Bloggy Friends Weekly Roundup

Have you enter in my Shaklee giveaway yet?

Sorry I'm late with my Bloggy Friends Weekly Roundup, I was at the beach all day. 

It was a beautiful day!

So here are some inspiring things I found in Bloggy land this past week.  Go check them out!

My frien Lori @ Not the Mother of the Year built her daughter a bed.

Kristin @ My Uncommom Slice of Suburbia re-finished her grandma's table.  I love it!

And while I'm on a table kick...

Check out this table from  Pam @ House of Hawthornes

Shelley @ House of Smiths did an amazing job on her pantry.  Absolutely love it!!

And finally... Sarah @ Thrifty Decor Chick updated her sideboard!  Wow!!

 It's a long weekend here in Canada, so I'm relaxing with my folks who are visiting from Portugal. 

Well, have yourself a great weekend.

Bette

Pillows! Pillows! Pillows Everywhere!

Don't forget to enter my Shaklee Giveaway!

Hi ya!
So the other day I happened to pass by Fabricland and scored alot of fabric for my outdoor cushions that I told you about here.  Well, I also scored some fab fabric to make a cushion for our new family room couch.  My Bloggy friend Shelley at House of Smiths gave us an awesome tutorial so I won't bore you with a tutorial.  (I'd probably miss important steps anyway!)

I made a square to fit a pillow form that I already had.  And then... followed Shelley's tutorial...

Ta -da!  What do you think?

And one more time...

This pillow cost me about $3.00! Love it!!

And on a different note... my parents are visiting here from Portugal ( I haven't seen them in six months.)

Here's my dad and A having breakfast and wearing their headbands. Grandparents will do anything,won't they?

Make it a great day!

Bette

Do You Know About the Party?

Don't forget to enter my Shaklee Giveway HERE

Hello there!

It's gonna be a rainy day around these parts, so I think I will be breaking out the sewing machine to finish that cushion that I said I would be working on this week. :)

SNEAK PEAK... What do you think of colour?  That's our new dark chocolate leather couch behind it.

I'm not sure if you have noticed my new page "LINK PARTIES", but I've been working hard to have as many link parties as I can find put on that page, and let it be a resource for everyone.  I'm sure I've still missed hundreds of them. 

Let me know of any that I've missed!

What are you up to today?

Make it a good one!

Look at me! Look at me!! A Giveaway too!

It's official... I'm a Shaklee Independent Distributor!

What is Shaklee you ask?


Shaklee has organic and non-toxic products, including household cleaning products.

Find out more Here

Why would did I choose to Use and Distribute these products?

1. I'm a mom of three young kids, my family is messy and I like to keep my home clean and healthy!
• Shaklee has organic and non-toxic natural cleaning products,
2. I do as much as I can to save the environment so that my children and their future children have a nice planet to live on.
• One 16 oz. bottle of Basic H2 diluted per label directions makes 214 bottles (28 oz.) of ready-to-use all-purpose cleaner.
3. And the last reason is that, I'm frugal!  In Comparison to other products these will save me hundreds of dollars every year because I am only using a couple of drops in a spray bottle.

I started using the products as soon as they arrived.  Here's something of the things that I cleaned with my Basic H2, with only a couple of drops!!

My BBQ ( got really dirty from construction).


My Stainless Steel stove and fridge.

My Glass Patio Doors

My kitchen island stools. (Beware the before pictures are gross, don't judge.)

(I could never these cleaned before).

This is 3 years of spilled on juice/milk/unknowns that I have tried to clean and could never quite get off.

AFTER:

YAY!!  CLEAN!!! (for now)

To Celebrate my new Business I am giving away enough of Basic H2 to make make 2 16oz bottles of powerful cleaner to 5  lucky readers.



(First you can, mix 2 drops to 16 oz. of water in a Spray Bottle for cleaning windows and mirrors. Then, mix 1/4 tsp. to 16 oz. of water in a Spray Bottle for all-purpose cleaning).  That's alot in one little sample.

To win you must be a follower of my blog.

Extra chances to Win!

1. Mention the giveaway on your blog, twitter, or facebook, and comment to let me know you have done so. ( 2 entries)
2. Become a fan on my Facebook page. (2 entries)
3. Become a follower on my Twitter page. (2 entries)
4. Order a product from my Shaklee website. ( 5 entries)

I will keep the contest open until next Sunday, August 1 at 5:00 p.m. EST picked by Random.org.  Please include your e-mail if it is not easily visible on your blog.

Good luck to all entries.

Have a great day!!

Outdoor Furniture Update

Hi ya!

How was your weekend?

I tried going garage saleing after A's soccer game on Saturday, but the storm clouds rolled in pretty fast and I only managed to go to one where I snagged two picture frames for .25 cents each. 

So, instead I ended up at Winners.  In a momentary lapse of judgement I picked up 3 cushions to update our outdoor furniture, 4 outdoor curtain panels for the pergola. The larger cushion was was $39.99, the two for the chairs were $24.99 each, and the 4 panels were $24.99 each.  I wish I had pictures of them, but alas I didn't take any pictures... cause I returned them yesterday!

You see on my way home from Winners, I drove by Fabricland and I popped in to see what they had in outdoor fabric! 

They had BUY ONE METRE (or was it yard), GET THREE FREE!!!!

Are you kidding me???

So I grabbed my newly purchased cushions from the van and had the lady measure enough fabric for the cushions. I ended up buying 2.5 metres of two co-ordinating fabrics (that's all that was left of each). 

 So here are the before pictures of the cushions from my pergola post.

They were o.k. but not fabulous.

So I took my new fabric and laid the old cushions on top (doubled-up) and cut my fabric. The old cushion tops and bottoms were attached so I just folded them in the middle.

I just sewed a couple of squares.

Here's the after:

For the upper cushions I used old pillows that I wasn't using and used the old cushions for the bottom (doubled up).

I played around with the cushions and now I don't know what look I like better.

What do you think?

Should I leave the matching pillows or contrasting?  I like them both.

Oh yeah and the total for this fabric and some extra (8 metres) for outdoor curtain panels (at $1/metre) was $42.50 (including tax). (I also bought 1/2 metre of another fabric for another project I'm trying this week.)

OH YEAH!!!

Can you believe it??? $42.50 for three chairs and curtain panels of outdoor fabric! 

So I quickly returned the cushions and curtain panels to winners! (and bought a pair of shoes while I was there!)

And I found this cart in the clearance section marked down from $69.99, to $52.00 to final of $15.

Again my dilemna, leave as-is or paint?

I'm linking up to some of these parties.

So, what were you up this weekend?

My Fave Zucchinni Bread: A Recipe.

Do you remember earlier this week I went to a farm near my house and bought me some large zucchinnis?

I know you remember!

Anyhoo I promised you a recipe so here is goes... with pictures to boot! (ok... I might have forgotten a couple of pictures)

Step 1:  Take one of these large guys! Wash, cut in half and get rid of seeds.

(I'm funny about seeds)

Step 2: Half of one of mine gave me 2 cups of grated Zucchinni.

(without seeds)

Step 3: In large bowl, mix eggs, oil, and sugar.

Step 4: Add your grated zucchinni and mix together.

Step 5: Add flour, magic powder, baking soda & salt.

At this point you can add your add-ins. I added a can of drained pineaplle tidbits.

(choc chips are good too.)

Step 6: And Voila! 

You can make 2 loaf pans or 24 muffins with this recipe.

Now here is the Recipe:

Zucchini Bread

- 3 eggs

- 1 cup of vegetable oil ( I use Canola)

- 2 cups of sugar

- 2 cups grated zucchinni

- 2 tsp vanilla

- 3 cups all purpose flour

- 1 tsp salt

- 1 tsp baking soda

- 1 tsp baking powder

- 1 tbsp cinnamon

(add in your add-ins: walnuts, chocolate chips, crushed pineapple)

Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes for loaf pan or 20-25 minutes for muffins.

Enjoy!!

What have you been baking this weekend?

Bloggy Friends Weekly Roundup

Can you believe it's the end of the week already?

Thanks for all your lovely comments on my Backyard Oasis.  Can you tell how excited I am about it?  There's still so much to show you, but there was only so many before/after pictures I could add before I bored lost you. Stay tuned next week for more.

Here are some great blogs I came accross this week.

Becca @ Home is Where My Story Begins show us her great back yard.  (I'm into backyards lately, can't you tell?)

Grace @ Sense and Simplicity had a Sunday dinner with Christopher Plummer

(I love the colour of those window shutters.)

Emily @ Jones Design Company showed us her sons' bedroom.  I love the Custom Name prints.

Beth @ Stories from A 2 Z  had something to say to Pottery Barn about the 'bird". Really funny!!

Chris @ Just a Girl revealed her dining room board & Batten and all her accessories.

Janell @ Isabella & Max Rooms showed us how she made a chalkboard.

Well, I'm off to bake some Zucchini bread, I'll be back later with the recipe.

Have a great day!

Backyard Oasis - Part Deux

Happy Day to you!

I am back today to bore share with you more Backyard Oasis pictures. I already shared with you here a little bit of what we did with the space.

I managed to find a couple of Befores from before I lost my camera before the work started.  (Did you follow that?)  Sorry that some of the befores has a picture of A in it, but I think the focus on that photo shoot were the boys not my hideaous backyard.

So here we go!

BEFORE: This is A's buddy picking "flowers".  We hadn't cut the crass in a long, long time!

We didn't bother cause we knew the construction trucks would be destroying it anyways.

(yes, that's our excuse, and we are sticking with it!)

AFTER: So much better! Look no "flowers"!

AFTER: Here's another shot abit further back with the "cottage" that I can't get rid of because it was S's and then H's and now A's. I'm hoping he outgrows it in the next 10 yrs. We've had it for 10 yrs now!

If you notice we cleaned up the bushes around pool and extended the fencing too.

BEFORE:  This was the walkway/pond.  Right behind the boys was the end of the rotting deck at the back of house. This swamp pond made me jump anytime the kidlets went near it.  I was always afraid someonewould fall in.  In this picture the boys were trying to catch the Koi fish (whichare now living in my friends much cleaner pond)

.

AFTER: Aaaawww!  Clean!

BEFORE: ummm... I'm stumped.  Don't know what to say!

AFTER: So much better.  We removed a tree and the dead bushes at the back corner.

AFTER: We removed the dead bushes and put in the fence.  All the flagstone is from around the swamo pond. The grass needs to be cut, but we don't to kill it in case it has not taken root yet.  Anyone know how long I should wait? I picture a hammock in that corner.

And now a couple of little details.

New fence! (replaced a chain link)

A close - up!

The edge around Pool walk-about.

Stonework around pool with coping over edge of pool.

(ignore pool toys and kreepy crawler)

And now a question! 

Does anyone know how to keep this guy from digging up my new yard??  >: {

Next week I'll show you the final details of the treehouse that is now a Pool bar! And some random lovelies from around the yard.  Thanks for putting up with my excitement of having a finished backyard! 

What do you think?

I'm linking up to some these parties