Queen of my Domain

So I was going to post a give away today but I've run into a couple of glitches. I'm trying to get them figured out so your just going to have to wait a little bit longer. I'm very excited to do this give away I just have to get it all perfect. So I'm going to work at it and we are going to get this done for December 1st. Sound good? Alrighty then..... we'll try and get it up for wednesday!

So I've always considered myself unable to do somethings. My sisters love to disagree with me on this but I think it do it so that I have less things to try and work on. My sister Brittney has always, and by always, I do mean forever, been a good scrapbooker. Her mother in law got her hooked way back 10 years ago and ever since then she has just flourished with it. I on the other hand, not so good. Even after 3 years at Michaels..... I have lots of supplies but still really can't do it. Anyways, a few weeks ago I was contacted by a great company to do a review and a give away. Let me tell you how easy it is!! I love it and on Monday we are going to do a giveaway. So if you have major guilt of all those pictures hanging out on your computer and can't scrapbook to save your soul. Then you want to make sure that you enter the give away on monday!! I'm going to post some of what I've been working on, when I post the giveaway on monday. Stay tuned.

So chores are the same every where. They always need to be done and nobody wants to do them. So I set up a system, being as I'm the queen of my domain, and so far it has been working. First of all after a few to many hours on pinterest I was inspired to create some magnetic charts for the girls to use. Something that would get them excited. This is what I put together. First I bought some smaller sized cookies sheets from the dollar store ($1) Then I ran some scrapbooking type tape runner across the sheet. Then I had picked out some papers that I liked and cut them down to size to fit the back of the sheet. (I forgot to take pictures) Next I had gotten 3 different colours of stick-on rhinestones from the dollarstore as well. ($1 for each package) I managed to get 8 craft magnets for $1 as well. So here you cans see that I've gotten the magnets all put together and I think they are beautiful! Let me just put a little disclaimer in here. I have never been good at paper crafting. ...

So, I started working out this summer. I was watching what I was eating. I was being really good. Then canning season hit and everything went out the window. After I was all done canning, I decided to just relax a little. Now 2 months later it still seems like I'm relaxing. I have so much to do but I just can't find the motivation to do anything. I have every intention when I go to bed at night. "Tomorrow I will get up and....." but it doesn't ever work out that way. I've got to find something to work on. To get me excited, to motivate me. That being said. I've picked up quite a few custom sewing projects so maybe that will make the difference. Fortunately I'm still losing weight just not as quickly as I was before. I am down 4 dress sizes which is fabulous!! Keep watching my blog for a great give away!!

Well I haven't posted in a while, mainly because I've been lazy but partly because I was taking an "at home vacation" at least that's what my mother called it. Anyways, this is what I spent the better part of almost 3 weeks working on at the end of August, beginning of September. I canned tomatoes, peaches, pears, bread and butter pickles, salsa (hot and mild), and green beans. I still have to can the beets that came out of my garden but I'm really not wanting to. I love looking at all of my hard work just sitting there waiting to nourish my family!! Felicity getting in on the picture. I had to take a picture of my dill pickles as well even though I did them last year.

I've actually started doing some crafting. I've been sewing and every day I find more and more things that I want to do to create a wonderful house. I actually just made some chore charts for the girls. They are beautiful and I love them. To some of you, they might seem juvenile crafting but for me they are hard core/intense. Any ways, I'll post some pictures in a few days. I'm really loving fall right now.

Well it's another new year and the girls were so excited for school this year! Rayann started Grade 1 and she is just loving it. Aurora is in grade 3 and getting along in class just fine! Give me a Vogue pose! and this is what I got. Felicity wanted to be in the picture as well . Rayann wanted a beauty picture under the tree. This is what we got. I can't believe that my girls are getting so big. It just seems like yesterday..... well you know the rest. Another year is well under way .

The Cake Pops! The Favor Boxes Food Labels The Dessert Table Salad labels This is the view of the yard. I should have taken a better picture of the tissue paper pompoms. I have to admit that we had a blast and all the guests were glad that we threw the party.

So I have been sucked into the world of Pinterest..... and it has been eating away some of my time. *Slap on the wrist* That being said I have finished all of the custom orders for this week and now I can focus on my up coming Block Party that we have planned for the 26th of August. I AM SO EXCITED! I have so many great ideas and I can't wait to bring them all together and see how they work. I will post pictures once I have set up for the party! I also have some very wonderful ideas for some little decorations things for my house. So stay tuned!

So I've never taken the time to have a serious taste or design to my home because I was always renting. (No point in trying to decorate when you can't hang anything or paint anything) But now that I own my own house I can paint or decorate or hang things and it doesn't matter, because it's mine and I can do whatever I want!!! So now I'm at a total loss because I have no ideas of what I like or what I want my house to fell like or any of that..... What am I going to do?!

Here he is, in all his glory. What a little cutie! Amazing!!

So a friend of mine eloped last fall and her reception is this weekend. The fun part about the whole thing is that it's a 1930's themed reception. I took the opportunity to design something new. I don't have pictures of it yet.... but I will and when I do I will post them. But I absolutely love doing something that makes me happy. I enjoy using my creative juices. Aurora commented to me, "Why don't you just use a pattern? Why are you drawing all over this paper?" To which I responded, "I'm making the pattern dear, that's why I'm drawing all over the paper." "You know how to make patterns? That's so cool!!" Even Simone pointed out that having the knowledge on how to make patterns IS pretty cool! I guess being creative is Cool!!

So I needed a new watch band very bad. I've seen the ones posted on various blogs and loved them but I couldn't bring myself to buy them since I know "I could do that". Plus I wanted something flashier. This is what I came up with.... and I love it!!

The mosquitoes have been so bad this year, you got swarmed just dashing from the house to the car. Felicity doesn't care and loves to be outside. Every once in a while she gets a bite that swells up. Not all of her bites flair up but of course this one did. Before she went to bed one night we noticed that she had gotten a bite near the corner of her eye. This is what she looked like in the morning. Her eye was swollen for over 24hrs. I even tried to take the swelling down with Benydryl but it didn't help. At least it didn't bother her other than she couldn't see very well and her peripheral vision was altered causing her to walk and bump into things. But she still smiled and was a wonderful little girl!

So we had a crazy weekend!! We decided that because all of our family lives far away that we would host Aurora's Baptism and Gage's Baby Blessing on the May Long weekend. It went really well. We could have done without the mosquitos but what can you do.... nothing! These are some pictures that we took the weekend after the May Long because we forgot to take pictures on the May Long. I just love this picture of Aurora and Rayann.... so happy with their little baby brother. We had to get one with Felicity in there too, it's still hard to get her to smile on command!

I've always had somewhat of a green thumb. I love to have plants in my house and I love plants that grow flowers. I have a passion for african violets, not as deep as my grandmother, but I have one none the less. So Grandma Seely grew me some starts from her Christmas Castus a couple of years ago and I got one bloom all year from it last year but this year..... it took off!! Grandma even surprised me but putting more than one colour in the pot. Check it out! Light Pink Red Fushia

So I've been slowly working on a set of bridesmaid's dresses that are due at the end of this month. I've had the order since last may and the fabric since December but you know how I work.... under pressure. Anyways, so the bride and two maid's were here on Sunday for fittings and the bride, whom I know quite well (she's a friend) tells me that her mother picked up her dress and then took it back to the dress shop to have alterations done and the shop has now closed it's doors permenantley. So I told the bride, have your mom bring me the dress and I'll do the work. I think I should consider only making suggestions like this when I can actually see the light of day, ie when my head is seeing the light of day and not stuck up somewhere unpleasant. So the mother of the bride calls me ( I had gotten the impression from the bride that the dress just needed a little hem and maybe the side seams taken in)......... ooooohhhhhhh no, not the case. The mother of the br...

So for ever I have been saying that with girls they rarely get hurt, that you rarely have to take them to hospital for broken bones or stitches because they just don't rough house like boys do. Aurora decided that she should prove that theory wrong a couple of weeks ago. I had sent her to fetch a cassarole pan from the freezer for supper. I was feeding Gage and all I heard was screaming from the basement. Rayann ran to help and Aurora started barking orders and before I knew it, Daniel had gotten home from work, Rayann ran out to meet him and was crying and screaming and then Daniel was in the house and gone again with Aurora off to the hopsital for stitches. This was the pool of blood that I found on the floor. The blue is some of the glass from the casserole dish that she had accidentally dropped and broken everywhere. This is what her toe looked like after she had been to the hospital and had gotten liquid stitches. She was deathly afraid to go to get the stitches that Daniel ha...

I know that I said a very long time ago that I was going to post pictures of our house inside and out. Well we had to take some pictures to send to the insurance company and so I now have some pictures to post of the outside of the house. Once I get my house clean (hopefully sometime before school goes back in september) I will try to get some pictures up of the inside as well. This is from the south side of our house, essentially the front of the house. This a better shot of the veranda that wraps around the front of the house. I can't wait until I can afford to put up a swinging bench or get some rocking chairs for out there or something so that we can enjoy the veranda! The house came with beautiful mature trees in the front and this great hedge that runs up the east side. The two huge windows that you can see are in the dining room and then the back entry. We use the back entry because at back end of the house is where the garage and the back yard are and we park back there and...

Seriously...... how do kids do this, at what point in your playing (when your supposed to be in bed going to sleep) do you think, I'm just gonna put my head down here for a minute?? Felicity fell asleep standing up!!

O.K. So just because I said that I felt like a pinball does not mean that everyone needs to treat me like that. After a very long day yesterday and the fact that I'm really not interested in eating proper food, Gage did not sleep well last night. And to add to it, Daniel informed me when he took his med's tonight that he had forgotten to take them yesterday morning. So between Gage and Daniel having seizures last night I got a whopping 3 and a half segregated hours. I'm tired, and frustrated and I have an extrememly short fuse, with no patience on top of that.

So I figured that having 4 kids would be a snap. I've heard that after 3 it's just a number that it's no more difficult. But I have to admit that I'm feeling very much like a pin ball most days. I go between, nursing Gage and stopping Felicity from whatever 2 year old trouble she has gotten her self into, then helping Rayann with homework.... back to Gage for a burp or a nurse... then back to Felicity.... on to lunch for all the kids... back to Gage and so on and so on. I don't want you to think that I'm complaining because I'm not it's just a very different and difficult way of life. Daniel and I talked about how can a family that has 6 kids does it.... or if they have more. I just don't know. We both decided that we are to selfish of people to want to have 6 kids and devote all of our time an energy to them. We want to be able to do things together just the two of us or be able to spend time individually with the kids not just herd them along. I gi...

So for those of you that didn't catch it on facebook or maybe you just want to hear about it again, I'm gonna write about Gage. Our new little boy that is exactly 19 days old today. Gage Patrick was due to be born on April 29th, but due to a potential heart issue that was discovered at a 34 week ultrasound things changed. Let me start this story by saying that very few people knew that we were expecting. Sure the people that saw me all the time knew but for my family and most of Daniel's family there were only a couple of people that knew. My biggest kick in life would be to call all of our family from the hospital and tell them that we had had a baby. Without a single word of warning prior. Three of Daniel's brothers knew because they travel way to much and we have always managed to be the middle of the road pit stop and so we get all of the wayward travelers in at our house. So some of them knew just from seeing me. I had also told Simone because I needed one of my si...

Would you believe me if I told you that my life is perfect?? Sure I have my little short comings that I have to work on but everytime I look out the window or stop and think about my life.... it's perfect. I have a wonderful husband that treats me better today than he did yesterday. I have 4 beautiful children that are truly a blessing from the Lord. We purchased a house this year that we could live and die in. We have a great ward, that have been amazing over the past couple of weeks. About the only thing to complain about is that I don't live close enough to my family. 5-7hrs drive is just to far away. Now that I've shared my mushy feelings I'm gonna let you in on a little secret. I'm afraid to blog. I've always kept a very personal and raw journal and I'm afraid that if I get into to much blogging that I may in fact share to much information on here. But we'll see. I'm gonna try to update a little more often.

So after we had moved in I was putting some stuff under the sink and sure enough there was a leak. So Daniel had to do some plumbing the very first day!! Look at him...... he's so happy, being a home-owner!! I love my husband... it's great that he's a Millwright, he has some plumbing, welding, and electrical knowledge.... can't go wrong with that.