Timeless Travels

This weekend was in London with the family and I really enjoyed my time up there. My sister and I went in to Sparta to have tea and scones for breakfast and decided to hit up a few of the cute little stores. I ended up buying a neat little metal snail for the garden and she picked up her own metal sculptures for her own garden. But what is noteable about this trip is it's one of those fun litte road trips that I like to take. And since this year won't have any road trips in it, I got to thinking about trips I want to take.

Canada 'Eh' to Zed
A few years ago a friend and I were going to take three weeks and travel across country and back. We were going to start from London and head west to visit friends in Vancouver and San Jose. Our plan was to stop in neat little places along the way and camp in different places to see the sites. We wanted to see the giant Canada Goose sculpture (I'm weird about neat pictures) and camp in Thunder Bay to see the sleeping giant, drive through Manitoba, camp in Head Pushed in Buffalo Jump where they have you set up your own teepee and sleep in it, Dinosaur park in Alberta, Banff, the Rockies, and little points along the way. From Vancouver we had planned to head south to San Jose and then east through some other states to see things like Mount Rushmore, where the four states join together (I think it's like Nevada, Utah etc.) Las Vegas and Kansas. That trip would have been awesome if we had taken it. Instead we decided to do the eastern seaboard and hit Salem, Boston, Plymouth, Provincetown and NYC. That was also an awesome trip.

The other Can'eh'dian trip I want to do is going east. Driving out to the east coast and seeing Nova Scotia, PEI, Newfoundland and New Brunswick. There's so much out there I want to see. Peggy's Cove, Acadia, the icebergs off the coast of Newfoundland. Cape Spear to see the sun rise. The list is endless.

The Good Old South
My sister laughed at me when I said I wanted to see cotton growing. But that's just because we saw a dried cotton plant in one of the stores we visited today. I watched Giada's weekend travels on the food network and fell in love with Charleston N.C. I so want to visit the south. I think I'll wait to visit New Orleans for a couple of years but it would be so much fun to go south and see the old southern plantations, the old towns, the neat little shops, taste the cooking. Oh it makes my mouth water just thinking about it.

And everywhere else in the world
There are so many other places I want to see as well. Europe was just the tip of the iceberg for me last year. I would love to do a tour of Italy. A trip to Iceland, Sweden, Finland and the other scandinavian areas. London and the rest of England of course. I so want to see the remnants of Hadrian's wall. Russia for some odd reason. New Zealand and Australia. And a safari in Africa.

I'm on the fence about Asia. Jen loves going so if I decide I want to do China, I'd rather go with her because she seems to know her way around the place. Besides, I'd need her there to help me with the food and the good shopping.

Yup, definitely want to travel next year. Better start saving now!

Laundry List

I am amazed at how time flies. I can't believe it's almost the end of May already. It seems like it was just winter. Or maybe that's because we had frost this week. The hell? And it's also hard to believe it's been a year since my little minor bit of hell in my life and while the last year hasn't been perfect, it's nice to look back and see where things went wrong, where I was able to change things and where I've been able to cope when I couldn't change things.

I'm still working on the albums, probably going to go back to them later on. Needed to get some laundry done and some cleaning done first. NO worries, will post photos when I'm done.

I discovered a cute little scrapbook store here in town the other day by accident. I happened to take Dougall to work instead of E.C. Row and as I was driving, saw a big sign for Scrap Therapy. I stopped in on my way home from work and ended up talking to the ladies who run the store. They had opened the store in January and they carry all the stuff I love. We talked about the other stores in town and what I thought they were missing. They agreed. Nice to know they scrap like me. They urged me to come out to one of their all day crops at the store when they have them once a month. It was really nice to get to know two people who have the same interests as me and who also wanted me to join them. I guess this is what making friends is like ;) I also found out from them that they're putting in a new Archivers store in Detroit this summer. Can't WAIT for that!

I scheduled a girlie day for my aunt and I to celebrate her birthday. We went to this nice salon called Ellie Habib. I was a little wary. After all, I'm a little particular about how my hair is done and also how my skin is taken care of. My aunt was VERY satisfied with her facial, was raving about it after she had it done and my hair turned out fabulous. I don't know what it is but sometimes having a man cut your hair is great. Some men just know how to do it! And he did this cool colour thing with it with different coloured chunks and I am just in love with my hair. Not that I want to sound like a big geek or anything, but I'm loving it.

I also finished this awesome book I can't believe I didn't read the moment I bought it. It's been a struggle for me to find something I actually can sit through. I've got two on the go right now: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (Carson McMullen) and One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez) which I am having trouble sticking with. While I like the stories in both, I just can't put my finger on why I'm just not getting really wrapped up in them. This week I started The Memory Keepers Daughter (Kim Edwards) and just couldn't put it down. I would actually come home from work and sit and read it rather than do anything else. I loved it. But I can't seem to do that with these two. We'll see what happens though, now that I'm in the mood for a good read, maybe this time they might stick.

So now it's going to be a nice long weekend, just hanging out here at home and doing whatever. I'm looking forward to having two days to just sleep in and enjoy the days. Hopefully the rain and the cold go away and we get some nice weather. I'm not holding my breath though, many a long May 2-4 weekend we've had with snow (the year we put Lizzie's swing set up) or frost (this year) or freezing weather (uh frozen fire buckets at girl guide camp 20 years ago!). My uncle is out putting a fence up in the drizzle. Ick.

Mini-mega-mother-fest

There was a little bit of an accident that involved our internet connection and a lawn trimmer, so I have been minus internet service for a few days. Not that that's bad though, with all that has been going on lately, I've enjoyed the break from reality. However, knowing what's going on in the world and not having to read through 4 million emails is not so nice.

I've been busy lately with the whole "craft" aspect of the life. Which is nice and has also been quite fun. Last weekend I represented http://www.luxedesigns.com at the Paris Scrapfest (in Paris Ontario, not Paris France) and taught a make'n'take. So much fun. And while I was worried I wasn't a great teacher (I have a problem with my patience level) all the ladies I taught were so fantastic it wasn't an issue. It was so great to have so many people so happy with the product. It made me so proud of my friends!


I've also been trying to put together little mother's day mini albums for all the mom's in my life. This has been one of those tasks that you think will be really easy, but isn't really all that easy. I managed to get three of them done. For all my cousin's with babies no less. And the one for my mom done but without pictures. I have to do that. I'm still trying to finish the one for my aunt, and start the ones for my other aunt and my sister. My printer ran out of ink part way through this project and getting photos from others has been a challenge. But it was nice to make other people's days.

This week I took two days off because I was supposed to be helping the Luxe girls at the Great Lakes Mega Meet in Novi. But with class numbers being small and other business needing her there in Texas, http://www.jenidallas.typepad.com (Jen) couldn't make it. So I bowed out of helping and just took the two days to recover from what is shaping up to be a hellish two months at work. I popped over to Novi to check out the show on my own. It was nice to go alone, even if U.S. Customs didn't believe me, because I get kind of freaky with crowds and I could go at my own pace and look at what I wanted and pass up what I didn't. There were a lot of booths that were stampers and people who already want their pages done for them. I was quite disappointed in a few. Learned some new techniques from this one booth that did embossing with the neat glittery powder (I'm speaking a foreign language to a few people now aren't I?) and of course, spent all my money at the Basic Grey/Bazzil booth. They had some really good stuff in this booth and you can't go wrong with a pack of 15 sheets of Bazzil cardstock for $6. Each sheet is normally $1 in the store. I had to hit Kohl's and Sephora before I headed back. Then Friday I just cleaned up the house and helped get ready for my aunt's open house to meet the new baby.

Tonight we're off to Game 2 of the NHL Playoffs in Detroit. I'm kind of wishing Paul Kariya still played for the Ducks. Because it would have been so much fun to see him play tonight! But my aunt and I are going to celebrate Mother's Day in style. First Nemo's and then the game!