Monthly Archives: May 2012

I’m Back!!

Posted by Leanne on May 31, 2012 1 comments

Whew! What an absolute wild week we had last week, I needed most of this week to recuperate!! You ready for this??

A few weeks ago I made a new blogging friend, who lives in North Vancouver. After emailing back and forth and getting to know each other, on Tuesday last week this amazing woman, Claudine from Condensed Love Home, packed up all her Annie Sloan Chalk Paint (which you all know I’ve been dying to try!) and brought it all over to my place to paint with me!! I had a child’s rocking chair that needed a little makeover, and in the 3 hours Claudine and I had together, we gave this chair 2 coats of paint, gave each other the quickest tutorials – she taught me about chalk paint, I taught her about making signs – got to know each other, picked up my sick son from school, fed the baby lunch, and barely had time to breath! Wow. More on my time with Claudine and Chalk Paint another day though!!

Wednesday and Thursday I finished off that rocking chair, plus a special project which I delivered yesterday… but more on that another day!

Thursday evening I put together 30 gifts for volunteers for the elementary school. Although time-consuming, I had a ton of fun putting them together and watching the recipients receiving them the next day.

Friday this gorgeous little darling turned 1! Wow, how did that happen?!?

Don’t you love the birthday outfit?? It insured she would get a lot of attention for her big day!!

In the morning I had to remember to deliver the 30 gifts to the school, and later in the day, the girls and I attended the Parent and Volunteer Tea, held by the school staff. So much fun, with amazing cupcakes,

and music,

(that’s my guy 3 heads back – the best picture I could get of him

That evening we celebrated Elissa’s birthday with a trip to the Coldstone Creamery

(she’s looking a little anxious, because she can’t figure out why I keep taking pictures, and not giving her the ice cream!)

Pizza and a movie ended the evening, and the little birthday girl was sound asleep by 6:45!

That’s when I needed to get back to work and prepare for the big party on Sunday…

Saturday was a day I had been looking forward to for some time!!

That’s right, it was time for the Scout Handmade and Vintage Market!! Whoohoo!! And this was the line up waiting to get in, a half our after opening,

That was in front of me… behind me the lineup went around the building! But wow was it worth the wait. I had every intention of taking pictures inside of all the goodies, but my eyes just couldn’t devour what I was seeing fast enough!! Plus, with the insane crowds, I was acting as a contortionist the whole time, trying to get in close. But, I did get the chance to meet someone I’ve been wanting to meet for a while – Alisa from Home Sweet Nest, and her friend who I can’t wait to get to know more, Desja from The Former Fashionista. And boy did I blush when they were pleased to meet me, because they read my blog!

The day continued with haircuts for the whole family, and an evening at the in-laws to meet up with hubby’s from-out-of-province cousin.

Then Sunday got even crazier. Church, (where I had to read the Bible scriptures for the service, and wouldn’t you know it, it was full of some of the craziest-pronounced cities) which was followed by a Sunday School party with hotdogs, bowling and cake. Home for a couple of hours to gather ourselves, and back to the church gym to host Elissa’s birthday party!!

(the project for the party I was working on Friday night)

She enjoyed watching me open the gifts for her

And also enjoyed her birthday crown!

She was a bit nervous when we put the piece of birthday cake in front of her, not sure what to do with it…

But it all ended with a very happy and very messy clap!

Monday I crashed, and suddenly it’s Thursday! I hope you have a great one! Thanks for reading!

xo, Leanne

PS, Happy birthday to my niece “M” today!! xo

Fame On Friday #9

Posted by Leanne on May 25, 2012 5 comments

sigh…. today is my baby’s first birthday.

2 months old

Of course I’m happy for her, but I am sad for me. She is our last baby (God willing!), and she has been such a superstar of a little person, I couldn’t have prayed for a better baby (and trust me, I prayed! With a pretty little red-head in this house needing so much attention, I needed a good baby!) I’m not sure how we’ll be celebrating today, but we will be having a big party on Sunday! Pictures next week!

But onto today’s blogging topic…..

It’s…

Fame On Friday…because I heart my readers!!

Today’s guest is someone I think is absolutely adorable… I started following Michaela back when I began to notice her adorable personality, adorable cozies for tea cups, and her very adorable scarves… I’ve promised I will buy from her…I’m just waiting to see the perfect splurge for me! Here she is!

Hi! My name is Michaela, I am the owner of a small shop called Buttons&YarnOHMY.

Which right now is just a small corner of the Etsy world. (http://www.etsy.com/shop/ButtonsandYarnOhMy).

I am a complete Knit –A – Holic, I almost always have a pair of needles with me and my house is bursting at the seams with skeins of yarn. I love fashion and designing knit accessories.

Along with knitting I love DIY crafts and house projects, which is how I first stumbled onto the Because I Think I Can blog. This is also my first year living on the farm and gardening; I’ve always had container gardens and been restricted to small patios and container gardens. My blog www.buttonsandyarnohmy.wordpress.com has a little bit of everything, this summer it’s mostly gardening.

A new lily from my garden that just bloomed this morning!

I also blog about a lot of my knit projects. I’m passionate about handmade and I like showing my customers that my items are truly handmade

Thanks so much Michaela! It was fun having you here today!

And thanks for reading everyone! I hope you enjoyed Michaela’s visit, and take a chance to visit her and get to know her a bit more!

xo, Leanne

=====================================

Are you wondering what this “Fame On Friday” is all about? Here’s the info for you!

Fame On Fridays! … because I heart my readers!!

I love my followers, and I am so grateful to all of you for following my blog…and as a thank you, I want to show you off! I know there are A LOT of talent reading my blog, and I want to know more about You!

If you have a blog, let us know whatever you want us to know about it! …But you don’t need to be a blogger to be featured. Love to bake? Send me your pictures and recipes! Love to knit? Send me a scarf! Haha, joking Maybe you accomplished something you didn’t know you could do, just because there was no one around to help you. Brag about it here! Maybe you changed something in your life in a positive way. Tell us about it! Maybe you are amazing at organizing. Share your tips with us!

If you would like to be featured, send me any info you would like us to know about you & pictures of what you have created. I’ll schedule you in for a Friday, and will email you to let you know when you are scheduled, so you can brag to all your friends!

The Only Rules:

1.) You must be a follower of Because (I think) I Can through email, Linky Followers, RSS Feed, or Facebook.

2.) Spread the Love! Let people know you are being featured, and where to find it! Do you have a friend you think people should know about? Get your friend to contact me!

That’s it! You can email me at leanne @ becauseithinkican . com, or contact me through my contact form on my sidebar. I look forward to getting to know you better!

Leanne

Masterpieces!

Posted by Leanne on May 24, 2012 3 comments

Do you remember my very popular Every Child Is An Artist sign I made awhile back? I decided before my show a few weeks ago to upgrade the hardware, and it now comes with bulldog clips screwed to it. I love the upgrade! Bulldog clips this size are very hard to find in this town, which is why I didn’t use these before, but when I found them, I bought all of them!!

While I was making more of these a few weeks ago, I was inspired… check it out!

Masterpieces!

Isn’t it cute?! It sold pretty darn fast at the vendor show!! Here’s some more model shots for you!

What d’ya think?? It’s listed for the same price as Every child Is An Artist, on my For Sale Page!

I hope you have a fabulous Thursday! I know we will – we have a play date planned at McDonald’s today! (for the play place, not the food!!)

Thank you so much for reading!!

xo, Leanne

Partying at:

Pinterest Wednesday and a Winner!

Posted by Leanne on May 23, 2012 2 comments

Today’s Pinterest post is a little different… yesterday I mention I had 1 more “like” to go to get to 50 on my Facebook Page, and would offer a giveaway for every 50 likes….and since it was reached last night, I get to announce a Winner!! WARNING: This winner has 48 hours to respond to the prize, otherwise a new name will be drawn… so this post is going out at 10:00 am Pacific time, Wednesday the 23rd, so the winner must respond to me by Friday the 25th (my daughter’s 1 year birthday, but that’s besides the point!) at 10:00 am Pacific time!

I’m literally drawing the winner right now… so wait for it…. the winder is: Ashton Suzette Jackson!

So if you are this winner, or if you know this winner, please get back to me as soon as possible!! You can email me at leanne@becauseithinkican.com

What are you winning??

I want to make you a custom painted wood sign!! I have some wood here, the size is 5″x15″ … you get to choose a single word for me to paint on it for you, plus you get to choose the background color out of these choices: graphite, turquoise, old white, or yellow.

The sign will hang from a hanger of twine, like in this example:

Do you need some inspiration for your single word of choice? Here’s some pins I’ve pinned to inspire you!

Source: etsy.com via Leanne on Pinterest

Congratulations to Ashton Suzette Jackson, and I hope I hear back from you within 48 hours! thank you to all of you who have “liked” me so far on my Facebook page, and I will do a giveaway for every 50 “likes”, so if you haven’t “liked” me yet, here’s the link!: My facebook page!

Thanks for reading!!! xo, Leanne

Chicken Wire and a Giveaway!!

Posted by Leanne on May 22, 2012 17 comments

I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend?! We took it easy most of the weekend… Saturday was an outside day, catching up on some yard work…Sunday was a movie day, as both Jordan and I were under the weather… Yesterday us Canadians had an extra day off! Yay! So we took advantage of the day and went across the border to Linden, Washington again. If you’ve been following me for a while, you know this is one of my favorite places to spend a day. My favorite restaurant, my favorite antique store, a candy store next door to bribe the kids, and on a sunny day there is the most amazing playground in town. One day I will take pictures of the playground, it is quite something! Yesterday was a very rainy day however, so they kids got a little extra candy!

I’m excited to show you a frame I repurposed! It will currently be for sale, on my For Sale page, but I’m kind of humming and hawing on whether I want to keep it or not!!

this frame went from this:

To this:

I love the contrast of the bright yellow (Martha Stewart’s Cornbread) and the dark fabric. And I am a sucker for leaf prints!

I don’t have good photos on how I did it, but I’ll try to explain along the way… this was my first time working with chicken wire though, so I was a little apprehensive, and too concentrated to think of taking pictures!!

again, a close-up of the frame... I took it all apart, and gave the frame a cleaning, sanding, and 2 coats of yellow... because I didn't think distressing it would give it much of an impact, being that the original color was white, I used "Distress Ink" to give it more depth and a distressed look...

...here you can see a bit of the effect the Distressed Ink gave to the yellow...

... I actually used the original picture to wrap the fabric around, and hot glued the fabric to the back...

before fitting the fabric board into the frame, I had cut a piece of chicken wire to fit in first, then fit the fabric board in next. I bent the chicken wire around the fabric board, and taped down the edges. I then finished off the back fully with a piece of cardboard, so the back is nice and covered....

Here is a photo of the chicken wire bent around the back of the fabric board, before I taped it...

...oh, and I forgot to mention I also stapled the chicken wire on the back, with a staple gun, before taping down the ends, just to make sure it all stays in place!...

...the back... in the "wrapping" process...

and done! it was a learning experience, but an addicting one, so I'm sure there will be more of these to come!!...

...so in case you don't quite understand how it works, the fabric is behind the chicken wire...

...the chicken wire sits far enough away from the fabric, so you can use clips of your choice, to clip your memos to the chicken wire...

...I chose to use clothespins, as they are adorable and inexpensive!...

I love how functional and sweet this piece is, and I love the rustic-ness the chicken wire gives to this piece...

If you LOVE it, be sure to check out my For Sale Page!! I’d love to pass this on to another loving home, before it finds a permanent wall in our house to hang on!!

Thank you so much for reading!! And by the way, my Facebook Page has reached 49 Likes!! I’ve decided that for every 50 likes on my Facebook Page, I will hold a GIVEAWAY!!… I’m just not sure what the first GIVEAWAY will be yet!! I better decide that before I get 1 more Like! Pass on the word, I’d love your help to help my Facebook Page grow!!

Thank you!! xo, Leanne

Partying at: Embracing Change, The Shabby Creek Cottage