I can't believe it's snowing!! Yuck, yuck, yuck!! Can you tell I don't like snow?? If I had my way, I would have it snow for Christmas than it could all go away again, lol., but sadly, I don't control Mother Nature...
Yesterday was a little sentimental for me. It has been 22 years since my wonderful dad passed away. I was only 17 yrs old at the time, and being a typical teenager, I wasn't always the nicest to my parents. I so regret the way I was back than but I have grown and learned from that experience. My dad never got to meet my husband, nor my 5 children although I see characteristics in each of them that remind me of him. A simple grin, or rolling of the eyes, or funny faces, the way they walk, run, their sense of humor. I'm so glad that even though they never got to meet their grandfather, they can carry on these traits of his. Last night I lit a candle in his memory and it burned for a very long time, it didn't even want to go out when I tried to blow it out. That tells me my dad is here with us in spirit and is always watching over us. Love you and miss you lots Dad, xoxo

I started a new task last week although it's going to take me awhile to get it done. I wanted to see what the original wood floor that is hiding under the ugliest linoleum in the world in our livingroom. Under that hideous linoleum is a plywood subfloor. What a fun time this is gonna be, it took me all Wednesday morning to pry off a 2 foot by 4 foot area of flooring to uncover a wood plank floor. The wood looks to be in good condition so far although it appears that it may have been painted brown oh so many years ago, like the early 1900's. I don't think my hubby is so pleased with what I'm doing. He asked me why I started it at this time of the year when it's cold and we are going feel the cool air from the basement coming up between the cracks. I want to keep going at it though but I don't think I'll get much help from him, lol. Oh well, when I want to get things done, I have to do them myself most of the time...
Today is a dreary day, it was suppose to rain than change to snow later, but it's been snowing since early this morning, at least it's not sticking to the ground! This is just the beginning of a long, cold winter season :(
I haven't accomplished much as my daughter is home sick with a fever but I did manage to tea stain some strips of material that I had left over from making some curtains for upstairs... yes, I used flannel top sheets from a set that I bought, they make the warmest curtains, lol, so I am going to attempt to make some ragballs. We'll soon see how they turned out.
Anyhow, I guess I'd better sign of and check on my Brynn to see how she's doing. Hope everyone has had a good week and a wonderful weekend.

Take care, hugs, Trish

Some things that trash to treasured, my newly painted door and the primitive painted antique table that I got on Sunday...

Ack!! It's been a few weeks! Did you ever have one those days that everything seemed to go wrong?? Well today was my day! Here I am trying to get everyone off to school on time without a hitch. The night before, I had everything ready as my 2 youngest kids were going on a school trip to the pumpkin patch and the forecast was supposed to be rainy. Well, by morning, we had a pair of splash pants go missing and our umbrellas had disappeared.Uggh! the story of my life around here. Anyhow, the weather wasn't too bad but I decided to drive my kids to the bus stop. I was walking out the door with a mug of tea cause I didn't want it getting cold, and after warning my oldest daughter to watch out for the dog poop that our Sam had just done....what did I do? Slipped on the wet grass and fell on my bum in the fresh poop! Yuck!! Right than I had decided, yep, it's a Monday, lol. So after I got home from the bus stop on got my Rhys on his van for school, I went looking for my makeup that I had put on this morning. Do you think I could find it? Nope! Brand new eyeliner and eye shadow disappeared into thin air. Okay, I've had this happen before but have found it in my youngest daughter's room. This time, I searched high and low everywhere and cannot find it. Something is playing tricks on me! I always have things disappear, and never end up finding them, ever since I started doing ancestor research 5 years ago. Weird things have been happening here. Given that this house is way over 150 yrs old and there are 4 generations of Boyd's that have lived here and it's getting near Halloween.... I thinks the spirits are getting a bit playful here on my expense! After a frustrated morning, I decided to go upstairs for a rest. I kinda like naptime when 5 kids are all at school,lol. Anyhow, out of the blue, one of my dogs start barking for no reason, so I went downstairs to find her barking and growling at the wall...I'm not joking! I call her to come upstairs with me along with my other dog who always sleeps outside my bedroom door but neither dog would go up the stairs and the one ran into her crate with tail between her legs and hid... they always say animals can sense what humans can't right? I head back upstairs and upon going through my kitchen I notice that my oven dial is on. I did not use my oven at all and there is no way that I could have turned that thing on...I'm getting more spooked than ever! I even got weird chills walking through my living room, the kind that raise the hair on the back of your neck. So I'm thinking my house is haunted by some good ghosts ( I hope), but I had a hard time falling asleep. We have a small cemetary on our lot and we've had ancestor's that have passed away in this house so anything is possible.... Around dinner time, my hubby calls from work and tells me our pickup truck that he left there over the weekend was stolen... can things get any worse?? I thought he was joking at first, but.... nope, he arrive home in the work truck :( So, I'm expecting a call from the police department and the insurance department in the morning and we can only hope that our truck is found safe and relatively sound... we didn't really need this happening now...sigh.... Anyhow, on the brighter side, this weekend I finally got my front and side door painted and i love the color! Even hubby who at first was a little unsure of my color choice said it looked really good! And I went to my first auction on Sunday, didn't get anything cause things were way outta my league, lol. Next time I need to bring someone who is experienced in going to auctions, lol, as I didn't have a clue... But on my way home, I did stop by a shop and bought a nice primitive painted table that I've had my eye on since May and it was still there, so I bought it. Now if I can just find my camera that a special someone hid...you know who you are!!, I can get pics up! Wednesday I have a meeting with a rep from AVON, just to see how much it costs to become a rep myself and earn some extra $$ from home...Wish me luck!! Anyhow, that's it for now... hope I haven't bored you all! Have a fantastic week everyone and may your luck be better than mine has!! lol Hugs, Trish

Hello my friends! Time sure has been going by quickly. I cannot believe it's October already. September was slightly busy around here. My two oldest children had birthdays on Sept. 27th and 29th. I'm feeling a little old when they turn 15 and 12, lol I am enjoying my every other day of having no children at home. Some days I just don't know what to do with myself though. I have to turn the radio on just to keep myself company. I have been puttering around painting a few things that I have picked up here and there. We really haven't had alot of sunshine lately so my front door is still not painted :( Maybe this weekend?? I have been doing some more decorating for fall, hopefully I will get a few pics up. Today I decided to make some homemade apple sauce with apples from our ancient apple tree. Usually this tree doesn't put out very good apples anymore, but this year they looked pretty good and were big. Of course when I was picking the apples, our horse Hobbins came running over to the fence looking for a treat so I had to give him a few. Now he comes over daily for an apple treat. Anyhow, my kitchen smelt really good today with apples and cinnamon, yum! And of course I got extra bored so I made a big jar soy candle scented, yep you guessed it, baked apple pie. Talk about getting hungry after my morning, lol.
This weekend id Thanksgiving weekend in Canada. I am so looking forward to cooking a turkey, and a ham and all the fixin's. Maybe I'll bake an apple pie too, and I want to make the pumpkin crunch recipe from the APP magazine, it looks so yummy! Being since it's a long weekend, we decided to "winterize" the house as well. We were asked to go in a family dinner but we have so much to do around here that there just isn't time :( We have to caulk and put plastic around the windows, fix the area around the doors to keep the wind out, split wood etc. and the list goes on and on. The other night it was really chilly so we started the woodstove... oh how I missed the smell of woodsmoke and the warm heat that it creates. I wanted to curl up in the woodstove room to sleep but somehow I don't think my rotti Jasper would like that too much since it's not a huge area in the first place. Maybe when I get that room fixed up I'll put a rocking chair in there and stay cozy on those cold winter nights!
The leaves are turning colors early this year and are all over the ground. So very pretty! When I was a child, we used to collect leaves and press them in between 2 pieces of wax paper with shredded crayons. My mom would iron them together and we would make placemats for Thanksgiving dinner. With so many leaves on the ground already, I think I might let my kids do that this weekend, keep them occupied, lol as well as being creative!
There are a few auctions coming up in the next few weeks that are local. I'm hoping that my hubby will take me to them, fingers crossed. I've never been to one before, but these ones look interesting and who knows, I might come home with something :D
Guessing that's about it for now. I hope each and every one of you is having a fantastic week and if I don't get back here by the weekend, have a wonderful weekend and to all my Canadian Friends, have a safe and blessed Thanksgiving Holiday!

many hugs, Trish

Hi everyone, well it's been a little bit since I was last here. I thought I would have lots of extra time to be on the computer with 5 kids in school, well I was mistaken, lol. Fall is definitely in the air although today was a shocker with temps getting up into the 30's and the humidity horrible. I actually had to turn the a/c on upstairs for a bit. Now they are saying that the weekend is going to be cool and so/so. We have tons of brightly colored leaves falling from the trees, I must admit, as much as they are pretty, I'm not looking forward to what comes after fall. I don't like snow... I must be getting old, lol. I hate driving in it and where we live, when it snows, it snows good and well, I'm usually stuck at home cause I hate it and I hate how alot of people drive in it! Oh well, we'll get to "that season" when we get there. So, I've been in the fall decorating mood, I've never really been into it before, but for some reason this year is different. I bought a few small squash for decorating and low and behold my kids said to me " are you going to cook squash?" and I'm like no, you don't like squash so I'm using them in my fall displays. Than I get "yes we do" and I say "no you don't, every time I cook it you refuse to eat it" . So I'm guessing I have to go to the market to buy some more squash to cook for them and we'll see just how much they eat, lol. Of course during the week I wandered into the dollar store for a few things and I came across some really nice fall leaf decorations that are vinyl and won't get wrecked if I put them outside. They don't look cheap at all and I wove them in with my grapevine swag thingys that I made to go over my doorways. I I am think I might go back for more. And I made some more grapevine stuff for inside and put the dried false sunflowers from my gardens in them and I really like how it looks as long as my cats don't get at them, lol. I am patiently waiting for some votive candle molds that I ordered from ebay, they shipped out on August 27 th and still haven't arrived. I've never had to wait this long for an item off of ebay before and it's kinda of disapointing. Hopefully soon.....
My kids have so wonderfully passed along the cold bug that they picked up from school... nothing says back to school like a cold. I have not been up to par lately but am getting there, so that's also another reason why I have been around lately. I have alot of catching up to do :)
I still haven't gotten my front door painted :(, hoping for a nice sunny day that no rain is expected in the forecast, haha. Anyhow, I think that's probably it for now, I hope everyone is well and have a wonderful weekend whereever you are!!

Love and hugs, Trish

Hi folks! Well, the first week back to school was a success!! So far, everyone is happy with their teachers and adjusting well back in their routines. My youngest son met his teacher on Wednesday and he goes in on Monday to meet a few students that will be in his class ( they phase the kids in a few at a time over the first month) and he has his first full day of school on Wednesday. It will be a bittersweet day for me... after 15 yrs of having a child at home, I will be on my own every other day now... what's a mom to do??? Oh, I know... sit back, take my time at getting things done and finally get to some crafting that I've been wanting to start forever, lol. I am so used to having a child home every day that this is gonna be strange for me though, but I think I'll get used to it :) So as of now, I have a child in gr. 10, gr.7, gr.4, gr.2 and junior kindergarten.
We did get to the Durham Central Fair but not on cheap night. Hubby had to work late and by the time he got home, the kids were in bed and boy did they give a "what for" the next morning, haha. Okay, Friday was a much better night to go anyways and we had coupons for discounts for the rides so it wasn't as bad money wise as it usually is. And we skipped the games as hubby said the kids already had way too many stuffed animals, lol. We had lots of fun watching the kids enjoy the rides although I am feeling old after watching my oldest son go on rides that 20 yrs ago, I used to really enjoy... the zipper was one of them and the tomahawk. My stomach got queasy just watching him get on them but he didn't throw up!! I sure would have, lol. Oh to be young again!!
Today was a tad boring... hubby had to work at the ribfest in Oshawa around dinnertime. I decided to go out and pull out alot of vines that were growing on the front of my house. Last year I made wreaths with them so this year since they were so long, I made swags out of them. I placed a long one over our front door and two windows and another over our side door. I put one in our kitchen with some dried false sunflowers and black eyed susans. I'm hoping to get out to the dollar store and get some fall flower decorations to add to the ones outside since I'm on a fall decoration kick, lol. I also grabbed some discounted acorn squash to put outside for a display and I need to get down to the corn field to get some cornstalks to add to it. Next is painting the front door when it's sunny again. I pulled out the left over paint can that I used to paint our fireplace, it's a dark reddish color and I wanted to see how it looked against our blue siding on the house. I really liked it but my hubby said "oh no, not red", lol. I'm like, it's not bright red, it's a rusty barn red, it will look good and he just sighed. Men, they will never understand us, lol. Needless to say, I'm painting the door a reddish color and he's gonna like it or pretend to like it! :D And than, I just may paint the two side doors the same color...won't he just love that, haha.
Oh well, I guess I'm off to bed, hope everyone is having a great weekend and I'll be back soon!

Take care and hugs, Trish

Happy Labor Day weekend everyone!! And just around the corner....school begins for another year! I'm betting there's going to be alot of very happy parents out there, lol ( I must confess, I'm one of them :D)
Not much has happened this weekend. Looks like we are done with the buggies, knock on wood. We are finally getting some rain and hoping the temps stay a bit cooler than they have been. I hate having the a/c's on and I'm looking forward to opening the windows and letting the fresh air breeze through....that is if the rain doesn't go on all weekend. Doesn't look like we'll be doing much other than last minute back to school shopping and I'm hoping to go into to meet Natalie from The Carriage House Antiques Shop in Bowmanville, if she's working, and maybe, if I twist hubby's arm, buy a thing or two or three, lol. I need to get some more craft supplies since I'm pretty sure I'm going to go nuts the first week of school with the kids not home and I need to paint our front door and maybe the back door and the side door, oh boy, the list goes on and on. Eventually I need to clean out the woodstove room and paint it before we need to use the woodstove and these are things much easier done with no kids around, lol.
My oldest daughter is going up to Kinmount with a friend for the weekend and to go to the fair, I always worry about her on the long weekends when they travel***SIGH***even though she says I worry too much! Next week is the Durham Central Fair and the kids are counting down the days, Thursday is cheap night so if the weather holds up, that's when we will go cause we all know how much it can add up when you go to a fair especially with 7 people!
Well, I guess I should get to bed, morning comes to quick. I hope everyone has a safe and happy long weekend!!

Hugs, Trish

Hello everyone! I meant to back on here sooner but things have been hectic. And I mean "buggy" hectic. Ah, the joys of having kids.... last Wednesday we got a call from a friend whom my daughter plays with and they said that their daughter got the dreaded words "HL", and my daughter has been playing with her. Ugghh, well, we dodged this for 15 yrs and at some point in time it was sure to hit us. Here I am frantically checking all of my kids hairs ( yes, all 5 of them) and low and behold, yeppers we got them, yuck!!I'm running out that door to the nearest pharmacy and cleared out their shelves on that special shampoo and in between each child's treatment I was throwing in a load of laundry of bedding and clothes. My poor washer must have done about 10 loads that day cause my kids all like to sleep with a ton of blankets, even in this hot weather. Than my hubby comes home and I check his hair and he checks mine...another ugghh...we had to shampoo our hair too :( These stinkers won't go away too and school hasn't even started! So tonight, I did a second treatment and 2 haircuts and the other day after reading on the web that using castor oils helps, I tried that and it really helped get those bugs out of the hair. I am so hoping that we are done with all this now. My teenage daughter has been freaking and has been staying up in her room cause she didn't get any and doesn't want them, lol. Oh well, that's life and it's bound to happen but oh what a pain in the butt it is, lol.
Anyhow on the weekend, I did go shopping to and got some prim goodies from a local shop and I went back to the one antique shop and she immediately told me she just got a crock in and that she knew I loved crocks so I bought it and for only $10, and I also got a wooden antique box that I'm hoping to put a fall display in it on my table. While we were out we got some small cucumbers and fresh Ontario apples ~nothing tastes better than our local produce!! I'm hoping to make some pickles in the morning if nothing else happens, lol.
It's been really hot and humid again here, temps in the 40's with the humidity and it makes you feel like doing nothing.I hope a slightly cooler weather is on the way, not too cool, but cooler than what we have been getting. On a good note, school starts in 6 days, whoohoo!! I love my kids, but it's time!! And this year, my youngest son Kaedyn starts JK so he will go Mondays, Wednesdays and every other Friday, all day, so I will finally get some "me time" and enjoy whatever it is that I do... hopefully my crafts :)
Anyhow, that's about it, hope everyone is having a great week :)

Blessings, Trish