Great video to share

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzyLv2IKoGA

I just wanted to put up a link to this wonderful video , that shows children talking about their food allergies, I think my Sophie thinks she is the only one , she doesn't know a single soul with a food allergy, it is a great perspective to hear what it is like from a child.I really need to start a child food allergy support group.

The end is near

I have stepped back from my upstairs landing, it is so close to finished and I thought my previous photos did not do it justice so I would post an update, the trim is up but not finished , I am content to leave the finishing for a little while , I need a break.The newel post is trimmed and painted and I am very pleased we made the decision to change it from the one that was there after all we never did like it so why keep it, wow what will be left of the origional house when I finally make this house the way I want it??

The yard is coming along, the green and blue scheme is keeping me very happy, which reminded me of this most vintage looking fabric I saw a couple of years ago at al local fabric store, why did I think they still had the bolt , well frankly it is UGLY but a nice ugly , no one else could see its good quallities , I was sure of that ,and boy was I right , it was $1.30 a yard so the whole thing modeled by my daughters was $10.00 , incredible, I will make curtains for the playhouse, a pillow for my hammock , trow pillows for the backyard and my other hidden outdoor space my upstairs porch which is very neglected and needs some attention.My dirty little secret is out I have the worst lawn , but it will be gone in time, I hate it , I want all the grass to be hardscape, in time.

Yesterday I spent the majority of the day gardening ,again, ruinging my feet , so on this most gloomy day I decided to get myself in for a pedicure, my second ever, I will have to make that a regular occurance, an hour and tewnty minutes being taken care of what a treat. It has been a lazy weekend , I should do this more often, you too.

experimenting

I have yet discovered all the things my new Kodak V803 can do , last night I found it has a black and white setting, what fun,the only complaint is the manual is very vague,lacking in direction, but I will play and figure it out. I am finding that through my picture taking I have a great perspective on how good my life has turned out , not for the things I am taking photos of but the life and the people that exists around it .

The little girls that doesn't belong to me with the blue eyes is one of my daycare charges Faith , how much does she look like Boo from Monsters Inc.???

Hot summer days...

Well ok its not summer but if sure fells like it 27 degrees beautiful, that's Dolce enjoying the sun from the back door , he is actually sleeping,he is pure sweet.

Sorry for the repeat picture but I needed to show my new window box with a before and after, yesterday I bought a 3 foot box, stained it planted it , then on my return for additional soil i noticed the shop had a 4 foot box, so I needed to get the larger size, I have always wanted a window box for that location, but the prebuilt ones I have always disliked , of course I was planning to build one myself , but never got around to it, I am glad I waited and my mistake of buying a small one is working out for me, now I will have one window box to look over out of my kitchen window, things are really coming together this time around. Now who is going to dig up that awful grass...?

Yes my car matches my house ..you think that's an accident:)

Time well spent...

I have been enjoying my new camera an I have some nice outdoor things to capture right now, i am drinking in as much outdoor time and fresh air and sunshine as I can.

May long weekend

Here I sit at 6:15 am , which must be a cruel joke because I am an hour early to start my day ,alarm clock issues?

I had a busy weekend, Saturday we made the most of the beautiful weather and my husband Todd spent 4 hours digging two foot deep holes to set my hammock posts into , our earth is very rocky so much time was spent hand digging rocks in his way , but there stands a very sturdy set of posts for my hammock , I did make myself stop and enjoy it yesterday , it really was a great weekend to do all the things I haven't had a chance to do , still the list goes on.We spent time together , not saying that was easy our girls can be quite a handful of crazy at times, they are like fire and ice ,I just hope when they are grown they will be friends, we took the girls to see Shrek the Third , it was cute a good end to three days off. Back to real life today , sad , I could use some more time.

Floor day 10 , long days

I think that the floor is complete , the finish is sublime, feels good to touch, looks better than I had hoped for it was well worth the leap of faith, first I have never installed a floor never taken on a project that would look so bad if done badly, so it was good, the hole thing was inder $200.00 including brad nailer, if I had done it in a prefinshed wood of a comparable finish as in casual semi distressed look it would have been around$359.00 more plus installation or tool rentals, a difference of at least $310.00 now that was worth it,now I must still finish the trim this long weekend, I will take some completed photos after it is all done, the kids are already using that area as a dance zone, socks or bare feet only.

There's my kid Mason enjoying some peace out on a gloomy day , we just picked up that swing yesterday and had a whole 20 minutes to enjoy it before the skies opened up it furry , but I look forward to many hours probably more like minutes to come as soon as the sun returns.I love hammocks!

It's coming along.

Sorry that is has been so long since my last post,Todd stole my really his camera from me for a few days, but he bought me my own pink camera for mother's day , which is wonderful , but I am having some trouble with the program it uses, it isn't as easy as I am used to ..but I will get a hang of it I'm sure.

Here are a few pictures of how the pine floors are coming along, I decided not to distress them they look very good so I thought I would go with it, they should not get too much wear and tear as it is the hall outside the bedrooms, so no shoes not much as far as toys bonking around, we will see , still needs a few top coats but the stain took very well.

We took a trip to Welland which is 15 minutes from Niagara Falls, to visit Todd's mom for mothers day and had some wonderful ribs made by my father in law, yummy. It was a lot of driving for one day but it was a great day spent outside in the sun.

Here is my beloved magnolia tree ,that is what I wanted last mother's day but never did find one,until Friday night at the superstore of all places ,a yellow blossomed small tree , I am so excited to see it grow,it is prominantly in the sunny corner of my backyard a place I have been saving just for such a tree, the close photo is my front yard tree which right now has those blossoms that smell like lilacs then the leaves turn maroon, but sadly it has canker but it still doing ok so I can not bare to chop it down until it is god awful.

Hope all the mothers had a nice day Sunday , I am looking forward to a long weekend, of course I will finish some projects and start some new ones like my hammock supports, a long weekend and a hammock sounds perect to me!

Spring has sprung.

My favourite season is spring , has always has been the smells trees all in blossom.The promise of winter past and summer to come, I am enjoying planning for all the changes that I hope to complete in our short warm season.

Sophie is always happy to help me water the garden,and a few days ago I brought out my screen door so simple , I love the slam sound a real wood screen door makes,charming, the no dumping cast iron dog was a christmas gift from a friend and neighbour who knows how upset I get that people let their dogs pee on my boxwoods nearly killing them , so much so that I put up a sign asking people to save them from harm...I took a picture of my newest addition my pyramidial boxwood in my steel planter which I now wish I had bought two of, planters that is , I will have to plant it later but for now it looks sublime in that planter, please excuse the rest of the clutter , I was still working on it all, I am always working on it all, new pavers , more rock garden , new mail basket , new door handle ,new street number sign, the list goes on.

Happy Spring.

Fun day at the farm

Well today was a big improvement from days past , a wonderful day learning about the farm.

The pigs were born may 3rd so cute, and that cow licked my arm it was quite a big suck.

Here are some pictures of the animals we saw,and some JK and SK students .

Tough Day with a Peanut Allergy

Saturday Sophie was so excited to go to a friends birthday party , I spoke with the mom who is a teacher and very familiar with peanut allergies,she was to buy a cake from a "peanut free" shop and I checked all the food which all should have been just fine, finally a party where Sophie could eat cake, but when I picked her up her face around her mouth was red , I thought it was just food stain, but after a clean it was a reaction there were hives and the texture of her normally perfect complextion changed, she has come in to contact with nuts or peanuts,it was a very stubborn reaction compared to the others that resolved on their own very quickly, didn't go further than rash , we gave her a double dose of benadryl and it knocked her out , she slept for several hours, could be also that she was so excited to go to the party that she woke at 6:30am and even spend a half hour in the car waiting because she was so excited to go???

Her breathing was fine so we didn't go to the hospital, and after the clear of 6 hours and no respitory problems we had the all clear, or sigh of relief , but this morning I still see the after math , her face is blood shot and some exzema , which she doesn't get ,on her chin and arm , so it was for sure a real exposure, now I have call the mom and find out what it could have been , I didn't think to talk about the environment if they eat peanut butter in the house that can be enough to set off a negative response, I felt like crying the whole time, sad really for what could progress and for the fact that she will not be going to any more parties or playdates at others for quite a while , with every exposure it does get more grim, I should feel grateful some kids faces swell so much their eye lids flip inside out , but I feel fragile today not so grateful but still grateful.

My new slipcover= mother's day gift???

Looks like ikea has finally read my mind , they have made my dream slip cover for the sofa I already have , well the dog uses it more than anyone else, but I'm sure he will love it too.

I have long had a fondness for hammock and decided after remembering several summers laying in a hammock at a family friends cottage that not one more summer will pass without a hammock of my own, although I do not have a pair of trees to hang one I will build supports weekend project #56,so to my delight on a trip to Homesense on Friday after a shop-a-thon for birthday party gifts , I found for me a hammock a $19.99 hammock in blue and green both of which work with my sceme and wow the price was right!I will keep you posted;)

The photo of the cabana is what I will build next summer when the swingset will be retired for good, doesn't that sound nice a cabana and hammock in the backyard to enjoy our oh so sadly short summers ,make the best of them.