Boler Reno day 6

So I was hoping that on Saturday I would be able to get the new axle on the boler but I ran into some problems. I made some nice 2 inch square riser blocks figuring that it would be enough as the guy I bought my axle from sells them that way. However I needed a 3 inch lift for my current situation. So its back to the steel shop to buy some more material. Once I pickup some 2 by 3 I can make up some new mounts and should be able to get the axle installed in a couple hours.

This will have to wait till one day through the week. My wife has to get some tax returns done so I need to baby sit Hugo. I have such a hard life.

Digital Easter Cards

This year I decided to go a different route with my Easter cards. It's not the same as snail mail but for this year it worked as I was a little short on time. I emailed friends and family a digital Easter card to wish them all a Happy Easter. I snapped all the photographs that you see on the cards myself, which took a lot of time and patients, but it was worth it. I also designed all the cards myself which is a big accomplishment for me since I am just learning how to use Photoshop.

Here are the cards that went out ...

 

 

I also did a Portuguese one for my Grandma's (since they don't have email I required the assistant of my cousins to show them- I must admit this is one of the big downfalls of sending cards via the Internet) ...

 

 

 

I'm not sure if I mentioned it on here before, but one of the projects I am currently in the process of putting together is a digital project life book. Sherelle Christensen from My Crazy Life As A Farmers Wife Blog has shared with her readers five free Project Life templates. They are great if you have a basic knowledge of Photoshop. I have used them in the following posts if you want to check them out  Bubbles and Easter 2013.  You can find the templates HERE on her blog. I have started to create some of my own templates for our Project Life Book for 2013. The following is one of my layouts which will be included in our book for this year. I also created  the gingham pattern that you see in the background.

 

 





 Do you use pre-made templates or do you design your own? I personally like the flexibility that is available with creating the templates myself. However, I appreciate the pre-made templates that others have decided to share, as they speed things up. 

 

Spectacles

After almost 5 years we finally replaced our spectacles. I can honestly say I loved my old glasses and was not ready to part with them, but it was time to move on to a new pair. I still can't get over how expensive this necessity of ours is, but it's one of those things that we don't have a choice. We could have gone away on a nice holiday with what we paid for our 3 pairs of simple glasses (the extra pair is Byron's safety glasses). But, we kind of need our glasses to see all the beautiful things that surround us and so we give up some things for others that are more important.

Now that I have worn the new spectacles for a couple weeks, I think my eyes are finally getting use to them. I don't remember it ever taking this long for my eyes to adjust, but this time around they are taking their sweet time.

This past weekend I was trying to snap a photo of the two of us (Hubby and me), but my short arms created a slight issue and I ended up with this silly pic of us in our new spectacles.

I just realized I forgot to post a seedling up date so here it is ...

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

ACT35 Action Camera from China

So for this season of biking I wanted to get myself a helmet camera. I would of like to get a GoPro but I am cheap. So I picked up this ACT35 off eBay. I could go into all the specific information about it but who figure it is easier to just say it's the same as a GoPro Hero3 silver edition minus the wifi capablity. I will let you know how well it worked once I test it out, but for now here are a couple un-boxing pictures. I found it funny how they shipped it as a "other" with 15 bucks as it's value, and that Canada border agency opened it up. Figured I would have to pay duties but no request for money from Canada Post.

Opening weekend for downhill is May 2-4 weekend at Blue Mountain, I can't wait!

14/52- Hands + Piggy Bank

The Easter Bunny dropped off some money in Hugo's Easter eggs this year and he also brought Hugo another piggy bank - a soccer ball shaped one. Hugo quickly figured out what he had to do ...

 

Easter 2013

We had a beautiful Easter weekend! The weather was gorgeous - high of 9^oC which is warm
considering it was the end of March and  it was nice and sunny most of the weekend. It was lovely spring weather. On Monday, however, Winter decided to return. The temperature dropped to -9^oC and there was periods of blowing snow causing whiteouts. I think it's time for winter to go away.

This year parts of the Easter weekend was spent outside enjoying the beautiful temperatures and taking in the sunshine.

Hugo had his first taste of Grandma's Folar (which is a Portuguese Easter tradition - Sweet Bread served with a boiled egg - it symbolically represents rebirth and the Resurrection). He just loved investigating it. Roxy tried to investigate too but Hugo would not let her near his folar when we were at my parents place.

 



 

[Close-up photo of Hugo's Folar - with Roxy standing in the corner]

 

 

This year Hugo had his first Easter Egg Hunt and he enjoyed all his treats and gifts the Easter Bunny brought him. He has really figured out how to unwrap gifts. 



 

On Easter Sunday we met little Pippa for the first time and she is so tiny and cute! She was so curious to see what Hugo was doing. It was her first time around a little human and she was great! 

 

Hugo also had his first taste of Oliebollen that his Godfather made. (Oliebollen is a deep-fried Dutch Doughnut traditionally eaten on New Year's Eve. In our town, they actually serve oliebollen outside the Dutch chocolate store  on the Main street on December 31). Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of him trying it.

 

We enjoyed some delicious lemon and chocolate cake Byron's cousin baked. She always makes great deserts. Hugo had some of the chocolate cake which had mint frosting and he enjoyed it immensely as you can see ... 

 

  

Before we left Hugo received some advice from his Godfather ...

 

 

 

Hugo also received a Dutch book that Aunt R brought back from the Netherlands.

Once again I used some of the free Project Life templates from Sherelle Christensen. They can be found on her Blog - My Crazy Life As A Farmers Wife. I am so happy she shared these with her readers. The templates are great if you know the basics of Photoshop. The above template can be found HERE. Thanks again Sherelle for sharing these!


We had a great Easter weekend filled with lots of treats, delicious food, family time and traditions. How was your Easter? Do you have any special Easter traditions?

Boler reno day 3-5

Busy Easter weekend for work on the boler. Bought a bunch of steel for it on Thursday on my lunch break at work. Come Friday morning I was out there cutting and welding away. The rear bumper is a total mess, I have to put a whole new skin over it. I am using 1/8 steel everywhere to try and keep it light but strong. We will see how everything holds up, if things should fail I will build a new frame and move the new axle I got over. Here are a couple picks to see the progress.

On Saturday while I was out welding a neighbour noticed I had a welder and stopped in to see if I could weld something up for him. He dropped off a 1 inch steel strip and 5 steel rods and wanted them connected. About 45 minutes later is was all done and he slipped me 20 bucks for me time. That 20 bucks is going to a Friday night pizza this week. Here is a pic of how his project turned out.