2013 - aka Where’s Claire?

Hello and Happy 2013! 

It’s been a while. 

(Ha! That’s an understatement)

If you’re still reading my blog . . . thank you, thank you, thank you!

I came so close to writing 100 posts and then something happened.

Something good.

Way back in October we went to the cottage to close it up for the winter. While we are at the cottage my only contact with home is a bottom-of-the-line cell phone with limited reception and internet access. I refuse to have a cell phone contract.

On a whim, I checked my email and found that a Kindergarten teacher had been trying to get hold of me for two days. Via text messages, I landed myself a supply teaching job indefinitely. The following Tuesday I started teaching a Full-Day Kindergarten class with a fabulous Early Childhood Educator.

28 little bodies in one room.

But, in the meantime, my cousin’s wife, Laura, who teaches at the same school went on an early maternity leave. They had not interviewed anyone for her position at this point because she expected to teach until the end of October. However, the twins she was carrying had other plans!

I interviewed for her position (Grade 3/4) and heard nothing for a few days. Then, the day before Halloween the Principal approached me to tell me I had been recommended for the position and would switch over on November 1st.  Eeek!

So, after surviving Halloween in Kindergarten, I made my way down the hall to drop off my things in the classroom where I will be teaching until the end of the school year.

Two months later, I am still trying to strike a balance between teaching and “in the meantime.”

Grade 3 and 4 are completely out of my comfort zone. I have been teaching for almost 7 years but all of my previous long-term positions have been in Kindergarten and Grade 1. I am not used to a curriculum that I have to teach myself before I can teach the class!  And the split. I have huge respect for teachers of split grade classes. Oh, and I have to teach French since I have 6 Grade 4’s in my class. I haven’t taken French since University.

November felt more like September as everyone got settled into new routines and December was a blur with holiday activities taking up more time than I could afford.

I have to remind myself to take everything one day at a time.

As overwhelmed as I feel at times, it is such a honour that my administrators saw my potential and chose me for the job.

I hope January can be a fresh start for everyone.

No matter what, this new teaching adventure would not be possible if it were not for these little ladies:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Zoe and Lyla, born on December 28th, 2012

 

Of course, I had to use my Silhouette to make a special card welcoming them to the world!

Handmade cards are one thing I can always make time for . . . unless you count Christmas cards. Sorry, they didn’t happen this year!

For the first few days it was Lyla and “Baby B” so I had to wait until a second name was picked before I could send it on its way. 

As an added bonus, I got to take photos of my card with my new DSLR camera! No editing, just cropping. Love it!

Proud parents Laura and Adam now have 4 little girls – Claudia, Annabelle, Lyla and Zoe. I cannot even imagine!  Oh, and they’re all under 4 years old!

So, that’s where I’ve been. How about you? I hope things are well in your neck of the woods!

Please know that even if I’m not commenting on your posts, I’m still reading your blog in my downtime. I don’t think I could give that up!

Have a great day/week/month! (let’s be realistic – it’s report card writing time)

Saying Goodbye/Beverage Tub Makeover

Today, blogs and blogging provided me with a much needed diversion on a hard day for my family.

We had to say goodbye to this little lady.

Maggie turned 13 in August but had a rapid decline in her health starting around March of this year.

Prior to this Maggie was a cat who stayed kitten-sized and acted like one as well.

She always had a daredevil streak to her which may have stemmed from the fact that when we adopted her as a kitten from the Humane Society she had already fallen from a 14th floor balcony into a snow bank. She loved to be up high and would spend her time watching you from the top of the kitchen cupboards or her scratching post tower.

Even though I no longer live at home, I still think of Maggie and Buddy (my parents’ other cat) as my pets because I was there with them from the beginning. I will always remember Maggie being so small that her entire body would vibrate when she purred.

I have never met another cat like her and I’m sure I never will.

When I had my final visit with Maggie on Sunday night, I knew my parents had made the right decision and that her time had come. I’m relieved that she is no longer suffering, but it doesn’t make it hurt any less.

To quote my Mom, “Maggie had a happy life and a peaceful end, and we will love her forever.”

We miss you, Maggie!

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Now for what I had originally planned to share before life threw me a curveball . . .

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Throughout the summer I kept tabs on the price of this metal beverage tub from Lowe’s knowing that I could use it for . . . something. The outside looks like white enamel and the inside is galvanized metal.

When it finally reached a clearance price of around $7, I pounced after striking a deal with Mr. Mechanic that I would clean up the Laundry Room if we bought it.

The Laundry Room is still a disaster (shh!) but my tub looks adorable thanks to a quick and easy vinyl makeover.

I learned from this post that there is a free font {SL Wash} made up completely of laundry symbols.

You can download SL Wash here or by clicking on the image below.

I typed the letters that corresponded with wash, dry and iron in Silhouette Studio and resized them until they were all the same height.  Then I cut them out of black vinyl with my Silhouette.

Finally, I used a combination of transfer and painter’s tape to place the symbols on my tub.

I’m not going to lie, it was a pain in the butt to try to align them on a curved surface, but it was worth the aggravation in the end!

Wouldn’t you agree?

While the rest of the Laundry Room is still nothing worth sharing thanks to an on-going basement renovation, my kitchen towels and rags have a cute place to hang out until I accumulate enough to justify a load of laundry.

Thanks for sticking with me today!

P.S.  Don’t even ask about that chair. It’s a DIY Chalk Paint experiment that went terribly wrong. I’m starting to realize that painting furniture is not my thing.

P.P.S. If you like fonts you should check out my board on Pinterest for some great suggestions!

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I link up at: Serenity Now, I {Heart} Naptime, Under The Table And Dreaming, Nifty Thrifty Things, Simply Klassic Home, Home Stories A to Z, Craftomaniac, Skip To My Lou, Not JUST A Housewife, A Bowl Full Of Lemons, Alderberry Hill, I Should Be Mopping The Floor, A Diamond In The Stuff, Creatively Living, The Winthrop Chronicles, Clean & Scentsible, Oopsey Daisy, Lil’ Luna, Someday Crafts, Live.Laugh.Rowe, The 36th Avenue, aka design, House of Hepworths, 52 Mantels, Thrifty Decorating, Crafty Scrappy Happy, How To Nest For Less, Tatertots & Jello, The Grant Life, It’s Overflowing, Lolly Jane, Too Much Time, Six Sisters’ Stuff, Positively Splendid, My {Re}purposed Life, Unrefined By Design, Just Us Four, Liz Marie Blog and The Crafted Sparrow

Five Things on Friday: Recipes I’ve Tried

I have a Pinterest board filled with delicious looking recipes. Today I wanted to share five recipes that I have actually made and enjoyed (there have been a few that did not live up to my expectations).

If you are interested in any of these recipes, please click on the image and pin from the original source.

1.  BLT Pinwheels

{Source}

These are delicious! We have eaten them three times since I pinned this recipe with two modifications – no sun-dried tomatoes (but the wrap is already tomato-basil) and full pieces of bacon instead of bacon bits.  I never would have thought that cream cheese and mayonnaise would be so great together.

2. Three Ingredient Berry Cobbler

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I have tested out a few of these dump cake recipes with varying success. I didn’t pick this recipe for the diet factor but because it had been repinned quite a bit.

I made this for Canada Day dessert using several bags of frozen fruit and one and a half cans of 7-Up. We don’t drink a lot of pop here but ended up with four cans from a pizza order.

If you make this, be sure to cover all of the cake mix with the pop (that’s where the extra half can came into play) and expect it to cook for at least twice as long as they say!

3. Brown Sugar & Dijon Glazed Pork Loin

{Source}

Probably the easiest non-crock pot pork dinner we have ever cooked. Juicy, flavourful . . . mmm. I can’t wait for pork loin to go on sale so that we can have this again!

4. Toffee Poke Cake

{Source}

This was an early Father’s Day dessert to be shared by 5 people. There were lots of leftovers for everyone, even with seconds. Incredibly easy to make and just as delectable as it looks. I look forward to trying it with other “poke” flavours.

5. Peanut Butter Confetti Cake

{Source}

Loosen your belt and undo your top button. These are SO decadent. 

Mr. Mechanic’s Mom always adds these to her baking care packages and they don’t last long. I thought they would be much harder to make than they are.

Follow Jo-Anna’s advice – let the mixture cool a bit before adding your marshmallows. My advice? Use a 9 x 13 pan instead of an 8 x 8. A little square goes a long way!

So, now you’ve got some options for your weekend meals!  Have you found any great recipes via Pinterest?

P.S. Check out two recipes of my own that I have shared – an Iced Cappuccino Protein Smoothie and Tuna Pasta Salad

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I link up at: Serenity Now, I {Heart} Naptime, Under The Table And Dreaming, Nifty Thrifty Things, Simply Klassic Home, Home Stories A to Z, Craftomaniac, Skip To My Lou, Not JUST A Housewife, A Bowl Full Of Lemons, Alderberry Hill, I Should Be Mopping The Floor, A Diamond In The Stuff, Creatively Living, The Winthrop Chronicles, Clean & Scentsible, Oopsey Daisy, Lil’ Luna, Someday Crafts, Live.Laugh.Rowe, The 36th Avenue, aka design, House of Hepworths, 52 Mantels, Thrifty Decorating, Crafty Scrappy Happy, How To Nest For Less, Tatertots & Jello, The Grant Life, It’s Overflowing, Lolly Jane, Too Much Time, Six Sisters’ Stuff, Positively Splendid, My {Re}purposed Life, Unrefined By Design, Dragonfly Designs, Just Us Four, Liz Marie Blog and The Crafted Sparrow

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Link Parties: A Blogging Tip

Do you link up your posts to link parties? When I’m feeling ambitious, I link up to several each day.

A while ago I figured out something that makes the process so much faster. I’m sure I’m not the first person to think of this, but I hope it will make someone’s life a little easier!

When you add your post to a link party you are prompted to select an image that will serve as the thumbnail for your submission.

Thumbnail images are square.

Photos are typically rectangular.

When you link up a rectangular photo you have to either crop your image or leave it up to the link party tool used by the party host.

As an example, here’s a photo of my spring porch planters.

If I don’t choose to crop my photo myself, my picture could potentially end up cropped like this:

Where did the boots and bucket go?

Here’s how I want my thumbnail to look when I link up to a party.

Or, I can take it a step further and include text to identify my project as well.

When faced with multiple thumbnail project images, which one would you be most inclined to click on?

Definitely not the first thumbnail!

So, what’s the trick?

When you’re editing your photos, take a photo that you want to use to showcase your project and crop it so that it works as a square image.

Remember to include a watermark that identifies your blog in this photo as well.

You can include it in your blog post or you can simply save it somewhere on your computer. I have a file folder that includes a square image for each project/post that I have done since I figured out this trick.

Here’s another example of some creative cropping – my Neon Dollar Store Necklace.

If you want to really take advantage of this trick, use the square image at the start of your blog post so that it is the first image that comes up when you add your post to a link party! As a bonus, this will also be one of the first images that comes up if someone wants to pin your project.

Now, when you link up one of your great ideas, you’ll have more control over what the thumbnail image looks like in a link party. As long as the dimensions of your image are square, you will lose very little of your image in the event that you do still need to crop it further.

Easy, right?

Happy linking!

P.S. Want to know how to quickly watermark your photos? Check out another blogging tip here!

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I link up at: Serenity Now, I {Heart} Naptime, Under The Table And Dreaming, Nifty Thrifty Things, Simply Klassic Home, Home Stories A to Z, Craftomaniac, Skip To My Lou, Not JUST A Housewife, A Bowl Full Of Lemons, Alderberry Hill, I Should Be Mopping The Floor, A Diamond In The Stuff, Creatively Living, The Winthrop Chronicles, Clean & Scentsible, Oopsey Daisy, Lil’ Luna, Someday Crafts, Live.Laugh.Rowe, The 36th Avenue, aka design, House of Hepworths, 52 Mantels, Thrifty Decorating, Crafty Scrappy Happy, How To Nest For Less, Tatertots & Jello, The Grant Life, It’s Overflowing, Lolly Jane, Too Much Time, Six Sisters’ Stuff, Positively Splendid, My {Re}purposed Life, Unrefined By Design, Dragonfly Designs, Just Us Four, Liz Marie Blog and The Crafted Sparrow

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A Little Something New: 5 Things on Friday

It has been a light week for me and blogging so I thought I would start something new today. A quick post about 5 random things. Sometimes there will be a theme, sometimes it will just be a complete mish mash. I love when other blogs that I read do this (especially Eighteen25 – I’ve found some great new songs this way), so why not join the masses?

This week’s theme . . .

5 THINGS YOU {PROBABLY} DON’T KNOW ABOUT ME

Here we go!

1. I was in Canadian Living magazine. Twice.

When I was little, my Dad won a photo contest in Canadian Living magazine. He took a hilarious photo of me and my brother with clear water balloons squished against our faces as they were resting on the deck of the pool (they were heavy!). The result is a completely disfigured, magnified face. Not my best look, but a great shot!

Throughout my life people have come across this photo in back issues of the magazine on more than one occasion. Once, it was while my classmates were flipping through magazines searching for collage pictures in a Family Studies class!

We were also on the Letters to the Editor page with an accompanying photo a few years ago when Canadian Living had an anniversary issue. My brother and I (reluctantly) posed holding the original issue in our hands.

Let me tell you, it’s a very strange experience to stand in line at the grocery store and know that you could tell someone “I’m in that magazine.”

2. I have never had a tan in my life. In fact, I don’t think my skin is capable of tanning.

When I was in Grade 8, I tried self-tanner for the first time. I applied it three days in a row and absolutely no colour showed up!

Thank goodness pale skin is gaining in popularity! I even bought a t-shirt like this a few years ago :)

 

Local Celebrity t shirt

3. The one thing I could not live without is music.

Music makes even the most mundane task more enjoyable. Fortunately, I live with someone who shares this opinion and we have a great stereo set-up on both floors of our house. Mr. Mechanic even built his own speakers and subwoofer!

We have digital cable, so when I’m home during the day I am almost always listening to Galaxie Hit List.

4. My favourite colour is purple which explains my flower choices this year for our window boxes and front porch. I love the way purple looks with red brick and red hair alike!

Runner up = chartreuse and/or olive green. Perfection.

5. Speaking of hair, it has been almost seven and a half weeks since I last got my hair cut and I am going crazy! I don’t think I can last until September when my hairdresser comes back from a very brief maternity leave.

Have a great weekend!

P.S. I would love for you to tell me one thing I don’t already know about you!

P.P.S. An awesome reader solved the mystery – the succulent in my Garage Sale Vignette is a pencil cactus! What a perfect plant for this teacher!

My First Giveaway! {My Memories Suite}

Yesterday, I shared two free printables that I created for Canada Day using the digital scrapbooking software My Memories Suite.

I was given the opportunity to play around with my own copy of this software and then give away a second copy to one of my AWESOME readers.

 

The first thing that you should know is that it is a digital download so the lucky winner will simply need to plug-in a download key and just like that they will have their own copy.

My Memories Suite software is very user-friendly and enables you to create scrapbook layouts, printables, blog design elements etc. using a combination of pictures and fonts already installed on your computer. You are also able to purchase additional digital layouts, paper packs and embellishments to suit your needs.

I think this would be a great program to use to create your own subway artwork. If you do a quick search in blogland for My Memories Suite, you will discover a wide variety of ways to utilize this software. It’s not just for scrapbooking!

One of my favourite features is the ability to convert your projects into JPEGS and PDFs. After selecting the ‘Share Album’ button, you can “export pages” in your preferred format. This reduces the size of your file and makes it easier to print and share with other people.

I have only just started to explore all the great features of this software. I know you’ll have fun doing the same!

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The Giveaway Details

One winner will be randomly selected from the comments below.

To be eligible to win there are two things that must be included in your comment below:

1. Visit the My Memories website and select your favourite digital paper pack. Tell me which pack is your favourite.

2. Tell me how you found my giveaway or how you read/follow my blog (GFC, Linky, Google Reader etc.). I want to know about my wonderful readers!

* Make sure that there is a way for me to contact you via email if it is not already linked to your comment profile *

The contest will close at midnight on Thursday, July 5th.

The winner will be announced on Friday, July 6th.

Good luck!

P.S. If you are interested in purchasing this software, a little something in the meantime readers will receive $10 off the purchase of My Memories Suite as well as a $10 coupon for the My Memories store, using this code at checkout: STMMMS94569

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Back to Reality

I’m back after a very busy week!

It was crazy hot working away without air conditioning (during a heat wave) but the cottage looks completely different from when we arrived last Friday.

The water is not yet drinkable and the plumbing needed to be off for most of the week so we were very fortunate to be able to stay at the home of a family friend during our time up North. At one point there were 9 of us staying there!

Since there were at least 6 people vying for shower time each day, I always opted for a morning shower (one of the drawbacks of short hair – bedhead!). As a result, there were several mornings where I walked over to the cottage on my own after everyone had left (usually to make a Home Depot run).

The cottage is located on a long, winding road lined with pine trees.

Mr. Mechanic’s Grandfather planted these beautiful trees and this was once all his property.

Through the trees you can see a sliver of the bog or pond that sits at the edge of the cottage lot.

This is what is looks like when you stand on the beach of the cottage.

The cottage overlooks a small lake that is already really warm. No swimming for me this time, but definitely next time.

Turn around, and this is what you see.

I was in charge of mowing the lawn with the riding mower. I did pretty well aside from the time that I drove over a tree stump! Oops . . .

Even the weeds were pretty!

There was no shortage of nature while we were there.

Over the weekend we were greeted by this little dog – Maggie – jumping up at the screen door wanting to visit with my 18-month old niece, Arabella. She (Maggie)adored her! One day she even followed Mr. Mechanic’s Dad all the way into town when he went for a walk with Arabella in her stroller! 

Since it’s a small community someone recognized her and drove her back home.

Maggie was my Pumpkin substitute while we were away.

On our second to last day there I almost drove over a turtle that was searching for a place to lay its eggs.

It started out on the road but eventually made its way down the long driveway (much faster than I would expect a turtle to travel!) to a sandy spot by the front door of the cottage.

From the window we could see it rocking back and forth, digging a hole. It laid its eggs and then filled the hole again. If we hadn’t seen the hole you would never even know it was there.

Then, she (I’m assuming!) got the heck out of there! I could hear this rustling in the woods and discovered that it was the turtle off-roading to get back to the pond!

In 2 to 3 months there should be some baby turtles hatching provided the other wildlife up there doesn’t get to them first.

Just around the corner from where the turtle laid its eggs, there is a large patch of milkweed. On almost every plant you would find at least one caterpillar munching away. If I had a better camera I could have had some great shots!

I don’t have any photos of the inside of the cottage because when we left the painter’s tape was still up in all of the rooms.

Once Mr. Mechanic’s Dad forwards me his pictures I’ll be able to show you some great before and afters (for which I can take very little credit – Mr. Mechanic’s sisters and parents were painting machines!)

Since returning home, I have been busy putting together a Canada Day mantel featuring some free printables that I made with the My Memories Suite software that I will be giving away to one lucky reader soon. I hope you’ll come back to check it out!

One more day of supply teaching and then I have a feeling that will be it for this school year.

Happy Monday!

P.S. Check out my first free printable here.