beauty is that what we though was going to be an awful, expensive and messy repair is now a relatively simple fix. Cut out mouldy drywall, replace, and blow in insulation to cover the exposed part.

Whew.

a Michelangelo in the making

I babysat Katrina again. This time, I had a few things on my to do list, but Katrina was determined to be in the same room as me. Since cleaning bathrooms was on my list, I decided to get a bit creative.

I quickly cleaned the shower and then invited her to join me for a special coloring project. I have these great wipeable bathtub crayons. So, I set her up to color in the tub. At first she was all concerned that I was going to make her take a bath, which she wanted no part of. Then when I handed her the crayons, she looked at me as though to ask, 'are you sure this is what you want me to do?'

It didn't take her long to get into it though.

I was able to clean the rest of the bathroom while she did her artwork.

She was content and colored and chatted to herself for 45 minutes!

Dominic Pierre

Wearing a cute little moose bib, of which I made three as a gift. We don't want him wearing his sister's hand me downs do we?

Michael's Family Celebrates a Birthday as only they can!

Michael's Aunt Esther celebrated a milestone birthday. Family came in from Ontario. We had a blast. It was a surprise too!

Everyone waiting around for the surprise.

Apparently, Aunt Mary had been mail stocking Aunt Esther and sending packages in the mail (through various means and people) with socks in them, nothing else, no further explanation.

Socks on display. All 60 pairs of them.

Aunt Mary also designed a game for us to play with the socks. We were all handed play money and then an auction was held for all the lovely socks. There were control top panty hose, singing socks, electric socks, every kind of weird sock you can think of.

Some hilarity may have ensued.

This picture I'm throwing just because the expressions on all four faces are unbelievable.

From the front left (in mint shirt) Aunt Mary, Aunt Esther, Aunt Rosie (three sisters to Michael's Dad) and Lena (Michael's Mom).

summer vacation with my Dad

This year we rented a cabin in a different place. Rough Rock Lodge is the kind of place that you boat into. It was stunningly beautiful there. On the drive in we saw two bears (one who we had to slow down for because it was sitting in the middle of the road.

Our cabin was very nice and quite spacious. We discovered very quickly this place was made for avid fishermen, as evidenced by the fact that there were three bedrooms all with two single beds in them. Michael was quite annoyed at this, but we pushed the beds together and made do.

The view from our cabin.

Our boat.

Cutesy decorations around the place.

The fishing. My Dad caught one. Michael caught a total of 4. I caught nothing (though I think I deserve this because last year I did all the catching).

Ben came to visit for the day.

The guys jumped in the lake for a swim.

birthday bash

My birthday was celebrated all weekend long this year. It started with breakfast at Cora's.

Doesn't that look yummy? (it was delicious)

We caught the fireworks at Assiniboine Park.

They were actually quite impressive, some of them were so huge and filled the whole sky.

Then Michael surprised me with flowers.

Pardon my 'house hair'. This is how I wear it at home to keep it off my face but not pull all the curl out. Gerber daisies, reminiscent of the first flowers Michael ever gave me.

Then a dessert potluck party. This I thought was totally awesome and brilliant on Michael's part.

What amazing friends we have here. Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate with us!

A giant game of dutch blitz with two decks of cards and teams playing.

Things may have gotten a little intense and yes, that is my kitchen table in the backyard.

All in all, it turned out to be a fabulous birthday!