My Last Ten Dollars

Let me clarify, first of all, that I am not so broke that I'm spending my last ten dollars. But I was just thinking, if I was, I would happily spend my last ten dollars on the latest Hawksley Workman album. :)

Thankfully I have much more than ten dollars left so I'll be able to both own the album and catch the performance of it sometime this year! (It's on my 25-before-25 list!)

Some Inspiration

I know I've gone on about our trip to Maui a few times now, so I knew I had to do some follow-up. Actually, who am I kidding, I just can't help myself from going over the experience now that it's through. We left Maui on Sunday night and I didn't want to leave. Looking at the pictures now I wish I was still there... it was so, so, SO amazing. Even the 1000+ photos I took (yes, that is the right number of zeros) don't do it justice. It was heaven.

So expect more than you ever wanted to hear about in the next little while because it's all I want to think about! At least I have something to post about... ;)

The Art Gallery

When we were in Regina visiting around christmas, I made sure Gavin and I took some time to visit the art gallery. Gavin gets plenty of exposure to fun stuff like sports from Mason and his side of the family and the activities that we have put him in. So I figure I need to balance it out with artistic things, since they hold a place as dear to my heart as sports to Mason's. 

It's been years since I visited the art gallery and who better to join me than Gavin? We had a run-in with a security guard over touching things right at the start, but things went smoothly from there on out. And at the end we came upon the learning centre where we built the "castle" pictured with Gavin above. We also made snowflakes and some ATCs. It was a blast. Oh, and it was free too!








PS - the 25 before 25 list

Hello Again

Happy New Year!

It feels like ages since I've sat down to type up a blog post, and rightly so. I'm glad I took the month off. When I decided to take the time, I did it because I knew keeping up with this would be hard, but in hindsight I know it would have been near impossible. It's good to be back, though. I'm looking forward to this year!

The one thing I did take the time to write up in December was a "25 before 25" list for myself. You may know that I'll be turning 25 in August, which is one of those more significant birthdays. I wrote the list up earlier in the month and had the chance to cross a few off on my break and a few apply to our Hawaii trip in February, so I'm not being really strict about it... it's just for fun! 



1. Finish my thesis
2. Get my degree
3. Watch the sunrise above the clouds (like from Haleakala)
4. Climb a mountain
5. Snorkel somewhere tropical
6. Try surfing
7. Go on a big trip with Gavin & Mason (Hawaii!)
8. Get some work done on my back tattoo
9. Reach my goal weight
10. Go to the dinosaur museum with my boys
11. Compile a personal cookbook
12. Start my "grandparent project" idea
13. Throw Gavin a birthday party
14. Make cake pops
15. Go one month without any TV or movies
16. See The God That Comes 
17. Give Gavin his first live theatre experience
18. Learn one song on guitar
19. Fill a journal
20. Get a "grown up" job 
21. Try 25 new recipes
22. Be silent for 24 hours
23. Go vegetarian for a month
24. Take Gavin to an art gallery
25. Visit my grandfather's grave (which I've never been to, as far as I know)

What do you want to do this year?

Midweek Links

I'm still trying to get my bearings this semester with school and my research. The semester ahead looks like total insanity and I'm just trying to get all my ducks in a row, so to speak. I still want to keep blogging regularly, but we'll see how it all works out. I think this will be my only post this week though, so here are some fun links to check out. :)

A neat blog series about journalling.

A blog I just love to look at.

Doesn't this look like so much fun?

Gavin's most favourite album of all time.

Have you seen this? It's amazing!

And a really inspiring blog to read.

The Cake

My nephew's birthday was a week ago already and I realized that I forgot to show you the cake. I may not have mentioned it before, but my sister's husband is a very talented guy. You know, he's the musical, gourmet chef, great golfing, cartoon drawing, awesome daddy, engineer. Because that's totally fair, right? :) 

Yes, apparently she knows how to pick 'em. 

Anyways, we know that when we're invited for a meal or a birthday there's going to be something great. So I had to share a couple photos of the fun & amazingly delicious birthday cake he put together for his little guy's birthday...

Amazing, right?

And guess what was inside? Layers of chocolate & red velvet cake with chocolate icing. Yum.

The birthday boy also got to play with his food!

Anyone else have a little case of cake envy?

Play Time Test Log

As a parent I have found two problems that I have when it comes to finding new & exciting ways to play with Gavin:

1. Unless you point out new things or different things, he just wants to play cars.

2. I get lazy or overwhelmed by all the ideas for play that I see online and rarely just go pick one and do it. 

So to beat those things I decided to put together a fun binder of activities that we can do together. It took some prep time - going through a lot of sites I have pinned over the last few months and picking out ideas that I want to try - but was worth it.

The basic idea of the binder is to log the fun activities we've tried. Before we try the activity, I make a page about it with supplies, instructions, etc. There is space for a photo, a blank area for Gavin's comments and a box to be checked off when we've completed it. 

At first the book will be a way for us to try lots of new stuff, but as time goes by and we try many of them we'll be able to look through and find things that were fun so we can do them again. The photo will serve as a visual prompt for Gavin so he can remember what the activity was, and all the necessary information will be there for us to do it all over. Hopefully I'll keep adding new activities and we'll be able to find some favourites to do over again. 

I designed a cover page to slip in the front pocket of the binder and dividers for all the different categories I could think up. I printed them on kraft card stock (because I love the look of kraft) and used sticky tabs for the dividers. 

If anyone is interested in the templates for the dividers, just send me an email and I'll send you the files. :)

Inspiration

Some words that have inspired me lately...

Source: google.com via Erica on Pinterest

Source: moneysavingmom.com via Erica on Pinterest

Source: tabletonic.blogspot.com via Erica on Pinterest

The Funny Guys Have It All Figured Out

Lately I have been watching videos of comedians of youtube. Not just whichever comedians turn up, but a couple specific ones: George Carlin, Bill Hicks, Bill Maher. I think my absolute favourite right now is George Carlin. You know, Mr. Conductor from Shining Time Station? That's him!


I remember in 2006, just after I graduated high school, my mom flew my sister and I out to Vancouver Island to hang out with our great aunt and uncle for a few days. My Uncle Funny and Auntie Daphne to be exact. I remember my uncle left us some reading material in the rooms we stayed in. In my room he left a couple George Carlin books. I flipped through, laughed a little, and that was that. And now I finally appreciate his humour, his grumpy-old-man attitude, and his incessant mocking of humanity. 


When I say that the funny guys have it all figured out, I mean that they are the brilliant people who have realized that humans take themselves way too seriously and choose to make fun of it. Watching them joke, mock, and rant is helping me remember how seriously insignificant we all are and that is incredibly freeing.