Feature & Life of a Raisin

Hope everyone is having a good start to their week, mine has been a little crazy.  With our corporate accountant bailing 8 days before our year end taxes are supposed to be done.  We rushed to get our paperwork sent off to a new accountant who was gracious enough to taken on this large project with such limited time.  It is nice to see that there are good people out there that are willing to do what they can to help. 
I am also so excited that Nothing But Country Featured my 2x4 pumpkins today. 

Fall Fun

Another fabulous weekend has come and gone and fall is in the air. This weekend I took out the flowers and exchanged them for pumpkins with my new fall creation.  

This was such an easy project that I made with some Styrofoam pumpkins stacked on top of each other and hot glued together.  Some fall springs and acorns that my son helped me put in.  

Hope you all had a great weekend as well. 

Birch Log Ornament

Okay so for those that don't know me I am one of those people who has Christmas on the brain all year round.  I am a believer that you can never get your Christmas shopping done to early or be thinking of great Christmas decorating ideas in advance.  I believe that each child should have their own tree to decorate and show their own style.  

I Just Love Christmas

Ever since my oldest son was born I mad it a point to buy a new ornament every year but a few years ago I found this fantastic company Sassy Possum and they are right here in my hometown.  They create these custom Birch Log Ornaments. 

All you have to do is email them a picture and they create these images carved into a birch log, I love them so much I keep them out all year round and replace them with the new ones.  I just think this is such a great keepsake to have and I wanted to share it with you. 

Pancakes Please

I have found my new favorite thing when it comes to pancakes and if your kids love pancakes then you will love this too. 

My friend came across this Tovolo Pancake Pen and she thought of me.

I have tried to do this with an icing bag and while it worked it was not as easy and the shape didn't turn out as good as I wanted. 

I made a few other ones with the kids names too, the kids thought it was the coolest thing. 

Pumpkin Love

I hope that everyone had a great weekend, I know I sure did.  I was able to spend the weekend with some great friends having a BBQ and family time at the corn maze.  

Although my favorite time of year is fall I will admit it is the least decorated season in this house, but this year that is about to change.  

I finally finished up my 2x4 pumpkin project today.  I know there are a ton of them out there, but I just had to make them.

 These were so simple to make a stick of 2x4's cut to size I angled the two outside's and gave them a sanding.   I then used a 2x4 for the base and topped it off with some 1x2's for the top.  To cute and they look fabulous on the deck. 

Fall Wreath

It's my favorite time of year

And that means it is time to bring out the fabulous fall decor with all its pretty colors.  

I was loving all the ideas of a square or rectangular wreath that I have been seeing.  I took a 1x2 stick and cut it into a frame and then gave it a couple coats of paint.  

I love to use vinyl so added this vinyl Greetings in white

I used this raffia to wrap around the entire boarder of the frame and used a hot glue gun to attach the pieces on the back

I finished it off by adding some sprigs, little pumpkins and a acorn
. 

I cannot wait to add some more fall decor to the house. 

What do you all have planned for your fall decor.

Yummy Pita Pizza

Today I thought I would share with you one of my favorite ways to eat pizza.  I am not a big fan of the thick crust with all the grease when it comes to pizza so instead I use a pita.  

I started by cutting up some mushrooms, onions, peppers, cheese and tomato's.  My kids are not a big fan of onions, because they are small each child gets what they want on their own. 

I spread pizza sauce and added this basil/garlic sauce to the top of the pita.

I am a big fan of chicken so I cooked up some chicken breasts and added a little BBQ and teriyaki sauce to it for a little extra flavor.

Once that was done I topped the pitta up with all those yummy ingredients and stuck it in the oven at 375' for about 10 - 15 minutes.  It is such a yummy dinner and it is fun to have the kids join in and help with their own toppings. 

Hope you enjoy

Fall Finds

As today really does feel like Fall here in Alberta I thought I would share with you some of my favorite fall finds for decorating.  

I am in love with this pumpkin made out of a book by Creations by Kara.

She has a full tutorial on how to create this as well.

I love this idea for out on the front porch, So cute and welcoming. This one is courtesy of bhg.com

Source: realsimple.com via Lisa on Pinterest

Don't you just love this idea it is such a chic pumpkin from Real Simple

Source: tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com via Lisa on Pinterest

This is such a cool and different wreath I had to share it.  Tatertots and Jello has created this fantastic masterpiece.

These are sure to get anyone in the mood to create something for fall. 

Family & Love Blocks

Before I head of for a weekend getaway with my hubby I thought I would share with you my latest project.  I have this massive entertainment unit (which I will share with you once the crown molding is done) and it has a lot of shelves to fill.  So I decided to create these Family & Love Blocks to put on it.

 Notice the faux books and the fantastic green apple behind them, I just found them last night at home sense.  

 I started with these 2x4's that I cut down to different sizes, and gave each one of them two coats of paint. 

Once they were all dry I sanded the corners and edges but decided that the colors were to bright so I painted over them with a watered down brown paint to darken the edges and the colors. 

I brought out the good old vinyl machine and made stencils for each block and stenciled them on in a white paint.

I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend. 

Photo Challenge Week 7 & Weekend Fun & Anniversary

For this past long weekend we had a fantastic time, of course we loaded up the trailer and the bikes and headed out for a fun weekend of camping with family and friends.  All the hard work getting ready is so worth it when you are camping at the bottom of two mountains and it seems like there is nobody else for miles.  Here are some of the highlights from our camping trip.  

I love this bouncy house idea for camping, some friends of ours brought it out and the kids had so much fun in it. 

Can you believe he is only 4 years old and this is his 3rd time riding the dirt bike, already fearless. 

Keegan found a new way to use the quad, after watching the dads go out and collect trees for the fire he decided he would give them a hand and spent many hours hauling trees back to camp. 

Big men on little bikes race.

And the Winner Is

We had such a good weekend, so sad it had to come to an end.  But this week also marked a very important day in our lives, our 9 year Anniversary was yesterday.  Throughout the past nine years we have had many laughs and many cries.  Good memories and some bad.  We have grown and learned from each other.  We have created 3 special little boys and sent 3 special angels to heaven and created a family full of love.  Without him in my life none of this would be possible and I am a pretty lucky girl to say the least. 

9 Years Ago our life together was just beginning 

Today we have so much more love in our lives.

Giveaway at Creative Carmella

Head on over to Creative Carmella as she has an awesome giveaway for one of these beautiful necklaces.  She is a very talented lady with lots of fantastic projects so be sure to become her newest follower. 

Transforming a Doorway

When we first built our house we had the option of putting in an archway or french doors in our front room/ office.  At that time I was adamant on doing the archway so my husband reluctantly said okay and we put in an archway.  Five years later and life has changed as so has our families needs, and with the possibility of adopting a child we wanted to convert this room in preparation.  Needless to say I heard about how we should have done it his way right from the beginning and then he wouldn't have to do all this work.  

These pictures were taken right after we moved in, don't you just love the builders beige.   I loved how the big windows let the light in the house and let the air flow through.

My Husband hard at work, he got the drywall all torn out and was busy building the new frame.

New drywall was up and then it was my turn to finish up with the mud and sanding.  This was a big project as there was such a height difference between the new and old drywall. 

The new doors were finally hung up, aren't they pretty. 

The finished look, it took a long time to get used to them being up but I love them and it makes it a more usable space.