25 Happy Things

Marta shared her special list recently and as soon as I read the title I knew I wanted to make my own list!

1.  It's spring break :))

2.  I finished 2 scrapbooking projects that have been on my table for a very long time.  One of them has been languishing for more than a year but I am thrilled with the finished album.  Peeks coming soon.

3.  It's getting close to time to use the greenhouse again.

4.  There are the most interesting icicles around these days as the sun begins melting the mountains of snow.

5.  In one month we'll have visitors here from New Brunswick.

6.  Malachi started crawling - he's not a baby anymore.

7.  When I talked to Kelsey last week I could little Miss Peyton chattering in the background.  I could have listened to her all day!

8.  There are fresh clean sheets on our bed tonight.  I love crawling in to clean sheets.

9.  I have two vases of pussy willows in the house and they are just perfect!

10.  I have 8 dozen eggs waiting to be coloured with the grandkids this weekend.  Do you think that's enough?!

11.  We have to be at church at 7 a.m. on Sunday morning for the Easter sunrise service.  That's really early!

12.  I loved the online card class, Pattern Play, that I took last week - and I made 10 cards in one week!

13.  My winter dishes and mugs have all been packed away and the spring and summer ones are back in the cupboards.  I know it took a long time but really it does not seem like spring in these parts.

14.  But with the change to daylight saving time, it's now nearly 8:30 p.m. when it finally gets dark.    That makes for a really lovely long day.

15.  We are playing Court Whist with 5 other couples again this week.  It's been such a fun winter to gather every second week and play cards together.  Naomi says we sound like retired people when we talk about all our fun times - and then she said, "Wait - you are kind of retired people!"  It was so cute!

16.  There are over 16,000 pictures in my iPhoto library which makes me happy - and yes, it is slowing my computer down a lot.  So I'm on a mission to transfer them to the hard drive, which is a time-consuming process indeed.

17.  I tried to ignore my kitchen today - and was pretty successful but it doesn't look so great now.  Nonetheless, I had a very good day doing fun things.

18.  The Easter egg hunts will have to be in the house this year, I think.  And there are ever so many nooks and crannies in which to hide little eggs - it's going to be fun!

19.  Morning smoothies are part of our routine these days.  Coconut water + banana, + spinach or kale, + yogurt + frozen berries +  an orange or apple + chia seeds + hemp seeds = a great beverage to start the day.

20.  Have you tried the game '4 Pics 1 Word' on your iPhone?  It's free and it's fun!  They show 4 photos, give you the blanks and some letter tiles and you have to guess the word that's represented.  Try it - you'll like it, I'm sure :)

21.  There are a lot of great ideas using rice krispies and egg shapes on Pinterest these days.  I just might have to try some.

22.  I love the flowers and of spring - tulips, daffodils, hyacinths - doesn't matter.  They are all beautiful and smell divine.

23.  I've washed a few windows inside this week.  I love looking through those sparkling panes.

24.  What's your favourite Easter treat? My Dad loved the O Henry Easter eggs that you can only get for a few weeks in the spring.  And as soon as I see them in the stores I want to buy them and share them with him.

25.  Wishing we were on a jet plane to Vancouver Island this week.  It's my favourite place to go in spring break!

So - what would you put on your happy list today??

What Kind of Sundae are You?

You Are a Banana Split

Fruity, flavorful, and diverse. Who can beat a true superstar?

What Kind of Sundae Are You?

Just taking a break from Saturday stuff and planting seeds and flowers. The thought of ice cream on a warm day like today is a good one!

Sewing Seeds

I finished these 2 little skirts today and they will be on their way to Africa soon, along with more than 103 others!! A while back I posted a link to Randi's blog where she had an idea for her daughter to take skirts to an orphanage in Africa when she goes later this summer. Many generous people have sent skirts and I'm excited to see pictures of the girls when she gives them out! I can just imagine the smiles! So much good from people who don't even know each other but want to share and bring some happiness to others. These will be in Monday's mail - my seeds which have awakened a desire in me to use my sewing skills again. Maybe Meadow and Helayna would look cute in one of these!?!?

Spring Cleaning

One of the tasks I wanted to tackle this week was cleaning out the bottom of my closet. Here's what the project involved!



The basket is full of sandals and summer shoes - I did not realize I had so many! And I've added a second basket for the dress shoes. The garbage bag is going to the second hand shop. So that job can be crossed off the to-do list - feels good to purge stuff and be ready to actually use what I have!

Thanks to Randi over at This I Have to Say for the challenge to post some spring cleaning news.

Spring Goodness

It snowed nearly all day here - big white wet flakes that covered the ground but melted relatively quickly. Just enough to make it messier than it already was! So I figured it was time to break out some spring time blossoms - flowers always make me feel better! I have some gorgeous yellow-tipped orange tulips on my kitchen table - a whole lot of goodness in a vase.

So let's take a little tour to Vancouver----



Wouldn't this look nice on the sidewalk in front of your house?!




What long stems these beauties have!




Branches of pink








I have the perfect spot in our home for one of these!


















Building a bouquet - so much goodness!

It's Friday!

"The place to be happy is here.
The time to be happy is now."
Robert Ingersoll

Happy, happy idea for a happy, happy life. This is going into my "Glimpses" album that I'm making with Stacy Julian in her Big Picture Scrapbooking class online. Go over there and check it out - every one should have one of these albums to leave as a legacy. And --- we get to go to a reception with her when she comes to Edmonton for the Urban Scrapbook Convention at the end of April!!! Happy time that will be! I will definitely share pictures.

Happy today because-----
- report cards went home
- the testing/assessment frenzy is relaxed for awhile
- the sun is shining and the temperature is up
- Darrin's coming home to celebrate his birthday this weekend
- we are having company for supper tomorrow night
- on Sunday I plan to sew a skirt to send to Africe (I cut it out last night!)
- and I am going to the gym for a workout NOW (sadly neglected this stuff for the last several weeks but spring is here and I need to get back on track - wish me luck!)

Have a happy weekend!!

At long Last

After 29 years (almost exactly to the day!) we have new chairs in our dining area!! The previous set came from Campbell's Furniture Store in Edmonton and cost $99 for the 6 chairs and arborite table. It certainly served us well and the chairs had been recovered once but they were pretty sad looking. So we did a little scouting around and picked up some new ones.



We got 8 of these beauties!!
















I quite like the combination of light and dark wood.









We may still order the matching table but it's narrower than the one we have and a better option might be to just refinish this one. Anyway it looks wonderful, we think!

Saturdays are such good days for quiet reflection and doing things - like reading in bed, laundry, dishes, baking, dusting - my list could go on. Oh, and catching up on blog news too! Ali Edwards found an online challenge at 2Peas and shared it today. Show your messy desk - and then go create something with some of the stuff that's strewn around on it.



So this is my space and there are several works in progress on it. I started making some birthday cards last night so that's on the top layer - gotta finish one today so I can mail it to Mel! Another project is from nearly 2 years ago and it really, really needs to be finished. That would be a good goal for this weekend - watch to see the finished LO soon. Maybe if I tell you about it, then I won't be able to procrastinate any more!! And just to let you know - everything on my desk is not blue!! I have no idea why this picture is so blue - maybe something to do with the light bouncing off the snowdrifts that are outside the window??! I obviously have a lot to learn about lighting!




Doing some dusting in the living room today and I was thinking about how happy I am to have photos in albums (even though they aren't in scrapbooks) so that we can relive our adventures and enjoy the pictures all over again. These 5 albums have over 1000 pictures of our time in Asia this summer! It started with the 2 beige albums that look very Oriental but by the time I actually printed the pictures and realized I was going to need more albums, these were already sold out at WalMart so I had to switch to others. The tall navy album has all the pictures of China in it.

More things that make me happy in my house!