A little DIY, and a little outsourcing!

I have this problem: I start projects, and life happens, and I lose focus and stop before they're finished. It doesn't always happen, but when it does, it really bothers me!!

Take for example, the chaise longue recovering project. I had every intention of finishing that thing off myself. But, I don't have the workspace, or the time, and well... poor chaise has been sitting in my garage for going on a year.

Poor chaise longue :(

 *sad face* I have also had to stare at an ugly covered chair, for going on as long as well.

Not a good look!

So, I am outsourcing!! I found a local girl, who does amazing upholstery work, and I'm just going for it! Dropping everything off in two weeks from now, and poof! the work will be done. *happy face!*

A project I will NOT quit, is my cabinet refinishing project. Ooh, boy, did I ever dive in the deep end. But, it's going to rock.

No going back now!

Already, it's awesome. Sand, wash, prime, paint, paint, paint...

Sparkly Knobs!

Did I mention I hate painting? Well, it's actually not that bad, since I am working in tiny sections at a time.


It's going to be so bright!

By the time June is over, my cabinets will be like new. In the fall, we're getting new counters, which have already been measured out. Why so long? Well, a)it's nice to be able to pay for things in cash, and b)we have a handy family member who is going to install the counters for us. Waiting is a win-win situation!

Also going to be ripping out the old tile, and replacing it with white subway tile.

Lots on the go, and thankfully cookies have slowed so I can actually focus :) Of course, I really should be planning that walk!! http://onesmallstep.fpwr.org/dw/walking/location/927

Everything changes as it grows...

Mint, cucumber, chocolate mint, chives, thai basil, roma tomatoes and rosemary!

Bleeding hearts, and one of the cool painted rocks from the previous homeowners.

Jason's favourite painted leaf plant

Polkadots!

The location of our soon-to-be-built fairy garden

Azaleas in bloom

The bees love these little flowers

My ever-changing veggie bed

The purple cabbage is going to be massive

The blackberry bush survived transplant!!!

Planted Irish Moss to eventually fill in between the pavers

Blueberries and the beginning sprouts from my Pollinator seed blend

We will definitely have blueberries this year

He does all the work

Strawberry patch #1

Strawberry patch #2

Starting to plug up their tubes! Happy little bees :)

This bush smells AMAZING

We have flowers of practically every colour

Deep purple...

...even blue!

These little flowers are my favourite

Another popular bee hangout

Who knew that our boring ground cover would explode in bloom?!

And that's what May has brought to our garden.

Another surgery down. Another night in ICU before we go home. I am so thankful it is over.

Ellie got her adenoids out today, and new tubes. Surgery went really well, but it took about three hours for her to wake up. Three long hours, of brief moments of Ellie wailing and flailing and being miserable.
Then, she woke, and she was happy. Happy until she realized she was connected to an iv pole, and had been reunited with all her probes. She's sleeping, it's 6:30pm. Dinner was terrible, but she ate it without complaint.

Home tomorrow. Please, please don't let her catch watch the people around us in "isolation" have.

Ellie is three!!

Ellie and Elsa

 The past couple months have been so full of cookies,  I am overwhelmed at the support and response they have gotten! I really love decorating them, but I'm finally past Easter,  and ready for a break!

This was only half of the orders I did!!

 I have a couple orders every month in my calendar,  and plan to do a bunch of prep work in my downtime, like stocking up on royal icing transfers,  and making a rainbow of sanding sugar colours.
I am going to host a few beginners decorating classes,  which I am sure will be lots of fun! 

These were so fun to do

Adult Paint-a-Cookies

Engagement Cookies!

Looking a couple weeks ahead to Mother's Day, I am not taking custom orders. I am going to have some sets available,  all depending on how much time I have that week. I enjoy the decorating most when I have free reign over the designs.

In non-cookie news, my garden is thriving! 

It is so lovely, watching everything growing. I have thinned my beets, chard, carrots, and radishes.  In two weeks my radishes will be ready for harvest!! I have already been enjoying bowls of spinach and arugula.

So yummy.

  I have learned only to plant one seed per hole, because almost all of them sprout! I tested it out after being disappointed in having to choose between which beet colour I would leave in the ground.  Haha, the silly things that stress me out. Well, 15 of the 16 seeds I planted in my second sowing sprouted! No thinning,  no deciding.  It's all good!

Yesterday,  I planted the kombucha seeds from that awesome pumpkin I bought last year. Excited to see if they grow. I also planted some random squash seeds from the kids' great-grandpa! I only planted enough to grow three plants if they sprout. We can only eat so much squash!

At the beach with Daddy

Ellie had her third birthday! How did I miss that?? Ha, that's kind of a big update.  We didn't really have a birthday party, Easter and dh's birthday were on the weekend and we were partied out. We just had a little grandparents dinner, and that was that. Next year! 

Ellie's "cake"

On her actual birthday,  she had appointments with ENT and audiology. She is scheduled for surgery on May 14th. Tubes and adenoids.Here's hoping that the surgery goes well, and that her apnea is improved. I know it won't affect her central apnea, but maybe she's on her way to outgrowing that! 

She's so excited to be starting school in the fall, you wouldn't believe how much she enjoys just the drop in preschool!

Focused
That's about it for this update :) 

As promised...

Add caption

Happy

I’ve been thinking a lot about the things that make me happy. I get a lot of joy from making other people happy, and my cookies have been so great for that! I’ve lost track of my March orders (you should see my calendar!) that I’m not sure where I am in terms of fundraising. All the money goes to a special spot, and at month’s end I  pile it all together and send it off to FPWR. We’re definitely over a thousand dollars, which was my goal for the whole year! To be honest, after Easter I’m hoping to slow things down a lot. I have a real job, and kids, and other things to do.

I have been thinking about happiness, because on our block there is a little boy, Connor, who is dying of brain cancer. He is three. Our community has been outstanding at raising funds for the family, so that the parents can spend as much time with Connor as possible. I baked 4 dozen cookies, and raised $430 for them. That was amazing, but sad at the same time.  I think about Connor constantly.

Jason and I were talking about Connor’s diagnosis, and I brought up that any of us could have our life snuffed out tomorrow. All it takes is someone not paying attention at the wheel of a car! What that family has, is what most of us don’t get, advanced notice that the end is near. If you knew that your life, or the life of someone you love, was ending soon, wouldn’t you spend as much of the time you had surrounded by the people you love, doing the things that you love? Why don’t we all do this?

I started baking because it’s something that I really like to do. I’m doing it too much to enjoy every moment, so I’m going to take the summer off. Maybe not off completely, but definitely down from the 4-6 orders I have had every week for the past month.

For the past two days, the weather has been glorious in Vancouver. Stunning. I have a long list of cookies to bake and decorate, but they need my full attention. I have off cookie days, where I don’t want to be doing them, and it shows. I’ve learned that if I’m not in the mood, it’s better to wait until I am. I definitely don’t think I could do this as a full-time gig.

Because the weather was so lovely, we started working in the garden. Jason mowed the lawn, and I cleared the flower beds. He built my vegetable boxes for the backyard, and I installed my Mason bee house. Yesterday, we stopped at the nursery, and bought the soil and compost to fill the boxes, which I did. I also marked out the planting grid, and installed a trellis for the climbing plants. We started on a HUGE project of straightening out the back flower bed, to reclaim grassy play space for the kids’ new climbing structure. We replanted about a hundred plants, and pruned, and weeded. I had a grin on my face the whole time. I loved every minute of working the ground. It was intensely therapeutic.

I can’t wait to plant everything, to watch it grow. I am so looking forward to hanging my clothes on the line again, and tending to my veggies, while the kids race around the yard.

Ellie is amazing, as ever. She is adventurous and talkative. Right now she’s sporting a scuffed up nose, thanks to a face-plant off the side of a slide at the park. She’s full of personality, cheeky, and hilarious. I can’t believe she is turning three is a little over a MONTH. WHAT?!! I’m not ready, I can’t believe the last year has gone by so quickly.

I’m looking forward to spring break, and to having time together as a family. I love that Jakob loves school, but I miss him so much, and he is maturing so much. He can understand so many words in French, and is starting to be able to hold simple conversations.

I have photos to upload once my laptop stops updating.

 

My goal for the next month is to do something that makes me happy, every day. Life is too short to waste doing things that don’t!

It's almost March?!!

I have been so busy! Like, mind boggling, can’t believe it busy. Since I started with the cookies, around Christmas, I’ve managed to bake enough cookies to raise $725! In addition to $600 in extra donations from some ladies that are so incredibly kind, we have already raised $1325 towards Prader-Willi syndrome research. THIS IS HUGE!! My goal for the whole year was to raise $1000 in cookie sales.

March 2^nd marks my first Farmers Market. I thought it would be a great idea, and a way of getting my name out there. OMG. I wish I would have known how busy I would be just on word of mouth sales! I baked almost 200 cookies this weekend, and decorated and packaged them. We also went to three birthday parties, and somehow managed to stay on top of housework. (My hubby is the best!)

I have one order to finish tomorrow, for a fun baby shower, and then the craziness of baking for a market begins!

 

Ellie is amazing as ever, although we are struggling with unwanted weight gain. It’s hard to see her gaining when it feels like we’re doing everything right. Definitely time to cut the carbs, because this little Chiquita has no business having wrist rolls!

 

I’ll post photos of my cookies and the littles when my computer decides it wants to cooperate!

In any case, I just wanted to say Hi to those of you who still check in here! I hope you’re doing well!