Keeping warm

Last week winter finally came. Which meant that I needed to get busy and make a carseat cover for my little man(did I really just call him little?). I had intended on making one with some of the fun fabric from this post. But when I mentioned making one to my husband he said "can you make an Oilers one?". Finding Oilers printed fabric is pretty much impossible. So I asked him if he had any cheap Oilers T-shirts at work. He had a better idea. I could just use one of his.

Here is what I came up with using an old Oilers T-shirt and some gray polar fleece that I got for free. Basically all I did was cut it up the sides and lay it out flat. I did need to make the neck hole bigger for the peep hole. and I cut the sleeves off and resewed them back on to make it lay flatter. Now my little man is all cozy and warm, and totally stylin' too!

The shelving unit.

OK, so I know all of you have been dying to find out what I have done with my shelving unit. You all gave me some wonderful ideas, so I got to work. I sanded it all down and stained it this colour.

And then I got stumped. Well, the author of the blog with the red bookshelf left a comment on my last post pleading for help. First of all, I was honored, thrilled...I don't quite know the right word, to have Bethany comment on my blog. You really should go check out her blog if you haven't already. Her and her husband have done some really amazing stuff. Secondly, she gave me the perfect idea. It was exactly what I wanted, but hadn't yet been able to come up with it on my own. I needed paint(our little hardware store doesn't have the greatest selection of paint). So I thought on this idea for about a week. In my thinking and wondering I came across this fun colour wheel site. It is fun for a couple of reasons. First because it tells me what colours will look good with other colours. Secondly because it also has a feature that gives me an idea of what the world looks like to my 4 colour blind brothers(and if it is accurate...how boring their world is!).So I plugged in the colours of my room and came up with some fabulous colour combinations. I loved the idea of a green colour and could almost visualize it. But I wasn't completely sure. I called my sister-in-law and had her talk me into it.



I painted the back this colour first.

Then I marked off and drew a argyle like pattern using a tape measure, a piece of wood(as my meter stick) and my chalk pencil(used for marking when sewing).

I then taped off the lines of the argyle pattern one direction at a time and painted them with a sparkle glaze. This I thought was going to take me FOREVER, but it actually didn't I got it all done in one evening.





Shall I remind you of what the shelving unit looked like before?

And here it is after it's little make over.

The Finished Product

 Isn't it Beautiful? I loved it so much that I almost didn't want to put anything on it to hide that amazing back!

Just a shot so you can see it next to the piano.

Here it is with some of my Nativities displayed on it. I love it. I don't think my Nativities have ever looked so nice. If you are interested in seeing them up close, don't worry I will be doing a post on them with up close pictures.

Still not getting it.

Last week my sister relayed a story to me. Late Monday night she had the thought to go buy some milk, eggs and bread because she was out. But it was late and she didn't want to go, so she told herself she would do it in the morning. When she went to bed(at 1am) it was only raining. When she woke up in the morning it was completely white outside, she had no power, and all of the kids were home for a snow day. She realized then that she should have heeded the promptings of the spirit the night before. We had a good chat about this. We talked about how sometimes it is easier to heed those promptings when it is helping some one else or when it is one those BIG things in life. At the end of our conversation I said that I would learn from her mistakes.

ONE week later, I am sitting at my sewing machine sewing name bars on hockey jerseys. I had already done two, PERFECTLY. In fact I had thought to myself(which I often do) "you are AMAZING!". As I sat sewing on the third one I had the thought to stop and check that it was straight. I argued and told myself that I already had, twice in fact and had pinned it securely in place, besides I had already done two perfectly. So I kept on sewing. Half way through, I thought that I should check it. Again I told myself that it was fine and finished the name bar. When I held it up to look at...imagine my surprise(OK not really) when I saw that the name bar was crooked...and not just a little bit. If I would have heeded the promptings of the spirit and simply taken the time to triple check I would have saved time and the anguish of having to unpick the entire name bar(I HATE unpicking!). I immediately thought of my sister and how I did NOT learn from her mistake. As I finished the rest of the name bars I couldn't help but think of how often I have done the same kind of thing. How many times have I let my pride, (for surely that is what it was, I KNEW that it was straight) stop me from heeding the simple promptings of the spirit? Yes, in the grand scheme of things sewing a name bar on straight doesn't mean anything...but it would have made life just a little easier. Just imagine how easy life could be if we always heeded the promptings of the spirit in the little things that don't mean much in the grand scheme of things. I can think of dozens and dozens of times where I have had this similar argument with "myself", I think that the majority of the time I don't realize that it is the spirit prompting me. I once heard it said in an Relief Society meeting, that all good things are of God, so when you have a good thought you should follow through on it because only good can come of it.I try to always remember this, but it is apparent that I haven't yet mastered this idea.

New things aren't always fun.

Since James is almost 6 months old, I figured it was time to try something new.

He looked excited enough.

Does this kid look like he needs solid food?(all of his clothes are labeled 12 months)

But then...

...not so much.

I'll try again in a day or two.

May we never forget, and alway honour.

This year Kathryn came home from school and asked if we had any relatives that served in the war. They had been talking about World War I and World War II at school in preparation for Remembrance Day. I told her that we did, and that I would get some info from Grandpa Forsyth for her to share with her class. Grandpa sent us some journal entries from his grandfather Neil Forsyth who served in WWI. you can click on the following links if you'd like to read them.
pg1, pg2, pg3, pg4, pg5, pg6, pg7, pg8, pg9

  

My dad also sent me this letter that Neil Forsyth received about 27 years later. 

I sent a copy of this letter along with some of the journal entries, up to the school for Kathryn to share with her class. The school asked if it would be OK for Kathryn to read the letter at the School's Remembrance day ceremony.

I am so thankful that we have these tangible items for me, and for me to share with my children. My hope is that one day they will realize the significance of the sacrifices that their ancestors made so that we could enjoy the Freedoms that we have.

S.A.M.M....even though it's now Tuesday

I meant to share this yesterday but I was awfully busy sanding and staining my shelves.

Once again this week I don't have anything exciting to share, but here is a recipe that we are known to use as a breakfast/lunch/supper meal frequently, I think we used it at least twice last week for supper.

Good morning Pancakes

3 cups flour
2 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tbsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup margarine, melted
3 eggs, beaten
1 1/4 cup milk
1 cup water
1/2 cup apple sauce
1 tsp vanilla

Mix flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder in a large bowl. Make a well. add milk, water, eggs, melted margarine, apple sauce and vanilla. Mix until blended, but still somewhat lumpy. Make delicious pancakes. My children also love it when I add a little food colouring to the mix, a trend that started when I made them this breakfast for Valentines day one year. We've had green, blue, pink, orange and yellow pancakes, just because it's fun to eat coloured food...or something.

For a little extra yummieness try making different "fruit whips" by putting 1 can of fruit in the blender and blending until smooth. You may want to add a little extra sugar to some fruit. As a kid we always had what we called "Peach Whip". Lately we have tried some other variations. Canned pears with frozen or fresh berries blended in. Apple sauce with canned pears and cinnamon, this was a huge hit with the kids.


As always I am linking up with my fabulous sister-in-law Mitz.

Somebody, anybody, just tell me what to do!

OK, So here is the plan...well the beginnings of a plan for this shelving unit.

I have this box. I love this box. I love the colour of the stain on this box and it looks nice with the colour of the piano(not to mention easier to take with me to the hardware store to find a match). I plan to stain the shelving unit this colour, hopefully with some of the same colour variations as this box. I've never stained anything before, so I am kinda, sorta scared that I am going to screw it up. Tomorrow I'll start sanding the shelves.




I bought a piece of masonite to fit the back of my shelving unit. The original plan was to wallpaper it(thanks to Kim's idea). However, being a newbie at this, I had no idea where to find wallpaper at a cheap price, and the stuff I did find, I didn't like. So I came home Saturday frustrated and not knowing what I was going to do. Then I happened to check out my sister-in-law's blog and was led to her sister's blog and found this great idea. I was inspired!
So I have painted the masonite the colour of my tan wall(because I am cheap and this is what I had). This will be my base coat. Now the original plan was to paint an argyle pattern similar to this.


But in different colours...which is still up for debate...because honestly, I haven't a clue what to do. I like the chocolate brown, but then what do I put with it? I thought about using a similar blue and copper that are already in my room, but then maybe that is too much. So then I thought about using just different shades of brown that will match the stain. And then I started thinking that maybe the argyle pattern would be too busy as a back drop for my pretty things and picture frames. I always clear that stuff off my shelves at Christmas and put up my Nativity collection and I wasn't sure if I would like the argyle behind them. So then I was thinking that maybe instead of doing three colours, I would just do a brown with the light tan lines....or maybe the tan with brown lines. But maybe....oh forget it. I just such a wimp. I have no idea what colours to put together, I'm afraid that whatever I do will look awful. I'm not as brave as this person and her fabulous red and brown shelf, although I LOVE it. I would totally put it in my house, but I'm not brave enough to make it, forget even coming up with the idea in the first place. Or how about this one, it's my sis-in-law's  fabulous project. What I need is someone to talk me into doing something brave. So go ahead, tell me to be brave...or better yet, just tell me what colour/pattern/texture to paint the back. I'll do whatever you tell me.