Smash It!

I think that my hunny knows, or at least suspects. I figure that I should probably be ashamed, my feelings have blossomed uncontrollably. It's time to come clean. Just to be clear, this is not something that I had planned. It happened entirely on it's own. It was an accident, I swear! Ok, maybe not quite that innocent. A natural relationship though, obviously just meant to be!

I'm in love with my potato masher.

I've never had my own. I'd wanted one for a long time.

Then one day, walking through Dollarama to pickup lint roller refills (Remy is a shedder, period) as we passed down through the cutlery aisle to grab some off the wall - I saw it! Potato Mashers. $1.25. People, it was love at first sight. End of story.

It's a simple affair between us. Nothing fancy. I like to boil baby red potatoes, then mash them to a pulp with the skins on. Maybe add a little margarine and milk. It topped some moosemeat sheppards pie last night for supper. Mmmmmm.

That's my confession. Guilty.

Magnetic Leafs

Happy Tuesday Everyone!

Well, it finally happened..... the scrabble craft has been completed. Jess came over yesterday morning and together with some green tea (which she didn't enjoy as much as me) we buckled down and began. Like I promised, I have pictures to show. I only wish I had some way to credit the blog I stole the idea from, but alas I have no idea who it was. My apologies. Voila!

That's right. I now have scrabble magnets on my fridge, whereby I can write out any cute message I want! Or leave sweet little phrases for my hubby. Hehe.... I know, I thought it was lame at first too but now I think it's wicked! Thanks Jess for your help!

Meanwhile, I took out the power tools this morning. Remy was so scared she hid in her kennel until I finally finished. You see, for the bathroom vanity I had originally purchased a towel rack that stood up on top of the counter, to hang the hand towels on. As it turns out, folding the towel to put it back on the rack after each use is a nuissance. Isn't it hunny? hehe. So, I realized a little while ago I was going to have to suck it up and attach something to the wall.

While out looking for Tanya's baby gift the other week I came across some hooks that match perfectly!

I learned one thing that's so important I'm passing it on to you... when the angle is awkward and you decide to climb up ontop of the vanity do not brace yourself with your feet in the sink. It's just really not attached that well, even for a little person. I know that now. Luckily, I don't seem to have caused any major plumbing issues underneath but it was a sketchy close call. Could've had disaster written all over it! Focusing on the positive, it's pretty fantastic eh?

Originally, I had planned to put two leaves in the bathroom but I've settled with one. I couldn't let the other leaf go to waste!

We had no where to put keys except the kitchen counter.... until now! In behind you will see the wallboard I talked about in an earlier post. Sexy! 

That's about all the excitement I have to share. Going to run now and make myself a tuna sandwich for lunch, and see if the animals might be up for a walk. Cheers!

Story of Casie

July 2007 Photo

My friend Casie lives in Ontario.  The few times I have gotten to visit her were often in November, the pre-holiday crisp in the air.

I would generally get it into my head that the time downtown Toronto could be best spent taking advantage of diversity and doing some christmas shopping. She always heartily agreed!

One trip, we were perusing through Pier 1 Imports, and I fell in love with some beautiful Christmas ornaments. Secretly, I have a bit of a thing for tree decorations. Anyway, I didn't actually buy one, but thought them just wonderful nonetheless.  I often do this to myself, it's a side effect of my fundefficiency.

Meanwhile, a little bit later on, Casie pulls something out of her bag and hands it to me.  She says it's a surprise gift! Sure enough, I open it and it was one of those pretty ornaments.  I was so happy! When I thanked her, almost unable to keep the permagrin off my face, and asked why? She replied that her mother had always said:

"If you can do something that you know will make someone happy, then you should do it."

I've never forgotten that, it just feels so true. Thanks Casie for making such a positive impression on my life in such a little way. Love you girlie!

Weekend Finale

We've all had a fantastic weekend! This is my favorite picture, it's from Friday:

Not only was it quality, but it was inspirational too! We spent saturday night catching up with friends, and I got to see firsthand an idea that I had considered but dismissed due to lack of courage and fear of wasting money.

In our hallway downstairs we have wallboard on the walls. We had discussed drywalling this, but felt like it was alot of money and effort for a basement hallway. You see, the sheets of drywall come in 4x8' sizes and our ceiling down there isn't 8ft high - basically there'd be alot of cutting involved. After you have the stuff up, you still have to plaster and sand, plaster and sand. We learned from the upstairs renovations that the plaster dust is nasty, it gets in everything.... EVERYWHERE. It also seems to stick around f o r e v e r after the fact. Rather discouraging for future, unecessary applications.

Now I painted the wallboard almost right away, which definitely improved the space for the time being - however I don't see much point in putting on the mouldings because quite frankly it just doesn't feel finished. What to do, what to do.

Then last night, I see that Michelle has gone ahead and done it. She purchased the paintable wall paper and wall papered OVER top of wallboard she wanted to coverup. Seriously. Then she painted it (hence the paintable wall paper) and it is a definite improvement. She went with a stucco design, which I can understand, those big floral prints are nasty. Either way, it isn't something I would do as a permanent change, in a high traffic area like our main floor, but I think that for the basement hallway it may in fact be the answer I've been looking for.

This has gotten me pretty excited to start renos again! We have a section of wall taken out for electrical we had to do, so we will have to putup drywall etc to fill that in - but we wont have to plaster it even since we are going to try this paintable wallpaper overtop. Can you feel my excitement? It's also got my brain turning about the basement stairs and the leftover flooring we have stored away. Woo!

I ended up doing some replanting of seeds this evening. Alot have come up, especially the few peas I planted and spinach. I have also a few lettuce sprouted and a couple onions. Overall, I think in hindsight, I might've had the soil packed too densely, and perhaps the seeds down to deep. So I dug out the cells that weren't germinating and replanted them. I also learned something very interesting from my dad this week - Did you know you can't grow carrot seedlings? Apparently, they can't be transplanted. Rather makes me laugh, if you think of it you can see why moving a carrot root could be an issue. He got a giggle when I was talking to him and he let me in on the secret. So I replanted all the carrot cells with lettuce and spinach. I figure that isn't something we can have too much of.

Also, I splurged this evening and bought the animals a toy that has been haunting me around town for over a week. I agree with the idea of it, similar to the Kong toy, it's supposed to give the animals a challenge - use their brain power to figure it out. It's basically a big ball that you put treats in and it has a hole shaped so that if you roll it around on the floor enough the treats fall out as a reward. Well. They don't seem very interested. To me they are getting alot more treats than I would normally feel comfortable giving and without doing any work. Sort of a waste of $10. Perhaps there is some sort of learning curve to it. I will try it again another time, hopefully with better results. Otherwise it might be a dud for us.

Ok, I've stayed up past my bedtime - haha. Jess is coming over tomorrow morning to help me with my scrabble craft so soon enough I will have pictures to post of that. I'm really looking forward to it, her and I haven't gotten to hang out together in WAY too long. Gnight! Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend too!