Happy Retirement

My husband has retired!!!!
I retired 5 yrs ago...but he decided to stay working for another 5 yrs for the company that bought our company.
I made him this card and our family all signed it...then we took the whole family out to the Keg for a celebration dinner.
My honey is not one for big whoop de doos, so we kept the celebration simple.
After dinner we all came back home and gave him his gifts.

The next day Wayne and I drove down to the Bluefin Bay Resort to celebrate and bring in the New Year.
We love it there...but what is not to love, beautiful waves, a room with a giant Jacuzzi tub and a fire place...ahhhhhh.

I took a little walk to get these photos...it was so cold, but worth it.

I can never get a good picture of Wayne and I.
We will be celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary next month, and I hardly have any good pictures of the 2 of us, and the ones I do are usually blurry, lol.

I wanted to a picture of the other side of the lake, so took another walk.
Thought this was a trail, but after getting snagged in the brush and jumping over snow covered rocks realized it was an animal trail, not a walking trail, lol.

This is what happens when you leave a pop can in -47c temps.
Wayne's case of pop tore open as he was putting it in the jeep....seems he forgot one, lol.

Luckily it was in the back seat cup holder.
I tried to scrape it off, but it was frozen on there.

I decided to get the wood for our fire and was to lazy to put my boots on.....Hardy Northerner in her flip flops gathering wood in -47c temps...it was cold!!!

We did go to Duluth and do some shopping, but I will share that in another post ;)

Hope you all have a Creative Day :)

Tracy :)

Just for Me

Wayne and I went out for a delicious lunch today to celebrate our week long adventure :)
We only go to this restaurant once a year and for the last few years, they haven't had my favourite dish on the menu :(

The chef actually escorted us to our table and we started chatting.
I had asked him why they don't have my favourite dish on the menu.
It was a 1/2 chicken in a lingonberry sauce.
He explained why and as sad I was, I understood.
I suggested in the future...maybe just use a chicken breast instead of the full 1/2 chicken.
He suggested we come back again at dinner and he will serve me up my favourite dish.
After explaining that this will be our last time here this year...he told me to order the chicken, and he would make it special just for me.
So I did.

Here is a closer look at what he created for me :)
It is exactly what I used to order..but with a chicken breast on a lightly toasted bun.
I have to say I wanted to cry, it was so good.
Actually it may have been better than the dish I used to get and more to my portion size :)
Thank you Kevin....you Rock!!!
You not only made me smile today, you also made me feel so special.

I also got a side with dish with this meal so ordered their wild rice and duck chowder.
I have never had wild rice with duck...chicken, yes, but not duck.
It was good :)

Now that I made your mouth water and your taste buds long for these meals...I will end my post, teehee.

I hope you all have a very Creative Day :)

Tracy :)

Beauty All Around Us

We had a wonderful time on our 27th Wedding Anniversary Getaway.
I want to share some beautiful photos I took on our drive back home.

On the way to Bluefin, I saw this breathtaking view of ice clinging to some brush.
But Wayne didn't want to stop…he even went as far to tell me that the lighting wasn't good, lol.
I told him, that we had better stop on the way back home, or he would not be happy ;)
Well, he did stop and I ran out and took some stunning photos.
This is over 10 ft tall.
Look at all that ice!!!

I was careful where I walked.
There was ice all around and I didn't want to fall…or even worse fall into the freezing Lake Superior.

I was thinking of bringing my "Big Boy" camera, but didn't want another bag to carry.
All of these photos were with my iPhone.
Imagine how great these photos would have been with my "Big Boy" camera?!?!?!

Now wasn't Wayne lucky that the lighting was great today, lol.

As much as we both enjoyed our time away, it is always nice to come home.
We both missed our daughters and it was extra special to come home to all 3 of them being here, waiting for us in the living room, when we walked in the door.

Tomorrow is Wayne's birthday.
Because everyone works tomorrow (Wayne took the day off) we celebrated his birthday when we got home.
The girls cooked a delicious dinner for us and picked out Wayne's favourite cake.
Such sweeties :)

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and a Creative Sunday :)

Tracy :)

It is our last night at the Bluefin Bay Resort :)
Enjoyed the jacuzzi every night while enjoying the fire Wayne has kept going every evening.
Actually I fell asleep on the floor beside the fire for an afternoon nap yesterday, teehee.
But if have been following me for awhile, then you know I do this at our cottage all the time :)

I will share with you my crafty goodies that I had purchased at Hobby Lobby the other day on our drive to Duluth.
I know….I need another 6x6 pad of paper like I need another 6x6 pad of paper, lol.
But these are so cute and they were on sale ;)
I used a coupon for the punch. It is a corner rounder with 3 different sizes. My corner rounder broke and with this one having 3 different sizes for the price of one, I thought it was a good deal.
I also picked up these Delusion stamps. Again coupons were used :)

Here is my Michael's goodies purchased that same day :)
Again coupons were used.
I love these Heidi Swapp monthly number rub-ons.
The Love banner stamps, I was going to purchase one day when Heather and I were shopping back home. I was torn, as I told her I have many banner stamps and it is easy to add letters and such to the centres of the ones I have.
She told me not to buy it.…so I listened.
But when I saw these in Duluth and they were on sale, I just had to pick them up.
Yes, you see another pad of 6x6 paper, teehee.

Heading home tomorrow and looking forward to seeing my girls :)
Hope you all had a Creative Saturday.

Tracy :)

Early Anniversary

I am on my next adventure :)
My honey, Wayne and I are on an early anniversary getaway :)
Our actual anniversary is on Feb 5th.
We are celebrating our 27th Anniversary!
Again we are at the Bluefin Resort.
Lake Superior is stunning…even with all that broken ice out there.

Wayne and I headed out early and drove to Duluth first.
First stop was Micheals, teehee.
Then we stopped in for an early lunch at 5 Guys, at our daughter's recommendations.
It was delicious. I had to laugh at Wayne being so impressed with the perfection and consistency of the salt on their fries, lol.
We also stopped at Hobby Lobby, Barnes & Nobel as well as a few of Wayne's stores ;)

I picked up these cute heart shaped Peeps.
I thought I would give them to Wayne a little Anniversary treat.
Then I remembered he doesn't really like them…guess I have to eat them all myself ;)

When I saw this adorable tiny aluminum bottle of Coke, I just had to have it.
Wayne had heard that they are planning on cutting some of the sugar out of Coke, but just for Canada.
I was like "WHAT!!"  I had better stock up on this then, lol.

I did pick up a few crafty goodies along the way today, but the lighting is pretty bad (I'm surprised these photos turned out as crisp as they did) so I will take photos tomorrow in the natural light :)

I hope you all had a very Creative Thursday :)

Tracy :)

Smashing or Scrapbooking?

I have a couple of pages to share from my Smash book.
One thing I realize about myself, is I am a scrapbooker.
I was planning to use this Smash book more for documenting with memorabilia and such that I pick up on our travels
But here I am making my pages like a scrapbook.
I have tried to make a couple of pages with a mish mash of memorabilia, but I didn't like the looks of them.
I have no idea what I am going to do with all those key cards and such I pick up along our travels, lol.

This page is from last year when Wayne and I went for our 25th Anniversary get away.

I do like to use washi tape and cut a parts from paper packs.
Oh look!
I added the pamphlet from the Bluefin :)

See what I mean about my pages looking more like scrapbooking pages
I have mounted my photos on card stock and even have a title.
I do like how this looks though :)

This is an element that I had cut out of a paper pack, I then added a heart shaped brad to it..again backed it with some card stock.

Awww, look at the happy couple ;)
I didn't adhere the left side of the photo down so the pamphlet can still be opened and read.

Onto My Day:
We didn't get the snow like we were suppose to, so Heather and I packed up the jeep with all the donations and then dropped them off.
I then helped Wayne take all the garbage into the back of his truck so he could bring it to the dump.
I was wiped by the late afternoon….took a bit of a nap ;)

If  you know me, then you know cooking isn't my most pleasant thing to do.
So lately I have been setting up my iPad by the stove as I cook and watch some videos….see Heidi Swapp up there ;)
I usually get distracted and walk away from the stove, and sometimes the food is a bit…lets say, overdone ;)
This helps me stay on task, lol.


















Do you have a smash book?
Are you able to be free and just place memorabilia haphazardly on your pages, or are you detailed and the pages look more like scrapbooking pages?
I would love to know your process.

I hope you all had a creative Tuesday :)

Tracy :)