Do you tell them?

Yesterday, I wanted to show Shaun and Jenn the funny talking baby girl from my previous post. I had to link them to my blog. Shaun says "Is this you? Did you do all this?"

Um, yes.

Emily knows about my blog, she checks it from school and uses pictures from it for reports, and so does Kerry, I guess no one shared the info with Shaun, my parents hear a bit about it but I don't think they have been here.

If you blog, does your family know about it?

And in other news...

Poor Emily found out the hard way.

She says to me as we are listening to Fat Bottom Girls by Queen..."I like Queen better than the Beatles."

Me: Me too, but why?

Her: The Beatles did drugs and drank a lot.

Me: {snicker} And you don't think Queen did?

Her: Well, the Beatles had songs like Yellow Submarine and Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, those are about drugs.

Me:Have you ever seen Freddy Mercury?

Her: No.

Me: You need to. There were some drugs involved there, maybe even a bit of alcohol.

Her: The Beatles did have nice haircuts.

So just for Emily...

Remember, the way a person dresses doesn't dictate how they sing.

Are women born this way?

What does it mean when your husband sends this to you from work?

Inspiration

I received this from my blog friend, Lisa Howard. I've never actually met her, but I think I found her through Karen Russell's Photography Workshop's student list. Lisa's a great story teller, check her out.

I'm going to pick 6 people that inspire me and pass the badge on to them. I'm picking based on blogs that I visit daily for inspiration, if I don't pick you, it's not that I don't like you.

1. Amy

2. Shannon
3. Kimberly

4. Angie

5. Rae

6. C.D.

Put the badge on your blog, and list 6 people that inspire you! If I didn't list your name, you can still do this, because you inspire me too!

Dear Mama

Dear Mama,
When you said "Let's go to the creek for a swim" I should have paid attention to what you had in your hand. I didn't see the bar of handmade, all natural baby soap that you got at the Farmer's Market on Wednesday. I didn't see my brush. I just heard "Let's go".
When we go to the creek and you told dad that it was super deep, I didn't listen either. And when dad agreed because the swimming hole looked like it was about 3 feet under the creek, I still was too excited. So when this happened..."Help me, Mama, I can't get back to you". I should have known better.

And when you yelled "Stand up, it's only a foot deep!" I was a little embarassed.

And when Dad said "Go that way, you goof", I knew the fun was over. I never saw the bar of soap come out, and I didn't enjoy the bum washing, which I'm sure you didn't enjoy either.

I decided not to go back into the creek, soapy bum is better than embarassed bum, dispite the mess it makes in the van. It does smell better.

I just wanna go home, Mama.

But in the end, a trip home, and then next door to see Kelly-Next-Door to have my bum trimmed wasn't on my agenda. I do have to say my bum feels better, it's much smaller now. And those other furless kids keep telling me it's cute, my little Bear Bum. Having my paws and leg feathers trimmed makes my legs look longer and I can run faster. I'm more aerodynamic now.

So thanks again, Mama, for the okay day!

Loves and Kisses,
Linus

P.S. Kelly-Next-Door says that it's not right to send me over smelling like baby soap and fried onions, the onions made her hungry. I guess it is better than sending me over smelling like poop and creek.

Friday

Not the best pictures, but here's a couple of our neighbour's brand new Sheltie puppies. All 6 are girls. They are under a red heat lamp and not in Hell, just incase you were wondering. I think they are 3 weeks old, as of yesterday.

I made this card to send my friend Nancy's new grandbaby, Lyla Belle. I used very cute October Afternoon paper and tag.

I bought a new stamp set, Totally Tools, and thought it would make a great One-Sheet-Wonder class. And for the first time, I didn't mount the stamp set the way it should be, I didn't even put the stickers on it. I cut the words and tools apart, and mounted them on seperate sides of the block. Can you believe it?

It's on sale!

The Cuz It's Your Birthday kit is on sale at Art Freckles, go check it out. Take the plunge, get a kit mailed to you!

Cake Wrecks

My imaginary friend, Amy, she lives in Disneyland, got me hooked on this site. I might have shared it with you before...
CAKE WRECKS
I don't check daily, but maybe weekly. And when I do, I chuckle out loud. Then I feel like an idiot for chuckling out loud, then I look at the next cake and I do it all over again.
Thanks, Amy, for the laughs.

The Casualties of Gardening

I don't LOVE birds, they can peck your eyes out, they fly, enough said, but I don't wish harm to them either. That being said, I do wish whom ever is eating my tender little baby plants to curl up and die. Kind of. So little quail with your cute/freaky bobbly thing on your head, take a hike!

I did the count this morning...the death count is...

1 leaf lettuce plant, with numerous other plants 'neatly' trimmed on each leaf

2 marigolds, a 3rd with the flowers popped off, who does that?
3 basil plants, 1 died of natural causes

This was last year's basil, beautiful, lush, alive, in a pot on the patio.

If those little critters eat my spaghetti squash plants, it will be all out war.

Same with my zuchini, this is last year's plant. See the baby zuke?

This was my last year's garden watcher. I didn't enjoy seeing the 'meat eaters' snacking on little critters, but if they could show up a few times this year, make their noise, flap their wings, scare some quail, I wouldn't be opposed to it. Because I didn't spend more money than I should have and Mother's Day weekend busting my hump so that the cute little quail could use my garden as a smorgasbord.

My day to post

Check out the Artfreckles blog. It's my day/week to post. I'm showcasing the Cuz It's My Birthday kit. I'm really happy to be on the design team. Lots of great gals, super friendly! So head over, check it out, join the group...
http://artfreck.blogspot.com/

Sad news

My cousin's mother-in-law had a tragic motorcycle accident this weekend in Maple Ridge or the surrounding area. She died from her injuries. Kim, Stu, Owen and Quinlynn are in our thoughts.

Mountain biking/hiking/photography

2 days in a row, I have gotten up before 7 am and said "Kerry, let's go get some pictures!" and we have hiked up Crawford, in different areas so that I could practice taking pictures. I'm sore. I've been packing my tripod, flash, 2 lenses, camera, and snacks in my back pack, I'm sure it's over 20 lbs. of stuff. Both days have been many hours of walking, Day 2 was lots of up hill, steep down hill. But I made it without sliding down any of those hills.

Day 1: overcast, mosquitos, long hike in, but flat. Dark, forested area with small pockets of light. 177 pictures, about 110 less than stellar shots, like the following. Dark, grainy.

Day 2: sunny, no mosquitos, over dressed. Bright, burned out area so there are no trees with branches, just charred tree trunks. No shade, no shadows, still working on the action shots. 275 shots, 175 decent/not to shabby if I do say so myself. I'm shooting in AV mode, and am thinking that I have to switch out of it for some of the action shots. I've tried panning but I haven't quite got the hang of it.

The blurry action shots.

The nothing special action shot.

The arrow was cut by my dad and his chain saw.

Linus drinking from Kerry's Camelback. The nice picture.

The not-so-nice picture. Love the water droplets, dislike the werewolf-like teeth.The best shot. When I was a baby, my parents got me this Winnie the Pooh, he's at least 3 feet tall. Last year, my mom wanted to throw him out. My dad had better plans for him. He's a little shy. He used to have a red shirt on, but it's long gone and no one likes hanging in a tree naked. He belongs here...see, Teddy Bear Junction.
The boys, after the ride, hanging out in the back of the truck having a drink.

All photos are SOOC.

Quick little update

1. made it through fasting, even though toast making at the school made my tummy growl.
2. the lab was not busy, and no scuzzies were around, well, except for the one woman that was at the lab and had her thong pulled up at least 6 inches above her jeans, they were not low rider jeans, it was not a sexy thong, it didn't look like a clean thong, and she was not young.{shivers}
3. the 'vampire' took my blood with great care, no pain, no fainting, very gentle and she tried so hard to take my mind off of the whole ordeal by talking about dogs.
4. I was going to go shoe shopping after, but decided not to. Got a Mediteranean Market sub instead, went to the scrapbook store, didn't buy anything.
5. Went bride's maid dress shopping late afternoon and found THE dresses.
6. Shaun and I made Cheemo perogies for dinner and they were so good.
7. ate a donut, went into a coma.
8. got some scrapbooking done, for the Artfreckles June kit. The July and Aug. kit are in the mail!

Do not panic, do not panic...

That's what I'm repeating to myself right now. Do not panic.
After I had the blood tests with dreaded fasting, I called the dr.'s office and was told the tests looked fine but if I had any questions, I could come in. I figured fine was good. Then just now the dr.'s office calls and says that the dr. wants me to go back to the lab, ASAP, and donate more blood for testing. WHAT the H? No fasting, just do it. Did they not get enough the first time? Did some lab tech dump my precious ruby red blood? Did they discover my blood has antibodies in it to cure all the worlds diseases and they are going to drain it from me a little vial at a time?

Updated:
As I pressed Publish Post the phone rang. Do not panic. It's the dr.'s office again, oh, maybe they made a mistake, no, they didn't, it's even worse, in my opinion. I can ONLY have the tests done at the downtown lab. Yikes, donate blood and go downtown.
OMG...she just called again. YES I must fast. SHEEEET, go downtown, donate my precious, and don't eat for 10-14 hours. Lord love a duck. When I asked what the dr. thinks is wrong, I was told I was being tested for...and I wrote this down fast...calcium, albium{don't know if I even heard or wrote that down correctly}, phosphates and thryroid. I've been tested for thryroid so many times now. Do not panic.

Updated again:
OH freak! I just googled everything and why I would be getting tested for those things and it's lots of gloom and doom. It might be albumin, not albium.
On the bright side, I guess, if they do find something, then that would explain things.

Need a good laugh?

You will feel so much better about your photography skills and those old family portraits you have hidden in your closet.

http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/

Boxin'

I've seen these boxes all over the place, but never tried to make one. But I was cleaning off my desk and found the instructions all printed out and thought I'd try it.

I used Raspberry Tart from Stampin' Up for this one.

And October Afternoon Weathervane for this one. I love that paper.

Emily thinks they are awesome. Kerry thought they were pretty neat but then just like a guy, he says "And what is it for?"

See if he gets any goodies in a fancy box any time soon.

Thoughts and Prayers boxed cards

Maybe buying this set, Thoughts and Prayers, set the pace for the year. I had said I didn't have a sympathy set and hadn't needed one. But then I needed one sympathy card, so I bought the set and told Kerry that I thought this was the year of funerals for us. And that's when it started. We have been a few between the two of us now, more than we have in all our years together. I decided to make a bunch of sympathy cards and matching box, some I cased right from SCS, and a couple are my own.

I think I'll offer this box and cards as a class. I'm sure I'm not the only one with more funerals to go to than I want to.

Doug at Comedy Barn

Marg sent this to me. It's so cute! Listen to the guy in the middle laugh. Watch the guy on the right. The poor comedian can't even do his show.

Challenge May 11th

Head over to www.artfreckles.com and check out the challenges. I am trying to take part in them to get some pages done and to work outside my comfort zone. Today was my day to post the challenge. I challenged you to use...
- a neutral background
- ink
-1-3 recycled things (I went straight to the recycling bin and grabbed empty boxes of snacks)
-1-3 photos that you haven't scrapped, those ones you print off and then never use

This is what I came up with. I had a house photo, not just any house, our house, and a bunch of snack boxes so I went for the obvious, Snacks We Eat! You could use the boxes for book covers, to make flowers, matting photos, die cut shapes out of them, or use the letters for your titles, go all ransom on your layout. I used a Cornish Heritage Farms background stamp for the 'bubble wrap' look on the background, using a torn piece of copy paper as a mask to get the 'ripped' bubble wrap look. Heart is hand cut from felt that was in the garbage can. Staples brought it together quickly.

Go, rummage through your recycling. Make something.

Rock and Roll

We took Emily out to the Robinson's to borrow their rototiller. We also had to see the baby chicks. The are just getting their tail and wing feathers and are still very cute. So fragile. Emily thought we said we were getting the Rodent Killer, not the rototiller.

Kerry rigged up a ramp to get the tiller out of the back of the truck and I was ramp holder, the dead weight at the end of the ramp. When Kerry started the decent down the ramp with the tiller, he realized too late that it was to freaking heavy and they rolled down the ramp at break neck speed. Poor little me at the bottom got bowled over, even though I tried to move, but the rock pile was in my way and I couldn't move fast enough to get out of Kerry's way. I tripped over the pile, rolled quite well according to Kerry and came to a stop on my back. I bruised the left side of my bum, skinned both elbows and didn't hit my head on the pile of 2x6s that Kerry had piled near by. I didn't cry, but Kerry almost did, he felt so bad. I got up, he said hold on, and pulled off the loose skin and rocks that were inbedded in my elbows. He thought my bum was bleeding but I must have landed on something wet, because it's still looks as good as it did before. I'm sore, my elbows are killing me, and I'm getting sympathy.

Kerry and the kids made Mother's Day brunch. My parents and his mom came and we had a great meal. I didn't have to clean house beforehand or afterwards. It was very nice!

We tilled the garden, went shopping for more plants, made our rows, and planted our seeds and plants this afternoon. Kerry's just fixing up the sprinklers and then all we have to do is sit back and wait. Ha Ha, I wish it was that easy. We start out good, weeding all the time and then it gets hot and other things become more important, but this year we are going to really make an effort. The whole freaking garden is planted, all 1600 square feet of it. And that stuff better grown if it knows what's good for it.

Sweet Potato Heaven!

That's right! Sweet Potatoes at your fingertips! Right in your grocerer's freezer section. Crinkle cut or straight! 18 minutes to Sweet Potato lift off! I'm so pleased that we didn't have to wait forever to get these in Canada!
Also, paneer pakoras in the freezer section too! Lunch today will consist of SP Fries, paneer pakoras and home-made chipotle mayo to dip fries in.
It doesn't get any better than this. Well, it does, but not any better than this in the freezer section at the Superstore!

Sometimes it's hard coming up with a title.

It's very hard to get Shaun and Jenn to stand still long enough to take a decent picture. I got a few on the weekend, but this one stood out.

Paper is Melissa Frances, and something else that I only had a scrap of. Felt buttons are mine, lacey paper is Creative Imaginations, lace is Melissa Frances.

And just so no one thinks Emily is always serious, I got a goofy one of her too.

The letter stickers and clouds are on a transparency. The paper, love it, is October Afternoon Weathervane, older stuff, but I love the clouds and woodgrain patterns.

DANCE TRAIN STATION BELGIUM do-re-mi The Sound of Music - Julie Andrews

DANCE TRAIN STATION BELGIUM do-re-mi The Sound of Music - Julie Andrews

LOVE THIS!

A video of almost 200 people taking over Antwerpen's Centraal Station in Belgium and doing a carefully choreographed dance to the Do Re Mi song (aka Maria's Dance aka Maria's Song) from "Sound of Music" has garnered almost a million views on YouTube, and continues to grow, sprouting a new round of google trends today.
It's a publicity stunt for a reality show, but that doesn't seem to bother anyone, they just like it for what it is: a really cool, well shot video, that lets average people express their joy and talent and make those around them happy for a brief period. The producers chose the exact right song: one that harkens back to our childhoods, but also recalls Maria's unabashed upbeatness in the face of evil. We're in a global economic crisis, America's fighting two wars, there's genocide in Darfur, AIDs running rampant, and a pretty good shot that we could all be killed by bird flu in a year or two. We need this video.

Shannon posted this on Art Freckles this morning, it brought tears to my eyes. I googled it and found the above info on it.

Rocked It, if I do say so myself!

I got my long awaited Art Freckles kit yesterday, okay, so it was regular waiting time, I'm just impatient.
I had a hair appointment and the kit came just before I left so I had to grab it from the mail person, drop it and run.
But when I came home, and after I ate lunch, which was really breakfast because I didn't eat before I left, I got busy with the kit.
First I opened the box, congratulated myself on not spending too much and on making great purchases. I ordered the Effervescence Fiskars board punch and an October Afternoon kit, Weathervane, love it.
Then I opened each kit, there were two, Cuz It's My Birthday and June's kit. Both are so full of goodies!
I never would have bought the We R Memory Keepers Valentine's line, the colours didn't appeal to me, I don't tend to buy holiday themed papers. But when given the choice, I decided to leave my comfort zone of browns and earth tones and go with this kit. I'm so glad I did because I have pictures that go so well with it.
After fondling all the goodies, I set to work using the first kit. I made all this stuff in an afternoon. Things get done when you don't get sucked into the computer.
I knew I had to use this photo of Kerry with that bunny.

And then I made a couple cards, which I should do with the scraps everytime I make a layout.

I had this Prima flower tin kicking around, really, it was on the floor after being played with by the last little person that came to visit. Now I can stash my sweets, if I ever have any, in there.

Then I made this super cute mini album using the top note die and the Big Shot. I love that die! And that bunny! And the person the mini album is meant for. I love him so much as of today, I have spent 14 years married to him. Happy Anniversary Kerry!

So if you are looking for a really reasonable kit club to join, check out www.artfreckles.com. From Ontario to B.C. took a week, really not that long, at least I can say that now that I have the stuff in my hands!

Making the best of crappy lighting.

This picture is not the best. And no, Emily is not dressed as Cousin It from the Adams Family. I should have asked her to push her hair back. But what is so special about this picture is that it's of 2 girls whose moms have been friends since they were 13 years old. There's a huge age difference, 9 years between the girls, but Emily is fairly patient and plays with Zoe, even though she tires Emily out!

Kerry's mom got him a snazzy new hat for his birthday.

Shaun and Jenn posed for a couple of pictures, but again, bad lighting on the deck and lazy people didn't want to move to better lighting. Oh, and lazy people decided the "Pirate Face" was what I was looking for. Number of decent pictures I have of the 2 of them together, other than this one, zero, zilch, nada, big fat 0. Rotten kids.

And if I could photoshop fat necks out of pictures, I would have done this one, but it's not the worst, I guess. The one Terrell took of my butt is much worse.
I decided that I should participate in a few of the challenges at Art Freckles. This one called for neutral background, letter stickers, hand cutting and glitter. You can't see the glitter but it's on the patterned critter background, and on the clouds.

Journaling reads: Humour me and sit still long enough for me to get a few good shots.

I need to get the kids dressed decently and out somewhere pretty to get some new family shots. If I don't they will have a scrapbook full of these same pictures and although I love them, the kids will think I never took any other photos of them. Which right now is true. I have 26 MB of photos of kids, 4.85 GB of dogs.

And I discovered a surprising benefit to blogging...when Emily needed pictures of family members for a French assignment while at school, she could have used fake family members, like from a magazine or any old website, but she remembered my blog and the plethora of family photos on it. So her 'fake French family' is really her real family.

Lordy, Lordy, Look Who's 40!

Not me, because I'm not that old! But Kerry is! That's 280 in dog years!

He's on his way home from his mountain bike ride, he's had a Tim Horton's breakfast sandwich and will have cake and hamburgers for dinner, what more could a guy want! And he cleaned bathrooms on his birthday!!!. His birthday party will be later in the month when Mother Nature decides to grace us with nicer weather.