Change of Address

My blog has moved!  Follow me here: www.3urbanmonkeys.blogspot.ca.

Cozy Day

This is what we woke up to this morning.

A snow storm had blown in overnight and made this sticky, sloshy mess.  Huge snowflakes were falling and the roads looked not so great.  So rather than brave the before school traffic, we declared a snow morning and stayed in.  J was  more than happy to be home this morning with his sisters.  I’m glad he likes playing at home.

The kids are hugely into Lego in their imaginative play.  Each minifigure has a name.  I love that my boy as well as my girls love it.  This set up has been on the kitchen island for quite some time, being played with and changed up regularly.

We had a lovely special breakfast.  Dessert crepes leftover from last night’s supper.  Perfect to celebrate a morning of staying in.

Mmmm….heavenly.

The kids played hard all morning.  It was a joy to listen to the constant excited babble.  This particular morning, there was a parade with a Legoman float and a Pollypocket float.  You can see the excited crowd sitting on either side.

The Polly float was made solely by little C.  Looks like them and their pets are hangin’out and sunbathing.

It was explained to me that some of the legomen are doing spinjitsu on their float, the ones on the left in their little spinners.

While all this was going on, I took an opportunity to haul out a bin of fabric and cut some 4 inch squares.  I’ve been itching to make a patchwork quilt.  I have lots of awesome vintagey sheets and other bits floating around just waiting to be used.  I also want to make a Dottie Angel style skirt  with some of these remnants.

Thinking about recovering this lampshade too.  What do you think?  I scored a couple of these incredible embroidered table cloths at my last thrift shopping spree.

For lunch we had Japanese food.  These 2 ingredients are magic when combined with Udon noodles and veggies.

After an early lunch, we ventured to school.  By this time it had stopped snowing and the roads were plowed.  When we got home, C went for her nap and I went downstairs to my jewellery workspace, my happy place, and painted.  I love it when I have long periods of uninterrupted time to get into the zone, listen to the radio, and do my craft almost unconsciously.  I’m feeling more and more in my creative life the need and want to just create without worry about getting it exactly right.  To just go with the colors, designs and techniques that excite me in the moment.  To take risks too.

These pendants are only half finished.  They still need a stamp or drawing on top and a length of suede cord for wearing.

After school the kids picked up right where they left off and played hard some more.  I did convince them however, to take a break and make an Easter cake for dessert.

It was perfectly moist, perfectly iced, with the perfect amount of sprinkles.

 It was a restful and cozy day.

Barbeque Blizzard

I apologize for the lack of “Barbeque Blizzard”post.  So frustrating when words and pictures disappear somewhere into cyberspace.  Back when I originally wrote the post on March 31, I was talking about the crazy weather here.  One day warm enough to wear shorts and a t-shirt.  The next day, cold and snowy.  About a week ago, my good friend A invited us to go to the rivervalley for our first barbeque of the season for her birthday.

Nice barbeque weather, eh?  In the morning when I saw the fluffy white stuff I phoned my dear friend to ask about plan B.  No plan B.  She was determined that we were going to keep the plans for the barbeque and who am I to argue with the birthday girl?

It was f-r-e-e-z-i-n-g.  The kids were pretty excited though.  We dressed warm.  We packed the toboggans.

Do you see the baby car seat on the sled at the top of the picture?  My friend has a baby, 6 months old.  Boy, I can see an adventurous life ahead for this little one!  Did I mention it was so, so cold?  Our raw veggies froze on the table they were on.  The fire was awesome though.  Beautiful, cozy and comforting.

The deer sausage on a bun was most delicious…

…as was the popcorn cake.  This yummy stuff has oodles of butter, bits of gummy candies and chocolate in it.  (I think it’s sitting upside down in the container….you can’t see near enough of its yumminess from this vantage point!).

Here’s the gift I prepared for A – quite the contrast to our barbeque blizzard.  I had to save it and give it to her when there was no chance it would freeze in my vehicle!

My friend loves tulips and spring.  Her sunny disposition matches the season.   Since our winter barbeque happened, the snow has melted then come again.  I should be used to this weather by now, but the changes always catch me by surprise.  Come, Spring, for real, please!

Dresser Revival

A friend gave me her daughter’s old dresser.  Old and ugly, yet sturdy.  I could see lots of possibilities for this well loved piece of furniture.  6 melamine drawers in an off white beigey color…

…and a big mirror on top of the dresser in a brown-oak finish.  The body of the dresser was the same finish as the mirror.  I didn’t take a before picture of the main dresser piece. 

I primed everything then got serious with the spray paint.  Are you ready for the reveal?

………

…… ……. ….. ……..

Ta-daaahhhh!!!!!!!

Here’s some close ups of the knobs.

I purchased some cheap plain wooden knobs at Canadian Tire, primed them, and painted then stamped them in 3 Urban Monkeys style.  They were finished off with a water based sealer.  I love, love, looooooove how they turned out.  So do my girls who are the proud owners of this new piece of furniture!

Piggy likes his new home.

I was surprised at how much spray paint I had to use.  5 cans.  Smelly and more waste in the landfill than I’d like.  Next time I may roll on the paint instead.  Overall though, I’m thrilled!

 

 

Big Changes

It has been a long while since I’ve written.  I’ve missed it.  Everything has been unbelievably busy both in my thoughts and in my environment.  My family and I took a road trip to Victoria, British Columbia last week.  We left Wednesday after school and hit the open road.  The kids travel well at their ages.  We are the proud owners of a mini van with no dvd player.  We don’t have any mp3 players or personal electronic devices.  We have a cd player, each other, and windows all around us to enjoy the view. 

Beautiful, isn’t it? (except for the big crack in the windshield – gulp.).   You see, G and I have always talked about moving out of the province of Alberta.  Experiencing a different part of Canada.  Last summer while on a road trip to the Okanagan we talked and talked and talked about our dreams, our life, our happinesses, our sorrows.  It became somewhat clear that we’d like to take an adventure, you know, make that dream of moving somewhere else a reality.  And what better place than Victoria, British Columbia.

Breathtaking.

The flowers are blooming when it’s the dead of winter in our city.

Everything is green, green, green.

Then there’s the matter of the ocean.

The kids had a hoot collecting shells, crab skeletons, smooth beach glass and rocks.  We like Victoria because should we choose to stay there, the kids can go to university while living at home.  It doesn’t make sense.  Our families are in Alberta.  The people we know and love live in Edmonton, our home city.  But there is a sense of excitement in going to the unknown.  In starting over.  And so we will embrace it, that part of our hearts which  beat with wild ecstasy over this upcoming move.

On the way home we drove from spring to winter.

Heaps of snow.  Horrible roads.

It made me miss the Springtime that has already arrived on the coast.  But there is something comforting about coming home too.  So now being home, we will step by step get ourselves ready to move to a new home.  Not a better home, just a different home and another opportunity for personal growth.

Crochet covers

So, on Sunday while J was sleeping off his illness and I was still feeling under the weather, I lay around all day…literally.  It was quite a loooong day, lying there on the couch.  I did get up once to have a few Beyblade battles with J in one of his more lively moments but other than that I lay there like a sack of potatoes…and crocheted.  It was “just because” crochet, “I’m bored and restless”crochet, crochet for the sake of crochet.  The idea started awhile ago with Lucy’s crocheted herb container over at Attic 24.  What a brilliant idea to make attractive storage out of what would otherwise go in the recycle bin!  Then I got thinking about other items I could cover.

A milk carton, a kleenex box, a YOP yogurt drink bottle…the excitement was almost too much for me to bear!

So simple.  Just crochet around and around in the colors that delight you.

A perfect little container for my bedside table.  My precious items are in there – a pet rock and a sock creature which were gifts from J on mother’s day the last 2 years, and a beautiful origami box that J made for me which I keep my ear plugs in.

ooooooooohhhh!  aahhhhhhhhhhhh!

Lucy put a plant in hers, I’ll put my rainbow collection of fine tip markers in mine.

For this one, just decrease stitches when it gets narrower.  It was “tried on” many times for a snug fit.

I took these flowers from C’s room – one of her finds from the Reuse Centre.

The color is exhilarating, isn’t it? 

 

Mosaic box

We are having a lazy, sick Sunday.  I am wheezing and sneezing but again enjoying the slowness that comes with illness.  Poor J is coping with a fever and has dragged our bed cover to the kitchen and is buried under it.

Yep, he’s somewhere under there.  M is feeling fine and decided to go fishing for whales this morning.  The yellow bone is her bait.

Now she’s brushing the whales.

G decided to go to church without us.  C is playing with her Barbies.  So while everyone is occupied, I thought I’d take some time to show you my latest finished project.  What is it, you ask? (oops, I guess the title of this post gives it away!)

A little closer, please.

Okay, enough teasing, here it is.

A wonderful mosaic box.  Cost?  Some elbow grease.  Results?  Beautiful storage and a ton of satisfaction!

This box was oodles of fun to work on.  It is such a simple idea, suitable for adults and children alike.  M got quite excited about this project and dove right in.  Her box is not quite finished but here’s what she came up with.

All you need is a box, some old magazines, some Mod Podge or white glue, some paint (if you like), some lace (if you like) and a glue gun (optional).  I used a random cardboard box that I found in the cave of doom (the basement).  I thought it was a little tall so I cut it down a bit with a knife.

Then I ripped up magazine pages into 1 inch or so squarish shapes in the colors I liked and glued them on with Mod Podge. 

As you can see in the picture above, I made sure to make the pieces wrap around the corners of the box.

I found some interesting images and cut them out to mod podge on top of the mosaic pieces on each side.

Then I put a coat of Mod Podge over the whole box to make it shiny and seal it well.

The inside of the box wasn’t looking so pretty so I decided to put a few coats of white paint on the inside.  After I’d done that, I still wasn’t 100% happy because the edges looked rough. 

So I went hunting in my stash of lace and found the perfect piece to finish off the edges.  I hot glued it down with just a bit showing on the mosaic edges and the rest folded onto the inside edges.

The perfect finishing touch.

While the rainbow colors of yarn look lovely in my box, I think I’ll use it to store the cds that were strewn messily on the bookshelf a minute ago.

It adds some pizazz to the shelf doesn’t it?  Ignore the messy basket on the left,  pretty please.  I’d love to make more of these.  I’m thinking different sizes, perhaps playing around with fabric liners?  The possibilities are endless!