Sit back, relax and...

putz.  Putz and play with projects that have been piling up.

Enough with the p's.  Here's a peek (sorry) at the artsy crafty fun I had over the holidays.

Painting, finally on my own!  I tend to buy art and craft supplies with projects in mind, but am a while in getting to them.  It was exciting to put Evelyn down for the night, then set up shop in front of the Christmas tree and fireplace while watching Love Actually.  And yes, a rum and eggnog completed the picture.

The two collages above were done for Darce and Jord for Christmas.  I painted the canvas with the same background as the photos, then Mod Podged the photo onto the painting.  I will definitely do this again!

These two babies were made for Dad a few days later, for his birthday.  He's been asking for a 4 seasons grouping of birch tree shots, photos, though.  I was going to give these paintings the same treatment as those I did for D and J, but it didn't work as well because of the placement of the trees.  The photos will be for another time.  The quote, by the by, is one of Dad's lines.  He has a few that he says often enough that he claims them as his own (which he will tell you if you use one on him).  "I love this time of year." gets said at any time of year when Dad is out, fully enjoying the elements.

Now for this beauty of a bowl, all I can say is that Pinterest is full of inspirational and questionable craft/gift ideas.  I mean, who wouldn't want to receive a neon-corded, scrap-fabric-ed bowl?  The lucky recipient was Alastair.  The fabrics came from his grandma's basement and his gift-card needed to be personalized.  I made it clear that regifting is totally fine, as long as it's regifted to me!

On Writing

The French Immersion teachers had a PD day on writing at the end of November.  One of the presenters referenced a quote that he had recently read on writing; how the best part of writing is discovering what you didn't know you knew.  It's a feeling that I love; rereading a text and realizing, wow, so that's how I saw it.  

Writing tells a lot about a person, as does a painting, a photo taken.  A professor from Tennessee (don't know him from a hole in the wall, but blessed Google pulled him up) posted some of these quotes on writing on his website:

E. M. Forster: How do I know what I think until I see what I say?

Robert Frost: For me the initial delight is in the surprise of remembering something I didn't know I knew. . . . I have never started a poem yet whose end I knew. Writing a poem is discovering.

Denise Levertov: Writing poetry is a process of discovery. . . you can smell the poem before you see it. . . . Like some animal.

Adrienne Rich: Poems are like dreams; you put into them what you don't know you know.

Edward Albee: Writing has got to be an act of discovery. . . . I write to find out what I'm thinking about.

Thoughts that make me smile.

Therapy

I am a Pinner.  I wonder if there's a double-meaning in there?  In any case, I've got boards on the go on the Pinterest website...this pin came up today (logo originally from a shirt).  It's going out to all of you who need therapy.  I mean gardening.

Closer to the end than to the beginning

We are going to be working on the "finishing touches" for a while (no time-line), but as Steve so aptly put it, we are officially closer to the end than to the beginning.  So here's some shots for all of you out-of-towners...which is most of you.

Office/ Crafts Room/ Twin-Bed Empire

Old kitchen pantry given a few stinky coats of paint 

(the last of the not-friendly stuff that Timbermart was selling)

Chair from Dad's old office, squeaky

Sawhorses I made for our door-desk

And a light fixture, 1 of 3 that we bought, 

that resulted in us gambling with traffic and the gods

on our way home from Toronto.

Laundry and utility room

Old kitchen cabinets put to very good use

My first foray into plank-style farmhouse countertop

(Dad did most of the work)

The ridges make it rustic

(I decided not to plane)

The wood filler keeps the dirt from falling between cracks

Right?

And now, for Steve's Baby:

Oh, how we deliberated on siding.  We wanted some stone, but all applications of it looked forced (as in, why is that plunked there?)  No one wants to spend money on that.  

We eventually came around to a cedar and stucco mix.  Spent a lot of time searching images of "modern" siding (as modern as you can get with the bones of our house, typical peaked roof, etc).  We ended up getting clear tongue-and groove cedar, no v between the boards from Brown and Rutherford, in Winnipeg.  Applied it horizontally in some locations, trimmed windows and doors with it as well (see first and second photos).

The stucco was another major decision in the making.  We wanted it as smoothly applied as possible and considering our house was already wrapped and prepped, our options were limited.  However, our contractor did an amazing job, taking his usual "lace" application and smoothing it out even more.  

The only difficult part about the whole stucco process was choosing the colour.  Once my penchant for white (à la L.A. breeziness or Greece-like pure) was negated, we quickly settled on dark grey.  Yea!  Two weeks later, we still hadn't agreed on that dark grey.  It finally showed up on a paint chip we had brought back from the city months ago when choosing indoor wall colours.  Sico's "Urban Grey".  Go us!

Steve busted his butt on the siding.  Learned all about making 45 degree mitred cuts on wowed boards (hold those babies super tight to the guide.  Clamp them?)  He enlisted a friend for a day or two, but mostly got the cedar up on his days off.

That's it for the house, right now.  We're still working on trim work inside the house, shelving, some plumbing and picking out lighting.  Master bath is not done, but we're going to let someone else play with that!

Sugar honey

Dad sent me this clip, The Real Bears, a couple of days ago.  Makes you think about what's in your fridge, or what you order when you're out for lunch.  Go Jason Mraz, you crooner, you.

Whatsssat?

"Whatsssat?  Whatsssiss?  Ooooh!"

Baby's first words?  There's definitely a mama and dada in there, but those could be attributed to phonological ease and claiming the people most important to her.

So the next runners-up would be "Whatssat?  Whatsssiss?  Oooh!"  Inquisitive baby discovering the world one word at a time.  That's my kind of girl.

Shinrin-yoku

Orchid family?  Newest discovery, July.

Shinrin-yoku, in Japanese, means "forest bathing".

Boosts your well-being and your vitamin D, reduces bullying

got this from Chatelaine.

not yo' mama's magazine.

Well, it's my mama's magazine.

And for a while now, yo, mama, it's been my magazine.

Though slightly ousted by Canadian House and Home (research, bedside), 

Food and Drink, Ricardo, Flavours (meal dreaming, bathroom and Sunday morning planning)

Explore and Saltscapes (destination and adventure ideas, bathroom)

Not to mention blogs.  Oh, the death of papered print!