:: DIY: Paint Chip Dry Erase Calender ::

I think I heard a sound like that of a rusted-over, never-used door on an abandoned house when I hit the "New Post" button.

And I'm sure it took the page an extra few seconds to load because it had to remember how to do it.

It's been almost a month and I can't even say that I've "got lots of catching up to do", so I'm just going to jump right back in.

I've hated my laminated, magnet-mounted fridge calender for a while.  It always felt cluttered and I was never able to put photos and other things anywhere because it took up the whole freezer door.

Enter: inspiration & pinterest.

I found a tutorial for a DIY paint chip dry erase board and fell in love with the idea.

I had a few empty, glassless frames sitting in my shed waiting for my church's next youth garage sale fundraiser, one of which was rescued to feed my crafting addiction.  This one is 16x20 inch frame and I think it's the absolute perfect size for this project.

I had a box in the carport that I cut to size for a back.  The cardboard ended up being too thick, so I had to separate the two sides: surprisinglytheraputic.Cost so far: $0.00

Once the cardboard was stuffed in the back, I traced a line, from the front so I would know exactly how much space I would have.  Then came the trial and error, trying to get the squares as big as possible so I would have lots of writing space.My squares ended up being 2 7/16 inches by 2 11/16 inches.And yes, as you can see below, it took me four different cuts to get the exact, exact measurement so I had the small gaps inbetween.And yes, in case you are wondering I do like things to be just. so.
I had my measurements, now I needed paint chips.  Blue and greens ones.....lots of them. I tried Rona, and couldn't find chips big enough. So I tried Canadian Tire and was in luck.  They had a new Benjamin Moore paint line they are selling and the chips were huge and perfect.  You'll need at least 35 but I would recommend getting 40 or more.  I found that some of the blues and greens I chose looked very yellow or very grey or very beige compared to the overall look so it's good to have more than you need so you can get a cohesive look.Cost: a little bit of time picking paint chips

Then comes the chopping.  Be sure to cut off the edges with the writing on them before you start cutting them down to your measurements.  You will then end up with a huge pile of scraps.

This is where I am the worst tutorial writer EVER.  I get carried away because I'm just so darn excited to see my finished product, that I forget to take photos.  I went out and spent $1.84 on two large pieces of white bristol board from Walmart to use as a solid background.  I cut it down to size and put it inside the frame, on top of the cardboard so I could start sticking down my squares exactly where within the border of the frame.  Then.....stick away!  I made sure I had a good balance of light and dark all over the board.  Then for the day of the week, I cut out seven one inch by 2 7/16 inches and place them at the top of the columns as well as a piece (that you can make as long as you want) to write the month.Then I used my left over bristol board and cut 3/4 inch by 3/4 inch squares and stuck them down in the upper right corners of each box for writing the days.This project would have cost me less than a toonie if I had a frame with glass.  But that part needed purchasing, and a quick trip to a local downtown framing shop (that included my 18-month-old stopping in the middle of a crosswalk and yelling "WAIT" at the cars with her chubby little hands held out in front of her) solved that problem quickly and only cost $7.84. The finished product:

This wall previously only consisted of the painting hanging horizontally by itself.  I had nowhere else to put it and nowhere else to hang my new calender, so it was a layout game trying to figure out how to make everything work together.  I made a quick pendant banner from scrapbooking paper and twine to add a funky detail and with a photo of my cute girlies and my vintage mail slot......wall complete!

And the finished calender up close.  I would have loved to stamp the days of the week, but don't own any alphabet stamps and ended up writing them in chubby lowercase letters.  I am THRILLED with how it turned out.
Total Cost: less than $10.00!I would recommend hitting up thrift stores or free online ads to find a frame if you don't have one on hand.....

:: One Day, Two Days, Three Weeks, Four ::

Here I am, again.

Life is good and full and there has been a lot of exciting happenings.

Last week Denay's school held their annual Grandfriends day, where the kids bring a special friend to school to show them their class and enjoy some activities.  My inlaws got up at an obscene hour so my MIL could catch the first boat across the water to be Denay's grandfriend.  The surprise was perfect, Denay had NO clue that Grammie would be walking through the door and although I didn't get a shot of her face and sprint but this was the end result.....

:: showing Grammie her cubbie ::

:: and serving her tea and pizza ::

:: playdough! ::

:: grammie and her girls ::


:: after we left school we headed over to my dear friend Kerry's house to meet sweet baby Paige who was born just the night before.  I think Denay is ready for another baby in house, she was glowing like Paige was hers ::

:: my shoe-LOVING toddler working Grammie's shoes ::

:: swimming lesson with the girls have been going so well.  It's super fun having one on one time with my water-don't-scare-me-none Paisley and Denay gets more confident every time ::


:: I'll confess that last weeks lesson wasn't the first time my poor second child went without a bathing suit because between the two adults in the house, we couldn't remember to pack her one ::


:: Denay front floating ::

:: back floating ::

:: kicking and holding her breath ::

:: we had a fun Easter weekend, had a kid-free overnight on Saturday night and spent Sunday at my parents for a delicious steak dinner.  After church on Sunday C&K and their girlies gathered at our traditional spot in the church courtyard for Easter/first Sunday family photo ::

:: it's an understatement to say that Chloe loves Paige.  After Paisley was born, any chance Chloe had, she was hugging her and kissing her and smooshing her with love, and now she's got her very own baby sister.  Paige was born at home at 5:45pm on April 4th weighing 8lbs 10oz ::

:: On Tuesday, Denay had her very first sleepover with her good buddy Michal.  It only took a couple "no more talking, go to sleep now" reminders and they were both out ::

:: and then this morning, I got a bizarre phone call from my husband.  "Beckham Jordan" was all he said.  I was so confused, responded with "What??" and got the same two words in reply.  Then it clicked, baby!  My brother and sister-in-law welcomed their first child, a baby boy above named, this morning just before 8:00.  He is healthy and perfect and I get to cuddle him very soon ::
So that's it; beginning to end, top to tail, start to finish.I'm still bulldozing through the Millenium Trilogy and just started The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest last night.  It's the longest of the three (at over 500 pages) so maybe by next week I'll be finished and have something tantilizing to write about.Happy (almost) Friday!

{Where Me Been}

#1 - Going OUT

A couple Saturday's ago, my parents took us out.  Like paid-for-the-sitter-dinner-and-movie out.  We had an awesome meal at Montanas and saw This Means War in an actual movie theater.  The movie was super-cute by the way, and I would totally recommend seeing it.  Then last Friday, thanks to Opa (for babysitting) and our newly learned financial planning skills (thanks Grammie) we went out AGAIN on a double date with C&K - some superdy-duperdy cool friends.  We splurged on Wendy's for dinner and went to see The Hunger Games on opening night.  Bad seats, good movie.  Which leads into the next thing I've been doing....

#2 - Reading

Reading The Hunger Games Trilogy to be exact.  I had very uncommittedly starting reading the first book at C&K's house back a few months ago because I was not interested in watching the Superbowl.    But because buying the Ebook for my Kobo (however cheap it was at the time) was not an option, I didn't carry on reading beyond that day.  After watching the movie, I knew I needed to read the books and I found somewhere that I could download the PDF for FREE and was reading it on my laptop.  But if you have ever tried to read on your laptop for an extended period of time, it's not that awesome.  Then a friend's husband suggested I try YouTube and see if there is a video showing me how to transfer it to my Kobo.  So I did, and there was and it worked!  I plowed through the books in about three days. 

I've now moved on to the Millenium Trilogy, so don't expect a whole lot more blogging in the next week :)

#3 - Swimming

I grew up swimming, boating, tubing.....more swimming.  I used to jump in the pool right after lunch on Sunday afternoon and refuse to get out until the sun was setting and my lips were bright purple.  So swimming is important to us, not just because it's a fun and super cheap family activity, but it's healthy exercise and an valuable life skill and something I want both of my children to enjoy, embrace and feel confident doing.  So we used their birthday money to sign them up, and Saturday mornings at 9:00 are PJ's lessons and 9:30 are Denay's.  Denay has graduated to the parent-participation-free class and I get to watch my very big girl in the pool with her teacher and classmates, practising front and back floats, kicking and jumping and holding her breath under water.

#4 - 6-day work weeks

Trevor has had the opportunity to spend the last month working Saturday's, helping out some good friends of ours with their home business product.  It makes mornings hectic between getting to swimming and him leaving the pool after PJ's lessons to get there, but the extra income has been an even bigger boost in our debt repayment.  It makes for two tired parents and very short-feeling weekend but we feel so fortunate to have the chance bring in extra money and allow us not to feel so pinched.

#5 - This, that and the next thing

Life group, bible study, bi-weekly relationship course at church, strata meetings, staff meetings, Trev's church media commitment, scrapbooking, evening walks, date nights, movie/TV show watching nights with our respective friends, dinners with friends and a night or two at home. 

#6 - Pictures of bellies

This is my friend Kerry and she's havin' baby #2 (hopefully any day now).  Kerry is a very dear friend with whom I have an immeasurable amount of wonderful memories with.  We took our kiddos along and spent an hour in the sunshine on Saturday capturing her almost-baked-bun, that I think is a girl for the record.

:: all of our kiddos ::

So that's it, all, the end.I'm hoping for a lightning bolt of inspiration so I can blog about something other than our rather boring and uneventful day-to-day lives.You'll be the first to know when it comes.....

:: The Name Is Shortcake - Strawberry Shortcake ::

Sit down.Maybe sit down and put your sunglasses on, you might need them. I got bored......again.I cut my bangs off myself a week ago......I dyed my hair back in January a rich cinnamon brown but it was a semi-permanent color and last week I felt like it had faded and turned an icky, listless brown.We're on a super strict budget and when I hit up the color aisle and found the color I wanted for $10.94 a box, it wasn't in the cards.I hit up every other grocery store in town (except one) only to be more disheartened everytime.Then Friday rolled around, the Walmart flyer came out and low-and-behold, the brand I wanted was on sale for half price. SCORE!So I swung by late Friday night on my way to a girlfriend's house only to find the shelf picked clean and free of any color that amused me at all.Saturday found me giving the last store in town a try (flyer in hand so I could price match) and was able to find an out-of-my-comfort-zone color and I could hardly wait to get home and get the girls to bed so I could get to dying. So this was my locks at the beginning of January, side swept bangs......

This was late January.......

This is now, tonight. Red and bang-y.

And this is subdued. I've washed my hair four times since Saturday and it is STILL washing color out. It was a little brash and much more red and much less auburn than I was planning but after a few washes, it is settling down to the funky color I was looking for.

I loooove.

I feel like I'm discovering this off-beat, funky and unique version of myself and I can say that I'm having lots of fun doing it!

FREE Kiva Trials

I've got so much I wanted to write about and share, and I promise I will get around to it, but I wanted to take a quick second to share something with you.

For the past nine months or so, I have been involved with an organization called Kiva, and I have written about them before.

They are a micro-lending coordination group that makes it ridiculously easy to make loans to people all over the world to better their standard of living. The wonderful thing about KIVA is that once you lend, you can keep regiving the money! As your borrowers pay you back, the money is credited to your account and then you can choose another business to help.

The SUPER cool thing is that right now, KIVA is giving away FREE - FREE - trial loans for new lenders. So you can choose an individual or group to help and it won't cost you anything!

Copy and paste the link below and join KIVA and start giving a helping hand up to hardworking entrepreneurs all over the world!

http://www.kiva.org/invitedby/mcclellandfamily

{Joby}

Last week Tuesday my phone rang.Not earth shattering, I know, but it was a phone call that I had been anticipating and dreading all at the same time.My friend Loni (whom I have ranted about on here before about her amazing photography) asked if I would be there to capture her daughter meeting their new baby when (he) was born.I confessed my fear to Loni right away. She had seen the photos taken by my birth photographer when Denay met Paisley and wanted that.And I was scared I wouldn't get it right.When the phone rang, I was elated for them and proceeded to ask what they had. To which Conor, Loni's husband responded that I would have to wait until I got there.Grrrr.So then I spent the next three hours in suspense until the call came that their daughter was on her way home.So I packed up and arrived to meet Conor at the door holding his new son.We moved upstairs and met Loni, relaxing in bed (after her homebirth). It was warm and calm and peaceful, Loni looked relaxed and joyful.Meet Joby, as Joby meets his family.....

:: Recap ::

I did it.I didn't think; I just did.I feel so FREE.So light, so liberated.I deactivated my Facebook account.I can compare it to the rebellious and spontaneous feeling of skinny dipping in September in the ocean....but not from experience.....of course........ Anyways, now I've got an embarassing amount of spare time on my hands now that I plan to spend doing more blogging, reading, resting, playing. I'm going to start with a recap of our life over the past few weeks.If you aren't a grandparent or auntie to these children (which most of you aren't) this post might be a little been-there-done-that-update-of-my extraordinarily-cute-kids-on-a-blog for you but I know there's at least a couple photos in here that will hopefully bring a smile to your face. :: daddy's playdate at the pool ::

:: denay and mommy's date to a local production of Disney On Ice with some of her friends ::

:: denay's preschool fieldtrip to our local RCMP station. the photo on the right is the whole class, in a jail cell. they got to sit in the car, turn on the lights and siren and meet the police dog, tony ::

:: sisters. best friends. matching jammies and hawaii shirts (that denay insists they both wear for watching every canucks game) ::

:: matching her dolly // her school made police uniform ::

:: police officer paisley // and her entire personality captured in a single photo ::

And just in case none of that made you smile or happier in any way, here's a joke that my husband told me while I was writing this...... Two cows were standing in field. One cow says to the other cow, "Mooooo". The other cow responds, shocked, "I was JUST thinking the same thing".

:: Excuse Me, Your Pride Is Showing ::

Lack of blogging?

Yep, that's me.

This past week-and-a-bit have been challenging for us around here.

We've been getting some help from a family member to whip our finances into shape.....and there's been a lot of whipping going on, as well as a lot of tears, frustration, feeling completely overwhelmed.

We've had to make some serious and hard decisions - but what I am learning, is where there is much hardship and many trials, there is also much grace, and many provisions.

We were trying to get until the next paycheck and spend as little as possible, which meant that our cupboards were, well, they would have given Old Mother Hubbard a run for her money.

We were trying to make it work, but not having a variety of rations to feed a girlfriend and her kids during a Friday play date was hard. But I have great (amazing, incredible, supportive, honest, true, real, awesome) friends, and she was more than happy to bring along some food to contribute to lunch. When she showed up, it wasn't with a couple of things for the kids to eat, but with almost a dozen bags of groceries, for me.

I cried.

I didn't know how to say thank you.

She mentioned she didn't grab any chicken, that she had thought of it, but didn't.

Then I cried some more, because the day before another girlfriend called to tell me after praying about it, felt led to give us a box of chicken.

Did I need a reminder that God cares that I need chicken.

Evidently.

That that story is one of many I could tell, just in the last week, of God pouring out provisions.

It is incredible.

And hard.

I never considered myself a prideful person, but allowing myself permission to receive is hard. Much harder than I thought it would be.

Then I thought about the gift of salvation. A gift that is free and not only free but that I have done nothing to earn and can do nothing to pay it back. And how I just have to unfold my arms, open my hands and lift my face and say "Yes".

I have to allow my pride and desire to be good enough fall away and believe how much I am loved and with how much grace that gift is given.

So pardon my absence - I've been spending all of my computer time combing over the financials, planning and checking and double checking everything.

God is good - and I don't say that lightly.

He's provided extra work on Saturdays for my husband and the prospect of some at home work for me.

Blessed be His name.