Day with my Girls...and Pokemon

I spent most of the day with 2 of my daughters. 

Heather got cancelled from work today and Kristy had the day off. 

So after we did our errands we picked up lunch and went to my oldest daughters house for lunch. 

Sadly Ashley didn't have a day off, so only got to spend her lunch hour together. 

 

These girls are enjoying the Pokemon craze. 

So we decided to go for a walk around the Friendship Gardens. 

 

I don't think I have walked around the Friendship gardens since my girls were toddlers. 

There was quite a bit of activity at the Gardens. 

Mostly Pokemon catchers, but also some ducks and Canadian Gueese in the ponds. 

 

After our Pokemon hunt we went back home so I could pack for camp as Wayne surprised me with taking tomorrow off. 

I told the girls we had time to head out for some more Pokemon fun. 

So we headed to Hillcrest Park for another walk......well a walk for me 

 

The day was gorgeous. 

Beautiful blue sky's and perfect warm wearher. 

But the best part of the day was spending it with my girls. 

 

Thank you for taking all of the photos Kristy. 

Heather had my phone, as she doesn't have one or want one.....at least that was before playing Pokemon Go. 

I hope you

All have a wonderful creative weekend. 

Tracy :). 

 

Teacup Bird Feeders

Looks like its tea time doesn't it?
I am not one for tea, but it is craft time :)

I made these adorable teacup bird feeders last week.
They look so pretty in my garden :)

I went to the thrift store and picked up these pretty tea ups and matching saucers.
I was planning on making these years ago....Wayne and I looked all over for this E6000 adhesive when I planned on making these, so it was so nice to finally use it.
When using this adhesive, please use it outside, there are some pretty scary info on the packaging.

I then put the adhesive on the cups and then placed the cup on the saucer in the position I wanted.
It took longer than I thought it would to dry....so be patient.

Here is a video I did on the teacup bird feeders. :)
If you would rather watch it on my YouTube channel, just click on my name :)  "Tracy's Treasures24"

After making these, I ran back to the thrift store and picked up 2 more cups and saucers and made them up at the cottage for thank you gifts for a few of our neighbours.

I hope you all had a very creative day :)

Tracy :)

Its my Party

Today is my Birthday !!!!
Look at the yummy cake my daughter Kristy made me.
She gave me a choice of carrot cake with cream cheese icing from the bakery, or her cake with butter cream icing.
It was a hard choice to make as they are both my favourite!!!
But I chose Kristy's :)
This is actually a mini version of Ashley and Tyler's wedding cake, in which Ashley and Kristy made for the wedding.

We spent the weekend at our cottage.
I was lucky enough to share the weekend with my wonderful family.
Tyler (Ashley's husband) didn't get to come up until Saturday as he had something to attend to.
Every year the owners of the English River Inn, host a little get together to celebrate and here we are in the breakfast room :)

Oh I can't forget Oscar...he is a bit tuckered out after a day of swimming...but so is Kristy ;)

Here are my gifts that my family gave me :)
Look at all of those gift cards...I can see some major shopping in my future ;)

And how cute is this purse!?!
Ashley picked it up for me when her and Tyler went to the States.
Can you tell I love my new pretty purse :)

I had a great weekend....I even enjoyed re-organizing our beach shed....but I will share that in another post, as Ashley took photos and told me it would make another great blog post, lol.

Hope you all had a wonderful creative weekend.

Tracy :)

Happy birthday Ashley

Today is my oldest daughter Ashley's 27th birthday. 

Seriously 27!!!!

Where has the time gone?!?  

 

My Ashley is particular in her taste, and was so excited to receive these porcelain measuring spoons and mason style measuring cups. 

 Look how happy she is. 

Being pregnant, she doesn't like her picture taken. I don't know why she is beautiful and I love her baby tummy. 

We are all celebrating her birthday today, my FIL's birthday tomorrow and my birthday on Sunday.

And we are celebrating them all up here at the cottage. 

 

While I was out enjoying my evening walk in this heat wave, Wayne and the girls went for a swim in the lake to cool down. 

 

These are memories I cherish. 

I hope you all have a wonderful creative weekend. 

Tracy :)

Mini Albums....Defunkified

Oh look another area organized.
Mind you I had done this one a few months ago, but just sharing now...oops.

These are the mini albums that I haven't worked on yet.
They are all blank.
I know, I know, I never need to purchase another mini album in my life....but that doesn't mean I won't ;)
Looking at these shelves I see so much potential to create.

I did a video on what it looked like before and how I organized them.
I forgot to take a before photo...another oops.
If you would rather watch the video on my YouTube channel, just click on the link :)
"Tracy's Treasures24"


I hope you all had a very creative day :)
I stayed inside and cleaned all day as it was a bit to hot out do do much of anything out there.

Tracy :)

Display Shelves...Defunkified

Following the challenge (52 weeks, workroom challenge put on by The Keeper of Memories) I was working on in the Spring, one of challenges was to organize your mini albums.
After completing this, I got to thinking that I did my completed mini albums, not my albums not yet used.
So instead I guess I organized my display shelves ;)

I had lots of smaller projects that I had made that were shoved behind bigger projects.
So I took everything off of the shelve and went through everything.
I had a lot of gift card holders and treat bags that I had made, but didn't use.

I think it looks so much more organized now.
I may add another shelve or two higher up for future albums.
I can't reach this high up, but I don't have to as it is more for displaying my albums and if I want to get one down, I can easily grab a stool to stand on :)

Steps to Defunkifying

1. Remove..Take it all out

2.Clean..Wipe Down Area

3.Purge..Rid the unwanted

4.Sort..Put 'Likes' together

5.Organize..Put Away  :)

I also did a video on how I organized my shelves and what I had on them...as well as a little laugh ;)
If you would rather watch it on my YouTube channel, just click on the link "Tracy's Treasures24"


Onto My Day:
I enjoyed a great day with my friend.
Our birthday's are on the same day and we are the same age, so we like to get together for lunch to celebrate it .
We have known each other since I was in second grade!!!!
We may not see each other as much as we would like to, but when we do, it is like we haven't missed any time apart at all.
Don't you just love friends that you are so connected to.

I hope you all had a very creative day today :)

Tracy :)

Containers Defunkified

Is it only me, or do we all do this?
If you know me, you know I craft Everywhere.
I craft in the livingroom, in the rec room, at the cottage even when we go on trips!
So in order to bring my supplies with me, I use small containers.
Which works great....except I never seem to empty the containers when I am done.

Then I can't find a certain supply that I want and I have to go searching until I find it.
Which I end up wasting valuable crafting time trying to find it.
When I emptied these containers there were so much stuff in some of them, that were just taking up space.
Here is a video I did a while ago on just this.
If you would rather watch it on my YouTube channel....here is the link "Tracy's Treasures24"



I hope you have had a great and creative weekend :)

Tracy :)

A Look in my Garden

Look at this little guy, he greeted me at the side door. 

I am impressed with my photo as the way the sun was, I couldn't see my screen on my phone. 

 

Here are some flowers that have bloomed in my garden. 

These peonies were my Mother in laws. 

When she passed away my Father in law asked me to take them as they interfered with him cutting the lawn. 

 

Such a beautiful vibrant colour.  

 

These are just wild flowers, but oh so pretty. 

 

These are also wild flowers. 

 

See a bit of a pattern.  I like wild flowers as they are so hardy.... With my black thumb, I need all the help I can get. 

These tiger lilies were transplanted from (you guessed it) the wild :). 

Wayne and I saw them on the side of the road and dug them up ;). 

They are huge now and have multiplied. 

 

That is just a little look into my garden. 

I have so many areas that need to be tended to. 

I will get to them hopefully before winter ;). 

I hope you enjoyed a peek into my garden and find some time to enjoy yours or one at the park. 

Tracy :). 

Social media tracker

In the Spring (after I lost all content on my computer) I wanted to make a chart on keeping up with social media.
I thought I had this perfect way to keep track of my social media postings.

I have to admit, I am not the best at keeping up with it all, so I made a book to (hopefully) keep things in order. 

I have the projects I worked on 

Then if I edited and uploaded a video or project. 

I also have the sites that I want or need to post them to. 

Sounds like a perfect solution righ!?!  

Well it would be if I remembered to actually check them off, or post them....and this is only the first page. 

I need to play catch up again....story of my life. 

Hope you all have a very creative day :)

Tracy:). 

A Different Kind of WOYWW

I thought I would link up to the Stamping Ground WOYWW
What, you may be wondering is this?!?!?
It is saw dust..I have been working on one of my other work desks.

I have been busy working in my Work Shop.
It was out of control and so disorganized.
My plan was to get it in order last year...but with Ashley's wedding, I only had time to make wedding projects in here...not clean or organize.
Then winter came...my work shop is a shed, I designed and then hired a local company to build the shell of it for me...but it doesn't have heat or any lights.
So there is no way I am going in there in the winter...even if Wayne did snow blow a path for me.
So my goal is to get this totally cleaned and organized this summer.
It may take me a few weeks, but I have actually made quite a bit of progress in here already.

There were random tools on the work bench/desk  (I will blame that on Wayne ;)  )
I also had my compound miter saw on here, but I found a better place for it, so now I have some actual work space.
That is my scroll saw you see on the far left, I still would like to find a place for that other then there.
Wayne and I put up some shelves the other weekend, but I have so so so much more to do in here.
I am looking forward to when it is  finally done...hopefully before winter ;)

I hope you all had a creative day :)

Tracy :)

Revamping the Sign

Most of you are all familiar with this sign post.
Wayne and I made this sign 9 years ago when we bought our cottage.
This is at the entrance to our driveway.
I have to say it has weathered pretty well.
We did put on a clear coat after we painted it.

But in taking a closer look...it needed a bit of TLC.
After 9 yrs, I forgot which paint colour I used on the letters.
So I brought my 7 different shades of burgundy paint with me and can you believe I still had the same one...see I really shouldn't purge my supplies ;)

I first painted the "L" to make sure it was the correct colour and then gave the whole sign a bit of sanding.

Painting the antique white wasn't a problem....until I got to the hand painted flowers I drew and painted on it.
Hmmmm, paint over them, redraw them and paint them again...or paint around them?
That was my question.
It would be so easy to just paint over them....but did I really want to have to redesign them again?

So I decided to paint around them.
I (of course) forgot the paints for the flowers at home, so I will have to touch those up next weekend as well as the leaves and swirls.
I just painted over the swirls those are easy enough to do later.

Now doesn't that look so much better.
I didn't have to repaint our individual names as they are brought in for the winter....so we know which season is harder...no wonder I hibernate come winter ;)

And this happened today :)
I am so excited to share with you not only what I am doing with this, but how it turns out :)

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend, and were able to be a little creative :)

Tracy :)

Painting (un)Surprise.

Ashley got me a Thank You gift.

Actually she got me a few. 

 She didn't like the black mat I had, and kept telling me I needed a cuter one.

Doesn't it look cute at our side enterance. 

Ashley and Tyler went away on a little getaway...but more for an ikea baby shopping trip.

While they were away Kristy was nice enough to pet sit for them.

So I decided to surprise them with a painting project Ashley had started a few months ago, until everyone told her to stop as she shouldn't be doing any painting while she was pregnant. 

You know what is worse than looking at a project that needs to be done.....a project that is incomplete. Lol 

Here is the project.

The sides of her stairs. 

 Actually they don't look too bad here besides the yucky cream colour.

But just picture them with one blotchy coat of white paint. Ashley said it drives her crazy looking at it everyday.

Now doesn't this look nicer. 

As well as Sebastian who got in the paint twice. Black cat/white paint oh oh. 

I just need to caulk where the trim doesn't fit tight.... But that is for another day. 

 Not only did I paint the sides of their stairs, I also painted the baseboards that Oscar teethed  on when he was a puppy. 

Boy, was there a lot of teething marks. 

 The trim will need to be replaced, but this is a good cover up until that gets done.

This is oscars room...I know such a spoiled dog to not only have his own bedroom, but he also has his own double sized bed!!! 

I had to lock him out as I painted because he wanted to help, lol. 

I think he was confused that he was locked OUT of his room as opposed to inside his room. 

 As much as Ashley and Tyler love Oscar he is going to have to either give up or share his room with the baby.

My painting was suppose to be a surprise. 

I wanted to see how long it would take them to notice. 

When I asked Ashley how much I owed her for the stuff she bought me. 

She told me it was a thank you for painting 

I asked her. Who told you I painted. 

She replied. You painted?!? What did you paint?!?  Did you paint the stairs!!!! 

I asked her what painting did she mean 

The baby's dresser. 

So I ruined my own surprise. Lol. 

I also ruined my birthday gift she got me.  I helped them unpack and saw it....but at least they know I'll love it. Lol

We are at the cottage and it is drizzling.

I went for a short walk, but thinking it may be an organizing evening as it looks like rain all night. 

Hope you all have a wonderful and creative weekend :)

Tracy :). 

Laundry Room Project.

Projects. 

Like I shared with you yesterday...I have many. 

I also have many that I haven't shared with you yet.

Last month I worked on a project for Ashley's house. 

She has a sump pump in her unfinished laundry room.
There are 2 holes in the concrete floor and I wanted to cover them up somehow. 

Here is the finished project. 

Not only does this cover the holes, but it also is a nice folding table or just a place to store laundry products...and it looks pretty :)

Here is the before picture...blah.
See the high tech way the sump pump holes were hidden, teehee.

The first thing we had to make sure of is that the desk fit...it did!!

Which made me very happy as I didn't need to make a one, like I had planned.

Next thing, I had to do was cut a slot out of the desk top for the pipe.

Plus the desk had to be easy to pull out, just incase the sump pump needed quick access to.

 

Ashley had this desk from Ikea. 

Her dog, Oscar chewed on a couple of the legs when he was a puppy. 

The legs were still stable, just didn't look so pretty.  

Next, to disguise the ugliness, lol. 

See.... Not to pretty under there, and we are all about things being pretty as well as functional.

So I cut some lumber to size and nailed it to the desk 

Ashley was at work, so I was on my own with this job.
I needed another set of hands to hold the lumber while I nailed in the other side, but I'm pretty resourceful, especially since I didn't bring any claps with me, lol. 

I used a piece of my scrap wood for a spacer so the spaces would all be the same distance apart. 
Then I just kept on cutting and nailing, cutting and nailing.

Ugliness is slowly getting hidden.

I needed to rip the bottom board (cut the board the whole length down the centre). 

I inquired at Home Depot, but they don't do that :)

Remember I didn't bring my clamps...but luckily for me Tyler was home at this time, so I asked him to help me hold the board so I didn't saw off a finger or two. 

See how much thinner the bottom board is...I ripped it good ;) 

Now doesn't that look a lot better:). 

But now to make it prettier. 

Because the desk was white, I painted the boards white as well. 

So much prettier and more functional than the before picture. 

I was at Ashleys house working on a couple other projects today....but more on those tomorrow.

Whenever Ashley has a new idea for her house, she always coxes me with "This will make a good blog material". Honestly though, she doesn't need to cox me at all.
Actually these projects were my doing.....I just can't stop with the projects, lol.

I hope you all had a very creative day :)

Tracy :).