oh 2011...

Last year I wrote this post on getting ready to celebrate the beginning of 2011. I just read over it and remembered that I had a bucket list. I said that it had 14 items on it, I am not sure why... it only has 10.

Let's look at it shall we?

1.Get Ola crawling by Christmas. Well she isn't crawling, but she is a butt scooting machine. I count that as done! The main goal was to get her mobile and we definitely did that!
2. Teach Poppy the Alphabet. With the exception of missing M and N occasionally she has it! Done!
3. Lose 40 lbs by Jan 1st 2012. Ha! I wish!
4. Go to an auction (not a tool one.) Umm nope, just the livestock one and I am not counting that either.
5. Learn to ice skate. (When I wrote this we had ice skated twice in the weeks leading up to new years and I think that I was going to become the next Nancy Kerrigan or something. I didn't do this, but I did do THIS and it involves skates... I am taking another one! Done!
6. Learn how to use my camera properly. Nope. Still haven't mastered that one yet.
7. Complete 500 miles in 2011. Nope. This was related to the weight loss.
8. Get the dolls selling in at least 3 stores. Nope. I got the dolls in two stores, and then with the sales being poor I backed out.
9. Smile more. Gawd I hope I did this
10. Stop worrying about the wool in my eyes. I am not sure what I was talking about?! hmmm wool in my eyes? Maybe it had a deeper meaning a year ago, I have no idea. I don't remember specifically having a problem with wool in my eyes :)

This year I am not making any resolutions... but there are things that I would like to do.

Here are some of them sprinkled in with some of my favourite photos, and moments that I am thankful for from 2011.

1. be strong enough not to cry when I am going in for my surgery in the new year
2. tell my girls and Mark that I love them everyday and take a moment to give them a good hug
3. blog more :)

Getting Ola in a great highchair that helped her learn how to eat on her own

4. teach Poppy how to ride a bike
5. teach Ola how to hold a bottle
6. teach myself how to not over cook a soft boiled egg

getting out with the wildlife

7. make time to be crafty
8. master crocheting enough to actually finish an afghan
9. sew a zipper into something

finally getting Instagram on my phone whilst getting my hair done

10. stop biting my nails so I can paint them pretty colors
11. get my makeup done
12. get my hair dyed red

Ola watching and soaking up every little thing

13. do more baking with Poppy
14. maybe let Ola help...
15. make eggs benedict once

Part of the birthday invitation for Ola's first birthday

16. learn how to smile as big as Ola
17. take more photos

Poppy slipped and fell in the muck in the chicken coop declaring that "you arn't a girl farmer until you've slipped and fallen in a chicken coop!"

18. set new goals for Ola this year
19. set some for Poppy too
20. get away for a weekend with Mark

Ola on her first birthday sitting up all by herself!

21. run a 5km (run)
22. keep on doing bootcamp
23. remember what September felt like

sitting at a pre-school concert admiring the ground

24. try meditating for a month if it doesn't work out that's ok
25.  do a spin class
26. get another tattoo

5 generations of ladies!

27. meet a new friend
28. keep making time for old ones
29. visit my grandmothers more

fun at sports day

30. encourage Poppy to be brave
31. encourage myself to be brave
32. remember to take deep breaths

adopting this little stinker

33. hug a cat, even when you want to strangle him for knocking over your jewellery box
34. go to a quiet beach where we can find sand dollars
35. visit the island

beach date with just Poppy

36. make a big sandcastle
37. sell some more chicks

having my chickens unknowingly hatch out turkey eggs!

38. make more yummy cakes, but give them away
39. make more yummy cookies and give those away too

always making a homemade birthday cake!

40. make a few donations
41. teach the girls about making donations

having fun at our local thrift store

42. continue learning sign language with the girls and make a bigger effort to use the ones we know
43. make Ola a quiet book
44. do a tutorial on a quiet book

self discovery

45. sweat more
46. get on a bike
47. get anew pair of sunglasses!

finally being strong enough to make myself feel better

48. come up with some new craft ideas
49. re-invent my craft persona

taking part in the fieldstone vintage market

50. get my pink back

dying my hair super power pink!

51. give Poppy more credit as a great big sister, trust her more with Ola
52. sit back and watch more

the girls sharing their first cart ride together!

53. take more deep breaths (did I already say that!)
54. go for a walk on the dykes

having our family photographed for the Tiny Light Foundation

sharing a car ride with the happiest kid on the planet! imagine turning around to see this every time you are driving!

55. go to a big concert
56. go to a little concert

being with Ola for her ear tube surgery, and thankful that she is healthy

57. teach Ola to say MaMa
58. celebrate more birthdays

celebrating birthdays

59. make the girls costumes again
60. make myself a costume

realizing that I have an octopus as a daughter!

61. let Poppy draw on my face with makeup sticks just because she loves it so much

family night for Halloween!

62. teach Poppy how to embroider

getting a new tattoo that means a lot to me (more on that in the new year)

63. go to an auction and buy something that I want but don't need

had an awesome year!

64. have a fantastic year, and make sure I take the time to enjoy every moment I can!

*EDIT* January 1st I thought of a few more

65. eat from a food truck specifically the Tacofino one!
66. run that annoying 1.5 km warm up in less than 9 minutes!

a merry christmas craft tutorial!

I have wanted to do a tutorial for so long! at last I have found a simple yet effective Christmas craft that I want to share. It is super simple and if you want to make a few they are reasonably cheap!

Step 1: My bristle brush trees had a ugly white plastic base that I didn't want on top of my car. So I pulled it off and rolled up a little piece of brown felt to make the tree trunk and secured it with hot glue.

Step 2: Hot glue your tree to the roof of your car. Using bakers twine or string tie the tree to the car. I wrapped the string around the wheels and then secured the string to the bottom of the car with hot glue.

 Step 3: Set up a little scene and play with your little car for way too long!

Step 4: Place your car in the jar and add snow until it looks like just enough. Cut out a pretty piece of paper to cover the lid and screw the ring on.

Step 5: Place on the mantle, or on a bookshelf and enjoy!

I seriously LOVE these winter jars! I went crazy and made a ton of them, you can see from the pictures that I did a bunch of different things, but basically I used the steps above. These are so simple to make, it literally takes 5 minutes.

Some of my favorites...

I read that you can bleach these little trees so I tried and yes you can! It looks a little dingy white, but with a little dye can you imagine!? the little polar bear was from the small toy section in Michaels. I used an empty jar with water and a tablespoon or two of bleach to turn them white. I kept my eye on the trees and swirled them around in the water/bleach mixture until I liked the color. 

I love the cars and hunted through bags of cars at the thrift store looking for cars my friends and family have to give as gifts.

The tractor is my favourite one of all. This one is for me!

Yup, it's official I love these cars!

I will be keeping my eyes open all year long for knick knacks to put in winter scenes for next year. I will be keeping my eyes open for little gnomes, foxes, wolves, and tractors! I will also be looking for Mason type jars through the year too, I much prefer them to up-cycled jam and pickle jars.

This project came from a mish-mash of ideas that I was wanting to do. I originally had seen snow globe jars on Pinterest for putting gift cards in. I wanted to make those for the gift cards I am giving at Christmas but was nervous about putting expensive gift cards in water. Then I thought I would just make snow globes, but I heard that the green bristle trees I wanted to use lose their color in water so that wouldn't work either. (They do by the way, I tried before bleaching out the white one.) Still wanting to make a snow globe type thing I made these!

I am daydreaming about next winter already!

I really don't like it when bloggers won't tell you where they found their supplies. So here you go!

Mason Jars: Local thrift store (not Value Village) .30 cents each with lids.

Buffalo Snow: Michaels $2.99 with a 50% off coupon! one bag did all 11 jars, plus I still have some left.

Deer, Mushrooms .60 each, .20 each respectively, from Scoop and Save which is a cake decorating store. 

Bristle Trees- Michaels has packs of 22 trees and with 50% off coupon I paid $16.  

Paper- I had in my stash

Toy cars- local thrift store .25 cents

Depending on what you put in your jars, you can do this for under $4 a jar! Fantastic I say!