I could kiss this tackle box - is that wrong?

I love many things. 

I love blue-green paint. 

I love things that look slightly rusty, chippy and otherwise well-used. 

I love containers for stowing stuff - especially ones with little teeny compartments.

Then I saw this fellow in my favourite thrift store:

What was there to say but "Hey handsome, you're coming home with me!".

Easter family gatherings

April in Nova Scotia can be fickle.  So to have an Easter Sunday that was actually warm and sunny was a real treat.  I even painted my toenails in celebration.  It was their first outing of the season after all.

We gathered at my mother-in-law's house for an Easter-egg hunt. 

Following the big hunt, we tried kite-flying.  Not an overwhelming success on the actual flying part, but the kites did actually make it up a few times. 

The best part was watching the boys playing with their cousins.  They even managed to take turns with their older cousin's DS with only a minimal amount of fussing.

Then we went for supper at my family's farm.  No fancy table-setting here; just yummy food and find a seat where you can.  There were 20+ people there - ranging in age from mid-nineties to not quite 3 months.  I should have taken more photos, but by that time I was more interested in eating!

Robin's Eggs

My egg obsession continues.  And my obsession with painting things blue.

I bought some craft eggs at Michaels last weekend when they were 40% off.  They were not bad looking in their unaltered state actually, but I really wanted them to look like robin's eggs.

I painted them with a custom mix of craft paint - one was a little too pale, the other a little too vivid.

Then I added some speckles with a toothpick.  It is possible that toothpicks are my favourite craft tool.

I put them in a moss "nest".  I'm fairly certain that robin's don't actually build their nests out of moss, but they probably also don't have eggs the size of chicken eggs.  I'm not overly concerned with authenticity.

Happy Easter!

My birthday present - new lens!

My birthday was this week.  If you're curious, I turned 39.

My cake was decorated with dinky cars.  It couldn't have looked better, in my estimation.

My present was this:

So now I am walking arount the house taking pictures of random items.  Up to this point, I only had the kit lens that came with my camera.  This one has a different feel to it.  I'm loving the ability to set a very shallow depth of field (whoa, doesn't that sound technical?).

Here are some random shots:

Now I'm off to enjoy the Good Friday holiday with my family.  Enjoy your day!

Out of the city

The boys and I got out of the city today and headed for my sister's place.  She and her family live just down the road from my parents and the family farm where I grew up.

My boys love to play with their cousin.  And the wide open spaces to run don't hurt bit.

Supposedly it is spring, but it was cold.  My sister and I were freezing while watching the kids.

I loved these red bushes. 

I took our point and shoot camera so that the kids could take pictures (and leave Mommy's DSLR alone!).  I really like Owen's portrait of his cousin.

Owen also got one of me.  Don't you love my stylish toque?

After supper we went to my Dad's barn.  A large portion of the barn was destroyed in a fire last fall, but the repairs are done now.  It's not nearly as big as it was, but it looks good.

Inside you can see the wood that is still blackened from the fire.

The residents seem to like it just fine though.

The residents were also enjoying the tasty hay that the kids were bringing to them.

Treasure hunting and dorkiness

First, let me start by saying that I am a dork.

The kind of a dork who, as a child, would buy school supplies and then set them up in little displays and admire them.

Second, I am a treasure-hunter.  I love finding beautiful things in second hand stores or yard sales.  Which sounds so thrifty, but is not really if you do it a little too much.  As I might be inclined to do.

Third, part of the fun of finding treasures is showing them to others who appreciate them.  Which the males of my household (ie. everyone but me) are not really going to do.

Which all leads me to this...pretties gleaned from my last trip to Value Village.

The tray needs a coat of paint to make it look good, but it is solid.  I'm pretty sure that he pin (which I didn't get a very good picture of) is vintage and I love the shape of it. 

Easter eggs - glittery and music-y

In my on-going efforts to do some crafty things - not just read about them - I finally broke out some of the Martha Stewart glitter that I've been hoarding and made some glittery Easter eggs.  I used some styrofoam eggs from the dollarstore, glopped on some Mod Podge, and glittered away.  My first specimens were a little questionable, since I kept getting my fingers in the glue and leaving holes in my glittering.  Then I got the brilliant idea of sticking a toothpick in the egg for a handle, and that was much much better.  I used a piece of styrofoam for a drying stand and just stuck the toothpick in it.  Boy, I'm really making progress in figuring out some of this crafty stuff. 

I also decoupaged some of the styrofoam eggs with some sheet music.  (Decoupage sounds so much more elegant than saying that I basically glued some paper on the eggs, don't you think?)  I didn't get any pictures of the work in progress due to some very messy fingers and the lack of a conveniently located husband to record the great event.  My first attempts were more conical than egg-like, but I just buried them deeper into the bowl in the end.

I'm kind of liking the finished product.  I've since added some pale lilac glitter to the hoard, so I might add some more eggs eventually.

Fresh starts

April feels like a fresh start to me.  A much better time for a new year to begin than January, if you ask me.

I'll be starting a new assignment at work soon.  Technically my position won't change - same title, same pay, same building - but I'll be doing something new.  I've got mixed feelings, but I think that is normal.  I've been doing roughly the same type of legal work for most of my career and this will be a little different.  I'm stepping out of my comfort zone and I'm...well I'm uncomfortable.  But I think it is time.  Too long doing the same sort of thing and I find myself thinking that I can't do anything else.  And I can.  And I need to believe that I can keep changing and adapting and the only way to really convince myself of that is to do it.

Seating arrangements - the sequel

Hurray!  Our "new" couch arrived this evening.  It turns out that the seller had a family emergency over the weekend and had to go out of the city. So with the help of a borrowed truck and a borrowed brother-in-law, we are in business.

I am really pleased with the couch too.  I had never seen it in person, just in the Kijiji ad.  A leather couch for $200 and in great shape - that makes me a happy camper!

Much better than the situation for the last few days, which was something like this...

Seating arrangements

I love that in a room with a big couch (albeit one that looked like it was attacked by a panther), my boys end up sitting together in a chair. 

They may end up sitting in that chair for awhile actually.  I thought we had arranged to replace said panther-attacked couch with a "new" one from Kijiji today.  But the seller was nowhere to be found when Tim arrived to pick it up (with a rented van, I may add). 

Thinking that today was going to be our much anticipated new-couch day, we had dragged the old one out into the backyard. So for now all we've got left inside are the cushions/foam blocks.

I've got my fingers crossed that there was just some mix-up with the seller and the couch will indeed arrive.  Although to get it here, we may have to use the Force.  It's worth a try.