Random Update

My BFF asked for a blog post and it's been a while so I'm taking a bit of time to do a quick update for my dear buddy and fellow readers in the blogosphere. Before Christmas, I got really into crocheting and found that the Michael's crappy hooks just weren't cutting it so Jamie and I put in a big order on KnitPicks and I made a sweet hook holder for all my new toys using this pattern. 

We also made Charlotte's first Christmas ornaments using a simple salt dough recipe. It took a lot of tries to get her little hand and foot to cooperate. I'm glad that salt dough is very forgiving and easy to work with. I think they turned out adorable and I can't wait to hang them on our tree next year! 

I did my very first DIY RLR diaper insert strip because Charlotte got this terrible rash from having diarrhea and I thought it wouldn't hurt to strip the diapers just in case there was some ammonia build up. I absolutely love cloth diapering and have been very sad that I haven't been able to for the last 3 months because Charlotte's poor rash just isn't healing and I'm using all these non-cloth diaper safe products to try and protect her skin. She's got extremely sensitive and finicky skin so hopefully we can make our way back to cloth soon. 

We also picked up a bunch of picture frames from Ikea when they had a sale. I was envisioning this wall for quite some time and Ikea just happened to have frames on sale and a display conveniently put up that I fell in love with so we just stole the whole idea. Jamie didn't really have a choice but to put it up because we had no room to store the frames since we were hosting Christmas dinner for 20 people. Unfortunately, the frames are still sitting empty. Yet another project to tackle. 

With the amount of hoarding I do with crafting goods, I knew I wanted to make some tag blankets with the vast, VAST amount of ribbon I own. I managed to sneak away one Monday night to a friend's house and hunkered down for 2 hours. I think I used about 0.02% of my ribbon. 

We've been doing a lot more cooking since I started maternity leave. A new salad dressing that I've been obsessed with is this lemon garlic concoction. I don't remember where I found the recipe, but those who know me know that I'm not good with measurements so I'll just list off the ingredients. 

Kick Butt Lemon Dressing 
- olive oil
- lemon juice from 1/2 to 1 lemon
- salt and pepper
- mashed garlic
- oregano 
- a tiny bit of sugar if you want

It's seriously so yummy that it got Jamie actually enjoying salad! One thing to note though, the garlic is what makes the dressing so one must be okay with stinky raw garlic breath. Below are just some random shots. I attempted to make this White chicken Chili and although it didn't turn out like the recipe, it was still delicious. 

A few girlfriends and I are trying to get back into shape post baby so I've been doing baby barre class where you strap baby to you while doing ballet moves and strollercize (which is essentially working out while baby stays in the stroller). I've also managed to get in a couple walks with the warm weather we were having. Whatever little time that Charlotte is napping and I have my hands free, I'm trying to catch up on my Project Life. I'm only about 2 years behind now. Jamie is de-cluttering the basement and finally recycling all his university textbooks. Makes me sad knowing we both spent thousands and thousands of dollars on those damn things that we can't even use as firewood. They are literally worthless paperweights that are taking up valuable storage space, but yet I cringe at the thought of dumping them. How Asian of me. 

To end off this random update, say hi to the puppies! 

3 Months

I cannot believe how quickly time is moving. Little Charlotte is already 3 months old and my maternity leave is 25% over!!!  Our days are spent pumping, feeding, changing diapers, snuggling, and getting together with friends whenever we can. Jamie and I are both sneaking in some crafting whenever we can. He's the knitter and I'm the hooker, also known as the crocheter! Some projects we've worked on include a knitted poncho, some cute baby booties and a baby quilt to match my massive queen quilt. If you want to find some great patterns, Ravelry is fabulous. I love wearing Charlotte and although I might be breeding some bad habits of having her sleep on me, I relish all the chances I get to have her close to me. I know she isn't going to sleep like this with me forever.  

Quilt Finished with 29 Days to Spare

Remember when I posted this massive queen sized quilt that I've been working on for the past 6 months or so? I worked on it for 2 or 3 hours once a week since late January/early February with my other 2 quilting buddies. 6 months later, countless hours and I finally started putting finishing touches on it earlier this week. I spent almost all day Monday at Sparrow Studioz, learning how to use the long arm quilting machine and another half day on Tuesday to finish off the quilting. I was originally going to pay someone to quilt this massive beast of a quilt for me so I opted for a minky backing. The owner, Bradie, convinced me that I could easily quilt it myself and get the satisfaction of saying, "Yah, I made this entire quilt myself." I was sold. I'll never quilt on my little home machine again. For $30/hr, it's a steal of deal to rent studio time. I squared off my quilt after the quilting was done, came home and spent the last two evenings binding the quilt. I'm so happy with the finished product. Not only because I feel like it's such a huge accomplishment, but because I opted to go for the queen size that fits onto my bed. It's going to be something that I treasure and hopefully pass onto my children. When I was making this massive quilt, I messed up a couple times which left me with a large number of blocks so it's just meant to be that my soon-to-arrive baby will get a matching lap quilt. Like momma, like baby. :) 

Cabinet Rejuvenated with Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint

Leanne from Apple Box Boutique has totally got me hooked on painting furniture to give it a second life and now I see old wood furniture in a whole new light. I took a class from her earlier this year and was able to transform Jamie's old night stand into something that I absolutely love. 

The picture really doesn't do it justice because the gold gilding wax is amazing in person. We have a matching dresser for this night stand that's in line waiting to be transformed into a baby dresser/change station. Hopefully that'll get done before baby's arrival! 
Leanne had a massive furniture garage sale a couple months ago and I managed to pick up this beautiful, made in Canada dresser. It fits perfectly in our foyer and I knew I wanted wanted to test out the oh so loved Emperor's Silk paint color. It took 2 coats of paint, 2 coats of clear wax and some spray paint for the hardware to almost complete the look. I picked up some dark wax to give it more character but haven't gotten around to truly finishing this dresser yet. In the meantime though, it stands loud and proud in our foyer, strutting its new sharp look. 

Card Biz Update

Remember way back last spring when I was so excited to announce that I was taking on a little business adventure with a local store? I just thought it was time for an update on how things are going with that venture. The store is called Apple Box Boutique and it's located in the heart of Highlands. Leanne is the wonderful owner of this unique store and she has been so supportive of local artisans that the store is loaded with products from my greeting cards, small local company bath and body products, locally painted artwork to hand-sewn quilts. The focus of her store is the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and you can see the paint in action with all the painted furniture in the store. Sales have been slow since the cards were all kept in a little box on a counter, but after some discussion we decided to have a display shelf to draw more customers to the product. How amazing is Leanne for allowing me to have the space that she has? Jamie impressed me when he built this card rack and after some sanding and Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, there it sits in all its glory. Smack dab in the middle of the store, directly across from the checkout counter. I'm not expecting to sell hundreds of cards but just seeing them all displayed out like that sure makes a gal feel good.  

Happy National Nurses Week!

I'm going to keep this post short and sweet. It's National Nurses Week. We don't always get the praise I think that we deserve. You'll need a nurse at many points in your life, starting from the minute you're born all the way till the end of your life. I've been a nurse for 8 years now and although I haven't loved every minute of it, I do love the career I chose. You have likely seen a lot of these ecards floating around and most of them are funny because of the stereotype but many of them were funny with a very sharp edge. This one was true, funny and unoffensive so it won me over. 

My original plan for my nurses was to make cloth covered buttons to go over the retractable ID badges. Unfortunately this wasn't as easy as I thought it'd be. Turns out, there's a fancy dancy tool you buy to make fabric covered buttons. Who knew? Not I! So plan B was to go with what I knew and what I had on hand: leftover wedding fabric! I cut some circles out, lit my French Baguette candle from Bath & Body Works and plugged in my hot glue gun. I even made one for myself! Hopefully my nurses like them. I spent yesterday afternoon stamping up some cute little cards with a colleague and it was a fabulous Sunday. Happy National Nurses Week to all my fellow nurses! 

Administrative Appreciation Week 2013

Hopefully everyone knows how much administrative personnel are needed in any work environment. They truly are the oil that keeps all motors running smoothly. Without them, things would break down pretty darn quickly. They aren't always recognized for the work they do or the importance they play and it's unfortunate that sometimes I hear them say things that refer to themselves as "the bottom of the totem pole". I personally think their role is just as important as any other role. Without them, many offices, hospitals, work sites, just wouldn't be able to function. I wanted to let me clerical staff know that I value each and every one of them. With the help of +Jinnee Barazzuol and her Silhouette and Armor Etch,  I was able to customize a mug for each of my staff. I tucked a little handmade card in each mug and hopefully they all like it! 

Card Biz?!

Those that know me know that paper and I share a long time love. It started way back when I was in elementary school writing letters to my pen pals. It started with a family friend's daughter in Calgary. Then somehow I found pen pals all over the world including other parts of Canada, the States, Taiwan and even France. I still love writing letters to the few pen pals that I have, although I've been awful this past year. I owe all 3 of my pen pals letters! Fast forward to 2008. I was introduced to Stampin' Up! and my paper love reached a new level. Who knew one could love paper and stamps so much? In the past year with the wedding crafting, I ventured more into sewing and realized that I love fabric just as much as I love paper! Throw other hobbies into there such as photography and Project Life, that leaves me with 2 things. A lot of hobbies and not enough time to get really good at any of them. 


I guess that's how Jamie and I work though because when we decide we want to try something, we both jump in with both feet. Go big or go home right? So besides planning our honeymoon and kitchen renovations, I still want to find time to do the things that I love. That includes finding time to make cards! My lovely friend, Amanda, has kindly put in an order for some thank you cards. 20 of them to be exact. Now folks, hand stamped greeting cards is not the business to be in if you're wanting to quit your day time job. It might be if you're wanting to be a demonstrator and sell the products used to make greeting cards, but not if you just want to sell the cards you make. I used to keep a basket of the cards I made at work and my coworkers would oh so kindly support my paper addiction. Any money made would have already been spent months earlier on the new must have stamp set. 


With the wedding and many other things competing for my time (including the evil television), I've made very few cards in the last year. Amanda's card order really is the kick in the butt I need to get back into it. I best be putting my thousands of dollars worth of crafting goods to use! Although I've always loved hosting card workshops where I get to entertain friends for an evening of card making fun, I never did it consistently enough to make a business out of it. I think the biggest deterrent is the prep time. It really ate away a lot of my time and that's likely due to me not learning the best and smartest ways to host workshops. But I still love making cards and I've always wanted to sell my creations to people that love one of a kind (OOAK) handcrafted goodies. Today I stopped by a store called Henry's on High Street and what did I find in this funky uber chic store? Hand stamped greeting cards! I thought, "This is awesome! I could do this!" On the drive home, the lights just happened to turn red right in front of a local flower shop. I've talked to Jamie about approaching the store to possibly set up a little card business so what'd I decide to do? The light turned green and I turned right in. After 30 minutes of jovial chit chat, I decided to spill the beans! "Not gonna lie, I came in here with a motive." The owner's reaction was more than awesome. She was so receptive and so encouraging of the idea that I am now so excited and had to blog about it. The sucky part? I didn't have any samples of my cards with me! Jamie's response, "You went in with no samples? That's brave..." I honestly didn't plan any of this at all and I even told the owner that. She was asking about how I wanted to work the sales, split the percentage, sell directly to her to resell? I was dumbfounded and told her truthfully that I didn't do any prep at all. Not a great way to sell myself, I know. That's okay though because everything is a learning opportunity. In the next week or so, I hope to crank out some OOAK beauties to show off. 


Am I excited? Very. Am I nervous? Definitely. Will it be awesome? Absolutely. 

The Chaos That Is My Refuge

Some of you may not be aware, but I also have a crafting blog called StampnNStuff. Crafting is a huge part of my life but I try to keep all my card making posts separate from this blog. Today I shared a bit of my crafting space over on my other blog so pop by if you have a moment. Here's one of the the pics I posted over there.