Catching up

Well HELLO!  It's been a while, so I thought I would catch everyone up with a picture-filled post.

Let's start with skiing. One of my favourite things about being out here in Calgary is skiing.  The hubster told me this would happen, and next time he tells me something... I'm still not going to believe him.  But about this he was right.  I have never been a skier - I just was never really close enough to a hill to warrant buying the equipment and going regularly.  Plus, I was an artsy-fartsy - I didn't think skiing was in my repertoire.  But since I was forced to get gear, buy a season pass, and get up at the crack of dawn to get to the hill - I have gotten pretty good!  And being good at something, or at least reasonably good, is key to enjoying it, in my opinion.  Although they have never been on skies before, the boys are naturals, of course, especially Will.  I thought they would be on the bunny hill all this season, but we have already passed that and are doing chair lift runs.  So fun!

Pretty hoar frost is really common.

So winter here has come and gone, come and gone. Chinooks are REAL people - not just some nebulous thing that everyone kept telling me about to make me feel better about moving.  They're real, and they are spectacular!

Christmas happened, and my folks were here for a month.  It was a fabulous visit and a great holiday, and I think my parents were excited to sleep on a real bed instead of blow-up mattresses (Which was our 'guest room' in the old house).

You can't win 'em all...

Nenshi was kind enough to give me this great book for Christmas (haha) and we went on a few excursions with my parents.  We saw lots of dinosaur bones,

and hoodoos,

did more skiing,

and even made some pizza (but wouldn't eat it).

Chris and I got to have some 'date' time, which of course with Mountain Man means snow-shoe hikes.  Pretty amazing way to see the mountains, so I guess I won't complain.  There was wine too.

Since I wasn't blogging I had lots of time to do some knitting projects, including a few I didn't photograph.  I made up the pattern for the long scarf I gave to my mother-in-law and was pretty happy with it. I got confident enough to print out a sweater pattern, but haven't started it yet.  It scares me.

On the home front, having Dad here spurred me on to accomplish at least one project, which I'll do a separate post about later.  Here is my fancy drawing though.

I continue to be amazed by the spectacular sunrises and sunset out here.  Big Sky is right!

Someone had a birthday...

and I started a painting class.

Our first class we learned how to mix paints and do a quick apple - 10 minutes!

I have also slowly but surely been making it a little homier around here.  There are still lots of pictures to get hung, furniture to be positioned, and some painting to be done, but I am pleased with the boys' room.  The polka dots are my way to liven things up without painting (i.e. lazy solution).

Some day I will get to have a real tablecloth again... you know, those fabric ones?  Without plastic on top? Yeah, I like those.  Some day...

So that's what's been up in my world out here near the mountains.  I hope you guys are staying warm, and are having a happy 2015 so far!

Happy New Year: a fresh beginning

Yes, I am a little late with my wishes, but I still hope you have a wonderful 2013!  It has been a slower start to the year here - my in-laws left for Alberta yesterday morning (they are driving with their dog) and we took the tree and decorations down.  Although I am always sad to see the Christmas tree come down, there is something so cathartic about packing it all up, vacuuming up all the needles and dusting all the little nooks and crannies that had been hiding under the garland.  In all the mass cleaning, I ended up moving all the furniture again, and replaced our tired-looking white rug with an old rug from my house in New Brunswick. Today, after taking my eldest to school, I came home to a clean uncluttered house and felt like the new year was finally underway, fresh and full of promise.

I have been reading all of the amazing resolutions on everyone's blogs and can feel the optimism for the new year. Usually I would have my own list, but for some reason it just doesn't seem appropriate for me this year. I am less inclined to set goals and more of a mind to be open to whatever life brings for a while.  Maybe it's laziness, maybe it's zen. :)  Whatever you call it, I am looking forward to seeing what 2013 has to offer!  I hope it holds wonderful things for all of you. xo

Glitter Card Production Line

I purchased a few holiday cards for the boys' classes, and never really got around to using them.  When I mentioned filling them out to William, he asked if we could make cards instead, like we did for Valentine's Day. Wullll, yeah!!!

I had a ton of glitter around that I had picked up during one of my many excursions to the Dollar Store, and of course a bazillion sheets of construction paper.  So we cut some little cards and I drew a few simple designs with glue.  Then the boys gently tapped quickly dumped the entire container of glitter on the glue and shook off the excess.  Thankfully I had the foresight to use some box tops to try to contain the glitter! Our little pot-scrapers also came in handy.  They kept at it for  quite a while and we had a real production line going before the glitter fights began... I think there will be glitter in our house until they leave for university - it is like living inside a disco ball.  (I sort of love it.)

Having done all the cards, and then allowing them to dry, William filled out approximately six before he had a melt-down and refused to do any more.  So for those of you with kids in his class who thought  his hand-writing looked like something his father might have done with his left hand... well, you get a gold star. :) Oh, and you are welcome for all the glitter we sent into your house.  Enjoy!

Post-Christmas Peace

OK, I have to admit that I am sitting here a bit stunned.  Has Christmas really come and gone in a flash?  It was such a mad rush around here getting ready for visitors, decorating, finishing up school, and putting the basement back together; then wrapping, stuffing, eating, unwrapping, eating, and more eating!  

The basement was finished in the very nick of time - I was doing the final clean of the bathroom when my in-laws drove in, exhausted from 6 days of driving here from Alberta.  So I haven't had much of a chance to sit back and enjoy it yet, but I look forward to doing just that, and snapping a few photos.  The next day I enjoyed a rousing Sing Along Messiah at Massey Hall (so much fun!) and was home in time to chat with my parents, who arrived at my brothers' after a 2-day drive up from New Brunswick.  

Christmas Eve we celebrated here with the Petriks, enjoying an amazing salmon dinner in the Czech tradition.  The next morning my folks stopped by to watch the boys open their ridiculous number of gifts and we had a yummy strada for brunch (my mother-in-law truly spoils us with her cooking!).  Later that evening I made my way to my brother's for our traditional turkey Christmas dinner and it was nice to hang out with my family. We all headed back to Malcolm's (my brother) for brunch the next morning, and he served up delicious hand-made beignets (a tradition my Dad started when we were little of having New-Orleans-style beignets on Christmas morning!).

Now Chris is back at work, his folks are out for lunch with a friend, and the boys are ensconced with Max and Ruby.  I am enjoying a relative moment of quiet and feel like it must have all been some vivid dream!  How lovely though to sit peacefully with a cup of tea, the Christmas lights on, and a blanket of powdery white snow outside.  Always nice to have the simple moments give meaning to the full and festive moments, and vice-versa.

I hope you all enjoyed the peaceful and the festive over the last few weeks.  Here are some photos I managed to grab of our home this year - I went for a little more gold and sparkles this year, and pulled out lots of my thrifted brass treasures!  The boys and I were a little sparkle factory here as well doing our Christmas crafts - I think we will be finding them around the house 16 years from now.

So friends, did you have a nice holiday? :)

Fall/Winter Bedroom Makeover

As the weather gets colder and the days get shorter and darker, my DNA seems to be pushing me to hunker down and get cozy.  My crisp white bedroom wasn't quite doing the trick.  I dreamed big dreams of getting this bedding from West Elm:

However, after a short and sweet discussion with the hubster, we decided groceries would take precedence.  Being a true Taurus, I did not let this financial fluff interfere with my vision, and instead purchased a couple of boxes of RIT fabric dye and attempted my first dye-it-in-the-front-loader.  After the basement disaster and the pipe fiasco, I figured that if things came in three's, wrecking the machine would at least end our streak. (I did not share this methodology with my husband.)

I grabbed a white Ikea duvet set we had on hand - my go-to white cover before the lovely West Elm one entered my life - crossed every conceivable extremity, and began pouring the inky black liquid into my defenceless machine.  It worked!!  It did turn out darker than these photos show it, although I certainly could have done with another couple of boxes of dye.  But overall I am pleased as punch.

I draped these Afgani pillows from Aunt D over the frame of the bed to help warm it up a little more.  I McGivered them on with my handy office clips so they wouldn't slip off every time we moved.  I put a spare rug we had over the foot of the bed, but it's the wrong colour and I kind of wish I had noticed and taken it off before I took the photos. I also took off the white bed skirt to show more of the rug.

Someone's camera-happy kid needed to get in the shot...amazingly with no funny face.

The Buddha is a very recent Value Village find - after paying the plumber for the pipes I needed to so some stress-relieving thrifting! He was a sad, peeled and chipped dark red colour for $4.99, and was just crying out for the my gold spray paint. I am very happy with the way he turned out, and he reminds me to just BREATHE. :)

Now I really want to change out the art for something richer... and maybe see if I have any darker curtains squirreled away somewhere...  But so far I like my bedroom change-up, hopefully it keeps the chilly weather at bay.  What do you think?  Any ideas for art?