30 Things

On July 24th, 2011 something happened. Something I've been dreading for years. Something that is totally unavoidable and that has caused me a great deal of conflict in my mind.

I turned 30. Yup I said it, I'm telling the world. I am no longer a twenty something wife, mother,blogger, homeowner, crafter, fire performer, concert goer,  etc. I'm all that and I'm 30. Do I have to grow up? Do I have to act my age? How exactly is a 30 year old supposed to act? Everyone keeps saying...Ah you're still so young, just wait til you hit 40. That one really hurts. Well I don't want to grow up. I just want to stay me. The girl with all the hobbies.  I can still do that can't I? I don't have to change just because I had a birthday that sent me into a different decade. (ugh). Nope I'm not going to. I've decided to create a list of 30 things I want to do while I'm 30. Some of these are fun, some will not be fun at the time but will be satisfying in the end and I'm sure some of them will force me out of my comfort zone, causing me to grow. Some will not really be measurable but i think they still have a place on my list. Hopefully by the end of my 30th year I will be able to look back and see how far I've come. 

30 Things To Do When I'm 30

1. Take a photography course
2. Go on a family vacation somewhere we've never been before
3. Master the Behind the Back Weave
4. Read 50 books. (I was going to put 30 to make it fitting, but that surely isn't enough. The date listed is the date I finished the book)                    
                     1.  The Happiness Project July 26, 2011. (Dan gave this to me for my birthday. It's 
                   great. I'll be doing a post about this book real soon)
               2. Life's too Short to Fold Fitted Sheets. July 31, 2011 (A book packed full of tips to make housework easier. One being - 10 Things you have to clean, in order, if company is coming in 30 minutes.)
               3. Orchid Blues by Stuart Woods - August 2, 2011
               4. Orchid Beach by Stuart Woods - August 6, 2011 (Just a note - If you read Orchid Blues and Orchid Beach, read Orchid Beach first. I read them in the wrong order.)
               5. Five Days in Paris by Danielle Steel - Aug 7, 2011
5. Exercise Regularly. At least 3 days a week.
6. Quit Smoking

7. Clean out my closets

8. Take a tour of the Mint. (Aren't you interested in how they make money.)

9. Take Pole Dancing Lessons. (I bought my groupon for this and I saved $580. Yahoo. Only $20 for 20 lessons. Now I just have to go.)

10. Make at least 52 crafts/projects, etc. (One a week. I know I won't do one a week, but if they average to that in a year I'll be happy.)

11. Smile at one stranger a day (at least).

12. Create a family tree.

13. Help someone in need.

14. Print the kagillion of pictures on our computer and organize into albums

15. Complete a 5K run

16. Start Photography Project 365

17. Ride in a hot air balloon

18. Go on a real roller coaster. (The only rollercoaster I've ever been on is the one at Tinkertown. I want to go on a huge, crazy scary roller coaster.)

19. Acquire a Serger

20. Start an Africa Saving Account

21. Eye Doctors Appointment

22. Annual check up

23. Be Happy!

24. Volunteer somewhere

25. Create a time capsule with each child to be opened at their wedding.

26. Learn to throw a boomerang

27. Give Blood

28. Open an Etsy Store

29. Write a Novel

30. Have Fun! (I want to remember to have fun where ever I am, whatever I'm doing. Life is way more enjoyable that way.)

Whenever I complete a task I will cross it off my list with the date and hopefully a little explanation of each task.

I just have to add that when I showed my husband this list his response was "Looks like you're gonna be busy". Yes I will be, but I'm pretty sure it's going to be worth it.

If you have a list of things that you want to do this year, I'd love to hear what you have planned.

Some Front Yard Fire Poi

I haven't posted a video of my favorite hobby yet, so today is the day.  Now it's not the best video or performance but I just wanted to get something on here for ya'll to see. I'll try to get a few more video's this summer for you. Here is me and my fire poi. I hope you enjoy it.

Things I've Learned - Dear 16 Year old me.

I came across this video today and thought it was very fitting to share, especially to those who live here with me in Manitoba.  It is soo cold here for most of the year (like snowy winter from October to April, sometime getting below -40C.), so when it does warm up the majority of us bare most of our skin to get that glowing tan.  Please be careful. One bad sunburn before your 18th birthday doubles your chances of getting melanoma. Not really worth it if you ask me.

Take a look at the video and pass it along.

Vintage Candle Holder Re-Newed

A few weeks ago I was browsing through my local thrift store when I came across an old mirror. All the different ideas on what I could do with it were running through my mind but decided against buying it. It would have been nice if there were a pair of them.

Well, as I was standing in line to pay, it kept calling my name. "Sarah, come on Sarah, take me home". So I did.

Before

Doesn't it remind you of something you would have seen in your grandma's house years and years ago.

The first thing I did was tape the mirror off. I didn't want to get any of the spray paint on the mirror.

all taped up

 Next it was time to spray paint.  I did 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of gloss white.

Don't forget to spray paint your lawn so when people ask what happened you then have a reason to show your project!

After the paint was dry (well actually it sat for a few weeks, until I got around to it again) I glued a small candle holder onto the newly painted candle holder. I first tried my hot glue gun, but that didn't work. So I got out my Amazing Goop!! This is the best glue ever (well it's worked for any test I've put it through). This is what I used to get my Garden Markers to stay on the sticks.

I hung my Re-Newed Candle Holder in my dining room. This is how it turned out.

After

I'd love to know what you think. Leave a comment below.

Thanks for reading!!

I'm linking up to these awesome parties! Check em' out!

Things I love....SOOOO EXCITED

What a great day! This will be kind of a repeat of my last Things I Love...but only better.


Today I love

and the reason I love it even more today, than yesterday is because Anjie Jaye at Crayon Freckles is the best. She sent me my very own invite!! Yahoo. Thank you so much!! You should check out her blog because she is so awesome!!

So now on to why I love Pinterest so much.

You can "Pin" things to "Boards". That means no more forgetting neat ideas for crafts, awesome quotes, recipes, anything.

Just pin it to a board and it'll be there forever. And it's a great place to go for inspiration.  If you'd like to check out my boards and see what Pinterest is all about click here.

Awesome hey. Do you see why I'm so excited :)

If you'd like an invite to pinterest I'd be happy to send you one. Just follow me (the button is over there --> on the left hand bar) and shoot me a comment to tell me you like one.

Well I'm off to go pin some more! Bye for now.

Under 30 Minutes Skirt

Here is a picture of a great little skirt I made last night which took me less than 30 minutes and cost me under $1.00. Hurray!! After telling a few people what I made it out of, I'm kinda scared to share it with the world. But whatever, I think it's cute so I'll share. Can you guess what I used?

Promise not to laugh, or make fun of me. Please.

Ok. I made it out of a pillowcase. I bought the pillowcase for 50 cents. The whole roll of pink trim was only $1.00, so it probably works out to like 10 cents for the amount I used.  And for the waist - I didn't feel like playing with zippers last night, so I just made an elastic waist casing for some elastic I had on hand.

I think for under $1.00 it's great! I hope you liked this quick and easy skirt (and that you're not laughing at me) :)


PS - Isn't the polka dot umbrella great. It actually was raining and I wanted to get these pictures taken while it was still light out.

I'm linking up to

Repurposed Shower Caddy

UPDATE!!!

I was featured on Confessions of a Stay at Home Mommy for my Repurposed Shower Caddy!! Check it out!!

A while back I was on the lookout for a new shower caddy.  I came across a gorgeous brushed nickel one with plenty of shelves for shampoo, soap, a couple hooks for facecloths. You get the idea. It says it fits standard size shampoo bottles. I think it was around $20.00. Perfect.

I bring it home all excited. Something pretty for my bathroom. I take down my old one, put up my new one. Put the soap in it's holder, then the shampoo bottles...what the. They don't fit. C'mon. It says it fits standard sized shampoo bottles, well, that's a lie.

Ugh, I was so mad. Do you ever have those days/weeks where everything you purchase (that you don't really need) is crap. It was one of those weeks.

Now I hate, HATE returning things. So this shower caddy sat for a few weeks. Then one day while trying to find a certain pair of earrings I had a thought. Check it out!!

It has a place for everything!! I have tons of room for earrings, hooks to hang my necklaces, shelves for bracelets. I love it.

What do you think? Have you ever used something for a completely different purpose. If so please share. If you have a blog, feel free to link it up here!

Check out some of the places I've been linking up! Yeah, they're awesome!

Canada Day

Today is Canada Day, and I am so ! I love Canada Day celebrations, fireworks, and being able to spend time with my family on this day to celebrate this great country we live in.

Do you have any family Canada Day traditions that you'd like to share?

From my house to yours, Have a Great and Happy Canada Day!

Clothing Re-Do - Aloha Dress

A few weeks ago I came across this blog -  New Dress A Day.  The blog author Marisa is creating an outfit a day for 365 days. That's 365 items of clothing for only 365 dollars. $1.00 a day. She shops at thrift stores and creates some amazing outfits out of the clothes that she finds. After reading her blog I was inspired to try this myself. Well, not the 365 days of it, but just refashioning clothes.


So off I went to my local thrift store and picked this muumuu up for $3.99.  Now this dress is way too long and way too big, but I love the color and I thought I could do something with it.

Before


For some reason I cannot get my camera to capture the true color of the dress which is more like this.

So to begin with I took off the sleeves -

 

Then I cut off the bottom ruffle.

After taking it in about 3 inches on both sides, hemming, and finishing the armholes I ended up with this......I call it my Aloha Dress.

After

Back

I paired it with a belt I got at the Thrift store for $1, and leggings I bought in Ireland for $4. A whole outfit for under $10. That makes me a happy camper :)

I would love to hear what you think. Your comments are always appreciated!

I'm linking up to -

The Creative Crate

Things I've learned....Getting rid of ants

I've decided that when I come across something I think is brilliant and I think you should know, I'm going to share it with you. So, I welcome you to the first installment of....

Ok, so I don't know about you, but in my front yard we have a crazy problem with ants. These little buggers are creating ant hill after ant hill and I can't  couldn't get rid of them. I've tried everything....

• foaming Raid
• dish soap
• borax
• liquid ant killer stuff
• cinnamon

I can't remember them all, there's been so many.  You'd think with all the rain we've been getting the little buggers would die. Nope.


So the other day my friend was over and I was telling her about my problem and she suggest something I hadn't heard before. I figured it wouldn't hurt to give it a try. I actually had some inside. I ran inside immediately and sprinkled a fair amount over each of the hills.

Here's one of the 9 ant hills I have on my front yard sprinkled with the secret ingredient.

I had completely forgotten that I put this on the ant hills until I was cutting the grass today.  I bent down to check it out and - the ants are gone!!! THE ANTS ARE GONE!! Yahooo!!

Are you curious? Want to know my my friends secret ant killer........

 Cream of Wheat

Yeah, Cream of Wheat. How awesome is that. It's safe, natural, and it actually works!!  Now I just have to find a way to remove the ant hills themselves.

Thanks Tara for the great tip!

things i love...

Welcome to the first edition of....

I've decided that once a week, I am going to share with you the 5 things that I love this week. 

1. craftgawker - Have you heard of this site? This is an amazing website to find inspiration on crafts, decorating, photography, sewing, etc. I love it. I have found tons of projects to keep me busy. Like I need any more projects :)  They also have weddinggawker for those of you who are getting married. If you are looking for ideas for your home, check out dwellinggawker. For the foodies out there, there is also foodgawker. It's full of links to amazing recipes for you to try out.

2. Pinterest - This is an amazing site that allows you to "Pin" things you like to your board. If you have a look, you will see tons of amazing boards that people have created. The inspiration you can get from this website is unbelievable.


Unfortunately, there is a downside. You have to be invited in order to get an account. You can request an invite but it doesn't seem like they actually grant them. I've been waiting for months. If you know someone who has a Pinterest account they can send you an invite. If anyone who reads this has an invite to spare, I would LOVE one. Thank you.


Besides not being able to create your own board easily, pinterest is still worth a look at.

3. Stumbleupon - Are you bored? Bored and stuck at your computer? Have you seen the entire internet? Have I got a website for you. :)  Check out stumbleupon. This is one of my most favorite websites. -You have to create an account to login but it doesn't take very long and well worth the one email they send you a week. After you're done creating your account you have to pick all the categories you are interested in and then you click Stumble. Bahahaha... this is awesome.


Stumbleupon randomly searches websites for what you are interested in. You can also have them search only one category. Like if you only want to look at crafts, you select the crafts category in your interests and it will only bring up websites with crafts.


If you like one of the websites it brings up you can click the thumbs up icon and it will add the site to your favorites. That way you can always find it again.


I cannot tell you how much I love stumbleupon. 


4.  Check out this awesome hair do.. Isn't it beautiful.

I actually found it on craftgawker. Here is the link to love Maegan. This website has the tutorial on how to do this. She has a lot of very good tutorials of pretty ways to do your hair.

5. Now, the last thing that I love this week is this flower that is growing in my flower bed. It's a Strawflower. When it gets late, the flower starts to close up and hides the yellow center.  Isn't it pretty?

Now tell me, what do you love this week?

 

If you'd like you can link back to the things you love this week and show the world what you love.

You might also enjoy

Newest Hobby / Addiction - COUPONS!!

Ok, so I'm pretty excited about this. I think it was just last week that I watch Extreme Couponing for the first time, and now I'm hooked. Have you seen it? These people go into store and get thousands of dollars of groceries for almost no money. They use coupons, and lots of them. Now this show is American and we can't get the same deals here in Canada, but we can save money. I want deals, and lots of them!

So, my first little coupon shop went like this. I was looking through the flyers this weekend and noticed that Sobey's had their bogo (buy one get one free) sales on which included the large tub of Silhouette 0+ Yogurt.

Regular price - $3.99

I had one of those coupons from inside of the cereal box for a free yogurt. I wasn't sure if I could use this coupon for my buy one and then get the second free, but I figured I would try.

I also had 2 - $1.00 off coupons for Black Diamond Cheese Strings which were also bogo. The kids love these and they are so expensive if they're not on sale.

Regular Price - $5.79

I headed down to Sobey's not knowing at all how this would play out and I ended up getting - Wait for it....

2 x Yogurt (the big tub) - $3.99 each - $7.98
2 x Black Diamond Cheese Strings (8 pack) - $5.79 each - $11.58

A total of $19.56 all for just $3.76....YAHOOO!!! *happy dance, happy dance*
How awesome are coupons!!

What are your thoughts on coupons ?  Can't be bothered? Do you use them? Where do you get them? I'm new to all this so if you have any secrets please post a comment to fill me in.

Thanks and Happy Summer!

Garden Markers

I am so excited to share this project with you, partly because I think it's so cute and partly because I need your help fixing it.

So the other day I was thinking about making garden markers for our little vegetable garden we have. I usually just write the name of the veggie on a long stick and poke it in the ground. Well, I thought this year that Emily could help me out.

I had her draw and colour pictures of the vegetables in our garden. After she was done colouring them and cutting them out I laminated them with these Avery laminating sheets you can buy at Walmart for around $10.00. Now they don't even compare to the laminator I have at work, but they do the job. After they were laminated we hot glued them onto some Popsicle-like sticks I had. 

With little input from me, this is what Emily came up with. Please remember she's only 5.

Try to guess what they are before you read the caption.



Pretty good carrot, hey!





Tomato!!



Oh I love this one...

WATERMELON!

Did you get it right?

Ha ha...try this one. Can you guess what it is?

It's....Spinach. I think it's great!

Here we have a yellow onion :)



And red onions



These are great too!

Yeah, they are radishes. You knew that right?

Can you guess what these are?

Here's a close up....

It's a pea. I told her we needed some peas and that's what she drew.

Now this one is tricky. But I think she did good.

It's a zucchini :)

Now you should be able to guess this one by what you see in the pot.





But isn't that the best damn picture of Lettuce you've ever seen in your life!

Ok. So I'm going to give this one to you.

I told her to draw a pumpkin :)



HAPPY HALLOWEEN



The kids put the stakes in all by themselves

And this guy wanted to help us too!

I snapped this picture after the bee left but thought I would throw it up here because I like it.







Ok, so here's where I need your help.  I kinda figured this would was hoping this wouldn't happen. 

hot glue + plastic + wood sticks + rain = fail.

This is what I came home to today.

Boo!!

So now I need to reattach these buggers.  I was thinking of stapling them on, but then they wouldn't be waterproof.  I could glue the crap out of them and hope they stick.

What do you think? Any suggestions?