SOMETHING NEW!

So my 'something new' was Cupcake Wrappers !!! I'm really excited about this... our friend Emily, whose wedding was a couple of weeks ago, was having trouble finding cupcake wrappers in black that didn't cost an arm and a leg.  So, after working with some different templates I finally found one I liked that matched her vintage theme and made them for her.  And the great thing is, I can make these in any colour to match the wedding theme, as well as patterned cardstock.  Here is a picture of them with her cupcakes.  More details on the cake website (right hand side).

Something fun coming.....

So I have branched out, of sorts, with regard to wedding cakes.... only in a little way but I'm quite excited about it.  There is a bride who is getting married this weekend, who couldn't find an item that she wanted at an acceptable price.  So, after experimenting a bit I am now making (well, in this case have made) the item she is looking for..... and I think I will have it available for future brides who wish to order it from me in the future.

But you will have to wait until after the wedding day before I post any pictures.  Wouldn't want to spoil it before the wedding day :)

And in other cake news, after not being pleased with the Shaw web page I had for my cakes I now have a new cake website.  It's only one page as it's using Blogger which has some formatting restrictions.  But it does have a gallery and directs everyone to my email address for inquiries, pricing etc.  Check it out on the right hand side if you haven't seen it before.  It's basic but hey.... it's also free ......

OUCH! Band-Aid off.....

Well I finally did it.  I've been threatening to for well over a year but I finally bit the bullet and took care of business.

I just closed my Facebook account.

I LOVED facebook (as those of you who were my friends can attest to....) for many reasons; quick way to get hold of people, GREAT way to share photos - especially with friends and family out of town and great way to 'escape' from work for a moment or two.

The problem was multi-fold - there are 'friends' who aren't really friends, if you know what I mean, and things were getting a bit weird with a few of them.  Not creepy-weird just, 'you shouldn't normally know that about me' weird.

So, as I realized that too much information gets shared on facebook, and it is too easy to waste precious time that could be had with my family instead, I've opted out.  The thing I think I will miss the most is the free advertising for my cakes business.  So, if you have any friends getting married, please feel free to pass on my info to them!  I may add a facebook business page down the line but for now we will just stick with the old blog.

And so as not to leave my family photo-less in the process, here are some photos from teen camp in July.  Super-smooth camp this year and, as usual, SOOO much fun.  Cheers.

Banquet on the last night - 80's theme!

Beautiful baptisms, Jonathan our babysitter and then the kids 2nd cousin Ethan Richmond

Our great group of counsellors (shame about the shade....)

Waiting for their turn on the inflatables.

The 'other baby'

By now many of you will have heard that we finally purchased an item that Darrell has been dreaming of ever since I've known him.  We are now the proud owners of a boat.

When his family was younger they owned a boat along with 2 other families and enjoyed many good times together cruising around and exploring new worlds.  I have to admit, I had to be coaxed into this.  Never having been a boater (except for cruise ships!! haha) I wasn't exactly 'onboard'.  Pardon the pun.  But now that it made its way up to Victoria from Bellingham, and had its inaugural launch, and subsequent first sailing, I have to admit it's pretty fun.  And I am relishing the thought of my children spending more time with nature than they currently do in front of screens.

We took 4 boys out to celebrate Zachary's 11th birthday and that really has been the only trip thus far due to our crummy weather in May.  June is looking up!  A quick jaunt over to Sidney Spit for the day and immediately everyone seemed more relaxed as they ran around the sand looking for eagles and snakes.  It is really beautiful there and I can't believe that with having lived in Victoria for two separate stints of time, I had never made it over there before.

Now we can plot trips to Friday Harbour and various Gulf islands we have yet to visit.  Fun.

The Vegas Rundown

Ok Lou - here's the lowdown on the hoe-down.....

Vegas was a hoot. We left on Thursday afternoon; got there just before supper and immediately hit up the MGM buffet where I thoroughly enjoyed seafood (my first mistake...) and tried a new fish, swahi (2nd mistake....).

Then my sister arrived around 9pm so I met her in the MGM lobby, took her to our room to unpack etc. and we joined Sherry and her friend for some fun at Studio 54. It was fun to go dancing; I only ever do that in Victoria if it's a wedding reception or my own living room. But Anna and I both love to dance and....good cardio workout!

Friday we basically walked the strip, visited M & M world, the Coke shop (so cute, everything Coke) and had a delicious lunch at the Paris hotel. It was inside but Paris is designed to make you think you're outside. Delicious salad. Late that afternoon I wasn't feeling super-fantastic but put it down to a late night and all of the excitement. Anna and I then split off from the girls and went to do some of our own shopping - there are amazing shops in Vegas and I bought a really cool top from the BEBE store. We went back to the hotel to shower and change and the others were still busy so we decided to do our own dinner. I was dying to try the Wolfgang Puck restaurant in our hotel so Anna and I got dressed up and hit Wolf's for some yummy eats. We had a hoot; we always laugh our heads off when we're together and since she was sans children it was a relaxing time for both of us. I had a delicious clam linguine (3rd mistake....) and she had this incredible steak skewer thing. After that we hit the piano place at New York New York and bumped into some Victorians (didn't know them but they recognized us form the plane) which was hilarious because the pianos were having a Canada vs. US music dual. One would play our anthem, then the other guys tip jar would be topped up and he would overtake with the US anthem. Then they played America the Beautiful vs the Good Ole Hockey Game! Very funny.

Saturday morning - I woke up feeling ROTTEN ! Darrell said I should not have chosen seafood when out of town.... he might be right. Anyhoo - Anna was an EXCELLENT nursemaid and got me water, told me when and when not to eat and took me outside to sit by the pool and get real air. The MGM is really smoky because the ceilings are shorter than other hotels and we forgot they can smoke there. Anyway, this was to be the big shopping day but I felt so rotten that we let the other 2 go on ahead and we caught a cab down there when I felt a slight improvement. Darrell would be glad that we got there 3 hours than originally planned as I only spent $127 !! But, did get some cute little bargains.

Well when we got back to the hotel I felt brutal and this was the night of the concert. I actually cried for a bit in my hotel room because the concert was the sole reason I booked this trip to begin with. Sherry's friend suggested some Pepto Bismal which I hadn't tried yet and Sherry said they could text us after the opening act which at this point now I didn't care if I missed one bit. Well PRAISE THE LORD for Pepto Bismal because within 20 minutes I felt SO MUCH BETTER! Down Anna and I headed to the arena (fortunately it was in our hotel.... which we couldn't believe because it was huge!) and BON JOVI DID NOT DISAPPOINT! They played straight for 2 1/2 hours and I was so impressed with the musicianship and the show itself. An uneventful flight home the next morning (although I was nervous about my stomach) ended a super fun trip.

And an unexpected bonus, as I didn't eat from Friday night to Tuesday morning, I also lost 4 pounds !!!! (don't get too excited....they're all back now ;)

Las Vegas....

Las Vegas was a blast. Bon Jovi was incredible. Girls weekend away was refreshing.

Oh - and don't eat seafood while out of town. Wolfgang Puck will be getting my bill.......

Blessings and Thankfulness.....

It’s been a busy couple of weeks around these them parts…….

But I wanted to post about a moment that happened a couple of weeks ago. It wasn’t becoming my favourite weekend – first of all I got an ENORMOUS steam burn on my right arm as the lid slipped off of the pot of pasta I was draining over the sink. I was leading worship that night at a prayer meeting and had to drive to the church with a bag of ice shoved into my sweater sleeve. Not so practical……

Then on Saturday morning I smashed yet another bowl in the kitchen (love tile, but not its consequences….). We seem to have lost a few dishes of late.

But the clincher was Saturday late afternoon. A few friends were over to watch the hockey game and as I played with Benjamin in the spare bedroom I caught my ring on the duvet and noticed my diamond was missing !!!! (insert heart-dropping-into-stomach here…..) So the hunt began. Me and and my sweet friend Jeni on all fours on the ground, hands scraping the carpet in the hopes of seeing something small and glittery jump in the air and catch our eye. The boys kept watching hockey which honestly made sense. Nothing was going to be found before the end of the period so they might as well enjoy it before I physically force Darrell to join the hunt post-game! Well the game ended and Darrell decided to tear apart the vacuum bag and go through every little speck of dirt there, as I had thoroughly vacuumed the house pre-game. And precious friend Helena, took to crawling around on my tile floor looking for a shine that didn’t come from my daughter’s beads scattered around our kitchen!

While they were doing that I took a flashlight and decided to check the driveway as I had run out earlier to get us all pizza for supper. And then the moment of immense thankfulness. And no, not because I found the diamond. As I was outside, frantically searching for my diamond in the concrete grooves of my driveway, it hit me. And I started to cry, a little uncontrollably. I realized that while I was using a flashlight to search for a sparkly gem in the night, people in Haiti were using their flashlights to look for ……. People……. I was overcome with gratefulness and thankfulness and a sense of perspective.

So I went back into the house and decided to have a cup of tea. Yes, it may seem like a weird transition but at this point I realized if I found the diamond, great. And if not, I had not one reason to complain or feel sorry for myself. So it was tea-time.

After our friends left, Darrell was still searching through the vacuum dirt (& coughing as now it was affecting his asthma….. love him!) when he suggested I vacuum the house again. (Insert tired, exhausted sigh on my part). This was the LAST thing I wanted to do. The house was clean and I was tired. But, I have to admit it made sense. Well wouldn’t you know, after I re-vacuumed the downstairs, then hit my bedroom, I vacuumed my closet floor and heard a little ‘clinkle’. Don’t ask me what a clinkle is, but that’s the sound it made! I went to the kitchen to persuade D to stop working on his bag and instead open mine. And there, in the middle of a small pile of dust, was my diamond!!!!!! That man is so smart sometimes…….

So we gathered the kids and all prayed and thanked God that He cares about the little things that matter to us. And we all said how blessed we are to be healthy, and alive. (insert Mummy reminding the kids that only ONE leper came back to thank God for healing…. Tee hee)

And PRAISE THE LORD – I just learned yesterday that our little Haitiian sponsor girl, Sannodra, was unaffected by the earthquake – YAY!! Life is Hard. But God is Good. All the time.