If The Shoe Fits...

Buy it! In my case anyway ;) My feet are a blessing and a curse. I love strappy little shoes, but my feet are far too wide for 80% of what's out there, that's still affordable. It's a pain to find something, but it saves me from being a shoe hog. Maybe this is why I prefer to be barefoot quite often? :)

Well, after a very busy weekend due to a family wedding I was left with just a couple hours on Sunday to pick up my groceries at the local Coop and check a sports store for their remaining bicycle stock. Well it must have been my lucky days as I picked up two awesome deals.

First:

Nike Impax PTU's on clearance (except mine are in a lovely purple)

Ok, maybe not as flashy as I usually get, but the were a heck of alot cheaper than the Shox I have been pricing for the last couple of months. It wasn't looking good, there was one box on the table and they were an 8. Thankfully Nike's sizing is horribly inconsistant (I've worn every thing from an 8 to a 9.5) but low and behold, they fit! My walking sneakers at work are just about toast and my indoor aerobic shoes have lost their springyness in the ball of the foot and were ready to be designated as outdoor walking so the timing was perfect.

So after picking them up and some groceries I popped by a sports store to see if they had bikes and low and behold when I walked in they had these on clearance and in my size!

Omigosh, they are soo comfy! Bonus, my hoof isn't hanging over the side. If only I'd found these before the wedding I went to on the weekend as my feet are still getting over the shoes I wore to that. These even go perfectly with the skirt I bought! My husband actually complimented me on my shoes (he's not a croc fan) and even a couple of coworkers commented on them and were shocked when I said they were crocs (one of these was even a male!)

Now if only a pretty pair of winter boots would pop up for say 30$, that's not too much to ask right?

Going To The Birds

I love animals, I'm just scared to death of anything non cat/dog. So imagine my surprise when I walked down the four flights of stairs in our work's parking garage half asleep to have a raven fly up near me. Eep! After first contact I didn't see it below and ran to the door, well I found it again. I shreiked! All I could think of was it landing on me, or crapping on me. Needless to say I took the first available door out and snaked out. This must have been very amusing to the offices across the street as the stairs are fully windowed. All this just a couple of weeks after I left my van windows open for about an hour to air it out, only to drive to work the next day and find a bird had flown through and did it's business on my dash. That's NEVER happened before. Eww. I'm telling you, life's going to the birds :)

Reconnecting

It's amazing how much being comfortable with where your child is staying can affect your ability to reconnect with your significant other. We haven't had much luck in the evening/weekend babysitter department so we got used to being a unit of 3 all of the time. We've had alone time other than camp but it always hasn't worked out as well. Needless to say I was a bit nervous with the thought of Alex being gone for more than the 3 days earlier this summer that was disastrous. If I know he's going to be truly happy I'm soo much more at ease.

This week has been great, we've had the guilt free time to do alot of little projects in and around the house. I've taken a break from cooking so we had lots of time to talk uniterrupted over delicious meals out and we've vegged out watching adult content movies without worrying what impressionable ears might be listenning. Our extended alone time has definitely been positive in helping us prepare for an upcoming wedding this weekend and casually hash out issues. The only other place I'm that comfortable sending my son is my parents home, he begs to go there without me continually.

So I'm counting down the hours until I get to pick Alex up tonight, time alone with Matt was great while it lasted but I'm eager to get some monkey hugs and kisses this evening. :)

Pretty Things

In my blogging absence, Eleni has introduced me to the world of jewellry making. I'm not a die hard convert, you probably won't find a huge stash in my home but it is nice to know suppliers, skills, etc to build the sparkly bobbles you see in the downtown boutiques to make for yourself. Again, I'm not a big jewellry person and tend to save up for big pieces (diamonds are a girls best friend after all) and well after browsing one boutique that was selling a set of earrings atleast 5 times the cost to make them, I found myself motivated.

So...I'm currently awaiting the arrival of the materials for the following bracelet that I adore, except in purples, silvers and minus the gaudy charm and a clasp that's more me (ie: star shaped) .

I dunno, for me it works. It's random enough to not look like just a set of beads on a string but also not 'out there' enough to look like my nine year old was playing in my craft room, two qualities that have kind of held me back from jewellry making. So, when the mats arrive and are assembled hopefully I'll have something pretty to show, if my purple subsitutions aren't to garish ;)

Lazy Days of Summer

Inadvertantly taking some time off does wonders for wanting to resume blogging. With the renovations drawing to a close for this year and the house in much better shape than it was with a defined easy to maintain schedule set it allows for a lot more freedom in activity. There is no more nagging guilt that something else needs to be done. Sure there are the nooks and crannies that could still be decluttered more but in the grand scheme of they are small manageable tasks that can be dealt with now that there isn’t a backlog :)

So for renovations in 2009:
New laminate, paint, doors, closets, moldings, hardware for Alex’s room and the computer room
Fresh coat of paint on the deckings of our two decks (I curse the previous owners for this every year)
New shrubs to fill in our back flower bed.
New kitchen faucet
New pulls in bathroom and finish restored on cabinet, existing mirrors painted.

We’re still wrapping up replacing our heaters in the upstairs and putting in modern light switches (I loathe our current ones)

If I could wish for one last thing it would be to have the border removed and the kitchen/dining room repainted before we put in the new heater. We purchased a convection heater and the space that the baseboard sits probably has the pre blue paint….and as much as I detest the blue it’s a step up from the old colour!

One of these days the house will be exactly how we want it. ;)

Crafting wise I’ve been getting back into stitching. I do need to par down my stash though, some of it I’ll never use or it no longer suits my taste and I need to review what scrapbooking materials I’m going to keep. I’m hooked on digital scrapbooking and the beautiful bindings, and compact storage are definitely bonuses. I can definitely use up my existing supplies on cards and tags so that’s not a worry. I have two of my current books up at http://kscott77.shutterfly.com to check out.

I have been getting back into stitching. I have some projects that currently can’t be shared but they have been great gateways to restoring my interest in it again. Although I must admit, I have really rediscovered my joy of reading which does cut into this. It was so hard when Alex was young to get enough undisturbed time to read, stitching I could pick up and put down or watch a movie with him, reading not so much.

In other events we celebrated both Dad turning 60 and Alex turning 9 in June, very exciting time. We also took our first family out of province trip to Prince Edward Island which was a blast and far too short. Alex went for a sleepover on one side of the family and is off to camp this week. He’s counting down to our trip to the Miramichi and hoping to sneak off alone there later this summer.

Be sure to check out my Shutterfly site for some of the photo updates from the past little while. I highly recommend this business as their products are fantastic, shipping is reasonable and quite fast considering their location. Until next time…