Snow Day

Okay so we didn't literally have a snow day. I'm not sure what it would take for this city to actually have a snow day. In the ten years I've lived here I've never seen an amount of snow that causes the city to shut down. 
We are a crazy bunch up here in northern Canada. Driving in snow like this is insane, people either decide that going faster is the way to handle it or slowing down to 25 km/hr is the solution. I prefer to just stay inside. So that's what we did this weekend. 
We happened to be at a friend's house on Friday and had planned to stay the night anyways but once we looked at the snow on Saturday morning we decided to extend our stay another night. I'm pretty sure it was mostly just because we wanted to avoid the massive amount of shovelling we would need to do to even get into our house, because the friends live about 15 blocks from us! 
It was great to feel "snowed in" for the weekend. We made French Toast and pizza and cake and Rice Krispie Squares. We played Apples to Apples and watched most of season 2 of How I Met Your Mother. And of course we stayed in our pajamas all weekend. The guys also put up the crown moulding in their living room so at least they were productive. It was the perfect weekend! 

Shoveling to get into our backdoor

Crazy amount of snow

In front of our house

Icicles by our back door

Hubs trying to get us into the house!

Hope your weekend was warmer and less snowy than mine! 

Tiny Spaces

My husband just laughed at me as I went to put my memory card into the printer to upload some pictures. In order to do so I have to stand by the front door in the 3 foot space between it and the printer. Then once I sat down in my chair I rolled right into the middle of the living room. We both laughed that time. Have I mentioned yet that our house is small? Don't get us wrong, we feel so lucky that we were able to buy a house and most days we love living here but some days we just want to scream.


Our house is 63 years old and 660 sq ft. Our garage is 661 sq ft. Yes, our garage is bigger than our house which of course was a huge selling feature for my hubs, Being old the house definitely has its quirks. We are pretty sure that the floors are starting to slope as well. One or more of the previous residents fancied themselves as the next Mike Holmes. They were not. At all. The longer we live here the more we discover the remains of their less than superb handyman/women skills. By far the most annoying is the dishwasher that was installed slopping forward resulting in the top rack constantly sliding out EVERY SINGLE TIME WE CLOSE IT!


Regardless, I still love this house and am loving the challenge of trying to make such a small space functional. I get to try new solutions all the time and constantly day dream about how to make it all work. Once the weather warms up (I laugh at myself saying this as we won't get "warmer" weather til probably March...maybe) I plan to reorganize the garage to provide extra storage space. Our basement currently looks like this

But once its redone we want to use it as a family room and craft room for me! One day, one day. 

I plan to post before during and after pictures of spaces as they come together. For now I will keep rearranging, reorganizing and reminding myself that I really do love this house!

I cussing love this movie!

amazon

We watched Fantastic Mr. Fox on Netflix the other night and it was cussing fantastic to say the least. It was witty, amusing and just thinking about how they made all the creatures is mind blowing.
Just hearing George Clooney's voice coming out a fox made me giggle every time. I realize this movie is probably old news to most of you but if you are like me and take a while to getting around to watch movies definitely check this one out!

I now have the desire to replace all swear words with "cuss". Watch the film and you'll figure it out ;)

Productive Day!

Even though I'm still very much in lazy vacation mode I feel like I accomplished a lot today.
I'm nearly finished organizing my craft room. I still have some boxes to bring in from the garage but everything that is currently in the house in that room is organized. I will post some (embarrassing) before and after pictures soon.


My iPhone is now organized, I went down from three pages of barely used folders of apps to a single page and only 6 folders! (#86 on the list)

My Google Reader is minus a few blogs that I either never read or are never updated. I also either read or "marked as read" all the unread posts. I was at nearly 300 unread items. Yikes! (#69 on the list)

We've decided that January will be our 30 days of no eating out, #80 on the list. Of course I'm hoping that we will cut down on eating out even after these 30 days but for now I'm just focusing on 30 days of home cooking. Tonight was day number 1. Our cupboards are a little bare so our meal was nothing spectacular but tomorrow we are going grocery shopping and I have some great meals planned! 

I also made chocolate chip cookie dough to be baked tomorrow, of course we had to eat some tonight! 

The lovely mixer I used wedding gift cards to purchase. I feel like I have a grown up kitchen now :)

So today was a day of lots of ACTION! Woohoo! Hope yours was productive as well. If you are heading back to work tomorrow, I will think of you as I sleep in til 11 am. 

PS. Now that I am done student teaching I've decided to blog with my real first name. Em is just the first letters of my two last names. Just thought I would let my 3 readers know that so they aren't too confused! 

101 in 1001

Since it's that time of year where resolutions and goals are shared I thought I would share mine. I did not make any "new" goals for 2011 instead I am continuing to work on my 101 goals in 1001 days a.k.a. Day Zero Project. I attempted one once before when I first graduate high school but didn't stick with it.
I officially started this list on August 25th, 2010 and have until May 22, 2013 to complete it. Which means I have 870 days left.


Here's my list (crossed out means I've already done it, italics means it's in progress)


1. Try Geocaching
2. Sew a dress
3. Month by month scrapbook (0/33)
4. Get a tattoo
5. Take a yoga class
6. Take more photos
7. Take a sewing class
8. Organize craft room
9. Grow a herb garden
10. Decorate bedroom
11. Decorate bathroom
12. Decorate living room
13. Buy a DSLR
14. Finish writing another 101 list by the end of this one
15. Go for a massage
16. Pay off our debt
17. Graduate Universtiy
18. Make my own soap
19. Decorate kitchen
20. Learn to embroider
21. Floss everyday
22. Cook 1 new recipe every month (3/33)
23. Have date night once a month (4/33)
24. Use up all existing yarn before buying more
25. Complete wedding scrapbook/digital book
26. Complete a Project 365
27. Lose 15 pounds (0/15)
28. Lose 30 pounds (0/30)
29. Open an Etsy shop
30. Read 10 biographies (0/10)
31. Make a budget and stick to it
32. Go a day without electricity
33. Scrapbook all printed out pictures
34. Finish engagement minibook
35. Plan for a baby
36. Finish 30 sewing projects (1/30)
37. Send Christmas and Birthday cards to family
38. Declutter everything!
39. Start a blog and maintain it
40. Design and order fabric from Spoonflower
41. Donate books and replace some on Kindle
42. Purchase a working record player
43. Make my own lollipops
44. Stop using plastic grocery bags
45. Replace all ugly reusable bags with handmade ones
46. Stop using sandwich bags
47. Make own reusable sandwich bags
48. Take three trips (0/3)
49. Own a Blythe doll
50. Design and sew my own perfect hoodie/jacket
51. Start and maintain a recycling system
52. Update progress on list once a month (4/33)
53. Use an agenda every day for a year (0/365)
54. Create a 101 in 1001 minibook
55. Read 30 books (9/30)
56. Learn how to make Bento boxes
57. Make as many homemade versions of food as possible
58. Complete fridge makeover and maintain
59. Eat fruits and veggies every day
60. Finish this list before August 25th, 2010
61. Drink more water. Work to 8 glasses a day
62. Decorate for the seasons
63. Figure out how to use my Serger
64. Have a real fondue dinner
65. Try one new veg(an) recipe per month (0/33)
66. Use 50% of my scrapbook paper before buying more
67. Organize every room/ space
68. Make curtains for our bedroom
69. Edit my Google Reader once every 3 months (1/11)
70. Get a teaching position
71. Go paperless on as many bills as possible
72. Use homemade bread 75% of the time
73. Do one creative thing a day
74. Use only homemade cleaners
75. Make a sock monster
76. Go through PVR once a month (4/33)
77. For every item bought get rid of one
78. Start a cupcake project
79. Revamp wardrobe
80. Cook at home every night for a month (0/30)
81. Join curling league
82. Go camping three times (0/3)
83. Discover the best cinnamon bun recipe
84. Take a multivitamin every day
85. Create teaching portfolio
86. Organize iPhone(music/apps) every 3 months (0/11)
87. Vacuum regularly
88. Make bed every day
89. Make new blanket for bed
90. Decorate entire fridge in one day
91. Create key/mail area
92. Create and maintain filing system for papers
93. Go through iPhoto, delete, edit and sort
94. Go through files, delete, edit and sort
95. Make reusable napkins
96. No candy for a week (0/7)
97. Learn to make pasta
98. Save for a downpayment
99. Create recipe binder
100. Buy and learn to use Photoshop
101. Make a new ice cream flavour every 3 months (1/11)


Items completed: 10/101 (10% complete)
Items in progress: 19/101

Thoughts on Blogging

Recently, Lindsay from LDC Designs has shared some great ideas about finding new blogs to follow as well as asking her readers some questions about how many blogs they follow and which ones are their favourites. Her five suggestions for finding new blogs are exactly how I discovered all the great blogs I read!

Every once in a while I stop to think of the amazing world of inspiration and wonderful people I've discovered since I first stumbled across Bleubird Vintage (fun fact: I have no idea how I found it but James' blog was the first one I found in the DIY, crafty, vintage etc blog world. Also it took me about 4 months to realize it wasn't spelled Bluebird...) sometime around a year ago. Amazing that there are all these talented people out there with so many brilliant ideas and interesting lives.

I want to echo what Lindsay said about following those smaller and newer blogs as I strongly believe that too (and not just because I only have three followers!). We all know that it can be discouraging to think that no one reads what we post. Sometimes we stop posting altogether and then that is frustrating for people who do eventually discover your blog and love it only to find you never write anymore.

One of my goals for the year is to follow smaller blogs and comment regularly. I always feel a bit awkward commenting and sort of putting myself out there but I'm going to do it anyways! I also think about the fact that all of us small time bloggers may just be the next big thing and wouldn't it be great to say you followed them when???

Action

Maybe it's because the new year is quickly approaching. Maybe it's because of all the changes that are happening (graduation, new house etc). Maybe it's just the insane amount of snow in the last few weeks. Whatever the reason I've been feeling very reflective lately. Not that being reflective is out of the ordinary for me. I have a tendency to over-think everything. Unfortunately, the thinking is too often where it stops. I don't always, okay lets face it, rarely follow through with the actions that should accompany my thinking.

I don't blog because I can't do it with the skill of someone who has been working at it for 5 years. I don't scrapbook because I can't make my pages look like the magazine. I don't eat healthier because it's too much change. Of course I think about blogging, I think about scrapbooking, I think about changing how we eat but I rarely match my thoughts with an action. I know all the steps I need to take and the attitudes that will help me succeed but I lack the action, the doing, the getting going! 

2011 is my year of ACTION! 

My thoughts can only get me so far if I don't DO something about them. 

Ready..... set...... GO!