did you know...

Did you know you can just click on any of my photos and they will open up to a much larger size? For looking at small details or even for transferring them to your own desktop. Just a little trick of the trade that most/some/a couple of you might not know. I didn't. Til about 3 weeks ago. So I thought I'd pass on that little nugget of information.

Thanks. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

i {heart} organization

A big perk to having 4 bedrooms upstairs and no children yet is that Cass can have quite the spacious and luxurious office and scrapbooking room! I am pleased as punch with my lovely craft room with its big bay window which peers over the neighbor's roof and is nestled in by the friendly trees around their property. My room is pretty simplistic, but it's mine, all mine, and that is simply why I love it so much.

I love peeking in on other craft/scrap rooms (online, that is) and have been especially inspired by all the women on my 'crafty blogs i love' list. I hope you'll check them out sometime, as their collective creative talent is amazing. Ideas galore, people! - for photography, scrapbooking, fabric arts, and baking, you could spend hours perusing their sites. And their links to other sites... And then their links to more blogs... It's addictifying...

But ever so enjoyable.

kodak moment

And a happy photo for today, taken from just outside my kitchen window.

spin cycle

Everyone has a washer and dryer, right? What's the big deal then??
Well, after years of apartment living with your laundry room either on-site or somewhere down the road we are thrilled to have these two join the family! It's been a couple of trying days for Sam to get them in the door, downstairs, and hooked up but the proof's in the pudding, we have it on spin cycle right now. Now, what else can I wash...

grande misto, 1% milk, bold coffee, & extra foam, please

We drove to Medicine Hat, AB yesterday (1 hour, 40 min west) for a much needed Home Depot shop. Plus we were able to snaffle up a new front loading washer and dryer set on sale from Future Shop (...oh, heaven for me!). But seriously, the first stop of the day was the most important. There's priorities and then there's priorities !

good reads

I'm tackling my office and craft/scrapbooking room today. And it's a huge organizational feat which I am LOVING! But as I'm opening up box after box of childhood, teenhood, and recently procured books - some which I've just kept in storage in our past homes - I'm realizing how many amazing books I have right at my fingertips. Some (gasp!) I haven't even read yet! And by books I mean fiction. To me, that's reading --- something you can really lose yourself in for a few hours, a few evenings, or even better a few weeks.

The problem now is, I have no idea which one I'll pick first. But for those of you on www.goodreads.com with me, you'll know soon enough!

10 years

There on the rocks below the bluff, Sam first kissed me. August 13th, 1997. Holland Point off of Dallas Rd in Victoria. A few days later I left for Emmaus Bible College in Iowa and he left shortly after to travel across Asia with our friend Jeff for many months. But we began there and then. After eating Mexican food and picking up our new passports. Who would have thought...

5 years later Sam proposed on those same rocks. And now 5 years more we've just moved into our first home together. Who would have thought, indeed.

Happy 10 years, Sam. I love you.

bricks and billboards

I feel as though I've been teleported to Stars Hollow - and any Gilmore Girls fans out there will know exactly what I mean! Swift Current has been a wonderful surprise as each day passes and I am liking it immensely. I've heard time and time again from outsiders how prairie folk are a kind and friendly lot and I am certainly experiencing that on a daily basis here. They are 'lovely', as my mother in law would say, simply wanting to talk and know about you without being overbearing or fake. Even in the past few days I have felt very welcome and taken care of and I see the possibility of walking through this "Stars Hollow" in a year and saying hello to many as I hobnob through the shops and businesses. I love the thought of actually being part of a community. Something which is long overdue for us.

I'm also quite taken with the look of downtown Swift Current as well and as it was a perfect evening light our first night back in town I grabbed the camera and happily snapped away as I spied photographic potential in the side alleys and on the building exteriors. I love the look of the somewhat faded store advertisments painted onto the brick and there was great deal of variety to choose from in the small crossection of streets. We came across a beautiful church and an old school which were both built within 4 years of our 1910 house - and I wondered if the long ago family of my home attended both and if they walked down the hill or took the buggy. It's an old prairie town, rich with history, and I'm sure it will keep me snapping photos for a long time yet.

I am my father's daughter after all.

four weeks in july

We're back in BC and the newspapers are proof!



My parents on a month's vacation to BC from their home in Yellowknife, NWT



Teddy



Willie, Melanie and their darling son Nathaniel



Mum snuggling her "first grandchild", as Willie's been part of our family for years!



Sangrias on Shawnigan Lake with Sam's parents



Dad Morgan and Sam come home with dinner!



The best of West Coast Salmon



My Sam at "Sam's Deli" in Victoria



Victoria's Empress Hotel down in the Inner Harbour



Mum looking lovely on Gabriola Island



Bethany



Me looking a little windswept



My favorite island photo of Sam



Dad and his swanky rental



Happy Hour!

home sweet home

I still can't believe it. Isn't it lovely? I feel like Anne of Green Gables when I stand outside and look up to all the whiteness and windows. It's so overwhelming to know it's all ours--ours to keep safe and beautiful-- but I also love the dreamy thoughts that creep in. Visions of future family moments: bringing home babies and welcoming visitors, gardening and Christmas decorating, baking yummy treats and snuggling in blankets, scrapbooking in the light of the bay window and sipping a morning coffee on the upper deck. I see a happy future there. I see me, at home.