Homemade Pirate Costumes!

I am so thrilled with the costumes that I made for my kids today that I had to share them.

My daughter's school is planning a costume day - the theme is the sea.... my daughter decided she wants to be a hula girl or a mermaid. I am not the best seemstress in the world but I can make some basic things but a mermaid tail... out of my league. Although a hula girl would be fun.. she wanted to wear her bikini with it. Well, she goes to catholic school - they can't even wear tank tops in the summer so I had to help her get new ideas. I thought little girl pirate!! She said NO!!!!

We headed to our local Value Village and went looking for fabric from an old dress we could turn into a tail - we are all about recycling at our house. Nope! She did not like any of them. I was secretly thrilled. So, we were heading to another part of the store when we passed the shoewear section... I told her lets look at the boots. Pirate girls need boots -she said! She found a wonderful never used pair of boots and was very excited that I would buy these boots for her! Then we went to the girls clothing section found a great pair of pants and amazing blouse - very traditional - perfect pirate wear. Then to the accessory section - where they had a perfect red sash! We were both ready to head home to put this costume together. We picked up another red scarf for a sash and a pair of pants for my son - he would want a pirate costume too! Put everything in the wash, a bit of tailoring to make them look like rags and ta dah.... here is our handy work!

4.99 for the boots, 1.99 for the shirt, 3.99 for the pants and .99 for the sash... throw in the pirate cap for our costume trunk and you have 2 kids who played pirates for 2 hours and one really proud mom!

My floors are all done

I am too tired to write tonight so I will just post photos of the flooring and the amazing grout my brother did today. It is looking wonderful! We are painting the dining/living room on the weekend while the kids are away. I even got caught up on the laundry that has been haunting me for the past week.

Kitchen is almost done

Things have been progressing really fast. I am really pleased my brother who is doing most of the work is in between jobs so he has lots of time to spend helping us. He doing an amazing job. He tiled our backsplash - he will be back tomorrow to grout it and then he (with his girlfriend and my husband) takled the floor in the family room. It looks amazing.

I have always had a problem with this family room. It is sucken room at the back of the house. It just drove me nuts. It was always dirty. The kids always ate in there and made messes! Now it is so lovely and calm. The floor looks amazing. My kitchen and family room now are really starting to look like an open concept room and I love it. We are still working on the small details but they are a piece of cake compaired to the flooring.

This week he tackles the floor in the dinning room/living room!!!

Finally a floor!!!!

My brother and husband took on this project and did an amazing transformation. We removed the terribly ugly vinyl floor - the discusting subfloor. Out went the terrible trim and baseboards and down came a beautiful ash floor. Just totally transforms our house. They put in an amazing ceramic floor in the entrance. I was wanted to remove that disgusting pink ceramic tiles from the day we moved it.

I love the new floor but we worked so hard on it. We were cleaning up at 4:00 Saturday morning. The dust was everywhere but I was so thrilled. The kitchen finally looks like the kitchen of my dreams.

Finally the kitchen makes me happy not stressed or miserable.

Give the coalition a chance....

Why should I restrict this only to my house... why not my House of Commons!
The PM did this to himself... give the Coalition of Liberal and NDP members give it a try... if it still does not work then an election is in order. Last time I checked Steven Harper needs the confidence of the House to govern and he lost it a week ago!

Canadian Tire should pay for my physio

I decided to use this thing to vent... to vent about the Canadian Tire commercials... you know the ones with the lovely family and their prelit christmas tree... decorating together drinking hot chocolate... listening to Christmas carols...

Well that is what I tried to do... tried.... I had taken the day off work to do laundry, clean up the house and get everything in order after a busy weekend. I convinced my husband that we should get a prelit tree this year. We normally get the natural tree... you know the kind the perfect natural tree... the crazy branches everywhere with needles falling all over. The kind that smells so beautifully!

No.. not this year... those Noma ones are so easy and clean... I decided to head over to our new Canadian Tire and pick up a Noma prelit tree to surprise my kids when they got home from school. I dragged the box home in my Subaru and drag it into the house... then to the living room where I put the darn thing together... the whole 7 1/2 feet thing! It was huge and beautiful. Next connect the light... flash back to the lady at the store "Oh no worries, this is very easy... just plug in one to two then three and away you go" huh... what one... number two... where would I find said numbers to three... then to the wall? So, I pull and and pull finally think I got it all set... plug it into the wall... meanwhile I can picture it now... the kids come into the house and they see the beautiful tree with the beautiful lights and they smell the homemade cookies that I made them... nope darn thing won't light. So, I do it again and then again... only to see that 3 branches don't work... do I turn that side against the window so no one can see it.... Wow looks beautiful... then I start to think... tree cost over $350 dollars and it does not work right. That is a very expensive dud of a tree. Screw it... I say to myself and take the darn thing apart back in the stupid tree... stuff it into the box... and drag it back to my car. Did I mention the box weighed about 70 lbs... did I mention I have a bad back... So, I drive back to the store and line up at the return counter. In line I notice 3 other people with noma prelit tree boxes... I was not alone in my frustration! I get my money back and since I still want my kids to think I am the best mom in the world.. get another tree... no lights this time put it up and cook some pilsburry cookies before I picked them up for school!

Still working on the house...

We are still working away on our house... painting the cupboards and planning the small renos we want to do. We painted the cupboards a great cream colour. We used the Benjamin Moore melamine paint. I suggest if you do this do it when you can open the windows or better yet paint in the garage. It is very smelly. We try to use VOC free paint and we really had a hard time with the paint but the finish on the cupboards is really great. Very washable and durable - which is perfect for us.

We also took down the small half wall in the kitchen and openned it up to our small family room. This is wonderful! We know have a view of our fireplace from the kitchen (a dream of mine) and the sunshine in the kitchen is just glorious.

So, have a look at the new photos of the cupboards and opened wall. We are waiting on putting the new floor in (hopefully right after christmas) I am thinking hardwood... I am not sure... I will know what I want when I see it!