About Me

November 30, 2011

Puppy Stockings

Because every dog should have
their own stocking at Christmas ...


One for Celti.

One for Lola.

Now we're ready for the season.

November 29, 2011

Tea Pot Tuesday

British Tea Pot found at the Charity Shop.


Bought for an incredible $2.

I'm sick today.

Too snuffly & achy to "talk" much.

So my dear husband took the picture.

That's my lovey.

Making sure I didn't miss posting for
Tea Pot Tuesday.

I think I'll keep him.

And the Tea Pot.

November 25, 2011

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas ...

 around our house this week ...


I had a dear friend for lunch today.


My daughter helped cook &
then we decided it was
the perfect day to start putting
up our Christmas decorations.
The rest will go up over
the weekend before we have
Sunday dinner with our family. 


Until then, some of our favorites.


Trisha Romance Vignette Plate.
One of my favorite scenes.

November 24, 2011

Canadian Thanksgiving!

What our table looked like on
Sunday, October 9th, 2011,
all set for Thanksgiving Dinner
in Canada:
Table set for 6.
My violin, ready for music after dinner.
Our recent find:
a sewing cabinet from the 20's, intact,
with the working machine inside.
Price: an amazing $20.
New linens for the table.
Fresh lavendar from our garden,
tied with a pretty ribbon.
My homemade cranberry sauce.
Warm pumpkin pie ...
... with whipped topping.

More pictures later.

It looks like just food but we had guests too.

Wishing my American family & friends
a heartfelt Happy Thanksgiving.

November 22, 2011

Tea Pot Tuesday

We interrupt our regularly scheduled "Tea Pot Tuesday" to present "Oops, I forgot to take a picture of one of my many tea pots but ooh, I have a lovely shot of my newest tea cup instead" segment.

And here it is:


Royal Cantebury
Fine Bone China
Satsuma

I love the colors & the pattern.
Great find at the Antique Mall for $4.

November 20, 2011

Energy ...

I took Melatonin for the first time last night to see if I could sleep the whole night.

A very small dose 1/2 of a 3 mg pill.

I must have slept well because today I ...
  • powercleaned our preschool, including steaming the floors.
  • shoppped for dinner.
  • shopped for Christmas presents.
  • shopped for preschool art supplies.
  • moved furniture around.
  • laundry, laundry, laundry.
  • shoveled the driveway & sidewalks.
  • vacuumed, vacuumed, vacuumed.
  • cleaned out our bathroom cupboard.
  • recycled & gathered items for donation to our local thrift store.
  • put my scrapbooking/art studio back together after my dh finished installing the wood floors.
  • started reorganizing our new "library" so he can install the wood floors in there as well.
  • organized the linen cupboard.
  • organized my closet.
  • praised dh deeply for organizing his very messy closet.
  • steamcleaned the antique carpet in our living room.
  • steamcleaned the mats for our SUV that goes back to the dealership.
  • wrote my task list for the week.
  • sent a million emails.
  • okay, I only sent a few but it felt like a million because several of them had a million addresses bcc'd.
  • hung this picture in our brand new, freshly painted, reorganized & comfy master bedroom:

Matches our bedding beautifully. Our quilt has the same colors & we've done our walls in sage green, with white trim, wood floors & antique furniture. New wide white blinds but I still need to figure out a curtain for either side of the window. Just found the perfect fabric for the dining room windows, so I feel inspired now to find the perfect fabric for the master bedroom window.

Sigh. More shopping ...

I'm going to try the Melatonin for at least a solid week before I make any judgements but if today is any indication of how well I could feel & perform if I slept a full night, then I'm totally addicted ...

November 18, 2011

We're off ...

... to buy a new car today, in the blowing snow.

SUV actually to replace my SUV that is leased & ready to go back on Tuesday. I like to say car. If you say SUV, the looks are not pleasant. Not sure why, as our SUV has gotten much better gas mileage than any car we've owned & much better than my minivan that we had when our kids were all at home. I miss my minivan but not the gas bill.

We've test drove many, played with all the buttons, created our spreadsheet for comparisons, hummed & hoed (sorry for the spelling) over a 2.4L vs. a V6, dug until we could find the invoice price (legally) & now we're ready to deal.

Our list is compliled with two versions of the same vehicle. And all the things we want thrown in. No GST. Rebate of $3,100. Free winter tires installed, our choice. Free oil changes for life. Free car washes for life. Free upgraded premium floor mats. Free cargo cover. Free cargo net bag. And no administration fee. 

We never pay the administration fee. 

Why should I pay $499 for someone to fill out a piece of paper? 

No one pays me $499 when I have to fill out an assessment form for a family or a registration form for a program.

I'm told they need us to pay that to cover the human resources of the dealership. I'm not buying that one. Because honestly, the people working there were paid before I came in. And will continue to be paid if I don't buy. 

Lovely young salesman who did not pressure us last winter when we first started checking out this vehicle. Last weekend, we came back to visit & he gave us a free trip to Las Vegas, just for coming back & for remembering him. He's holding a model for us, with no pressure at all this week.

I like him.

I hope he still likes us after we present our "firm, we're not budging" offer.

We go in at 2:30 p.m.

He's off at 3:00 p.m.

We're telling him that we want to do this quick, short, sweet, to the point, no haggling, done!

Hopefully, that's the outcome.

We're prepared for a tough sell.

But past experience has shown us that we always win & get our price!

November 15, 2011

Tea Pot Tuesday

I started collecting tea pots a few years ago. When we're out "hunting for treasures", we often scour the shelves for tea pots. I especially love smaller ones that only hold enough tea for two!


A recent find at our thrift store.

Not bad for a $1.

What do you collect?

November 13, 2011

Sundays

I have many favorites that I look forward to throughout the week but the best is always Sundays. We do so much all week & Saturday is the day to clean, organize, shop & tidy up details. Sunday is for being lazy, sleeping in, snuggling, long hot baths, walks in the woods, puttering in the garden, reading the Sunday paper in bed, breakfast in bed, puppies in bed, writing, crafting, scrapbooking & dreaming.

Our favorite show during the week is Coronation Street (http://www.itv.com/coronationstreet/). It's on Monday thru Friday at 6:30 p.m. for an hour. But if we miss an episode, we can catch up on Sunday mornings. From 7:00 a.m. to 12 noon, all 10 episodes are repeated. I've been watching the show since I was about 4, when it was still black & white. Our kids have grown up on it & sometimes ask if we saw "the epi on Tuesday night mom when Sean ..." I love they still tune in! Years ago, we ran a fun club in our community, full of Brits, who came together once a week to chat about the show, at our local pub. We had Christmas parties, family BBQs & pub crawls. It was so much fun. Life got busy & we eventually stopped meeting. My dream one day is for the two of us to take a trip to England to go on the Corrie Tour. One day!

Today, it's snowing again. Started yesterday & it's just light snow, but the first of the season. A record for this time of year. I feel slightly responsible as I did say all week long "it can't snow until our winter tires are installed on Friday. After that, I don't care!" They were installed on 11.11.11 at 11:00 a.m. And the snow started falling in the middle of the night. We woke up to a light dusting & some of it even melted away by the afternoon. It's still coming down lightly this morning, so hopefully, the promise of a warm afternoon will help it melt away again. We wore winter jackets while we were out & about yesterday but didn't have them zipped up & definitely didn't need to wear hats & mitts.

The plan today was to put in the wood floors for my scrapbooking room. Everything is set up & ready to go. Hopefully, the snow will stop soon so Bill can set up the power tools & cut the wood outside. After today, we'll only have the floors to install in the library & the upper hallway. The next plan is to paint the stairs, remove the old white ceramic tiles from the main floor hall & the small bath, & install the new warm, earth tone ceramic tiles that we put in our master bath. The color will look much more cohesive with the wood floors & I think will also look warmer.

No picture of the light snow yet today but here's a shot from last year's first blast of winter: