Sneak Peeks

I played with my new SU summer mini stuff!

One of my favourite items is the Doily Triple Layer Punch! Very cool. 

 As you can see, I am using it a whole bunch.

 When I saw the Travel Log set, I knew I had to have it for our travel albums.

 Summer Splash is too cute to pass up!

 And check this out...3 new colours of embossing powders!

I love the new colours on black!

 And The Open Sea was calling me too. I thought it would be great for masculine cards and layouts. I also got the matching Nautical Expedition paper. Not loving it yet. But SU's paper always grows on me.

And a little two step stamping with a hostess set.

 Kerry and I were discussing my shoe selection. I've been wanting slip-on shoes for awhile. I had to get rid of my charcoal suede Keens, they were sort of Mary Jane style. I got them before we went to Disneyland in 2007, I remember this because I wore them every day we were there! I loved those shoes. I paid about $60 for them, half price. I have since seen them for $120, and I won't pay full price for Keens. So, when I got new ones a year ago, Kerry said I had to get rid of the ratty shoes. And I did. Well, not right away, I kind of hid them. But they are gone now.
I have been looking for replacements, but haven't found the right ones. Until today. The shoe store had a big sale, and I went in. I found some charcoal suede Mary Jane Keens! Yay. But they were sold out of my size. Boo. But they had reddish orange ones too. Yay. But again, not in my size. Boo. So the woman said to try these other ones on, but they aren't suede and I have orange ones similar. I tried them on and they fit. Like Cinderella. But they had a little over glueage on the grey suede part and it's noticeable to me. She said it wasn't a big deal but I must have made a face because she gave me $20 off!  It was meant to be. I can only see the glue if I bend over and look at my feet. I won't bend over. They were half price and $20, I can afford to not bend over! Anyone want a pair of black hardly worn Sketchers?

We took Emily out to Ozeki's for her birthday dinner. We always have a great meal, and it's so inexpensive. Under $80 for the 5 of us to eat, meals and appies! Crazy. And we always feel full but never gross afterwards. The staff is great!

The lighting is terrible in there but it's nice to have your own little room to dine in. These 3 are goofs, and I was laughing so hard at them that I was crying. 

15 at 15

1. She has a camera and knows how to use it, just never remembers to take it with her. So happy we got her the Fuji FinePix XP10. It's shock proof, water proof, dust proof. She's dropped it, a few times and it's survived. Thanks to Michelle, at London Drugs for that recommendation. She doesn't know the first rule of photography, check your subjects surroundings. (not the junk on the table, counter, fridge), but I can tell that she took this in Dec. by the surroundings.

2. She has a Batman Thermos that she takes Chef Boyardee or leftovers in almost every day to school. This keeps things much warmer than the lame 'snack Thermos' Santa gave her.
3. She's eating a wider variety of foods. Thank goodness! She'd be a meatatarian if we let her.

4. She has a core group of friends that don't get together that often but when they do, they seem to have a blast, if you can judge fun by the amount of noise they make.

5. She's interested in sewing, too bad I'm not that good at it. She must get it from her grandma. But she can sew by hand and that's a good thing to be able to do.  Especially when you are too afraid to use the sewing machine.
6. She can read and understand way more Japanese then I can, she's self taught. I know food and swears.  She can watch the Japanese news and pick up most of what is going on. I just know they are speaking Japanese.

7. She draws 89% of the time she's awake. She comes from artistic stock, I'm not taking all the credit., mostly because I don't think I can. Her dad took fine arts, her grandpa likes to draw and create, her great uncle is an artist.
8. She has art in the local gallery. But she's shy about showing her work. If you ask her to see what she's drawn, she may not show you.
9. She plays her DS, eats or goes on the computer the other 11% of her time.

10. She has a brother. They get along like 2 peas in a pod. Two loud, guffawing, youtube watching peas.
11. She loves  Double Dream Hands, double rainbow, and this,  she quotes Antoine Dobson more than she should. She will love Double Dream Feet. (the link won't work) And Big Bang Theory, Sheldon Cooper the mostest.
12. She doesn't like Justin Bieber, but knows who Rick Astley, Billy Joel, and Johnny Cash are. But you won't find them on her mp3 player, she's got Japanese Anime music on there.

 13. The Easter Bunny and Santa still visit her house.

14. She sometimes thinks her parents are hilarious. But most of the time thinks they are just plain cool!
15. She is 15 years old today!

Last Minutes with ODEN

Last Minutes with ODEN from phos pictures on Vimeo.


I know that our time is coming. Sally is showing her age in so many ways. If I could do anything to avoid the inevitable, I would do it, but I know it would be for me and not for her.  I know I can't have her in pain, so when the time comes, we'll do what we have to do. Watch the video, have a little (big) sob, and hug your pets.

Easter Long Weekend and Post

Kerry and I went hiking on Friday. We took Linus and his baby soft paws out with us. He runs so much he wears spots off his pads. We need to toughen him up. We stopped for a few photos here, you can see all of Kelowna from here. And Big and Little White. Maybe even Vernon. 

 This poor dog! He is such a loose runner, the ears, the tongue, if I saw this running towards me and I didn't know him, I'd be scared out of my tree.

 We stopped here for a photo shot so that I'd have something to put in my Project Life album. Linus was so bagged that he couldn't stay in a seated position.

 There were millions of red ants out. We saw this ant hill on our way back to civilization. By the way, thank goodness for cell phones and Black Berry Messaging. We sort of got lost. We knew where we wanted to be, back at the van, but when we went down that path behind me in the picture above, well, we were too far to the right of where we should have been and so Michelle got a play by play. Although she said if there were bugs, one of which got in my eye, and squirrels, she would not come out and find us, she'd send help. I didn't tell her about the red ant hill.

 Michelle also told us that we should have bannock for our treat after our hike. And after getting lost, we figured we earned a few bannocks. One was for my dad.

 One day last week I had tried to make grilled cheese sandwiches in my Analon pan. It was the most expensive pan I have ever bought and I have to say it wasn't the best one. It's been on it's way out but having the buttered bread of the grilled cheese stick to the pan was the last straw. On the weekend, mom and I went out and I came home with a new pan. So far, it's been awesome, angels sing when I use it. Or maybe that's just the sound of me sobbing because nothing sticks to this pan. I made Philly Cheesesteaks for the first time and they were given the Emily seal of approval.

 The next day, I made pannekoeks. I had brunch out with Michelle earlier in the week and we decided we should try to find a recipe. All of the recipes found were pretty vague. Flour, eggs, salt and enough water/milk to make it runny. They got the two thumbs up from everyone except me. I found them a tad bland. But the pan! I told Kerry if I wasn't already married, I'd marry that pan.

 The kids, being as old as they are, were given the choice to do the Easter hunt or not. They chose not to but they still wanted the goods. So the bunny left their buckets on the dining room table. A tad uneventful. So I made them all go out for family photos.  Linus was too cool yet again.

 Sally is always the best poser in the family. She loves the camera.

 Which is why I get these types of photos. I can just hear her! "Is it my turn, MOM, is it?"

 And it wouldn't be Easter with out an egg hunt, Kerry found a quail's next in the hedge. 15 eggs. Poor mom. Although I have a feeling the little babies won't last long with the 5 plus cats that have been in our yard lately. I don't want quail eating all my baby carrots and spinach but I'd rather have that than all the neighbours' cats using the garden as a litter box. Kerry says it's the circle of life, I thought he might start singing the Lion King song.

 Later on, the momma came back and it's hard to see her, but right in the middle is rectangular spot of light, right on her head. I couldn't believe that little bird could spread her body over all 15 of those eggs.

The kids didn't complain too much when I made them sit for a few photos. I was totally disgusted when I  looked at them and found not one single picture was good enough. Kerry had model face. Shaun had sideways eyes, Emily was looking down. I was snapping my fingers. The dogs, well, they had places to be.

So I made them go back out and do re-takes. And this time, we left the dogs in side, they are actually standing at the screen door behind us. And the kids got serious because now they had places they wanted to be. I'm so happy to get a decent family picture that I will overlook Kerry's Tower of Terror t-shirt. Seriously though, he's only got Subaru or Disney clothes.

I hope everyone had a great Easter!

Binder Mechanisms, where have you been all my life?{photo heavy}

Forgive the photos, they were taken in the basement because I was too lazy to take them anywhere else. Hey, I've been creating all day, I haven't even showered, and I am still in my pjs.  But when the creative juices are flowing, you have to squeeze the fruit.

 I picked up Tim Holtz's binder mechanisms on Monday, I've been wanting to my hand at altering a hardcover book. I found a few hardcovers at thrift stores. I had to cut the pages out of them, which wasn't easy because I don't like to hurt books. But after the initial discomfort, I got over it. I found this book, The Men in Your Life, I didn't even see what it was about, but I thought it would make a great book about the men in my life. I used my For The Record kit from Echo Park. Love it!

 And I made this flower with some ribbon.

 I also picked up this book, because I loved the cover. The couple dancing! So cute!

 I used a House of 3 digital kit, I printed the papers myself. For the pages, I used one of those chipboard scalloped square albums from the dollar section of M's. I embossed on them and then sprayed Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist and homemade mists on the pages. You can see a close up farther down.

 And when I am all cleaned up, I will have myself a little snack of Easter Bark. Made with milk chocolate, peanut butter, white chocolate with green colouring, mini eggs, and star sprinkles.  Super easy to make, super easy to eat!

A very creative give-away!

What a great way to get someone started! Jeanne is hosting this give away. Check it out!

Vintage Camera Coolness

Or "How the internet made me feel better about an impulse buy!"  Yay internet! Yay me!

I have to admit, I subscribe to I Heart Faces and hardly ever read the post. But this time, I was intrigued by today's post. So much so that I grabbed my vintage Duaflex and an empty box of Chef Boyardee and ran outside. 

It's not nearly as dirty as the one in their samples, but it adds a different feel to the photos. This is the bottom of my forsythia bush. Why? Because the camera was on the ground. 

 I thought a black and white conversion might be neat too.

 And then the dummy had to come and get in the action. After he tried to eat the cardboard box. There's a bit of sun flare in the top right, but that plastic from the pool is unsightly.

 Black and white makes almost everything better.

Definitely better, but he's over exaggerating the "Look up, look way up, and I'll call Rusty" pose. I think only Canadians will get the reference. And only ones that grew up watching tv in the 70's. 

 Then the sweet, short one wanted to get in on the fun. I love it!

Incase you are wondering, these are taken with my DSLR, and I am shooting through the viewfinder of the vintage camera that I thought would just be a dust collector, the good old Kodak Duaflex II. Who knew it would be useful.

I made this yesterday. Emily is having a themed birthday party at the end of the month and I'm starting on the decorations.