Maple leaves are sort of appropriate today...

Good day to finish this project - after the gold medal for Canada in Olympic curling and the win to secure a spot in the gold medal game in men's hockey.

Here is the project that Wendy wanted me to complete for a very long time.  We had the idea to make this while we were preparing for Iceland (while doing stained glass events), but it took this long to get it done. The leaves were cut out almost a year ago and they just sat around in baggies waiting until I worked on them. Last week I got some clear rippled glass and cut all the background pieces.  Our friend Carolyn (whose birthday is tomorrow...) gave us the old window frame.  Wendy cleaned it up, sanded it, and I put a clear satin finish on it.  We are going to hang it in the window by a chain, but will hopefully get to that soon (yeah, we've heard that before!). I think it will look nice at any time of the year.

What do you think?

Maples through the seasons.

An interesting day...

Although I didn't win roll up the rim to brighten up my typical Thursday, it actually turned out to be quite an interesting day today.

First,  I got to watch some of the Canadian women's gold medal win (actually the first time I watched a medal ceremony this Olympics)! Hoping for a repeat by the men tomorrow.

Second,  Wendy started piano lessons at the Dundas Conservatory (just before Parker's weekly lesson). A good lesson but Parker was the only one to get invited to perform at a recital next month...

Third,  Maddy turned 3 years old,  so we gave her a little taste of ice cream to celebrate. Still our baby,  but growing up so fast!

Fourth,  I almost completed my big stained glass project (the one Wendy has wanted me to make for over a couple of years).  I just need to clean it up a little then I'll take some photos to show everyone.  We are going to hang it as a show piece in our new kitchen.

Finally, it snowed AGAIN! It was supposed to rain up to 50 mm,  but it decided to start as snow. All at once.   If that wasn't special enough,  it also was foggy for a while. When we thought it couldn't get any better,  it started into the thunder and lightning! Can't remember the last time it snowed and thundered at the same time,  but Parker was sure impressed (he even tweeted about this event,  so he says).

Hope Friday will turn out to be just as uneventful!

Maddy says it best

OK, have we had enough snow yet?  I think Maddy expresses it best in this short video clip.

Back at it, again!

No, I am not talking about the weather... although there is yet another storm warning in effect right now (could be 25 cm of snow overnight). Maybe the kids will get another snow day like they had last week.

Wendy and I are going to be running another stained glass instruction evening for some friends in a few weeks, so I decided I needed to start looking at potential beginner projects that didn't look much like beginner projects.  I plan to have a series of projects for the participants to select from, and when they arrive for the 3 hr session, I will have all the materials ready for them to get right into learning how to do stained glass. After a few short hours they will be able to take home their very own piece.  We've done this a number of times (for our Iceland fundraising), but this time is just for fun.

Below is one of the projects that I am thinking of suggesting.  Since it looked pretty simple to me, I decided to try making it.  How could I honestly say that it is easy to make if I had never built one?

8" Koi stained glass

It worked out quite nicely! Even better, it took only about 2 hr to make (the first hour was rearranging my workbench so I could actually make something - what a mess it was!). I used opaque glass that would be fine to hang either in a window or on a wall. The feature colour is orange, although the other side of it is mostly red.  Although I've seen real koi in various colours, I prefer the orange myself. Wendy actually likes this one, but we can't decide where to put it.

I think it will definitely go on my project list. Comments?

He's in.... x4.!

Today was the earliest that Adam could find out whether he was accepted into college for the fall,  and sure enough,  he got what he wanted.  He was accepted into ALL FOUR colleges that he applied for!

Wendy logged into OntarioColleges.ca and found that he was offered a spot at Mohawk,  Fanshawe,  Conestoga,  and Niagara College.

He has already accepted his first choice - Mohawk College for Mechanical Engineering Technology.

Way to go,  Adam!

We have two kids, all three of them teenagers...

Our international student, Stanley, moved in last night and is getting settled in his new bedroom.  We wanted to welcome him to our home and hope that adjusting to the new environment will go smoothly.  Term 2 starts for him tomorrow, so he will be experiencing a lot of new things in the coming days.

I guess it is also going to be interesting for us to get used to having three teenagers in the house!  Glad we upgraded our internet plan.  Think of the bandwidth we'll be able to use!  :-()

Mad dogs and other things...

Not too much happening this week, but we did get to meet Stanley, the high school student who will be living with us starting next week.  Wendy and I picked him up and brought him to the high school to get him registered for second term courses.  He is so polite... hoping it rubs off on our other two teenagers...

I was able to snap a photo of Adam's new Warrant Officer 2nd Class badge for his cadet tunic. He says he will get some photos from a fellow cadet of the night he was promoted. We were not allowed to attend (we are just the parents), so hopefully the pictures will be OK for our scrapbook. I'll try to snatch a picture of him in his uniform before he leaves for cadet's this week.

Warrant Officer 2nd Class

Maddy has started to act a little weird on the stairs lately.  She goes up part way, then stops - frozen, unable to proceed.  It is like she gets half way up then forgets what she is supposed to do.  Sometimes she whimpers a little to get our attention, but we have been mostly ignoring her.  I think she just wants us to pick her up and carry her the rest of the way.  Not happening, Maddy!

Maddy - stuck on the stairs

Now, if there were a treat upstairs, she would be up there in a flash!  My guess is that she must have slipped on the stairs while we were at work, and now she gets a twinge of anxiety when she realizes she is actually on the stairs.  Perhaps the hair on her feet is getting a little bushy and is making her lose her grip (happens to us all, eventually).  Ummm, the grip part, I mean...