Hi blog friends! I miss you all and think of blogging often… But mostly I’m sleep deprived to the point of going crazy and I’m thrilled if I can get time to shower. Don’t give up on me. I’m being creative in new ways and will post more often ASAP.
Make Something Every Month?
Okay the title is misleading. Here are a few photos of the zillions I just edited, organized and purged. Note to all ~ never keep 12 000 photos on your laptop without an external drive. I just purged down to 4000 and backed them up. phew. Week 10 with Fern and time to get some projects finished and posted! Next project is blowing up and printing some family photos to make our family photo frame wall! stay tuned.
These again were taken by Bluetree Photography’s NJ. SOOO glad we had her to capture our process of baby making. These photos taken at 8.5 months pregnant, at the best beach on the east coast of Vancouver Island and the old growth forest beside it. I’m trying to post photos here that I didn’t on facebook.
Make Something Every Day
How’s that for an update?
HELLO BLOG friends, followers and favouriters! I’m back. WE are back. WE are three now!
My husband and I welcomed Fern Marion Myers-Burt into the world on March 14, 2013. Yes indeedy. And she’s awesome! I have missed blogging and all of you and this community. I HAVE MISSED MAKING SOMETHING EVERY DAY! I endeavor to get deeper into art and craft and art therapy for myself in the coming three months that I have “off”. Come along for the ride, if you’d like. Not to worry – I’m not going to go all mommy on my blog ~but that will be part of the posts for the next month or so ~for sure. I mean look at this baby…C’MOOOOON she’s cute.
Some disclaimers: I’ve got baby brain, yes I do.. so please forgive the frequency and hilarity of my lack of vocab creativity, typos and spelling mistakes. At least I am here, right? yeah me! Other than baby related craft and prep ~ I made almost no art for my entire pregnancy or the last 10 weeks. This was a surprise to me. I figured the opposite to be true. This next month will get me caught up, organize the baby stuff / thoughts and prepped to make stuff.
THANKS for coming back and STICKING WITH ME.
These photos were taken by NJ at BLUETREE PHOTOGRAPHY in Campbell River. She also has more shots on her BLOG of Fern and my pregnancy.
Make Something Every Day
This is a breakfast in bed (hello Trimester Three, perks!) PLAY BY PLAY…
The photos are blurry which sadly is what happens when your iphone camera lens gets all scratched up.
boo. You get the idea though.
Make Something Every Day
CLICK ON PHOTOS TO ENLARGE.
Here’s a quick craft I’m not sure where I say it first but it came to me as I was decorating the kitchen for xmas. I used approx 8 tacs and some green sparkly stretchy cord to fashion an xmas tree shape on the wall. Then as the cards came in, I filled it. We sent out cards this year with pride. Next year ( with a newborn may be a different story. Post Xmas, i used the sewing pinking sheers and a hole punch to create gift tags for next year. Yeah, upcycle, recycle. I also only bought one roll of paper and a thrift store bag of bows. All my ribbon was from years past.
There is still so much waste at xmas, it was the least I could do.
What did you craft this xmas?
Make Something Every Day
Well, it’s a DIY with my husband ! Here’s a pregnancy update ~ We are at 30 weeks on New Years! Holy cow, heh?
Trimester three is going swimmingly (see posts of me eating chocolate and baked goods, finally!) I’m about to start behaving now that the holiday is over. Back to daily either ~ walking, prenatal yoga or swimming. Anywho.. it’s hard to take a flattering photo at this stage so here you go. Professional photos are booked in another month! My husband took me out to a fancy dinner ~I got to wear a fascinator I’ve been dying to wear for a while ~ and got lots of compliments on it ~ OMG truffle oil shoestring fries, wild mushroom soup and beet, goat cheese, pear and pecan salad. YUM.
My sweety has been taking VERY good care of me. xo
HAPPY HOLIDAYS. What did you make this holiday?
Make Something Every Day
Today I made some Nestle turtle chocolate cupcakes. Basically, you bake chocolate cupcakes half way then place a turtle chocolate on them, with more cupcake mixture, and put it back in for another 10 minutes. The recipe is below. If you look at the photo you can see that I left them in a little too long (we have a brand spankin’ new oven and all appliances.. thanks daddsy! ~and even though i put it on 15 degrees less than the recipe said- it cooked very quickly). So the photo at bottom is the halfway point. They were naughty and decent, not incredible. Husband review? “they would have been better heated up so they’d be gooey. (recipe actually says to do that) But they were cupcakes with turtles in them.. c’mooon!” 
click here for the Nestle Turtles Cupcakes recipe!
Make Something Every Day
We have watched a couple of episodes of this show on Animal Planet, lately. click here for tv show info. We are now thinking our cats are pretty awesome! Lol. Our grey cat Salal is at optimal health once again (see previous posts of vet / home made medicine recipes), and getting into everything! Awesome! I forgot how he loves to eat wrapping ribbon. Those festive barfs sure keep us on our toes.
Here’s holiday greetings from our frisky friends to you, my favourite blog following friends!
Warm hugs and all the Kongs & ocean swims in the universe, to our late best dog friend Amos. I miss you & put a photo of you on our tree, this year. Xo.
Make Something Every Day
I wrote a lengthy blog to go with these photos but it didn’t publish! Something was lost between iPhone publish, slow Internet upstairs and space, I guess. I also experimented with a new app called “vintique” which has old filters and text options. So I messed up the gingerbread photo but you get the idea.
Haystack recipe is from my late Nana ~ recipe found on this blog last Xmas.
Make Something Every Day
Well, it looked like this on my commute to work this am.
We have moved.. so the commute is backwards to last year. This is north of Courtenay headed to Campbell River, BC.
Photo taken holding iphone out the window.
Imagine how awesome it could have been if I had the real camera?
And by the time dinner came, back in Courtenay, we took this photo out the front window.
I’m thinking maybe the end of the world IS coming?
Happy Holidays!
and
Make Something Every Day
I love this cartoon, thought I’d share.
We spent the weekend xmas tree decorating, xmas card writing, wrapping and mailing packages for family and friends who live away, lighting up our yard etc.. very fun this year in our new house! Next year will be even more exciting and different with a newborn’s xmas! This week I also spent time decorating other parts of the house with swag. Messy and fun to be creating again ! This weekend and next week’s goals for me? The NURSERY and start some fun xmas baking. If you look back at last year’s xmas blog entries, we did a lot of firsts for baking. I’m thinking of redoing … mint and choc beaver damns and pine nut and smoked salmon tarts! For starters.
WHAT ARE YOU BAKING / CRAFTING FOR THE HOLIDAYS?
Make Something Every Day
Well blog friends, it’s HAPPENING! I’m officially in my third trimester and nesting like a mad womyn. With xmas coming and both working, we have a lot on the go and minimal time off but slowly we are making some changes in our awesome new house. I’m posting before nursery photos in order to motivate myself! Stay tuned in the next 2 weeks for the final room (before xmas for sure). I’ve also included a Pregnancy Breakfast of Champions shot. My awesome husband makes me a shake every morning ~ berries, greek yogurt, banana, almond milk. I take all the other vitamins with it, to make sure our future baby attends college.
Make Something Every Day
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Well, I experimented with a second rescue remedy recipe for my cat Salal. Although he has perhaps doubled (?) his weight in a month ~ and for sure his energy and fiest has tripled.. I thought I’d vary up his diet and try this one. Again ~ easy to make and he loves it. I promise to use cheaper chicken next time, babe.
Make Something Every Day
Since moving to the big island, we’ve spent our Saturday mornings together exploring our new hood. The above photos are from our new fav hole in the wall (or should I say hole in the air walk park?). The food, ambience & the ladies are just fabulous! Trimester two has brought on a hefty morning appetite! We live near a paved walkway that is approx 5km long. It meanders through a bird estuary, along the ocean & river, taking you past a community air park where small planes take off all day and by marinas and shops. It’s pretty great. The diner is right on the path in a portable looking, non description exterior. But “it’s where friends meet”.
Shown here also, my hunky husband reading the local rag. We had already planned to visit the giant “fiesta!” Fair Trade craft market downtown. Being a womyn who never turns down a good fiesta, we made one stop first!
We attended our first Dinosaur birthday party! I had heard from my friend Aren that the Courtenay museum of Paleontology was awesome. And she was correct. My sweety had birthday cake in his hands moments after arrival & I was blown away by their fossil collection. Not to mention..
Make Something Every Day
After our awesome, sweet heart of a dog passed on in May, I began to wonder if its best friend Salal ~was experiencing depression? The grey, 11 year old cat from Haida Gwaii, lost his spunk & appetite in a matter of 3 weeks. Nothing we offered helped. I force fed him for weeks after our travelling vet told us it was renal (kidney) failure. (which was not a joy for my husband or myself). He bit through endless syringes and turkey basters. I was not giving up. Recently, we added the stress of moving to this list. The move went well. Plan B. We added a small dose of daily vallium to his routine. His appetite came back but he didn’t gain any weight. He also looked like a drunk at 2 am in his back legs, which was at first funny ~then sad.
Plan C! I visited our new neighborhood vet, a naturopathic and Chinese medicine based healer. She was awesome! Tree of Life Vet. I didn’t have an ap’t but she answered my questions in the waiting room. She photocopied 2 recipes for cat renal failure and I bought a tub of powder to put on it.
I went from there to the grocer and spent $25 on 2 months fresh ingredients. The salmon was a score as I got a huge tray of ends (it didn’t need to be pretty). It looked like poop, lol. Long story shorter…. Salal is wolfing down his food – both the salmon recipe & regular kibble and is off the meds. His gaunt cheeks are regaining their chub! Yeah me & new vet! I’m making another batch today & will tell you about the chicken recipe next month.
Any questions, please comment below.
Make Something Every Day
No, he’s not really. But it sounds catchier than “my husband makes amazing chicken pot pie”. Smerk*. I mentioned to my husband a week ago that my current pregnancy craving was for chicken pot pie – home style comfort food. A couple days later, I came home from work and he had baked a dozen giant ones from scratch! So sweet, heh? His first crust was too pie like (tho lovely + buttery), so we cheated and got tender flake mini pie crusts, to use up the rest of the filling last night. I think I ate 7 of them. Don’t judge me… I’m pregnant. I love you baby and baby.
Care for the recipe? Comment below and I’ll ask the chef.
House Reno “make” “DIY” updates to come this week. We’ve been busy!
Make Something Every Day
Today I made Russian style Borscht! I finished by giant bag of Coombs market BC beets. It was good but not great. After feedback, I experimented with extras… And now it is good, ya! I also put it all in the blender before ziploc freezing. Yum, hello fall, I admit you are here by opening my soup making season. Please comment if you’d like the recipe.
Make Something Every Day
No, I’m not one of those people that posts their ultra sound photo on facebook.. but I am grappling for evidence of things that I made this month!
In truth my husband also helped me make this but I have been brewing “it” for 20 weeks now. Half way there!
This is the latest ultra photo of our baby’s little feet. Ahhh. lol.
Make Something Every Day
It has been a crazy busy where did this month go – October. For you as well? And what did I make to show for it? almost nothing.
THEN we went to COOMBS Goats on a Roof Country market and I got a 20 lb bag of beets. What more can a girl ask for?
After the lovely Nova Scotian Kate left from her awesome visit here.. I pickled beets last weekend! It was our first weekend alone as a couple in our new home and it seemed like just the right nesting thing to do. Below is a slideshow of the process. If you want the recipe, comment below.
Make Something Every Day
Happy belated Gobble Gobble.
Here’s a quick blog entry to let you all know that my intentions to blog have been over come by the move into our new house, have guests 4 days later, have a guest for week and a half, go to Vancouver and back and a fabulous turkey day celebration! Not to mention a bit of unpacking and re-organizing life.. oh and buying a Smartcar! I guess that’s a few updates, non? Did I mention I’m pregnant?
Any who… here’s my handsome husband’s turkey this year. We hosted 9 in our new house and it was awesome.
My parents took an annual turkey photo throughout their marriage so we are as well. 
Thanks to our family and Kate for joining us and Corey for being a great chef
and thanks to my Dad who buys the annual largest bird he can find. xo.
Make Something Every Day
HAPPY BIRTHDAY HILARY
& Happy October everyone!
Well, it’s no secret that I am 4 months pregnant! woot woot! Month three rocked (& a bit of writing about the first trimester is yet to come). But the changes that have come with month four include some mega affects on my hair. I swear by the pricey and totally worth it CHI conditioning treatment that my stylish gucci-loving stylist performs quaterly… but you can’t use harsh chemicals when you are knocked up. I envision myself as even more organic while pregnant ~so am open to trying new things. Fast forward to home problem solving some seriously knotted, half fuzzed out, half straight, dried out red, hair. I googled and yahoo’d my way through some hilarious home kitchen remedy hair conditioners, one hormonal weekend night.
So… I gave the ol avocado and mayo treatment a whirl. See photo above for ingredients. It’s a fairly straight forward process of mix em all together and lather on. I lathered from root to tip and put a plastic bag over my head for an hour. My husband was agasp and as usual, humoured my creativity. After an hour I rinsed the messy, stinky, clumpy bits of greeen out in the tub. Then shampoo’d. Results? Nothing really, meh. My hair was soft but smelled like breakfast foods. Save your mayo for the sandwiches you’ll want in months 4-6 ladies. And please don’t tell my stylist I tried this at home!
The positive to this omelette hair DIY? I discovered LUSH in Vancouver a few months ago. During the holy shit I smell even after showering hormonal body odour stage. They saved me and my marriage with their sold deo. I have a new love for my pits now. So.. I looked online, on another night of low hair self esteem. I splurged with my Sin-tax monies. They have a Therapy (lol) massage bar for growing bellies that might just take me out of the running for developing stretch marks (fingers crossed). So I ordered two bars.
I also ordered a hair conditionng treatment black pot, I think called Jazmin & Henna Hair Fluff Eaze? 
I placed my order online, paid $6 for UPS delivery and it was on my doorstep when I got home.. TWO DAYS LATER! YEAH LUSH. Now to try it this weekend. I’ll keep you posted. click here for the LUSH website for ordering
Make Something Every Day
Today is my first day alone in our new house! I’d say we are roughly 3/4 unpacked with several systems to set up yet. One of those is the cats.
Until our beautiful dog Amos passed in May, I almost didn’t realize we had 2 cats. They seemed to accessorize him. Now they get a lot more attention, as you can imagine. I know cats don’t adjust to moves very well, so we locked them in the spare bathroom with all their gear & needs during the move and the following couple days. Now that they are free, they are needy (& kneading my baby belly every chance I sit / lay still).
We have carpet. From an esthetics and germ perspective I despise carpet like I despise window treatments. It’s expensive ish berber & isn’t in the reno budget to rip out, this year. The stairwells have in the last three days become a stink bomb of either cat spray or pee!!! Uggg! Nothing worse than cat pee smell! Nothing. I have yet to catch anyone in the act (goddess help them if I do) as they do it after we leave for work. We’ve emptied a box of baking soda cat litter deo all over already. Any suggestions folks? Other than driving the kitties to “the farm”?
Happy times*! I’m hoping to unpack / find my craft supplies and set up a table today! Stay tuned.
Make Something Every Day
We have been loving this show. It’s so ridiculous but maybe it speaks to the voyeur or the thrifter in me? I do love looking in people’s windows at night and seeing their “stuff”. I admit it. So this reality show is about auctioning unclaimed or unpaid storage units at locker facilities in the USA. There’s all kinds of copy cat shows out now that are not as good. Berry is my fav. We moved this past weekend from the small island to the big island. Between loads in the Budget truck I took this photo on our front lawn. It made me wonder about what people would bid on if this was a storage unit up for auction? lol. As well, it made me wonder about judgements people would make of us based on our stuff. It’s just stuff but it does say a lot about oneself.
On that note ~ while I was waiting for the delivery pizza on the small island that took over an hour and the guys that it was for were long gone on the ferry ~ the pizza guy / taxi man was circling my lawn items (5 minutes after he should have been gone). I came out and asked “what the?”. He started offering me money for the guitars!
I’m also cheating here a lot when i add these photos as part of my 38 Inspring Objects (before i turn 39 next month!).
#13 The CLOTHING OPTIONAL SIGN. This sign deserves it’s own blog entry but having moved, time is tight for creative writing. I painted this sign on sanded driftwood about 4 years ago when we first moved to Quadra. We have given this sign away and taken it back in a FREE pile at a garage sale. We have now moved again with and will find a saucy place to post it.
#14 The vintage French Provincial Chair. This chair was purchased as a set in kimberley Bc atthe last house I woned. My contractor knew a lady who was moving into a retirement home and had it in plastic for decades! I scored it. The couch was like 10 feet long so gifted it to my neighbour across the street who was also my rental care taker when i moved aaway and rented the place. They have been raising two awesome littel boys on it. wehen I got to uadra, i had the seat reupholstered in CR. It’s about to be the breast feeding chair in our nursery (in say 6 months). Love this chair. So does our cat Salal ( this the reupholsyter)
#15 my record collection. Have I already mentioned that? My other blog is click here for my JUST FOR THE RECORDS ~ DAILY DOSE OF VINYL 365 day project. Boxes and boxes of thrift and gifted records and some from my childhood that I’m creating a collection with.
#16 U Brew equipment. It may seem like a silly thing but we do enjoy (well until I recently got knocked up) making our own fun beverages at home. We’ve made all sorts of fruit beers, wines, port, champagne, mexican beer etc. Some from berries we’ve picked (as seen in previous posts).
#17 My wedding dress. Yes, if you look hard enough you can see my wedding dress in a pile. I’m thinking to Craigslist it next month but it was a surprisingly beautiful exereince shopping for and wearing it. love love love. See posts 2 years ago Feb for wedding photos.
#18 My Nana’s tea cups. My lovely late Nana left me (well my Dad) a lot of special and valuable antiques. We have been using some of it and storing and moving x4 most of it. I’m excited to use her tea cups in the new place!
THANK YOU to my sweetheart of a husband for doing MOST of the moving! I have a LOT of craft stuff. I mean, a LOT. And thanks to great friends Sean & Aren for showing up on move day! So sweet. And special thanks to Aren for the Lasagna, garlic bread and ceasar salad that we have been eating all week! Thanks Dad for helping unpack us!
MAKE SOMETHING EVERY DAY
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The ultimate do it yourself (DIY… but with my handsome husband)!
We made a baby. We will be brewing / perfecting it til March 2013!
My sweety already gave me some great creative sewing and crafts for babies books, at xmas.
stay tuned.
38 inspiring objects
# 12 our baby!
Thus the much less frequent blogging here and on my Daily Dose of Vinyl record blog all summer.
I essentially slept all summer!~ justfortherecords BLOG click here
Make Something Every Day
Make Something Every Day 