Snippets

 

My peonies have finally opened up!

I have one small bush in the back yard.

And I have waited, and waited,

and waited and I am now finally blessed

with their blooms!

Now I know you might think I've been lazing, but just to prove you wrong I'm going to show you 

 a few snippets of the kitchen...

 



Do you recognise the patterns in my curtains?

I made them from a vintage sheet that I liked and an old gingham chicken scratch table cloth I had bought in the Yukon last summer.

I could've done more with them, but I was going for  a simple country look.

These are shelf brackets that my Dad made for me many moons ago.

I decided to play with them and put them back to back for decoration over my little windows.

I know he would be happy to know I'm using them again....

Here's some of my wall fodder ladies.

I hope you'll check back soon and see how I plan

to put these pretties to use.

With any luck it won't take me a whole week

to get this project done.

Blessings-Kimberly







Inching Towards the Finish Line

  Yes, I am finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel on this little kitchen project I started!

 

I am hoping this will be the final week and we can be done. You know how it is, you start a project thinking it will take a week or two.

HA!

Here are a few shots of what we've gotten accomplished  so far.



Surprisingly, this home had an old wall phone left behind. Lucky for me Tim had bought me this beauty for Valentine's Day many moons ago.

I had an old shutter I've been carrying around for many years. And also tin leftover from an old back splash.

This might look like an easy project but it took me hours to get this hung. I had to get the phone matched perfectly with the innards of the phone box.

This was the old one. I bet you haven't seen one of these in a while.

For twenty dollars Tim installed this for my counter back splash.

Here it is with just the primer coat on it.

To be honest I am liking this sort of pickled look and I'm thinking of leaving it this way.

After all I can always come back and give it another coat of paint if I decide I don't like it after all.

This is by far my most favourite piece in the kitchen.

It is one of the many item my Dad gifted me with.

After he retired he spent many hours in his woodworking  shop building all of his children, grandchildren and even great grandchildren handmade gifts.

I can't even begin to list all of the items he had made over all of the year!

I love it that I can walk into any room of our house and find something that was made from Dad's own hands.

 

I've really missed visiting all of you!

Hopefully after this week I can make time for blogging again.

BTW, are you getting that cool front where you live?

It was 36F here yesterday morning and 48F yesterday afternoon.

Unbelievable for almost the end of July!

And nothing but rain, rain ,rain.

I'm afraid I'm losing hope for reaping much from my little garden. 

How are your gardens doing?

I bet you're already eating tomatoes while mine are only an inch in diameter as of yet!

Tomorrow is a day of rest so I'm going to pop over and see how you're all doing.

I hope you're getting sunshine....







 





Sneak Preview

 

I wanted to show you a few sneak preview photos of the kitchen.

The cabinets are finished!

 

How do you like the hole design I had  hubby add?

Here is what I'm working on today.

This will take two primer coats and

then two or three top coats.

Whew!

 

Back to work for me....

 

 



 

A Busy Week or Two

 

This last week Tim and I were fortunate enough to have two of our g'children here visiting with us.

Javan is our oldest g'son, belonging to our oldest son Jefferson.

And Starlet is our only daughter Emily's daughter.

We spent most of our time fishing!

These kids are pretty serious fishermen (fisher people).

Lake Manitouwadge is where we did most of our fishing.

Pretty, huh?

We had moved to a site under a bridge where the water was flowing from the big lake to a smaller one.

It wasn't good fishing, but I thought it was a good place for a photo shoot.

 

I got this photo of Javan and had Starlet on her way to sitting beside him when the wind picked up two of our lawn chairs and blew them into the lake!

Forget the picture!

 I jumped into the lake to get one of the chairs that was in the shallow water.

Then I ran over to a tree and tried to tear a limb off of  it so I could use it as a hook for the chair that was caught on some rocks in deeper water.

I would've swam to get it, but it was where the water was rushing from the larger lake into the smaller lake.

I wanted the chair, but I didn't want it that badly!

Anyway, my hero showed up just in time to rip (wink) that limb right off of the tree and waded into the water far enough to drag the chair back in.

Oh, I forgot to tell you where he was all this time.

He had been packing the first of our other things up the hill back to the car.

Well, after all of that hub-bub I didn't get a photo of Starlet

sitting on the rocks with Javan.

But here's one of my wind blown Princess.

She really is a sweetheart of a girl.

 

They left this morning with Tim's sister, Kym, who was kind enough to bring them up with her when she came to get his mother.

Now we are both so exhausted we are going to just 'chill'.

This is a word we picked up from Javan for our R&R time.

It works for me!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I Have To Do It....

 

I will drop by when I can, but probably won't be posting for a while.

Hopefully I'll get some of my projects done and will have something to share when I return.

One can only hope.....

Take Care and Be Blessed

Kimberly



"O Canada" Canada's national anthem lyrics and vocals

Happy Canada Day!!

I wanted to share this video with all of my U.S. friends who

may not know the words to Canada's National Anthem

or have had opportunity to visit here.

 

I think this it is a nice display of Canada's beautiful Province's and Territories.

Please enjoy!

I Woke With Good Intentions

Today (Friday) was one of those days were all my good plans came to not!

I had intended to get up, put on my painting clothes and start the big job of painting my whole kitchen.

Yep, everything....

The cabinets, the wall, the table and chairs, and the china cabinet.

The plan is to take my kitchen from this....

whoorl.com

To something that looks more like this!

 

But that was not meant to be.

Without going into a lot of uninteresting detail, I'll just say all my plans were blown to pieces.

I ended up getting dressed up, made up:(,

and then spending almost all of the day away from home AGAIN.

 I did manage to find the time this evening to order Return to Cranford. So I feel as if I've accomplished something today!

I know it's hard to imagine, but Tim and I just finished watching Cranford series for the first time.

We loved it and decided we had to see how it all progressed and finally ended.

emile Vernon

Now friends, would you do a favour for me?

Would you please become my bloglovin follower?

I highly doubt that blogger follower will disappear, but because I don't want to take the chance of losing you to Never, Never Land, I have attached a bloglovin button at the top left side-bar of this post.

When you post it will go directly to my e-mail.

So simple!

Well here I am after midnight watching Miss Marple when I should be sleeping so I can get an early start on that painting job.

But I rarely do what is the sensible thing to do.

Maybe someday I'll grow up.

One can only hope!

 

 





 

Cottage Dreams

 

I found this sweet poem on Pinterest and wanted to share it with all of you.

It set my mind to thinking about cottage decor.

This is a cottage pincushion.

I think a larger version would make a nice tea cozy.

 

I'm not even going to tell you that I'm going to make this, because roughly 95% of the time I never get those projects even started, let alone done!

 

Beautiful cottage flowers for a wall....

joysthoughtsandthings.blogspot.com

and a hand made cottage pillow.









And finally a sweet cottage pattern to make your own cottage pillow or t-towel.....

What is it that comes to your mind when you think of a cottage?



All images from pinterest.

Bird Brain!

 

graphic fairy

                         Did I say Bird Brain?



I'm sorry, I meant Bird on the Brain!

Pip Studio

Everywhere I look I am seeing the cutest birds.

pinterest.com

There are little birds sewing.....

pinterest.com

There are birds serving tea.....

pininterest.com

And a birdie making tea......

Time Warp Wife

And two sweet birds quoting a favorite scripture!

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A big Happy Birthday shout out to our oldest son, Jefferson!



 

 



 





 

 

 



 





A Few Inspiration Pieces

 

I am not able at this time to give you any photos of a room that is completed, because I don't have a single room that I've finished yet!

So I will give you a few photos of my inspiration pieces for  the living room and kitchen, then you can get an idea of where I'm going with my decorating theme.

This cabinet was left in the basement by the previous owner.

I have brought it into the kitchen and plan to paint it either white or a blue to match my porcelain bowl pictured above.

You can see how beautifully this one turned out

after it was painted.

I can only hope I can do as good a job with mine as this lady did with hers.

You've seen this before-I had it in my cabin kitchen.

Can you see again that pretty blue?

 I think it's my favourite colour right now for the kitchen.

This is the fabric for our living room curtains.

It matches our leather couch perfectly.

This is an old plate that I had forgotten that I had.

Unpacking is a bit like Christmas in some ways-so many surprises from things you'd  forgotten that you had!

But then on the other hand, I can't find half the stuff I know I had either.

The verse on my little plate is really what I want to achieve in this cottage of ours;

The Cottage of Content

And we all know that that is a thing of the heart, not measured by our possessions or riches.

 I would be lying if I tried to tell you that I don't take some joy from the things that I possess.

 

I have, however, been in a place in my life where I thought my days were numbered and I can tell you first hand from that experience that what I had hanging on my walls or what furniture I had in my home didn't mean a thing to me.

It literally disappears in significance.

All that matters then is family, your loved ones, and your relationship with your maker.

So I do try to keep it all in proper perspective.

Frankly I don't know how I got off on that little tangent.  Maybe it was just a reminder  for me!

 



This is what is beckoning me now.

I still have many flowers to get potted and seeds that need sown.

So I'm off.....

What is it that's calling you today?





 



 



 

Google Plus or Bloglovin'?

 

I have just read that as of July 1st we will be losing Google Friend Connect and Google Reader!

Spring cleaning for Google and a way of forcing us to use Google+.

 

I done a little research myself of the options. I already have Linksy, but I'm not particularly fond of it and I haven't had many followers who wanted to follow my blog on it.

It appears to me that Bloglovin would be the best alternative and easiest way to transfer ones followers.

 

I have to admit I am really clueless about the best route to go....

Please let me know what you have decided to do.

After a little research of my own, I'm not so sure that what I read was true.
Read this link.
I suggest you do your own research and decide.
I have heard this scare before and it proved not to be true.
Let me know what you find out!
 



Thank You for Your Hospitality

  Hospitable : given to generous and

cordial reception of guest

Today, dear ladies, marks my second year blogging anniversary.

Can you believe it?

 

As I sat thinking about what blogging has meant to me, I realized that it is like being cordially

 welcomed into your homes.

 

Kind of like my  daily visits to my MIL's apartment.

We don't intrude on one another's privacy, but one of us drops by each day just to say hi and see what the other one is up to that day.

We talk about what projects we are working on or what we are going to prepare for supper.

 We might discuss a book we're reading or a DVD we enjoyed watching recently.

 

Here in blogland we have the advantage of learning about life in parts of the world that we may never have opportunity to visit.

I think that is very much what blogging has been for me.

I am so blown away when I occasionally visit my stats and find that someone in Croatia, Indonesia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Malaysia, Poland, Australia, Russia, Greece or France have bothered to visit me!

I was just thrilled to get visitors from the U.S. and The United Kingdom.

Anyway, it is just so amazing to me and I guess what I'm am trying to express is my thanks to all of you who have been faithful followers here at my blog.

 And please know how much I enjoy visiting yours.

I'd better shut-up now before I start thinking I'm Bob Hope and begin singing,

'Thanks For the Memories'.

 

Have a great weekend friends-Kimberly



Driving the Superior

 

As many of you know my husband and I have recently moved  to a Northern Ontario community.

 It is located almost exactly half way between Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay.

If we want to shop in the 'Big' city we have to drive five hours to one city or the other.

 We opted for Thunder Bay this time.

 



The scenery is gorgeous as you drive along the lake.

There are many high cliffs or what I call mini-mountains!

When we arrived we booked a room at The Prince Arthur.

It's a historic hotel located near the waterfront in the old downtown of Thunder Bay.

My husband always wanted to stay at The Prince Arthur

and now he can say that he has.

We had a beautiful view of the harbour and waterfront from our hotel window.

We later walked the over-pass and toured the park just like we often did when we had lived there several years ago.

Here is a close-up of the lighthouse.

You can see from this photo what a gorgeous day it was there Saturday.









This is a photo of the Sleeping Giant.

 I wasn't able to take my own because it was cloud covered while we were there.

The Sleeping Giant is Thunder Bay's 50 million ton mascot!

The Ojibway people, who have made Lake Superior their home for over 500 years, identify the Sleeping Giant as Nanabijou.

Ojibway legend has it that Nanabijou was turned to stone when the secret location of a rich silver mine was disclosed.

If you are looking for a summer vacation, the Circle Tour around Lake Superior has fabulous scenery.

 I like it in both the summer and the fall when the foliage colours are so vibrant.

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I couldn't close without showing you a photo of the most patient man in the world.

 Well, at least he was on Saturday!

My MIL and I dragged him through two Salvation Army shops, a Value Village store, Canadian Tire, The Home Depot, The Home Store, Dollarama,  and then on to The Hoito to eat.

Finally, after hours at Wal-Mart I ask him if he would mind running over to Chapters for me to buy a book I had picked out for him for Father's Day.

He was more than happy to oblige.

All in all he's a pretty good guy, I think.

I hope you all had a good Father's Day weekend as well.

                                                      Blessings-Kimberly