This Morning I Smile Because...

This morning I am smiling because:

...the sun is shining - for the second day in a row :)  Our weather has been all over the place and I am loving the sunshine and the heat from the past few days... I love heat...

...I had a lovely little chat with my neighbor as I walked out the door this morning.  I love our neighborhood and I really like the fact that we know our neighbors by name and we can stand on our front steps and say good morning every now and then...

...I got to kiss my husband goodbye as he headed out the door for work....this is something we make a priority to do every morning, even if one of us is still in bed when the other is leaving for work... I read somewhere that men who kiss their wives before heading off to work are generally happier people and they live longer...sounds good to me :)

...I tried to make cake pops last night...and well I sorta chuckled when I saw them in the fridge this morning... I think I did something wrong - I may just try one at Starbucks tonight and compare the cake texture of mine to theirs... oh well, maybe I should just stay with making them out of rice krispie treats lol!

...Stacy is coming to visit this weekend!  This is the first time she will be here since Justin and I have been married and the first time staying in our new house {not new but... well you get it :) }  She's popped by for the 3 minute tour but hasn't been able to stay for an extended visit.  I'm excited to have some good girl time :)

Cheers! :)

Some Dirt of Our Own...

Last summer when we started house shopping (thank goodness that is one thing not on the list this summer! too much stress!) one of the things that was really important to Justin and I was that the house have a yard.  Living in the condo, while there were times the maintenance free life was nice (aka we didn't have to shovel the snow!) we both really desired to have some dirt of our own... we wanted to be able to plant things - and hopefully not kill them - I wanted colorful flowers, Justin wanted a lawn to mow....

The house we fell in love with was, for the most part, a blank slate when it came to the yard.  The front  yard had grass and a few shrubs in the flower bed and the back yard was a big pile of possibility :)  Within weeks of moving in, we laid sod in the back and Justin couldn't wait to mow all the grass in the spring.  And plans were made for a flowerbed against the back deck.

Fast forward to May... the weather is finally getting nice and the garden centers around town look amazing with all the color and greenery...and I have itchy feet :)  Neither of us had ever planted flowers or really had a yard to take care of so we were total rookies.  We asked lots of questions of our family in particular who have the greenthumbs we hoped to inherit and went shopping.

We've learned a few things in the two months we've been the proud owners of our grass & flowerbeds:
1. A field mouse who takes up residence under your deck is great entertainment for your dog who watches as the little varmint gorges itself on your growing flowers.
{side note: we caught the mouse and all the plants that had literally been almost entirely eaten have started to grow back and are looking great :) }
2. We've figured out which seed & fertilizer works best to fill in those empty spots you find when the snow melts... like where the rabbits tried to dig under the snow all winter...
3. It's a wonderful treat when your family shares their gardens with you!  The tiger lilies and irises that my dad gave us are doing amazing in the front and the Virginia Creeper Sandy gave us is showing great signs of life and I am anxious to see it continue to grow!
4. Spending time on a Saturday morning weeding is actually relaxing and not nearly as tedious as I may have thought at one point in my life...

I can't wait to see our yard take shape in the coming years...Justin has done an amazing job with our lawn {I'm allowed to be biased but I think it's the nicest grass I've ever seen}...so far we haven't killed anything...maybe we did inherit the greenthumbs after all...

(sorry for the poor quality of the photos...I just quick snapped these with my iphone)

{left}The delphinium that had been nearly eaten to the ground is almost ready to flower
{right} For some reason the mouse didn't like the daisies...not complaining lol!  Still the trap sits...just call it insurance ;)

The Virginia Creeper... so excited to see how this grows!

The back flowerbed that Justin built this spring...
it's a little hard to see the plants through the fence but I'm very excited at how everything here has rebounded 

The pots on the back deck

The front flowerbed... love how green everything is!

The Tiger Lilies {left} and the Irises {right} have settled right in in their new home...
I can't wait for the Tiger Lilies to bloom!

{left} This shrub was already planted when we moved in - we wondered if it would even grow but it just keeps getting bigger and the little white flowers are a new addition this week!
{right} The colorful pots that sit on the front step as you walk up to our door

The All Star - a home run...

A post LONG overdue... but better late than never :)

This All Star quilt was my second commissioned creation.  It was so much fun seeing it come together and getting the feedback from it's owner to be.  N was so incredibly encouraging and awesome to work with on this project.

And I'm so pleased with the end result.  I have to admit I wasn't totally sold on the green backing (I'm not really a green girl), but once it was all together I was SO glad that was the color I had decided on. N had left the backing color up to me and I don't regret choosing the green for a second! I fell in love with these fabrics from the moment I saw them online and love them even more in the finished quilt.

So without any further adieu, here is the finished All Star...

It Doesn't Get Much Better Than This...

A Saskatchewan Roughriders game + a great visit with amazing friends + fun photos = a fabulous weekend!
And this past weekend we were able to do just that.  Justin and I had been given tickets to the Rider game so we figured it would be the perfect time to go visit our friends, Keely & Toby, in Regina and spend some quality time with them and their fabulous kiddies!  I was also excited cause Toby had scouted out some locations for me to look at to possibly use for the wedding I've been asked to shoot in Regina in August.

The weather wasn't quite ideal for an outdoor football game on Friday night but we went prepared!  With a whole Rubbermaid full of clothes in the Jeep we figured worst case scenario we'd head back at halftime and put on dry clothes lol!  Thankfully the weather held and it didn't even start to drizzle till the 7 minute mark of the 4th quarter.

Keely & Toby are an amazing couple that I am so honored to call some of my best friends. They were some of the very first people I told about Justin and were some of the first to meet him on one of his first trips to Moose Jaw.  They were so supportive throughout our dating journey and still continue to be some of our biggest fans.  When I first met them, they had two kids Aurora and Caelan, I tell them they are still my favorite kids in the world!  Noelle made her entrance into their family a little over a year ago and we discovered we could be great friends too on this trip lol!  She has been a little timid towards me during our past visits but she let me cuddle a few times, which made my day! A visit with these guys was long overdue and it was so nice to kick back and relax with them... it just seems like it's never long enough...

On Saturday afternoon, Toby took me to some of the locations she had come across as possible shoot locations for the wedding I'll be shooting there this summer.  As us girls went along, we had fun not only looking at the locations but taking a few fun shots as we went....

Aurora is not the little girl I met years ago... she is a beautiful, talented young lady...almost a teenager!

Miss Noelle... a total girlie girl with a hint of silliness and a sparkle of mischief :) 

Introducing...Mr. Cole...

Several weeks ago I got a phone call from Arianne asking if I'd be willing to do a newborn photo session for their new little man.  I'd never actually done a newborn session before, but I was excited to try something new :) and they were willing to be adventurous with me!

We had a great time together, and needless to say, Cole was such a sweetie.  He was very cooperative, gave me a few smiles, a few bright-eyed shots and slept through the rest of his shoot.  Drew and Arianne are totally in love with their little guy and it's easy to see why!

I posted a few sneak peaks earlier in the week, but here is some of my faves from our afternoon...

I love his smile here :)

Drew is a big Montreal Canadiens fan so we made sure to bring Cole's Canadiens quilt into his shoot!

Easier than Sliced Bread...

I love homemade bread...however I don't always love all the time and work it takes to make it.  
Last week I stumbled on some recipes that are part of a (new to me) bread movement called "No Knead Bread".  The more I looked at these recipes, the more I thought: I could totally do this... but it almost looks too good to be true... bread that is really no work?"  


This weekend I tried one recipe I thought looked promising.  I figured, well if it doesn't work then really the only thing I've lost is 4 cups of flour!  And after trying this recipe out, I am totally in hook, line and sinker.  While the entire process takes a long time, most of that time the dough is doing it's own thing and you only have to do about 5 minutes of work!  Here's my newest delish find:

Light Wheat Sandwich Loaf No-Knead Bread Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour or bread flour
• 1 1/2 cups wheat flour (preferably fresh ground for better taste)
• 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/2 tablespoons honey (optional)
• 1 3/4 cups water

Instructions:

1. Combine all the dry ingredients (white flour, wheat flour, yeast, salt) in the large bowl (3 quart or larger) and stir with a mixing spoon for about 15 seconds or more.
2. Combine water and honey in a separate bowl and stir till honey is dissolved into the water. (NOTE: I haven't used the honey, totally your option!)
3. Add water honey mix to the dry ingredients bowl and stir for about 3 minutes until the flour is mostly stuck to the dough (it won’t look that good but that doesn’t matter).
4. Cover the top of the bowl loosely with plastic wrap.
5. Let sit on counter top for about 12 to 18 hours (I ussually do this for about 13 hours), the dough will look all bubbly on the top.
6. Generously sprinkle flour (wheat or white flour) the top of your clean counter top or a cutting board (don’t worry about using too much flour, it won’t hurt it).
7. Slowly pour the dough from the bowl on to the floured surface, using the silicone spatula to help it peal off the sides of the bowl.
8. Sprinkle a little flour on top of the dough and rub your hands together with flour.
9. With you hands, gently stretch the dough out to a rectangle shape.
10. Roll up the dough from one end to the other.
11. Place the dough into a lightly greased bread pan (seem side down).
12. Let dough rise till it is a bit above the top of the bread pan (about double in size or 1.5 to 2 hours).
13. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
14. Place bread in the oven for 40 minutes to 45 minutes.



Photo credit from original posting site

15. Remove from oven and let it cool on a cooling rack or your counter top.

I have smaller Pyrex loaf pans, so I actually split the dough and made two smaller loaves from this recipe.  Not a bad deal for so few ingredients!  I absolutely love this recipe and have another batch currently rising on my counter :)  

A Sneak Peak at Mr Cole...

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to do my very first newborn photo session :)  After a nasty computer virus and a visit to the laptop doctor, I'm finally finished with the editing!

Stay tuned for photos of the rest of our session....

It's Been On Repeat...

If there is one thing that I just cannot wrap my little brain around it is how God just keeps loving me... I mess up, more than my pride would like me to admit, yet no matter what He is standing there with arms wide open just waiting for me to allow Him to just hold me again.. and even when I don't think I deserve it, He still loves me.  It's that simple isn't it... His love isn't complicated...

Sunday morning I had one of those moments where I felt as though God was tapping me on the shoulder. I'm overwhelmed at how many second chances He graciously gives me... the worship team led "This is Life" by Laura Woodley Osman, I'd never heard it before, but I can't get it out of my head... it's a good thing I have my own office, it's been on repeat pretty much all day :)

Eyes can't see the way you hold me
Or how I'm hidden in Your heart
Minds don't know all You've told me
Or how I ache for where You are
It's invisible to the world
Incredible to the angels
Not since Eden have they seen this sight
Everlasting life

You are all over, You are around, You are inside
This is life, this is life 

I come in empty, I leave filled
Bring my sickness, I leave healed
Broken-hearted, You mend every piece
I come in captive, I leave free 


I love the lyrics of the bridge and am overwhelmed again at the incredible gifts our Heavenly Father gives so freely... I come with nothing yet leave with more than I could ever dream of or imagine...