Does Everyone love a parade?

Well it depends. I used to be the mom that sent my husband to the parade with our 3 boys while I enjoyed a quiet morning on the deck with a cup of coffee. Today, however, I decided that after a hiatus of at least a decade, I would indeed accompany my family to the parade. Maybe I see it differently than most people. It's usually too hot out. You often have to walk a long way from parking to the parade route. And if you don't bring your own chairs, you have to stand for lengthy periods of time while people promote their organizations and businesses.

Today was fine, though. The weather was warm but overcast and we were able to drive our truck through an empty field right beside the beginning of the route.

Of course being that it is the Canada Day week-end, we must have people dressed in red and sporting Canadian Flags. And what parade would be complete without a moose? 
And my favourite entry? It would have to be some type of car. There were plenty to choose from. There was the token Pontiac convertible transporting local dignitaries. The local auto body shoppe had several new cars on display. But the one blog worthy car was this race car probably because it isn't something that is normally seen on a daily basis.

Gardening in the Rain

I can't say I've ever been much of a gardener. I usually faked it in conversations and spoke of 'our garden' letting people assume I contributed something to it. To those close to me, though, I could reveal the truth, saying, 'I don't need to garden, I'm married to the Gardener.' Why ruin a good thing? My husband was used to caring for the yard. He trimmed the roses in the front, pruned the fruit trees he planted and planted a garden every year. Other excuses I used were that I disliked any kind of bug and believe me bugs are prevalent out there. I also didn't like to get dirty. (Is that a girl thing or just me?)

This year began on a different note. First of all, in the spring, I discovered Markus Rothkranz, whose lifestyle was one that I wanted to emulate, big time. This man went from almost dying on 4 occasions to becoming on of the healthiest guys around. One of the main lifestyle choices he made was to begin to eat only raw food. It was totally intimidating to me at first but I so wanted his level of health that I decided to make some changes myself. Part of the change entailed me eating a lot more raw vegetables and herbs and thus the whole interest in gardening.

I bought some potted herbs that I grew on the deck for awhile. From there, they went to a small plot in the vegetable garden that I nicknamed the herb garden. So today as the clouds continued to shower us with droplets of rain, I strolled out to the garden and began weeding. I discovered that weeds come out much easier if the ground is wet. Plus the sun isn't beating down on me making me sweaty, sluggish, and dehydrated. I quite enjoyed myself until the skies opened up and began to really pelt down the water. I didn't get it finished as I had hoped. I did vow, however, that next time it looked gloomy and wet during the summer, I'd probably drop all other tasks and head out to weed the garden.

Update:

Since I started writing this post, I got the news of how devastating the rains have been to many Southern Alberta communities since yesterday. This is a picture of the #1 Highway  at Canmore where we drive through every year on our way to visit my parents.

We had planned to take this route again in the next 10 days or so. My heart goes out to all those who have lost homes and possessions due to this flooding.

Before and After… I Couldn't Wait!

It's Friday of course! I'm so excited to show you a 'before' and 'current' picture of a piece of antique furniture my husband has been working on for me. I wanted to wait until I had the finished product before I posted pictures but I was couldn't hold off any longer. 

As with everything I collect, there is always a story attached to it but that is half the fun, right? 

In 2006, I bought my Grandpa's house and in it was a freestanding kitchen cabinet. The house had been built in 1950 and instead of installing cupboards in the kitchen as is the norm today, he used this piece of furniture that I nicknamed a Hoosier. 

Technically a Hoosier cabinet is a type of cupboard popular in the beginning of the 20th century and was named after the Hoosier Manufacturing Co. of New Castle, Indiana.

Before

When I was selling the house, I removed the cabinet because it had been in the family for some decades and I put it on my 'someday' list to be restored. Since then it had to travel 1,000 miles to where I currently live and once it got delivered (Thanks, WHD), it was coming apart in several places. 

As I enthusiastically scrubbed it down and took the handles off, I realized that this was a much older piece than I originally believed it to be. At a quick glance, with the metal counter top and the chrome handles, it would appear to be from the late 1940s or early 1950s but when we lifted off the solid piece of metal that acted as the counter top, there was a wooden counter top that had seen many a knife mark. In fact it was so worn from being used as a cutting board that it was actually hollowed out in the centre. The metal piece had been added much later and probably only to save the deteriorating wood underneath. Also, once the chrome handles were removed, it exposed a second set of drill holes that proved that the chrome wasn't original. I was delighted! The final clue of its era was that inside the drawers and on one of the top shelves was the remnants of a thin coat of robin egg blue paint. So the glossy white paint was not original either! Now I was convinced that this was actually from the 1920s as I secretly hoped. 

It had even more value to me and I had an even greater desire to refinish it and have it in my house. As I surveyed it day after day, I realized that if I wanted it to look nice, it wasn't going to be me doing the refinishing work. So, I convinced my husband to take it (now in about 15 pieces) to his window manufacturing plant, Gildcraft Millwork where it promptly went back onto the 'someday' list and sat there (still in pieces) for the next 6 months. 

Well 'someday' has finally arrived! Last weekend, we drove out to my husband's shop and picked up the Hoosier, which I am happy to say now looks like this.

June 2013

Now that it is back at the house, we plan to stain it, add new hardware and an additional feature that I will save as a surprise when I post a picture of the final product. Stay tuned, it is going to get even better!

Garage Sale Finds

I've never been big on Garage Sales. It's not that I am against them per se but I just don't think about them. I even drive by the signs on the week-ends and think, ah, another time. But often another time just doesn't come. So years go by without me attending a single sale. About a week ago, however, my really good friend Colleen, presented me with a really neat present. It was a vintage tapestry purse and the minute I saw it, I was enamored with it.

"Where did you get it?" were the first words came out of my mouth as I instantly made plans to use the purse at an upcoming event.
"At a garage sale,"came the answer.
Of course, where else does every other wonderful treasure come from - at least the ones with the great price to match.
Well, on Saturday morning, I met some ladies for a Stampin' Up party and lo and behold, the parking lot of the complex was set up as one big Garage Sale. When one of the ladies suggested we take a few minutes to look through the wares, I decided to go along.




Sure enough, within about 5 minutes, my eyes landed on the one thing that I would go home with. Do you know what it is?

It is a Russian Samovar. 

I had researched the history of this unique item a few years ago when I saw one in a tea shoppe. Essentially, it is a vessel for boiling water to make tea. In North America, we use electric kettles or boil water on top of the stove to make tea but the Russians are way more elaborate. They make a strong tea in a small pot that sits on top of the Samovar while plain water boils in the urn below. When they want a cup of tea, they simply pour a bit of the strong brew from the pot into a cup and then place the cup under the spigot of the urn to fill it with hot water. Thus, you have a hot cup of tea.
When I first discovered what they were, thought that I would like to buy one but the new electric Samovars had to be shipped from overseas and there was nothing online for less than $200 plus the cost of the shipping. I just filed the info in the back of my mind and didn't pursue it. Last year, when I dropped one of my kids off for a playdate, the mom asked me to come in for a minute and the first thing I spotted in her living room was a Samovar on her mantle. She was quite surprised that I knew what it was because she had brought it with her when she emigrated from Russia.
Back to Saturday's garage sale. I asked the lady selling it if it worked. She wasn't sure as it belonged to her brother and she was just selling it for him. She told me we couldn't test it out as it had a European plug on the end of the cord.

She also told me her brother had brought it with him from Russia. Needless to say, I bought it. Whether I try it out or not or ever use it doesn't matter. It's a really great find and one that I wasn't even actively looking for.

A Stampin' We Will Go

Late yesterday afternoon, a courier truck arrived with a package for me and it was…

a BigShot from Stampin' Up. I was ecstatic to say the least! My friend Heather playingwithpapercrafting, offered a monthly workshop called the BigShot Club where each of us pay a small fee, attend her class once a month and each month one of us receives a new BigShot machine. This month it was my turn. Essentially, the BigShot is an embossing / die cutting machine for use in all kinds of papercrafting including card making & scrapbooking. The first thing I did was pull out an embossing folder that I won as a door prize at Heather's Catalogue Launch on Saturday. Before I could even give it much thought, I had embossed my first card. Today, I decided to use it to to make a Father's Day Card for my dad.

The only thing that I was disappointed with was the fact the inside became mostly white. I thought I bought clear label paper with a white backing. As it turns out after I printed it, that it was white label paper. Oh well, I would have run the cardstock through the printer but I embossed it the SECOND I got the BigShot out of the box!

Anyway, I'm sure my dad will be happy with it. He often talks about spending his 24th Birthday in Paris so when I saw the Paris stamp, I knew I would somehow incorporate it. Also, the truck stamp looks very similar to two trucks from the 1940s that he owns and is wanting to restore.

This was one of those cards that I just went with what I had available. Hopefully, as my resources increase, I will be even more creative. It seems I still gravitate to the computer when I want some text (I didn't have a Happy Father's Day stamp) but I may never stop combining the stamping with the computer. Who knows! Now to get this in the mail!

Tea and Such

This last week-end I went to the annual Ladies' Spring Tea hosted by our church Victory Life Fellowship. victorylife.ca

 

It was a great time to dress up, eat a delicious lunch and just have fun with a bunch of like-minded ladies. Part of the reason I look forward to events like these is that I get to wear things that I wouldn't normally get away with if I were, say, just running to the local store for some milk. Here's what I wore…

And here is a shot of some of the ladies.

Later on, I made a quick change of clothes and drove to Heather Cooper's for a Stampin' Up Catalogue Launch. In case you haven't heard of "Stampin' Up" or seen any of the great things that can be made out of paper, check out Heather's stuff at playingwithpapercrafting.

I so enjoy going to these open house events. I got to browse through some of her retired stamps and I then made a cool card. Unfortunately, I gave it away before I got to take a photo of it, but Heather has a similar image on her site. This is just the beginning of my 'stampin' exploits so I'm sure I will be sharing more images as I make them.