Elvis has left the building

...actually, That Damned Boat™ is finally out of my garage! Woo!

I can get at stuff without shimmying sideways or mounting a sherpa-led expedition over mountains of kerrap.

Inching closer to the cottage every day.

Happy happy happy. 

Also, I have only 3 more days of dance competition left for this year. Yessss!

Wind storm

Yesterday we had a wind storm blow through with sustained winds of 30+km/h and gusts as high as 100 km/h. It also hit Rice Lake. I've been trolling the web for photos of what the lake was like in the middle of all that wind. Here's what I've found this morning:

This photo was shown on the Cow Island facebook page. Scary.

And these were shown on The WeatherNetwork page for Peterboro. 

The quality is poor but in this one you can see the docks at the end are torn apart (the support legs are sticking up out of the water).

Knowing the direction that wind was howling, our dock would've been pounded. I'm really glad we didn't put it in last weekend.

♫ I went shopping! ♫

I mentioned a recent trip to Port Perry (♥ Must go back again soon).

Here are a few of the treasures I picked up.

#1: Some seashell dishes. They're not super big, but I thought they'd look sweet sitting on the end-tables in our bedroom at the cottage. Big enough to hold coins, rings, and whatever else you turn out of your pockets at night.

Won't they be cute in here? The captain's won't be cute, though. It'll be a very manly seashell.

#2 TP holder. This one is for the bathroom. It's quirky (like me!) and just the right dark red that I wanted to introduce into the room for a little bit of colour.

Added bonus: the tan lid of the TP holder matches the shower curtain perfectly. It also looks cute with the recently acquired prints. One more red thing (maybe a clear red glass dish?) and that oughta do it.

Lastly,  some containers. I loved the look of this little metal shelf. I haven't decided yet what purpose it will serve, but it is also earmarked for the bathroom. Needless to say, it is unlikely that it will contain soaps, salts, or soda.

That's it for now.

Still biding our time until we can get back out to the cottage. The waiting is so frustrating.

WANT.

I want these lounge chairs.

Correction.

I want to make these lounge chairs for down by the water. I need to price out some cedar, I think!

These were just featured on Ana-White.com (the same site where I found the plans for my end tables, and inspiration for my headboard). Thank you, Ana!

I can pick up lounge pads at CrappyTire, like these ones... Oooooooo. Perdy.

I can't imagine they'd cost very much to build. *scheme scheme scheme*

'Cause I need more projects right now.

Boat launch?

Looks like the only boat we could launch this coming weekend would be an ark.

Water levels on the lake are very high due to a combination of heavy spring rain and the thaw from areas to the north. Although I recently saw photos of the marina showing docks about a foot above water, the latest reports from the area are indicating that the docks are once again submerged. Buggrit Buggrem. This time last year we had made our first foray to the cottage in That Damned Boat ™ (check out "Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel" for a trip down memory lane).

I picked up some cottage goodies this weekend while shopping in Port Perry (whee!) that I'll show you, if I ever remember to take a picture of them. Between work and dance, I'm pretty well addled, so I won't make any promises.

Happy Easter! I hope the bunny poops lots of jelly beans for you. (Of course the Easter Bunny poops jelly beans. Was there ever any question?!)

Snow, Falls, and Melts

Snow
The Lad and the Captain o' Cheap took off for a visit at Mt. Tremblant in Quebec this weekend. They went skiing with the Captain's Mom and Sister. Conditions were excellent, weather was balmy, and The Lad discovered that he likes to ski moguls. It was a long drive for them, but it sounds like they had a fantastic time.

Falls
While they headed East, The Princess and I travelled West to Niagara Falls for a Dance competition. It was a weekend of very tough judging (the routine that took second highest mark overall for the whole competition LAST weekend only brought home a High Gold [87-90%] this weekend. Crazy.) The girls danced better than ever before, in spite of the disappointing results. If they continue to improve like this, we're going to have some really amazing competitions over the next couple of weeks.

Melts
It's official, and I have the satellite photo to prove it. The ice is 100% gone from Rice Lake.  (reminder, it's half way between Lake Simcoe - top left - and the Prince Edward County peninsula in Lake Ontario). I think the fellas (Dad and the Captain) will be going to put docks in over the Easter weekend. At least, those are the noises I'm hearing from the captain lately. Not sure if any firm plans have yet been made.

*THUD*

That was me falling off my chair.
After all this waiting it has finally happened:

ICE OUT!

Photo unabashedly lifted from, http://ricelake.forumotion.ca/

This photo was taken yesterday (April 5) at the south-west end of Rice Lake in Bewdley (I'm guessing, based on the vantage point).

The lake is clearly ice free. We still need to determine if the docks in the marina are still underwater. I'm guessing not since the water levels site yesterday showed that the spring spike had already abated. Next steps: get That Damned Boat ™ into the water, put the docks back in, and figure out if my flooring survived!

GAH! I'm so excited.

Of course, I'm out of town for 4 of the next 5 weekends attending dance competitions so I won't get anywhere near the cottage for  probably a month yet.

*Sob*

I'm so excited!!! *clap clap clap clap clap*

Hazed

I meant to post this last week, but in the whirlwind of work hijinx and dance competitions, it fell off my to-do list. Those of with access to my Facebook will have already seen this.

The wee lad made a stop motion movie for his "Book Talk" assignment. He read a Hardy Boys book called HAZED. The gist of the story is that a kid dies at a private school and the Hardys are brought in to secretly uncover what really happened. They attend the school as exchange students and soon discover that hazing rituals are occurring. This movie depicts a scene near the end of the book, after the Hardys are nearly killed the night before by three out-of-control "masters".

I think this is pretty cool!

 

 

Beans, beans, the magical fruit...

Are beans actually a fruit? We regularly have the fruit v.s veg debate at our dinner table with little resolution.

I want to share with you a bean plant. We all grew bean plants as school projects:

• Soak a paper towel and line the inside of a plastic cup. 
• Insert bean between paper and cup. 
• Fill cup with dirt. 
• Water and watch it germinate.

The Princess's class did the bean experiment this fall at school, which she tenderly transported home when they finished the unit. She has babied the plant all winter. At one point it lost most of its leaves (cold? lack of sun?) and we thought it was a' goner. Well, now the weather has warmed up and I'll be darned if the foolish thing isn't sprouting beans!

She is over the moon. None of the kids in her class believe her that her plant has beans, so I had to photograph them as evidence.

Maybe she'll have more respect for the veggies (fruit?) we set down on her dinner plate, now that she knows how much work goes into growing them? A mother can only hope.

Retail therapy

Because today is April fools, I'm bringing a retail therapy post to you today. (OK. This has nothing to do with April fools. I just had to work that in somehow. Poorly.)

I went out shopping last night (aaaaaaaah) and found some cute treasures to put in the cottage. I really needed to get out of the house and away from my computer. It's been a nutty mental couple of weeks at work. Let us never speak of it again. On to the finds!

Here's what I found:

Some beachy feeling canvas-stretched prints. Ya, they were $10 ea. for 8"x8" prints, but I couldn't make them for less, and I thought the colours/subject were a good match. I'm thinking of putting them in the bathroom. They're shown with the fabric from the shower curtain to give you an idea. I like the pinkish-red in them too. It gives me a tie-in to include some cherry red accents (very few) in the bathroom for pops of fun colour. I was waffling between apple green or cherry red, and this settles it.  Oh, and I love the cast metal starfish. I actually bought three. At least one is going into my bedroom.

Next, I couldn't pass this little guy up. I have a weakness for pears. Most rooms in my house have a pear somewhere. I felt the cottage shouldn't be an exception. I don't know yet where I'll put him though. TBD. At $3.50 and about 4" tall he was too cute to pass up.

That's it for my treasures.