Harvest 2012

Harvest 2012

Oxbow, Sask

Taylor Family Farms

                                                   

                                                                 

                                                                      

                               

Garage Sale Standards

OY! I need to have a little seminar on how to prepare, present and succeed at a garage sale up here in Cold Lake! I was all gung-ho on garage saling here... until I actually went out this past weekend and was VERY disappointed. At a number of garage sales it was literally a free-for-all and people just tossed their junk on their front lawn and expected everyone to wade through and find something we wanted. Coming from Calgary where garage saling is a part of life in the summer I was very diappointed with the lack of 'saling' I got to do in Cold Lake this past wknd. : (
I may need to print up a 'How to Succeed at Garage Saling' brochure and pass them around this town! Sheesh! It's gonna be a long boring summer if i can't go garage saling!

Exploring My New Home

It has been a very long spring, but we are finally moved... and settled! Cold Lake is a beautiful lake town with a great summer feel to it and it smells of the beach everyday. We are 5 minutes from the beach, so Colton and I have become daily fixtures at the beach. Cold Lake has alot to offer and is full of beautiful scenery and beautiful things. I could stand on the Marina for hours just watching sailboats float past, clouds roll by and people saunter down the pier with all the time in the word. I just wanted to share a few pictures that I have snapped while out-and-about in Cold Lake.
If you ever get a chance to come up this way, I would suggest you do b/c everyone would enjoy all that this area has to offer.

 These first 2 pictures are taken from the pier on July 18 as a thunderstorm was rolling in.

This is the ceiling of one of the little Eateries on the lake. The resturant is called Clark's Eatery and it has some of the best home-cooked meals I have ever tasted. Absolutely finger-lickin-good seafood and a really cool atmosphere. It is very rustic and full of antiques... a definate 'must stop' when in Cold Lake.

 North Sask. River - just north of Lloydminster on your way up to Cold Lake. Very impressive bridge surrounded by jaw-dropping scenery. There is also a great little campground right by this bridge.

So far, I am a fan of this move and all that it has proven to offer.. but winter could change my mind! Stand by for my update in 6 months...: ) Now all I need to do is find some friends up here! Missing my gals from Calgary... BIG TIME!

The Sailing of Garages

Well, the time has come for garage sales! You have no idea how happy this makes me! I am usually looking for old, vintage, tried and true recipe books. I stumbled upon some really great cookbooks this weekend. When I got home and went through them, they were full of hand-written and paper-clipping recipes... JACKPOT!
Here are some pictures of a few of my finds...

I picked up a Blue Ribbon Cook book and inside were newspaper clippings that dated back as far as the 1930's. Reading some of the articles sure makes you realize how much things have changed over the years. There were so many cool articles on what to feed your children, child-rearing, eating off the farm and preserving anything and everything. I sat at the kitchen table for 2 hours lastnight just reading and looking through the two cookbooks I had picked up.

Just a sample of some of the clippings that were in each cookbook.

Material I managed to find at one elderly ladies house. They still had the price tag on them... I think I see some throw pillows in my future!

Portable pant hanger that is on wheels to slide in and out of the closet... It was $1, how could I not grab it?!

This is the china I stumbled upon a couple wknds ago. There were 10 or 12 place settings with serving bowls, creamer and sugar bowl... and all for $10! I thought this was really pretty but not too girly for me. : )

Pray for Daisy

I been following this blog for the last year. The amount of surgeries and procedures this poor little girl has had to go thru in her short little life is heart breaking.
http://prayfordaisy.com/post/21327431167#disqus_thread

My sick wee lad

 After being up all night coughing, gagging and blowing his nose, he finally fell asleep(out of absolute exhaustion, i'm sure). Poor thing has been sick all week and neither one of us has been getting much sleep and we are going through boxes of kleenex's at an alarming rate!

                                            This is what i woke up to this morning. : (

Watching cartoons with his box of kleenex and water bottle. I think we will be having a cartoon kinda day.

Comfort Food

When you think of a comfort dessert, what comes to mind? For me, it's a lemon meringue pie..

I remember as a kid, mom always making lemon meringue pie for Sunday supper dessert. She would get up before the rest of us Sunday morning, make the pie and then set it on the counter to cool. Throughout the day my brothers and I would sneak into the kitchen and steal the meringue peaks off the pie (but no one would admit to taking the peaks off if mom confronted us :). So, by the time supper rolled around mom had a peakless pie, but no one at the table knew what had happened to them..hmmm.  I always remember the pies having perfect meringue with sky-high peaks...I have still to learn her 'perfect meringue' secret!

Growing up!

                        This little nugget will be 5 years old in 2 months. Where has the time gone?!

Homemade Crayons

1. Preheat your oven to 275 degrees for 10-15 minutes.
2. Place all your crayons in the sink with enough water to cover the crayons. Let sit for 4-5 minutes. The wrappers will come right off if soaked. Before I decided to soak my crayons it took 5 pain-staking minutes to peel one crayon and I bent a nail back in the process!: S (So, lessoned learned..soak crayons)
3. Break crayons into pieces and then place into desired mold.
4. Place mold in the oven for 10 minutes. Keep an eye on it. I did mine until they were JUST melted and then swirled around the wax with a toothpick.
5. Remove from oven and cool for 2 minutes and then place in the fridge to set.
6. Once wax has hardened, pop the crayons out of the mold and...TA DA!

For a Pa-Zazy Friend..

Project #2...but it didn't end up being for me afterall (I'll do one for me later on). I told a friend of mine about this little craft and she said she wanted one too. I asked what color she would like and she said pink! So, as I wandered through Walmart lastnight looking for supplies I came across a basket of spray paint on clearance...and it was full of bright pink. So, i figured that was my sign that I needed to make this little craft for my friend.
When I do one for me it will be to house my multiplying collection of glasses and a few accessories.

This project cost me:
Frame: $2.99 (Value Village)
Wire: $3.49 (Walmart)
Spray paint: $3.00 (Walmart)

Project Colton

Project #1 Complete!
I found a simple solution to hanging Colton's art work..something I can add to as he brings home all his pictures from Preschool. Made some cute push-pins to spruce it up a little and add a little touch of 'boy'.

                                         Before - Caos and sticky-tac all over the wall.

                                         We have enough cars kickin' around here I didn't figure Colton would even notice or even care...which he didn't. Crazy-glued 2 plastic cars to thumbtacs which hold up the art clothesline.                                       

 The finished product! I left enough room to add another line underneath once the art starts piling up again.

                              The dollar store has lots of fun clips to hold the art.

Heading out to shop for Project # 2 tonight! Value Village beware...I'm on a mission!

Baby, it's cold outside!

Only in Calgary can you go from -38 with the windchill to a chinook blowing in the next day and bumping the temperature into the + temperatures! My head is already hurting in anticipation of the chinook that is about to blow in. I dread winters here in Calgary. I can feel a chinook before it even gets here b/c of the migraine that sets in for a good 24 hours. So I need to keep my brain functioning while this weather wreeks havic on my head!
This weather has inspired me to get some crafting done. My list is long and I am determined to get it all done by spring. I have been reading some great blogs and I have some great ideas for things to do to keep me busy and to spruce up my house a bit.
If anyone out there has any other cute or cool crafts that you think I should try, let me know. : )

Here are a few things off my list of  'to-do's'..
- I am on a mission to find some funky material to cover my kitchen chairs in
- make or refurbish a headboard. Ikea has random wood pieces from cabinets that can be made into super    cool head/footboards.
- strip and repaint 3 nightstands to match a non-existant headboard : )
- picture frame accessorie/earring holder (thanks to Catie Brown and her fabulous blog!)
- whip up some curtians/valence for my very bare kitchen window (pictures will be posted to show all the bare-ness i got goin' on in my kitchen)
- I hate seeing shoes sitting at the front door and my closet will not house all the shoes we have. I need a cool/neat-and-tidy solution for my shoe problems.
- I need to find a way to display all of Colton's art work without taping it to his bedroom wall. Any ideas on how to display art work in a neat way?

So this is a sample of my winter to-do list. I would love some new craft/DIY blogs to check out if any of you have a favorite that you would like to share.
I will begin to post pictures of my crafting endeavors as soon as this chinook blows through! : S

Stay warm my friends!