this is random

When do you switch from baby shampoo/soap to regular shampoo/conditioner and soap? I just realized tonight that Porter is almost three and I am still using Johnson's Head-to-Toe Baby Wash on him. Am I stunting his growth? When should he graduate to the other stuff? 




Also. I searched Johnson's Head-to-Toe in Google Images and this came up.

Makes perfect sense right?

silly Google

Share A Meal Monday

Do you love curry?! I love curry. I don't love smelling curry in my house for a week after I've made it though. That's the only downside.

This is a very simple curry recipe, it's like curry for beginners. If you're not sure how you feel about curry give this a try, it's simple and mild but very tasty. 

Chicken Curry

2 Tbsps margarine

1 tsp curry powder (I add more - we like it a lot)

1 onion chopped

2 cups cut up chicken

1/2 cup apricot jam

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 soup can of milk

Melt margarine. Cook curry powder and onion in margarine. Add chicken and cook. Stir in remaining ingredients and simmer until hot. Serve over rice or potatoes.

The verdict is in

Alright dudes, I'm doing it. She's going under the knife. She's getting some lipo, a boob job, a tummy tuck and a face lift. Well, maybe not all of that but she is getting painted an amazing shade of mustard yellow. Thank you for your input and opinions. I think we've made a good decision.

sewing kit turned jewelry box

When I found this baby in a thrift shop in Surrey I didn't think I'd be able to get her home for a make over any time soon. I thought I'd have to wait until we drove out there or until my parents drove this way. I was wrong. With my momma finding the perfect box and my dad doing an incredible packing job I sent this gem home on the plane with me. I couldn't wait to get it taken apart and glammed up a bit.

I used a screwdriver to take it all apart - my dad informed me a butter knife is not an acceptable tool for such jobs. Whaaa? When she was all in pieces I lightly sanded the whole thing, primed it with spray primer and began the spray painting.

When I placed it all back together I noticed that the tops of the boxes -where I purposely didn't paint- were showing and it looked really terrible.

I didn't have any spray paint left so I considered my options. I could either go buy another can of paint, carefully tape it off and spray the edges or I could run to Michaels and try and find a craft paint that matched. I chose the latter and couldn't believe the amazing match I found. It's EXACTLY the same color.I carefully painted the edges and then had my brother in law understudy husband replace the hinges.

When everything was good and dry I put it all back together (with a screwdriver) and attached the adorable knobs I bought from The Jasmine Room.

I am so thrilled with how it turned out. I think it's adorable and much prettier than the drab box I purchased.

 And because we all love a before and after:

WIWW Sisters Edition

As I mentioned I was out on the coast last week and THAT means I got to see my sissy!! I LOVE this girl. We are 2 peas in a pod, 2 pigs in a blanket, 2 fish out of water, 2... however the saying goes, we love each other. I asked her to join my WIWW cause she makes everything cuter. Here is what she and I wore the week we got to spend every. day. together. If we could always be so lucky.

I'm not going to break down the outfits for you but I'll tell you that a lot of Sharon's wardrobe comes from this awesome consignment store called Labels and when we went together we definitely did some damage. I'm a little jealous I don't have one here at home. Here's our WIWWSE!

**Oh, and uh, I may really like my new red belt!**

Friday
My awesome thrift store find - read about the tag :)

Our cute glittery toes

Saturday

Sharon made her cute top. So, she's adorable and talented. Thanks for leaving some good genes for me....

(although she did make me a shirt, I'll post about it later)

Sunday

Monday

We were lucky enough to have my BFF Sharlee join us for Thanksgiving so we made her get in the picture too. Oh if you could hear girls talk: "I didn't know I was going to have my picture taken!" "It's raining, I would have done my hair curly had I known." "I wouldn't have worn these shoes if I knew we were going to do pictures outside." You get the idea...

Tuesday

Sharon found these shoes at the thrift store that day. Score! 

And a little WIWW with our dear Granny. She's almost "eighty bloomin' five." Still looks great huh!

Wednesday

And I got to wear this beauty a little later heading out on my daddy's bike.

Aaaaaaand this is what Neil got to wear!!  Bahaa!

What a great week and thanks sister (and Shar!)  for joining in my WIWW! 

I'm linking up with the other gals at the Pleated Poppy. 

Have a great week!

Am I missing something?

 I am seeing a trend that I just don't understand. It comes in the form of this

 and this

and this

What is it about creasing a pillow right down the middle that I am totally missing? Someone fill me in here. I see it all over the place so I trust that it's the thing to do but don't you think a full fluffed pillow looks so nice? When I look at this all I see are rabbit ears or like really pointy cups on a bra. Well?!

I'm clearly missing something.

SAMM

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving last week (for my Canadians...) and obviously I was thinking more about EATING good food than writing about good food because I completely forgot to do a SAMM. Here we are back again!

I know I started this linky to share MEAL ideas because really I'm a terribly uncreative cook buuut if I do say so myself I am an awesome treat maker. I have recipes and recipes of delicious goodies that are tasty and fattening. I love making goodies and usually have something sitting in a pan on the counter. I've already talked it over with my thighs and we're cool. So although this recipe isn't for a meal it's something I couldn't call myself a true friend unless I shared. I got this recipe from a friend back in tha day and it's really one of my favorites. I made it last week after not making it for over a year *gasp* and trust me that won't happen again. It's fast and simple but it is quite the work out for your arm, although then you don't have to feel so bad about your thighs. :)

HOMEMADE EATMORE BARS

1 cup honey

1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

1 cup milk chocolate chips

1/2 cup peanut butter

2 cups chopped peanuts

1/2 cup coconut

1/2 cup wheat germ

Melt honey and chocolate. Slowly mix in peanut butter. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Smooth onto a greased cookie sheet (I usually grease my fingers as well as I press it down.) Refrigerate. Cut into squares or strips and ENJOY. And oh, you will.

Would you dare?!!

I am having a little inner turmoil here and I need your opinion.

This dresser sits in my front room. 

 ( please ignore the cords and the PS3 paraphernalia, she's acting as a TV stand while my basement is sick.)

It belonged (belonged? is that right!?) to my mom and she used it for her clothes her whole life growing up. Apparently it sat for years in our basement until a family friend took it and refinished it. He brought it to me a couple years ago as he didn't want to house it any longer and he felt it should stay in my family. I have enjoyed the piece but feel it doesn't do much to liven up the room.

Here's where the turmoil begins - I see all these great furniture re-dos and think this would be a perfect piece to make over. I have dreams (and maybe even the name of the paint...) of turning it a beautiful mustard yellow (trust me on this) and adding pillows to my couches to tie it all together. NOW - do you think I would have to be absolutely deranged to mess with this piece, especially given it's history OR do you think yes, it's a nice piece but if it's sitting in the middle of your living room you've got to love it, make her over! I'm a little torn, I'm not gonna lie. There's definitely something to be said about leaving an antique alone (not that I consider this an antique, love you mom!) but there's also something to be said about making a piece something you actually love. I just don't know which I feel stronger.

Someone just tell me what to do.

Some thrift store finds!

One of the fantastic finds I made while thrift shopping on the coast was this shirt.

I bought it for the tag alone. The fact that it is adorable is just a bonus. 

On the inside it reads:

Made in China. Dry clean if you're rich, hand wash if you're poor, spray with cologne/perfume if you're lazy, or just throw it in the machine.

Don't you love it? Don't you want to wear it just so you can take it off and read people the tag?  Hm, maybe that's weird. 

I also found this piece of joy.

Do you want to see it in AQUA? 

So do I!

Honey, I'm home!

And I love flying! Oh my gosh, I am so grateful we did not drive that trip, 12 hours there and 12 hours back! There's really something to be said about flying. Aaaaand not only do I love Westjet for making my vacation back-pain free and kids-screaming-in-the-car-pain free, I love them for holding on to the carseat strap we lost on the way there. When we arrived and were putting the carseats into my dad's car we realized that one of the straps was missing. My dad went back in to inquire about said strap and they could not find anything. We did without it all week and when we got to the airport yesterday to fly home we hadn't been in line for more than 2 minutes when one of the attendants approached us, asked us our name, and told us they had our carseat strap! They found it after we left, looked up our names (narrowing it down as we flew with an infant) and then looked up to see when we'd be back to fly home and held onto it until they saw us come in. Seriously. Is that not some incredible customer service?! We were SUPER impressed. Thank you Westjet. And thank you family for an awesome week.

I can not WAIT to show you some of my finds.

I'm away

- enjoying time with family and friends in this beautiful part of the country. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and we're having a traditional Todd dinner - mmmmm, roast potatoes. Stay tuned for some awesome super fun projects (I am spending time with my sister....) and for some WIWW Sisters Edition.

Aaaand I just want to say fabric shopping in the States is SINFULLY cheaper than shopping at home. I just might be moving...

Getting Older

• At Easter I asked my sister in law what happened to my niece because I looked over and her jeans were all ripped and torn. She informed me that that is how she purchased them. Right. Check.
• The first time I tried to use the DVD player with headphones in our van I had to call my 15 year old brother in law and ask him how to do it. 
• I walked out of a store in the mall this summer because the music was too loud and obnoxious. 
• Staying awake past 10:30 is something I'd rather not do and staying awake in a movie started after 8 is basically impossible.

Share A Meal Monday

THANK YOU to everyone that linked up last week! TEN links on the first week, that's awesome! I got some great ideas and I really liked it that a lot of you linked up with meals you make often, or that are easy and cheap. Everyone kept saying, "It's not really fancy but....." but aren't THOSE the meals we're actually going to make?!! Thanks for linking up and I look forward to this week's menus too!

Here is a recipe I use often. I really like it because you can dress it up or keep it simple. I got it from my Granny Todd so that makes it extra special. I'll give you the recipe my Granny originally gave to me and then the options I added to jazz it up a bit.

Mexicali Chicken

chicken breasts cut in strips or chicken pieces

1 onion sliced

red and yellow peppers, sliced

3 tsp chili powder

1 can tomato soup

Brown chicken, stir in onions, peppers and chili powder. Stir in tomato soup. Put in a baking dish and bake at 350 until chicken is tender. Serve over rice.

*Optional*

I add some cumin and cayenne pepper because my husband likes a little more spice and flavor. I also really like to add a cup or so of frozen corn and a can of kidney or black beans. I then top it with some sour cream and salsa.

Chair makeover

I always read about people finding treasures on the side of the road, in a back alley or on someone's front yard with a FREE - PLEASE TAKE sign on it and I always wish that happened to me. Well - IT DID! I passed a heap of stuff in someone's yard, close enough to the curb that it looked like it was definitely for the taking. Among that heap were 2 beautiful full-of-potential chairs!

Initially I thought of putting them both in my craft room downstairs when my basement is fixed (waaaa, would she shut up about her basement already?!) but then I had a better thought of putting one down there and one upstairs in my bedroom. If you're like me you have a cute husband that sits on the bed to put on his socks right after you make it and leaves creases and scrunches on your newly made bed. Grrrrr. So, this will give him somewhere to sit while he puts on his socks and it gives me something to admire every time I walk in the room. over. and. over. and then again just to make sure it's still super cute.

I'll skip a tutorial since I think what I did is pretty obvious - unscrew the seat, prime and paint the frame, recover the seat (adding extra batting), screw the seat back onto the frame and done! Easy.  

Before

 Adding a little spray paint
(I totally spray painted my sidewalk - anyone know how to get it off?!) 

After

 A better close up of the fabric

I look forward to finishing the other one as well. Almost as much as I look forward to having my basement back. Ok, not that much.

this is pretty darn intimate

We're friends right? So that means I can show you something somewhat embarrassing and we can just laugh at it together and move on, correct?

Well this is what my husband has gone to bed with and woken up to every morning for the past almost-six years. 

 Lucky man right?

 I wear a retainer to bed. You think it looks bad, you should hear me try and talk through it. My husband loves me. Well after *ahem* years of wearing this go-ahead-and-punch-me-in-the-face-I-won't-feel-a-thing retainer I decided I could treat myself to having new ones made. An upgrade to a hotter, skinnier version. I went on Tuesday to have my teeth moulded (that stuff is nastay) and picked up these bad boys yesterday. 

What? You say. Where? That's right, they're in there. New retainers for the year 2010. 

See? 

I'm obviously excited about this or trust me I wouldn't be posting these pictures, but I really think Neil may be even more excited than I am. Although, I think I'll keep the old one and pull it out for special occasions, he'll love that.

Ok, now let's pretend this never happened, we won't be talking about it again.