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Well, the day has come that my baby is all set for Primary.  Today was orientation and now it’s just a matter of waiting until September.  It’ll pass slowly for Hannah and too quickly for me.  How is it my baby is heading to school in the Fall???

The nice thing for Hannah is that she has been around the school so much since Lena attends the same school.  She is used to the lay out, has crossed paths with most of the teachers and went to preschool with some of her classmates.  Her best little buddy is also starting in September, too.

I have to say how thankful I am for our school.  It is simply amazing.  Small enough that it feels close knit, big enough there is variety and new faces.  I love that it’s so close by and that it is so welcoming.  I dread the thought of the day when the girls head to the bigger schools in the area.  Can I keep them little forever?

To the wonderful staff – thank you for the awesome morning!!  Thank you for welcoming Hannah and helping her feel at ease.  Thank you for the continued support that you offer to our family!!  You are appreciated! And I look forward to 6 more years working with you! Mrs. Hardie, thanks for checking on Hannah’s wiggly tooth – we’ll let you know when we need you! 😉

Butterflies, salmon, tadpoles, bunnies, the place is crawling with cool critters.  Gingerbread house in the library and climbing walls in the gym.  Who wouldn’t want to go?

Best friends help, too.

Happy Primary Orientation to you all!!

Lori

This week has been windy and wet.  After the crazy, snowy winter, and a damp, cold spring, I’m ready for some nice weather!  You know it’s bad when even the five year old comments on it!  And sadly, our blossoms on both the lilacs and the apple trees have been taking a beating.  They should just be at their prime but they are limp, droopy and damaged.

But they are still beautiful.  Kinda like us, right?  We come along, expecting things to be this way or that way but then life throws some curve balls at us.  The wind blows, it rains and we get busted up a bit in the storms of life.  We can give up and whither.  Or we can shine and continue to bloom through it all.

Life is not easy.  It is not a cake walk.  And it certainly is not fair. It is too easy to let life run you over, to suck the joy out of you.  But, I choose to shine, to bloom and to see where that wind might blow me.

To be continued,

Lori

Last weekend, I whisked the girls away to my best friend’s place in Cape Breton.  I love going there, it’s so relaxing and restful, even if we stay up late and go go go the whole time with fun things.  I shared pictures of her home in the past, you can see them HERE.

The kids played together and had lots of fun.  They always need a bit of time to reconnect and then they are fine, off on their own, playing whatever suits their fancy.  They bounced…. a lot!!  It’s fun to see them interact with each other.  Janice has all boys and I have all girls so the mixing up is so interesting to see who likes to hang out with who.  We always joke about who will end up marrying who!!

We went for a walk down to the river and enjoyed racing sticks and finding things to throw into the river to make some big splashes.  There were Canada geese in the field, strawberry plants blooming and the sun was setting.  It was a nice way to close off the day.

Sunday morning we hit the beach in the wild wind for a little exercise and the chance for the kids to burn off some energy before church.  And it was windy.  I can’t wait to go up some sunny day and hang out on this sandy, beautiful beach while the kids play in the sand and water! Wait, I guess they played in the sand and water then, too….but hopefully next time the water will be warmer and the sun shining!!

I love escaping to Janice’s house.  I can’t wait to go again, eat too much, talk a lot and let our kids play together.  She spoils me and I hope she feels spoiled, too!  I love picking up little things for her whenever I spot something that makes me think of her!  The girls brought her tulips – her favourite flower!

Happy Trails!!  I hope you have been hanging out with your best friend lately and chatting about everything and nothing, just like it should be!!!

To be continued,

Lori

After running away to Cape Breton Island on the weekend, which I will share about later this week, today was a day I had been looking forward to for a long time, Milk Paint Monday! Yay!!  Rose, from Onlsow Historic Lumber, and I have been plotting and planning this day for so long now! And it was a blast! Are you ready for all the pictures of our day? Yes? Great, there’s a few!!

Rose and I started bright and early to be sure everything was all set up for all our wonderful guests!  We wanted our guests got lots of knowledge about Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint and lots of practice on awesome projects to take home to put to use, too.

Rose brought lots of samples to look at to help with picking colours and techniques that we used throughout the day.  Good thing she did, making those choices was hard work!!  But it was also fun to have all the colours at your finger tips! { I tried a few new ones today 🙂 }

Rose told us all about the company  and gave so much information about the products.  Thankfully, we had lots of information in our packets to take home so we could remember what we did and work on our own projects down the road. Personally, I love knowing that Rose is trained in Miss Mustard Seed and is and has been a great resource for me as I learn about painting and try out different things. She’s been such a huge help to me!

And then we started right in.  We learned proper mixing techniques, lots of tips about brushes and how to apply the product. I certainly learned so much.  I joked about taking part in the workshop so I could now learn the right way to do everything, after using the products for months already!! Can old dogs learn new tricks?  Hmmmmm….

We painted on jars, we painted on trim and applied waxes, we painted arrows and distressed them with a wax puck, we painted and wet distressed stars and we painted shelf brackets and made them go all chippy.  We nearly painted everything in sight, in just about every colour! It was so neat to see the colour combinations and how everyone’s turned out so very unique.

We learned so much today!!  So many techniques that add such character to a piece.  I’d go through each one but I can’t seem to think straight anymore, plus I realized I skipped some while taking pictures!  That’s the one thing about doing the projects as well as trying to capture the day on camera!!  I may detail the techniques we did over the next few weeks, and take pictures to fill in the gaps I have in the projects and techniques!

Thanks so much to Rose for teaching us today, it was so much fun!  Thanks for keeping it interesting and thanks for repeating yourself when the noisy table wasn’t listening….I won’t mention any names….. And thanks to Vonda { who couldn’t make it 🙁 } for offering up the awesome spot to host this workshop today!

Rose and I will be talking about hosting something together again over the next few weeks, so stay tuned!!  Until then, if you want to paint but want guidance, check out her up-coming workshops HERE.

To be continued,

Lori

I’m working on some chairs to go with the bench that I had done a while back.  The bench is slightly more simple of a job than the chairs but once the chairs are complete, they’ll be awesome!

These chairs are not the same, they don’t match but certainly feel similar enough that once dressed up in matching colours and fabric, they’ll feel like a good pair.  I can see them all finished in my head, sitting in their new home, ready for use.

But let’s back up a bit to the beginning.  As in, where did they come from??  The first one I acquired come from a Kijiji ad and then the second one was indirectly from a Kijiji ad, but not for a chair. 🙂  I have never posted or responded to an ad on Kijiji, I know lots of people do but I never have. But there’s a lot of awesome furniture to be found if you have a peek.  So, when I was scrolling through the ads, a lot of the pieces I was interested in were all from the same guy.  I fired off a message and then through the messages I found out buddy sells at the flea market in town.  We made arrangements to meet so I could see what all he had.  I did leave that night with some goodies, but not a chair from him.  He did ask what else I might be looking for and I showed him the picture of the other Kijiji chair and he had one at home, but it belonged to his wife and was on her To-do list to fix up.   A few days later, I had my second chair! 🙂

Now, there are repairs I can do and repairs that feel too big for me to do.  So I look for pieces that need very little help.  Upholstery stuff I can handle, as long as there isn’t extensive sewing.  But it needs to have good bones.

I love the bones of a chair.  Such a simple structure can provide such comfort.  They can be as basic or as complex as needed.  They can be simple or decorative.  Plush or hard.  Have I mentioned I love chairs before??  Did you know I had a problem?

Hi, my name is Lori and I’m addicted to collecting chairs.

To be continued,

Lori