Recovering from the weekend

Well finally, at last, I am finished painting my bedroom furniture, albeit the bed frame, headboard and footboard.....that's another life. But I am verrrry happy with how it all turned out and Hubs is good with it all. But of course he is, when have I ever been wrong? Okay don't go there......any how here's a peek......

Before

After

Before

After

I cannot believe how many cans of spray paint primer and actual color I went through. Then of course there was a little episode with defective spray nozzles......sooooo need an electric sprayer! So after making a run to Home Depot and replacing the defects, back home and much to my disgust,  I had to sand down the dresser from the fiasco and re-do it. So finally by the afternoon I was so done with painting. Finished up the drawer knobs, added the cute little "fleur de lis decals" and "Bob's your uncle!" It's all in the details my friends.

This is the back of the cupboard door that I didn't have enough paint for so I decoupaged some antique advertising sheets on it with Mod Podge.

The mirror over the dresser is a new addition thanks to Winners. Love that store! Bargoon at half the price compared to the Depot. Well I think I have done myself in this summer with projects and renos. It's back to work next Tuesday and I am in need of a rest. But being the little Craftyrunner that I am, I have been eyeing up the kitchen dining set. Sicko!!!! But first there is a few "little" projects that need attention. Cleaning and purging to get ready for the neighborhood garage sale that Susan and I are going to do. I am pretty sure I will be able to find enough to make it worthwhile.

Trish and I are running 10km twice a week now and our third run day we try to push it over the ten. Wednesday are our pool days and maybe a spin class on Saturdays. As long as we don't over do it, hopefully we will stay healthy. Water, and proper food the day before has been our key and not going too fast. Well I am having issues with this blog so best sign off. Have a nice evening.

All over the map today!

Well I am all over the map today with my projects. I finished re-doing the nightstands and I am "Over the Moon" with how they turned out! So fantastic!  Needless to say I took apart the amoire lickety split this morning.......used up the rest of the Kiltz Primer I had ( Boy am I going through that magic product - Love it!) anyways when I had gone as far as I could with the cans I had, it was off to Home Depot ( I know, I know) but they are the only ones that carry it! So with 2 cans and another of Heirloom white, I headed back home to continue. With that projected completed, watching paint dry is one of my least favourite things to do, so I made busy putting my new found love to work......what you say? Ooooooo, just wait. I wanted to have them back in the room by the time the Mr. came home as he does not like upheaval ( like I do!), so up and down the stairs I went putting the nightstands back in order......here they are..........

So pretty!

This is a Martha product. She's so smart!

              

Oops....Sorry it's sideways.......but your get the drift....this is so cool.

The night tables are finished and I love them and cannot believe that it has taken me so long to paint this furniture. 

Here is the before. Yeck! So next is the amoire.

Tomorrow it will be put back together and re-installed in the bedroom. Three pieces down, with the dresser and bed frame to go! I think I should own shares in Kiltz and Rust-oleum. But what awesome products, I highly recommend them. The girls from down south do not fib! And to top off the day,  I whipped up a batch of raspberry jelly, my first time making jelly and it set! Ta- da!

Well I told you I was all over the map today.  Hubby says it's time for me to go back to work.....humpfff... I think not! The Queen is not quite done yet! Gotta run, have a great night!

A little over the top

Well, I will be the first to admit when I get on a roll about something, my OCD kicks into high gear until I burn myself out . So right now I am loving the drop cloth and making pillows! I know crazy! I pity my friends. Guess what they will get for gifts???? But I have been doing a lot of other little jobs so that I am not totally over the moon. But this is my newest and cute too. Right? Ya, I thought so!

I would have preferred putting black buttons on the corners but couldn't find four the same. Or the size I wanted. But I will keep an eye out and I am sure they will turn up some where, even if it is off a black jacket that I probably have hanging in my closet.

I feel Fall in the air, and it is so tempting to start decorating for Autumn......but it's too soon but in a few weeks. I love these grasses that Pat has growing in her yard. They sway so nice and add such a nice texture to her garden. I was in Michael's the other day trying to find a half basket or container of some sort and they have all the Fall foliage out and I was almost ready to pick up some Sunflowers and thought better to just walk away. I have enough foliage in Fall colors and will just use those ones. Aren't you proud of my will power? I was.......

I looooovvvvvvve my Limelight Hydrangea's, they glow in the evening light. They are just all starting to bloom, so come September, I will pick a few and place them around. They are the perfect dried flower to have all Autumn around the house. I've even decorated a Christmas tree with them, quite beautiful. When I was out yesterday, I made a pass through the Sally Ann Thrift Store and found theeee cutest little cabinet, I know if it is still there in a day or so it will be coming home and I have just the spot for it to go when it's been revamped. And "no" I have not finished that darling little coffee table but close! It was just a little tiring stripping and stripping, years of lacquer.......Well that's it, that's all, the evenings are cooler and sleeping is quite pleasant, mornings are a little chilly but good for a run. Tomorrow, it is going to be a quick 5km and then the pool and then the WW challenge. Have a good night!

Another Smokey Day

Well it hasn't been my fault for not posting.......it seems Internet problems have been running rampid around the province and I was one of the lucky ones that was effected. Talk about frustrating! I just wonder how we ever made out before the Internet and computers became so much of our lives. Is it really a good thing that something so material became so much of our everyday lives? I think not. Sad really...... but I am up and running again thanks to my friend at Telus and to some nice lady from Quebec, who's English is as bad as my computer skills! But we got' er done.....Well I have managed to keep myself busy the last few days, albeit not taking anyone out in the process......but I finished my secret project and it turned out just great,  just need to find a latch......Big Box on the hill, unfortunately will be my next stop. I've been doing lots of reading as I only have a few weeks left before it's back to W.O.R.K...........oh my what a shock to the system that is going to be. Good thing it's only part-time.... I love my books.........

Trish and I went running this morning on the Hart.  It's not too smokey up there early in the morning and we had quite abit of rain last night to dampen down the ash and clear the air. Met a few friends with the same thought, a little foggy, and crisp but it was all good. I think that route will be a regular of ours at least till the snow flies. Then running along the highway is not such a good idea! Well must run and get somethings done.  I need to get a move on around here so I can get out before noon. Have a really nice day!

Visiting the Lake

I've been off-line for a few days due to technical difficulties and I was not happy but then the repair men came from Telus and fixed us up. So we are back into the Global world. Thank Heavens! Severe withdrawal pains but did get some projects done and cleaning.  It's all good!

On Tuesday morning, "The Silver Bullet" and I took a road trip to Summit Lake to visit Pam and Chet at the Cabin. It is so beautiful out there. I can really understand why people have a place at the lake, although our season is usually much shorter than it was this year. It truly is a treat to spend time at the lake.

The view from the front porch.

 On the wharf going up to the cabin.

I wish I could grow Nasturtiums like this. Then, Pam has Scarlet Runner beans in the centre. I love it!

So pretty!

Chicks and Hens

The fire pit, if you were allowed to have a fire. Not in this part of the country.

This is the new addition to the lake. Pam's outside Kitchen. It is so darn cute I could have taken a hundred pictures of it and all the little decorative touches she has found and added. Her cook stove is wonderful and such a lucky find.

This is inside, can you understand why she loves it? On the hot days, the heat is outside and the cabin stays cool. What a great idea!

The Shower House......I think I could live out here, and hot water! Ahhhhhhh! Heaven!

The Guest House......Sleeps 6 grandkids!

The Convenience Room, another decorated room!

I could resist this photo, I love Lighthouses....

Chet was taking our coffee down to the wharf, after having a cup of coffee, we took a wander around the cabin and walked over to the neighbors and looked at the beautiful flowers there. Then it was off for a boat ride checking out the other cabins on the Lake. I didn't realize there were so many islands within Summit Lake.  I now know the name of Pam and Chet's island and a few others that I promise not to forget. Thanks for the visit guys. It's very serene and tranquil out there, a perfect day. You are very lucky!

A Wee Bit of a Meltdown.....

Do you ever have one of those days when you really doubt that you have even an ounce of creativity? This morning I was on a roll and thought I would simply whip up my curtains for the dining area. No big deal right? Heavens i made my family room curtains in a matter of hours once I knew what I was doing....well.......seriously........it wasn't pretty! I thought  maybe I was having a severe case of Alzheimer's....not only did my sewing machine not want to perform, my brain would not calculate anything I was trying to put together. Well perseverance prevailed......the light bulb came on and it was all good..... Lord help me when that happens. This is how they turned out and I am quite happy with them.

So I was on a roll after that and headed outside because I had been wanting to weed-whack the flower beds and around the yard, so one thing led to another, and another and then.... well might as well mow the lawn while I was out there, so I changed into lighter clothes since the temperature was creeping up to the mid- twenties, and be comfortable. So a couple of hours later, came in and thought I really should get the sealer on the grout in the shower...then I was ready for a Y&R break and a special coffee.

I love my Keurig coffee maker! Mmmmmmm....... which one should I have?

I watched a litttle of Y&R, Lauren and Jill were heading to court, Cloe is one the trail to find out about Ronan, so after my coffee and a quick fix of my soap. Had a quick chat with Trish and set up our run for the morning. We will run on the Hart tomorrow and hopefully the smoke won't be too bad up there. Geez, it was bad today! I knew I didn't have long before the man was coming home so I headed to my sewing room again......I know sucker for punishment! I had a pillow I wanted to get done and I did.

Yes I know it's just decoration but it's cute! Hey! And at the rate my mind is going ...I'm going to need gentle reminders of who I am!

Did this one a few weeks ago, but this cutie sits on my bed.

It is sitting here strictly for photo purposes. Well tomorrow I am going to run out to Summit Lake ( not physically, in my car) and visit my friend Pam, on the island. It's so pretty out there, and I can't wait to see all the new additions to the cottage. Thanks for stopping by! See you tomorrow.

Oh, Man!

Don't the dog days of summer just fly by? Holy Hannah! I can't believe how fast the days go by and how little or how much I get accomplished. My son has left and gone back to Brandon, he and his friends took off on Friday morning at 5 am and were in Regina by 10:30 that night. That is a long drive. They slept for 5 hours and then continued on to base and were home by noon. I knew he would push it all the way, he was glad to be back and settled in when I talked to him today. It's going to be a long time before he is home again. It seems the only one who really comes home regularly is Kait! It's her birthday in a few weeks, so I have a few things for her to take back, and some baking of course.

Trish is home now, I am pretty sure we will run a few times this week. I did get a few runs in this week with Susan. She's just so much faster than me but I am glad we had time to run together. I could probably push myself but then I think "No" I will just pay and get hurt, but she is good about waiting or slowing down. So the routine will get back to normal this week, and that's good, I need routine. Hubby is back to work and in a few weeks and I will be back to work. So many projects still to get done......tomorrow I will get the curtains made for my kitchen eating area, and then I need to order the shower door, pick up wood to make my secret project. Among other miscellaneous things on my list, the weeks will fly by and before I know it,  BANG! Back to work.....yikes!
 I'm not going to say I am tired of the heat but it would be nice if it cooled down a few degrees. Running in this heat is way to tiring. This morning we went at 6 and it was actually chilly.....at least to the 4k point. After that you really are warmed up and the sun has rose. Well other than that not much else to report. It was a great weekend.  Have a great night. Stay tuned for some important lists! Coming soon. Ciao!

Happy Hump Day!

I don't have much to talk about today, other than I went to "WW" this morning and have reached my goal..Yipee! But unfortunately, that's never good enough. So I will try to just maintain this weight for a few weeks, but without running for over a week, it could lead to problems. Tomorrow, Susan and I will try to do 10km, I told Trish I would just rest for the week while she is gone, but what the heck. I will go slow and just enjoy the run. Everything is feeling good right now so I want to keep it that way. I should be faster thou right? Cause I'm lighter!
Today was spent running around town picking up supplies for my next project which I will start on the weekend after my son leaves and I'll need something to occupy my brain for a few days. So in the meantime, I have been baking some treats for the girls and finding Kait a few things for her birthday!

I am contemplating painting my bedroom furniture and have put in a call to Holly over at "Life in the Fun Lane" and her opinion. I think it would much, much better in an off white.....

Convincing the husband might be a different story. So I may just start with the night tables, and see how they look. But with crystal knobs and new paint, I think it will be quite lovely. And of course, I will sand down the edges to make it look antiqued! You know the look. Anyways morning will come early if I don't high tail it now. Have a good sleep!

Lost a day....

I cannot understand why Telus works one minute and then poof gone the next! It's very frustrating, imagine a day without internet! So I had to make busy. Cleaning out drawers, shredding files from 1987 up to 2001. OMG! The shredder was overheating more than me! About 4 garbage bags later it was all done. Painful but so cleansing..... It is suppose to be a sunny day but so far it isn't looking promising.

A field near Grand Forks, I love paint horses.

It was a great photo of them running across the field there were more but moving at 100km, I was lucky to catch that many!
I saw this van parked at the beach at Christina Lake and just loved the saying on the back.

Isn't it funny? Got to remember that one!

Our son is heading back to Shilo on Friday and I think he has had enough time off, you know what happens when guys get bored....moody. As much as I would like to have him around I would rather he was away and busy. He will have a long drive on Friday, and Saturday, good thing there will be two of them.

Ducks and Canadian Geese on Kootenay Lake

Well I hope to get to Home Depot today and a few other places, I have a few ideas in the pan and I need some supplies. Also, I still need to order a shower door. Plus go visit my friend on the Hart! If she is in .....that is from the lake..... have a great day!

Whirlwind Trip!

Smoke around Williams Lake

Well last Wednesday, the Hubby and I took off for Nelson. Jane had moved there back in June and I was still babysitting the fish, and she wanted her babies back... among other things. And we were happy to be able to take a trip to the Kootenays. I am sure I had been there at some point in my life way back but couldn't tell you anything about it. So it was an adventure for both of us. It started out early Wednesday morning and all the way to Kelowna the air was thick with smoke from all the forest fires burning in the province.

Christina Lake

It was really bad in some places and really gave you a headache after awhile. I feel sorry for the firefighters and the people that live in these areas. We've had some smoke from out West but not this bad.......we took the Rock Creek highway from Kelowna to Nelson as I like the Grand Forks area and wanted to see it again, plus we hadn't been to Castlegar or past Grand Forks so it was all new. We stopped at Christina Lake, which I had been too years ago but "man oh man" is it a beautiful lake and Warm!

We stopped in Castlegar briefly to fill up and have a look, not much there that's for sure. But more than Grand Forks retail wise. Then we boogied into Nelson arriving around 1:30pm. Jane and Dustin were waiting for us, and we unloaded the truck and then wandered around Nelson and had some lunch cause Dustin was starving (that's unusual) .....not! Then we booked into our hotel room the Prestige on the Lake. Beautiful place . We wandered around the marina for a while, while they went out the seadoos and we watched them scoot around the lake.

Dustin and Jane

We had dinner at a cute restaurant (Nelson is full of them) Jane's landlord and his wife, Don and Karen and then we packed it in. Friday was more wondering around the streets and checking out the quaint little stores full of artsy wares and some very high end imports! All geared towards the tourists. For the common folk there is Walmart, a few grocery stores, a couple of drug stores, but lots of restaurants, coffee bistros, pubs, sandwich cafes. Really cute, I guess I get it now why Jane wanted to move there. But let me tell you the winter will be a different story. Holy guacamole! You should see these streets! Makes San Francisco look like Saskatchewan! No kidding! They are straight up!

Tubing on Kootenay Lake

Jane and I tubing!

We had a blast going around in circles and the guys trying to dump us, but we held on for dear life and no such luck. But we did get soaked and looked like raccoons when we were finished. All in all it was a gas!

Jane had to work Saturday so we said our goodbyes Friday night after dinner and headed out early Saturday morning and  to Nakusp to catch the ferry to Revelstoke. What a gorgeous drive through the Slocan and Crescent Valley. We stopped in Nakusp at a Farmers Market and chatted with a few people from the area. Realy nice!

Shop in the town of Slocan

We drove from Revelstoke to Kamloops and checked in with Kait. She and Tor had to work Saturday night so we thought might as well go straight home. So after a good 14 hours on the road we arrived home. A very good trip and travelling to the Kootenays is well worth the drive. You should definitely put it on you bucket list! I'll bore you with some more photos again later. After all I took a mere 115 in three days!

Whoop, Whoop! I have a .......

VW City Golf

Okay so I am a little excited about my "new" car, and it is "brand new" and smells sooooooo good! The little silver bullet is a dream to drive. It's been many years since I owned a VW and I just wonder what I was thinking all these years?   I love it!   And it is very cool!

Well today was a very busy day. Trish and I ran this morning, at 6:30 because I am a sadist at heart! But more so because it was going to be very hot again, and as it turned out by the time we were done our 14plus km the temperature was 19'C. I am sure we lost a few pounds in liquids. I know I wasn't feeling very good by the time we got back to our cars and certainly drained the water bottle lickety split! So after having an extra large double-double I was coming around. Then I came home and showered and chowed down some eggs and another espresso. Okay I'll live now. Then the Hubby and I went out to Crappy Tire cause he is on a mission to tidy the shed and the garage, so we got a garden tool organizer, and as it turns out we need another, I thought that when we were there but really there are "many" shovels. Then I got over to Michael's while we were at that end of town and got some paint pens, not sure if I like them or what? You'll see.....came home loaded up for the dump, cause I missed garbage day and well there's a lot of junk left over from the bathroom re-do.  I told myself today I was going to do some "Me" projects and I did just that and finished 1 of the 2 projects, I think they are very chic, and I'm probably the only one that knows what they say!

Well so it doesn't take much to get me excited! It's been a great weekend. I hope you had a good one too! Good night, Mon Amis!