Hip Hop Gold!

Erica was in a dance competition this week. Here's picture with her friends in their Hip Hop costumes. They received a gold standing for their Hip Hop and placed first in their category.

Happy National Scrapbook Day!

Today is National Scrapbook Day - I don't have anything scrapbook related planned - the weather is too nice! LOL
but there are several online contests etc. that you can participate in over the weekend.

Simon Says Stamp Blog
Scrapbook & Cards Today
Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine
Simple Stories

have fun and enjoy the glorious summer like weather!!

Paper Angels Retreat

I spent a marvelous weekend with friends scrapbooking and cardmaking at the Rosemary Heights Retreat Centre.  We had a fun weekend and I managed to really get my "mojo on" and created quite a lot.

The End is Near!

No, not the end of the world.... the end of my renovations and plumbing retrofit! Yippee!!!
Since my last update here's what has happened, they finished the plumbing and repaired the snapped pipe and shower head in my bathroom, new fixtures have been installed, they did the boarding (replacing the walls they ripped out) mudding, sanding, Wednesday they primed and began painting.  The final painting was finished Thursday and all that's left is to reinstall the bathroom mirrors and some fixtures.

By the weekend things should be all ready for me to delve into spring cleaning.
The project list is large.... actually huge! but it has to be done.  I'm away at the Paper Angel's Retreat this weekend with my friends doing some scrapbooking so spring cleaning will wait until next week.  Monday - carpet cleaning!

A few snippets of  the goings on in my life recently.  The VWMS concert was on the 17th - Evanna Chiew was lovely and sang like an angel!

April 18th Dianne, Ann and I went to a reception and dance concert at the Scotia Dance Centre.  Speaking in Ligeti, choreographed by Martha Carter.  Before hand I met Diane after work - yes that is Diane trying on shoes!.....again!! LOL  The three of us had "Happy Hour" before heading to the reception and show. The performance was spectacular, I really enjoyed the night. Check out the review in the Georgia Straight

I met Sue F for a cup of yummy coffee in Kerrisdale at Faubourg Paris - a very French Bistro, it was lovely.  And German classes still take place every Wednesday night and we're having a lot of fun!  Some of the class went to a fabulous, but sad, German film, called WunderKinder.
Check out the YouTube trailer - WunderKinder Trailer 

Last night I took Jo to the Kokeshi Project - at the Nikkei National Museum - it was their 5th annual art auction fundraiser and they were auctioning off 100 artist designed custom kokeshi – traditional wooden dolls first developed in the Tohoku region of Japan in the 1700s.  It was really cool! Some of the dolls were so amazing!

 And there you have it folks! The happenings of late.... I'll post more next week after the retreat and as spring cleaning gets underway.
Enjoy your weekend!

Tip Toe Thru The Tulips

DH and I went on a road trip with my parents this past weekend.  We started off heading to Vancouver Island, where we met my parents.  We had a great breakfast in Sidney and then onto the ferry headed to Anacortes, through the San Juan Islands.  We spent Friday evening in Coupeville WA on Whidbey Island and then spent Saturday on Whitbey Island wandering around  Langley WA.  Cute little town which just happened to be having a whale festival on Saturday, the grey whales are coming through that area daily to feed.
Saturday evening we drove up to the Burlington area and had an early night in preparation for our day in La Conner.  Sunday morning we went into La Conner for a stroll around and then headed to Tulip Town to view the tulip displays and the fields.... oh my! I never knew there were so many different types of tulips! Hundreds and hundred of them!  We had a fantastic time, it was really a fabulous display of tulips.  Then of course afterwards we had to go the Burlington Outlets to do some shopping :)

Summer Digs

Our nephew Christopher has landed a 4 months co-op job in Vancouver, so this past weekend we took him "hunting" for accommodation - May 1st - August 31st.
Man alive! we saw some pretty grungy places and we saw some really nice places too, what got me though was the number of people that cram themselves into 550 sq ft of space.  Once place we went to, there were two guys already there, one had a bedroom in the "den", the other made the living room into his bedroom and Chris would be renting the "bedroom". - no living space at all! he'd be stuck in his room.  Don't get me wrong, there was nothing wrong with the potential roommates or the apartment, it was just very close quarters!!
We did manage to find him a really funky 2 bedroom basement suite, he has his own room, living room, kitchen, insuite laundry and a lovely back garden to sit out in if he wants.  His room mate is going to Australia May - early July, so he'll have the digs all to himself for two out of the four months.  it's perfect! and the bus stop is 1/2 block away from the house and goes direct to his office.  Fully furnished, so he only has to bring his personal belongings. SCORE!

On the reno front of things, it seems to have come to a halt.  There's been a problem in the guest bathroom, the plumbers snapped the pipe and shower head off in behind our shower stall. NOT good!

That was last Wednesday, nothing has been done since then.  However, today the tiler is supposed to be here with the plumber to fix that shower and then we have to wait for the inspection before they can continue.

The guys that are doing the mudding, drywall and painting are behind 10 days, so instead of a target date of April 19th for completion it's now April 29th. ((sigh))

On the good side, the new bathroom fixtures are great! and we have been able to put the kitchen back together.

Baby steps! LOL

Living in Chaos :(

So last week the renos and re-plumbing started at our place.  Day 1, not so bad.... they took out the full wall mirrors in both bathrooms.  That took all of 20 minutes!

Day 2, they were supposed to cut the drywall but no one showed up.... hmmm you can guess how happy I was.  NOT! and yes, they did hear about it! I said my peace.... felt so much better after letting my frustrations out, but we lived in chaos for the Easter weekend.

Day 3, they did show up and cut the dry wall (see above) and covered the holes with plastic sheeting.

Day 4, the laundry room and en suite bathroom started getting new plastic piping. Of course all the mess is in our bedroom, because they are re-piping the laundry area from our bedroom wall!

tomorrow will be day 5....and the schedule is planned for re-piping the second bathroom and the kitchen...which they are doing from the living room side!

Needless to say... we will be in this state of chaos until at least the 22nd of April. On the plus side.... new fixtures, new paint and no more copper pipes!  I should add, the guys are really good at cleaning up at the end of the day. 

I just hate having to live out of boxes and baskets....did I mention we had to pack everything up like we were moving? Everything......even the kitchen cupboards in case the vibrations from the work on the living room wall side caused all the dishes to fall out. ((sigh))

So there you have it..... I'm living in chaos.