Projects

As some of you may know, I'm not exactly a "tread lightly" kind of person. I don't usually hold my tongue (though I'm learning) or go slowly into new things (i.e. moving and getting a puppy in the same week).

Well, I was actually a pretty slow start getting into sewing. Josh got me a sewing machine at Christmas, and while I did a few small projects a few months later, my poor machine has sat unused since March. Until about a week ago. Josh asked if I would sew up some blackout curtains for our bedroom. I don't really enjoy hanging curtains, the process of installing curtain rods is just about the worst thing I can imagine, so I put up a tension rod, instead. Truly, it's a good thing people don't typically see inside our bedroom, because I really did a poor job on those curtains. The tension in my machine was all wrong, so the seams on the blackout curtains were rough, to say the least. Oh well, they serve their purpose, our room is delightfully light free all night long, and very dark through the day.

I've figured out my machines tension issue, and haven't been able to stop sewing since. I just finished making up few (WARNING TO MUCH INFO) mama cloth menstral pads. I still did a sloppy job, but I probably won't be showing those off to my friends, haha. 

My current project is sewing curtains for the kitchen window. I was pursuing ValueVillage about a week ago, and found a huge bolt of (what I think is) satin, with beautiful yellow stripes. I have enough fabric that if I botch the curtains, I'll just try again. And, if I don't botch the curtains, I'll have enough fabric to recover the dining chairs, yay! More projects! Although, recovering the chairs won't require any sewing. 

Back to the kitchen curtains. Want to see what the fabric looks like? 

Mmmmm isn't that gorgeous?! It's going to fit so well with the decor I've for going in our living areas. 

I can't wait to show you the finished product! (And maybe a "tutorial", if I don't make a total mess of it!) 

Hope you're having a great weekend!!

Take me out to the ball game!!

Oh softball. What a fun time! I sure wish our Parkland softball season was a little longer! It was so much fun to play this year!  I am by no means athletically inclined, but I go to be a part of a team, and to have a good time. I hope that I helped my team mates have a good time too.

I'm going to brag here for a few seconds. But our last game of the season, I played my very best. I caught 2 balls at home plate to get out runners. My last time up to bat, I hit the ball right passed the third base man! And while that hit didn't allow me to get any further than 1st base, I did make it the 3rd base in that inning. I really wanted to make it home! Okay, I'm done now. I'm just proud that my skills improved, at least for the last game.

Initially, I didn't think I'd even consider playing again next year, but it's just so much fun, I'm not sure I can help myself. I really love it! I also love having my boys come and cheer me on. Josh is my very best cheerleader, and I love that they have a fun time coming out to the ball game. I hope that by watching me play, the boys will in turn be interested in group sports. I (vaguely) remember playing softball as a kid, and what I remember is mostly good. I think I got hit in the shoulder at one point by a ball, but it must not have scarred me. Haha.

I'm pretty smart about sunscreen on these weekends of softball, so I didn't get any bad burns, but for the first time in as long as I can remember I burnt the backs of my legs. But just my calves. Weird. And my legs almost never change colour, but checking out my legs this morning, they have a slight pink to them! Yes! My legs do change colour! Hip hip horray!

Oh, why isn't it April of next year yet?! I don't want softball to be over!!


Hey Human Beings team -- I'll see you next year on the field!!!! (Well, and probably all year until then at church... ;) )


I probably lost a lot of valuable packing time over the weekend of softball, so I'd better get to it! I may not be back for a bit, so in the meantime, Enjoy your summer, friends!

Weekend Fun

Our weekend wasn't the most exciting, but it was a good one right til the end :)

And of course, any weekend with Costco is a good weekend :)

So that's what we did, we hit up costco with my mom (she's got the card), and that evening she joined me and the boys at my softball game while Josh worked. The game was great, we won, and the boys had a lot of fun playing with the other kiddos there.

Sunday was a lazy day, hanging around the house. I unfortunately didn't have the best saturday night sleep ever, and woke with a headache. Boo. And that headache only seemed to grow throughout the day. I thought I had it beat when we were on the way to the swimming pool, but once I got into the water it came back again. Such is life.

Elliott must have forgotten that he's been the pool before (and fairly recently), because he decided he was terrified and only wanted to cling to mommy. Poor kid. I warmed him up to the water after about 10 minutes and he was more comfortable, but still wanted to have my hand. He did, though, enjoy sliding down the little kids slide into the water. And Thomas had a great time playing with daddy. The pool we prefer to enjoy has big floaty canoes for the kids to play in, and Thomas really enjoyed floating around the pool in that. And of course, he thought it was hilarious when daddy played the shark.

Our evening was just as quiet as our morning, and I'm glad because my head was killing me by then. It was teetering dangerously on the edge of migraine, so I went to bed shortly after the boys did. Not sure what's causing the headaches I've been fighting for about a week now, but I'd like whatever it is to take a hike! Could be moving "stress", but I don't feel all that stressed.

Adding to my headache, yesterday I realized our van needs to go through aircare before we an reinsure it. I'm not sure how, but I completely overlooked that, and now we need to get it to pass aircare before we can do anything else. Ugh. I'm pretty sure it's going to fail. I guess I thought aircare was done already, but the aircare program doesn't end until the end of the year. Oops. We can't even start dealing with it until tomorrow, because our mechanics are closed on mondays. Hosers.

Well, it's a glorious day outside, and I think we'll try to get some boxes moved over to the new place. Fun, fun, fun!

**It must have been a pretty fun weekend for the boys, because they're both still sleeping! It's 8:15am!**

Weekends are too much fun!

Wow we sure packed a ton into this past weekend! It felt like a good pace, we didn't rush it too much, and naps were still had, so that's always a bonus. Here's what we did this weekend!

Saturday:
The Rodeo was in town, and we decided to be brave and venture out even though we were told it would rain. It most certainly did not rain, and I got a mighty good sunburn out of the day. I think I've only even gone to the Cloverdale Rodeo maybe twice back when I was a teenager, and I don't remember it all that fondly, but I was probably broke and couldn't do anything fun :P This time around, it was a blast! Both boys were really into it, and had a great time on the rides and checking out all the fun stuff. We met up with some friends who have 2 boys around the same ages as ours, and that just made it even more fun!

We bought enough tickets for Thomas and Elliott to go on 3 rides each, but Elliott only ended up going on 2 rides, as he got scared on the second and wouldn't go on any more after that. Thomas, of course, had a blast, and wanted to go on every ride he saw. His favorites were the Monster Trucks and the Motorcycles.

Sunday:
On Saturday morning Thomas asked me if it was an owl he could hear "hooting" through the night, and I told him that, yes, it was an owl. (Our house backs onto a ravine and there's definitely a lot of wildlife back there!) He was so excited by the thought that there was an owl right out back, he wanted to go see it really really badly! I had to explain to him that owls sleep during the day, and that it would be very difficult to spot one having a snooze. Lucky for Thomas, I knew of a place where we could see some owls (and other birds) up close and personal. (Well, not too personal.)

So we went to O.W.L. Orphaned Wildlife Rehabilitation Society in Delta. What a great experience! The boys might have been a touch young to really understand all that we learned there, but Josh and I had a great time and learned a lot! Thomas thought all the Owls were so cute, and really thought the Turkey Vultures were hilarious. Elliott was good at spotting the birds in their enclosures, but once he pointed them out, he wanted to move on to the next enclosure.

If you're looking for something a little different, I definitely suggest checking out O.W.L. :)

I think our next family adventure will be to the Urban Safari Rescue Society.

ImPressManicure by Broadway Nails

So, awhile back I subscribed to a website called Influenster. They basically find makeup/nail/hair brands who would like to have their newest products tested and reviewed by the masses, and those of us subscribed get the opportunity to be selected to review said products based on a little quiz of our style/interests. Pretty neat, and who doesn't love to get their hands on some free stuff at the cost of writing a review and tweeting/instagramming about it!?

You know in the nail polish isle/section of a store, they've got stick on manicures now? They're hard, inflexible pieces that poorly fit your finger nails, and the glue fails within a day or two? I only tried those once before I decided that they weren't for me. I'd much rather paint my nails. Only problem with that is I don't have an artsy bone in my body, so if I want a fancy flower or swirl, I'm basically stuck paying for a manicure at a salon, and let's face it, I'm way too cheap for that!

So imagine my surprise when my Voxbox from Influenster arrived with stick on manicures inside.

 I'll be honest, I was very skeptical, and I put off using them for awhile. But, after having applied a fresh coat of nail polish only 2 days ago to find it all chipping and peeling off, I decided I'd give this ImPressManicure a shot.

The instructions were easy to go through and I followed them to the letter. The packaging says "Lasts Up to a Week" *when applied properly* -- I took that very literally and made sure I did just as the instructions said!

The manicure set includes 24 nail covers, in 12 different sizes. I was able to find close matches for each of my nails. My pinky fingers were the only real trouble, and that's because they were in between the 2 smallest sizes. No biggy though, I chose the smallest I could and while there is some of my bare nail peeking out at the sides, I'm not upset by it. All the other finger nails covered almost perfectly.

The first thing I was surprised by was the flexibility of the nail covers. I anticipated hard and unbendable, but these flexed out to cover my nails seamlessly. And when I accidentally put one on crooked, I was able to carefully peel it off, it wasn't brittle or painful, and it sort of stretched and went right back to it's shape. It also went right back on, straight this time, and feels just as secure to the nail as the ones I didn't have to reposition.

My only qualm with the manicure is that it feels a little too long for me. I don't particularly like to have long nails, but that's a matter of personal preference, not product quality. I have trimmed them down to suite my preference, and they look just as good a little shorter. :)

I've had the nails on for almost 5 days now, and I'm impressed that they haven't fallen off yet! I'm not particularly easy on my nails, and packing moving boxes certainly doesn't lend any more care to my hands, but these nails have stayed on strong! Only one nails feels a little loose, and it's the nail I put on crooked and had to correct.

I love how shiny and smooth the nail covers are, and I really like that they aren't too thick. Sometimes gel nails (from the salon) can be put on way too thick, and these are just right. I've gotten a lot of compliments on them, and I have to say I really really like the design I'm wearing.

Overall, I'm extremely ImPressed by the ImPressManicure by Broadway Nails. They've come out with a brilliant new concept to the dated, hard, stick on manicure!

*Disclaimer* I received two sets of ImPressManicure by Broadway Nails to facilitate this review, care of Influenster. The opinions are completely my own.

**I'm not sure if this reviewing products thing will be a regular feature on the blog, but I'm interested in your opinion on if you liked this review, or if you aren't a fan of the reviews you've seen on blogs. Thanks for your input ;)**

Invent me a Housework Robot, please.

Why are the weekends so busy?! I feel like I didn't sit down until sunday afternoon. Saturday morning I took the boys to see a movie (Elliott's first in a theatre) because we won passes from a friend of mine's blog. The show we saw was DisneyNature Bears. It was so good! I want to see it again (without the distraction of children haha). I'd never though about what a mother bear does to keep her babies safe, this was certainly eye opening. And seriously, their paws are just SO cute! Thomas did a great job sitting beside "Auntie" Sharon, and Elliott was more or less bribable with licorice and his soother. Then we were off to pick up Nana's birthday present from Voyageur Soaps. If you have children I strongly recommend you go there without them! What was I thinking?! They behaved okay considering they'd been up early, sat through a movie and hadn't napped. NEVER AGAIN! Haha. It's good I can laugh at it now.

Saturday night I went out with my bestie and we hung out at the bar her boyfriend works at. Good times had by all. :) It's always wonderful to hang out with Ange. We think the same, but differently. It's a good mix. Always laughter, and some pretty decent dancing, if I do say so myself. ;) Sunday held some sleeping in, some errand running, and then it was Nana's birthday party! What a fun weekend we all had! And the weather was awesome.

The problem with having such a busy and fun weekend is that while we're all doing our thing, our house seems continue to get dirty. And then I spend my entire monday and some of my tuesday cleaning and cleaning and cleaning. Could someone please invent a housework robot? I'd only use it for weekends, I promise... okay, fine, I'd use it all the time... but who wouldn't?!

Hope you all had a great weekend, too! Here's to more sunny, fun filled weekends!