the new house

has got me thinking about decorating.

I looooove decorating magazines.
My favorite is country living.
Although House and Home is right close behind.
I've been scouring the web for great sites about design.
Some of my favorites.....

She's not a designer, but she's got great style! Jennifer Johner (check out the posts about her house.

Love the Lettered Cottage (check out her kitchen re-do)

i love the furniture at this place.

there are some cute ideas here

any home decorating ideas places you love to look??

This little girl

Don't forget to check out this and enter. :)

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Lucy with her "porcupine" pets. She has always called pinecones porcupines.

These three were her "pets" for a few days.
Until I threw them away one night when she was sleeping and she didn't ask for them in the morning (phew) (Just in case you were wondering my kids have a very loose idea of pets. Since I have told them MANY times that we will never have any thing except a fish as a pet. EVER.)

Last night as I was putting Lucy to bed she asked for a make up story.
So I made up a story about a little girl who got turned into a puppy by a mean witch.
Who then got lost in the woods.
Along comes a boy riding on a horse, who sees the puppy and realizes the puppy is in trouble and takes him home to his father for help.
When his father sees the puppy, the spell is broken and the puppy is transformed back into the little girl. It is also her father and accordingly her brother as well.
As soon as I am done Lucy says to me: "So that happened to me when I was a little girl."
And I say "no, you asked for a make up story. That's all pretend."
Lucy "So I got changed to a puppy when I was a baby by a witch?"
Mom "no, none of it happened. It's all pretend."
Lucy "So Alden was the brother? and I was the dog?"
Mom: "You were never a dog. Yes I used your names in the story but you were never a dog."
Lucy "hmmmmm"

Apparently I shouldn't be using her in the stories any more.....
And apparently she still doesn't have the whole make believe and real life thing figured out.

In the Craft Room: Trash to Treasure

Don't forget to check out this and enter. :)

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I always here people talking about how scrapbooking is too expensive to do.
It's a common excuse from non scrappers as to why they can't start.
While it is totally true that scrapbooking can be expensive, there are lots of ways to save money and making it affordable.

One of my very favorite things to do is to take something that is someone else's trash and turning it into a treasure.

Case in point. One Micheal's binder found at the Okotoks Scrapbook Convention on give away table.































First step is covering the outside.
I used one of my all time very very favorite scrapbooking papers EVER.
By Basic Grey.
I cut the paper to fit the width of the sides but left it long on the ends so I could fold it over.
















The way to get the nice tight edges is to use a bone folder if you have one. (if you don't a marker or your hand will work.)
















I left little spaces on the edges where the binder folds so that the paper will not get bunched up and moved around.

















To cover the corners you use a wonderful special tape called Book Binding tape. Mine is from Autumn leaves. And i just love it.!! It's my third role I've gone through.

I added another cute striped paper on the inside.

Here is what it looks like at the end of the process.


another view....

A cute mini album waiting to be filled. :)
And it was free.
Gotta love that!

This and that

Check out this and enter. :)

I'm looking for something ever so clever to write about.... but it seems as though my mind is in a million places. And apparently none of them are clever. :)

Instead I'll share some cute things Lucy has prayed lately.
"please bless me to use the potty and be a big girl" (hasn't helped so far)
"please bless that we'll eat our food"
"please bless that I won't hit people"
"please bless mom and dad and Eli and Alden and Lucy" (always so cute when she says that)
"please thank you for puppy and the lights and my blankets and my books" (she was listing every thing in her eye sight area)
"please give us safety while we drive"
"please help me to be kind and use my words"
"please bless the food to be good" (I guess my cooking needs heavenly help)

There were some other really funny ones I can't remember. But one thing she said after the prayer Alden was laughing and he announced "Lucy your nuts. You can't pray for that." (but I can't remember what it was.)

I've got a list of things to do (and a few of them I keep skipping over and doing the others... do you do that?)


EDITED to add......
Just when you think you have nothing to blog about your three year old's visiting neighbor friend spray paints your daughters arms and feet white (along with the sandbox and the walls of the house and some rocks...) during your quick shower.

(this is AFTER the serious scrubbing in the bathroom sink....)

In the Craft Room: Scrappy Share

In the newest April kit from Scraptivity we got to use Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist which if you haven't used yet , you should TOTALLY get a bottle. They are so cool. They are ink in a spray bottle with a touch of glitter. They chipboard, papers, flowers, fabric. Really anything you hold down you can spray. :)














That's how I colored the background on this. Fun and artsy. :)




And how I colored this cooool invisibles paper from Heidi Swapp. (using homemade masks out of scrap papers.)


And this cooool invisibles paper from Heidi Swapp.

Home

Thanks for all the kind words! I am super proud of Regan. I am a lucky woman.

This morning we signed the deal on this place.




Downstairs basement bathroom.


5 Bedrooms.
2 Bathrooms.
Attached garage.
Possession May 21.
Wonderful neighborhood.
Just perfect for us.

End of An Era

Today Regan is taking his last test of medical school.
Like right now he is writing it.
Yes, he still has a licensing exam.
But he is done Medical School.

When we very very first met each other, Regan was attending the University of Lethbridge. He was freshly home from serving a two year mission in Geneva Switzerland. And had the feeling that he should go to Medical School. We dated, got married and he finished up his undergraduate degree in Neuroscience. Then applied to Medical School. But did not get in. Our back up plan was to move to Nova Scotia and for him to get his Master's.

A short time later we were driving across the country in a 1996 green four door Saturn pulling a U-Haul trailer. (Yeah when we called the garage to get a hitch put on the mechanic had the same reaction... a SATURN pulling a U-HAUL????) 8 months pregnant with our first child driving across the country for 5 days. To a rented apartment we had never seen to a province we had never been. And it was a marvelous time in our life.

Two years and Regan ended up with a Master's of Health Services Administration. So we applied to Medical school again. And did not get in. So instead Regan got a job. We bought a house in Eastern Passage. And settled down. Had our second kid.

Two years and I was itching to come home. And we were feeling still that Regan should go to Medical school. So after much deliberation and prayer, he applied again. And he got in.

So we sold our house, packed up our two kids and moved back across the country to Calgary. Moved into a townhouse (and I mourned the loss of my lovely house every day for a couple months.)

Three years, one kid, lots of call nights, lots of tests and learning. And here we are. All done school.
It is easy to look back now and know that Heavenly Father was guiding us. At the time it wasn't easy. Especially with other people giving their opinion to move on with our medical school idea. But it was always right. And inside we knew it was right. Even when we were discouraged and disillusioned.

Here we are. Shortly heading off to the next chapter in our lives.
Residency.
Which I am sure will be busy and hard.
But something that we've been planning and waiting for years to come.
How grateful I am for this man.
The strong, smart, hard working man that he is.
Dr. Regan Steed


To celebrate, tonight I am making him his favorite food. Chinese food.
We'll enjoy it with some other Medical School friends.
And I'll tell him again, how very proud I am of him.

In the Craftroom: Easter Crafts II

Easter baskets the kids made.
Cooled cupcakes.
Icing spread on top (we used cream cheese cause I had some left over from homemade oreos)
Dip the tops into green tinted coconut (we didn't have much food coloring left - just enough to get the point across)
Push in licorice for handles (I used nips cause I like to eat them better hehheee)
Add jelly beans for eggs (I added whoppers cause I wanted to eat them too :) )

Pretty cute eh?
AND easy enough that the kids can pretty much do them all themselves instead of me doing most of the work.



AND on a different note, today is Regan's last day of medical school.
Isn't that CRAZY!!!

In the Craftroom: Easter Crafts

Loved all the book recommendations.
I've read some of them, but some are new to me. I'll be looking some up!!
Interesting that ya'll are readers like me.

Since Easter is fast approaching, we needed some fun crafts around here.
We did these on Friday morning.
Super easy.
Just draw an egg shape onto white paper.
Use cut up squares of scraps of paper.
And glue them on.
I scrunched mine up first and then glued them down.
(tissue paper looks cute like this but we went with what we had around the house.)


Lucy went with the grab and glue effect.


Alden got bored of the gluing quite quickly and instead went for drawing and writing instead.


Tomorrow I'll show you the CUTE easy cupcakes we made last night for our Easter Family Home Evening for our neighbors and friends.

On the Bookshelf:

I took this photo a few months ago....so this isn't my beside pile today. But some of them are still there. I pretty much always have a stack of books to read. I loooove reading. My parents are big readers too. That's where I get it from!

On this pile I've already finished:
1. Unfeeling: Book club book. Pretty unsettling but well written. It is about the farm attacks in Africa. I wanted it to end better but since it is based on real events it couldn't. Too much profanity for me.

2. Waiting for Birdy. Soooo funny. Thanks to my SIL Brooke for telling me to read it. Totally absolutely kooky lady. And i loved it for that. I literally laughed out loud quite a bit and even read some parts to Regan.

3. The Five Love Languages: Really enjoyed this one a lot. And I am a lot more conscious of ways that people show me love. Especially my hubby. As soon as Reg has some time off I've told him I think he should read it too.

On this pile I've started: (i normally have a few books on the go)
1. Covenant Hearts: All about marriage. It is really well written and so good.

2. Your money or your life. It's good but the first two chapters were really repetitive. I hate it when a book keeps trying to sell you on their view point. If I bought the book, I probably am already sold on the idea!

3. Because He first loved Us. Wonderful collection of essays on the Savior. Really wonderful moving stuff.

Other books:
1. The Girls: currently reading it for book club. It's about a pair of conjoined twins. Very interesting!

2. They came from below: An easy environmentally based science fiction book I read in three days. (easy, quick read!)

What are YOU reading?

Link-ity Link Link Link

i love love love Etsy.
If you don't know what it is you should check it out!
I want to order few things off it.

Some things i love off it...

(this seller has lots of art i love here )
































Earrings i love (but they've sold!)

i Love this littleowl.

























i think i'd pick a white one though.


love this photographer a LOT.



doesn't she do beautiful stuff!!





















oh i WANT one of these for my future playroom








i even love the pink ones for girls rooms and blue boys one.....
















and the many hats on there... can't even get started for all the cute hats for baby photos....
this
and this
and these
and oooohhh this too...

so many amazingly beautiful hand made things to buy!!!

and of course I have to add this shop.
Go Sean!!