Quick and Easy Makeover

Popped into the garden centre on Sunday and they had buy two get one free on all silk flowers.  So I spent under $25, as I needed florist wire as well and did the following:

Started out with my plain wreath:

Bought three stems of silk Forsythia, cut them down into individual stems; only used two of the three stems:

Ended up with this, very Spring like:

Put the third stem in a vase in the house for a little Spring colour in the house. 

I was looking at Spring wreaths and they were $50 + for the nice ones.  My Spring bulbs are finally peaking through the soil.

Some photos.........

I did post these on Facebook, but will share with you as well.

Miss P turned 9 months old on Wednesday:

Both baby and mother are a lot happier due to getting more sleep!  Her favourite things in life are food, crawling and eating soil from the house plants.  She still has a "fetish" with the heating vents as well.

On Tuesday it was crazy hair day at daycare, and Miss N went like this:

She was a unicorn.  The "horn" is made of tin foil, shaped like a horn, with Miss N's hair wrapped around and and held in place with hair elastics and sprayed with hairspray.

As I said to dd, all Miss N's friends would love it and all the other mother's would hate dd for being an "over achiever!!"  She just laughed.

A quiz for you.......

It's harder than you think. Google is OFF LIMITS ! 

Every answer must start with the FIRST letter of your LAST name. Ready? Go!

Last name................ T*******
Animal................ Turtle
Girls Name..................Tara.
Boy's Name.............Thomas
Colour............. Turquoise
Name of Movie............. Titanic
Something you wear.....Top Hat
Drinks............... Tonic Water
Food..................... Toast
Item in bathroom....... Toilet
Place............... Train Station
Reason to be late....... Tripped up

Your turn.....

"Cheap" Hydro/electricity

(source)

I mentioned on Sunday I put my oven onto self clean as it was "cheap electricity" day.  As you can see above we are charged different rates for different times of day for our electricity usage.  Until April 30th 2017 this is what we pay:

Weekends & Holidays:
All day Off-peak $0.087 per kWh

Weekdays:
7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.On-peak $0.180 per kWh
11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.Mid-peak $0.132 per kWh
5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.On-peak $0.180 per kWh
7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m.Off-peak $0.087 per kWh

So I try and work around the cheaper times of day to use hydro in the house.  I can't always do that, but I do try to avoid using it on the on peak times if I can.

This is not a new thing and we had the same thing when we lived in Britain.  Our hydro bills are a very sore point here in Ontario as we pay an arm and a leg for hydro due to the "other things" they tack onto our bills.  In most cases the actual hydro we use is minimal, but add on all the other stupid charges and some people are having to choose between heating their homes and eating.

When we lived at our last house it was the delivery charge that killed us as more often than not it was more than what we had used in electricity.    Since we moved back into town the delivery costs are not as much.  

We generally average just under $100 a month for our hydro bills over the year.

I am quite sure you all have your own hydro/electricity stories......

Icky, Icky, Icky

Daughter sent me these photos the other day, knowing full well I would whine on about them.  I do not like this sort of thing........

I hate it when kids get all messy like this when eating.  I always have the dishcloth on hand when they eat over at our place.  Miss P is a very independent eater, so likes to be hands on.  Dd finds it easier just to let her get on with it so always puts food on her tray and if need be feeds her by spoon in between hands.  Miss N was exactly the same and I have a similar photo of her doing the same thing.

I still think it's icky......

I don't remember how long it's been since

I have done any sewing.  It seems forever.  

I bought a pattern (pdf format)from Thread Riding Hood  to make a child's skirt out of two fat quarters of material.  Both N's are into wearing dresses and skirts at the moment so I thought I would make a skirt each for them.

The pattern is so easy to follow and she gives you step by step instructions.  I did not use fat quarters as I had other material available.  Can't wait to give them to the girls.

As I liked this pattern so much I think I will have a look through her other patterns here and see what they have.

Cough, cough

Dh is at work today and as today is cheap hydro/electricity day, I thought I would put my oven onto self clean.

For those of you not in the know, what happens the oven heats up to some crazy temperature and turns all the stuck on bits to ash.  Three hours later when the door has unlocked you take a cloth and wipe it all out.  NO chemicals, just a lot of heat......

However despite no chemical smell and despite my oven not being overly dirty it still stinks while you are doing it, and I have to have the extractor fan on, so that is why it's helpful that dh is not about with his bad chest.  I love my self clean option as it kills my hands having to scrub things by hand now.

Do you have a self clean oven or do you have to clean it all by hand?

Things you notice when visiting other people's homes........

I was reading this article "The seven surprising things house guests notice when they visit your home (and why they DO judge you if it's messy) " which was featured on Daily Mail Uk.

1. Cleanliness and Mess
2. Bright Walls
3. Pleasant Smell
4. House Plants
5. Art and Books
6. Furniture Placement
7. Light Sources

To be honest they are not really a surprise.  

I always notice if people's houses are a mess.  Bathrooms are a pet peeve, as I like to use a clean bathroom.....

A bright wall always catches your attention; don't you think?

The smell of a home can go either way, stinky or overwhelming.  There is a happy medium when it comes to smells in a home.  The smell of something baking is always attractive.

House plants do look attractive if they look healthy, half dead ones don't; I think I would notice the half dead ones before the healthy ones?

Art and books; not thought about that before, if the artwork is a large piece than I guess I would probably notice it.

Furniture placement wouldn't be something I would notice as it's that person's personal preference as to where they want things.

I do notice light fixtures, only because there are some really nice ones out there, but if they don't catch my eye, I wouldn't notice them.  I do however light a decent light source for certain tasks.

What is something you always notice when visiting other people's homes?

Round and round my head they go...

you know those songs that you can't get out of you head like this one:


 well this song is stuck in my head now:
I thought it was Meghan Trainor but it was sung by Little Mix, who I know zero about. However Meghan did write the song. This song sung by Meghan is as catchy and very similar in my opinion and is now stuck in my head.  
 no need to thank me.........😎😎😎

(Insert rolling eyes emoji here!)

After doing more painting I popped out to run a couple of errands.

I went to Michael's, arts and crafts store to pick up some items for the little ones for Easter.  Went to pay for everything and I gave the cashier a 50% off coupon, which she used and then she applied a 10% discount.  Now being the honest person I am I asked her why she did that. 

Her reply," it's a discount when you are 55 or older."

My face much have been a picture, as she then said:

"You are 55 or close to it aren't you?"

I said yes, and paid for everything and walked out of the store rolling my eyes.........I have just dyed my hair for heavens sake.........I will be 53 next week, so I guess I am close.

Went to Chapters the book store after that and there was a guy in his low 30's in the store with a little fluff ball of a dog.  Got a little  closer to them and the dog had a harness on and it said service dog and in red words "IN TRAINING."

He was in front of me at the check out, so I said to him, "he's a cute little guy (the dog) what is he training to be?"

His response was that it's his service dog and the dog's training will be done when they have some certain test done.  Wasn't sure what to say after that, I just assumed that as the dog was "in training," it wouldn't have been assigned it's final owner, but I guess not.

The harness on the dog also had PTSD on it, so I guess the owner has been diagnosed with PTSD.

As my dh said the poor guy was probably curled up in a corner now having a relapse after dealing with me!!  Again I just rolled my eyes.........

Busy day for me, with all that eye rolling!!!😉

Hello my name is..

Gillian and my name means:

Girl name origins & meanings:

• Latin : Graceful, blessing; variation of Juliana

Girl name variations

• Gillianne, 
• Gilliana, 
• Gilian, 
• Gillianah, 
• Gillien, 
• Gillyan, 
• Gillyana, 
• Gillyanah,
• Giliane
• 
  
• What does your name mean, find out here and let us all know........
• By the way I am as graceful as a fairy elephant😕

Been a few days again......

Last week went by in a flash, and I am not sure why.

I was actually out and about a bit which was unusual for me.

I did a bit of clothes shopping for myself.....which doesn't happen too often.  Managed to use a $50 off coupon when you spend $100 and a $20 off coupon when you spend $20.  So spent less than $80 and got five pairs of knickers/underwear, a thick pair of winter tights/pantyhose, a skirt and a top.  All good quality and will last me for ages.

Had a morning out with all five grandchildren at Jungle Land  I must say I am not familiar with these indoor playgrounds, but if I had young children I would be going with them on a regular basis, especially in Winter when it is bitter cold outside.  The older three used so much energy and even the two babies were kept busy.   There were a number of other children there and lets just say other peoples parenting skills left a lot to be desired.  It also shows which children have learned how to share and which children need to work on their sharing skills!!!

Went to knitting and have now finished one side of my poncho.  Need to get back into it and work on the other side.  Pleased with it so far.

Had a run out in the car on Saturday up into Muskoka.  Hadn't been up that way in a long while, it was the road we used to go back and forward on to take our son back and forward to university, so brought back many memories.  It was bitter cold, but the sun was shining brightly.

For the next three days I am going to be painting our spare bedroom.  I have been "threatening" to do this now since the New Year, so finally going to do it.

I am getting back into doing Swagbucks again and have just cashed my points in for another $5 Amazon giftcard.  If you want to check it out and decide to join up, I would love it if you would use my referral link: http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/Appleby

I am going to be posting more on how I am earning/saving money shortly.