Hi Y'all

At the end of August, my  hubby had surgery to remove a metal plate from his leg.  Well... the leg is healing and he returns to work on Thursday.  I can't wait!  I can't wait to have the house to myself for any length of time.  This time off work makes me realize that we need to make more friends. 

To capture the last little bit of summer, we went to Vancouver for a few days (where the olympics were held).  Here are a few of my favourite pics.

Wonderful sculptures where the horses were tied.

My hubby waiting for the horse drawn tour.  The horses names were "Bud" and "Wiser" (groan!).

Us on the tour.

Totem Poles at Stanley Park.  They used to look so scary to me, but now I think they're neat.

Please excuse the hair... Vancouver is humid, so I can never get my hair to do ANYTHING.  Also, the water at the hotel didn't help.  I felt like I was in the Seinfeld episode with low flow shower heads.

The steam clock in Gastown.

A bright and beautiful day at Granville Island.

So hopefully life gets back to normal soon. My work is slowing down to its regular pace which means I'll have some free time in the next couple of months.  That makes me so excited.  I'll have time for coffee, crafts and nice walks with our little puppy.

-Elisa

A mouse in the house?

What a story to tell this week...

I was baking bread the other day {the best recipe, I must share it some day!}.  Let me just preface this, saying that my oven is gas.  It doesn't have an element on the bottom like an electic one does, instead there is a tray like area with two cutouts that are about 1 inch by 12 inches.

I had my little loaf in the oven, rising in a loaf pan with a tea towel draped over it.  I opened the oven to see the size of the loaf, and check if it was time to preheat the oven.  When I touched the loaf, a MOUSE ran out from under the tea towel and under the tray in my oven.  I yelped!  Yes... yelped.   My husband had never heard anything like that from me before.  IN MY OVEN!  I was in shock and horror.  I quickly phoned my dad because we didn't know what to do.  Again, my hero, raced down to our house to save us!

I stood in the doorway to the kitchen, watching my oven until he arrived.  About a minute before he got there, I saw the terrible little mouse fun from under my stove, to under my cupboard, and into a hole, never to be seen again.  Anyways, dad found the little hole that he escaped into, and sealed it up.  He figures it went into our crawl space. 

I spent the day cleaning the oven, everything in the entire kitchen, and anything that the mouse could have possibly touched.  It just makes me uneasy thinking that there was a mouse in my kitchen. Now when I walk into my kitchen, my eyes play tricks on me, and I think I see a mouse running out of the corner of my eye.  My husband thinks I'm crazy. I was thrilled to find NO mouse poop anywhere, so we believe that this is an isolated incident. I'm working at getting over it, end of story.

I decided that I need to change my outlook on mice, so what better way than to find cute mouse things on etsy!  Here were my three faves:

Crocheted doll pattern by Amy Gaines

Maybe it's love by missmarjorie

Tilly, the needle felted mouse by Janice Cordeiro

I think they are all so cute!
Have a great day... I'll be away celebrating my man's 37th birthday!

Cheers,
Elisa

Late post... July Happy Mail

I love happy mail.  It's totally not about getting stuff for me.  Its's more about the anticipation of a letter in the mail.  But most of all, my favourite part of happy mail is dreaming and imagining what that other person is really like.  Blogs tell you some bits about them, their crafts, their family, but never the whole story.  I love to take what I know about my partner and dream them up in my mind.

That said, getting a suprise in the mail is fun too.  I put a lot of thought into what I think my partner would appreciate, and I love seeing what they come up with (with little money spent) for me.

In July, my partner was Tyler.  She sent me the biggest package.  It was so fun to open because everything inside was wrapped.

The inital opening of the package

Her gift to me

My favourite necklace

I was absolutely spoiled. I know that the last two pictures are blurry, but by the time I had downloaded them onto the computer, I had ate most of the candy, had used a few of the craft supplies, and had put everything else away.  Sorry!

Anyways, I'm off to walk our poochie, and then do some work.

Cheers,

Elisa