It's the little things...

like Kerry taking 2 days off to help me get caught up, that make me all warm and fuzzy. ( I wonder if I can get him to watch Cathy Z's slideshows and do the assignments for me)

We will be having lunch together, Butter Chicken and Samosas from Deep's. We will be mailing things, shopping, taking dogs out, and maybe even baking. I only think this last thing might be happening because Kerry asked about the molasses situation. He makes these wicked ginger/molasses cookies called Crinkle Tops. And everytime I hear the word molasses, I think of this joke...

A family of moles had been hibernating all winter. One beautiful spring morning, they woke up. The father mole stuck his head out of their hole and looked around. "Mother Mole!" He called back down the hole. "Come up here! I smell honey, fresh honey!" The mother mole climbed up and squeezed in next to him. "That's not honey, that's maple syrup! I smell maple syrup!" The baby mole, still down in the hole, was sulking, stuck behind his mom and dad. "I can't smell anything down here but molasses..."

Get it? Mole asses! Ha Ha Ha.

Got the new Simple Scrapbook's Quick and Easy Photo Albums. I wish I had gotten it months ago, it might have made Christmas shopping easier!

It's time to start the day! All I can think about is Butter Chicken!

Oh, and a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY YOLANDA!!!

Help is on it's way!

Kerry has a week off before Christmas, which is great, don't get me wrong but really, by then, if it's not done, it's not getting done. And by IT I mean shopping, baking, wrapping, planning, making, decorating, etc. So when Kerry said whatever needed to be done could be done that week, I replied that it was too late and that if IT was left until then, it would not be a happy week off!

So he said he'd take 2 days off this week so that WE could get some stuff done together before the rush! YAY! He's a superhero!

Speaking of superheroes, I almost always say Mighty Mom is on the way! when I tuck Emily in at night. I mentioned that it was supposed to be Mighty Mouse the other day and she thought I had actually made up the song. Here I come to save the day! That means that Mighty Mouse is on the way!

Today, I am trying to get a few things done before work at 4 pm, and my class at 7:30 pm. So far, so good. I've vac'd, baked, cleaned oven(it's self-cleaning), uploaded Dad's pics from his camera to my computer, did dishes, 3 loads of laundry, found some questionable stuff in the fridge, tidied up a few things on the deck and in the yard,, filled the bird feeder, and am now blogging and watching Y&R. It's all good.

We were watching a cooking show the other day and we saw this weird concoction on quail so we decided to try it on chicken. It's ground coffee, brown sugar, pepper, and salt. I thought it was okay, but Kerry thought it was delicious.

Linus, kind of blurry, but posing for me and my new flash. This is in my kitchen, with the lights off, it's not great but I can't believe it's not dark. I have not read the manual, it's written in Swahili. All the pictures are SOOC with my new and last piece of my camera puzzle. I told this to Kerry, that the flash was the last piece I needed. It's totally true. I need nothing else for my camera. Now I have no excuse for bad photos, other than the fact I don't know how to use my toys.

Too Much!

I have so much going on in my head! I woke up at 6:30 am. yesterday dreaming about a certain something and then had to write it down because I wasn't ready to actually wake up. It's a Christmas present idea I have for someone, I can't say what incase they are reading this.
I'm 'putting things away' all too often and then not finding them again. It's driving me crazy. Someone told me that maybe my space needs tending to. Well, it does but I just can't find the time to do it. I have also found that my 'favourite' cousin has made my life harder by signing up for my Stamper's Group and my Card Club. I used to be able to make the same cards for these two different nights and now I have to go back to the drawing board and re-do all the cards for Monday! Silly me!
London Drugs had my flash on sale so yesterday when we went to return our broken brand new phones, I saw the big On Sale sign on the flash and almost died. Kerry and I are NOT exchanging gifts this year, we've been on this thing where if we want it, we buy it and then say "no gifts for me at Christmas" or birthdays or Mother's day, etc. Really, the only thing I wanted was a flash for my camera and I knew I would get one as soon as it went on sale. And that's exactly what happened, it's a Canon Speedlite 430 EX II! So now I have to add 'read instruction manual for flash' to my ever growing list of things to do before Christmas.

My list looks something like this...(and I'm sure some stuff is missing)
-read instruction manual for TomTom GPS
-bake a million things, freeze them, don't eat them
-get mom's gift before the sale ends
-find something for Shaun, my dad, and Kerry's mom for Christmas
-bath dogs
-make a whole lot of stuff out of paper and fabric
-don't forget to go to work
-make a dozen or so more thank you cards for H.
-decorate
-read instruction manual for flash
-start Jessica Sprague's class
-stop ignoring Cathy Z.'s emails and get back on the DYL bandwagon
-eat veggies
-finish filling holes in trim and paint it
-play Rayman's Raving Rabbid's TV Party every day
-wish Yolanda a Happy Birthday on her birthday!

Saw him again!

Yesterday when I went to pick up Emily from school guess who else was picking a kid up?

If you guessed Santa Claus, you'd be right!

Either I'm seeing things because I have so much to do and Christmas is coming too fast or there really is a flesh and blood Santa living in my neighbourhood. His vanity plate said Polar X. He did not drive a sleigh.

Sock Monkey Lovin'

I made this today for Emily for Christmas. It took no time at all, I did it between prepping for tonight's class, my Monday job, making dinner, Costco shopping and picking E. up from school.
She doesn't have a name yet. I'm leaning towards Chunky or maybe Funky or Marcy. Socks are from Walmart, buttons are Autumn Leaves.

That Dog! Updated

So I should have known. I didn't notice Speedy Gonzales run past me. I should have gone upstairs when I heard the weird eerie bark/howl but I didn't. It wasn't until he brought his treasure back downstairs that I discovered Linus had been in the Christmas gift stash in my bedroom. This was once a majestic stag, okay, it was just a cute Webkins baby deer but it could have grown up to be a majestic stag if 'destroyer-of-all-things-cute" hadn't gotten ahold of it. I picked it up on the weekend at Chapters, they were buy 2 get one free. This was my free one, they only had one left. This one I secretly hoped to keep, it reminded me of Rudolph, of cute things that don't hurt helpless animals.

I put my anger and Designer Digitals sale to good use, turned it into possitive creative energy and made this layout. I had already purchased the deer paper before the slaughter, I figured it was fitting. I printed the digital papers out on to Bazzills white linen cardstock, the green cardstock is SU's kiwi kiss, love it. I used an Ali Edwards brush for the photo (so VERY you) and my favourite Making Memories stickers for the journaling. Love those little stickers.

Some cards

I tried the faux batik or something like it. The top blue card didn't agree with me or the camera, but it still gets blog time.

The last cards are my fav!

A big THANK YOU!

I want to thank everyone that came out for the Papercrafting Sale on Sunday. Thanks to you, some of us went home with less and hopefully, you went home with some goodies to use in your scrapbooking or cardmaking!
Some asked if it was going to be a yearly thing. I might consider it, but probably not at the church again. I'm glad to say I'm done with the Benvoulin Heritage Church and renting it out!

flower power

I made 21 of these today. No plans for them, just thought they were cute!
And then I made these ones...

A conversation with a shipper.

Kerry and I were discussing how I'm more straightforward than he is, in his words I don't mince words. I tell it like it is.

So he says that's probably why we get along, why he picked me (he didn't have any other prospects at the time, so I don't get that). He can be kind of vague, doesn't always say what's on his mind, not outspoken.

And in my outspoken way, when he said that's why he picked me, I said "You didn't have a choice, I told you you loved me!" End of story!

Linus, surveying his lands and his minions.

Yippee!

It never fails, the team/person I want to win never wins. Not Eli Mattson on America's Got Talent, not Marty Casey from Rockstar INXS, and never the person I want on Survivor.
But, and this is the biggest one by far, the one that really matters, although America's Got Talent was a close runner-up, I'm so very happy that Barack Obama won! What a milestone that a minority will be president of the United States.
Yay me! I picked a winner!

Whaapow!

That's the sound of the whip being cracked.

I made this stationery box during the last class I had, I used the Bella Rose papers and like how it turned out. I've got a little nest egg going of these boxes. Might have to sell a few off this weekend.

After dropping Emily off at school, I like to get my errands done and come home. Today I had the Big Red truck because the van needed something looked at. So off I went to Buckerfields for a new Kong and dog treats, can't beat the 20 lb box that was on sale. Too bad I could hardly lift it. Then I went to Princess Auto to look for a few things. Then to the plastics store where I get all kinds of things, like cutting plates for my Big Shot. I know I could buy them from me and SU for about $12 a pair, but I can get them for quite a bit less in town. And nothing like customer service (although I try to give myself decent service) I took my plate in at 9 am. and was told it would be ready tomorrow and within the hour I got the call to come and get them. Then Kerry called and said he wanted his truck back and had to go to the plastics place and I was so excited that we both had to go to the same place that he picked me up and went during work hours! It was almost a date.

This morning I mentioned to Yolanda that I wanted to find a template for 12x12 calendars so I could make my own with my Bind-It-All for the grandparents for Christmas. I usually buy SU ones, but figured I have all the tools to do it myself. Besides these ones have the dates already printed on them, the SU ones don't and inevitably, I stamp them wrong.

This is a shot of Kerry (sooc) walking through the burned out area at Crawford. It's been over 5 years and I still find it hard to believe how the fire devastated the landscape. It's slowly coming back, Kerry says in the spring and summer it's really green and the grass and other weedy things are quite tall. It's also very dangerous, the dead trees fall daily from the wind.

You Can Vote However You Like

I have never seen Canadian school kids doing something like this at voting time.

Go Vote!

If you happen to be an American reading this, don't forget to vote today.

I'm definately not hip to all the politcal stuff. I go by whether I like the person, by my gut I guess. Anyway, I would vote for Obama.
Emily told me that his grandma died on the weekend and I cried. I read that her vote still counts, but how sad to not be able to see her grandson on the biggest day of his life. And because I'm not up on the political stuff, I don't know for sure which way the vote will go but in my little world, I'm so sure Obama will win and that's why I was so sad!

He really does exist!

So I was at my little job today doing my notion order and I looked up to see an older white haired man, with a huge white beard shopping with his wife. My first thought was "Wow! He looks like a Santa Claus." My second thought was "stop staring! He probably gets that all the time".
I went back to work but overheard him saying to one of the employees that he was really busy all year with his business.
It wasn't until I was leaving that I saw him again, only from the back and lo and behold he was the real deal! His jacket had a Santa Claus embrodered on the back of it along with a website, I think it was this one... http://www.sleighridermedia.com/santa_schedule.htm

I'm pretty sure I've been good this year, and I'm pretty convinced Santa was picking up a few things for my gift, even though I haven't figured out what I want yet.

Christmas is coming!

As soon as the last trick-or-treater left our doorstep, I plugged in my Ipod and started playing Christmas tunes.
I pulled out my Making Memories A Season of Joy and started making all the things I didn't have time to do last year. I started this wreath last night at Tara's and finished it this morning. I used Basic Grey's new Wassail line of paper that I didn't love when I saw the magazine ads, but in person, it's so much better. I cleared out a few patterns at the Scrapbooking Swede, she HAD the whole line. Sorry!