I'm Baaaaaaaaaack!

The title to this post has two meanings. First, I'm back to the blogging world after a very long break!! We had a super busy year with a job change, house Reno, new baby and move to a new province. I am just finally feeling settled in our new house (though we haven't finished decorating and have a basement to finish still) so I decided it was time to get back to this little blog project of mine!

The second meaning for the title is that we just got back home from a trip to Arizona! We spent 12 days visiting my husband's parents. We mostly just relaxed, swam in their pool or took the kids to the nearby park. We did make a day trip to the mini Legoland in Phoenix and my husband took in a baseball game . It was spring training.

Here are some pictures I snapped through the car window during our travels.

These pictures are some of my favorite plants I saw while walking around the neighborhood. Lots of different types of cacti!

 A few yards had their cacti dressed up in sun glasses.

View from the plane on the way there. Snowy mountains.

The Grand Canon seen from the plane window.

Our flights went really well. All the kids did great! We came home to a forecast of snow for 2 days straight. So far today the weatherman was right! Lol

Now that I'm back to blogging I hope to write some posts as I finish up decorating parts of our house! I hope you all have been well since my last post! 

Have a great weekend everyone!

Quirky Little Chair

I meant to post this chair project so long ago! Life has been super busy and it won't be slowing down anytime soon. The blog has taken a back seat.

Without further ado, here is the chair!

My MIL found this quirky little chair at a garage sale for me. As you can see, I painted the wood white and replaced the fabric. I also added a little more batting in places that I thought could use some extra cushion. The fabric I found was labeled as an outdoor home decor fabric. In hindsight, it wasn't the best option for this chair as it frays very easily. So far it's holding up. I did love the color and pattern though! Luckily, it was on a huge discount! 

I hope winter has been treating you well! Until next time...

Baking day

Yesterday the baking bug hit me! I decided to try out some new recipes.

Banana Oat Muffins

Carrot Cookies

Chocolate Zucchini Loaf

I've also been slowly working on another chair project. It is almost finished and I'm hoping I'll be able to post about it soon!

Happy Sunday everyone!

Penguin Hat

This is a pattern from Repeat Crafter Me.

(http://www.repeatcrafterme.com/2012/12/crochet-penguin-hat-pattern.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+RepeatCrafterMe+(Repeat+Crafter+Me)&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail)

Made by request for a dear friend.

I ended up replacing the Pom poms with tassels as I seem to never be able to make Pom poms secure enough and they always pull out. 

If you are wanting to try this pattern, please note I had to make it 2 sizes up then what the pattern calls for. 

MIA

Hi everyone! I haven't been on the blog in a very long time! 

Last month's creative challenge was sculpting and clay work. I had some ideas I wanted to try but our Walmart is under construction. It is being turned into a Supercenter, so everything has moved places and the craft isle shelves were very bare. They had no air dry clay! So I did not complete the clay challenge. I'll get to it eventually.

I have been very busy lately. I have started babysitting again part time. Big Sister is also in PreSchool this year so I have been busy taking her to and from school. Between these things my week feels pretty packed. I've managed to fit in a little sewing and start a new project reupholstering another chair. 

Until next time, take care!

Acrylic Painting

Challenge 6 in the Creative Challenge was acrylic or oil painting.

I could not for the life of me decide what to paint. I left it all month hoping I'd come up with something but the month passed by with no brilliant ideas.

So I decided to take the pressure off and went simple. I pulled out my cheap acrylic craft paint and Big Sister and I finger painted!

Big Sister painted a rainbow. I think she just wanted to use all the colors and that's why she calls it a rainbow.

This is my sunset finger painting. It was nice to re-explore the kid in me and use my fingers instead of a brush. 

Next Challenge is pottery/clay art.

Bread Machine Recipe

I was super lucky to have been given an old bread machine recently. Fresh bread is so yummy, but sometimes I do not have the time or energy to knead and wait for rise times and knead some more.  So I was really excited to try out my "new to me" bread machine. It is so nice to just dump in all the ingredients and walk away until the machine is done its thing!

       

Here is a super simple recipe I have been using:

1cup + 2Tbsp warm water

1/4 cup olive oil (or canola or vegetable oil)

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup sugar

2 3/4 cup flour

1 tsp yeast

Add ingredients in order listed. Use the setting on your machine for a large light loaf. (Light crust) Or a suitable setting for 1 1/2 pound loaf.

This makes a very light and fluffy loaf of bread.