Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween to all my readers...or rather reader, since I have a strong suspicion that only one other person reads this blog! As I am writing this snow is falling. I love how every year people grumble and groan and act all suprised that it snows on Halloween. It has snowed on every Halloween I can ever remember.....every.....single.....one! Come on people, it's not like it's a big suprise!

So I have this obsession with making themed treats for holidays and giving them out at work. However, since I am on maternity leave, I am taking them to hubby's work to hand out. This year I satisfied my obsession with Dirt Cupcakes!


They are ridiculously easy to make, and are such a cute little treat for Halloween. I hope that everyone likes them. And for the record, yes I am aware that there is gaps in the piping of the icing. I intentionally did it for a deconstructed look, trust me they look very cool in real life!


I'll leave you with a little piece of Halloween cuteness!

I Am One Crafty Biotch

I saw the cutest little baby in the mall the other day with a little knitted headband with a big flower attached, I know it sounds stupid but it looks absolutly adorable! I had to have one for my little girl, so off I went to Etsy.com. Unfortuatly, I had a hard time getting my husband as excited about it as I was. Let's just say he was less than impressed that I wanted to pay $14.00 american plus S&H for a little headband. I started to see it his way, after paying the exchange rate, duty, and the shipping and handling to Canada, that little headband would prolly cost around $30.00!!!!! So I started thinking, I know how to crochet and I'm sure that they would not be hard to make myself. I dug out all my old crafting supplies and got busy. I was suprised that it only took me about and hour and a half to make! I'm pretty happy with how it came out, for my first try. The only bad part is that I overestimated the size of my baby's head and made it too big. The flower that I used was a pink daisy, but it's also way to big for my little girl. I am currently working on a second attempt with a smaller headband and flower.

If anyone else want's to give this a try, I will post pictures and instructions of what I did.

And of course, some pics of my efforts on my cute little model!!!

Poutine Poisoning

Yes, you did read the title right....I was poisoned by a poutine, or to be more exact, the bad cheese on the poutine. Hence the reason I did not post anything new last night, but then again I have a feeling that I am the only one reading these posts anyway! So needless to say, due to my extremely upset stomach yesterday I did not tackle my basement, but I did manage to feel good enough to go shopping! I ventured out to the fabric store to scour the bargain corner for some fabric for the new pillows for my couch. I ended up finding the perfect cloth, but found out that I was a very bad mother in the process. After finding the more perfect shades of green and red, I was so excited that I hurried to the cutting table with the aformentioned bolts. It wasn't until the lady was cutting my fabric that I remembered that I left my daughter in her stroller back in the bargain corner! It was only about 5 feet away and it was less than 3 mins before I realized it, but I still felt terrible. To tell the truth, when I got into my car I cried because I felt so bad about it.

On the way back home, I thought that I would swing into the WalMart to see if I could find a slipcover for my 2nd couch in the living room (which is now delightfully must free thanks to 2 cans of lysol and a carton of baking soda) I ended up finding a camel colored slipcover for only $29.00! Unfourtunatly, it ended up taking me 15 mins to pay for my find. The price kept scanning wrong and they had to get about 5 different people to verify it. Once everything was sorted out I paid for my purchases and headed out, only to be chased down by the cashier. She let me know that I had left all my bags sitting at the register.....I looked down shamefully into my empty cart and then went to get my stuff.

I blame it all on the poutine poisoning

I Want Fabric!!!!

Another cool site is doing a giveaway. The prize is some very pretty and funky fabric, go check it out!

http://everydaybeautiful.typepad.com/everyday_beautiful/2009/10/oldies-but-goodies-fabric-giveaway.html

More Blogs

Here is another blog I like to read...it's written by another mom in my area. She has lots of yummy recipes on it, be sure to check out the Oreo Truffles. I made them the the other day and they are AMAZING!

http://nicolebergman.blogspot.com/

Shameless Promotion

Check out my sister in law's Etsy store. She is a very talented photographer and does beautiful digital designs for wedding invitations, save the dates, thank yous, holiday cards and photo mats.

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5046876

The Couch Saga

Today was day two of the great basement cleanup. Today was also the day when I realized that there was twice as much work down there are I thought there was. I had decided I wanted to move the couch from the basement into the living room to provide more seating. However, once I got the couch upstairs I found out that it was very musty smelling. So I was off to google the ways to get that smell out. The first thing I tried was febreeze, pfft.....what a waste of time, it didn't even touch the smell. Then I seen on the internet that people have had success with a vinegar and water mixture, so I sprayed it on and went off to bed to let the solution do it's magic. I woke up this morning and soon discovered that my couch (along with my kitchen) now smelled like musty vinegar! So it was off to walmart to see what cleaning products it could offer. I got quite the funny look from the cashier while she was ringing up my purchase of 3 cans of Lysol at 9 am! So Hubby and I hauled the old bugger outside and I gave that old couch a dousing in Lysol then let it sit outside all day to air out. The couch is now sitting in the living room and I would measure the success of my treatment at about 90%, it still has a little musty smell if you were to lay your nose right on the fabric and take a big whiff, but it does not give off an obvious scent anymore. Later this week when I get my Norwex order, I am looking forward to using the odour eliminator on it...I hear it works miracles!

Now on to getting rid of the musty smell in the basement. Tonight I have plotted my plan of attack and tomorrow I will wage a unholy war on mildew! I have assembled my arsenal of bleach, lysol, baking powder and carpet cleaner all topped off with my newly purchased calcium carbonate dehumidifier pouch. Of course, since I am a horrible procrasinator, most of this will probably not get done and I will spend my day watching Judge Judy and going shopping.

A Weeks Worth of Thoughts

I'm back home after spending a week at my parents. Last Monday I packed up baby and made the 5 hour drive to spend some time down in my hometown. It....Was.....HEAVEN!!!! Everyone loves taking care of the baby, it makes my life soooooo much easier. When she fussed or needed to be fed, my mom or dad would be doing it before I could even make it downstairs. The help was such a nice change.

While I was down at Mom and Dad's, my little sister and I hosted a Norwex party, and did we ever clean up! We were really lucky to have enough sales to get a bunch of hostess gifts, which is awesome because their products are little too pricey for us right now, with our reduced income while I'm on mat leave. If you have never heard of Norwex (http://www.norwex.ca/) before it's a company that sells chemical free cleaning and personal care products. It's good for someone like me who is allergic to everything and can't stand the smell of all the chemicals that are used for cleaning.

So on Saturday, when I was making the (boring) 5 hour drive back to my house, I came up with my latest project......cleaning up the basement. For the last 3 years, the basement has been collecting clutter and getting worse and worse. Hubby has been after me for the last few months to get rid of all the stuff down there, but I just couldn't part with it. So we woke up bright and early today and loaded all the stuff into the SUV before I lost my resolve. I have to admit, while driving down to the Value Village to donate all of my things, I started to feel a little anxious and almost asked hubby to turn around. However, now that everything is gone I feel like a huge weight has been lifted! There is so much room in the basement now that I have decided to set up my long desired sewing area. Sewing is the one domestic skill that I would like to improve. And it would be nice to move all my sewing/craft paraphenalia out of my closet and give it a permanant home.

The Beginning of the Diary

So this is the beginning. To be honest, I never would have thought that I would have a blog....I hadn't even read a blog until recently. But as I was laying in bed last night I was thinking of how much my life has changed and suddenly the idea popped into my head, why not a blog!?
For my whole life I have either been in school or working, but all that changed this September when I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. I have now become a stay at home mother and full time housewife....for the next year at least. I was looking forward to my year of maternity leave as a nice change from the working world, almost thinking of it as a vacation.....how wrong I was! I never realized how much work there is to do around the house when you are here all the time. Before Baby, in the era of free time and disposable income, Hubby and I rarely spent alot of time at home. Needless to say this has been a big change.

Another realization that I have come to is how incredibly bad I am at this whole housewife thing. Now don't get me wrong I can do lots of domestic type stuff, but I am afraid that it's a "Jack Of All Trades, Master of None" situations. So here I am, blogging my way through the ups and downs of trying to adjust to my new life!