Sisters

These two girls are just in love. Gracie almost smothers Emma with it and Emma laughs for no one else like she does her sister. 

I have a ton of pictures of one of them in focus and the other blurry however, because neither keep still very well..

Love between sisters is a special thing. These girls are pretty lucky to have each other. 

Mouse!

Yep, after surviving the Russian Olympic Mice that hounded me in Lake Louise, swearing that no mouse would ever get into my lovely, mouse-free home in Edmonton, one snuck in. There have been a lot of door issues of late, and I'm assuming it literally just walked in, saw all of our crap and thought it stumbled across mouse heaven. 

He was wrong. 

It's been suggested that he may have actually been the same rodent who first eluded me in Lake Louise, but he didn't seem to have patchy hair.... 

I had traps set everywhere. Three kinds of traps. Five gallon pails with a bit of water in the bottom and a handy ramp so they could quietly fall to their death. 

I used barley, peanut butter, almond butter, chocolate syrup, cheese, cheese whiz, raisins, anything I could think of to lure that sucker in, but nothing worked. 

For weeks he scurried around infecting everything in my house and leading me to gut my kitchen, bleach every surface possible and toss anything that may have been contaminated.

My kitchen was a disaster.

My husband wasn't home for much of this infestation, and when he was, I'd love to say he was helpful... but he was definitely the epitome of Canadiana. Picture a Mountie, holding a hockey stick, preparing to slap shot it into the wall if it appeared. Canadian, eh?! 

Helpful? Nay.

I was on my own.

I caught nothing but a three and a half year old. 

Luckily, I caught her with a sticky trap....

So, I called in the pros. I'm not real proud of it. I would have been the first to die on Hunger Games based on my trapping abilities, but when he was caught, I still hummed 'Eye of the Tiger' for the next week.

Now, my house is mouse free. The kitchen is put back together and I got a spring cleaning like none other done. I guess it worked out.

If you ever run into a mouse who refuses to be trapped, apparently chocolate icing is the trick.... who knew.

What our life looks like lately...

Brad has been busy with work. Teaching courses, training days, hanging off helicopters, just your average stuff.

Emma is growing every day! She is smiley and likes to giggle and laugh and loves to watch her sister. 

We made some rhubarb cake the other day to make it feel spring-y-er (yep, that's a word). It was yummy, but it's still wintry outside.

 Gracie is also ready for warmer weather, perhaps by the time the warm weather hits, she'll have her goggles on properly.

I've got a lovely, springy view in front of my kitchen window and if I look quick, with the sun shining in, it makes me feel like there isn't still snow in my yard.

PS. Thanks Curtis, Brandi and family for the tulips! They are beautiful.

Quick Layouts

I made two quick layouts a few weeks ago with an older line of Basic Gray papers. 

I'm sure Brad will love the use of pink on his layout, but he's got two girls now, so he's got to get used to it sometime. Our lint trap is hardly ever grey anymore after laundry!

A few patterned papers, a few quick stickers and elements, a title and done!

Both of these took less than 30 minutes from start to finish.

Spring Walks

We go on lots of them. Rubber boots, winter boots, winter coats, sweaters, mitts, no mitts, it's impossible to dress for them, but once we get everyone organized and get out the door, watch out world! 

New pink rubber boots.

Good boy.

Too cool for school.

Gracie can't resist the thin ice. Who can, really?

My view.

Buddies.

 Rubber boots and runners today.

Watercolour Butterflies

I loved the butterfly stickers from My Mind's Eye in last month's kit from Treasured Memories, but I wanted more of them, so I made some of my own. 

In the layout above, the actual stickers are the striped butterfly and the notepaper butterfly. I made the watercolour butterflies using the negative space from the sticker sheet and some ink mists.

Here's one of the negative spots from the sticker paper. I cut it away from the rest of the sheet, peeled it off and stuck it to a piece of heavy cardstock.

I gave it a few spritz' with some glimmer mist and Lindy's mist and then a spritz of water to blend the colours together, then I let it dry a bit.  

You have to let the mist dry a bit so it doesn't bleed when you remove the sticker, but the faster you remove it, the more likely it is that you'll get a second use out of the negative, before the adhesive is too wet and loses it's tackiness.

Once you have your butterflies, cut them out, fold them in half and curl the wings a bit, and you've got your butterflies.

TM layouts Part 2

Since all of my projects last month were of Emma sleeping, I had to change it up this month. I even have a layout with a picture of Brad and I on it, with no kids.... gasp. Rarely am I in a picture, as I'm always behind the camera, and it's extremely rare to take a picture that isn't capturing what Gracie or Emma are doing lately.

Love this one. It was my favourite. I'll do a how to post soon for the watercolour butterflies. Cute and easy, my go-to style now.