Tagged: ottawa

awesome gift #2: record bowl

Natasha made me an awesome record bowl. Katrina and the Waves, of course!

Such excellent proof that cool presents don’t have to cost lots of money. A thoughtful DIY gift means so much. I love it.

Scott had to work a weird shift today so I’m on my own at home tonight. Enjoying it thoroughly actually. Watching bad TV, and probably a movie later that he’s already seen.

Monica and Brad were stayed with us last night. We met up with them at Broadway Station Sushi, and then came back here for Settlers and catching up. It was fun. I love having so many visitors here…. one of the perks of living in Vancouver, everyone seems to stop through here!

Oh yeah I changed my blog layout again. Yet again. I’m quite happy with it at the moment. I just have to make a nice header photo and then I will be a lot more content. I never really fully liked the last layout.

Um um um I thought I had more to say, but I forget it all now. Until tomorrow!

awesome gift #1: name drafts

I’m a bit embarrassed at how long this took me to do, but over the holidays I received a whole bunch of really awesome, thoughtful gifts, and I really need to show them to you. My friends and family are awesome.

I think I’ll just do them one a time, maybe one per day.

This is a name draft, made by my family friend Jac. I think they look pretty cool even without an explanation, but they’re even cooler when you know what’s going on!

Basically he takes our full names and puts them into a computer program he wrote. It spits out a design and then he weaves them on his weaving loom in our favourite colour. The pattern is based on our name going from the outside to the inside, on all sides (mirror image).

Scott’s is the green one on the left. His is bigger because he has two middle names that make his name very long. Mine is on the right in purple.

My favourite part of the weaves is that since Scott and I have the same last name, the very inner part of each of our designs is the same! I haven’t checked, but the inside of Rosemarie’s, and the one Jac made for our mom should also be the same. So cool.

Jac and Laurie made name drafts for us, Rosemarie, and the Monnon kids and their partners, and put them in these nice frames for us to display. This was such a nice gift, something that I will keep forever. Thank you Jac and Laurie!!!!!

spring action trampolining

We went trampolining while in Ottawa. The girl who was checking us in asked if we had ever been there before. We said “YEAH!!………. in 1999″. Jeeze it has been a long time since grade 9. I remember all those afternoons busing downtown, picking up a taco at Taco Bell or a samosa from the market, and then doing our hour of trampoline lessons with Sean.

Sean wasn’t there this time. Also trampolining was a lot more tiring than before!! We still did alright though, cautiously trying our old tricks.

Super Strong Sarah Swan

I bounce so high.

Hehe this is a funny picture of Helenka.

Leslie has good form.

Show off David. I’m just kidding, I made him do these flips so I could take a picture.

point form and a few new recipes

What else have I missed.

  • Rosemarie and I went over to our aunt and uncle’s house and ate yummy thai food. I would love to have that soup recipe HINT HINT HINT.
  • Rosemarie left Ottawa to go to Toronto and I got lonely. It is weird being home without her.
  • Went out for a girly lunch with Cassia and her mum and Jane and Brenda. Our burgers were enormous.
  • I went to Ikea with Leslie and Cassia, and had meatballs for dinner.
  • My flight back was delayed and longer than usual because of headwind.
  • School starts on Monday. A 5 month long semester of 8:30-3:30 school. This one is going to be tough, I can tell. I am going to work really really hard though because although I did very well last semester, I want to do BETTER!

I know that is not the most appetizing picture in the world, but I just wanted to share that cooking macaroni and cheese in milk, instead of water WORKS. It was creamy and delicious. I followed this recipe.

Rosemarie left her syrup in the fridge so this morning I made pancakes. They were very fluffy. Who needs pancake mix!!

Today I am trying out my new slow-cooker that I got for Christmas. I’m making slow-cooker jambalaya. We’ll see how it goes!

picture catch up

OK I’ve got a whole hodge-podge of pictures and stuff to show you from the last couple weeks.

Here is me, trying to figure out how to play Wasabi, after receiving this game for Christmas. Luckily it is not too hard to learn.

After Christmas dinner I made sourdough turkey cheddar grilled cheese sandwiches for our lunch. Mmmmm sourdough bread is so nice. These sandwiches were delicious.

I painted picture frames to bring home for gifts. I got the frames for $1 and painted them with acrylic paint. I also had some varnish left over from something so I got to make them nice and shiny. Here are my bunting frames.

I also made a Settlers frame for Natasha and Richard.

And this is the chevron frame I made to match Cassia and Pablo’s apartment. I am really pleased with how this one turned out.

I forgot to give out the little sticks to put in the back of them to stand them up. I will mail you guys the sticks, ok?! Oops.

Here is the Ace Gang, at Leslie’s house. The first time we were all together in several years.

After New Years we all trekked out to Jac and Laurie’s house. They live 75 km from us!! It had been a long time since I had been to their house. It was lots of fun, we ate yummy tacos and talked and laughed and told old stories. We even Skyped with the Monnon’s in Florida. Laurie showed us some funny pictures of all the animals she took care of, and we even found a bunch of pictures of our parents. Even Natasha and I were in some of the pictures, as little babies.

the cottage painting i made for my dad

Here is the painting I did for dad’s Christmas present. You can click on the picture to see it a bit bigger. It has all sorts of elements (past and present) from our cottage. Little funny things from all the years we spent building.

It’s pretty large, 16″x20″ I think? Acrylics on canvas.

I started to hate it a bit when I was painting because I was struggling with painting something that is in a FORREST and also on a huge CLIFF, but dad calls it folk art style and really seems to love it. He’s shown it to everyone that has come over, so that makes me feel pretty good. I’m glad it ended up turning out ok.