It's been a year and a day...

...since we got married!

I love you more each day xox

(a photo from our honeymoon)

sunshine and snow

A lovely day out with the family in the beautiful sunshine.  I'm so happy the "Do-Jo's" (our sometimes neighbours out the back) were not around although I'm sure they would have a had a fit if they knew we were sledding and 4-wheeling on their lake that they don't own.  And now for the positive message..."Trespassing is fun!"
Disclaimer:  If you are reading this and you are one of the Do-Jo's, we absolutely did not trespass on your property.

p.s. Did I mention we had a campfire with cedar roasted sausages, complete with ketchup, mustard and sauerkraut?  Why is it that sausages taste so much better out in the cold?

a valentine "...punch in the face..."

More treats from a box, who knew?  Duncan Hines Lemon sponge, wow, so delicious.  I made my own icing (inspired by a friend) with real raspberries and cream cheese.  In the words of my step son "Oh...oh my, now they are a punch in the face of flavour!"  Why should I go all crazy trying to bake from scratch when I can have them made in minutes with lots of time left to spend with my family?  They were a mouth watering extravganza!

My Logger Love was off on  trip with some friends, up north, so my steppies and I had our own little Valentine's celebration, a quiet dinner with pink roses and yummy cupcakes.  Simple and sweet.  Here are a couple of pics from our dinner table.

textures

I'm so excited about finally figuring out how to add textured layers to my images.  Thanks to my lovely friend S who told me about the youtube tutorials, I have my first couple of images to share with you.  Now these are probably way over done but sometimes you just get so excited about all the possibilities that it's hard to choose.  Like S I lost 2 days of my life to exploring this new treat.  Hope you like what I've created.

 Cindy

Little M

doing the sneaky...

...and no it's not what you think.  2 and a half years ago I met my now husband and our beautiful family, a family not keen on vegtables.  How was I to get the nutritional goodness in to them that their bodies longed to have?  For starters you do not serve up brocilli and cauliflower cheese soup!  I learned the hard way.

Now I know Jessica Seinfeld came up with all this pureeing business but really after you steam, puree and then cook again, I'm guessing you are losing a fair amout of nutritional value (but I'm no nutritionist.)

The answer to my problems was "doing the sneaky"  I grate up carrot, zuchini, mushroom, spinach and I've even graduated to, shredding up, khale (appaerntly a super food).  I have "sneakied" these vegtables into lasagne, cabbage rolls, pizza, spagetti, sheppard's pie, hamburgers and as little m says "everything you make".  Now, my kids are pretty smart so after seeing the grated up vegtables on the chopping board never to appear on their plate, they began to realise that they were in fact eating to good stuff.  Yet there were no complaints because it all tastes, well they eat it, so it must be ok.

Sick days in our house used to be frequent, not anymore.  We take our vitamins and eat our vegtables (the sneaky way) and have happy smiling, healthy faces.  If you would like to know how to incorporate these ingredients into your meal, drop me a line and I would be happy to share my tricks with you.

*disclaimer
We are not perfect and I often mess up meals.  Step parenting is hard, but rewarding when you get it right.

Recipes From a Box

Who knew they could be so wonderful?  I first heard about this jam recipe when I went to visit my sister-in-law and her family on the St. Claire River.  We were sitting at the breakfast bar when her mother brought out the "freezer jam", it was running and fruity and tasted deliciously fresh picked from the garden.  I thought for sure it had to be a secret family recipe, passed down through the generations but I was wrong.  It came from the back of a Certo pectin package.  Here below I have a few wee photos of this very easy process.  I hope you all take advantage of the very reasonabley priced fruit this season and make some of your own.

 

Ta daaaaaa!

My next recipe from a box is for stuffed pasta shells.  I can honestly say that the jam recipe gave me some confidence and so I thought I could kill dead things with all this cooking domesticness.  This was a pretty yummy dinner although not super healthy as there was a lot of cheese (however my friend later shared a fat cutting secret, use half ricotta half cottage cheese, apparently no one can tell the difference)

more underwater love

I was in a small town recently looking through a lovely little art gallery when I came across an image of a girl, underwater in a dress, with a full skirt.  I had been working towards that sort of image all summer with my "underwater love" series but I couldn't find the perfect skirt with the right amount of poofiness, and then there it was in the gallery mocking me "ha ha it's already been done none of your thoughts or ideas are original." what a kick to the gut that was.  Do we have any original thoughts or ideas at all?  Here you can see the skirt is made of bubbles...maybe I like mine better anyway!

family love

I miss you all like mad but I am so glad of the lovely time we all spent together. Fig i, We went to the Logger's Museum (as you can see it was a wee bit wet).  Fig ii, the boys with their hats.  Fig iii Auntie H with little M.  Fig iv, mumsy and pops!

take me on the road baby...

Little M and I hit the road last Monday for a week long trip to south Ontario.  We visited friends and family.  With sunset swims, bike rides in skirts, sparkler dancing, and a lot of beach love, we had the time of our lives.  Hope we see all who we love again next year, but hopefully sooner. xoxox

Rosebud Delight

I have always dreamed of having my very own china cabinet filled with rosebud delights.  I have been collecting little, tea, china trinkets over that last few years and have now finally filled my china cabinet with these treats.  Most of them came from value village and other thrift or discount stores.  I don't worry about matching pieces identically, choose a theme a stick to it (mine is pink roses) they will all tie in and and add texture and ladylikeness to your home.

untitled

Granny "Madgie" McG

My Sweet Granny

She raised four boys and one wee girl,
she always wore her hair in curls

She was a mum and a dad and the Lord only knows
If you stepped out of line, she's dig you in the nose!

Eyes that could talk and hundred miles an hour
and hands that could wallop, she didn't know their power!

She dreamed of Canada and meeting a rich farmer
But no one in the land was able to charm her

When you left her house after her famous brown stew
She would wave at the door 'til she couldn't see you

She wrestled out Jimmy and knocked out his teeth
But when she'd bat those big eyes you couldn't give her grief

With those bony fingers she'd give your back a rub
All the time you would know and feel her love

She prayed for her children every night as they slept
Praying for their wee souls to be kept

She'd trip and fall, a regular "Footless Annie"
No one could replace my sweet Granny...

...who always let you know as often as she could
that she loved you "Hard, hard, like a soft jube-jube"



All that knew her, let's keep her memory alive by
praying for our children and letting our families
know they are loved.
We miss you xox

a day at the dock

We had a lovely time with our close friends, m&m, yesterday.  Dock jumping is a fave of ours, we hope to have many more days of fun with the ones we love this summer, carefree and happy.  Photo taken by Yummy Hubby.

grade 8 grad

Coming from N.Ireland, I never had the opportunity to graduate from grade 8.  We just finished primary school and went on to the "big school", at age 11, without any celebration or hullaballoo.  I have to say I feel kind of ripped off that we didn't get all the cheesiness of a grade 8 grad.  Last night we went to see our son gradute from senior elementary school.  The procession was led by pipers, and we watched as our boy walked down the aile, in his midnight blue suit, with a big (showing teeth) smile on his face.  We looked on as each child had their diploma presented to them by their grade 8 teacher.  We sang  O' Canada and I cried as I always do during this anthem "the True North strong and free" (how can you not?) and then we stood and applauded as they did the recessional out, and on to high school.  They grow up so fast, we must treasure every moment.  Love you Dr. T.xox

Father's Day

We took ourselves off to the lake with my Yummy Hubby's (YH) new snorkel gear.  We had a great time splashing around and hanging out with the family across the lake.  I had to stop and pinch myself a few times because it felt surreal to be sitting there at the picnic table, in Canada, at the lake, with my family; realizing I was living the all Canadian Dream.  I am blessed.  Can't wait for my dad to make it over here to live this dream too.  Love you daddy xoxox.

Dr.T put on quite a show for us with his Sunfish detection and bmx bike flips into the lake.  Yes that is a life jacket you see on the bike.  How else would we retrieve it from the lake after a 360?  My little dare devil, you never cease to "wow" me.

handstand champion

Well done Little M.  We are so proud of you!

"this must be under water love..."

I just got an under water camera.  Very exciting.  Although today was not very warm Little M and I braved the elements to test it out.  Here is the best shot she took, with a little photoshop from me, don't forget she's only 11, I think she took a fantastic photo!

And here's a cute, happy-snappy, I took of her.  More under water love to follow over the next, hopefully hot, months.

Track and Field

It's so enjoyable to take the day off work to go and see your kids doing what they love.  With Little M it happened to be high jump and long jump.  She placed 3rd and 8th in the regional competition.  Well done!

lovely lavender

I dream that one day I may have lavender beds as beautiful as this (sigh). http://rachelashwellshabbychic.blogspot.com/

pink and green birch

Here's my latest painting.  I woke up on a Firday morning full of inspiration.  I was actually, lying in bed, thinking about my friend's mum's house, it was the colours of her living room that inspired me.  I had to get up, before I had coffee or anything (much to my teenagers disgust as he awoke to me clanking around the basement), sorry dear steppy, and finish this piece that had I already re-worked about 3 times.  Re-working over and over seems to be a pattern of mine but I reckon I get there in the end.