This is pretty cool...

So I stole this from Jen's blog where she asks me five questions about myself and I have to answer them. It's pretty cool, especially some of the questions she asked others who commented. So here's how it works, I answer the five questions Jen asked me and anyone who posts a comment in my blog, I will ask you five questions that you have to answer in your blog. You take the whole description of the game and who sent it and get others to do the same. Sort of like the wave right? Or maybe not.

Here goes:

1. Did anything about CHA surprise you? Or was it exactly what you expected?

Yes and no, I guess I could say that I expected CHA to be bigger. But it was still pretty big. I also expected to see a lot more BIG WOW stuff than I did. And I also expected to see more in the other creative pursuits as well. It seemed like every booth was scrapbooking and only a few scattered here and there in other crafts. However, I was pretty impressed with many of the company's presentations. Some booths were done better than others. When you said to do layouts that would draw attention from far away I totally got it, but seeing it in person was something completely different. Because we didn't go in to the booths, we had to strain to see a few of the new things. And some of the examples. Which was disappointing because I really wanted to see how they used a lot of new stuff, instead of just seeing the new stuff. I'm really looking forward to CHA Winter when I think the companies will release a lot more cool stuff. Or maybe we've reached the edge of the universe so to speak and this is it for the new stuff. Funny enough, it was so easy to find the Luxe booth because of the way it looked in the see of blah. Hard to put in to words but it really looked head and shoulders above the rest of the booths in that area. (Admit it, you thought I was going to say I could smell it with the lilies).

2. What is your "must have" wardrobe purchase for fall?

A really hot pair of black heels that are both cute yet comfortable to walk in. This seems to be my holy grail every year. Find a pair of shoes I can wear with skirts that are easy to walk/stand in but still look reasonably cool and not so much "matronly". I always end up getting stuck with a pair of shoes that are either comfortable but ugly or hot but dreadful on my poor little feeties. And for some odd reason, black heels are either too sex kittenish or too "I work as a museum guide and wear ugly oxfords all day".

3. Favorite food?

Kraft macaroni and cheese with cut up hot dogs. We had this argument the other day here at my house and then again at my sisters house. There is a new HP commercial with this delicacy in it and my mouth waters when I see it. However, my aunt and my cousins kids (9 and 8) think this is the grossest thing ever ("like, cooked hot dogs? Or raw hot dogs?") yet I think it is the biggest best kept secret ever. How can you go wrong, kraft dinner and cut up hot dogs! Add a little ketchup and you're laughing. Full of good vitamins too. That's the one thing I remember from Home Ec. in school, the macaroni and cheese nutritional card had all the bars near the top. I was telling my sister about this at the table on Saturday night with my brother in law and his buddy sitting there. The two of them wrinkled their noses at it and Noelle and I were all "what are you TALKING ABOUT? It's so GOOD!" you can tell we were poor kids, all the good stuff is cheap dinner ideas.

4. What color is your duvet?

Ha ha, trick question...the duvet itself is white but the duvet cover is a dark tan colour. It's actually this one from Ikea. I picked it up in the fall when I went on a little "spree". I love it because it's really neat looking and feels really soft.

5. Best book you ever read?

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I read this book when I was eleven and it's still my "nothing else to read" book that I grab when I just want to be able to read a good few pages. Not delve right into the book, but pick it up at a spot that I enjoy and read it. So much about this book made me question things. Made me interested in history, made me sad, made me happy, made me think. And I loved the heroine in it. I liked being in her head and seeing how she thought. It was important to me as I grew up because I felt somewhat normal in "living" Francie's life and seeing how she felt in certain situations. Still a book I would recommend to anyone. This book to me is like "comfort food". It's just that good.

Ok people, now it's your turn, leave me a comment, anything random and I will ask you five questions. From there you answer the questions on your blog and do the whole thing over again.

Oh and Jen? It's not strange that you do that with your icons. I have to have Outlook as my first icon in my taskbar. If something happens during the day with our server and it goes down, I have to shut all the other programs I have running and put it back up first.

I'm telling mom

Who knew the labour laws in Canada had changed...

No worries, we didn't let them drink beer.

CHA recap

So CHA was awesome. Really awesome. I didn't really know what to expect but it was so much fun. Not just walking the show and seeing as much of the new stuff as I could, but also hanging out with the Luxe team. Seriously. These ladies (and Paolo and Kipps!) are the most friendly, wonderful people a girl could be friends with. As I said to Jen yesterday, they made me feel so welcome. And the best part is, I am actually going to get to help them out a bit this year. Can't wait for CHA-W in Anaheim in February. That will be awesome too.

Also excited about the new products I managed to score. I already have a few layouts I want to put together. But for now, the few layouts that made it onto the display at the show. A few more made it into the new catalogue.

Oh and Cuttlebug and Cricut weren't the only "celebrities" I managed to see on the trip. Also managed to bump into Bob Guiney aka The Bachelor in the DTW airport whilst getting my baggage.

Chicago bound

Today was a good day.

I can't get into the details, but suffice to say that today was a really good day. I feel really good today and I'm quite impressed with myself.

Tomorrow is going to get better because tomorrow I'm off to Chicago to hang with the Luxe girls and to walk the floor of CHA. I'm so excited it's not funny. Bag is packed, stuff is ready and I'm just confirming details for my trip.

Can't wait to see all the cool stuff and also see my friends.

What little girls are made of

So this:

is what 32 looks like. Yup, that would be me holding my beautiful flowers that my aunt surprised me with at lunch time. Or what should have been lunch time. So how did I spend my birthday? Well I started work at 7 a.m. and rushed out to the doctor at 5 p.m. minus a proper lunch break (lunch was a couple pieces of pizza eaten in ten minutes in the boardroom with my boss). We were go go go all day today. But it was still nice, see the flowers from my aunt. My sister sent me a text message at 1 to wish me a happy birthday so I called her and received wonderful well wishes from my nieces. I came home to a birthday email from my brother and a pile of wall postings on Facebook. I definitely feel loved! All in all a good day.

Four more sleeps to CHA

Or what I like to call: Let's pretend you're not turning a year older tomorrow. Yup that's right, four more sleeps until I leave lovely Windsor for the bustling metropolis of "outside Chicago". Well, I know it's just a suburb of Chicago, but still, if it's near the airport, it's not in Chicago.

I'm heading out to CHA or the Craft and Hobby Association summer show. Jen (www.jenidallas.typepad.com) (let me say I hate Google Blogger or Blogger Google or Blogger Beta or Blogger #$%@ because I can't link properly) and her lovely Luxe ladies (www.luxedesigns.com) are debuting their next lines of scrapbook supplies and she has a pass for little old me to go and check out what's new. I get to see all the cool new products being launched by all the companies and decide what I want to save my money for, and what I just want to have right away. We all know it's going to be the latter rather than the former.

Counting down the days man. Especially since this week is shaping up to be kind of hell like at work.

In other news, I turn 32 tomorrow which is almost mid-thirties (TM Jessica Simpson) which is almost 35 which is almost dead! KIDDING! I don't know why 32 bothers me more than 31 but it is. And not because I'm not doing anything for my birthday (seriously, once you get old, you like to just mellow and enjoy a glass of wine on your b-day and not worry about the rest), I think it's more of the "what have I done with my life this year" kind of thinking. Who knows though. I still feel like I'm 25. Well, emotionally anyway.

FOUR MORE SLEEPS! Yup, that's what I'm going with.

10 Useless Facts About Me or I'm a Big Copycat

Chris (http://newnewfie.blogspot.com) had this idea on his blog, which he borrowed from someone else. I'll be less polite and say that I'm outright stealing it from him. So here you go. 10 useless things you didn't need to know about me.

1. In elementary school my siblings and I were known as the 5 little rascals. Because it sounded like our last name and there were so many of us. This was also cause for "how many more of you are there?" from many a high school teacher.

2. I'm actually the middle child, though many people think I'm the oldest. But that's only because my oldest sister is far enough ahead of me they forgot about her all together. (Sorry Noelle, you know I love you....well your kids anyway KIDDING!)

3. I was born in North Bay, which isn't really exciting except for the stories about how cold it was in the winter, how gross it was during shad fly season, and how much we went to the lake when I was a baby.

4. I stutter when I talk fast.

5. I hardly ever finish anything I start--this mostly applies to crafting activities. My siblings took a photo one Christmas of the hats/mitts I was making them. Only three of them actually got hats and only one of them got the mitts to go with it. I'm working on this one.

6. I always look at peoples photos that they have out in their homes when I go visit. I'm a big picture fiend. I believe you can tell a lot about a person by the photos they take and display.

7. The older I get, the harder it is to figure out anything technical, dance in a non-embarassing way, hear anything anyone says, or understand anything new.

8. I am afraid of the dark.

9. I have this insane ability to remember totally useless information that I learned god knows where. Pythagorean theorem? Check. Old OHIP number? Check. The fact that you only see one side of the moon? Check. The date of American independence? Check. It's sad, because I cannot remember to pack my lunch each day, but I can tell you how to figure out square footage.

10. I have this really big dream to one day become a novelist. Which is hilarious, because see 5, I can never finish anything I start. One story just leads into another story without coming to an acceptable conclusion.

I've been really happy this week, for the first time in a really long time. No idea why, my horoscope thinks it's something to do with Saturn in my sign or something like that. I just like to think that it's been hiding under the surface for a while. Or maybe it's just a few new things I've learned in the last two weeks.

Whatever the reason, I decided to just say screw it and headed over to Ikea with my aunt on Friday night. I've been trying to not spend money but decided that needing a new jar for ribbons and wanting to look at a few pretty things was definitely worth it. I picked up a new large jar for ribbons and two smaller ones for loose ribbons. Sounds corny I know but they're just so cute. I also picked up a neat little tray thingie to put all my paints and other glue/paint/etc. type products in on my shelves. I like to have interesting organization things.

I also went and got a long needed hair cut on Saturday. I went back in April for a new haircut. I have this thing with my hair. I want it to be long but have realized that if I want it long, I have to have it cut into a style otherwise it becomes unmanageable. I had really neat colour blocking done the last time but I didn't like how it faded out. In addition, because my natural hair colour is so dark, it's awful when the roots start showing. So I went back in and got it done again only this time I went for all over colour of a darker brown. The cut itself is so awesome. How he managed to get my hair to stay poofy ALL DAY with minimal product is beyond me.

Not the greatest picture, no makeup really shows but it's still a good capture of the new hair.

I was also able to do some cards this weekend too. Problem is I always make like 8 of the same card so I didn't really get a whole lot done. But it was a nice weekend all the same. I'm looking forward to working some more next weekend. And of course Chicago the weekend after to check out CHA and hang with the Luxe crew.

Happy (Belated) Canada Day

Happy Belated Canada Day to all my fellow Canucks.

Canada Day for us meant a weekend of activities. Ratatouille at the movies for the girls and I on Friday afternoon. Soccer on Friday night. Shopping for Canada gear (no I didn't have quite enough) on Saturday and a pool party Saturday afternoon/evening. Fireworks were viewed in the evening. The actual day meant a bike parade, a hot dog cook off with all our friends, a trip to the community centre for face painting and games, a dog show, a pot luck barbecue with friends and another evening of fireworks. You can imagine how exhausted I am today.

Hope everyone else had a good day and to all my yankee friends, Happy Independance Day on Wednesday!