Saturday, February 16, 2013

Zinio + Automatism

Lucky me!
I was a winner on one of my favourite design blogs - automatism! Thank you so much, Lori!

And I won my favourite thing ever! A magazine subscription! Well, a digital magazine subscription :) 

It was a giveaway sponsored by Zinio -- a full year's subscription to the magazine of your choice! I already subscribe to Living Etc and Mollie Makes on Zinio so the one that I said that I wanted was Country Living UK -- such a pretty publication, that I occasionally buy in print. There are so many others that I wanted, but I thought that this one would make me the happiest!


I still read plenty of magazines in print - there is nothing nicer than the feel of quality pages in your hands (hello, uppercase you are the best!) -- although I haven't really been buying many during my year of frugal (which is continuing into it's second year!). I only bought magazines last year that I had already committed to through my local store. I have to admit though, that my blog reading and pinterest gives me as much eye candy as my brain can handle.

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Very proud mama :)

My daughter, Miss L, is so strong! She is a competitive weightlifter :)
Here she is at her most recent competition!




She is a very multi -faceted person. Her University degree is in Forest Conservation AND French Literature. She is completely focused on having a healthy mind and body. She loves to thrift and is quite crafty. Check out her blog, reverdie. 

She makes the sweetest hooked ornaments!



 












Saturday, February 09, 2013

Happy Weekend!


After our little snow storm yesterday, today has turned into a BEAUTIFUL day! The sun is shining, the birds are singing.... we can't get our car out of the garage :) .... Tomorrow I will be heading to the Love and Rummage Sale at the workroom. See you there?


Wednesday, February 06, 2013

Big News!

I'm going to make my summers more simple. Well... perhaps they won't be so simple this year, but in the future?
I'll be slowing down and spending the summers in Nova Scotia!
(We bought a little summer house)


I really look forward to walking out on the wharf in the morning with my tea and just taking in the view and the ocean breezes.... hopefully I won't be running and cursing the dreaded Nova Scotia Mosquito!(who I have met and battled before. I'm pretty sure that the mosquitos won)(they are horrid little buggers - you slap them and they just give themselves a shake and then fly off)

This wharf is a 5 minute walk away....



If you know Nova Scotia at all, I'll be on the south shore..... the closest beach is Carters Beach. It is about a half hour walk away -- just a few minutes on my bike!


The prettiest beach on the coast (ok, that is very subjective. My mom says Beach Meadows is the nicest... and yes, Beach Meadow is a very pretty name). Do you know the beaches in Nova Scotia? Which one is your favourite? I'll check it out :)

A special thank you to Mr. B who was very supportive of this crazy dream.... and to my mom (partner in travel)...  and to Sara who enabled me :) and lived vicariously (and sometimes in person!) through the searching, the viewing and the purchase!

Source: flickr.com via Martha on Pinterest

(all of the photos here are from my Nova Scotia Pinterest board -- the photo above with the quotation is another view of Carters Beach)


(photos of the house and property will be posted as soon as I get back there to take some)(that won't be until the summer, unfortunately :(  The family who sold it to us will be living there until the summer. I can't wait to show it to you! Especially some before and afters.
And I can't wait to see Sara and John and their menagerie again -- and to meet some of my NS blogging friends in person! Especially Amanda Pedro - who relocated from Toronto a few years ago. If you live in Nova Scotia, please let me know!

Sunday, February 03, 2013

Living a kinder life

Some people out in bloglandia are focusing on kindness.
Jane LaFazio is doing The Kindness Chronicles -- the first Sunday of every month. I'm going to try to follow her lead :)

For the month of February at school we will be focusing on Kindness -- I'm challenging the kids to perform 100 Acts of Kindness -- hopefully, after that we will be able to spontaneously give up some random kindness to our peers (and teachers)(and parents). Kindness is an important quality to impress upon the children, no?

How will I show Kindness? 
Well, this is one way:
Jane Davies is a collage artist and painter whose work I greatly admire (I even have some of her instructional videos as well as one of her books, Collage Journey). She owns a post office in a small town -- Rupert, Vermont. The United States Postal Powers That Be have cut the hours of service and will potentially close this very cute little post office! She is trying to show the Postal Powers that her PO is needed. -- she has to show that it is bringing in revenue (I can't help with that) and also showing that it has a healthy volume of mail. That's where she needs some help! She's asking people to send her an art postcard (to make this fun, right?). Read more about it here, and get Jane's address. She'll show your postcard on her blog, and if you are fast enough, she might send you one in return!