bluebird...

I thought this was awesome...


more animals

My Wishlist

As Christmas draws ever nearer and more and more people are asking me what I want, I thought it might be a good idea to post a list of stuff I'd like this year... In no particular order...

1. The Twilight series
2. A gift card for Aldo or Payless (so I can get some much needed winter shoes)
3. Something handmade - like a scarf or altered photo frame etc.
4. A hug from all of my siblings (in-law ones too)
5. A new purse (my mother in law has wonderful purse taste!)
6. A gift card for IKEA (to go towards getting a new desk and storage for my craft room)
7. Wii Fit
8. Some of my sister's amazing homemade shortbread cookies (they are sooooo YUMMY)
9. Health and Happiness for my family
10. A baby or two (or like my boss keeps saying, how are the quads coming?) in my tummy (I only know one person who can give that to me though)
11. A certain puppy to become house trained... no more regression into bad habits!
12. World Peace
13. End to Hunger
14. End to Terrorism

So Santa... if you could work on this list... Especially the last 3... Thanks

OUCH!!

I think I hate winter most out of all of the other seasons!! I can handle rain and heat and raking leaves, but not the freezing cold, snow and ice of winter! Not only do your feet and hands freeze - doesn't matter what shoes or gloves I wear - but so does your nose... and since I wear glasses I can't cover up my nose with my scarf without fogging up my glasses... and then I CAN'T SEE!

This morning I unlocked the car, lifted the handle and then there was a snapping noise and a jolt of pain... the door was still firmly shut and two of my nice (expensive) gel nails had snapped. My feet were freezing because I was standing in a snowdrift and my car door was FROZEN shut. I reefed (yanked) hard on the door and it finally opened... I sat down and took off my glove to survey the damages... yep two nails now look like claws because half of each nail had splintered off at an angle... I started the car - it did NOT want to start, but I got it started anyway - and I took some nail clippers to get rid of the jagged edges.

My week is busy enough without having to try and get my nails fixed too....

GRRRRRRR!!!! winter!

pumpkin soup recipe

I've been asked by several people to give them my Pumpkin Soup Recipe... so here is a link to it... http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=418927 Please note that if you are not counting calories that it does taste much creamier if you use light or regular cream instead of the milk. Also I've been told that you can use canned pumpkin instead of fresh roasted - just make sure its pure pumpkin and not pumpkin pie filling... LOL

I'm in the process of trying to find my Broccoli Cheddar soup recipe too and I will post it as soon as I find it...

Christmas Cards

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love to make cards and do crafty things. This year I decided that I would try selling cards at work at it has been successful... my clientele is growing, it started with my boss and co-workers and has spread into my department as well. I thought it would be a great opportunity now at Christmas to offer my handmade Christmas/Holiday cards for sale and post an ad in our company classified ads (since its free). I haven't gotten any orders yet, but its only less than 24 hours since I posted the ad, so I'll have to wait and see.

Here for your viewing pleasure are some of the Christmas cards I've made so far.

Sparkly Christmas Tree

Rudolph and Pals

Sparkly Doves

Christmas Door

November VSN Pictures

Finally as promised, here are pictures of the cards I made - hopefully they will all fit in the same post!! LOL

First off, one of my favorites... The challenge was to make a masculine card using at least 2 feminine elements... I chose to make a Fat Chef card using some girly colours and some glitter glue... i love the serving tray... look at the next image to see what is hiding...Some Cheese for Cobi!!! LOL, one of the gals I stamped with during VSN just adores cheese... i thought of her when i made this card... LOL

Ok, next we have the corset challenge... I really think this card is pretty and it was easy to make too...

This next challenge was to use an Album cover as inspiration... I found an albulm on Google Image search and it looks soooo much like this card... Another easy card to make! The link to the album cover... http://www.magicketchup.com/blog_pic/lp_softhard.jpg

This next card is not one of my favorites... the challenge was to make a Cameo image (take a look at a really pretty Cameo pendant... http://www.berezka.com/shopping/ProductImages/11/NM115ERBL.jpg)

This next card was something I'd never done before... its a paper folding technique called the Dahlia fold and it just uses circles. such a stunning flower!!

Another neat challenge, the Thumping Technique... basically you can do it two ways, one is that you use markers and tap onto the rubber stamp then you breathe on it and stamp onto paper (I used that on the stripes), the other way is to colour with markers or ink with a stamp pad in the lightest colour and then take a darker marker and tap it all over the stamp, then you breathe on it (it gives it back some moisture) and you stamp it on paper (I used that on the flowers). this was a new technique that I had meant to try before... I really like how it looks.

This next card was for a challenge that you had to have some sort of hidden element to your card.

The cupcake top pulls up to reveal HAPPY BIRTHDAY... neat eh?

This next card was so much fun to make, the challenge was to make something with falling snow but we couldn't use glitter... So I used my Cricut machine (love this machine!!) to cut out the pieces of the snowglobe... Check out the second picture to see the inside...

This card was so hard to make - so finicky and fussy... but its really cool and its something I've never tried to do before... its a shaker card... the hippo's head actually wiggles when you move the card... I wish I could figure out how to take a video with my camera...

Oooooh I loved making this card, and even though I measured it all wrong, i like how I made it come off of the card front. This is a shaker card, there are beads inside the frame (held into place with foam tape and a sheet of acetate.

This card's challenge was to use pink blossoms... I took my inspiration for this card from one of the birthday cards that was given to my sister.

this card challenge was to use the spotlighting technique - basically highlighting something in the image you're using... a neat simple technique that really adds pizazz...

And last but not least... my favourite 15 minute card. The challenge for this card was to take an image or feeling from the movie Moulin rouge and make a card to represent it. Mine was this image (http://img2.timeinc.net/ew/img/daily/595/moulin_l.jpg)

Car pictures

As promised, here are the pictures of the damage the Semi did to our car...

Really it doesn't look too bad eh?

Thankfully our insurance covers all of the damage - we don't even have to pay the deductible as the accident was not our fault. Which is good... more money for Christmas shopping!!!

Mini VSN Update

So I did get recognized for one of my creations for the mini VSN... I got a Standing Ovation for this card...

How super exciting is that!!! I really didn't think that one of my cards would have been good enough for that!!! I did get a lot of great comments about this card on SplitCoastStampers though.

pictures coming soon

I will be adding pictures of the car and also of the awesome cards I made during the VSN weekend which was a lot of fun!

Surreal...

Surreal…

Streaking red lights filled my vision, time slowed, I remember letting out a little scream and then we were spinning into the ditch and I managed to stop the car. It really did feel like we’d been spinning for a few minutes when in reality only a few seconds had passed. My hands were still on the steering wheel and I think I had both feet on the brake pedal. The first words out of Chris were ‘honey, you handled that so well!’, then I broke down and started sobbing and I asked for the puppy – poor Gizmo was just shaking, I held him and cried and tried to calm both of us down while Chris checked the car – there was only a little damage to the back panel and a little bit on the door, tires were fine. We called the RCMP and reported the accident. The Semi didn’t stop, and no one else stopped either…

We were so very lucky that there were no injuries and that our car was driveable… it could have gone so badly… But when I think about how many almost accidents I’ve had in the last couple of days I think it was in the plan for me to be in an accident – now hopefully I won’t have too many more!

Disaster Strikes

Disaster Strikes…

Now I am a new driver, I’ve only been driving since August of this year… That said… I am a very GOOD driver – seriously, ask anyone who’s been in the car with me… They’ll tell you the same thing! I was in the right hand lane going 115 and I saw a Semi coming up pretty fast on my left hand side looked like he was going to pass us pretty quickly. He (and I don’t mean to be sexist as I don’t know what gender the driver was) was beside us and travelling faster than we were, then suddenly my window was filled with amber flashing light and BAM we were spinning.

Calamity Ensues...

Calamity ensues…

We’re passing Leduc when Chris says to me that he thinks he’s forgotten to pack the food box that I stayed up to pack last night… I ask if he packed the cooler and he says yes. I pull onto a range road so he can double check if the much needed box has been packed… It hasn’t… If I was mad before I was spitting mad now… If we were to go home and back it would add at least an hour to an already delayed trip, but I needed the stuff in that box!!! We went to the Safeway in Leduc – I was soooooo angry that we had to buy all of those groceries again that I couldn’t even look at Chris – I tried to remember everything I had put in the box as we were going down the aisles and then I remembered the muffins I had struggled so hard to make just perfectly the night before… I only just barely contained my tears – I’m not a very good baker, especially when it comes to muffins, and the ones I had made last night had been PERFECT! I told Chris to call my sister and let her know what happened and to apologize for the additional delay in my getting there… When we got to the till I pulled out my wallet and prepared to pay for the groceries but Chris wouldn’t let me pay, he said that it was his fault that we had to buy them again so he would pay for it. I took some Advil for the head splitting stress headache I was getting and we continued towards Red Deer and Linden beyond.

Tragedy Strikes...

Tragedy Strikes…

We almost get into an accident while driving to the conference… a jerk in a black BMW almost rear ended us (apparently he or she didn’t like that I was doing the speed limit) and then almost sideswiped us as they passed us – and then had the gumption to give me the finger…

The conference was pretty good – and I had no trouble staying awake with only having had a little over 3 hours of sleep… I told Chris to pick me up at 3:30 and we could leave straight from the conference and maybe make it to Linden a little earlier that I had told my sister I would arrive. The conference ended a little after 3, so I stood outside with a co-worker and chatted for awhile… I looked at my watch and it was about ten minutes past when Chris said he’d be there and those of you who know my husband know that ten minutes late is in his mind actually five minutes early… LOL but my cell phone was dead and thankfully my co-worker offered me the use of his phone because I didn’t have change for the pay phone. The news was not good – Chris was still playing Tetris with all of the stuff that needed to go into the car and hadn’t even left the house yet… he promised to pick me up in 45 minutes… I thought to myself 4:30 is still when I would have been able to leave if I had been in the office today so that should be ok. My co-worker offered to wait with me for half an hour… 4:20 came and my co-worker had to leave but I figured it would only be another ten minutes and I still had a Steven King book to read in my purse (Duma Key – it’s a skeeery book once you reach the halfway point). I read for about 10 minutes looking out the front door every 5 minutes… He was LATE… LATER and LATEST!!!! It was about 4:30PM when I decided I would take a little walk outside – we were at a golf course and it had a really pretty pond that had a good view of the road. I watched some otter-type critters swim and dive and by about quarter to five my hands were freezing and I was getting very MAAAAAAAAAD!! Chris finally showed up at 5:15 and said the puppy needed to pee… Luckily for us, right next to the golf course was a dog park – where for the first time Gizmo lifted a leg to pee instead of crouching.

Chaos...

Chaos…

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was going to Linden this weekend to participate in a Virtual Stamp Night (VSN) at my sister’s house with my mom, sister, Yvonne, Cobi and Joni. Chris would be going on to Calgary with Gizmo to spend the weekend with his parents.

The fun all started on Thursday night as I was heading to pick up a craft order we were almost T-boned by this truck who was trying to see past a mini-van – luckily I was able to swerve into an unoccupied lane. Until 8 PM we were rushing around to get groceries, buy my sisters birthday gift and get home so I could prepare all of the things I needed to bring for the weekend. The VSN weekend was going to be a potluck weekend so when I got home I put my pumpkin in the oven to roast – I was making my (now famous) creamy pumpkin soup! And then the phone rang… it was our friend Chris A. who told us that the flat screen TV we wanted was on sale at Future Shop and that the sale was ending TONIGHT and if we wanted the TV he could pick us up in his van and take us there! We thought for about a minute and decided that yes we could afford the TV – I left my pumpkin roasting in the oven and we all went to Future Shop… It only took an hour or so, and we came home with a BIG 40” flat screen TV! I told my Chris that it was his Christmas present… and Birthday present… and Anniversary present… for the next 2 years!!! LOL!

My pumpkin was ready (more than ready) when we got home and I quickly made my pumpkin soup and put the meatloaf for dinner in the oven (it was already 10PM but we were hungry and I didn’t want to refreeze the ground turkey) I made gorgeous looking muffins (a small feat for me) and some awesome coleslaw to take with us for VSN. By now it was after 11 and we sat down for a quick dinner… Chris stayed up until 2AM packing his stuff for the trip and trying to find and download music for my sister’s birthday present – we got her a new CD/Cassette player with MP3 capabilities and I wanted to give her a CD that had the songs that were #1 on the Billboard on her birth date on various years throughout the years.

While Chris was busy trying to find and download music I was madly trying to make packing decisions for what craft stuff to bring down for VSN… Those who know me and have been in my house know that I have A LOT of craft stuff!! Narrowing it down and then packing it up was a huge challenge… I ended up packing a large suitcase, a duffel bag and a smallish flat Rubbermaid container with Craft stuff… By now it was almost 3AM, Chris had gone to bed at 2… I moved on to packing the food in the kitchen and making a list of stuff that Chris would have to pack into the cooler the next afternoon.

By the time I was finished it was almost 4AM and the front entrance way was filled with suitcases, containers, computer bags etc… I sank into bed and didn’t wake up until almost 7:30 the next morning – luckily I was going to a conference that day and it didn’t start until 9!!

Leek Soup Adventure

So I've been on kind of a health kick lately... I'm trying to get rid of some weight. I'm trying to make it a lifestyle change instead of a Diet (I think that 4 letter word is worse than a lot of swear words out there!).

Anyway I've been trying my hand at soup making! I've made a really good brocolli cheddar one and an incredible pumpkin soup so far.

Today's soup is going to be Leek soup... I've NEVER used leeks in anything... but I've seen them around at the store and at the farmer's market too... they look like huge green onions...

I talked to my (AWESOME) mom about how to make it and what ingredients I should use... she always gives super supper advice... (lol)

So today at lunch I made leek soup!! It turned out really well, so here is the recipe I created!!

Ingredients:

3 large leeks chopped (use only the white and light green)

1 small onion chopped

2 tbsp butter (or oil or margarine)

6 small-medium potatoes peeled and diced (small chunks)

340 grams frozen cauliflower (microwave for 3-4 minutes)

2- tetrapacks (900 ml each) reduced sodium chicken stock

1 tsp sage

1 tbsp garlic (dehydrated)

1 tbsp red onion (dehydrated)

1 tsp ground ginger

1/4 cup 18% cream (could reduce this to 2% milk or increase it to heavy cream depending on taste)

Salt (to taste)

Pepper (to taste)

Directions:

Cook cauliflower and put into food processor, add some chicken stock and puree, set this mixture aside. Boil diced potatoes in small amount of water (just enough to cover them), drain and set aside. Pour remaining stock into large pot or stockpot and heat to almost boiling, add spices. Saute onions in 1 tbsp of butter until softened (remove before they carmalize) and add to pot. Saute leeks in remaining butter until softened (do not let them brown) and add to pot. Add cauliflower mixture and stir. Let the soup boil for 20-30 minutes. Use hand blender or food processor to puree soup mixture until no lumps remain. Taste soup and add any salt and pepper as needed. Add cream and puree for another minute. Taste soup and make any additions of salt/pepper. Add diced potatoes and simmer soup for 10 minutes. Serve and enjoy!

(70 calories per 1 cup serving)

New Lease and vet visit

So today was a busy morning... we got up early to clean the house as our Landlady was dropping by to renew our lease and do an inspection. I actually cleaned my craft room ... I know mom... a total shocker... I have carpet in there!!!! Can you believe it?? Anyway Chris did a great job cleaning too... I'm so luck to have such a wonderful husband!!

We renewed our lease and she didn't even raise the rent on us!!! How totally awesome is that?? She met Gizmo and loves him too... he was pretty stoked about her too!!

We had a vet appointment for Gizmo to get his shots at noon, which we barely made because our landlady likes to chat... but Gizmo is in perfect puppy health... he weighs 4.5 Kilo's and has good lean physique... Our vet was impressed I think! I was a super happy puppy mama!! He was such a good boy - although he did give me the most comical look when she took his temperature... it was like... 'HEY! Why are you letting her do THAT?????' He was even good for the vaccine for kennel cough which gets sprayed up the nose....

After the vet we dropped Gizmo off at home and went out for lunch - I picked Red Robin's because I really wanted a GOOD hamburger - I got the bunless wonder (my name for it) its basically a salad with a hamburger patty on the top... it was good though!! Had a couple of Chris' french fries - so yummy!

Went to superstore to get some groceries... man was it packed!!! we only had a small basket so we went to the express line ... yeah thats an oxymoron!! But it was a really good oportunity to people watch - which I love to do!! Its amazing to me to see all of these different cultures and how they handle a common task like grocery shopping or standing in line...

We came home and I totally plan on spending the rest of the day just chilling!

Halloween

It was our first Halloween in the house (we've always been in appartment buildings before) and it was a real TREAT for me to be able to get dressed up (chris too) and hand out candies to all the cute little kids!

We did get some teenagers too - but almost all of them made at least some effort at a costume and were polite... a lot of them told me they liked my costume too!

Chris was a pirate and I was a witch - Chris looked really good in his costume - so handsome!! I made my costume a couple of years ago and really love wearing it - probably because it has lots of glittery bits to it!! I wore an auburn long wig with bangs and laughed when Gizmo started barking at me... well at least until I told him that he was a silly puppy - he realized it was me and started wagging his tail, but he was still growly barking too... and that made me laugh even more!!

We had about 80 kids come to our door and we ran out of candy at 9 - so we turned off the plastic pumpkins (great dollar store buy 2 years ago) and took them inside, turned out all of the lights and - at 9:30 went to bed... There was a loud party or something going on somewhere on our block but otherwise it was really quite nice.

I woke up the next morning , sort of expecting to find our house or car egged or TP'd but I was pleasantly surprized that everything was good.

Overall - I am super thrilled at the turnout and the fact that we had NO candy left over! A fact that is really good considering I am trying to get rid of my excess weight while trying to get pregnant too...

I'm looking forward to next year - maybe I'll have my own little bundle of joy to dress up as a pumpkin??

The End of the MINI VSN

Phew... that was quite a night... after the last challenge I took more pictures and uploaded them to SCS so that I could be included in the judging part... I hope one of mine gets noticed. My wonderful sister thinks my lady silouette one will win that challenge because it was very original...


We'll see how it goes and I'll post if I do win one or more of the challenges...


This was a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to Nov 14&15 when there is a full VSN - especially as I will be travelling to Linden to join my sister, mom and friends to participate as a group.

VSN Challenge #7... the final Challenge

I had quite a bit of time after the last challenge so I took some time to clean up and take some pictures of the finished artwork...

On to the final challenge...

direct quote from SCS "Most of us are familiar with the film version of "Cabaret." But did you know that there were several stage versions produced? In 1998, director Sam Mendes put together his own interpretation of "Cabaret" that included several changes to the original production and script. Most of those changes were a reflection of what was going on in the world politically and socially during World War II, the time frame of the story. In Mendes' finale, the Emcee character is on stage in an Emcee costume similar to that worn by Joel Grey in the film version - top hat, cane and tails. The Emcee's costume is stripped away (yes, the Mendes production was much more risque than the film version!) to reveal the black and white striped uniform worn by the Jews in the concentration camps in Hitler-occupied Germany. My challenge for you is to duplicate the dramatic transformation from the widely recognized Emcee costume to the concentration camp uniform by creating a card using the Emerging Color technique. It's an easy technique, especially as described in Beate's tutorial, and makes for dramatic results. I can't wait to see the results of your Quick Costume Change!! I'll be right here in this chat thread to answer any and all questions that you might have about this challenge. IMPORTANT NOTE!: YOU DO NOT NEED A BRAYER TO COMPLETE THIS TECHNIQUE. I GOT MUCH BETTER RESULTS JUST USING A CRAFT SPONGE AND INK DIRECT TO PAPER. I FOUND WITH THE BRAYER THAT THE COLOR WAS TOO STREAKY. A SPONGE WITH INK WORKED MUCH BETTER. HOPE THIS HELPS!"

O.....M.....G..... Another technique I was not familiar with... And although the gal said it was easy... it WAS NOT EASY!!!!! I really struggled with this challenge - I don't have a lot of stamp sets that would work with this... I tried using a tree and leaves but I didn't like the results I got.... however my husband and my sister both liked the finished card and I did get positive feedback on SCS... I guess everyone has different tastes...

Check it out and decide for yourself...

VSN Challenge #6

I almost ran out of time with the last challenge... and I was super hungry so I decided to stop for a dinner break with hubby...

After dinner - I was refreshed and ready for this next challenge...

direct quote from SCS "The accordion doesn't often feature in a modern cabaret, a much maligned musical instrument but the source of a valuable lesson in my life of learning to hold my tongue. Years ago on the job, we took a new boss out to lunch. Somehow the topic of musical instruments came up and for some reason we (the employees) chose to make fun of the accordion . . . yes, you guessed it. Our new boss was female and her husband was an avid accordion player. Really! Not much you can do to recover from that. A more enjoyable lesson is to learn to play the accordion , or in this case to learn to make an accordion card. There are actually many different variations on the accordion card but for today's lesson we will focus on this versatile little beauty, the accordion fold booklet."

O....M....G.... I'd never done one of these before... luckily for me they had provided a link to a U-Tube video tutorial (which took FOREVER to load) and also provided some written instructions....

Turns out this impressive technique is really quite simple... So with the time I had to spare I used another new technique I learned at Regionals to make the chipboard flowers and fabric flower shiny....

Check it out!!

VSN Challenge #5

Wow... I actually had a few spare minutes after the last challenge to take a potty break (both me and Gizmo had to go)...

I definitely feel more inspired and motivated towards papercrafting now... I'm planning on making my Christmas cards this year and I am so geared up now! On to the next challenge...

direct quote from SCS

"Come on babe Why don't we paint the town? And all that Jazz

I'm gonna rouge my knees And roll my stockings down And all that jazz

Start the car I know a whoopee spot Where the gin is cold But the piano's hot

It's just a noisy hall Where there's a nightly brawl And all That Jazz

When you hear this song, does it make you think of the opening scene in the movie Chicago? It does, for me. One of my favorite movies is Chicago. For those of you who might not be aware, Chicago takes place in the 1920's. I loved the costumes that they wore in the movie. (My girls have each dressed up as flappers for various halloweens too.) My challenge to you is to dress up your card using items reminiscent of this time period. Think feathers, boas, fringe, etc."

Ok... snag major... I don't have any fringe or feathers or boas... what to do??? I took a few minutes to think about the movie Chicago... there is a scene where the ladies were using chairs and I thought of a classic burlesque image of a dancer with one foot on a chair... unfortunately I don't have a stamp image like that... Ever resourceful I decided to draw one myself... I covered the lady in sparkly fabric (leftover from a halloween costume) and added some fancy fibers to imitate fringe...

I really liked the way it turned out - and its one of my hubby's favorites out of all of the cards I've made so far!!

VSN Challenge #4

I'm now totally grooving... even the sound of my husband playing Mario Kart on the Wii can't distract me... (well maybe a little to laugh when he keeps falling off Rainbow Road)

direct quote from SCS "Bonjour! This challenge is for the seamstress or costume designer lurking in all of you! Nicole Kidman has got to be one of the most beautiful actresses in the world! In Moulin Rouge, she was a Can Can dancer, and had the most gorgeous costumes that showcased her classic beauty to perfection! For this VSN mini challenge, you are to make a card inspired by one of the costumes Nicole wore in Moulin Rouge. Attached is a link of some of her most popular gowns and suits from the movie. Click on the link, scroll down, and you will see the designs. Click on each one, and thumbnails will appear below of more detailed images of that costume. Be inspired by the colors, the patterns, the BLING, the fabric, the jewelry...oh, and the BLING, hee! I recently read that she had 50 costume changes in the movie! If you have a particular favorite in mind that is not pictured, feel free to use it as your inspiration, and post a link to that costume in your gallery along with YOUR design!"

As I LOVE this movie... and all of the fabulous costumes in it I was SUPER excited to do this challenge... I used the Pink Diamonds outfit that she wore during her 'Diamonds are a girls best friend song' as inspiration... (insert n.kidman pic here)

I also learned my lesson about adhesives and chipboard... I used a wet clear glue instead of snail adhesive on my chipboard heart - much better results!!

Check out my homage to Pink Diamonds....

VSN Challenge #3

After the last delightfully easy challenge I was definately starting to get in the groove of things... On to Challenge #3

direct quote from SCS ""An Understudy is a theatrical term for someone who learns the lines and blocking/choreography of a leading actor or actress in a theatrical play. Should the lead actor or actress be unable to appear on stage because of illness or accident, the understudy takes over the part. Usually, when the understudy takes over, the theater manager will make the announcement prior to the start of the performance." - Wikipedia When I think of a Theatrical Production, especially the countless hours of rehearsals, I have a HUGE respect for the understudies. They must learn all of the dialogue and be prepared at a moment's notice to take over for the lead. That is an incredible amount of work in spite of the fact that they may NEVER even be seen!! So in honor of the many, many hard-working and talented Understudies..........my challenge is to make a Layer Card. Did you catch the words Under and Over in that Wikipedia definition? Ahhh.......that makes me think of a card with lots of fabulous layers!!! A little time-consuming perhaps, but such beautiful results for that hard work!!! Please make a card using a minimum of 5 layers, 5 layers any way you'd like, it doesn't have to just be a base of 5 layers and..........you can definitely use more if you're an addict like me!!! LOL"

When I first started making cards and scrapbook pages, I really was afraid of using too many layers, it seemed like a waste of paper (expensive paper!!) but now that I have a couple more years experience under my belt I realized that adding layers whether just paper or adding texture with fabric ribbons metal... the possibilities are endless and you end up with a product that is so snazzy and amazing that other people want to buy them or at least learn how to make it themselves...

So here is my tribute to fall and layers...

VSN Challenge #2

After madly scrambling for the first challenge and then quickly cleaning my workspace I went onto SCS website and looked at the second challenge of the evening...

direct quote from SCS "You're filling in tonight because the main act got sick. The hustle and bustle backstage has you frantic. Hurry up, you need a costume....but what? Look! There's a skirt worn in act one...shoes from the 3rd act...a feather boa from the burlesque show. Yeah, you can put something together!! Hurry, its almost time!! My challenge to you is to use your scraps laying around to create a card. You may use ONE regular piece of cardstock to create your base and ANY embellishments you want, but scraps only must be used for the layers of your card. Do your best to create a fanstatic card, worthy of your audience."

As I am always making cards and crafts I ALWAYS have lots of scraps - I really enjoyed being able to try out some of the techniques I learned at Stampin' Up! Edmonton Regional... (see an older post about that!!)

This is a striking card and what I love about it is that it looks really hard to do, but it isn't... you just need to know the secret!!

VSN Challenge #1 (and what VSN is)

First off... VSN is Virtual Stamp Night. And what is that? Basically its an event that is held once a month or so on http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/ (SCS) where you can join hundreds of other papercrafters like myself and the organizers set up challenges that go up once an hour. You have 45 minutes to complete the challenge and the last 15 minutes are for clenaing up, snacking, washroom breaks, taking pictures and uploading your finished product onto SCS website.

I was very optimistic in yesterday's post when I thought I would be able to blog inbetween challenges... but wow... almost every challenge had me using every one of my 45 minutes... and then madly cleaning up and running for bathroom breaks (mine and Gizmo's)... Now you don't have to do the 5 o'clock challenge at 5... you could start at 6 or 7 - but you have to only use 45 minutes to do the challenge... and it can be very challenging!

Challenge number 1...

direct quote from SCS "When you go to a play there are always beautiful photos of the cast members posted for everyone to see. So, what do you do with the photos once the play is over? You frame them, of course. My challenge is to create a frame for the picture of the star in your life. You can use chipboard, cardboard box (like a cereal box), or a store bought frame to create your own personalized frame."

I've been in a school play where we had a star board with pictures of all of the people in the play... I did take my picture home but I never did anything with it.

I chose for this challenge to make a frame for one of my favorite pictures of my goofy husband!! I ran into a huge snag at first when my printer wasn't responding to my laptop... but my hubby was home and fixed that in a jiffy (love computer geeks)... and then I ran into a weird snag when I was trying to put snail adhesive (its double sided glue in kindo of a white out runner form) onto my fancy large Chipboard (from Stampin'Up!) frame... the adhesive was lifting the first layer off... I switched brands of adhesive and the same thing happened... maybe I had a bad batch of chipboard...

Luckily I had gone to Michael's the night before and picked up some $1.50 wooden craft frames so I grabbed one and quickly used my snail adhesive to attach my patterned paper...

Because I love glitter so much I had to use glitter on chipboard letters to spell out JOKER... a word that describes my husband to a T!! I added some fancy fibers and cut out the printed photo to fit the frame and just squeeked in to the finish line with only about 30 seconds to spare...

And here is the finished project... My JOKER frame...

To Market, To Market ...

I went to the Strathcona Farmers Market today (and not to buy a fat pig) - I've been wanting to make my incredible pumpkin soup since last week but couldn't find small pumpkins anywhere!! I knew my market would have them - they've never let me down!

I picked out some wonderful mini cucumbers, two beautiful sugar pumpkins, 2 spaghetti squashes and a bundle of leeks... I've never cooked leeks before but I hear they make a great soup as well... I shall have to find a recipe online!

Another reason I love the market so much is that its a five senses kind of place - lots of things to see, hear, touch, smell and taste!! I love to people watch and there are always lots of opportunities to do that there too!! There are always buskers (musicians, artists etc) there to entertain you... I always bring change to put in their baskets!

We didn't stay too long at the market - I have to be back before 3 so that I can participate in a mini virtual stamp night (VSN)... but I'll have more posts about that as it happens

Stampin' Up! Regionals (Edmonton)

October 18th 2008 in Edmonton Canada...


I've been a SU! demonstrator for quite a while now (I don't do the parties... unless someone wants me to... I'm mostly in it for the discount and pre-ordering) but I haven't gone to a regional seminar before. My luck was complete when the Regional for Alberta just so happened to be in MY city!!


I didn't know what to expect, but I had my mom (fellow Demo) coming with me so I knew it would be fun!!


Mom and I spent Friday making swaps - Swaps are card fronts that you trade with other demo's to get new ideas and techniques... I made 10 and mom made 20... we swapped with eachother first LOL...


Regional was so crowded but so awesome... there was presentations, new techniques, some boring business talk, stuff to make and lots of samples to take pictures of... I managed to take over 200 pictures and am still in the process of going through them!!


I even found mom's doppleganger there... not identical but looking enough like my mom that I almost accidentally hugged the stranger...LOL that would have been funny!


Mom and I also got a picture with the founder of Stampin' UP...


All in All I would definitely go again and I did learn a lot!!

so sorry

Sometimes I get so busy with 'life' that I forget to blog and it only takes a couple prods from family and friends (you know who you are) to get me back on track. After all... how are you supposed to know what's happening in my Life As It Happens if I don't blog?

So I'm very sorry that I haven't posted anything since my Thanksgiving post and I will work on lots of stuff this weekend for you.

For now... here is some random weird facts and stuff...

The average chocolate bar has 8 insect legs in it. (I guess that's where the protein comes from?? LOL)

Orangutans warn people to stay out of their territory by belching. (I know some people who do the same)

Donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes. (so do the asses that drive cars)

Armadillos, opossums, and sloth's spend about 80% of their lives sleeping. (so does my dog, my cats and on Saturday's my husband!!)

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain. (I know some people who this is true for as well)

It is estimated that at any one time, 0.7% of the world's population are drunk. (hmmm if it isn't me... is it you??)

The word "democracy" is banned in online chat rooms in China. (wow... their government sure is scared of that aren't they?)

The average bra size today is 36C. Ten years ago it was 34B. (must be all the hormones in cows... Moooooooove over wonderbra!!)

The name for Oz in "The Wizard of Oz" was thought up when the creator, Frank Baum, looked at his filing cabinet and saw A-N, and O-Z, hence "Oz." (cool!!)

An earthquake on Dec. 16, 1811 caused parts of the Mississippi River to flow backwards! (isn't it normal to be backwards there??? Just Kidding!!)

ThankFULL

FRIDAY October 10th, 2008:
So we got the spare room (mostly) finished for my parents to stay in this past weekend - I'll post some pictures soon. We didn't assemble the end tables but everything else worked out really well - I'm kind of envious of the bed especially (its one of those princessy type beds).

We mass cleaned our house - I LOVE SCRUBBING BUBBLES!!!!! (It made cleaning the bathroom fun as it hissed and crackled and disolved all of the dirt!!!) and made a small grocery run and finished about 10 minutes before my parents and Uncle arrived!!! HA! Procrastination wins again!!!

SATURDAY October 11th, 2008:
Made breakfast for the crew (except dad, who was still sleeping) and we headed off to the Farmer's Market to shop for Thanksgiving Dinner supplies! Man was it crowded!! We lost Uncle Paul for awhile - he explored on his own as mom, Chris and I shopped. Picked up a lot of really nice veggies and some cool dried grasses and pods (to make the house more Harvesty...) and I picked a very sweet small pumpkin (for soup). Mom of course had to have some Kettle Corn, so Chris went and stood in line for us (so sweet).

If you live in or around Edmonton - you should go to the Strathcona Farmers Market, its open on Saturday and Sunday all year!! There are really cool buskers (musicians, artists etc.) and always something cool to see, hear, smell and eat!!

Went on a massive grocery shop with mom, picked out a nice turkey (named him bob). I don't know why I think we can fit a whole trunkload of groceries in my fridge and cupboards - but it happens all the time!!! Had to clean out the fridge to get everything in - except there wasn't room for the Turkey!! oops! luckily it was still half frozen so we put it in the sink and decided we'd have to get some ice.

Its now almost dinner time and everyone is ravenous!! Mom really wants a buffet - so I suggest the Sawmill, but I got confused with the address and we ended up at the Moose Factory instead!! (or the other way around... I'm confusing myself again!!) Anyway - we ended up at the one that doesn't do the buffet during the week... Bummer! But we all had an awesome dinner and we watched a couple at another table who was getting their appetizer, main course and dessert made tableside!! It was really cool when the newbie cook was flambe'ing their dinner - he almost caught the ceiling on fire - I'm not exaggerating either!

Got home and played Mexican Train (its a dominos game) until past midnight... I totally lost (but we didn't actually finish the game so I guess if everyone else did really badly I might (slim chance) have won the game)

SUNDAY October 12th, 2008:
Sundays with my parents are always a quiet day - after they get back from church we had brunch and then my dad went for a nap - mom followed not long afterwards. Uncle Paul likes to walk around the neighbourhood etc. so Chris and I watched some TV.

BBQ'd dinner - everyone really liked my steak marinade!! We had some weird corn - it was white and red and when it cooked it kind of looked dead - dad called it cadavar corn!! LOL. It turned the water black... but it tasted good and the cores were kind of purple...

MONDAY October 13th, 2008: THANKSGIVING DAY!!!
Got up super early and started roasting the pumpkin for the soup... then mom and I dressed the turkey - and no it didn't include a bow tie and dinner jacket... lol Who ever puts together the cooking directions for cooking a turkey should be shot!! 20 minutes a pound... yeah um no... maybe 10 or 15... and because of this we really had to rush at the very end - especially since I asked Chris and dad to make a trip out to the grocery store and when they finally got back they were madly trying to put together my new dining sets from IKEA - and the turkey was already done - so was everything else... we just needed a place to sit and eat it all!!

All ends well though! we had out creamy pumpkin soup (in ceramic pumpins with lids) lovely salad and then the AWESOME turkey, candied sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes and yellow and purple carrots... Top it off with yummy cranberry sauce and drool inducing gravy and we all stuffed our faces... and then crammed in some mini pumpkin pies and tiny strawberry rhubarb tartlets with fresh made whipped cream on top of all of that!!!

I was really sleepy - probably more from the lack of sleep and constant work in the kitchen than from whatever is in Turkey!! I said by to my dad and uncle (my mom stays for another whole week!!!) and flopped down on the couch, cuddled my puppy and tried not to fall asleep!!

All in All - an awesome Thanksgiving weekend!!

Reno's and paint and Kitties... Oh My!!!

We've been working on finishing our spare room in the basement this past weekend and this week so that my parents will have a lovely place to sleep this weekend (my uncle will be in the computer room on our spare futon). The room had some water damage from before we moved in - and our landlady keeps saying she'll fix it etc... and that was ok when we were just using it as a storage room - but now its empty and I want to use it as a guest room! The carpet was disgusting, but luckily for us it was not glued down!!!!! We rolled it up and discovered rust and yellow stains and a little bit of mold. We cleaned the floor - and all of the mold is gone... but the ugly stains remain.

We got it in our heads that it would be easier to repaint the floor than to re-carpet the room, so off to Home Depot we run and we talk to the paint people, who tell us we need to prime the floor with a special primer and then 8-24 hours later we need to paint. We buy all of the supplies - including an awesome pole to go onto the roller so we don't have to paint on our knees!

I was really tired (and I admit - very very cranky) when we finally got home. My wonderful hubby (he really is so awesome) offers to prime the floor while I sort through my Stampin' Up! order - I think I almost cried when he offered this & he really is so good to me, even when I'm short with him...

Anyhoo... so he paints the room (he didn't paint himself in the corner either!! LOL) and comes up to tell me its done and that when I have a minute or two (I was in the middle of putting a stamp set together) that I should go down and take a look!!

I finished with the stamp set and went downstairs... I opened the door to the room a little bit (didn't want any kitties in there while the floor was wet) and the floor looks amazing! I of course tell my hubby this - and he beams back at me and proceeds to open the door all the way, so I can get the full effect of the new white floor... we were gazing around at the room and didn't notice that Tigger was in the basement - he ran into the room and almost all the way to the back wall - as soon as we noticed we started to yell for him to get out of the room, which he did really REALLY quickly... slipping and sliding but thankfully not falling down... Then because he's a cat and not a dog he didn't stop when we told him to... he ran across the basement and up the stairs and through the kitchen and hallway and hid under our bed.

Now to make this funnier for all those who don't know what my house is like - we have CARPET in our kitchen, hallway and bedroom - the rest of the house is laminate or hardwood or painted concrete.

We quickly closed the door to the spare room - Tiggers paw prints and skid marks will have to be covered by the paint tonight - and ran upstairs (Chris beat me in the foot race!!). I was laughing pretty hard because it was like we were in a Family Circus cartoon following the foot prints... except in this case it was paw prints!!

Poor Tigger - Chris got him out from under the bed and into the bathroom and we had to give his paws a very long bath!!! He kept looking at us and howling!! The paint mostly came off - it dried soooo quickly. but we got most of it.

Chris joked that at least it wasn't an Epic Fail for Tigger... when I asked what an Epic Fail would have been, he said that it would have been if he had slipped and fell on his side and then slipped and fell on the other side... I think we would have had to shave him...

Capshun... I haz it!

So, I was on LOLcats today and I've seen all of the new posts - I hadn't had my LOL fill yet so I took a look at LOLdogs...

I found a really funny picture, but the caption wasn't as funny as I wanted... so I did what any good internet personage does... I re-captioned it... Take a look if you dare!

I need a new desk

I spend a lot of time in my craft room slash office and right now my desk is an old dining room table, my storage area comprises a three piece old entertainment unit set and 5 rack metal shelving unit. I seriously need to find or create (IKEA) a new workstation... I have so much stuff but I can't access it easily enough... a lot of stuff is still in boxes because I have no where to put it. I really need to think about going to IKEA - they have a make your own desk area


Drool... IKEA is one of my favorite places to lose 4-5 hours and have the awesomest meatballs ever!!

Christmas

Christmas is 3 months away... Does that scare anyone else? I think this year will be a little weird for me, but in a good way! We are having Christmas at our house this year! Every other year we've split our Christmas time between my family and Chris' family and its really hard and stressful and we have to put our kitties in a kennel while we're away - so its hard on them too. Now we have Gizmo too and we'd be able to take him to my in-laws place but not to my family since my sister has really bad allergies. So this year we decided to start (or try) a rotation - this year we'll stay home, next year we'll go to one family and the year after that we'll go to the other family... then start the cycle again. I really hope it works out - I'm looking forward to starting our own holiday traditions - Chris, Me and the four legged critterz!

I'm going to make a special Christmas dinner for Chris and me and something neat for Tigger, Jade and Gizmo. We're going to put up our tree (haven't done that in quite a few years) and decorate our house - maybe even put lights up outside! I'm getting so excited!! I plan on baking and doing all of the corny holiday stuff like caroling and making eggnog and doing stockings (we have a fireplace so we can really hang them!!).

I just wonder how to keep 3 critterz away from the Christmas tree?

oh... here are some pictures of the critterz!

TIGGER

JADE

GIZMO

Day 3 - Free Range Puppy-Power!!!

Day 3 - its getting a lot colder in the mornings, but Giz always does his biz for me in the mornings! In fact anytime I bring him to his pen outside (we still haven't gotten all of the roofer debri from the yard cleaned up yet) he does at least one if not both biz's. Poor Chris, can't usually get Gizmo to poop for him. LOL... I think Giz knows that if he waits long enough, Chris will just bring him inside again - He knows I will wait a lot longer and he should just go as quickly as possible so we both can go inside again!! Plus I think I praise him better!!

But that was a tangent...

Giz was awesome again last night, we got to sleep in... so much so that we really had to rush to get ready and out the door on time. I think Gizmo is getting used to being a free range doggie during the day! He definately didn't look cunfuzzled this morning when we left... it was almost like he was saying 'ok humanz get out and let me playz the dayz away!'

Came home and no mess... Poop still on the pee pad (not eaten!!!!!) no mess anywhere... no chewed up pee pad!! Giz U Rock!!! I took him outside and (so cute) he scrunched down for a poop and only a tiny little kernel came out - he looked a little cunfuzzled but I praised him anyway - afterall I want him to learn that outside is for the poop and pee and that the sooner he does them the sooner he can come back in - that will be especially important when it starts freezing outside...

Speaking of Freezing - this winter is going to be interesting! It'll be our first Christmas at home (normally we travel to Linden and Calgary) and we'll have two kitties and a puppy around... maybe I should find a barrier for our tree?

Roaming... Day 2

Day two of Gizmo's free range daytime adventure...

Gave Giz another nylabone and a couple rawhide chews this morning. He looked a little less cunfuzzled when we left him to roam free.

Came home and No messes at all!!! Both pee pads were well used but they were left unchewed!!! YAY! I suspect he eats his poop when we're not there to clean it up - but I'm told thats not entirely strange behavior. I still think its gross when he burps and you get this horrible whiff of partly digested poo.

We still put him in his kennel at night for sleeping and he seems to be sleeping better and not whining as soon as the alarms go off. We actually got to sleep in!!

Fingers crossed everybody!! We'll try this for the rest of the week and see how it goes... Maybe Giz will be a free range puppy soon!! Poor kittehz... the Gizonator will be able to chase you all around the house soon...

Roaming

This morning we decided to have a trial run at something new with the puppy... Instead of putting him in his crate with a pee pad, his bed and some toys - we thought we'd try letting him roam free around the livingroom (the only non-carpeted place in our house other than the basement and bathrooms). We set up two pee pads and made sure he had lots of toys and chews, then to the astonishment of the Puppy (he really did look cunfuzzled) we closed the mudroom door and left the house.

Came home a few minutes ago... I was expecting to find poop and pee everywhere and at least one or two things destroyed... there was some poop, but it had been flung off of a pee pad and he did chew up one of his pee pads (the sticky ones aren't so sticky akshully!!) he couldn't chew up the other one because we got this cool holder (its too big for the crate though). His water and food dishes were empty but really there were no huge messes to clean up!! Congrats to Gizmo... we'll try again tomorrow and see if he improves or makes more mess!

Wish us luck!

Looking into the incredible glass bubble

So, I haven't posted about this subject because I was waiting until I could surprise my family and my in-laws... So here it is... I got my learner's permit in August and now I am the one behind the wheel of our car!! That's right... watch out for me Alberta!! I'm A Driving Maniac - well without the reckless driving part!

On to my stories... two out of many on this engrossing subject of driving.

Story Number One: Incredible Multi Tasking. I was driving to work the other morning, Chris was in the passenger seat calmly eating his morning breakfast bar and sipping his coffee (thoroughly enjoying being a passenger on our commute), we stopped at a red light behind this little two door red number (I'm not that good at remembering the make and model of cars...). I'm looking at the driver ahead of me while patiently waiting for the light to go green, the lady inside decides a red light is just the perfect opportunity to fix her face... She starts putting on lipstick and notices that the light went green... so instead of stopping the lipstick application, she proceeds to drive through the intersection WHILE putting on her lipstick... I giggled a little - she barely stayed in her lane and didn't hold up traffic too much... but seriously! Its people like her that keep the female driver stereotype going strong!

Story Number Two: Speed Limits and Digging for Gold. So I'm driving to work a couple weeks ago and I normally stay within 5 km's of the speed limit and I've probably annoyed quite a few people who like to go a lot faster but have gotten stuck behind me... I usually laugh and tell them (into the rear view mirror) that they can feel free to pass me - after all... I am doing the speed limit and there IS another lane to use... This works just fine when I'm the one infront... I learned this very quickly that morning when for some reason I got stuck behind someone who was doing 40 in a 60 zone and who slowed down to 35 in a 50 zone... I have to admit that I got fairly frustrated that this person couldn't even do the speed limit!! And the kicker... I couldn't pass him because I needed that lane and traffic in the other lane was incredibly thick... On top of that... since I was following pretty close behind I could see him digging away for gold - not a kleenex in sight... Ewwwww Gross! Finally he turned and I was able to speed up to a luxurious 50km (and annoy the people behind me) LOL.
Moral of the day... You may be locked inside that car thinking you're in your own private bubble... and you're right, but your bubble is made out of glass and the world can see you too!

Baby Announcement Card

As promised, here is the card I made for my Sister-In-Law's new bundle of joy... (picture is a little crooked - darn scanner!!)

The Front of the card : features 2 hand tied buttons, a hand coloured Giraffee with hand tied blue ribbon, personalized name tag (used my awesome Cricut machine and Design Studio) and for the cherry on top... the picture is removable (no adhesive used) so if someone wanted to keep the picture and not the card (I know... why would anyone not want this card) they can remove the picture with out damaging anything.Inside of the card: features an embossed teddy bear that has been watercoloured blue (hard to see in the picture) and custom made announcement card printed using SU! colour with the edges hand inked.The Back of the card features my SU! angel policy stamp punched out with a fancy punch.

If you are a parent-to-be or know someone who is expecting, I am available to make affordable one of a kind, personalized cards. Contact me by email at misty1780@shaw.ca for more information.

Please know that it takes a lot of time, energy and creativity to make these cards and I would appreciate that if you are going to CASE/copy my designs that you please ask permission first. Thank you

no sleep + work = randomly passing out

I've been sitting at my work computer trying not to doze off... and then it happened... I had my elbow on the desk with my cheek in my hand... next thing I know, I've smacked myself because my elbow slipped off... at least it woke me up. I don't know if I can do this today - what happens if someone comes into my office and I'm face down on the desk drooling on my filing?

Ever been so tired that you get a thumping headache just by concentrating on not falling asleep? I'm there! I wish there was a door on my office - then I could lock it and take a nap in here! Oh well only 7.25 more hours left until I can sleep for 3.5 hours on the way to Calgary while holding a cuddly puppy!

sleep? what's that?

My alarm is about to go off... but I'm not in bed, and I haven't been in there all night! I've been working on my sister-in-law's baby announcements all night... now I can barely see straight and I have to start getting ready for work and finish packing for our trip to Calgary to see the in-laws and our new nephew.

What was I thinking?

I'm not as young as I thought I was... I thought I could stay up all night and work all day and then drive to Calgary? Man, did I get whacked with the dumb stick today!

Off to work... this is going to be interesting!!

Remember when?

Remember when you could stay up all night finishing a school project and still be coherent and relatively intellegent the next day?

Remember when you could eat cake and ice cream for breakfast without feeling like yacking or getting indigestion?

Remember when working was something you did to pay for your weekend entertainments?

Remember going to bed at 9:30 pm because you were sick and not because you were tired?

Remember when you woke up whenever your eyes opened and sometimes even forcing yourself to sleep even longer?

Remember when it was better to be uncomfortable and bootylicious than comfortable and dowdy?

Those certainly were the good ol' days! Man I feel old today - I think it has something to do with the fact that I haven't gone to bed yet... I wonder if I'll get any sleep at all?

Shittake Mushrooms and Lotus Flowers

Growing from the mud at the bottom of ponds and streams, the exquisite Lotus flower rises above the water and is usually white or pink with many oval, spreading petals, and an odd, flat seedcase at its center. A symbol of the sun, of creation and rebirth. Because at night the flower closes and sinks underwater, at dawn it rises and opens again.

Shittake, as with all other mushrooms, grow best in fertilizer - that's mostly poop and some rotting plants - and yet they are highly sought after. But take either of these things and put too much fertilizer or the wrong kind of muck and it withers and dies.

Sometimes I wonder if people have similarities to these plants and fungi... People get a lot of fertilizer dropped on them, most of them seem to grow from it and become better people while some get overwhelmed and burn out.

I wonder if I am strong enough to withstand the amount of fertilizer I get in life or will I wither?

Anniversary

Today is our 2 year wedding anniversary! I love being married to my husband! A lot of times people have told us that we should stop acting like newlyweds, being cuddly and loving to each other, but I always argue that I'd like to be newlywed forever - and we still are, hopefully we will stay that way a long long time!!

To my husband - who reads my blog - I love you hunny and thanks for always being so wonderful!

Surprise!!!

I gave my family quite a surprise last night... I called them from Red Deer and told them we would see them in 90 minutes... My mom met us at our car outside of my sisters house, she went to the passenger door to greet me... but to her shock and surprise she found Chris there instead!! She yippee'd for joy and came racing around to the drivers side where I was sitting and exclaimed 'You're driving!!!! Are you really Driving??' and yes, yes I am!!!

I'm so glad I was able to keep the secret that I have my learner's permit from everyone - it was really cool to surprise them like that... Now I just need to surprize the In-Laws, maybe next weekend under the guise of bringing those birth announcements for Danielle.

A little background info for those that don't know... I have been getting pestered my my MIL and some members of my family to get my licence. I don't know why I waited so long. I think I was afraid I wouldn't be a good driver - after all it is a really big responsibility and a lot of young people take it for granted and think they should just be able to drive (*poof*) as soon as they turn 16!

I really like the graduated licence program... I think for most people it will make them better drivers and really take driving seriously. It will only really suck for people who live alone and have no friends or family that can be your driving partner - although I'm sure there is a program or something out there for those people.

Random obvious driving thought: You never realize how bad some drivers are until you are learning the right way to drive - Example, you're supposed to turn your signal light on (in the correct direction) BEFORE you change lanes (so that the other drivers around you know what you're planning on doing) ... BUT ... I've seen a lot of people who don't change lanes properly... even one person who changed into the right hand lane and then halfway into the lane turned on his left hand signal lights and left them on for about 20 seconds...

Ewan James Kerr has arrived

My brother-in-law and sister-in-law have just brought a beautiful new life into this world. His name is Ewan James Kerr and he was born early this morning (on proud grandpapa's birthday) and weighs in at a healthy 7lbs 4oz and with a length of a little over 21 inches. Mom (Danielle) and baby are doing well. I'll post a picture as soon as I have one!!

I'm designing and producing the baby announcement cards which will be done by next weekend when we will go to Calgary to visit and see our newest nephew. I'll post a picture of the birth announcement when its completed too.

Congrats to Danielle and Jeremy on their new bundle of joy!

Get out of the gutter!!!

BANG! BANGBANGBANGBANG!... Bark! Bark! Howwwwwwwwwwwwwwwl! Whine! HISSSSSSSSSSS!

And now I'm sitting straight up in bed with a fully poofed up orange cat at my feet wondering what the heck is going on!! BANG! it dawns on me that today is Saturday and our gutters must be getting reattached to the house now... so much for sleeping in today!! I look over and there is my darling husband... still fast asleep!! Being the loving wife I am, I decide that if I have to be up this early, so shall dear darling husband. I gently pull out his earplug - apparently I snore or something - and await the next bang... the roofer does not disappoint!! BANGITY BANG BANG! Dear darling hubby is now definately awake!!! LOL sometimes its fun to be a little mean!!

We're up... now what? ah, yes Giz must whiz...

9/11

Its been 7 years since the 9/11 attacks and still every September 11th the news and radio relives and refreshes everyone's memories of the event. When do we stop looking back at the past and start living for the future again?

I admit that I've moved on and that might be because I was in Calgary at work the morning of 9/11 and it didn't really hit home for me because I didn't know anyone who was on the hijacked flights or in the Twin Towers. I was saddened by it and I suppose if I had someone who had died or been injured in the attack, or lived in NY it probably would have been harder for me to get over. Yes - terrorism is bad but isn't the War that ensued because of 9/11 worse? 9/11 claimed over 6000 innocent lives... The War on Terrorism has claimed much more than that - men, women, children and so many soldiers - and it is still going on... How many more have to die until 'revenge' is fulfilled?

It's bad enough that every year the radio and news reminds us all but when companies put up advertisements selling coins etc. that have been minted from silver retrieved from Ground Zero... that bothers me... There are people out there that are profiting from this trajedy and that really gets my goat!

I know people are morbid by nature - they want a souvenier of events like 9/11, they want to feel like they are a part of it... but its kind of sick at the same time.

We have to learn from our mistakes, but we also have to move on... Its been 7 years, I think its time.

Yard messy - me not so happy

So Adrianna (our landlady) and her boyfriend came by tonight to clean up after the roofer... but they were working in the dark for half of the time and when I went out a few minutes ago to put Gizmo in his pen (y'know for the pooping etc) I still see a lot of debri - most of it small, but to Gizmo I bet all of it looks super tasty... especially those lovely 2" nails scattered about!!

I'm not such a happy camper right now - I was really hoping that I'd be able to let Gizmo run around the yard again, but since he eats anything he can fit in his face (yes even rocks too... ) I can't until we clean up the yard again (front and back).

Some good news - our roof does look very nice and Adrianna said the roofer would be back to put the gutters back up on Saturday!!

Roof... and no that isn't the dog

Our landlady finally got the roofers to come and reshingle our house... We came home to a complete mess in the front yard today - the roofer just tossed everything over the side of the roof, and onto my garden!! Now I didn't do a lot of planting this year, as it was our first year in this house and I wanted to see what would pop up... turns out there were two flowering bush-like plants and a really nice peony, along with some nice lowbrush greenery (I'm not sure what they are but they're rather nice to look at). And ALL of it was under the roof garbage!!! If I was a cartoon character steam would have come out from my ears! My hubby tried to calm me down by saying that the roofer would be done in a day or two and when he was finished he would take all of the garbage away at the same time.

I heard him banging and thumping all day Saturday as I was trying to design the birth announcements for my sister-in-law's baby that is due on the 20th of this month and while watching the puppy who did not like all of the noise!! Chris, lucky him, was at work trying to get the server to do its proper backups...

It took the roofer until Monday evening to finish our roof, we met him as we were taking Gizmo out to the pen in the back. Chris and the roofer chatted it up and he told us that our Landlady would be by on the weekend to clean up the mess and that someone would be back to put the gutters back on the house...

The back yard and front yard look like our house had a drastic haircut and no one has swept yet... I really hope our landlady comes sooner rather than later!

Collage Time

A collage of Gizmo... he's so cute and loving and awesome!!

Of Puppies and Poop

Gizmo misses his other puppy pals... not when he can be right near us of course but at night when he is in his "room" and when its not that warm outside and its time for him to do his biz he looks for his doggy littermates. Sometimes I struggle (especially at night) when he is in his kennel and he whines... I know it will only reinforce the whining if I go in there and see what is wrong, but man is it hard not to...

The cats don't really want anything to do with him... Jade at least just ignores him, but tigger is not impressed that we've expanded our family to include the puppy. I've told him he'd better get used to it, because the puppy is here to stay! I hope that in the next few weeks that they will all become friends... I'd love to come into the room to see them all sleeping in a giant pile or grooming each other. Poor Gizmo just wants to play with his kitty buddies...

We got him a whole bunch of toys and things to chew on... and he has a really big crate to sleep in at night - it holds his bed and a pee pad and toys and still has room left over. He really likes the purple stuffed dog we got him, his stuffed pelican and his chicken flavoured nyla-bone... but even having all of his favorite toys with him at night, sometimes he whines and cries and barks for hours. One night it was so much that I couldn't sleep - we ended up closing the living room door and I could still hear him but at least it was muffled enough so we could sleep. He did settle down after 3 in the morning... so I managed to get at least some sleep. But what we saw the next morning made me gag and then understand a little more why he had been so upset. He had done a lot of puppy pooping and gotten it squished in his paws and hindquarters. He had managed to fling some of it outside the kennel and somehow he moved his pet bed (shaped like a couch) right into the worst of it... all of his blankets and toys were covered in puppy poo too...

I took the puppy outside to see if he would do anything else, but he only peed... I didn't think it would have been possible for him to have anything in him after what he left in the kennel. I took him inside and my hubby had cleaned up most of the mess but said that the kennel wouldn't be ready for him until the bottom tray portion was clean too... we were lucky that we bought a second dog bed and a lot of toys he told me.

I gave Gizmo a bath... much easier than bathing a cat by the way!!! It took a lot of time to get the crusted Dooo out of his paws and hindquarters but after about 30 minutes I had gotten everything out and I finished his bath and wrapped him in a towel like a baby... I snuggled him and he kissed my nose. I though to myself that it was going to take a long time to towel him dry... A light bulb lit over my head... I decided to try using my hair dryer on its low-warm setting and see how it went... if he didn't like it all I would have lost was a minute or two but if he didn't mind the dryer it would save me a LOT of time.

Turns out, Gizmo didn't mind the hair dryer at all... and I was able to give him a really good brushing afterwards. He was really fluffy, soft and smelled sooo good!

That night we took him out for a walk - he peed but nothing else. We tried hanging out in our backyard after the walk to see if he would do it there insead... he did not go at all. It was getting late and we decided that since he had a pee pad in his kennel that we would have to put him in and chance that he would make the same mess as he had the night before.

We said goodnight to the puppy and made sure he had toys and that his spare bed and blankets were comfy and we all went to bed. I laid awake waiting for the whining and crying... wanting and hoping that it wouldn't last as long that night. Silence. I rolled over and poked my hubby in the arm so he would take out his ear plugs (apparently I snore or something LOL) and I asked him in my quietest voice if he was hearing anything coming from the livingroom... he listened really hard for a moment and then in an awed voice he said quietly... 'he's not crying!'. We both fell asleep and woke up to the alarm clock the next morning - Gizmo had been quiet all night!!

He had been quiet... but he had managed to make a very quiet mess of the kennel... he had dragged the pee pad (complete with puppy logs) and his bed into the middle of the kennel. Luckily he didn't have any of it on him and we only had to wash out the kennel and put his second bed and some more of his toys into the wash. We were really glad that we picked up lots of doggie blankets from the dollar store the night before... so we have lots of spares!!

That night when we got home we decided that there needed to be some sort of partial barrier between his bed and his bathroom and I remembered that the kennel came with a divider that folded in half... my hubby took the task of figuring out how to make it sturdy enough so that it would work to keep the bed part from being able to be dragged over to the bathroom side of the kennel. He finally figured out that if it was in a triangle shape that he could secure it very easily!

We copied the walk and yard time from the night before (no poop to be had from the chowzer again though) and hoped for the best.

Gizmo whined and cried until about midnight (we go to bed between 10 and 11 every night) and then was quiet until about 4 (but only cried for about 15 minutes). When we got up the next morning, we could easily see that our plan had worked!!! The pee pad was messed on and had been moved a bit, but the puppy couldn't move the bed part.

Friday afternoon I had the afternoon off - the last of my vacation time for this year - and I spent a lot of time outside with Gizmo... I hadn't seen him poop, my hubby had though. I wanted to know what his stance was and any pre-poop mannerisims so that if I saw them inside I could stop it and get him outside quickly. But he didn't do anything more than pee... and even that was hard to tell because he is so fluffy.

My hubby called and booked a grooming appointment for the next afternoon and we took him in. Gizmo loves car rides!! Sometimes on our walks he'll stop by the car and look up at us as if to say 'Car ride??'

While he was being groomed we took the opportunity to do a little shopping - we went to the Dollar Giant nearby and went up and down the aisles... we found a lot of puppy supplies too! I can never resist a good bargain and I always end up spoiling our pets!

We went back to the groomers and they told us how good he was for his grooming and they had taken a lot of pictures for their store album. Then they brought him out... He was so cute! He had a little bandana tied at his neck and his face was trimmed short and he could actually see everything that was around him! We took him into the petstore (attached to the grooming parlor) and he picked out a toy and we grabed a blue halter - he was having tangle problems with the colar and leash. When we got home I decided it would be a good time to have some outside time with him and maybe... fingers crossed... he would do his biz for me.

It took over an hour with him wandering around and then I saw it... he hunched down - much easier to see without all that fluff - and pooped! I got really excited and praised him lavishly and gave him a treat. He still makes some messes in the house, and sometimes drags his blanket or pee pad around, but for the most part he goes where he's supposed to... now if only he'd learn that he can come in from outside a lot sooner if he goes quickly... but I suppose that will happen in time too!