Cold Lake

Good COLD Morning!

It got down to 1C this morning! Isn't it still summer?!?

I took a bit of a blogging break to go up to Cold Lake to visit our friends. We were supposed to go camping, but events of the weekend put that idea off. It is ok though, because it was cold and raining. We did spend one morning visiting other campers and having a wonderful camping breakfast! There is nothing like espresso while camping!



I got a bit of knitting done, but not as much as planned. That always happens when I am visiting. I have great plans to knit all the time, but I end up chatting too much to remember LOL!!

Daisy had a wonderful time being out in nature! She met a new friend, Shadow, and ran around the campground chasing squirrels. The dogs had a squirrel stuck up a tree for at least an hour!



Can you see the poor squirrel?



I have been relisting some of my Coffee Condoms in the shoppe and today I hope to get some pictures taken of some new items. Hopefully the sunshine will hold out!

Thank you for all the wonderful comments!! I love receiving every single one of them!!

Have a creative day!!!

All Decked Out

The deck is done!!

The last board was screwed on this Saturday and then on Sunday, under the threat of rain, we stained the deck! It is so wonderful to see it finally done! DH has worked so hard on the deck, doing it all himself (I helped where I could). He had to fit it in between work, overtime, the weather and time with the kids (which is very important to him). But it is finally done! I am so happy! The backyard seems so much bigger now. Yesterday we washed down the table and chairs and BBQ and put them up on the new deck. Today DH is going to build some stairs from the sliding door to the deck. We have 2 back doors (odd eh?) and we haven't used the sliding one because it hasn't ever had stairs. So this is really exciting for us LOL! Anyway here is a picture of the beautiful deck!




And this is the patio DH built a few years ago.



The backyard has so much useful space now!


Thank you to everyone for the recent comments!! It is great to know that I am not just talking to myself LOL!!!! I have been tagged by LoraKelly Designs. I will get to that asap. It is funny because you mention not liking to be "IT" as a kid and that was me as well!! I will do my best at tagging others though! Thanks for the tag!!

Have a beautiful day!

Gocco

Yesterday was a good thrifting day. We took DD#2 to the naturopath who happens to be right beside Good Will. (Lucky, I know!) I was wandering around and picked up a couple of coffee mugs. Then I turned down one aisle and there it was!!!!



I was so excited! It was open, but it looks like it wasn't used. Two of the light bulbs are missing, but all of the inks are still sealed. The pen is missing though, but that is alright! There were also 3 tubes of pearl ink! All of this for only $35!! I was just beside myself. When I got it to the car and showed DS the original price of $139 he looked at me and said "Start the car! Start the car!!" LOL!! That is exactly how I felt!!

I love thrifting!!

We Have Cukes and Zukes!

Good morning!

I wanted to share some exciting pictures this morning. Ok, exciting for me LOL!!! Out in the garden, the cucumbers and zucchinis are finally showing their faces!! This year the garden didn't get nearly enough attention, so we have just had radishes and lettuces mostly. We did have a whopping 5 carrots and 3 beets though LOL!! But now the cucumbers and zucchinis are out!! I have to remember to pick the zukes before the get as big as DD#2's head this year! Here are some gratuitous garden shots!





Speaking of DD#2, she has been drawing a lot lately. Her newest thing is to just use black markers. She has drawn some amazing things in the last few days and has been really experimenting with this new medium. What do you think? She made this for a friend of hers.



I have actually been making new things for the shoppe!! They are almost ready to put up. I have to just work out the logistics for them and have a sunny day to take some pictures and then I will add them. I am hoping to do a few craft fairs in November and I think I need more on my table than just my Coffee Condoms. I also need some variety in my shoppe. I have realized that the block that is bothering me so much is that I feel that even when I am just trying something out, it has to be perfect because it will go up for sale. I have finally convinced myself that I can just try new things - just for me! They don't have to go into the shoppe until I am pleased with the result. For some reason that was a hard thing for me to get past, but now I am finally having fun making new things again!! Yay me!!

Thank you to everyone who is reading my blog and for all the great comments! Even if you are just passing through, please feel free to say "Hi!"

Have a beautiful and creative day!

July

So....I am finally getting around to catching you up on our July.

Almost every day in July DD#2 and DS spent the 6 hours at the mobile skatepark. They had such a great time!! They both learned some amazing new tricks and each only ended up with a few scrapes and bruises.




So that meant that there was a lot of driving and a lot of Booster Juice in July.

Amongst all the driving, DH started working on the deck. It has been a slow process between the skatepark, work, overtime, weather, a quick trip, and other stuff that needed to be done. I have been helping where I can, but he has done most of the work himself. It is almost done now, but the last 2 days have been raining, so all we get to do is look at it right now.



On July 3rd, by baby turned 12!! We had a great day at the water park and then came home for some homemade-gluten-free-cookie-crumb-based-better-than-DQ ice cream cake! DD#2 and I made it from scratch. It was her idea since she is eating gluten-free now. And, if I do say so myself, it turned out darn good!!! She wanted to make the ice cream as well, but for this time I talked her into store bought ice cream. Next time, we will definitely make our own! The base was a mix of gf chocolate cookie crumbs and some gf peanut butter cookies that DD#2 made. Yum!!!



Then on July 9th DD#1, my oldest turned 18! We spent the weekend up in Edmonton and met up with our friends from Cold Lake. We had a wonderful time! We stayed in hotel. We don't do that very often as usually when we travel we either camp or stay with friends or family. The master bedroom in the hotel suite was bigger than our own bedroom! We went to the Old Strathcona Market on the Saturday when we were there and came upon this!




It was the perfect time to be there! There was so much to see! What fun!

Then at the end of the month it was my turn for a birthday. I turned 38. When did that happen?? LOL!!! DH took me out for dinner and got me a new compact digital camera! I now own a Canon Power Shot SD800. It takes great pictures and is way more compact than my DSLR. It fits easily in my purse so I can take more quick shots for blogging!!! Now I just have to remember that I have it with me LOL!!!

Well, those were the highlights of our July. Now hopefully I can keep up with my blog in August. So far I am not off to the best start, but I am working on it!! LOL!!