Last Day

So today is the last day of school.  The kids only have a half-day, and then the fun of summer vacation begins.  My Favourite Girl is always sad on the last day, because it means the end to her social days.  She is a very social girl, and is happiest when there are  lots of people around, all doing fun things.  My Favourite Boy is a bit sad, because he said he will miss his teachers.  I  had to bite my tongue because neither Mr. Crafty World or I thought his teachers were very good with him, but if he has forgotten certain things then it wouldn't be very good of me to bring them up.  

The kids made some gifts for their teachers this year.  I found an idea similar to this on the internet.  I thought they were cute because they are made by little hands, but practical for the teachers too.  I suppose I don't have to tell you that the best part is all five only cost $12 to make?

I baked some cookies for the bus driver too.  I was floored when I heard how little they get paid for driving all those little ones around ($40/day).  No wonder they have a hard time finding drivers.

These were some of my peonies from last week.  We had two terrific rain storms and all the petals got knocked off, so I'm glad I picked these when I did.

They smelled really pretty too!

Grammie's Kitchen

 I was in the mood to bake something yesterday; something old-fashioned and simple.  Where better to look than the box of recipes Grammie gave me years ago.  I found a recipe for date loaf: no chocolate chips, coconut or cream cheese anywhere in the recipe!  I don't cook with dates often - much to A.'s disappointment as he loves date squares!  I found these date rounds with pistachios in the store: they were actually cheaper than just buying the dates themselves, and there is not a pit to be found by sorry teeth later on.

I altered the recipe just a bit, namely to cut down on the sugar.  The recipe called for 1 1/2 cups of sugar, but I cut it down to 3/4 cup.  I think you could even cut it back to 1/2 cup and it would be sweet enough.  I baked it at 350 degrees, figuring that would be considered a "slow oven"!  If you notice there is no oil or butter called for, so that would make this a low-fat loaf.

I also baked a banana bread for the kids lunches this week.  I was about to reach for my Jean Pare book when I remembered that Grammie had a recipe for that too.  I had to leave the nuts out because I'm sending it  to school, but it still turned out well.  It's quite dense, so next time I might add a bit of applesauce.

My David Austin rose is blooming wonderfully in her new garden.  I am just in love with the way she looks and the way she smells.

My coral climber is doing well too.  After I put the trellis up but before I secured it to  the fence, a fat racoon or cat walked along the top of the fence and knocked one trellis over; breaking off a stem that had three lovely buds on it.  Needless to say the trellis got secured the very next day!

New Digs

A couple of months ago My Favourite Girl told me she wanted to re-do her room.  This was a big step for her, as she does not like things to change!

Here is a picture of her room in 2008.  Since then I had changed the bed covering, but the walls have been yellow since I painted them in 2007:

She told me she wanted her walls painted purple and green.  I hesitated at first, because I thought it would just be too much.  After thinking about it, then deciding to do it (as long as I got to pick the paint chips!), I found the perfect quilt at Homesense that was purple and green and covered in butterflies!   The paint I chose is from Valspar and I chose two colors called 'Cool Violet' and 'Lime Ice'.  I had the colors matched at Home Hardware, because I really love their Beautitone paint - and it's more affordable.

The quilt turned out to be a double size: that's why it's so long.  This particular quilt sold out quickly, so I was unable to exchange it.  I couldn't return it because I had just painted the room to match the quilt!

(If you want a better view, just click on any of  the pictures)

My Favourite Girl wanted to do some painting as well, and being the control freak I am I didn't let her try the walls.  I said she could paint her drawer fronts if she wanted and she did a fine job:

Having a butterfly theme made it really easy to pull things together:

These are those little mirrors from the dollar store.  I couldn't stick them right to the wall (because I'm not crazy!) with their adhesive backing, so I attached them to thumbtacks.  Tack holes are much easier to fix later than ripped off paint.

Here I attached butterfly clips to the curtain hooks:

I was lucky in that I could re-use some eyelet curtains from our last house.  They look really pretty and light in her room. The room faces north, so anything that makes it seem lighter is a good thing!

We switched out some of the old wall decorations.  She really wanted to make some of her own, and this is one of the pictures she has made so far:

Cute!  She made sure the shirt matched to room colours.  There's no doubt whose daughter she is!

The next thing to get new digs were my roses:

The coral one in the back (which smells like candy) is a climber.  Those trellises are the ones I pulled from my neighbor's garbage.  The rose on the right is a David Austen rose, and does it ever smell beautiful.  It has so many petals on each flower, and they are all so soft and lovely.  I hope to have many bouquets from that bush!

Here are a few other things blooming in my garden right now:

Thanks for visiting!

Trigger Happy

I had a busy Sunday spray painting all sorts of things!

First up is this planter I took from my neighbor's garbage:

Before:

After:

I'm not actually keeping the fern in there: I just used it for the photo because it looks better than what I planted at the moment!  I am waiting for my red impatiens to fill out and they should look quite nice with the aqua paint - I'm hoping anyway!

Also from the neighbor's trash:

I'm not sure what she used these for, but after a new coat of spray paint they are going to be the trellises in my new rose garden.  We bought a beautiful climber and I'm hoping these will set it off nicely.  I have to attach them to the fence yet.

I loved the aqua spray paint so much I painted these pots to go in the corner shelves of our "urban gazebo":

They are planted with white impatiens and should look nice and fresh when they bloom.

Lastly, you may remember this chair I did last year:

Well now it looks like this:

I like the blue paint with the patchwork cushion, but it didn't really fit anywhere in my house.  I would put it my craft area if I had the space.  Now it is going to have a home in My Favourite Girl's newly decorated room!  I'll post on that later.  I was so happy she chose the retro fabric for the cushion cover: it makes me smile when I see it.

We had a very weird storm here yesterday morning around 5 o'clock.  When A. went to work he said he saw tornado clouds.  I have been a little spooked since then because the weather has been so hot and humid: perfect for tornadoes!  Normally I wouldn't be worried, but a few years ago a tornado whipped through a subdivision about 20 minutes from here and destroyed about 8 houses in the middle of the day.  So much for my story to soothe the kids that tornadoes don't come through subdivisions with brick houses!

Jenn