Who I am

Donna at Funky Junk Interiors is having an All About Me party so we can get to know each other! That's where I'm linkin up!

My name is Camille and I'm a stay-at-home....wife! Yup, that's right...not mom....wife. No kids...yet. I am 25, have Bachelor of Science degree but after 2 years of working full time we decided that our marriage was more important than being well-off so I quit!  And I haven't looked back since.

I am married to a wonderful man who NOBODY expected me to marry. He hunts, he fishes, he works on cars, he tries to talk me into decorating our house in cowboy paintings and various antlers....and I love him (but not the cowboy paintings...)  I am his help meet and his biggest fan.  This means I am the one sitting at the front of the boat with rod in hand (and a book in the other),  I am the one following silently behind him as we creep through the bushes (....taking pictures of flowers), and I am the one on the ground beside him ready to pass him the necessary tools under the car.  No, I don't always enjoy it, but nothing thrills me more than hearing my husband say that he would rather do these things with ME....not his friends. 

Jesus Christ is my Lord and Saviour.  He is my rock and my fortress. I would not be the person I am today with Him and I don't believe I would be still married if it weren't for God carrying me through.

I am a piano teacher. Sometimes I love'em. Sometimes I want to wring their little necks (not literally I promise).  But when the year is over I miss my kids sooooo much.

Where I Live

Kamloops, BC. Canada's desert. 40 degree summers (that's 100 for you american folk). Love it.  It fills my need for small-town community but I can go shopping if I need to without leaving town! (It's still a novelty)

We love it because you can fish a different lake every week for a year and in less than 15 minutes you can be lost in the great outdoors.

...or stuck in the great outdoors.

We moved here 3 years ago, never having been here before except for 3 days to find a place to rent. We knew no one and spent 3 weeks holed up in our basement suite playing video games 'cause we didn't know anyone.  I don't play video games.

What I Love About My Home

I love that it's ours. No more renting. No more roomates. No more landlords stomping around upstairs. No more dark, dank basement suites.  It's not perfect.  Actually, it's far from that (it's tourquoise).  But with every painted wall, it becomes more and more the home we dream of.

My Favorite Room

Is ...well...our bedroom?  It's the most finished room and the one that I dream about changing the least....
Most of all, it's the place where Tim and I can reconnect after a long day....even if it's just spending time in silence with my head on his wonderfully broad chest.

My Favorite Thing to DIY

I'm new to DIY, but gosh in the last few weeks I sure caught the spray paint bug.  How awesome is that!?  We have very little furniture to put in our new house so I am on the hunt for thrift store finds to fix up!

I Wish I Knew How To

Build things! And I will learn, don't you worry.  I just have to get brave enough.  I also wish I could decorate...haha. Some people have an knack for it...and some people don't. But that won't stop me from trying!

Something You May Not Know About Me

I secretly want to be a model when I grow up....

Why I Love to Blog

I'm pretty new to this whole bloggy world but what a fun way to get to know people and share ideas! I just had to be a part of it.  That and I REALLY need help decorating our house.....

Zucchini "Apple" Pie

Nope, that's not a typo up there in the title. That's apple pie made with ZUCCHINI.  I was a skeptic - especially 'cause I'm not a huge fan of the zuke. So when I inherited this GINORMOUS, baseball bat-esque zucchini from a friend and she said......."Oh, I just make apple pie with it!"  I said......Ha, pfft, sure, you must be joking me. 

My loving husband heard "apple pie" and that's how I began my pie-making adventure.

***Scroll down to the bottom now  if you really don't care how I got from point A to point B and just want to know how it worked out. The rest of you can follow my shenanigans in the kitchen as I hit every pit stop along the way!****

Seeing as this was my first pie-making attempt, I checked my trusty Mennonite Girls Can Cook site where I learned that the recipe on the back of the Tenderflake lard box was a safe bet. 

WRONG.  Maybe it's 'cause I'm only half Mennonite. Or maybe I'm bad at following directions.  I don't know but it didn't really work out so well for me.

So, I roll it out, it sticks to the counter. Start again.  Roll it out. Stick to counter. Add more flour. EPIC FAIL.  About this time, I knocked my entire bin of flour off the counter.  I left it there for two hours.

One thing that went RIGHT for me was using the slicer blade on my food processor to chop my zucchini.  Normally you're supposed to pre-cook the zucchini but naturally I forgot that step.  Luckily my trusty processor sliced it so finely that it cooked up nice and soft anyway.

The other thing I suggest you try is....USE A RECIPE. In hindsight I could've just gone to allrecipes.com and followed this recipe but no, I always insist on just winging it.

So I guess you're still wondering how it turned out eh?  Well, you honest-to-goodness would NEVER know the difference.  So next time you're faced with obscenely large zucchini's - make apple pie!

Silhouette Giveaway!

*** This giveaway is now closed!  Sadface.....guess I didn't win!

If you haven't heard of these gadgets, you HAVE to check it out! It cuts vinyl to stick on walls...or anything you want to stick designs on.  You can transfer images to iron-on-transfer for clothing. You can create stencils and etch glass! SO COOL. 

Even better......Becca at Blue Cricket Design is giving one away FOR FREE. 

FREE STUFF.  FREE EXPENSIVE STUFF. 

I want one sooooooo bad.  So soooooo soooooo bad.

Oh yeah, and if you are lucky and can afford fancy things like this, you can also get some pretty sweet deals on all the schwag that goes with the Silhouette.  BUT, you have to check out Becca's blog to find out how!

Mirror Redo

Friends, I'd like to announce - I HAVE A MIRROR IN MY BEDROOM! Woooooo! I'm finally starting to fill all the empty walls in our house...slowly but surely.

I got lucky with this one, our very dear friends just moved across the country....the WHOLE country.  Central BC to PEI. No joke.  They put almost everything in their house in a garage sale and gave away what didn't sell. 

TB brought over this gorgeous mirror for my bedroom a few days before they left and it was perfect! It didn't look this purdy when she brought it over though.

I apologize for the pictures.  Try to ignore the reflection.....what you see is our STILL unfinished basement.  A girl's gotta work somewhere.

It was a little dinged up but it's quite ornate....you just can't see it from here...so just trust me.  As I've said before...I'm a little lazy so, no, I didn't take the time to fill the chips.  I just spray painted right over it!  Can't even tell. 

The other lazy thing I didn't do - I didn't take the mirror out from the frame.  In hindsight that would've been the smart way to go...but I just covered it with newspaper and sprayed away.  I already posted about how that worked out....or didn't work out.  You would think for my very first redo I would be cautious and take all the proper steps.... lets be honest...that's just not me. And I'm ok with that!

I tried to take a picture of the mess that's UNDER the newpaper

 but it didn't really work....You'll have to just believe me.

Oh and that gorgeous canvas you can see in the reflection of mirror in my room....yeah, I got that one for free too! Ok well not totally free, I gave EA some money 'cause I couldn't believe she would paint me something that HUGE and that BEAUTIFUL for free.  I just have to show you a close up.  It's 4 ft. x 3 ft!

I'm in looooooooove!  Now I just need to work on putting nice things on my dresser!  What do YOU have on your dresser? Any ideas?

I'm linkin up to:



Mirrors and Spray Paint and Mess, OH MY!

I'm sure all you diehard DIY'ers already know about this little trick but I thought I'd share it anyway.

TIP OF THE DAY:  Use nail polish remover to take spray paint off a mirror.  Just wet a soft rag with the remover and, with some gentle rubbing, it comes right off!

I'm a little ...lazy...impatient....whatev.  But it always comes around to bite me when I'm working on projects.  So I didn't tape down the newspaper EVERYWHERE .... sue me. 

This works so well I might not even bother taping all the way around next time either! Lesson NOT learned!

Painting Countertops

So apparently you can paint countertops with melamine paint!!


Has anyone tried this in their own home?? I'd LOVE to know how it turned out so PLEASE SHARE! My countertops are, well, the best of a bad situation. For the age that they are.... nearing 50....they're in pretty good shape. And of all the colors they could be....they're white with grey marble'ish streaks. Could be worse.....could be a lot better.

Seeing as we don' t have a money tree in the backyard I am ITCHING to know how I can spruce up my kitchen for as little as possible. At least 'til we can scrounge up enough to tear it all out!

Easy Homemade Bread and Buns

I'm impressed with how many ladies have joined Sarah Mae in her quest to learn 12 New Things!  I've noticed a few of you listing that you'd like to try making bread from scratch.  Sarah Mae shared her bread recipe and I'd like to share mine with you too.

Contrary to popular belief making bread is a cinch....especially if you have a mixer....which I do not.  For all of you that whine about kneading being too much work - get over it! If you make a bunch of loaves at once....you only have to knead for 8 minutes (approx) every, oh, 6 weeks!

For the rest of you that swear you are yeast challenged - you gotta try this recipe.  You can't go wrong!

First, for all you newbies, CHECK THE EXPIRY DATE ON YOUR YEAST. If it's overdue then it probably won't rise for you!

This recipe is for 6 loaves but it adjusts easily...just gotta do the math!  I usually make 4 or 5 loaves and use the rest to make buns.

Ingredients:

6 cups warm water
1/2 cup margerine, melted
1/2 cup white sugar
6 tsp salt
2-3 Tbsp yeast....I always use 3.....
An indefinite amount of flour**

In a BIG bowl, whisk together the water, sugar, salt, melted margerine, yeast and 2 cups flour.
Add flour until the dough pulls away from the edges of the bowl.  I realize that a lot of people are afraid of imprecise measurements.  So far I haven't had a loaf turn out badly and I don't have a bloody clue how much flour I add!  I usually add the flour a cup at a time until it starts to get pretty hard to mix and then I start adding it a little bit at a time.  I use my hands and knead until the dough pretty much stops sticking to my fingers.  Apparently you're supposed to knead for 8 minutes or 12 or something....I don' t know.  I just knead 'til my arms are tired.

**I usually use half white flour and half brown flour - again....I have never measured precisely half...I just have both containers open on my container and I just take a scoop from one and then a scoop from the other.

** Also, I often soak 1/2 cup red river cereal in 1 cup hot water for 15 minutes or so until it's soft and add that in the mix too.  No need to adjust the flour amount! I only do this when I'm making bread, not buns.

Back to the instructions!

When you deem your dough "good enough" put a tea towel over the bowl and let it rise for 15 minutes.  Punch it down and do this two more times.

For bread, I divide my dough into equal parts between loaf pans.  I take a lump of dough and I work it so that it is oval-shaped and smooth on the top.  You want the creases (seams) to be on the bottom so you have a nice smooth crust when it comes out of the oven.  Of course, this doesn't affect the bread itself so there's nothing wrong with a few ugly loaves 'til you get it figured out!  Place each loaf into a greased loaf pan. 

Cover your loaves with a tea towl and let rise another 15 minutes.  Check on them and let them sit a little longer if they haven't filled the bottom of the pan.  Keep in mind they will rise more in the oven so you don't want to wait 'til they are as big as a baked loaf! Bake at 400 degrees Farenheit.  20 -25 minutes should do it. I use a thermometer that I set for 200 degrees F and stick the end in the bread and it beeps when the bread is ready to come out! Nothin to worry about.

For buns, first I rub vegetable oil over my hands to keep the dough from sticking.  Then I tear off a small handful of dough.  To make nice round buns, make a circle by touching your index finger and thumb together of your left hand. Push the piece of dough up through the hole with your right hand and pinch the bottom off.  It's hard to describe but you want the ragged edges and folds to be on the bottom of your buns. 

Place on a greased cookie sheet and cover with a tea towl.  Let rise for another 15 minutes.  Sometimes you have to leave them a little longer but keep in mind that they will rise a little bit more in the oven!

Bake at 400 degrees Farenheit for 12-15 minutes.  I wanted to take more pictures but my camera died soooo you'll just have to imagine fresh bread and buns!

Try it and let me know how it goes!

R.E.S.P.E.C.T

This morning I was reading Sarah Mae's series Marriage Is Hard.  I have been feeling really convicted lately about how I treat my husband and this was just what I needed to urge me back on track. 

I'm not going to go into details or anything but our first few years have been difficult - things have happened that have decimated my trust in him and unfortunately my respect for him as well.  I often get angry when I read articles about how a Godly wife shows respect for her husband even if he doesn't deserve it.  That's all fine and dandy but I feel like I'm so far past that.  I tried. I swear I did. But it seemed like every time I chose to believe his best intentions and trust him - I got stabbed in the back.  So I gave up.  I closed my heart. I built a strong brick wall around my heart.  I don't believe in divorce so he will have to just live with a robot for the rest of his life because that's all the emotion he would get out of me. 

I'm not healed.  We've seen a counsellor...or three.  And things are different now - supposedly. I wish I could tell you that I believed him but the only thing that I can trust is that time will tell.

In part 3 of Sarah Mae's Marriage is Hard series, she shared an excerpt from Living Ephesians 5: Wives, Respect your Husband (written by Nancy Anderson) and it really struck home with me. I encourage everyone to grab some tea and read the whole article.

The part that really got me was the paragraph on respecting my husband in intellect.   My husband is by no means a dunce...do not get me wrong...we just have had different life experiences.  Anyway, last week after a small arguement over money, he admitted that he often feels like I know everything and he knows nothing.  Yikes. And that even if he knows I'm right, he feels like he needs to assert himself.  You can imagine how that has been going for us.

Nancy suggests that instead of telling him that he's wrong, or throwing a fit, I should cater to his ability to fix things and solve problems.  If he wants to buy something that is not within our budget, instead of nagging and telling him he's making a horrible decision, I should bring him our budget and ask him to help me change things so we can afford it.  That way, if we really can't, he will see it for himself.

When we're arguing about something that we can't agree on, instead of me pushing my opinion over and over until he caves, I am going to try Nancy's advice by asking him, "Is that your final decision or can I try and convince you?"  And then, if he says no, then I am going to leave it alone and trust his judgement.
 It's hard to let things go, especially when I know I'm right - but I have a feeling that this will change our marriage. 

I challenge you ladies to read Sarah Mae's series Marriage is Hard and the article Living Ephesians 5: Wives, Respect your Husbands.  Spend some time in quiet and let me know what God is speaking into your heart!

New bloggy make-over!

Woooo look how pretty it is! Just wanted to give a shout out to Aqua Poppy Designs who designed the loveliness you see here.  She has a TON to choose from so go get yourself one too! And now it is faaaaaar past my bedtime, as usual, so off I go