Tea, coffee or something else... What do you drink to stay awake?
Earl Grey Tea is my favorite caffeine fix at home. Add a couple of raw sugar cubes and some milk, and you've got the tastiest cuppa around!
Starbucks is my hot bevvy of choice when I'm out and about. Since there's one on every freakin corner around here, it is readily available! The kids are quite accustomed to me hitting the Starbucks drive-thru with for a Venti Tazo Chai Latte or a Vanilla Latte.
My husband is a true Canuck through and through (that's slang for Canadian for my international friends)! If he's in need of coffee, he prefers an XL Double-Double from Timmy's. I like their steeped tea, and I take that Double-Double too (2 cream, 2 sugar).
It's funny, but I used to really like Timmy's coffee... and any other coffee for that matter. My tastes have really changed since having kids. Now, I usually prefer tea, and any coffee I drink has to be all messed up with flavour and steamed milk!
On another note, while searching Google Images for the above pics, I came across a recipe for Chai Flavoured Short Bread. Oh... My... GAWD! Got to try it!
Find the recipe here!
If you were to open up a business of your own, what would it be?
Submitted by beth.
My vision seems to have slight variations, but the theme remains the same. I would like to have some kind of yarn/craft store. Comfy couches and chairs would be available for those who want to come by and "Stitch & Bitch" for a while. Coffee & tea would be kept hot for my customers. There would be plenty of gorgeous yarn, needles, hooks, and accessories for my knitters and crocheters, every colour in the spectrum of DMC floss, aida cloth, needles and patterns for cross-stitchers, and maybe some space to sell handmade projects on consignment. I could also recruit my sister to sell me some of her own spun yarn from the sheep on her farm! I figure, if it is going to be a venture that I would have to totally immerse myself in, it should be something that I really love to do myself!
Maybe I would call it YARN OVER or A STITCH IN TIME.
Would YOU like to see something like that in your area?
Are you worried about a swine flu pandemic?
Not really, but my husband is! I love the man dearly, but he is a certified hypochondriac. If you tell him you have a tickle in your throat, he'll have one an hour later. If you tell him you just got over a bout of the 24 hour flu, he'll be retching in the bathroom that night. If someone 3000 miles away comes down with swine flu, he'll be cheking the symptoms on line to be sure that his daughters suffering from cough due to cold have not been infected.
And yes... he did check on-line.
So, the end of 2008 was fast approaching, and the twins were beyond their second birthday. I was thinking back to the point in Brianna's toddlerhood when we made the transition to Big Girl Bed. We did the Step-2 toddler bed thing with her crib mattress and a bed-in-a-bag set that I picked up from Wal-Mart. I confess I was very eager to get her on to the next step, and so when she told me she wanted the new bed, I jumped at the chance. She was 22 months and could speak clear enough that I understood, "I want my Big Girl Bed now, Mommy." I feel the need to tell you this because at 27 months, the twins were barely able to say a couple of words without the need for "Twinglish" translation.
She had her toddler bed (which later became a funky Step-2 castle bed that looked like this) until it was time for her to move into a twin size bed so that we could have her mattress for one of the twins cribs.
Back to the twins. We decided to forget about the Step-2 toddler bed stage and just go with full size twin beds. A big expense at once, but we felt that they would at least have these beds for many years. I found the beds at Wal-Mart (geez, I love that store), and the quilts, sheets, pillows and mattresses at Sears. The beds are actually bunk beds, so we can stack the girls when they get older, and they were only $230.
Kaitlyn (in white) making sure that Daddy was putting her bed together properly, and Ainsley was making sure the mattress rails are strong enough.
I found it funny that we didn't tell them which bed they should sleep in. It seemed logical to them that since one bed was in the exact spot of Kaitlyn's crib, that bed should be hers. Ainsley didn't seem to mind that her new bed was not in the same spot as her crib.
The twins felt the need to get their bouncy bums going... just to test the firmness of the new mattresses, you see. I was just pleased that they were feeling positive about the switch!
Now the twins are perfectly happy in their Big Girl Beds and we haven't looked back. Just one more stage down (of so many yet to come).
Kaitlyn on left...... Ainsley on right.
Our good neighbour friends have a daughter that just turned 11 in December. Since her birthday was so close to Christmas, I decided to do something a little more special for her birthday. Jaelynn's parents had redecorated her room into an appropriate "tween" space with pink and brown as the two main colours. I thought it would be nice to have a lap blanket and a pillow to relax with on her bed while reading or doing homework. Turns out I ran out of time to do the matching cusion cover that I had planned, so I bought one of those heart-shaped fuzzy pillows from Wal-Mart. Turns out she loved both!
I used Bernat Satin yarn in Snow, Mocha, and Flamingo. The satin yarn gave the afghan a nice sheen and I think it was very appropriate for a girl no longer into "cuddle blankets". I followed this pattern and I think it turned out nicely. If you're wondering what my colour sequence was, it goes as follows:
1 row colour A, 2 rows colour B, 3 rows colour C, 4 rows colour A, 1 row colour B, 2 rows colour C, 3 rows colour A, 4 rows colour B, 1 row colour C, 2 rows colour A, 3 rows colour B, 4 rows colour C... and so on. It's a little hard to imagine while you're doing it, but I think that once its finished and all layed out, the pattern is noticable if you pay close enough attention, but not so obvious that it almost looks random. I also finished mine with a scalloped edge for a feminine touch.
As you can see by the size I did mine, Brianna was able to wrap it around her shoulders, and I could drape it over my legs while sitting in my rocker with my feet up. I'm actually doing this one again for another friend expecting a baby boy any day now. I'm followng a different colour pattern, and it is also looking great! I'll post pics when I'm done.
Things I Loathe:
* Not blogging for 7 months!! Yikes!
* Having my entire house in disarray to have laminate installed.
* Losing most of our fish while Mike & I were on holidays. Wanda (the angel fish that I have had for a couple of years), and Bruce (the bala shark that had grown to a hefty 4 inches over the last year) were amoung the tragic losses. We discovered that the heater dial had been bumped and the tank just got hotter and hotter.
Things I Love:
* Feeling good about blogging again. Not sure how much I have to say, but I know I have plenty to tell about since it's been 7 months since I've shared with you all!
* Finishing a crochet project and starting a new one. I often struggle to get to the end of a project because I have new yarn and a pattern waiting to go. I don't like putting something down without finishing it (especially since they are usually for someone else).
* Having a closer relationship with my oldest daughter. I won't lie, her first four years were a struggle for me. I don't think we ever fully bonded as Mother and Daughter when she was an infant (I blame undiagnosed PPD), but we are cuddling on the couch more and talking more. I hope this progresses into a nice friendship when she's older.
* The knowledge that the new laminate will be FAR cleaner than our disgusting carpet and will benefit all of us.
* A new, VERY quiet dishwasher. Ahhh.... blessed silence! You know your dishwasher is bad when you have to schedule the times that you turn it on so that it will be the least annoying.
* A freshly painted bedroom. It had not been touched since two owners ago... let's say at least 15 years. It was ugly and made me not like to be in my room. The clutter was getting out of hand too! All taken care of while Mike was away, so no arguments! He loved it when he returned home!
* St. John's, Newfoundland. My home away from home. This is currently my desktop background (taken while on our recent trip to The Rock):
