I miss blogging soooo much

So lately I have really been missing blogging. But unfortunately I can't start doing it again until we get a new computer and Internet which isn't in the budget right now since its my works off season. But i did just find this app for my cell so i will give it a try no promises. Anyways here's a little snack of what Craig and I did yesterday.
We did a picture frame collage on the bare entrance wall.

I think it looks good and there is always more space to add more in the future

Outdoor Update

As i have told you all I've been working outside alot lately soo i thought i would give an updated view of my yard. Its come along way but still has a long journey ahead.

BEFORE:

Our Front Yard When we bought the house in Dec 2010

My first garden, I expanded the existing flower bed that was in front of the house, I made the flower bed more curvaceous

The yard was all cut up by 2 different sections of fencing, This was attached to the old deck

Second Fence was half down and attached the house, by the pond

Our lovely pond was in need of some fixing up, also the previous owner tried to have the pond circle up around the tree and come back to the pond, but it didn't work. Just divided the back yard

This Part of the backyard fills with raspberry canes and lilacs. Looks like it was a garden at one time, dug up iris's out of there and there is a gorgeous hydrangea bush

AFTER: I do alot of thanks to my sister for coming to help me work on my backyard on her holidays.

I've got some plants coming up and my grass needs cut, but I've had comments on how lovely my flower beds are, which I'm grateful for

I found those 4 red stepping stones buried around the yard soo i reused them in my garden.

This center part of my garden needs to be redone. i didn't add much to this area last year as its the original part of the flower bed and i wanted to see what i was going to get first. but i think its mainly weeds

I just added and extended this end of the flower bed so it looks more proportionate to the rest. I also moved the cedar bush that i put there last year to the back yard.

NO MORE GATES & a tree missing

Built up the flower bed that runs along the house. We are gonna plant our tomatoes here and i have morning glory planted in front of the gate.

Thanks to my Sister MEGAN my pond is looking marvelous. She helped me redo all the rock around the pond

We had a guy come cut some trees down for us and now we are waiting for someone to get the wood.

Ive removed all the rock that was connecting the tree to the pond and redid the rock around the tree. Just need to fill it in with good soil and some hosta's and shade loving plants in there.

I still have a bunch of rocks to move. but they are really big and i need Craig's help.

Craig has built a fire pit last year but some bricks that were left here but sadly we have never used it yet and you can tell i have a burn pile assembled.

Recently ripped out everything along the side fence except a hydrangea bush, my cedar and a white lilac Craig's mom gave us.

And finally I got Craig to cut some more trees down in the backyard to clean it up more and they were obstructing my clothes line.

Also i just painted these 2 planters chartreuse green like my other planters, just need to put something in it. Brought my Fern out and it fried but new growth is starting.

So that's it for today, but I'm sure i will have more to post on the outside and hopefully something soon from the inside of our home.

Time For TEA

Ive been seeing these Keep Calm and Carry On signs all over design blogs lately. I love them and I've seen how creative people are getting with them. So of course I'm not going to spend $10 or more plus postage on a paper poster to be delivered. I love tea especially Davids Tea, my sister got me into there tea and its grown into a collection  i have a big red can full of all David's Tea, Craig has even started drinking it.  SO i choose to use KEEP CALM AND DRINK TEA
So here is what i created on canvas and how too instructions:

KEEP CALM AND DRINK TEA

 First you will need these supplies to complete this project:

1. 1 Artist Canvas- i purchased mine at Dollarama for $2 its 12"x16"
2. Letter Stencils- i purchased at Dollarama for $1
3. A Pencil
4. Acrylic or Folk art Paint- One colour for your canvas background and one colour for your letters, I got mine also at Dollarama for $1, they are double the size of Walmarts paint for $.97
5. Paint Brushes - I used a 1/2 inch paint brush for the canvas and a fine tipped paint brush for the letters.
6. Fancy Paper, Scrapbook paper or any remnant piece you have laying around for the tea cup- i choose scrapbook paper
7. Scissors or utility knife- i choose the utility knife and used a cutting board underneath the paper.
8. White craft glue.

 First Step- I painted my entire canvas in Leaf Green. I only did one coat as i like the choppy uneven look of the paint on the canvas. Make sure you paint the sides of the canvas so you don't see a white edge when you hang it up. Let dry Completely
 Step Two- Using the letter stencils and a pencil i traced the entire saying onto to canvas, centering the font down the center of the canvas. If you don't have stencils you can free hand it, but i prefer the look of the stencils.

 Step 3- Then using the white paint i choose, i started painting in the letters in.

 Step 4- While my letters were drying i grabbed my scrapbook paper and drew a teacup out with pencil.
 Step 5- Then using a utility knife and a cutting board i cut the tea cup out.
 Step 6- Spread white craft glue liberally all over the back of the teacup cut out and apply to the canvas. Wipe up any excess glue with paper towel.

And here's the finished product. I'd love to show you where i placed this in my kitchen but sadly i don't have my shelves installed yet soo its siting on the counter right now. But i will post later when i have it up.

I even made one for my sister Megan in purple because she loves purple

So i hope you guys all enjoyed this project and have fun creating your own Keep Calm and Carry On signs.

E.L.F Cosmetics Hual & Mothers Day Present

Today i received my E.L.F Cosmetics order in the mail. I ordered this online on April 18 and it arrived today April 30th so it about two weeks to get here from Saddle Brook, New Jersey.  I have been soo excited to get this in, lately i have been watching and following alot of beauty gurus on YouTube (its rather addicting, if you guys would like i can make a post of the lovely ladies i follow, please leave a comment at the bottom of the post) and I've been learning alot about makeup that i never knew. Alot of the girls like the elf products and i had purchased some pieces of ELF cosmetics at zellers, giant tiger and the dollar store here in Canada, but I've never seen there full line. SO i decided to check out there online store http://www.eyeslipsface.com/ and they just happen to have a mothers day special buy one get one free (unfortunately the sale ended on the 26th, but they are already sending me messages with new deals). As this was my first out of country purchase, i decided why not get 2 for the price of one. I ended up buying $100 worth of stuff that i got for $50 plus $18 shipping. Which i still think is a great deal for the amount i got. I mainly wanted to purchase the makeup brushes as they are not cheap to buy.

PLEASE understand I'm not bragging about what i got, I am truly thankful to be able to purchase this for myself. If you know me well then you know i don't have alot of makeup or good quality makeup. Most of my make up is accumulated over the last 10 years or so mostly purchased at Walmart, the Dollar Store or drugstores like Shoppers Drug mart at discounted prices or on sale. I truly like this cosmetic line and alot of there products range from $1 to $6 which is very reasonable for any woman's make up collection.

 Here is Kane with my Package i received, Hes just as excited to see whats inside.

 It came with lots of packing and wrapped in these individual plastic bags or in boxes.

This is a layout of everything i got in its package, As you can tell some are sets.

All together i got 46 pieces, please keep in mind i did get some doubles of products and i also bought two makeup brush sets so that is a big majority of my purchase.  here is a list of what i received
1. Healthy glow bronzing powder
2. Two Brightening eye colour little palettes with 4 colours each in - Nouveau Neutrals & Butternut
3.  Three different Nail Polishes - Gum Pink, Clear and Light Pink
4. Mineral foundation - Beige
5. Mineral Booster - Sheer
6. Blush in the colour Flushed
7. Two ELF matte lip colour pens - Tea Rose & Nearly Nude
8. Hyper shine Gloss - Joy
9. Lengthening & defining mascara - black
10. Two Eyelid primer - Sheer & Champagne ( the champagne came empty just the tube so i will be contacting customer service to get a new one)
11. Under Eye Concealer and Highlighter
12. Super Glossy Lip Shine SPF15 - Honey Do ( this product is sooo amazing smelling i could smell it before i even opened it)
13. One Brown two compartment make up bag
14. One Make up Brush Organizer Bag
15. Two Bronzing Brushes
16. Lip Defining Brush
17. Blending Eye Brush
18. Foundation Brush
19. Two Total Face brushes
20. Two Eyeshadow Brush
21. Defining Eye Brush
22. Eyeliner Brush
23. Eyelash & Brow Wand
24. Two Concealer Brushes
25. Smudge Eye Brush
26. Brow Comb and Brush
27. Two Powder Brush
28. Complexion Brush
29. Angled Foundation Brush
30. Blush Brush
31. Fan Brush
32. Small Precision Brush
33. Eyeshadow "c" brush
34. Contour Brush
35. Small angled Brush
36. Small smudge Brush
(that's 28 Brushed alone, which i got a 12 pc set that was $30 for $15 and a $11 pc set that was $24 for $12, plus i got additional brushes in some of the little sets i got)

Well thats all i got, hope you all enjoyed it and you check out there great website.
If you guys have any questions or want to see some of the products up close then let me know by leaving a comment. So far i am very happy with my purchase and im sure customer service will come through for my empty eyelid primer.

Something Corky

Hey guys its been awhile since I've done a post, I've been trying to spend as much time as possible outside in the gorgeous weather working on my backyard. This spring has been AMAZING and I've got alot done this year before we've seen any bugs. I will have pictures to post on the backyard later once i finish the rock work around our pond. Until then i hope you enjoy this CORKY craft.

As i might have mentioned i work at the Beer Store in Ontario, One of the biggest parts of my job is taking empties back. Not only do we take our beer bottles back for return but we except liquor and wine bottles purchased from the LCBO. We pretty much recycle everything. So me and my co-worker Barb started saving and collecting wine corks because we both thought it would make great crafts and also it would recycle the corks instead of trashing them. This is what i came up with. I am a huge lover of INDULGY I'm pretty sure its just pictures that are posted on pinterest. Anyways I'm addicted to this site. its non-stop pictures i could look at it for hours sometimes. While on it one day i found a picture of these great Cork letters.

Of course i had to try this. I thought since wine reminds me more of a kitchen accessory i thought it would have to be something for the kitchen. SO i chose EAT, because eating is what we do in the kitchen.
here's my finished product:

1.  First i started by bringing home a box full of corks. For my letters i only used the real cork corks and not the foamy ones. But I'm sure the others would be fine.

2. Then i decided to put it on bristol board to make the letter more durable. I simply cut the bristol board in half and i got 3 letters out of one half sheet. This will however change depending on the size you make your letters.

3. Then i started by placing some hot glue on the bottom of the cork and placing it on the bristol board making the desired size and shape of the letters. I also put a small bead of hot glue between the corks that touched to stabilize them together. You could also draw and outline of your letter on the bristol board as a guide to place your corks. Also i made sure my corks over lapped or were glued together.

4. Then i cut the bristol board out anywhere you could see it so it would'nt be visible from the front view unless you look through the cork hols in the center.

My letters i placed on top of my kitchen cabinets in the kitchen. and I love them and im sure i will get requests to make them for people real soon. I hope your inspired by my corky craft and you guys come up with some great ideas too. Feel free to leave comments or even share your Corky crafts in the comments space below

Welcome Spring

So i have been doing a little bit of spring cleaning and its putting me in the mood for spring. So to welcome spring into my home i made a cute sign and dressed up my front door a bit.

 So here is the cute sign i created on a piece of left over wall paneling, i just painted it all white with acrylic paint, then i used my pencil to create the out line of the branch with the birds. Then i painted the lettering on and once it was dry i painted the birds in.

So i have finally removed my Christmas swag from the front door and i also removed the bows out of my planters. I do think i will remove the cedar and pine branches out of my planters and maybe add some more twigs and plain branches so i can hang Easter eggs on them or something.
Anyways that being said, I placed the sign above the front door on the inside of the window, as i have not sealed it nor have i painted the other side yet, but i can do that later. This will protect it from the elements outside right now. I also hung my awesome coffee filter wreath that i love on the front door which gives it a more inviting spring feeling.

While i was outside snapping pictures of my front door i noticed, i have growth in my front flower bed, looks like I've got tulips and maybe daffodils up. SOOOOO excited, i just cant wait till all the snow is gone.

'

(this picture didn't turn out so well because the tulips are darker red but if you look hard you can see them)

Master Bedroom Update

So just wanted to post quickly my newest piece for the master bedroom.

I finally got my dresser i wanted for the space. I know this guy from work who runs his own liquor and beer delivery service in Muskoka, he basically a fellow worker at the Beer Store since we see him all the time. Anyways he just purchased a new house, that was an estate listing. When he took possession of the place they had left everything inside. So hes selling off the stuff to make room for his own. I got this dresser for $20 and its in perfect shape. When i first got it home i had to clean it up a bit, but not much. Looked like someone has placed some mactac shelving adhesive on the top, which scrapped off perfectly. I gave her a good wash down and helped move to the tv over and i was off too work, Craig did the rest of the work. I love it, now I'm wishing i would have purchased the other small matching dresser to go with it.