Salvage

The first time I visited Salvage, Bonavista Bay was over twenty years ago and with a former boyfriend ('ex' seems harsh - he was a nice guy). His father's family was from there. I have a very vague recollection of the visit and his grandparents home but a vivid memory of the town itself. The community was stunning and quickly became one of my favorite places on the island of Newfoundland. It had retained much of its original character with brightly painted stages and stores, many built on posts over the water. The rocks that the town was built on and between was equally lovely and its marriage with the seascape incredible. Always an ambassador of our province's scenic beauty, I have often encouraged people passing through or staying in Terra Nova National Park to head down the Eastport peninsula and visit Salvage.

You can imagine my delight when Salvage was part of our family summer holiday plans. Salvage has changed a bit since I last visited. There are fewer stores and stages, though there is still one in particular pitched on stilts that had my mother concerned for its occupants safety. However, its scenic charm is as strong as ever.

My other visits to Salvage have been to visit community members or to take a scenic drive. This time we got out of the vehicle and went for a hike along one of the 'Old Trails', a set of scenic hikes along old routes and paths to resettled communities or scenic look outs. We took the 'Doctors Pond' trail which led us past the salt water pond, to the cemetery at Burton's Cove and onto Net Point, named for the herring nets set underneath the point at sea level.

It was a gorgeous way to spend a few hours for all of us. The boys were particularly impressed with the humpbacks off Net Point.

The only cloud in an otherwise clear blue sky day was that we lost Iain's croc somewhere that day. Despite a thorough search, the sandal was nowhere to be found. This detail probably seems insignificant unless you know my oldest son and his shoe problems. The crocs actually belong to Aidan but after trying on fifteen pairs of sandals and Mommy giving up before we left for holidays, that croc had become pretty important.

NOTE: Please excuse the wonky layouts of some of these posts. I am posting remotely which does not allow me to format. The pictures are also not in chronological order. At. All. Grrr...

Happy 16th Anniversary!

Happy sixteenth anniversary, DH! THIS is the way to spend an anniversary -Terra Nova National Park in 28 C weather cloud watching and making new friends with most of my favorite people in the world.

A Short Family Holiday to: Alberta

In case you noticed (and at least one did - thanks for the MARCO email, M!) there was a commercial interruption in blog posts last week. That's because we took a much overdue family holiday and I couldn't freaking wait. It was the first time I had been on an airplane in almost a year and I was starting to get VERY twitchy from the lack of travel. You know, the kind of travel twitchy that convinces two usually sane adults that travelling with a four, two and eight month old three quarters of the way across the continent for just five days sounds like a good idea? If you are interested in some of what we experienced, one of my SILs, Liffey, sums it up nicely here.


However, we hadn't seen our good friends and godchildren in a dogs age (that's a long time to you CFAs) and I was desperate. We hadn't seen their new-to-us-already-lived-in-for-five-years-to-them house. We hadn't seen their new to us vehicles. Our godchildren are almost grown up and DH and I had not been back to Alberta together since leaving for Germany in the summer of 1998. 


The proverbial straw, however, was that we had not been on a family holiday in over a year and a half and, even if it was going to be short, it was going to be worth it.


And it was worth it. TOTALLY. Despite the fact that we flew stand by (the way our family is able to get seriously inexpensive tickets through DH's work) resulting in some minor flight and seat shuffling each leg, despite the fact that Aidan threw up all over himself at the Toronto airport resulting in a fresh and newly purchased wardrobe for the day (and the bin for his original outfit), despite the fact that the five days were, without a doubt, Finlay's crankiest ever (we blame his teeth - his first two in the front on the bottom are now up) or that Aidan appeared to have a bug and his getting sick at the airport wasn't just an airport thing, etc, etc, our trip was fantastic.


It was such a good time that I didn't even have time to take many pictures. I'm hoping my wonderful friend with the fancy camera in Fort Saskatchewan is going to forward me some decent pictures (hint! Hint!) but, until then, here are a few cute ones of the experience:

Waiting at the St. John's Airport

Not sure what they're talking about but I'm pretty sure the conversation began with Iain asking "Why...?"

Finlay's first flight. Despite this picture, he did not sleep for the entire flight. Nope. Mr. Nosy Pants here socialized with everyone who came within four feet of his Royal Cuteness.

Our trusty steed. No, I'm not being sponsored by them.

Waiting for DH to pick up the rental vehicle in Edmonton.

DH's finely honed engineering skills put to good use.

Aww, brothers.

On the stage at Fort Edmonton. The boys first time, mine and DH's second. Still amazing for young and older.

One of our handsome godchildren.

My beautiful girlfriend.

Everyone enraptured by a horse and carriage going by. These are our other two beautiful godchildren.

Turns out old tree stumps bring out the actor in Eldest!

I had to add this picture. This is how you tell who your good friends are. Aidan had another accident and we spent the rest of the day trying to dry out his cleaned underwear on top of the stroller and our friends continued to walk next to us like they knew us. Even the teenagers didn't complain. Wow.

Taking a break on a perfectly located bench.

It was shameful how little attention Finlay got on this trip. Truly shameful ;)!

The colourful burlap near the top of this picture is a colour coded burlap for hooking a rug/mat. I was involved in a brief tutorial on how to hook a mat with the volunteer at the covered wagon. Hookers: not just another pretty face ;)!

Elk Island National Park. The boys were THRILLED to see these.

On the flight home.

I'm the monkey in the middle!

Most of these pictures were taken using my iPhone. This is the face I get from Finn each and every time he sees my phone. What a ham!

Here is a run down of the things we saw other than the great visit with our friends and despite the lack of photographic evidence. We also visited a local splash park in Fort Saskatchewan, the waterpark at West Edmonton Mall (and to say that Finlay loved the water would be a gross understatement), and, be still my beating heart, IKEA (be thankful I'm not including pictures of the displays)!


We still love you Alberta and We. Will. Be. Back. Even if I can feel the province shudder from here...

Deadlines

It is amazing how much I manage to accomplish either before DH gets back from a business trip, company arrives or just before our family goes away on a holiday. Just before either of these types of deadlines, my household 'to do' list triples. The one curtain missing from a six curtain set gets the fifteen minutes with the sewing machine it needs and up it goes. Artwork collecting dust in the closet for a year or more gets hung. Suddenly it becomes imperatively important to accomplish tasks that were previously only pipe dreams.


Invariably I do not get to cross out everything on my new and increased list. But I often do get a couple of things done that leave me with a great feeling of satisfaction.


Take these for example. 

I found these on a tutorial from Melissa's Sew Like My Mom blog. This fantastic lady taught me to make two bibs in about thirty minutes and that even includes the couple of interruptions from the boys.

Finlay has totally outgrown any of the bibs I used for his older brothers. Something about him being HUGE for his age (in the cutest way possible I might add). The day before a recent trip, it became imperative that I make a couple of these bibs (yep, crazy).

So cute!

Easy peasy and cute as a button. Best of all, he cannot rip these bibs off like the ones with the velcro backs I was using (and stopped using for this reason) and make the back of his little neck sore.


These bibs provide great body coverage too. I foresee many more of these being whipped up for a few of the special babies in our lives.


If you're looking for a quick, cute and inexpensive baby gift, look no further.


Thanks for the awesome tutorial and pattern, Melissa!

I Bore Myself...Yawn!

When DH gets home at supper time and asks what we did all day, I give him a summary. When anyone else asks me what we've been up to, invariably I answer "Not much." Seriously, does anyone really want to be involved in the minutiae of my daily life which involves the wiping/cleaning of at least three human arses/other bits, the remnants of two feline arses, picking up toy, food or play messes, the hand feeding of three boys (because ever since Finn began eating solid food getting fed by Mommy is the Thing. To. Do.), the eternal laundry, the cleaned at least twice a day (and that's a good day) toilets, and on and on and on. Unfortunately, all of this activity results in me not really being able to carry on a conversation that doesn't involve one of the afore mentioned topics.


Most of my friends have full-time jobs. They get up in the morning and, after the initial scrabble out the door getting their children dropped off, go off to work in an environment that requires a regular shower, having presentable hair and reasonably professional looking clothing. Frankly, I have no idea how they do it but have a healthy dose of admiration for them. And it is the time between their children getting dropped off and picked up that really, really intrigues me. I suspect that these working outside the home parents go to the toilet without an audience (what's that like???), have the opportunity to drink a warm cup of coffee/tea/hot chocolate and maybe, just maybe, have conversations about things other than children, viruses that affect children and the amount of laundry created by children.


Before I had children, I used to talk about to my friends about things like running, long distance cycling, curling (if you haven't tried it, go sign up now. The most fun you can have on ice as far as I'm concerned though I'm a bit biased. I don't like hockey), knitting, quilting, the most recent book I read, the news (which I virtually ignore now. Too depressing), etc...but I could be wrong. That was a time before three deliveries, two surgeries and three fairly significant bouts of post-partum depression so my memory is a little hazy. Now, I talk about my children and am probably turning into a very boring person.


So next time you see me in person, be prepared. I will be talking about my children, what recent antics they've been up to, what they've destroyed, and their most recent cute/funny/rude comment either to a complete stranger or a friend/relative who wished they were a complete stranger. I should have mental capacity to talk about some of the topics listed in the previous paragraph by oh, say, 2022 or so?

2012: A Year of Handmade

Warning: The contents of this post is a spoiler to someone on my regular gift giving list. Reading further will spoil the surprise for your upcoming birthday or Christmas present. Don't say I didn't warn you.

I don't know what happened but I stopped making a lot of handmade presents a number of years ago. Wait. I do remember. I got knocked up in 2008 and spent the next nine months throwing up. There's something about having your guts ripped out of you every few minutes/hours or so that just seems to stifle creative thought or action. Who knew?

In an effort to become more frugal and to spend a little more time on something I love (crafting), I have casually labelled 2012 as my new "Year of Handmade." I miss giving handmade gifts. I miss thinking about the person I am making something for, wondering if they are really going to like what I've made. I miss really really concentrating on what that person likes and making something extra special that I have put heart and soul into and spent valuable time on. 

If I manage to gift only two handmade things this year, that will be a 100% improvement from last year and I'm happy to introduce item number one.

This is Laura Chau's "Just Enough Ruffles" scarf. If you have lots of time it would be a quick knit. It didn't take me too long to knit up either. I used the gorgeous Eco Duo from Cascade Yarns (70% Undyed Baby Alpaca and 30% Undyed Merino Wool) that I purchased at my former LYS (Local Yarn Store) A Good Yarn. This is a lovely, easy pattern and knits up into a gorgeous result. I will definitely be knitting another one in the future and there is just something so satisfying to know that I knit 600 stitches in the last four rows. Aaaaah!

Liar Liar

Finlay is getting to the stage where we are trying out new soft food and drinking apparatuses (Finn doesn't use a bottle. I'm a nursing mama and there's not been anyone around consistently enough to get him used to using a bottle. Yes, that's a dig, DH ;)). The search for something for him to learn to drink out of resulted in me rooting around in the water bottle cupboard seeking out appropriate liquid containers. And, looking at the wealth, it brought up a subject that just makes me mad, children's drink container manufacturers and their claim to have created a 'leak proof' container. To that I have only one word to say - bullish&t.


Here's a peek:

Yup. This is 'organized' on a good day...

Between ourselves, our friends and families, we have spent hundreds of dollars trying to find a beverage container that doesn't leak. We've sprung for environmentally friendly containers, not-so-environmentally friendly throw aways (which we have to start getting rid of as Aidan, at the ripe old age of almost three, is STILL teething and biting through a cap a day on those one use wonders...that we use for much, much longer than one use. We do wash them though). The only time some of the bottles we've invested in don't leak is when they are not holding liquid. Some of the caps do keep liquid in. Most of the time. But even those are a problem because, if you screw the caps on too tight, they usually leak. Especially if they contain juice because dried juice is sticky and each of these containers were made with a healthy dose of Murphy's Law.


So, I'm throwing out a challenge to the blogopshere. Have you found a child friendly liquid holder (one with handles for an 8 month old would be great but not mandatory) that doesn't leak? You are going to have to be convincing though. By the number of containers in this cupboard, you can see that I've had the wool pulled over my eyes a few too many times and I've become beverage container purchasing shy.

Imagine what I could have spent this money on instead. Yarn, fabric, chocolate...