Travel Tuesday. Four Generations of bakers . . .

For someone who loves to travel as much as I do, I have a rather odd quirk.

When I'm home and in my regular routine, I won't go any where that takes longer than 10 minutes to get to. 15 minutes if it's something super special. Like church. It takes 25 minutes to get to church when we detour to pick up our daughter Crystal.

This means my adventures at home tend to be in a rather limited area.

Every once in a while though, an opportunity comes up that I just can't miss, even though it requires a longer drive time.

That's what happened at the end of September.

My cousin Leona called to ask if I wanted to join her, her daughter Melissa and Melissa's sweet little girl for a day of baking.

Now what you need to know about Leona and I is that our grandfather was a baker, my dad was a baker and  her mom worked in the bakery  becoming a caterer later on. Leona's daughter Melissa is also a baker. You can check out her website here. Leona and I like to bake for fun. We also love to bake things to give away.

 I love to gift people with homemade baking.

As a matter of fact, I pay my hairstylist in part with  home made bread. Yesterday she  went home with a loaf of bread and 4 gigantic chocolate chip cookies.

So, as you may have guessed, we take our baked goods seriously!

Which is why, when she offered me that chance to spend quality, family time baking, I was all for it!

Even if I did have to drive 50 minutes to get there. . . 

Leona managed to get a few recipes of old family favorites from her mom. Mocha tarts, Opa's brownies with a chocolate ganache frosting and my sister Lisa's favorite marzipan (almond) Dollar Bars.

Oh my . . .

Melissa made up a huge batch of butter cream icing and the sponge cake for the dollar bars before she got to her mom's (she had a much longer drive than I did!) Leona made the almond filling for the mocha tarts and baked up a few batches of brownies.

We were going to assemble the tarts,  dollar bars and then frost the brownies. All this yummy goodness was being made for the ladies attending the upcoming Ladies' Night Out. (although we each brought home enough goodies for the freezer to last a while.)

Unless your daughter discovers she loves mocha tarts. Then they disappear in short order. Before you get any.

Holly . . .

Good thing Holly wants to join the tradition. We need more tarts for Christmas.

Not only did I have a blast baking that day, Melissa also brought her cutie patootie daughter along so I got to sneak in a few toddler snuggles as well.

I do miss hanging out with little ones.

Thanks for a inviting me to share in the fun!

A Fall Moss Wreath

After my sale and classes at the Pics' Ladies Aid, 'Ladies Night Out', I was left with nearly half a bag of live moss.

I didn't want to waste it, but gardening season was over and Christmas was still a ways away.

What to do, what to do???

While we were at the wholesale florist getting the moss, Holly and I also happened to see wire wreath forms for an amazing price and grabbed a few.If we had a little extra time before the sale we would make a couple wreaths to sell.

As usual, I barely had enough time to get the needed  stuff done and no wreaths were made.

Hmmmm. . .

Moss, wreath form . . . what else did I have on hand?

There were feathers left from the terrarium class, acorns from my walk with Jada, pretty little pine cones from my visit with Audrey and, some of my rose bushes had  developed the most glorious orange rose hips . . .

A fall wreath! I had never made a wreath for fall but I was eager to try it out.

Here's the result:

I love how it turned out!

Do you ever decorate with wreaths?

Travel Tuesdays. When homekeeping becomes it's own adventure . . .

It's been pretty quiet around here for the last few weeks.

It started with my computer troubles, continued with my bad cold and then became  a little more deliberate as I started my Top Secret project.

Wait, that's not actually true, it really started when my son Morgan got the unexpected opportunity to move in with a friend.

This left a room empty!

In a teeny, tiny house that's pretty exciting stuff, let me tell you! (Cue the wild dancing, whoo hooing and high fiving!!)

The possibilities were endless. I began to dream and scheme.

Turns out Henry was dreaming and scheming as well! He had big plans for that empty space, only his plans were not for Morgan's room but Holly's. Holly lived in an incredibly teeny, tiny room in the basement, but she had a south facing window that lets in light whereas Morgan's window opened out into the crawlspace under the deck. . .

Henry's plan required Holly to move.

After some thought Holly agreed. She would be losing the light but gaining quite a bit more space. The downside to the move though, were the two shades of purple the room had been painted in. Dark purple on the right side of the room (including the ceiling) and light purple on the left. Souvenirs of times gone by when the room had been separated by a divider, allowing two kids minuscule rooms of their own.

So, first things first. Painting, baseboards, sorting and purging, new bedding and decor. . .

It was chaos for a while.

And then Henry changed his mind . . . and that teeny, tiny space became all mine.

It's odd how much something can change in  a few weeks. I knew exactly what I was going to do with the extra space. As a matter of fact I had already begun moving things into Morgan's room before Henry spoke up.

Some how though, in those few weeks, the Top Secret project came into being. No one has been more surprised by it than me! As a matter of fact I still find myself  shaking my head at times and wondering  "Where  in the world did that come from???"

You may wonder what all of this has to do with homekeeping and adventure . . .

It has everything to do with it!

I have never been accused of an organized mind. Or an organized home. On the other hand, I function best in an organized space. And there is nothing more freeing to creativity than a smoothly run home. (At least, that what I've heard . . )

Remember this?

Or this??

How about this???

There has been more purging, painting and decorating going on, with an emphasis on using what I have and getting ruthless with clutter (although the Top Secret project has me very sorry I let some things go during the big summer purge with my friend Joyce, especially some of the fabrics . . .)

I am working on streamlining the basics like house cleaning and meals, with an eye to reducing the number of decisions I have to make in a day.

I don't know about you, but the age old question "What's for dinner?" strikes fear in my heart each and every day! I want to have meals planned ahead of time so the only thing I need to think about when I get out of bed is, "am I going to have oatmeal or toast for breakfast?"

 "Oatmeal." It's always oatmeal.

I want to do a little housework every day with the hope that I won't get overwhelmed and choose do do the fun stuff instead. My normal response to a sink piled with dishes??? " I wonder if there are any good crafts on Pinterest right now?

So. I'm trying to keep my online time limited for the next little while as I try to get into a comfortable, sustainable routine that will allow me plenty of time to work on the things I love guilt free, while still feeding my family and making sure there are always clean towels in the linen closet and clean underwear in the dresser drawers."

I'm only 48. You're never to old to change.

Right???

Travel, either at home or abroad is exciting, but sometimes, staying at home, organizing your space, cultivating good habits and making room for new things can be the most exciting adventure of all!

At least, that's what I'm telling myself  while on hands and knees, scrubbing months worth of crud off of floors that don't see a mop nearly often enough. . .

Click to go to Travel Tuesdays Facebook page.

Paperback Pumpkins . . . A Crafty Thursday.

I love Pinterest.

I haven't had much time or a reliable computer lately so I haven't been able to pin much, but I still have plenty of crafty ideas  already pinned and waiting to be made.

It was time to do something about it.

But what to do?

Craft mornings! Actually make some of the things I've pinned and visit with other crafty ladies at the same time. It was perfect!

Our first project? Paperback pumpkins.

I decided to keep things simple. I sent out a call on Facebook telling everyone about my craft morning. It was open to anyone and if the ladies wanted to stay for lunch they could each bring along a little something we could potluck for lunch.

Three lovely ladies showed up and we had a great time making our paperback pumpkins.

Audrey was  extra creative, deciding that a paperback pear would be the perfect accompaniment to her pumpkin.

I can't have company over without doing a little baking first though, so if you are coming to the next craft morning, consider yourself warned. . . I do love a good coffee cake.

Aren't these finished pumpkins sweet?

You've got to love guests who help you clean before they leave . . .

My plan had been to have a craft morning every two or three weeks through the fall and winter but I'm a bit behind on that. (Ahem.)

Once the garden's been put to bed though . . . watch out! I'm going to become a crafty maniac.

Any ideas for our next craft?

Travel Tuesdays. Top Secret

While my computer was down and out with some crazy virus I started a project.

A Top Secret project.

Then I got a cold and everything was put on hold. (That little rhyme was totally on purpose. Really.)

Now the weather man has suggested that we might see snow on Sunday . . .

Whaaaat?! I haven't even  finished putting the garden to bed!!!

So the secret project is on hold for a bit while I do the stuff I have to do rather than the stuff I want to do.

I'll give you a little hint though. . .

It was inspired by this little adventure I shared with my sister Tamara . . .

Travel Tuesdays. Traveling with Bloggers

Travel with bloggers is somewhat different than traveling with your average companion.

Bloggers look at the world and adventure with a different eye.

Most people travel with the intent to wring as much enjoyment out of their trip as they possibly can.

A worthy goal.

Bloggers on the other hand, travel with the intent to share. They are constantly on the look out for the weird and the quirky. For the newest and best technology they can use to share their adventure with others.

 Their shenanigans can look pretty bizarre odd to outsiders . . .

While in B.C. this summer Tamara and I had an opportunity to hook up with the lovely and talented Donna of Funky Junk fame.

Source    Somehow mine got lost on my phone somewhere!  left to right:  Donna, Rosa Tamara. 

Tamara had done some work with her before and thought my idea of a small blogger adventure sounded like fun. Luckily Donna thought so too and we all agreed to meet up at Granny and Grumpa's Antiques in Abbostford, a place Donna had blogged about in the past.

Just getting there was an adventure, as we found ourselves out in the middle of dairy country convinced we'd gone badly wrong somehow. . .

Until we pulled up to a dairy farm turned antique emporium!

Oh my, oh my.

My heart began to beat faster and my palms started to sweat. There was definite twitching in my nose.

What treasures would we discover here???

Donna drove up and  the fun began in earnest.

First off. . . a quick lesson in technology.

 "All the bloggers are using Instagram these days. Let's all Instagram this little adventure and make sure we hashtag everything the same so people can find us."

"Say whaaat??? I'm working old school  here ladies.  No data plan . . . I'm pay as you go. Pay a lot as you go!! And how in the world do hashtags actually work???"

" You don't have a data plan?!! If you blog you need a  data plan. It's business!" Hmmmmm. . . I never thought of it that way. . .

Teach on Donna! I'm sure I'll remember this for the day I finally get my own data plan. In the mean time I suppose I'll have to shell out a few dollars to play with the big girls. ;D

Have you ever seen three (nearly) middle aged ladies peer at their tiny phone screens?? Or mutter, mumble and jab at one button after another, wrestling with all this newfangled technology???

Snicker. We're thankful you didn't see us.

Tamara, as usual, came dressed for the occasion. There's nothing better than a dress, white jacket and blue heels to pick through dusty 'junk' filled barns.

Of course, if your a blogger, you scorn the boring 'take a picture and describe what you saw' type of blog post. You want to make things happen! Add a little excitement!

A little drama!

We each found fabulous treasures to warm our hearts and empty our pocketbooks. . .

To bad I forgot to take pictures, I was too busy drooling over my amazing deals.

All this bargain hunting made us hungry, so we set of to find the perfect restaurant to refuel our empty tummies.

Score!

We proceeded to act like loud giggly teenage girls, moving things around to find the perfect picture, squealing if we got a comment on something posted to Instagram or Facebook and just generally providing free entertainment for the other patrons.

It was a day filled with laughter and one I will always treasure.

Bloggers make fabulous traveling companions. I hope this will be the first of many such adventures.

And because I'm a blogger who loves photography, I had waaay to many pictures for a regular blog post so I've also made a movie to allow you to feel as though you were right there with us.(Can you believe. . . I just backed up all my files and discovered I have 30,000 pictures on my computer! 30,000. That's got to be some kind of typo don't you think??)

Enjoy.

Click to go to our Facebook page and tell us about your adventures!

My Computer's got a Bug!

My anti virus has been breached!

Going online at the moment is an exercise in frustration. As my computer guy is out of town at the moment I've decide to give myself a computer break until I can fix things.

I must confess I'm pretty happy about it though. I've got a garden to put to bed, a room to finish painting, what feels like an entire basement to reorganize as Holly moves into Morgan's old room and my stuff moves into Holly's old room. Then there's the cleaning, laundry, bill paying and baking to do.

And Thanksgiving. This weekend it's Thanksgiving and I've decided to treat my self to a reading marathon.

Which will only work if I can stay out of the garden. As I see the glorious day unfolding I'm thinking it might not happen . . .

Play in the garden. . . read a book . . .

Win win no matter what I choose! ;D

Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian readers.