Tag Archives: Family

The Kreativ Blogger Award!

Posted by Leanne on April 24, 2012 4 comments

I am thrilled to announce I have received the Kreativ Blogger Award!! I received it from the awesome Karie from ipinterest! (And in case you missed it, she was our Fame On Friday feature last week…catch up here if you missed it!) Thank you SO much, Karie, for thinking of me, with this award!

Here are the rules for the Award, that I must follow:

1. You must thank the person who has given you the award.

2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.

3. Link the person who has nominated you for the award.

4. Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting.

5. Nominate 7 other Kreativ Bloggers.

6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.

7. Leave a comment on which of the blogs to let them know they have been nominated.

So for the 7 things about myself…. It’s been a little while since I’ve written any random facts about myself, but let’s see if I can come up with any more!

1. I wake up with reaaaallly bad bed head. And I mean really bad. My husband calls me Marmoset. Now I know I’ve mentioned my favorite animals are marmosets, but I don’t really want to look like one!

2. I talk a lot in my sleep. I always have. As a child I would walk through the house and have conversations with family members. And apparently just last night I sat up in bed and told my hubby he had to turn off the “daddy alarm”. I have no idea what I was talking about!

3. It’s my daughter’s 4th birthday today!! I can hardly believe it! She is amazing, and we are so blessed to be celebrating her birthday today.

4. I have a super special feature for you guys lined up in May. But that’s all I’m going to say about that!

5. I am tired. I’ve been working my butt off getting projects ready for a function in May, and now that I’m done, I am beat. And my closets are overflowing with who-knows-what. So I may not be blogging as often in May, so I can try to purge our house. Again.

6. I love the name Sheamus. Random piece of info, I know. It’s just that it’s a name that doesn’t really work with our German last name, and most people give me a funny look when I mention that name. I just really love it.

7. I might be one of the few people in British Columbia that doesn’t mind all the rain that we get. Don’t get me wrong, I love sunshine, and in the summer I expect sunshine, but I find rain to be very relaxing.

So those are my random facts for today!! Do you have some random facts about you that you can share with me??

I’m going to be a very naughty award recipient and not announce my 7 picks for the award yet. I want a little more time to think on it, and as I’ve had to award others with all the other awards I’ve received, I’m running out of blogs I know to pass awards on to! I hope I’m forgiven, and I will follow-up soon!

thanks so much for reading, and have a great day on my daughter’s birthday!!

xo, Leanne

Sunshine Muffins

Posted by Leanne on March 26, 2012 11 comments

Mr. Sandman held me hostage the past 2 days. Saturday and Sunday I could barely keep my eyes open. I was just so, so, tired. Anna also had a bad cold, and hubby was feeling the same way I was, Jordan’s allergies were acting up, so we had the quietest weekend ever. Jordan didn’t mind, he got to play his computer games all day, both days, while the rest of us slept… but the weather was more gorgeous than ever, it was the last weekend of Spring Break, plus we missed my brother’s birthday party. We were totally bummed.

Today though, I seem to be pretty much back to normal (with the exception of a sore throat) and managed to get a lot done…. including…get this – baking.muffins.with.Anna. I am not a fan of baking, so baking anything with a 3 year old is not my idea of fun. Plus, we baked these babies from scratch. When I asked Anna if she wanted to bake muffins with me, she immediately looked in the cupboard of packaged baking goods. When I said “no not those kinds”, she replied with:

“We’re not baking pretend muffins?! We’re baking REAL muffins??”

Wow, what have I done?! I’m still a good mom, right?!

And our experiment went surprisingly well. I even doubled the recipe, as these are my favorite muffins ever… there’s a lot of grating involved, especially when the recipe is doubled, but we pulled it off, and they are d.e.l.i.c.i.o.u.s. Healthy, chewy and moist all at the same time, I’m so happy to have a freezer full of them again. I love pulling one out every morning for breakfast, heating it up, and loving it with a hot cup of tea.

Which, of course, I had to test immediately, just to make sure I did the job right.

Sunshine Muffins and Peppermint Tea. Yum.

Which, of course, inspired a tea party!

Notice Jordan is a wee bit embarrassed to have himself photographed at a tea party!

The kids had juice served with my crystal creamer… this is usual with our tea parties…it’s the only time the crystal comes out!

I love how careful they are with the crystal creamer

Are you drooling yet? Because trust me, these muffins are drool worthy!

Here’s the recipe for you!

Sunshine Muffins,

12 muffins or 4 mini loaves

Ingredients

2 cups (500ml) all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups (310) ml) white sugar
2 tsp (10) ml baking soda
2 tsp (10ml) ground Cinnamon
1/2 tsp (2.5 ml) salt
3 eggs
1 cup (250 ml) applesauce
2 tsp (10 ml) Vanilla extract
2 cups (500 ml) grated carrot
1/2 cup (125 ml) raisins
1/2 cup (125 ml) sliced almonds
1/2 cup (125 ml) shredded cocnut
1 apple, peeled, cored and coarsely grated.

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F (190 C). Lightly spray muffin pan or mini loaf pans with vegetable oil.
2. Whisk together first 5 ingredients in a large mizing bowl and set aside.
3. Whisk together eggs, applesauce, and Vanilla Extract in another bowl. Add carrots, raisins, almonds, coconut and apple to wet mizxture
4. Combine wet with dry ingredients and stir with a mixing spoon until just well blended.
5. Spoon into prepared pan(s) and bake for 20 minutes (may take 5 – 7 mintues longer if using mini-loaf pans.)

Per Serving: Calories 230, Fat 4.5g, Cholesterol 60mg, Sodium 350mg, Carbohydrate 45g (Fibre 3g, sugars 25g), Protein 5g

Enjoy!!

Oh, and a little family note, this little darling can now do “So BIG!” and turned 10 months yesterday! Yikes!

10 months Old!

Thanks so much for reading!!

xo, Leanne

Linked to: Randee’s Organized Chaos, Keeping It Simple, Making the World Cuter, Polly Want A Crafter, Serendipity and Spice, Mommy By Day Crafter By Night, At Home With K, The Grateful Belly

7 Wants in A 10 Day YOU Challenge.

Posted by Leanne on January 27, 2012 4 comments

See my 10 secrets here, 9 loves here, 8 fears here

7 Wants in a 10 Day You Challenge. Well, this one is dangerous. I have many, many, many wants. I know in my head they are wants, not neccessarily needs, but some days, it doesn’t really feel true. In fact, some does I am completely serious that all of these are needs! Especially currently, when my blog changeover isn’t going as smoothly as hoped, and my house feels smaller and dirtier than ever… the dog just got a grooming, and it’s always the worst after that, because his hair sheds as he runs around. Yuck.

7 Wants in a 10 Day You Challenge. Well, this one is dangerous. I have many, many, many wants. I know in my head they are wants, not neccessarily needs, but some days, it doesn’t really feel true. In fact, some does I am completely serious that all of these are needs! Especially currently, when my blog changeover isn’t going as smoothly as hoped, and my house feels smaller and dirtier than ever… the dog just got a grooming, and it’s always the worst after that, because his hair sheds as he runs around. Yuck.

But I did have a great morning. It was just what I needed. The kids had a day off from school today, so I packed them all up and headed to my home town for a Pampered Chef party at my friend’s home. It was a beautiful drive, we counted 8 bald eagles, 2 blue herons, and 3 birds my son swears is a white-tailed-black-spotted-bellied-hawk. I doubt he’s right, but I don’t know any better, so I won’t argue! Had a great time visiting old friends, seeing my mom, and eating yummy treats (thank Sandra! )… it was just what I needed after a couple nights of staying up till midnight trying to figure out my new blog site… I had no idea it would be so over my head! Hopefully it’ll all be worth it!

Okay, so my 7 needs: oops, Wants:

1. I want to win the lottery, or for someone to give us lots of money. Lots. Enough to pay off the little bit of debt we have accumulated, get a new car so we don’t have to worry that ours might break down on us any day, fix up our house exactly the way we want it (or enough $ to buy us a newer house!), and enough to give us a great back yard. We have 1/4 acre here, which is awesome, except we never have enough $$ to do something great with it, so often it feels a little useless.

2. I want out house to always be clean. Especially my floors. 3 years ago we put in these drop dead gorgeous deep brown harwood floors. They are gorgeous. Whe they are clean. And they are only clean if no on else is home after I’ve washed them. As soon as someone walks on them, they are dirty already. Especially if you have a crawling baby… or someone wears the same socks they did yesterday. I am often checking out the footprints, figure out who’s they are, and demand they change their socks. If the socks have a little bit of sweat, oil, anything, it shows. All dust shows. Every spill smears along with anyone who walks on that spot, if it wasn’t cleaned up with the exact method thaat I demand, because that is the only method that works. Very, very, annoying.

3. I want my baby to stop growing. She is the most amazing little baby ever, and I just wish she could stay a baby, so she could stay this personality forever.

4. I want to travel more. I got most of the travel bug out of my system when I was a flight attendant, but it would be really nice to be able to go somewhere warm once in awhile, since it rains almost every day here.

5. I want to move out of this town. This town is fine, but it’s a little too industrial, a little too busy for me. I’d love to live in the country again, with safe roads, and close to the river. I loved where we lived growing up, on a dairy farm… we did run into bears a fair bit when we went on walks, but that’s as dangerous as it got! LOL!

6. I want to see my friends more. This probably is more of a need, but with all of us being in the baby making stages, getting kids to and from school stages, and many of my friends working full time jobs, I really don’t get to see them often. And almost never without kids. And seriously, what kind of conversation can you have when you’re busy wiping snot and dirty bums in the meantime!

7. I want more space. I want space for us to all have our hobbies and loves, without inconveniencing the whole family by it overtaking the whole house. Space to store things, space to move around, space to ride bikes without fearing some crazy person on the road will hit us, space without traffic and noise, space for my kids to make noise without giving me a headache.

I know there’s not a #8, but I’d really like computers not to be so confusing! I don’t know if I’ve explained it well enough, but I’m trying to change my blog over from WordPress.com, to WordPress.org. Mainly because one day if my blog grows well enough, I’d like to have a few adds on my blog, to make a wee bit of income off of it. But it turns out that I can’t do it on the .com site. I have to self host it on the .org site. Which means e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. needs to be transfered over manually, by a girl who know nothing about computers, and a hubby who is a computer programmer, but doesn’t speak bloggy language. There’s really no rush, but niave little me thought it would happen easily in one evening (because of course, that’s what they tell ya), and didn’t realize how intense and detailed it would be. And obsessive little me wants it done immediately, for absolutely no reason at all excpet to get it done! Oh well, I’ll get there!

I’m looking forward to a great little evening with the inlaws tonight, and a relaxing weekend with the family, and wait for the library to call me to tell me the “WordPress for Dummies” book is in, waiting for me!

Share with me some of your wants! I’d love to know them!

Have a great weekend, and thanks for reading!

~ Leanne

If you are just visiting my blog, thanks for visiting! I love comments, and I love, love new followers… to follow and receive my postings by email, just find the spot at the top right hand corner where it invites you to add your email.

I’d also love for my readers to click on “Like” (below) if you liked today’s post, and of course give me your comments, anytime! Just click below where it says “Leave a Comment”. Thanks!!

Milestones

Posted by Leanne on November 28, 2011 2 comments

I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend?! This past weekend was full of milestones for me, which made it fun and exciting:

First, this gorgeous little girl popped out her 2nd tooth and turned 6 months old!

6 months old!

Second, My blog hit its highest number in views yet… on Friday I got 118 views and over the weekend received a lot of new subscribers! This is a big deal for me… This blog is simply a hobby for me, a way to keep me a little sane as a stay-at-home-mom. A wee bit of me time. I usually write my posts during lunch while my 3-year-old eats her lunch in front of her favorite movie, baby plays happily on the floor, and 7-year-old is at school. The crafts and furniture refurnishing happens when I need to “escape” for a few minutes, or let out some frustrating (why I love sanding and distressing!) I am very flattered that you take the time to read what I write! So welcome to all my new subscribers, and thank you to all of you for following along on my trials and errors, and for telling others about my blog!

Third, On Friday I hit up our local craft fair, and had a ton of fun visiting the different vendors. My favorite vendor I met was a vintage jeweller, named Opechee, you can check out her Facebook group here. She also sells on Etsy. Plus, I found out Abbotsford is having another Vintage Market on December 3rd, you can check out the Facebook Page here. There were a few of these over the summer, which I didn’t get to go to, but heard they are fabulous, so I am really looking forward to getting to this one!

Fourth, Okay, 3 and 4 aren’t really milestones, but just some good stuff that happened over the weekend – I guess the 5th and 6th will be the same! Anyways, the 4th is that I started work on my desk from “What was I thinking?!” … I took the ugly drawer fronts off that were falling off anyways, and they went from this:

to this:

This gets me very excited… the look of pallets are all the rage right now, so I can definitely use this look to my advantage. Trust me, that desk is going to look stellar when I’m done with it!

Fifth, You may have noticed my photos are coming out larger again… yes, all electronics have been FIXED! Whoohoo! Plus, we have a card reader finally, to get the photos from camera to computer, instead of the crazy cord situation we were dealing with before. Easy and efficient and even I can do it!

Sixth, I’ve complained about the state of our living room long enough (remember when I posted about how our living room set up irritated me?) So hubby put it on the calendar for Saturday… and we did it! I Love the new set up, I feel like I can actually breath, it’s all been opened up… we both had to compromise a bit; I had to give in and neighbors can now see our TV from outside, and he had to give in and leave the piano where it was. I will take pictures and show you as soon as I have the current mess cleaned up!

Thanks for reading!!

If you are just visiting my blog, thanks for visiting! I love comments, and I love, love new followers… to become a follower, and receive my postings by email, just find the spot at the top right hand corner where it invites you to add your email.

I’d also love for my readers to click on “Like” (below) if you liked today’s post, and of course give me your comments, anytime! Just click below where it says “Leave a Comment”. Thanks!!

I’m partying here!

Keeping Sane Part II

Posted by Leanne on November 12, 2011 6 comments

I wasn’t planning on writing a post tonight. The past couple days have been a little tough, as I posted about in Keeping Sane… and the main reason for these tough days is a beautiful, energetic, passionate, obsessive, daredevil, control freak, sugar addicted, 3-year-old read headed Taurus. When I was pregnant with her, and would tell people her due date, the mother’s of daughters born in the same “sign” would say “uh-oh! A Taurus! And if it’s a girl, watch out, STUBBORN!” And I knew their daughters, and I knew they weren’t joking. Well, not only did we get a daughter who’s a Taurus, but also a red-head! She keeps us on our toes 100% of the day. Today it was more like 1000%

Then tonight, as we were doing their bed time prayers, I said “thank you God for our day together as a family“… and then I started laughing. Because in my head I though, “Really?? Am I really glad for this day?!” And I think God quickly filled my brain with shots of the day, when this little girl blew my mind with her amazingness, and I said “yes. Thank you for this day“.

And then tonight, when I should be in bed, I was instead surfing from one awesome blog to another awesome blog, and then came upon this post. I want you to click this link and read it, because she writes exactly what goes through my head every day. Although being a stay at home mom is a challenge, it is such a blessing. So here is the link to My Life and Kids: Do you like being a stay at home mom?

Enjoy it, and goodnight!

Thanks for reading!

I’d also love for my readers to click on “Like” (below) if you liked today’s post, and of course give me your comments, anytime! Just click below where it says “Leave a Comment”. Thanks!! (If you are a follower, and received this post by email, you will need to visit the blog page, by clicking today’s title in the email to add your “like’s” and comments.)