The plan started in February and this week those plans became reality. My baby sister is here. In Colorado. And we get to play. The boys are at summer camp this week and haven't laid eyes on her yet and we're taking this week to spend some "sister time" together. This involves sleeping in, catching up, eating, catching up, site seeing, catching up, and more eating.  On day 1 of our ...

Its been 12 years since we've had our house painted and it was starting to show. Paint was faded and peeling. Even the Home Owners Association (HOA) noticed and we got a courtesy letter in the mail to suggest we paint the house before the end of July or face a fine. So I phoned around, got 3 quotes from painting companies and we baulked at the cost. The lowest ...

Jordan saw a picture online of a chocolate smiley face on a pancake and came up with an idea for breakfast.  He needed a chocolate pudding, a "squirty thing" and he set off drawing each of our favourite animal faces on a cold griddle.  They turned out pretty well. Once each one was drawn, he let them 'set' for about fifteen minutes.  The next step was to make the pancake batter.  Each animal picture ...

Today my baby turned 12. And he woke up with his usual joy. "Hello World! I'm awake. What do you have planned for me today?"  Today there is more joy. With birthdays come much joy. And presents.  And friends.  One of Cullen's favourite meals is cheese pizza. So each friend (and brother) got a lump of pizza dough...  ...And each friend (and brother) set to work.  The toppings were simple. Pepperoni. Cheese. Pizza Sauce. Sausage.  Each pizza ...

A couple of years ago, when Warren was redoing our fireplace, we searched for a piece of wood to use for the mantel. A friend of ours, who is rebuilding his home, gave us a gorgeous piece of walnut to use for the mantel but we decided to use it as a table top instead because it was so beautiful. The problem: we had no legs for the tabletop.   And then ...

I needed to use up a few ingredients that had been sitting in my fridge for a while and this is what I came up with. NOTE: This recipe is rich so it would be a great item to serve as a brunch item for a few guests.  Ingredients are: a pie crust, blueberries, cream cheese, Brie cheese spread (in wedges), and honey.  Cream the cream cheese, Brie cheese, and melted honey ...

Many moons ago when we bought our bedroom set, we bought a 5-piece - a queen bed, two matching side tables, a tall-boy and an armoire. If I had to buy a bedroom set today, I'd never buy what we have now. I prefer mis-matched furniture. But when we bought the set, we needed something quickly. We'd just moved to the USA., bought a house and needed a bedroom furniture ...

I was lazy this year. For Valentine's Day dinner, I bought everything already prepared and merely heated it all up and served it. Except for the dinner rolls. Since you can't buy heart-shaped dinner rolls, I created them myself. I used frozen (again, because I'm lazy) Rhodes dinner rolls which are about the size of a squash/racket ball.  Place two frozen rolls into one of the holes in a greased cupcake ...