OOPS!

I am breaking my cycle of blogging neglect because I have mud on my face and I have been duly chastised by my eldest daughter about mixing up Earth Day and Earth Hour. Yesterday evening was the Earth Hour from 8:30-9:30pm and on April 22nd it is Earth Day. It was Earth Hour that I was honouring. With a laugh at myself, I apologize for the rather blatant error I made yesterday.

On a happy note, I have been tagged by Laurita at Brain Droppings with a Happy 101 Award. The rules of the award are to list ten things that make me happy and then pass it along to five others. I haven't done a tagging before and I am generally very private about my feelings - so here goes me walking the plank:

1. Life makes me happy. Life has given me the gift of many challenges and between them I really appreciate how good my life actually is. There is just so much to love about it, especially just being here to appreciate it.

2. My husband, and two daughters all drive me crazy in their respective ways and I love them all because without them I just wouldn't be happy. My wonderful, caring friends who put up with me, for whatever reason, also make my world a wonderful place to be.

3. My pets: Mandy (because she is obnoxiously lovable- even when I am in a dead sleep or when I am trying to type on the computer - like now), Emma (because she is so gentle), Kiwi (how could I not love the little tyrant?), Tucker ( because he is a huge gallumph of a cat and truly gives the best hugs) and beautiful Bella (for her occasional lovely trilling in-between the raucous squawking she excels in).

4. I am a happy foodie - I love making and sharing food - I could cook until I drop.

5. Quilting relaxes my soul and I can share it when I am done. I love the colours, the feel of a hand-quilted quilt, the sound of my scissors cutting through the fabric and knowing that something good will happen when all this comes to together.

6. Planting seeds and seeing them sprout helps me to remember that life constantly renews itself and that there is always the joy of new life to sustain us.

7. Sunny winter days are divine - I love the crunch of snow under my boots, how the cold goes up my nose and pinches me, how crystal clear a winter day is, snow diamonds and the giggles of red-cheeked kids playing in the snow.

8. Reading - I am a true addict. Like Laurita, I love words; how they come together, how they sound and how many new and obscure ones I can discover. I, rather sheepishly, admit that I own many different types of dictionaries because I love to read them. Sad but true.

9. Learning is like winning a lottery for me - I love learning new things - it makes me smile inside.

10. My newest love is kayaking - the quiet, the smell of the water, the birds, the wonderful sunny yellow of my kayak and how it reaches down into my soul. (However, I have to figure out a way to grow a few more inches to make it easier to load it on top my van, only then it will be the perfect sport!)

11. I love to share. I just feel that we are all in this world together and we need to give to one another more - not necessarily material things - it just makes a happier place for everyone and it leaves me happy in a content sort of way.

I know I was only supposed to do ten but sharing is such a wonderful thing to do how could I leave it out?

I would like to pass this wonderful, happy reward on to:

Sarah at Cottage Garden Studio
Sinta at Pink Pincushion
Peggy Wojnarski
Barb at Bad-Tempered Zombie
Lauree Skinner

Have a good time with this...enjoy the reflection and the smile it will give you when you contemplate all your wonderful happy moments - I did it and survived! ;)

Enjoy!

Saving the earth - one act at a time

Happy Earth Day!

What are you doing for earth day? I always have some sort of grandiose plans but then real life takes over and squashes them. There is always so much we can all do, whether it is shutting off the lights, turning off the television, or recycling something or repurposing an object. I don't know if it really saves much individually but collectively it certainly does and it also raises awareness. Today I decided that I would do a number of things. I went through a pile of magazines and am donating them to the art room for projects/assignments for the students at the local high school. I will be turning off the lights and lighting my room with candles and having a nice cup of tea while I am at it. The bonus is a very relaxing hour or so that I could just sit.

My best earth day project was to re-upholster a small storage hassock I purchased off of ebrandon.ca. It was originally covered in a 1960/70's style of fabric that was totally dated. It just wanted to be recovered with something current and contemporary, preferably a little bit daring. Well,I went to the fabric store with my good friend and we found some wonderful black and white upholstery fabric that was just the ticket! Now my main goal was to get it done today because I could totally destroy the living room doing it without my poor hubby (who is thankfully away) stressing over the mess. I accomplished my goal and my youngest is the proud owner of a very nice hassock that she has decided to use to store her quilts in. I am very pleased how well it turned out.


As well, I found this great cake saver at Winners in the fall and it is perfect to store muffins, cookies, etc on the counter or table. It works great - I use less plastic and the cats cannot nibble at our treats. It keeps things from drying out and we don't forget about them - in our house it is always a case of out-of-sight out-of-mind.

I just had to add this really cute picture of of our Kiwi. She just had a bath and we put a nice ribbon on her. The ribbon didn't last long but it did make for a great photo-op.

Have a great day!

Winning at life

I am back - still trying to post as much as possible - which appears to be not as frequently as I would like.

We have been having such lovely weather here in Manitoba - the temperatures have been plus 2 and 3 and today it was even plus 6 celsius! So pleasant, especially since all the snow has melted from most of our streets and I am no longer driving through slush. I love the winter and spring except the melting part - I cannot abide the slush and dirty part of spring - pity we can't just skip over that time period. I am beginning to sound like one of my buddies who absolutely does not like winter. I am not going to hold my breath though - the odds of a snowstorm happening is still pretty high. There is the old saying for March "In like a lamb and out like a lion" and I think we are going to get a good one big lion coming our way. We do need the moisture though and everything would be a wonderful bright fresh white again...

Two weeks ago, my supervisor came to me and asked me if I would mind taking a student for her work experience every afternoon. The catch was that it is at a local greenhouse and I would be getting down and dirty along with the student. I haven't quit grinning since - I thought I had won a lottery and still think so. I had worked part-time at this particular greenhouse as a planter/salesperson/etc. for many years when my kids were small and it is something that I absolutely love doing! Imagine - going in from the cold and dull days into a bright, open space full of plants,fountains and ponds with koi fish, beautiful garden furnishings with accessories, and tropical birds chirping (they have an entire collection of lovebirds, budgies, finches and many other types as well) - hard to have a bad day there. The best part is that I still have another 3 weeks to go! STill grinning...


My vinegars - now plural are all doing well. I have now officially shared my mother from the red wine vinegar and bottled two bottles of it. It smells divine! I can hardly wait to try it on something!! I have started two types of white wine vinegars and still am waiting patiently for the apple cider vinegar to develop a mother - patience is definitely being learned in the process! It will be interesting to see how the mother I shared develops for the other potential vinegar makers. I wish you could just smell it! (But not too close - as my youngest's friend found that sticking your nose all the way in the jar is just a bit overwhelming.) lol

I have been trying to upload pictures but I am not able to for some reason - worked before but definitely an issue for this post and not sure why. I guess we will have to forgo the lovely pictures of flowers, birds and greenhouses today. I will try again the next post.

Take care - Have a great ST. Patrick's Day!!!