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10 Precious Tips To Help You Get Better At Staying True to Your Health Goals

Recently I reviewed my health goals to check in if I have been staying true to my 2016. I asked myself a lot of questions as to what I was doing well and where I could improve. Here are some of the tips that I believe will help us all stay true to our health goals. 1. At the end of your day, empty your mind of what you need to do. This will let you sleep better. 2. Clean your kitchen sink so that when you wake up in the morning you have a shiny sink to greet you!

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Declutter Your House: FREE Challenge

Before we get started, I want you to know that it is 5 days until my wedding collection is released!! I donโ€™t know about you but I tend to think clearer when my home is organized. Part of my 2016 goals are to get my home decluttered so that it looks and feels larger and I don’t feel the stress of all the “stuff” surrounding me. I find that, especially in the winter months when Iโ€™m stuck in the house, it seems like thereโ€™s a bigger mess. The walls start to close in on me and I respond to it

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Smart Ideas for Living Room Storage

Thank you to today’s blogger, Patricia Cornwell. The living room is a central place in every home because people spend most of their time lying on the couch, listening to music, reading a book or watching a TV program. Despite its size, you need to figure out clever ways to store your stuff so that it looks and feels bigger. There are a variety of options. Stores are fraught with shelves, cabinets, coffee tables and furnishings that do a great job at beautifying your living space as well as providing enough storage space. All you have to do is consider

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Halloween Spider Craft for Kids ~ Tutorial

Welcome Katy from Queen of the Kings! Today she’s sharing a great craft to do with the kids to decorate your home for Halloween! * ~ * ~ * Hi there! So glad to be back guest posting for Elizabeth! If you’re anything like me, then you are counting down the days until fall officially arrives! I love everything about it – the smells, the sweaters, the soups and the super cute crafts! I especially love projects that include things we already have AND that the kids can actually truly participate in! All you need is paint, pipe cleaners, googly

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Autumn 2015 Collection

I have been very quiet for the last month because I’ve been rushing to get out my Autumn collection! I’m so very proud of my first attempt at a collection and I know there is more planned (I have the next 3 started in my mind!). Iโ€™M SO HAPPY TO ANNOUNCE THE AUTUMN COLLECTION FOR 2015! Why put on the same accessories year after year? Your outfits are BEGGING for fresh, new fashion! Your outfits are begging for our Knit Scarves, Shawls & Wraps! YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS THIS! For a limited time, you will be able to grab our new

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Guest Post: Make Favourite Baby Clothes Into Art

Today’s Guest blogger is Jennifer from A Splendidly Messy Life. We met online but, fun fact, we physically live within an hour from each other! Welcome, Jennifer. * * * * * My name is Jennifer Bairos, and I live in Toronto, Ontario, Canada with my husband, our 3 year old son, and our cat. I’m a teacher by day and blogger by night over at A Splendid Messy Life (http://www.asplendidmessylife.com/). I was really inspired to do this DIY because I wanted to somehow save a few of the cute onesies that our son, Seb, was growing out of so

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Olga’s Quilt

My great Aunt Olga asked me to make her a quilt. Her favourite colour is purple. This was so much fun to put together – and I got to use up some of my fabric collection also! It’s a Schnibbles pattern. I quilted it using the Bumpity pantograph in a white thread.

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Spring Clean 2015 – Basement Play Area

In last week’s Spring Clean 2015 – Basement Family Room post, I mentioned I was on a tight deadline to finish decluttering and cleaning the basement. This area had become a dumping ground for what I was decluttering in the upper 2 floors and I didn’t know what to do with it. I am happy to say that school let out and I was ready for an added play space for my schoolagers! I am happy to say that I got it done just in time for school to let out. The kids loved their new space to move about

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Guest Post: DIY Valence

Hi! I am so excited to be a guest today. I must admit, I’m a little nervous, because my crafting skills are nothing compared to Elizabeth’s. I mean, I buy those little quilting squares at HobLob, but I use them to make fabric garlands because I can tie a knot around some string. I am also good with a glue gun, so try not to be too underwhelmed. Besides my attempted craft or two, you can find me running my own little monarchy as The Queen of the Kings. I also dabble a bit in crazy with my bestie and

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Spring Clean 2015 – Basement Family Room

I finally got up the courage to tackle the “scary basement”. This was where everything had gone from my decluttering and sorting of the upper two floors. I realized that school was going to be out for the summer, and I was hoping to have movies and big kid activities in this space. It took me a little longer because I chose to do sections and then deep clean the sections as I went. Our windows have never looked clean, and isn’t it amazing the cobwebs and dust that can accumulate even when buried under “stuff”! In the before state,

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Dan’s Quilt

Dan wanted a masculine pantograph design for this quilt. I think we nailed it with “bluster” which now happens to be one of my favourite to quilt and use on quilts. The golden thread works so well with the fabrics also.

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healthy living

My Post Partem Depression Story

**UPDATED June 24, 2017. This post contains affiliate links [wc_divider style=”image” line=”single” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” class=””][/wc_divider] My post partem depression trigger In January 2008 my second child was born. After the birth I felt fantastic. I was even into my pre-pregnancy clothes by my 6 week follow up appointment. The day before the 6 week appointment, tragedy struck and a girlfriend who I met in prenatal classes with for our first children (who are exactly one week apart) died during a routine C-section. This experience sent me into a deep depression and it took some friends I saw daily to suggest

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June 2015 Crafts

June was spent mostly with panic decluttering and cleaning before school let out on the 26th. I am happy to say that the main areas I needed to get done were completed just in time! Goals that I had that were not completed: Make PM shams (sew & quilt) Sew Santa Gift Bags Etsy Item ~ Knit or Crochet Elsa Hat & Cape set Projects that were completed:Knit TR hockey sweater (purchase and install zipper) LongArm Quilt (client) ~ Complete June 30 Charity ~ Quilt & Bind 2 Victoria’s Quilts ~ 1 Complete June 13 Sew Label to PM Quilt ~ Complete June

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Jean’s Modern Quilt

This lovely modern quilt was a pleasure to longarm for my client, Jean. Since there were so many hard lines in the piecing of the quilt top we decided to go with a modern swirl pantograph titled “Bubbles” to soften the look of the quilt using a white thread colour. Enjoy the photos.

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First Week of Summer Break

First of all, HAPPY CANADA DAY to all my Canadians out there!!! This is the first week home with the children since school let out. Last week I was rushing about like a mad-woman decluttering the basement so that we would have a nice area to escape the heat and for movie time where I could get a little bit of a break and catch up on what I need to do. I barely got it done but it’s definitely in good condition for them to play with lots of space! On Sunday night I had a brainstorm on some

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May 2015 Crafts

In May I had a pretty big creative list. 2 items did not get complete – sewing Santa Gift Bags (again) as when I sat down to make them I realized I need to buy materials for this project and making pillow shams to match a quilt I completed last month. I did complete a custom white cotton crochet bikini for a client but she took it before I remembered to take photos. I still have two more to make in June and I’ll be sure to photograph them! Crochet baby cardigan & hat set with alpaca yarn and list in

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Spring Clean 2015 ~ Master Bedroom

I’m happy to say that the master bedroom only needed a little bit of picking up. Interested in doing yours but don’t know where to start? Here is a detailed cleaning list of the Master Bedroom from my favourite cleaning gal, the FlyLady. I do cherish this space as my get away and relax space so it is a priority to keep tidy. There is only one before and after to illustrate this. I got the 2″ blinds, windows washed and screens cleaned and I flipped the mattress plus got in along the edges of the baseboards and wiped them plus

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Spring Clean 2015 – Overwhelmed Much?

I am following the FlyLady system and attacking one “zone” per week, getting as much done in that zone as I can and then moving on. There are only 6 zones so it goes (far too) quickly before I’m back again. I recently read a book about the Konnari method of cleaning based on Marie Kondo’s book, “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing“. She has a very specific order of “tidying” as she calls it (though it seems pretty much like taking a power washer and leaf blower to your house and

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Quilt Restoration

A client approached me to restore a quilt her grandmother had made her many years ago. Amazingly the top was intact but the binding was very much coming apart. It came apart very easily. As the original batting was an old polyester and since the quilt had been washed so many times over the years it was falling apart. I advised the client that we could keep the original batting but it would be nice to add an extra layer of cotton batting. We did this and it really added to the cuddle quality. It was also interesting the tie

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Spring Clean 2015 ~ Master Bathroom

The master bathroom. Nothing says I love you or thanks for the 5 minutes of peace better than a clean toilet to sit down on! For a while I have been irritated by the filmy view outside so I finally conquered it and scrubbed the room from ceiling to floor. The windows and the screens got a really good washing as did the light fixtures, baseboards, floors and even the little ledge we have where the tile meets the wall. I go in there and I feel happy getting ready in the morning. Of course, the list above you cannot

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Fall Quilt for My Grandparents

My grandparents are my biggest fans when it comes to my quilting. I made the king-sized “Christmas Beast” quilt for my parents (their daughter) and every time we are all at my parents house my grandfather looks at it and talks about how great he thinks it is. How could I not want to make them their very own quilt? I presented this one to them at our Christmas 2014 celebration. I had purchased an autumn themed layer cake because I loved the tones of the fabric. When the Missouri Star Quilt Company came up with their mystery quilt-along for

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Spring Clean 2015 ~ Master Closet

My biggest problem when feeling overwhelmed by the “stuff” in our home is that one day it’s fine and the next I look around and see stuff and things to do everywhere. It paralyzes me so I do nothing for a few weeks while I “think” on it and try to devise a plan.Thankfully this time I remembered FlyLady and her zones. Since I didn’t know where to start, I jumped in where she was and I blindly followed her decluttering and deep cleaning list. It’s working so well that I feel calm in the house, especially in the areas

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Lady with Parasol Quilt

I quilted this beauty for a client whose mother-in-law appliqued the ladies it by hand. The pieces were coming up so we decided to quilt over them to tack them down better. I used white thread so that it blends in very well and for a distance you cannot see the threads at all. Here is the full layout of the quilt. I did not bind it so this was as complete as I worked it. I’m sharing this project finish on these Linky Parties.

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#TBT Learning Themes for Children

It’s so much fun to go back through the blog posts to see what I was doing with the children developmentally. Today’s Throwback Thursday is from March 2009 when Ava was 2 and Travis was 1 years old. It’s always been important to me to have a flexible schedule but also to have some structure to our day. I also enjoy regular themes to get the children excited about learning. I was so organized I had themes set for most of 2009. Have a peek and maybe you will get inspired if you have little ones or a home daycare

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Spring Clean 2015 ~ Kids Bathroom

The kids bathroom is not really used as that. It’s mostly the room that I shower in and the kids use the toilet in the middle of the night. This makes it the perfect stuff to stash all that “stuff” we have no idea what to do with.It has been a few years since I really looked at what was in there so it was a good exercise to go through it again and find some treasures! I followed FlyLady’s Zone 3: Bathroom Detailed Cleaning List. When you are so overwhelmed and don’t know where to start, having a list

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April 2015 Crafts

How is it the middle of May and I haven’t done my April craft summary? I’m chalking it up to the nice weather having me outside and my Spring Cleaning focus taking up the other part of my in-house time. I had 12 goals for the month. I completed 8 and made great progress on the others. I’m happy with that!1. Quilt 3 Victoria’s Quilts donation ~ 1 Completed 2. Piece + Quilt King-Sized Gift Quilt ~ Completed April 5 3. Quilt for Tammy (client) ~ Completed April 5 4. Knit my son a hockey sweater (pattern link) ~ In Progress 5. Knit Mother/Daughter Scarf Set ~ Completed April 14 6. Knit

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Spring Clean 2015 ~ Bingo

I wasn’t feeling the cleaning vibe today. I need to finish last week’s room (the bathroom for which I have 4) before I can start this week’s (the master bedroom). The two half bathrooms were complete but the children’s and master were needing some drawers and cupboards decluttered, emptied and wiped down. Then I found a Facebook group that follows the FlyLady system and they had a BINGO game going on. What does Bingo have to do with house cleaning and organizing? Well, it’s actually genius.You make up a game card like this: The Bingo caller will call out a

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Spring Clean 2015 ~ The Dining Room

I’ve got that “need to get the house deep cleaned and decluttered” bug. Spring brings it about for me – as I’m sure most of us are starting to feel the need to air out the house and bring that fresh air in and germs out. I also am starting to feel all of our winter messiness closing in around me.I am so overwhelmed. I run a home daycare so we have a lot of larger baby items that I would have gotten rid of many years ago now that my own two children are 7 and 9 years old

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Nash Schnibbles Quilt

I finally finished the queen-sized quilt I have been wanting to make for my daughter. My son got one when he was two but I didn’t have just the right one in mind for my daughter until a girlfriend and I went to a quilt show and I found the most adorable jelly roll of Snap Pop by Moda. She told me that she had the matching charm pack so I got both and was on the search for a pattern. Now that Ava is 9 years old I wanted it to be something that could grow with her into

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