Altered Curtains

Let's talk about curtains.

I've had these two panels of curtains for years, they're full length, brown and gauzy and I like them a lot.  I found them for super cheap and I've used them in our bedroom for years until I finally replaced them with something even nicer which meant these curtains got moved to Catie's room.  Despite being gauzy they actually keep out a surprising amount of light when paired with our cheap blinds and they worked just great until it came time to move around the bed to make room for Eden's crib.

Let's take a brief pause while I tell you another story.  

I grew up in a really small town which meant we drove to the slightly larger town a lot and even when it wasn't even remotely in our path my Mom couldn't help but drive by this one house over and over.  This house had a large living room window with some nice sheer curtains but they then pushed their couch directly against the curtains, squashing them against the window making this horrible bulge.  This drove Mom crazy and we drove by every time hoping that this time they will have fixed the curtains.  This went on for years until finally, one day they got blinds and Mom had some peace.

Back to Catie's curtains... remember how I told you they were full length?  Making room for the crib meant Catie's bed needed to be pushed against the window so the curtains that were once fine now looked like this.

While you couldn't see a horrible bulge from the outside you could imagine how I felt every time I saw these curtains squashed behind the bed and my Mother's voice rang in my ears.  And if they had actually stayed this way I would probably have left them but the bed in this position gave Catie amazing freedom to sit and look out her window so she'd pull back the panel until it all pooled on her bed.  She often sat on the curtain and every morning when I go get her she'd have to pull herself out from the other side of the fabric.  Also, one last story... it's been super hot here so we put Catie to bed in just a t-shirt and diaper but the quality of diapers we buy is clearly lacking because in the morning her diaper was laying on the floor and she'd peed the bed, and the curtains, since they sit on the bed.  Changing sheets is one thing but seriously, I have to wash the curtains too?

Looking out the window also required her to pull aside the slats in the blinds, let me show you what that's done (and this is after I spent some time bending the slats back in place, they look pretty good in this photo).

Leaving the blinds up wasn't really an option because it was too light in the room without them.  So I couldn't just take down the curtain because she's ruining the blinds and I couldn't just shorten the curtains because without the blinds it's too light in there.  Clearly something needed to be done.

I chopped off a bunch of length, re-hemmed the curtains and added some blackout fabric to the back of the panels. Now I've pulled the blinds all the way up, tucked the string out of the way and replaced her now much heavier curtains (which make her room incredibly dark).  Problem solved.

What Catie Wore Wendesday #76

I know I've skipped these posts a lot lately but I find sitting at the computer really uncomfortable for my feet.  Good news though is that I only have 4 weeks until this bun is finished cooking and then we can add a second lady to these posts.

Because I've skipped a couple posts I have lots of fun photos this week.

This is her favourite place to sit, on the overhanging counter.  I probably should have put an end to it but I haven't.

This summer she's discovered her favourite dessert, an ice cream cone.  Not just ice cream, but in a cone.

Grandma came to visit and brought Catie all sorts of treasures.  She knew immediately what to do with them and put on every necklace and ring.  Her favourite treasure though were the shoes.  She loves them and wears them often.  As soon as she put them on she proclaimed herself Cinderella and told us she was on her way to a ball.

We had a week of seriously hot weather so we spent as much time doing water related activities as possible. Our favourite is this wading pool where we've spent hours trying to stay cool.

The other treasure Grandma brought was this Cinderella computer and while she's really too young for it she loves the thing anyway.  She walks around and asks, "Where's my puter?"

Playing with Uncle Rob, who's glasses she later found.  She thought she was super cool.

Enjoying the Popsicle Grandma bought her, though she thought it was really cold and ended up incredible sticky.

I put Catie down for a nap wearing the pink shirt and found her after the nap wearing the polka dot red shirt as well, only she missed a sleeve.  She's trying to put those pants on too.

I had a dream the other night that I went back to school so Catie went to live with my parents for a year.  I missed her so terribly that when I woke up it made me a much better Mother for the day.  We had planned on staying home and doing nothing but instead we impulsively packed up, grabbed some doughnuts for breakfast and went to a Stampede breakfast where we skipped the pancakes and rode ponies.  There was a petting zoo with pigs, chicks, goats and bunnies that she loved.  (You'd think I'd never taken a photo before, yes, that's my finger in the bottom corner).

They also had this saddle that kids could climb up on to take photos, I love her smile these days.
We got her a balloon, called it a morning and she was thrilled.  I'm still grateful for the dream.

Birthday Giveaway Winner

So I gave you an extra day to enter, hope everyone's okay with that.  I just picked random winner and it was lucky Cheryl!  I've sent her an email and will send off her fun package on Monday.

Thanks for playing along.

It's My Birthday (Giveaway)

So technically it was yesterday but really, who has time to blog on their birthday on a Sunday.  I had things to do so this just has to be a day late.  What a difference a year makes, last year on my birthday I was depressed and angry all day.  We were living in my in-laws basement, my husband was unemployed and I turned 30 years old.  It made for a crappy day.

This year though I just wanted to be happy and celebrate and enjoy the day, which I did and I thought I'd enjoy the day with you too.  I've collected a few of my favourite cosmetic products and I'm going to mail them off to one of you lucky ladies.

Let's start with the eyeshadow.  I love these L'Oreal HIP shadows, I own 5 of them but this Wicked duo is my favourite.  HIP stands for High Intensity Pigments and they really mean it, the colour payoff is awesome, long lasting and not chalky at all.  The bronzy colour goes with just about everything and I hit pan on it far earlier than the purple, despite my equal love for it.

I just discovered this Essence brand of make-up and I'm super impressed.  Shoppers Drug Mart just started carrying it here in Canada and I can't believe how cheap it is.  I picked up this pot of gel eye liner in Midnight in Paris for $3.00. It goes on nice and dramatic, is almost a whipped consistency and doesn't budge.  My friend Michelle just reviewed the same product comparing it to a MAC product so if you're interested check it out here.

Last is the Revlon Colourburst Lipbutter in Peach Parfait.  I have three of these lip glosses, they look like a lipstick but feel like a gloss and are pretty long lasting.  Peach Parfait is my favourite colour that I own though, it's a colour you wear every day with everything.

Here are my own products in the same colours, opened up so you can see a little better though my eyeliner is a charcoal grey instead of the black pictured above.

And I did a swatch of them for you too.

So, who wants some free make-up?

Let's have a giveaway.  If you are interested in these products leave a comment telling me about your favourite birthday gift, or maybe your favourite make-up product or you can just tell me you want the product.  Really, any comment will do, just leave a comment.

I'll leave the giveaway open until Friday and then I'll package up the make-up with an edible treat and mail it off.

Good luck!

Father's Day

Allright, I know this is really late but I'm finally getting around to posting what we did to celebrate Father's Day.

I came up with four gifts, three of them cute and handmade and one of them just awesome.

The candy jar is pretty self-explanatory, I bought a jar and filled it with Brad's favourite candy (Peanut M&M's) and then added some black vinyl that I cut with my Silhouette that says, "We're Nuts about Daddy".  He took the jar to work and now he has yummy treats to snack on and offer to clients.

The card is also pretty simple and it's all over Pinterest.  I traced Catie's hand and cut out two copies.  In between them I made an accordion of paper and then using some alphabet stickers I wrote "I Love You" on the hand and on the accordion it says "this much!".  We put it in an envelope and I had Catie colour it.

The third gift is my favourite though.

I found a cute idea with a printable on Pinterest from this site.  She made this into a book that her kids filled in with reasons why Daddy is awesome but Catie is too little for that part.  Instead I turned her printable into a pin.

I folder some paper accordion style and glued it into a circle, added some ribbon and a few other embellishments and then I glued the printable on top.  I added a pin to the back and it was done.

Brad wore his pin to church and then again later to a family gathering.  I loved this one so much that I'm pretty sure we'll be making him a new pin next year.

The fourth gift I didn't take a picture of because it's not crafty, I'll just tell you about it.
Brad goes in to work early and is super considerate and doesn't turn on any lights while getting dressed, he uses his cell phone as a light to find which tie to wear.  I've known for months I was going to get a tap light for the closet and found a far cooler option when I went to the store.  I bought a light that attaches to the wall by a magnet (the track for our closet door happens to be magnetic so the light fits on the wall without any hardware).  The light turns itself on via a sensor and stays on just long enough for him to find a tie and close the doors, it's awesome.

To wrap up our day we celebrated with family and ate cupcakes and tried to extra appreciate Brad all day.

Re-Covered Pillows

A friend of mine had some old pillows from an old couch and she had some great outdoor fabric and asked if I could combine the two to make something beautiful.

I think I was successful. 

The pillows started out like this.  You can see that there are four from a couch and two others that she had hanging around.  

I started with the couch pillows, sliced open the fabric and groaned, already dreading where I was going to go from her since inside I didn't find a pillow form but a messy semi square of old batting.

I knew I'd need to first cover the batting so I got some broadcloth.  I made a large rectangle (the size of the pillow only twice as long), folded it in half and sewed up the two sides.  I flipped the now square fabric inside out, inserted the batting and sewed the third side shut.  To prevent fraying I used my pinking shears on the one exposed seam and called them good.  

These covers were crazy quick and made a huge difference when inserting into the final pillow cover.


Next up was the piping.  Let me tell you something, I HATE making piping.  I really wanted to just buy some but I couldn't find any pre-made that matched and I did need 12 meters.  I found some green fabric that matched perfectly and was really cheap, I used 1/2 a meter and had a little left.  While I love the way the piping turned out it was easily the worst part of this project, took longer than I wanted and I was annoyed the entire time.


Once I made the piping I made covers using the new fabric, I hand stitched the opening closed and ended up with some really great looking pillows.  I took a lot of care joining my piping and I was really pleased with how it turned out, I think it's the best I've done.  Look at that beautiful join.

One last after photo, a huge improvement and they'll look great on her patio furniture.

What Catie Sang/Said Friday

Allrighty, it's only one day late but as promised on Wednesday here is a post full of adorable Catie videos.  Now it's possible this post is going to be really boring for everyone but Grandma and I should probably split them up into multiple posts but I'm not going to.  I also won't be offended if you're bored.

These first couple are all her singing different songs, first up is Popcorn Popping.  Keep in mind this was first thing in the morning and I'm wearing zero make-up and have done nothing to my hair.


The Wise Man and the Foolish Man


Ba Ba Black Sheep - this is one of my favourites that she sings


When Daddy Comes Home - She's usually better at this one but I kind of had to talk her into it.  I had this great idea that I would secretly teach her this song a few weeks before Father's Day and then she could surprise him on the actual day but she loved the song so much she kept asking to sing the, "Daddy Song".  Brad kept asking what she was saying so we gave in and sang it really early.  We've been singing it nonstop since.



Okay, if you're still with me I have three more videos.

This first one is a conversation that I wanted to go a bit better but you'll get the idea.  We go to Calaway Park a lot, you know this because I mention it a lot and I had the brilliant idea that we should go in the haunted house.  I thought she'd like it because of the Backyardigans episode with the spooky ghosts.  I knew it was a really tame house, nothing jumps out at you, it's just really dark and they play spooky music.

It didn't take long to figure out I was wrong that she would like the house and we carried her out in tears.  Since then she's been on a loop and cannot stop talking about the spooky house, with it's spooky music and how it was really dark and she was really crying.  Let's get out of here she tells us and is very certain she doesn't want to go back.



A video of one of Catie and Daddy's favourite games.


And lastly, Catie's first ride on the Bumper Cars.  Initially she was stuck but once I got her going she did better than I thought she would.

What Catie Wore Wednesday #75

I know it's been forever since I posted but the thought of getting all the photos together was overwhelming.  I actually have a couple projects and a couple days of posts to share with you, we'll just have to see if I get them together.  Today I have lots of photos and as long as I make time for it tomorrow should be a whole post of just Catie videos (possibly boring if you're not a Grandma).

Catie loves Magnadoodle's but the only one we've ever had was a tiny cheap one from the dollar store.  We'd dread when she'd bring it too us to play because the eraser was really difficult to slide but she'd draw such cute things like faces and we'd draw shapes together.  I finally decided enough was enough and bought her a real, full sized one.  She loves it, especially the shapes.

My cousin's daughter Alice had a 1 year birthday party that I went to and while there my super generous Aunt gave me $20 to buy a toy for Catie.  Clearly this shopping cart cost more than $20 but we made up the difference and she loves her cart.  She instantly put Mr. Brown in the basket and it's now full of all sorts of treasures.  After each nap she gets up and asks, "Where my cart?" (She didn't want me to take a photo, hence the unhappy look)

Another shopping cart photo, this one more true to real life since it's full of stuff.  She gets mad when the hot dogs fall out :)

While at that same birthday party my cousin gave me her old maternity pillow.  I cannot say enough good things about how this pillow has changed my sleeping.  I went from using 4 pillows to 1 and it's really improved my quality of sleep.  Sunday after church Catie crawled up into it and then called us in to see, she thought she was really clever.

We finally brought these chairs over from my in-laws and every day Catie loads them up with a toy on each (usually just like the picture below), always leaving one empty for herself.

This is what happens when I ask her to smile

Playing on the couch with Mr. Brown

Watching TV

We went to Calaway Park again and the girls rode the bouncy trucks

Brad's Brother and Sister-in-law invited us to a friends farm where they pulled out a sweet little pony and let all the little girls take a ride.  They got to brush Princess and ride her and they all adored it.  I'll share a cute video tomorrow.

She really did love it, despite the look on her face.

And lastly, fun with Mommy's phone.

Body Pillow

I'm sure this is an incredibly boring post but it's all you get.

As I get more and more pregnant, my sleeping has become worse and worse.  I wake up just about every morning exhausted and my pillow count recently climbed to four.  I was relying heavily on my body pillow when I actually took the time to look at it the other day.

This is a pillow I bought when I was pregnant with Catie three years ago and I was cheap then too so I bought the most inexpensive one I could find.  It was finally time to get a new one and I can hardly believe the difference, check it out.

My old one is super saggy and flat in the centre and the new one is puffy and awesome.

What Catie Wore Wednesday #74

Last week I didn't take a single photo, this week wasn't a whole lot better, sorry.  Hopefully the cute video will make up for it.

I was finally sick of Catie's hair always looking terrible so I gave her a haircut.  It's only the third she's ever had and each time I've done the same thing, trimmed off the scraggely long bits from the back.  This time I trimmed some  "bangs" as well.  I thought she looked really cute in the cape and she was thrilled with the sucker.

She was helping me clean up by sweeping the patio.

We went to the zoo and this is where the girls sat to eat lunch.  They got a really funny scare when a peacock loudly turned up right behind them.

Catie's favourite game with a very awesome and willing Daddy, spraying him with a water bottle.  She thinks it's the best game.

And the aforementioned video, Catie riding her tricycle the best she's done yet.  It may have been short lived but it's such progress that we're thrilled.