The patterned paper I used for the puzzle pieces I created by repeating a love quote in Microsoft Word and then printing it off. I then handcut (what a PAIN!) each puzzle piece. Thankfully there were only 5!
Thanks for stopping by!
Monday 17 September 2012
Love is in the air
This past weekend I attended the wedding of a friend of mine. For her wedding gift, I decided to create her a wedding layout and frame it in a shadow box for one of her favourite wedding photos. I based the colour scheme on her wedding colours and her centerpiece which was a bouquet of hydrangea. I scoured her Pinterest page and picked several of her favourite quotes on love. I also knew that she was having a puzzle themed wedding, so I tried to incorporate this as well.
The flowers were meant to be hydrangea like her wedding flower. I cut each flower out using the Cuttlebug Flowers die and then curled the tips of the petals under with a toothpick. I then glued a little rhinestone flower in the middle and hot glued the flowers down to the page. I used cardstock from Bazzil and Stardream Metallic collections as well as vellum. The butterflies were also cut from the Cuttlebug using the Nature and Texture Borders die. I loved the dimension of everything and I also loved how perfectly it matched her actual wedding!
A picture of her bouquet:
Posted by Heather 3 comments
Our weekend in pictures
This past weekend was truely fantastic! I had a fabulous date night with my husband AND we celebrated Derrick's 35th birthday! For our date night, we attended the wedding of a friend of mine. I just love weddings! There's something about seeing the love between two people, listening to the promise they share with each other and reminscing about your own wedding day. I've always found them very romantic so what better way to celebrate a date afternoon/night!
The next morning, while Derrick slept in for his birthday, Arabella and I went to work creating a masterpiece. Most of it got thrown out, but I did save a red handprint and added a yellow beak, feet and some googley eyes to make a mini card for Dadda from Arabella. Happy Bird-day Dadda!!!
One of the many reasons I love this man...such an incredible father! I just love how Arabella lights up around him.
In the afternoon, we headed out to the park for a bit where Arabella enjoyed blowing the seeds on every single dandelion she could find.
Then it was off for a hike. Unfortunately it was dinner time for the mosquitoes so our excursion was very short-lived. The one family photo I quickly snapped ended up having one extra person...errrr...insect in it. Notice the little black dot on Arabella's nose. Yep, definately a mosquito and she got bit before I had a chance to notice it. Poor lil munchkin!
On our drive home she was full of beans. Here's a few or my favourites!
Instead of birthday cake, Derrick requested cupcakes. Usually I just use a boxed cake mix for my cupcakes, but when I went to bake them I realized that I had forgotten to pick up a box of this from the store. The only solution was to make them from scratch! I went online in search of an easy recipe that would work with the ingredients I had at home. I ended up using a recipe for vanilla cupcakes from Glorious Treats. I then added my own spin on them by adding cream cheese icing, crumbled golden grahams cereal, chocolate chips that I zapped in the magic bullet and a drizzle of caramel. I called them Rocky Road cupcakes and they were divine!!!
And here is what Derrick and Arabella thought of them! She could barely wait to dip her finger right in and sample them. I made a miniature one for her but she was way more interested in testing out the other cupcakes on the plate.
If I have a chance, I plan on posting pictures of the wedding gift I made so check back soon. Right now, it's off to clean the house before Arabella wakes up. Wish me luck!
Posted by Heather 2 comments
Monday 10 September 2012
One afternoon...
One of my favourite things to do with Arabella is go for an afternoon walk through the Huron Natural Park. She loves looking for wildlife and I love the peace and beauty that nature brings. Here's one of our walks captured in pictures:
It's hard to believe that fall is already upon us. Not that I really mind...it is my favourite season of the year!
Posted by Heather 0 comments
Thursday 6 September 2012
A weekend at the Cottage
This past weekend was the last long weekend of the summer and the first weekend I spent up at my new cottage.
Our Cottage
There's a long story behind how I am blessed to share this little piece of heaven on Perry Lake with my brother and sister. It is a bittersweet one, just as my very first stay there was. My Uncle Stan passed away last year and left his house to my brother, sister and I. After the initial shock of this inheritance, I began to really think about what this meant.
At first, I felt extremely grateful. A large chunk of my childhood memories revolve around the summers we spent at camp so this inheritance brought back many nostalgic memories. My parent's owned the adjacent property to my Uncle's house and we had a trailer that we spent most of the summer at. It was right on the water, so every night I was lulled to sleep by the chirping of hundreds of crickets and the deep throaty croak of the bullfrogs in the swamp. My favourite part of the day was waking up in the morning to the haunting song of the pair of loons that nested across the bay, then crawling out of bed and running through the dew laden grass to watch the mist rising off the water. My grandparents lived 3 houses down the road from Stan's place and during my childhood they owned over 100 acres of the surrounding property along the road. My grandfather actually planted the pine trees across the road that towered a few hundred feet in the sky. We used to spend many afternoons exploring the sandpit looking for used shot gun shells or pulling apart milk weed to watch the seeds dance through the sky. Then it was off to Grandma and Grandpa's for homemade biscuits and the most delicious homemade jams I will ever taste. So the one aspect of this inheritance, was a chance for my daughter to experience a handfull of the memories that I cherish so dearly.
However, as is life, the years have brought many changes. My grandfather sold off his property years ago, my grandparents passed away in recent years and their house was also sold. So my Uncle's house is truely the last physical piece that I can hold onto of my family and my childhood memories. The flip side of the coin however, was the financial and emotional burden. I won't go into the details, but in order for us to make this house a cottage, we were all going to have to invest a lot of time, hardwork and heart into it. Over the first year, every weekend we spent working there made the inheritance feel unbearable and almost suffocating. I think a lot of these emotions had to do with the grief of dealing with my Uncle's passing. But there was also a great deal of sadness...as we delved deeper into the cleaning and repairs of his house I began to see Stan for more than who I knew him as. I guess you really get to know a person once you are riffeling through a house filled with their memories.
So all of that leads us to my first weekend at the cottage. I was nervous to spend the weekend there, first because my Uncle passed away in the house and second because my 20 month old daughter does not sleep well away from home. I wasn't sure what to expect...when we arrived, it was peaceful and beautiful. Arabella immediately took to it and loved running around the expansive lawn. She ate a late dinner and went straight to sleep which is unheard of for an overnight stay. But once she was sleeping and it was quiet, it felt sad. Sad because of all the reasons that had lead up to me standing in that kitchen. So I did the only thing I could think of, I poured a glass of wine and we toasted to Stan. The rest of the weekend was amazing! Creating new memories with Arabella, reminscing about the old ones and embracing the present. It was a truely magical experience and now I am so grateful to have been left such a blessing in our lives. Maybe one day, Arabella will bring her children to see the trees that her Great Grandfather planted...
Our Cottage
There's a long story behind how I am blessed to share this little piece of heaven on Perry Lake with my brother and sister. It is a bittersweet one, just as my very first stay there was. My Uncle Stan passed away last year and left his house to my brother, sister and I. After the initial shock of this inheritance, I began to really think about what this meant.
At first, I felt extremely grateful. A large chunk of my childhood memories revolve around the summers we spent at camp so this inheritance brought back many nostalgic memories. My parent's owned the adjacent property to my Uncle's house and we had a trailer that we spent most of the summer at. It was right on the water, so every night I was lulled to sleep by the chirping of hundreds of crickets and the deep throaty croak of the bullfrogs in the swamp. My favourite part of the day was waking up in the morning to the haunting song of the pair of loons that nested across the bay, then crawling out of bed and running through the dew laden grass to watch the mist rising off the water. My grandparents lived 3 houses down the road from Stan's place and during my childhood they owned over 100 acres of the surrounding property along the road. My grandfather actually planted the pine trees across the road that towered a few hundred feet in the sky. We used to spend many afternoons exploring the sandpit looking for used shot gun shells or pulling apart milk weed to watch the seeds dance through the sky. Then it was off to Grandma and Grandpa's for homemade biscuits and the most delicious homemade jams I will ever taste. So the one aspect of this inheritance, was a chance for my daughter to experience a handfull of the memories that I cherish so dearly.
However, as is life, the years have brought many changes. My grandfather sold off his property years ago, my grandparents passed away in recent years and their house was also sold. So my Uncle's house is truely the last physical piece that I can hold onto of my family and my childhood memories. The flip side of the coin however, was the financial and emotional burden. I won't go into the details, but in order for us to make this house a cottage, we were all going to have to invest a lot of time, hardwork and heart into it. Over the first year, every weekend we spent working there made the inheritance feel unbearable and almost suffocating. I think a lot of these emotions had to do with the grief of dealing with my Uncle's passing. But there was also a great deal of sadness...as we delved deeper into the cleaning and repairs of his house I began to see Stan for more than who I knew him as. I guess you really get to know a person once you are riffeling through a house filled with their memories.
So all of that leads us to my first weekend at the cottage. I was nervous to spend the weekend there, first because my Uncle passed away in the house and second because my 20 month old daughter does not sleep well away from home. I wasn't sure what to expect...when we arrived, it was peaceful and beautiful. Arabella immediately took to it and loved running around the expansive lawn. She ate a late dinner and went straight to sleep which is unheard of for an overnight stay. But once she was sleeping and it was quiet, it felt sad. Sad because of all the reasons that had lead up to me standing in that kitchen. So I did the only thing I could think of, I poured a glass of wine and we toasted to Stan. The rest of the weekend was amazing! Creating new memories with Arabella, reminscing about the old ones and embracing the present. It was a truely magical experience and now I am so grateful to have been left such a blessing in our lives. Maybe one day, Arabella will bring her children to see the trees that her Great Grandfather planted...
Posted by Heather 2 comments
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