When Working Out Isn't Working Out!!

     All I can say is....where has my motivation gone??!!! You all know you've been there!!! You get into an awesome workout/healthy eating regime and then...BAM!!!!, what happened??!! I'm going through this right now....and it stinks!!!!

     I was doing SO GOOD for quite some time and then all of a sudden it's like I gave up!!! Maybe it was the crazy infection that went soaring through my face that put me on antibiotics for 2 weeks, or the fact that we've been having the L-O-N-G-E-S-T winter ever and I just can't take anymore, but something has got to give!!!! Summer is quickly approaching and my time is running out!!!

   I did manage to get out this morning (it was a beautiful sunny morning!!), and walk down to our town square (I do have to mention that it's an uphill trek on the way back!!), but I know that that's not going to cut it!!!! I'm going to have to kick it up a notch (or 10) and get my butt in gear!!! I have a cute red dress that I want to wear to our girlies grade 8 graduation!!! I know that once I can get myself back on track, I will be fine!! It's always just the initial "get up and go" that's the hard part....anyone else concur??!!!

   I love to hear/read about others routines...what motivates them, keeps them going!!! Anyone out here in blog land have anything that you find motivates you??! I would love to hear about it!!!
(P.S.- Here's a pic of my the red dress....maybe with a belt perhaps??!!)

  

14 and Growing Strong!!

   This weekend we celebrated our girl K's 14th Birthday! Though her actual birthday isn't until the 23rd, we won't be seeing her, so we celebrate with her while she's here on the weekend. We didn't do anything to crazy or exciting (the weather limits us somewhat), but we had cake with her grandparents, ordered pizza and let her have a friend stay overnight. Today (Sunday), we took her out for a birthday lunch, which was also a little bit for her dad as well since his birthday is in a week, then went and took a couple of pics at the Comfort Maple tree. (this tree is actually in a beer commercial on t.v.!!!). Overall, I think the weekend went great, and it probably helps a whole lot that I am now on the mend......just have to get through my upcoming root canal!!! EEK!!!

  I still can't believe that K is turning 14!! I remember the little 4 year old girl that would lay on top of me on the couch, pull the blankets over us and watch cartoons.....*sigh*, how I miss those days! She's turning out to be the most amazing, beautiful, kind-hearted young woman, and I couldn't have asked to have a more amazing kid to be a part of my life. I am so thankful each and everyday that I get to experience what being a "mom" is like. I am one of the luckiest women on earth!!!

   I didn't snap a whole lot of pics because of course, I was running around making sure everything else was taken care of, but I did get a few and I think that they sum things up!! I hope K enjoyed her weekend, even if it was brief, and I wish her the most amazing birthday tomorrow!! Love you more than you'll ever know K!! xoxo

When it Rains, it Pours

  So this week has pretty much been the week from hell for me. What started off as a "sensitive" tooth, turned into a raging infection, swollen face and eye, a trip to the clinic, antibiotics, a trip to the dentist, another trip to the dentist, getting the infection drained, more antibiotics and next week, a root canal. Pretty fun stuff, eh?! I've been off work for the entire week trying to get this infection under control and catch up an all of the sleep that I've been missing. I'm fortunate enough that my place of work gives us paid sick days, so I'm at least still getting paid and it's one less thing to worry about.

    I haven't been to crafty this week, and my poor camera has been sitting there staring me in the face begging to be picked up, but I just haven't had the energy or motivation to do anything.....it's been awful. It's our daughters 14th birthday this coming Monday, though we will be doing the celebrating on the weekend, and I'm hoping that I will be able to get some good photos. I always feel like I need to capture every little thing....like we might miss something if there's not a picture of it to mark that moment in time. I'm still wrapping my head around the fact that K will be turning 14!!!! And starting high school!!! Where has the time gone and where is our lil' girl??!! (yet again why I feel the need to get photos of everything!!)

    I wanted to have super awesome posts on here, but after a week of laying down and popping pills, there just isn't anything to exciting happening right now!!! Hopefully the next few days will bring better health, nicer weather and hopefully some really good photo-ops!! I'm eager to share some of my photos with all of you.....they aren't amazing, and I'm just beginning, but I would love your advice and opinions!! Stick with me people...I promise that more exciting things are to come!!!! I will leave you with a picture of the purple flowers that are in my kitchen window...just a little taste of Spring!!!

 

My Space

     So I've mentioned before that I have my own little piece of paradise in our home, which is my new craft room!! I have waited for so long to have a room that was my very own, that I could decorate any way I wanted to without needing my hubs opinion on colors, décor, etc.While it's not a huge space, and there aren't any windows with natural light, I am in love with it!! It feels so crisp and calming, so clean and organized (why can't my whole house be that way??!!), and I feel inspired when I'm in there.
  
     I decided to keep the walls fairly light since there isn't any natural light coming in, but I did do an accent wall one shade deeper than all the other walls, this will be my "photo wall" where I will hang all of my photography photos that I take. I wanted a "pop" of color, so I decided to paint my two tables a beautiful shade of coral..it looks amazing with the wall colors!! Everything else I kept white because I needed to keep the brightness. There was also a little nook under the stairs that I just knew I wanted to do something special with, so I moved my little antique dresser and mirror from upstairs down into the craft room and put them under there. I also added a little lamp that I turn on once in awhile for some mood lighting......it all worked perfectly! (some trim still needs to be added around the nook, so please disregard that!!)

     I think that everyone needs to have that one space in their home to call their own. Whether it's your bedroom, a reading nook, or like me, a craft room, you should always have a space that makes you feel happy, relaxed or even inspired to create! What's you're favorite space in your home?!

What else do you do when it's raining?....make bracelets of course!!!!

 The temperature is finally above freezing which feels sooooooo good, but it's dreary and misty today......however, I'll take it over all the snow that got dumped on us this year!! There's no better kind of day to get creative then a day like today, so I've put my tunes on, grabbed a drink and locked myself in my favorite space in our home!! (my craft room of course!!).

   I've been itching to make some more jewellery (there will be a future post on my love of making metal stamped washer necklaces!), so I thought maybe some bracelets...a nice change from all the necklaces I have been doing. I had an old bangle-type bracelet that I never wore and that was starting to turn color a bit, so I figured there must be something that I can do to give this thing another chance at life. The bracelet itself was made up of many bracelets that were all attached on each side, so I cut them apart and decided to make individual ones.....the more the merrier, right??!! I have tons of embroidery thread laying around so I started to wrap some around the bracelet ( I love color.....bright colors, dark colors....they can really make a statement!!), once I reached the other end, I added some glue to hold the thread. It looked great, but kind of plain....it was missing something! I then grabbed some thin bead wire that I had laying around and twined some around each end of the bracelet about 1/4 of the way in to give it some character....then I decided to add some charms and some extra jump rings that can always have extra charms put on them! The finished product??!!, totally awesome!! Our (very soon to be 14 yr old) daughter loved them!!! It's amazing what you can create out of old things that you have laying around!!

The day I decided to make a wreath or two....or three!!

   With the weather FINALLY starting to look a little nicer and the sun finally warming things up a bit, I decided that I needed a new wreath for the front door...something "Springy"!! I had so many ideas that I had a really hard time deciding on a particular look, so I just dove right in and figured that I'd just go with the flow and see how things went!

  I had a spare twine wreath laying around that I knew I had to do something with, along with a huge pile of felt. So of course, why not make felt flowers?? They are soooooo simple and easy to make (though I do have to mention, mine came along with some seriously burnt fingers that required a good week of healing!!) I got to work on the flowers, went back and forth between colors and finally came up with a color combo that I loved!! I'm also a huge lover of Monograms....if I could put a monogram on everything, I totally would!! I didn't feel like running to the local craft store to get a wooden letter, so I cute out a font on my Cameo, then traced it onto some cardboard, cut it out and wrapped it in twine!! Voila!!! Looked just as good as any letter I you could buy, and it was free!!! I added a few of the felt flowers to it for a pop of color and it was done!!

    I glued all the other felt flowers along one side of the wreath, added in some felt leaves and ended up with  a gorgeous new wreath for our front door!!! I L-O-V-E it!!!!! Take a look!!

     Sometimes, when I have an entire day to lock myself in my craft room I can get carried away!! I felt so inspired by how my first wreath turned out that I decided to make another one!! I had a burlap one that I had started but never finished, so I tackled that one as well!! I made some fabric flowers with some scrap pieces I had laying around.....(I may or may not have burned my fingers with the glue gun some more!!). I also had some decorative items from the dollar store that I wanted to incorporate somehow. After re-arranging things a few times, I finally had a finished product that I really liked!!!! Don't you love the color combination??!!

     As if two wreaths weren't enough, I had one more in mind that I was dying to make!! I love the look of yarn wreaths....they have such a country/shabby chic look about them (depending on how you decorate them). I knew the color combination that I wanted to try, and I just happen to have all of the materials laying around...so why not?!! This one was also going to have felt flowers, so back to the glue gun I went!! I also had to wrap a wreath form with the yarn (F.Y.I.- a lot of people use the foam wreath forms....they can be pricey!! I found a straw one for $3.99...I wrapped it tightly with packing tape so none of the straw would poke through...it worked amazingly well!!). This can take a little bit of time if you're a picky-pot like myself!! After a bit of tweaking and decision making, my final product turned out even better than I had envisioned!! I think it looks a bit more like a Valentines wreath.....but really pretty for Spring as well!!! It really "pops" when it's on the front door!!

   I have no idea where I'm going to put all of these wreaths! One is on the front door.....the others?, well, they will probably have to take turns hanging somewhere around the house!!

It's been forever....and then some!!!

Wow!!!! It has been a really-long-time since I've blogged!! Like, 2 years maybe?? I've even decided to ditch the old blogs and start something completely new and fresh! I'm hoping that this one will capture more interest as I have lot's of stuff going on these days, whether it be crafting, creating or snapping photos (this is my current addiction right now!).

  I'm also hoping to connect with other bloggers that share some of my interests and hopefully learn from them, get motivated and get inspired to create even more awesome things!! Hope you enjoy this little piece of space on this world wide web where I can let my creativity flow and hopefully inspire others to get their creative juices flowing!! Going to leave you with a pic that I took of mine and the hubs wedding rings....this was one of my first pics I took with the new camera!! There will be many more to come!!