Christmas in July

You can't always get what you want,

But if you try sometimes, well you just might find,

You get what you need. 

We got two great things this weekend, both of which are demonstrated in these pictures. 

The fence really makes it feel like things are coming together.

I posted previously that a half decent camera with a lens was on my wish list.

So this weekend was Christmas.

Keith's older brother Mark came down to help us build fence and acted like Santa Claus, bringing both fencing supplies and me a package from my parents with my very own DSLR. (Insert excited squeals and exclamation marks here).
It is far far beyond decent. 
Now things don't always come this easily. But both of my parents are pretty big into fine photography (you can check out their websites: martinhusch.com and gabrielahusch.com) and it just turns out that my Dad just got a fancy schmancy new camera and said that rather than buying something I could have his "old one" (quotation marks are because I think it's only 2 years old or so). I hope dearly that I can make them proud.

 The fence building was quite the ordeal. Whenever we take on these weekend projects Keith gets really intense and we have to be out the door by 6:30am and quite often I'm not allowed to eat lunch until after 3 o'clock. This to the girl who usually gets hungry again by 10am after breakfast on a work day. How I survive these weekend projects I'm not sure. But the fence is beautiful, and I cannot wait for my Cello-horse to move down and make her home here (I'm sure she will not share my enthusiasm). We still have to put up the middle and top wires and get the gates put in, but those are the easiest parts. Building the braces and figuring out just where our property lines was really quite complex (or so it seemed to me) and seemed to take forever, and we were so so grateful that Mark was there to tell us what to do.

One of the funniest things was finding out all the "soft spots" of our little property. First Keith got stuck in the ditch - with the post pounder in tow - just after they drove past me (high and dry on the road) and I said "it's soft in there". Stuck. Keith swore. I beamed with pride as my little old Sandy truck was able to pull them out.

 Muddy Chev tires after getting pulled out by Sandy.

Shortly after this it was my turn.

  

Sandy-truck stuck in the muck. 

I love my truck dearly. I will have to take the time to write a blog post about Sandy. 

:)

I had to laugh a bit getting stuck. I remember looking at a patch in the field where there were tractor ruts... and thought "well, it's better for me to get stuck with Sandy than for Keith to get stuck again towing the post pounder". So I went on in. We had to know where it was safe to drive the post pounder to without getting stuck again. So Sandy and I took one for the team. And we so nearly got ourselves out! But then we didn't. And just went deeper. The boys came to the rescue and pulled us out.

The weekend was exhausting. I couldn't believe I had to take an extra day as "vacation" to get that exhausted. It was really hot outside the second day and I think near the end we all had a little bit of heat stroke and a lot of dehydration, despite our best efforts to keep guzzling water all day. But I'm so happy we got so much done. It looks so much homier. 

And at least Nova enjoyed herself outside all weekend. 

Isn't she beautiful?

I'm quickly learning the magic of morning and evening light. It transforms things. And I'm so so excited to learn how to capture that  with my fancy new present (and to share them here!). One of the best things about photography (I think) is it can make you realize the beauty in small things that normally you wouldn't think twice about. You get to use your imagination to rediscover little things like sun rays and fences and beads of sweat and weeds and anything else.

But if you try sometimes you just might find

You just might find

You get what you need. 

   

Artsy Fartsy

I have an itch that has been nagging at me for a while now. The artsy itch. In my first post I talked about how I'm really not athletic (a dodgeball injury to my pinky finger from March is still bothering me - which is more detrimental than it may sound. My left pinky finger is one of my favorite fingers and I really need it for fiddle and guitar. I would rather someone chop off my foot than take my pinky finger. So I still complain about this injury quite a bit. It's had a pretty big impact) and I grew up with definitely more artsy fartsy potential than athletic finesse (read again - dodgeball injury).

So I'm trying to get back to it.

This blog was a big reach out for that. Until I went to university I used to write all the time, and I loved it. I would write about everything and anything. Then after four years of writing research papers and not reading novels because I'd feel guilty for not studying, the artsy fartsy in me kind of got taken over by the "I need to focus on what's important right now". Now it's been over two years since I've gotten out of university and I'm beginning to realize... I miss the artsy fartsy. I'm reading again and I still do things like play my fiddle and my guitar and take way too many self-portraits of me and my horse -

But I'm just starting to realize... that it's ok for me to get back to the artsy fartsy now. I made it through school. I got my certification. I'm good at what I do and that's not about to change any time soon.  And I've come to the realization that it's ok for me to get back to the me that takes the time to paint and create and make my own bracelets. With the coming new house it's like a total blank canvas and I hope that I can do it justice.

So I'm plugging away at things. Not necessarily house things, since Keith won't let me get house things until we have the actual house. But little things, yesterday I finished this:

And I love it! I used to be big into homemade bracelets. And this one is even a little fancy which just completely delights me. Its soft and flexible which makes it great for when I play the fiddle or guitar, so it's not bouncing all over the place. And it's thin enough that I can wear it at work and type my reports with no problems! Annnnnd...

I customized it with a little A+K

Since we've been married I've been a huge sucker for drawing our initials in hearts all over the place. This past Thursday we took Nova for a nice little bike ride around the lake and at our usual rest stop I was excited to find that someone had just left sidewalk chalk lying around... Sooo...

I just had to.

  

 

Bike ride love <3

I think Keith puts up with it all pretty well. If you minus the looks he gives the camera like "excuse my wife, she gets a little too excited about EVERYTHING".

More love when I was in charge of painting the shed. 

Don't worry I didn't totally neglect the actual painting job. 

Not that doodling our initials on things makes me artsy fartsy. But the itch is there I swear! The itch that is mostly demonstrated by the fact that I'm willing to sit here and write about the little things in my life like stitched bracelets and pictures of our initials drawn on a cement pad. And I'm hoping if I proclaim it to the blog world (hi Dad!) that I will make a good effort to be creative with my future home, and not just fill the new house with stuff, but to fill it with inspiration.

Inspired by music :)

To leave off...

I just thought I'd throw in a picture of my rhubarb that I've planted out on the property. I don't know why this makes me feel like I'm getting back to artsy fartsy. Maybe artsy fartsy wasn't even the best title for this (too late now! we're nearing the end!), but rather just that I'm excited to get back to creating things, and in this case growing my own rhubarb. I know everyone says rhubarb is super easy to grow and once you have it you can never get rid of it, but since moving 12 years ago I think my mother has killed three rhubarb plants trying to get it to take to a spot rhubarb has never been. My mum has a lovely garden but for whatever reason the rhubarb did not like her. When I got this plant from a lady at work I was terribly worried the curse would stay with me. But three weeks later - it's doing great! I'm so proud. I can't wait to grow my own garden next year.

I look forward to embarking on what I call an adventure (empty house to do with what I wish!). And I hope I get to share some of it here.

Weekend

The football season kind of takes over our life for the months of June through to November, and I've made my peace with the fact that we won't have summer vacations for as long as Keith is playing football. During the summer Keith does get one week off during which we normally go back to Alberta to visit our families, but this year the schedule is particularly difficult and Keith's bye week doesn't actually allow for a full weekend, just Monday to Friday off. All of his days off are otherwise scheduled for Sundays or Mondays. 

So! I was super excited when we found out that this week's post-game meetings and run-downs had been moved over to Friday and freed up Saturday resulting in an ENTIRE WEEKEND off (yes that deserved capital letters). We decided to go up camping near Saskatoon and while we were up go see the progress on our house. Our future home is being built up in Hague and then once it's all done they load it up on a big truck and move it down and plop it onto the basement (terrifying process if you ask me).

I was a verrrrrrry happy camper. 

 

  
Nova got to sleep in the tent with us for the very first time. The first night she spent pretty much on top of my legs. Foamies are much more comfortable than the ground. Only makes sense. The second night she slept between us on Keith's sleeping bag for most of the night.  


On Saturday we had our first encounter using truck stop showers went and visited the house (who wants to be stinky on a momentous occasion such as seeing your house for the first time?). I am in love. Love love love. 

Driving to Zak's. I was kinda excited. 

 

 

Welcome to the Shologans!

 

Please note Keith's expression as he watches me gush and take pictures of evvvvverything. I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing there in the linen closet. I've never had a linen closet before.

 I looooooove our big log post!! One of my most favorite things of the entire house. 

I am absolutely ecstatic to live in that house. I'll have to take a trip up probably in August to bring up our cooktop and hopefully the ceiling, cabinets, floors, and maybe even my paint (!) will be almost done by then. My impatience is mounting. I gaze out our north facing windows right now and dream of the kind of light our future house with its big wall of south facing windows will let in. Insert a wistful sigh here. We spent a bunch of time at the house, with me running around taking pictures (with my phone, a half decent camera with a lens is definitely on my wish list) and before we knew it we had to leave again... :( 

Byyyye house..... See you soon. 

Keith picked up an appearance in Saskatoon for Saturday afternoon. I spent the two hours hanging around the parking lot with Nova and decided to get my hair cut for the first time since December. In the past two years I've only been to the hair salon... twice. I've been trying so desperately to grow it out and usually just trim it myself at home. But it was nice to go spend half an hour and let someone who knew what they were doing take care of the mess that is my hair.  

Nova waiting patiently. 

On the way back to the campsite I got one of my favorite roadtrip treats:

Keith doesn't understand why (and neither do I really), but I love to put these in the fridge (or cooler or outside or anywhere cold) before I eat them. Amazing! Between this and having my fingers stained orange from Cheesies I think we made the best of our time in the vehicle.

We spent the afternoon canoeing Blackstrap Lake (no pictures, I forgot a camera and Keith wouldn't let me take my phone!) and in the evening we cooked camp food and marshmallows.

Potatoes, onions, celery, carrots, and butter wrapped in tin foil and cooked over the fire - delicious!

By the time Sunday morning rolled around we were all tired. Nova does the cutest thing when she doesn't want to wake up where she tries to cover her eyes with her paws.  I caught a little bit of it. 

We were able to get on the lake again with the canoe before we left, and then it was home time. 

A weekend well spent.