Turquoise Gypsy

I love when the weather changes and I can pack up my winter gloves and bring out all my rings and bangles. Here are a few pictures from the net, and one from me, to inspire your inner gypsy.

My turquoise ring that I don't leave home without. I'm a Gypsy Cowgirl at heart!!!!

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April Wishes

Spring has sprung and I know this cuz I have dead bugs on my windshield!! In my excitement for spring I have been searching the net for fun spring outfits. If you check me out on Pinterest you can see what I have been up to:)

The look I wanted to achieve is from the blog They all hate us

The shorts retail for $99 & sweater $125

Way out of my price range, so I decided to get crafty. I went to my local Value Village and scored mens jeans that made my butt look good. I chopped the legs off and took my foot file to the from and back to give them a worn look. I also rolled the sides three times and stitched them up and added a cute button.

My final look including two pairs of shorts, light denim and dark denim, and this cable-knit sweater. All from Value Village for $20 total.

My tools - scissors, buttons, needles, thread, foot file.

My end result :)

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Large Suspended Sculpture By Janet Echelman

Last week "TED Talks"  was having an event in Vancouver. Part of the presentation was Janet Echelman's "Suspended". This amazing giant sculpture hangs in the air and lights up at night with the help of your cell phone. There is an app that you can install, and you can change the colors of the sculpture using the app, which connects with the lights. The soft netting installation is 745 feet wide. The pictures below do not do it justice. It was breathtaking as it lit up the whole block in neon colors all night. In the daylight it seemed to sway gently in the breeze and become a part of the sea and sky. The wires keep it grounded but add to the feeling of a sail flowing in the breeze.

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Caesar Quest March 2014

The Mill Marine Bistro Vancouver
2014 has been the year of the Caesar, at least is has been for me. Did you know that Canada has a signature Caesar cocktail? Clamato is our secret weapon! OK, maybe not so secret if you are from Canada and like Caesars. On my quest for the ultimate Canadian Cesar I found a taunting message on the Vancouver tourism website. #88 of Things to do in Vancouver - Sip Caesars on Vancouver's largest outdoor patio. The write-up also boasts that one can enjoy many crazy variations of Canada's signature Caesar.
Just my luck the Mill Marine was between my hotel and my sister's apartment:) Light Bulb ......Meeting place!!!  We had been in Van for a total of two hours and I was already on my way to Caesar Ville aka The Mill Marine lol. I was accompanied by my little sister Loretta and bf Amber. We ordered four different Caesars from the menu and were delighted with each drink and fun garnish. Pictures down below. The only let down was the nachos that we ordered to share. Super sad attempt at nachos.

Food - 2 out of 10
Caesar- 7 out of 10

The Original 

Julius Caesar

The Albertan

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Mother-daughter day!

Mother-daughter day at Silverstar with my beautiful daughter Gillian my bf Amber and her daughter Parker Jane.  The Vernon Winter Carnival was in full swing a few weekends ago, so we decided that we were going to go enjoy the snow sculpture competition. A wonderful gentleman that was working on these Mushroom snow sculpture  gave the girls some tools and let them chip away at a few pieces of snow. They had such a wonderful time. We got to enjoy all of the spectacular work everybody was doing, then off across the parking lot and over to the skating rink where the girls had a wonderful time ice skating on the outdoor rink. It was -15 outside that day so we had hot chocolate to warm up, and then off to the mini sleds which kind of ended the whole thing for the girls because it was just too cold.  These little mini sleds are hilarious. The kids get to go around the track for five bucks for five laps. Here are the pictures of our day together and snow sculptures and the mini sleds and how beautiful and blue the sky was that day.

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Ice Skating at Robson Square Vancouver BC

Girls night out in Vancouver BC!!! My sister Loretta my bf Amber and I all went skating at Robson Square Ice Rink. Before our girls' weekend away I started planning what we were going to do.  http://www.tourismvancouver.com/do/calendar-events/ has lots of great ideas for all interests.  My sister rented skates at the rink.  Amber and I were competitive figure skaters with great skates so it was easy for us to have fun on the rink. My sister, not so much. Her skates could have used a sharpening for sure.  It was probably about seven in the evening, I think they're open until nine on Sunday evenings. It was so much fun, lots of people skating and smiling and a fun light show. Great times in Vancouver, if you haven't done it you need to try it before they close the rink.  Here's some pictures of the fun that we were having. Sorry about the quality, we were having way too much fun to pay attention to the photos.  I also added a few pics that I took while in downtown Vancouver. We have snow here in Armstrong but in Vancover it was pouring rain so here's some evening pics of what we were dealing with while trying to have a girls evening.

The Rink from outside. http://www.robsonsquare.com/

Rainy night in Vancouver

Love The Rink!

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Yours truly

Christine Turpin

Spa Adventure At Sparkling Hill Resort

Last week I was lucky enough to go to Sparkling Hill.

For those of you that don't know what Sparkling Hill Resort is, it's an amazing spa retreat that's new to the Okanagan.

The spa has several different steam rooms, beautiful outdoor pool and my personal favourite, heated massage tables.

This is a great place for anybody who needs to get away and enjoy some silence.

 I thoroughly enjoyed a relaxation massage which was amazing, although I spent the first half an hour trying to get used to having a massage.

We were lucky enough to get to enjoy swimming in the outdoor pool, which was absolutely beautiful. I thought it would be freezing because of the temperatures outside it was gorgeous.

The view from our room was somewhat obstructed because of all the fog, but it had its own misty serene feeling.

It was nice to slow down for 24hrs and take time to just be :)

 

Here is a link to the resort...http://www.sparklinghill.com/

Super relaxing spa vacation!!!

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Yours truly

Christine Turpin

13 Valentines Day date ideas

13 Valentines Day date ideas

1. Movie night at home - something romantic. No explosions, guys!

2. Tailgate party for two with a view - Picnic basket, bottle of wine, etc.

3. Salsa lessons followed by margaritas.

4. Rent bikes or scooters and explore in the next town over. Pack a picnic or go out for lunch.

5. Cooking classes, build something together as a couple. 

6. Ski date with a ski lodge lunch.

7. Play tourist in your area, pick a land mark and make it an adventure.

8. Animal shelter date, take a pooch for a walk. Adoption optional!

9. Spa Day for him and her. 

10. Chocolate Fondue night. Chocolate will get everywhere...wink!

11. Massages at home for one another. Light some candles, lock the doors.

12. Jazz club. Go out and hit the dance floor together.

13. Painting or art class together.

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Yours truly

Christine Turpin

Family Adventure Day

Getting out above this dismal heavy cloud we went to Sovereign Lake to go cross-country skiing. It was beautiful blue skies and warm temperatures. I enjoyed sunglasses and light clothing for the first time in a while! Cross-country skiing is new to our family, but super easy to learn. It's totally different from downhill. At the Nordic Centre everybody's happy and smiling, enjoying a winter wonderland.  We rent our equipment at the day lodge, and prices are very affordable. We had a quick run down from Grandpa Stan. I would definitely suggest booking a lesson or two just to get going. It makes a lot less work for yourself if you know how to get going. This is a sport that anyone can try. See pictures of Grandpa Stan, he is 73 and has Baby Jessica on his back! Gillian, who is eight this year, started last year and is already a star. There are many families out there with young children on skis or towing babies in sleds or just wandering around enjoying the sun. I would suggest to anybody to go try the sport or go up there and enjoy how pretty it is on the mountain.  If you just want to walk try snowshoeing, they have tons of snowshoe trails and rentals are not expensive. Hope that you try a new winter sport and find some blue sky like we did!

Fighting The Winter Blues

Hi to everyone out there reading this blog!  I'm excited to tell you all about how I'm busting through this winter depression that is trying to pull me down. I don't know if you or someone you know deals with seasonal depression, but we have been socked in for weeks without sunshine and it's driving me crazy! So what I been doing to fight the blues is sports and outside physical activities, even though I don't want to do it and it hurts. I've been putting myself out there and trying new stuff. My cousin Vera has encourage me and a few other ladies to try a 30 day squat challenge. Here's a link to the challenge if you want to try it yourself. Hey, what do you have to lose? :) http://www.fitsugar.com/30-Day-Squat-Challenge-30806625?fb_action_ids=600164606716571&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%5B156944174490876%5D&action_type_map=%5B%22og.likes%22%5D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D

The picture below with the little bumblebee and write-up on how to fight depression is home-made. It's just a few tips and ideas that may work for you, and the picture was actually taken by my seven-year-old daughter Gillian. Super proud of this photo. I let her loose in the garden with my long-lens camera and this is the photo that she captured. I hope that you are making it through these winter blues! Let me know if you've any questions or comments or any other great ideas on how to get through gloomy days :) 

Here is a picture from this weekend. Above the clouds at Sovereign Lake Nordic Centre.  

This picture is the best way to describe how low the clouds are in the valley and how dark it gets once we are in town. That white expanse is the top of the clouds which are covering the whole valley. The mountain is the perfect place to get some sun at this time of year:)

http://www.sovereignlake.com/

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Christine Turpin

Powder Day Adventure!

My powder adventure started out with 30 cm of fresh snow in 12 hours at Silver Star Mountain Resort. Morning started out blissfully as Amber and I drove up through the beautiful snow-covered forest. It looked like heavy icing covered all the trees. It was fairly quiet on the hill which made it really easy to get through the lineups fast. After four hours of skiing we packed ourselves up and headed out to our next destination, Revelstoke BC. We organized ourselves at our hotel, hot tubbed, and then headed out for dinner and a few drinks. The Village Idiot Bar and Grill was recommended to me by my brother. The food was great, our sever Alley was super nice and the Caesers were huge. Afterwards we enjoyed a walk around downtown Revelstoke in the snow. This little town seemed like it was straight out of the movies. The next day we headed out to go skiing at Revelstoke Mountain Resort. We took two gondolas and one four-person chair to get to these super epic tree trails with 60cm of fresh powder. It was an awesome day full of laughs, face plants and amazing snow!!!

Powder Day #1

Silver Star Mountain Resort, Vernon BC

 

Dinner and drinks 

Powder Day#2

Revelstoke Mountain Resort, Revelstoke BC

The outfit I packed for hanging out fireside after along day skiing :)

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Yours truly

Christine Turpin

Organize Chores To Keep On Top Of Clutter

Today I would like to share chore charts that I have built. The chores go from daily chores to weekly chores and monthly chores and even yearly chores. I picked chores from things that I found on the internet or household chores that I do or should be doing, and things my husband does. Below is my Little Piggy magnet chore chart. Crafting project! I used regular printer paper for the chore circles, and some stiffer construction paper for the backing. I cut out each of the chore circles and glued them on top of another larger circle of construction paper, then glued magnets to the back. This chart was for my kids, and each one has a small reward, usually like $.25. They can do enough chores to walk to our corner store when they are done and buy a slurpee or a treat. I hope that you find this useful and are able to use it in your daily life.

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Yours truly

Christine Turpin

Moonlit Snow shoe Adventure

Yesterday when I woke up to blue skies, I thought to myself "What adventure can I get into today?". Clear skies means it would be clear at night and the stars would be out. We haven't seen that in a few days. I sent out a few texts and soon Nicole, Amber and myself were organizing the hot chocolate, fireball and cheeses. We also borrowed my mom's dog Ruby to protect us from the wildlife.  We went out around 7:30pm and it was a beautiful night sky with snow that looked like white sparkles crunching under our snowshoes. We were out there an hour and a half, and half way through our hike we set up a picnic and chilled with some tunes and just enjoyed each others company and caught up on things after the crazy Christmas holidays.  If you're in a place that you can go snowshoeing or anything at night to enjoy the stars. it's really magical. We are lucky that we only had to drive 35 minutes from our houses in order to see these spectacular stars at Larch Hills.

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Yours truly

Christine Turpin

January The Month To Organize

Happy New Year Friends!!!! 

For me and a lot of my friends and family the month of January is all about "in with the new out with the old", may that be dust bunnies or organizing. One of my favorite times of year is January, when Walmart and other box stores have their storage and organizing stuff on super sale. First on the list was my closet :) 

 I love the 5/$5 shoe box size container sale. I keep black heels in the blue-lid-colored bins for a quick and easy find.

I scored manaquin heads at Value Village after halloween for $.99. They keep my fave felt hats in great shape.

One of my favorite tricks to keeping my studs organized is ice cube trays! I had blue ones because that's my favorite color, but they were too dark to see my goods at a quick glance so white works best for this job. 

I love utensil drawer containers from the kitchen. I scored these babies on a clearance rack at Winners. I have used these for necklaces, scarfs, and now my growing wallet collection. 

My new storage for earrings, brooches and necklaces. I found this bad boy at Winners for ten dollars. I love that it has storage on both sides and stays out of the way, hanging with my clothes.

Here is a quick look at my bathroom storage solutions.  On the right I have a metal basket that hangs on the wall. I love having a place to hang and store hot appliances. The pic on the left showcases my picture ledge shelf used for my nail polish collection and beauty products. These fab narrow shelves take up very little room and make it a breeze to keep my counter clean.  

My new toy is a closet app for my ipad. Over the weekend i catalogued everything I own into this fantastic app and now can see everything I own anytime, anywhere. Plus mix and match new looks!

Here is a look I put together using my new app and new shirt I fell in love with:)

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Yours truly

Christine Turpin