All The Things I Meant To Post About…

So… yeah. You may have noticed that there haven’t been a whole lot of posts going up around here the last little while – save for the August Break and Quantum Leaps ones. All I can say is that it’s been a challenging couple of years. Long story short, between various health issues and the complexities of raising a family well, my energies have been focused elsewhere. And the few times I’ve actually gotten around to creating something that might be interesting to someone out there, well… I just haven’t felt inspired enough to blog about it. So. I’ve decided to do one big catch up post about the few things I/we did create – omitting most of the gory details – instead. 🙂

Okay, let’s start with a few random creations, in no particular order: flax-based waffles, drawing-with-kid date, aromatherapy creams session, marshmallow sculptures craft, May Day appreciation gifted flowers, a working “car” for school, paint-your-own pottery items, fun with perler beads, and home-made Valentines! Whew. Okay, moving on. 😉

Now, neither of my boys truly enjoys birthday cake, so each year we have to get a little creative about what treats to serve at their parties. This year, I opted for sugar cookies. I really wish I had written down the recipe I used, as it was one that required no pre-chilling of the dough, and the icing was only three not-even-measured ingredients (plus food colouring)! They were a huge success, especially with the Minecraft and Hello Kitty themes, and they’ve already been requested again for next year. (I suppose I’d better get hunting for that recipe, huh?)

After Valentine’s Day passed, I wanted to put up a different bunting than the hearts one I had made previously.

After experimenting with several different patterns, I found a star one that I really liked, so I set about making a handful of them in different colours.

I love that it added so much colour and joy to the living room during the dreary days of winter/early spring. 🙂

Of course, not all experiments go quite as planned. This year, I decided to finally test out “natural” plant-based dyes for Easter eggs. I tried four types: purple cabbage, blueberry, spinach, and raspberry. I boiled the leaves/berries forever, used vinegar to “set” them, tested both white and brown eggs, and let them “percolate” in the fridge for days…

As you can see, the result was less than perfect. Though I got some really beautiful, soft colours going… they did NOT want to adhere to the eggs properly. It was almost as if the dyes formed a skin over the eggs – a skin that either bubbled off or was easily peeled off by merely touching it. Bottom line: totally not worth the effort IMHO.

Later that spring, we were invited to the home of some friends for dinner. I noticed that they had a beautiful growth chart for their kids, and it brought back happy memories of one that my dear friend had in her home when we were growing up. I wanted to make a more permanent one for my kids (the paper one we’d been using just wasn’t cutting it anymore), but I wanted something that could be easily transported if ever we should move. So I started Googling.

Using a 6-foot cedar board, some lightly tinted sealant, and some self-adhesive decals, I crafted a very basic one for our wall. It’s nothing fancy, but the boys sure love measuring themselves and their friends to see how quickly time flies. 😉

Another fun little project I undertook was the restoration of this file cabinet. It had obviously been passed over at that weekend’s garage sale, and so was offered up for free to anyone who wanted to take it come Monday. I loved the colour, and rescued it from the side of the road immediately. With a little scrubbing and peeling and dent pounding, it looks almost as good as new. And perfect for my “girlie” office. 😉

A little floral decoration, and it’s become one of my favourite new things. (It doesn’t hurt that it has lots of room for sorting out all of my random paperwork, either!)

And finally, a little garden update. Over a dozen years ago, we started ripping out a bunch of the grass on our property, and replacing it with flowers, veggie boxes, trees, shrubs, and pathways. It’s been quite a journey getting the constantly evolving garden to where we want it to be. This year, we decided that it was time to replace the old, rotting wood on the veggie boxes with something a little more sturdy and similar to the raised beds in the front yard. This also involved weeding and relaying barrier under the gravel surrounding them. Not to mention getting all the veggies in and planted on time! Whew…

By the time we were done that job, we were both exhausted, and the boys were out of school. I was busy with them, and my husband was busy with a big Lego project, so we decided to hire a couple of friends to help out with some of the remaining work.

We wanted to replace the weedy gravel path with a boardwalk that extended from the back to the front deck, and as a bonus, we got the crappy front steps replaced and added a safety handrail.

A HUGE thank you to Ray and North of Big Men Little Decks for all of their wonderful work! Now, as time permits, I can focus on the weeding and harvesting and finishing off the front flower beds. Or just sitting in the hot tub. You know. Priorities. 😉

So, yeah. Looking back, a lot has gone on… just nothing quite as “big” and “instruction worthy” as I’m used to I suppose. But that’s life, and you just have to go with the flow.

Speaking of flow… Have I mentioned that we said goodbye to our 15yo girl Wednesday last year? We are currently in the process of training our new girls, Bella and Pepper, which just adds to the time commitments and familial chaos. In a good way. <3

This fall, both boys will be in school full days for the first time. I am seriously looking forward to having (mostly?) uninterrupted days to really get the house back into shape – after 11 years of dealing with the dreaded acid reflux in my kids. (As an aside – my youngest if finally off of his meds, and we are all experiencing a majority of sleep-filled nights for the first time ever! It’s amazing!!! Woo-hoo!)

So, yeah. I imagine there won’t be a tonne of crafty creativity going on for a while yet. At least until I can get a dedicated work space going again. But I’ll keep you posted. 😉 Happy creating, y’all!