Banners.

The banners were easy to make, but time consuming, hence I left off the names on the bottom as that was the original game plan. This one was made all with scrapbooking paper and ribbon (which conveniently I had left over from my wedding). I was able to make three triangles per plain white sheet of scrapbooking paper. Then, with various cutting tools I made a variety of details for the top and free-handed the letters to spell 'Happy 1st Brithday'. It was then all attached by using an exacto knife to cut slits in the sides and strung the ribbon through the top to the back then back to the front. We hung it from a tree and had the babies positioned under it for cake.

The second banner sadly was in a bad location, but looked adorable. I used a circle cutter in two different sizes to make the pieces, then again I free-handed the letters. The colour theme was chosen to fit the Paris theme of the birthday party. This one was much easier as the paper was the decoration and I did not need to add the details like the first banner required.

If I was to make a banner again, I would certainly go with the second circle one. It took one night as opposed to the first which was about 3 nights. Overall they were wonderful touches to the party and I am glad I was able to contribute, even in a small way.

So these banners were super easy and I would totally recommend making one for a special party you might have. Other ideas would to do the name of the person on bigger pieces of paper. Also, the wonderful part about a banner is that the small imperfections are almost not noticeable.

Basements.

I never really gave much thought to basement apartments until we moved into one. I was offered a job in Mississauga and had a week to find a new apartment and move.

First, the cost to live in Mississauga is unbelievable if you ask me. We are currently paying almost double for half the space of our previous apartment.

We were very blessed when we started our marriage to be able to live in an ideal location. We were down town Chatham, on the top floor of a building. With two bedrooms, high ceilings, exposed brick wall and recently remodeled it was wonderful.

Now we are in a basement apartment that we had to spend a lot of money on to make not smell like curry, and then even more money (on a dehumidifier) so that our stuff would not mold and our towels would dry. The ceilings are low, the storage is practically non-existent and you can hear everything happening. We can hear word for word conversations happening above us, we now know the difference between slippers, shoes and high heals as they walk (heavily) above us. Also, how many times can people move a chair? Here it happens about every ten minutes and is loud enough to wake me up. So with paper thin walls, weird smells, and lack of space we are learning to live in different conditions.

Then, to add to the current situation we JUST (yes 2 months after moving in) got a working oven. I was so excited, I love to make homemade pizza, cookies and muffins and I was finally able to use it. So yesterday I was working hard making some cookies when I discovered that the tray does not fit in the oven. Actually, none of my cookie sheets fit in the oven, not my pizza stones, nothing except a metal pizza pan that we thankfully own. So everything now has to be cooked on the pizza sheet.

Living in these conditions has made me very thankful for the first year of marriage and where we were blessed to live. It has also made me realize I have a very long list of 'must haves' in a dream location. Starting with either sound proof walls or the top floor, and ending with my own laundry room.

However to add to the list of complains I now feel obligated to share what I am thankful for here. I love that I am 15 minutes from work. I love that everything we need is close by, that I pass our ideal grocery store on my trip from work. I love that we are close to various attractions even though being away from family and friends is killing me. We are adjusting, slowly, but we know we need to make sacrifices to advance our careers.

I would love to hear your horrible living experiences in order to make myself feel a bit better about ours. So please leave a comment I would love to hear from you.

PS. I wish I had a photo of the before and after of the grossness of the bathroom that we spent 6 hours cleaning to share with you. It would give a wonderful understand of the conditions of this apartment.

20.

So if you know me, you know that I LOVE games, any kind of game really as long as it can be competitive and the outcome is not all dependent upon luck, and even with those I can get pretty competitive. One kind of game I secretly adore are 'getting to know you' games. The kind like name something that starts with the same letter as your name and then say you will bring it on a picnic, or the kind where you have to get signatures of 'a person in blue jeans' and 'someone born in another country'. So I figured, what is a game I can play alone (so that means I win right?) so you can get to know me. You may not love it, but I do.

1- Full Name? - Stephanie Ann Hartford

2- Date of Birth? - January 3rd, 1988

3- Siblings? - Yes, 1 brother- Justin

4- Favourite Colour? - Probably purple

5- Favourite article of clothing? - My Tommy Hilfiger jean jacket, it is so comfy and goes with everything!

6- Favourite Food? - Raspberries! Love them.

7- Favourite Book? -  There are a number of them. I love the Twilight, Harry Potter, Hunger Games and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series and am starting to fall for the Baxter series by Karen Kingsbury.

8- Future Child Names? - Too hard to pick. For a girl I love Hailey, Elliott or Hadlynn. For a boy, Elliott, Hayden or Hunter. To be honest though, there are at least 50 more I love. I think about this way too often.

9- Favourite Celebrity? - I love Sidney Crosby if you consider him a celebrity. I also really like Blake Lively.

10- Hobbies? - I love to scrapbook and craft. I am also obsessed with Bejeweled.

11- Favourite Television show? - This is probably the hardest to decide, I LOVE television. If I was to pick quick I would have to say Gossip Girl.

12- Dream Vacation? - EUROPE! I want to go so bad! It is on our list of 'things to do before a baby'.

13-Bad Habit? - I bite my nails and pick at my nail polish.

14- Hometown? - I was born and raised in Chatham, Ontario and miss it dearly.

15- Pet Peeve? - Mumbling, people need to a-nnun-ci-ate!

16- Favourite date night? - A movie and whatever else, I love the drive in!

17- Favourite movie? - I love most sports movies, like Remember the Titans, the Mighty Ducks, Forever Strong and Stick It.

18- Favourite Animal? - Do dinosaurs count? Because I love dinosaurs.

19- Fun fact? - I can lick my elbow, so regardless of what people say, it CAN be done.

20- If stranded on a desert island what 3 things would you take? - Sunscreen (I am obsessed and hate to burn), my husband and a deck of cards.

Ok, so that was way harder then I thought it would be, but now you know a bit more about me I guess.

First.

First Birthday Parties. What comes to mind? For me it will now forever be associated with stress. Last weekend (yes my long weekend, 4 days off in a row) was devoted to my adorable and wonderful niece, Jemma, who turned the big 1. As a result of this wonderful birthday of hers we then proceeded to partake in three different parties, each one more elaborate from the last.

I have a bad habit of not being able to say 'no' and also the willingness to do anything that may make my niece happy, so that resulted in me (and my husband) assisting in varying capacities at all of these parties. I made banners (yes more then one) for the parties, a tulle highchair skirt, tissue paper flowers for the centre pieces and cookies, lots of cookies. I will post later blogs about 'how to' soon.

Anyways enough complaining, I got to spend a weekend with my favourite little girl in the world and watch all of those who love her shower her with gifts and attention. I could almost cry at seeing how grown up she is getting. Current 'tricks' as I like to call them include, clapping, waving with an open hand, standing without holding on, taking one step and we can say 'pretty' (which makes me so excited!). I miss this little girl SO much and she is always my favourite skype date. So all in all, I had a wonderful weekend, despite all the partying and did I mention that little miss Jemma woke us up at around 7 every morning?

In conclusion however, it was way too stressful of a weekend as a result of a first birthday. It has been concluded when I have children it will be one party, planned well ahead of time. Oh and there best not be a huge second birthday.

Beginnings

So I have decided to start a blog! Over the past year I have been encouraged and inspired by a number of things while starting out in a new marriage. One main way has been through blogs. I have enjoyed reading about others lives, sharing in their ups and downs and learning from their life lessons all anonymously. So I figured, if I could encourage even just one more person with this blog then I will feel accomplished.
I plan to blog about life, the good, the bad and the messy, because life isn't always rainbows, puppies and glitter (although those do make it better). Additionally, I want to share my crafty side with the world. So I plan on sharing the end results of projects I find (typically on Pinterest) and actually complete, or just attempt as I can foresee some major disasters. So come along side me as I embark on this thing we call blogging. Secret: I'm kind of really excited!