Home Sweet Home

Welcome everyone!  This is a continuation of our For Sale advertisement for our house.  Please enjoy the tour featuring pictures of various rooms in our house and their descriptions.  For additional information, please refer to our original ad on Kijiji

Nearly new house situated in beautiful Beachburg on 2.17 acres

View from the back side of the house which features a walkout basement with patio doors as well as a separate door off the office/4th bedroom

12x12 shed with cement slab foundation - perfect for holding your garden tools, lawnmower or any other equipment you may have

Welcome to our home!  The front entrance way is bright and open.  A closet to the right is the perfect spot to hang your coats and hold your footwear.  The beautiful railing adds rich color to the house and showcases the staircase to the walk-out basement.

  The living room is such a bright and inviting space!  The main living space is an open-concept style which includes the living room, dining room and kitchen, making it perfect for entertaining large crowds, watching the children and having a bright and sunny space to be in

The dining room works well for either small or large families.  We quite often have over 20 people in for a meal and we all are seated very comfortably.  The patio door opens to the large deck which is great for expanding your space or just to enjoy the beautiful view.  You really can't appreciate the view unless you come and see it for yourself!

Preparing food is a breeze in this large kitchen!  Plenty of cupboards, a 9 foot peninsula and lots of space make this a kitchen you'll never want to leave!  The peninsula has countless uses - ample space for preparing food, the perfect smorgasboard for large crowds...I even use it when measuring and cutting large pieces of fabric.  It's so handy to have a large open space like that and you'll wonder what you ever did without it before.

Another thing you'll wonder what you did without before is the walk-in pantry.  Store all your dried goods and sundries in this great space.

The upstairs bathroom is a nice size - not too big and not too small.  This bright and sunny bathroom features a low-flush toilet, sink, extra large mirror and a tub/shower combination with a 3-panel sliding glass door. 

Master Bedroom

Bedroom #2

Bedroom #3

Part of the unfiinished basement - Unfinished is great because it leaves you the freedom to add your own personal touches

 Airtight Regency Wood stove in the basement - This excerpt is taken from their website: "Save money on your heating bill…and get back to basics with a beautiful Regency wood stove. There is nothing like a wood fire.  Regency is the leader in gas, wood, and pellet fireplaces, inserts and freestanding stoves, through attention to flame, heat, efficiency, safety and quality."
There is a natural gas furnace as well but because the house is built to be energy efficient, we successfully heat with wood most of the time and keep the house at a very comfortable temperature.  But whatever your preference for heating, the choice is there - gas, wood or both.

Cold Storage - Plenty of space to store canned goods, root vegetables or other goods.

HRV in Laundry Room/Bathroom in basement

Shower in Laundry Room/Bathroom in basement

Washing machine and dryer (negotiable with price)

Come for a visit and see for yourself why this is a great home to buy.  Energy efficient, bright and open, nearly new, close to all amenities including being only steps away from the Whitewater Bromley Community Health Centre and minutes to restaurants, groceries, churches, fairground, sports arena, elementary school and several quaint gift shops. 

Beachburg is a great location because you have all of the conveniences of the city with the beauty of the country at your doorstep.

God still answers prayers

I wanted to share an experience that we had this past Wednesday.  The day started out in good spirits as we were to go visit some friends of ours an hour and a half away.  We got into our van and started out but realized about 3 minutes down the road that we forgot our directions.  So back we went to the house.  When we pulled in to the driveway, Matt got out and immediately he smelled rad fluid.  He looked under our van and sure enough it was dripping out quite fast.  We had smelled it the day before as well but there was no leak at that point.  this time, however, it was a different story.
So with a disappointed announcement of "well, we're not going", we all got out of the van.  We live a few minutes away from a garage that specializes in rads so Matt drove down there while I called our friends to tell them we weren't coming.  This was disappointing but what made it even more so was the fact that we had just had to cancel with them a few days earlier because Matt mysteriously had a shift written in for him at work for the day that we had planned on going that we had no idea about.   
I realized right then and there that for whatever reason, Satan didn't want us to go.  2 times we were being held back from going to the same place.  So as soon as Matt left, we got down on our knees and prayed.  
We have been praying a lot more as a family lately so it really seems to just be a natural thought to pray if there's something wrong.  So that's what we did.  And we didn't just pray "please God fix our van".  I prayed specifically that when Matt got to the garage that the leak would stop and they would be confused as to what happened.  
As an aside, Matt had taken his bicycle with him so that when he left the van at the garage, he'd just ride his bike back.  But in faith I kept watching and waiting for the van to drive in the driveway and not his bike.  
So the kids and I went outside and I pushed them on the swing for a little while.  Then the phone rang and I rushed in to get it, hoping it was Matt telling me something.  To my delight, it was!  All he said was "Call Pam and tell her we're coming.  I'll be home in a few minutes."  I couldn't wait to hear what had happened.
So when Matt got back, the kids raced to see him.  They were so excited and they told him that "Jesus fixed the van".  Matt, who I don't think was entirely convinced yet and thought maybe it was just a series of strange happenings, agreed with them and said yes, it probably was.  
Then I heard him saying to Ryan that when he got to the garage and when he and the mechanic went to look at it, the leak had stopped entirely and they were confused as to what happened.  I was practically in tears.  God not only answered our prayers, He did it exactly in the way that I asked Him to.  When I told Matt what we had specifically prayed for, that was enough to convince him that the Lord was in this trip and that He wanted us to go.  
We all got back in the van, drove an hour and a half to our friends' house and an hour and a half back and not once did we overheat or have to stop.  We had an awesome time and it was such a blessing to be able to have made the trip.
I'm so thankful that God is always answering prayers - sometimes it's not in the way that we would like but it's always for our best interest.  I pray that this will help strengthen someone's faith as it has ours.

It's A Piece of Cake!

I've been decorating cakes as a business for about 3 years.  Anytime I'm perusing the internet for ideas, I always enjoy the tutorials with step by step pictures showing how a cake goes from the batter to the finished product.  So I thought it would be fun to do my own version of that.  


My latest cake was for a wedding that had a very unique theme to it - peacocks!  I had a lot of fun planning and making this cake and the bride and groom provided me with some beautiful accessories to finish the cake off.  


The couple wanted a three tiered, fondant covered cake.  Each tier was vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream in between the layers.  So this is how it started out:

This is the bottom tier - 12" round and 4 layers high - I think it was probably at least 5" high.  Each layer is sandwiched together with buttercream.  I then put a crumbcoat of buttercream over the entire cake and cover it with fondant:

The holes are special hidden pillars that will help in supporting the other tiers.  I cut them to fit - just slightly higher than the top of the cake.  


On to the next tier!  The next level is a 9" round cake.  The middle and top tiers are placed on special separator plates that have little "feet" on the bottom that are designed to fit inside the hidden pillars.  The weight of the cakes are then supported by the pillars instead of the cake itself which eliminates any bulging and settling that could occur if you were to just place one cake on top of the other.  

The same crumbcoating and fondant covering process is repeated with the 9" and the 6" top tier.  Then they're all stacked together making sure the feet of the separator plates lines up with the holes of the pillars.  

Now comes my favorite part - accessorizing!  First I put the wide ribbon around the bottom of each tier:

Then I add the topper and the two peacocks - mostly so I can get an idea of how it's going to look.  I'm also going to be adding a paisley pattern with peacock colors and I need to know where the peacocks will be sitting so I can plan my paisley accordingly.  

Next, I begin cutting out the paisley patterns - I used a leaf cutter set which has 3 different sized cutters meant for leaves.  I just rounded the bottom instead of leaving it pointed which gave me the perfect paisley shape.  I used a combination of lime green, purple and teal:

Next step was to color some of my icing teal for the dots that were going to be around the paisley patterns.  I used the teal Wilton gel color:

So after "gluing" the paisleys on with icing, I added the finishing touches and hot-glued some thinner ribbon around the sides of the cake board.  And just like that, you have a finished, 3-tiered wedding cake all ready to go :)

The "fruits" of my labour

Strawberry season is here!  Nothing says "summer" better than fresh picked berries.  Some friends of mine and my kids went berry picking at a local patch this past Wednesday and it was great.  I usually pick a LOT.  I freeze some, I bake with some but I mostly make jam.  So I decided that I needed about 32 L of berries to make this work.  If you've never made jam before, it's really quite easy.  It may seem daunting but it's not hard at all.  I was fortunate to have a mother who showed me how to do this delicious tradition.  And I thought I would share it with all of you :)

This is what you will need to make your own delicious jam:
9-10 cups hulled and washed fresh strawberries
1 pkg Certo Light pectin crystals (available in most grocery stores around the sugar)
4 1/2 cups white sugar
250 mL or 500 mL glass mason jars with rings
5-8 canning lids (usually found around the mason jars)
potato masher
measuring cup
Large stock pot
wooden spoon
ladle
canning funnel


1. Preheat your oven to 250 degrees F.  Wash mason jars thoroughly with soap and water and place in preheated oven.  This is to sterilize the jars.  They need to be in the oven for 10 minutes and then you can shut the oven off and leave them in there while you're making the jam.  

I use 500 mL jars and I usually get 4-5 jars worth of jam but if you were to use the 250 mL size, you'd get around 8-9 jars worth.  

2. Wash strawberries thoroughly in a colander or in your sink.  The berries we picked were so nice and clean already that there wasn't a whole lot of work in this step for me :)

3. Crush strawberries one layer at a time.  I do this in a large 8-cup measuring cup but you could do it in any container and just dump each layer into a measuring cup after you've crushed them.  You need 6 cups of crushed berries which is about 9-10 cups of whole berries.

 
4. In the meantime, take your BRAND NEW lids (don't ever reuse lids that you may have used on other jars before as the seal will probably not work properly and you will have spoiled all your hard work!) and put them in a small pot with some water.  Heat the water on the stove but don't bring it to a boil.  

5. Dump crushed berries into a large stainless steel stock pot.  You don't want it any more than 1/4 full of berries because it will bubble up a lot.  

 6. Open the Certo Light package and dump into a cereal bowl sized container.  There are many pectin products out there but I prefer using Certo Light.  It uses something like 40% less sugar than the other Certo pectins (regular and liquid varieites).  I'm not a huge fan of sugar to begin with but I'd much rather have that than the pectins that are made with artificial sweeteners.
Mix this with 1/4 cup of the sugar and dump into crushed berries.  Stir well.  Turn on the heat to almost maximum.  Stirring constantly, bring to a boil.  Once it's boiling, add the remaining 4 1/4 cups of sugar.  It's helpful to have this measured out beforehand.  

7. Return mixture to a full rolling boil (where the bubbling cannot be stirred down).  At this point, I turn it down to medium and STAND BACK! hahaha :)
It starts bubbling pretty fierce so make sure you turn it down to medium. 

8. Remove from heat and stir and skim the foam of the top for 4-5 minutes.  This prevents "floating fruit" from occurring in the jam where all the fruit floats to the top in the jars and leaves the jelly part on the bottom.  It also makes your jam look much prettier if the foam isn't in it :)

This is what it will start to look like after you've been "skimming" for a while

9.  Now it's time for the fun part!  Take your jars (using oven mitts!) out of the oven.  Place your clean canning funnel into one and start filling!  I like to use a ladle for this.  A canning funnel is really a must.  They're really cheap and make your canning life so much easier!  

 

 10. Once you have filled your jars to 3/4"-1" below the top, put on a lid and screw a ring on.  Make sure any drips are wiped off your jar.  As the jars cool, the lids will make a popping sound as the heat seals the jars.  They will keep for a long time in a cold storage or pantry and once they're open, they need to be refrigerated.

 
Go ahead a try making some jam!  It's really easy, you're not getting near the amount of sugar as many store-bought jams (or preservatives, colors, etc.) and it really does taste better :)  I'm not sure how many jars I made but I lost count at 35 :)  I should be good for a few months with that amount!

p.s. Just a tip - All these directions are on the paper insert inside the Certo packages.  Also, Certo recommends that you neither decrease or double the recipe because that could result in an undesirable consistency. 

Family

I recently made the decision to shift my focus at home from cake decorating (which I have grown to love) to 100% family.  As much as I will miss expressing myself through cake and icing, I'm so happy with the decision that has been made.  
I have had many people ask me the reason for stepping aside from cakes and there really are several.  But the main reason is that my family deserves all of me, not what I have left at the end of the day.  I heard a poem the other day and it's so fitting to my situation.  I'm sure many of you have been there too so I hope you enjoy it.  It's simply called "Family"

Family

I ran into a stranger as he passed by, "Oh excuse me please" was my reply.

He said, "Please excuse me too; I wasn't watching for you."

We were very polite, this stranger and I. We went on our way and we said good-bye.

But at home a different story is told, How we treat our loved ones, young and old.

Later that day, cooking the evening meal, My son stood beside me very still.

When I turned, I nearly knocked him down. "Move out of the way," I said with a frown.

He walked away, his little heart broken. I didn't realize how harshly I'd spoken.

While I lay awake in bed, God's still small voice came to me and said,

"While dealing with a stranger, common courtesy you use, but the family you love, you seem to abuse.

Go and look on the kitchen floor, You'll find some flowers there by the door.

Those are the flowers he brought for you. He picked them himself: pink, yellow and blue.

He stood very quietly not to spoil the surprise, you never saw the tears that filled his little eyes."

By this time, I felt very small, And now my tears began to fall.

I quietly went and knelt by his bed; "Wake up, little one, wake up," I said.

"Are these the flowers you picked for me?" He smiled, "I found 'em, out by the tree.

I picked 'em because they're pretty like you. I knew you'd like 'em, especially the blue."

I said, "Son, I'm very sorry for the way I acted today; I shouldn't have yelled at you that way." He said, "Oh, Mom, that's okay. I love you anyway."

I said, "Son, I love you too, and I do like the flowers, especially the blue."

Becoming Apparel

This post is kind of a continuation on the thoughts of my last post.  Seeing as it's almost bathing suit season (how many ladies just shuddered? haha), I thought I would give a different spin on what most people think of as a horrible, self-esteem plummeting, awful experience - a.k.a. buying and wearing swimwear!

Now I have much experience in the area of hating bathing suits.  Ladies - be honest - how many of us have at some point or another (or still do!) wore a huge t-shirt and shorts as a "bathing suit" to avoid actually wearing anything spandex or revealing?  I know I have!  I've wore everything from a bikini (yes I do not want to go back to that memory hahaha), tankini, bathing suit with a skirt, and everything in between.  And not one of them did I like or feel good in.  Let's face it - bathing suits are nothing but immodest, unflattering pieces of "clothes" that most people feel they don't have a choice in  wearing because it's either that or forgo swimming ever again.  

Now this is something I have never been able to figure out - if a girl was walking down the street in nothing but her underwear and bra, she would be super embarrassed and people would wonder what on earth was wrong with her that she would even consider doing that.  But lets just do a little teleporting here for a minute and change the street to the beach - all of a sudden we don't call it a bra and underwear; we call it a "bikini" and it's totally fine and accepted.  The same with a tankini or one-piece: would you go walking around the mall wearing a tank top and your underwear?  Of course not!  Is it any wonder why most women feel completely uncomfortable on the beach in traditional swimwear?  I personally have always felt so uncovered and naked in a bathing suit and I secretly hope no one sees me as I make a mad dash to the water and then back again to my towel.    

So with that being said, I decided to do a little looking around for "alternatives" to bathing suits.  I won't lie - there are some very, um, interesting options to say the least  :)  But I was very pleasantly surprised to find something called a "swim dress" by Becoming Apparel (the name of my post).  The tag line on their website is "Modest, feminine, body-covering".  Now THAT'S what I'm talking about.  Being able to go to the beach and feel feminine yet covered.   So I bought one :)  And I love it.  It's so comfortable, flattering and dries really quickly.

There's a few different options but I love how they all look like a pretty sundress.  I got the one in the picture above in black and the black is definitely slimming!  There's also really cute ones for little girls that I got for Ella as well.  

This is what the homepage of the online store www.becomingapparel.com says:
"Becoming Apparel is excited to bring to you our all original Swimdresses.  The design and develoment of the swimdresses came out of a need for modest, body-covering swimwear that is also elegant, feminine and sophisticated.

For years I looked for something like this and never found it so I took the challenge myself.  Becoming Apparel is a dynamic company ready to change styles and colors to meet your needs.  I know that my swimdresses have put me "back into the water," as they have many other women around the world who thought their swimming days were over, because they refused to wear a swimsuit ever again.  I always say that, "I wouldn't be caught dead in a traditonal skimpy swimsuit, even the ones with skirts showed my 58 year old flab and cellulite.  That is why the Becoming Apparel swimdress covers below the knee or can even be pulled down below the calf in some cases if you desire.

We also have a travel dress out of the same durable, colorfast, wrinkle resistant nylon/lycra that is so versatile it can be worn many ways and lengths."

I encourage you, if you're like me and hated anything to do with bathing suits, to give this one a try.  Check out the website as there's lots of great information, testimonials and a video demonstrating how practical and great the swimdress is.  

Go ahead and REALLY enjoy the beach this year!

Fortunately it was raining today.......

Not something you hear many people say they're happy about unless they're gardeners who want the rain.  But today I was glad it was raining.  Let me explain why.

It seems that in springtime, people are getting anxious to get the summer clothes out in hopes for warmer weather.  It always happens that even when it's only a few degrees above zero, if it's sunny, you see people in their shorts and t-shirts.  But has anyone else noticed that as soon as the temperature increases, the clothing on many women DECREASES?  It's become a real noticeable thing for me in the past couple years.  It seems that less clothes is the trend and younger and younger girls are embracing this idea.  I can't even go into Walmart without thinking there should be an "R" rated sign on the door warning us of what we might see if we choose to go in.  Shorts are getting shorter, skirts are right up there too....shirts are getting tighter and lower cut, not to mention more see-through.  Why is it that even 10-15 years ago, if a movie or tv show had people in it wearing these types of clothes, it was deemed "not suitable for children" but now it's the children that are wearing those things.  

I feel so bad for women who feel that they need to dress in a provocative way.  As a woman who has been there, it all comes down to how much attention we get when we dress that way.  Some may say "I feel good when I dress this way" or "I look good in this so why not wear it?".  But if we're honest, it's about how much attention we're getting.  Men look, and we like it.  But is that what our self worth boils down to?  We should be looking to attract the attention of our husbands and if there is no husband, then we just need to be dressing in a way that doesn't cause anyone to have any kind of impure thoughts about us.  Because how would we feel if we were on the other end of it and someone else was dressing in a way to attract attention - and got the attention of our spouse/boyfriend, etc.  I personally don't want to cause anyone to give me attention that is meant for their significant other.

  

This is a quote I read on a blog recently "So then, think for a moment about messages clothes give… we all know it when a woman who is wearing immodest or suggestive clothing walks into a room.  The eyes of all are on her… she may or may not acknowledge it, but she knows it.  And if we were sincere, we would all admit to liking the admiration of  others.  But when that admiration causes  someone to stumble, it is wrong.  Again, our attire must not provoke lust in a man.  Men see things differently than we do and what might not be offensive in our eyes is probably provocative in a man’s eyes." 

So that's why I'm glad it was raining today....because people tend to be a little more "covered up" on days like today :)