Good things

This weekend was the big Halloween party weekend and it was also "no-sleep 2007" weekend. I had the kids with me at my cousin's for her daughter's 10th birthday. Last night I did my mountain of laundry and thankfully today I was able to get out of work early due to toxic fumes in the office from the roofers. I'm taking this time to pack for tomorrow/Thursday as I am off to London and Toronto for a town hall with our CEO and media strategy development on Thursday. Then it's back to Windsor and repack for the weekend in London and the all day crop there.

You know your life is sad when you actually look forward to room service and a nice bubble bath. But hey, I'm staying at the Four Seasons Toronto, so why wouldn't I look forward to that???

From this week it's just eight weeks to Christmas and the warm weather is completely throwing me off. Let's hope I can stay healthy since I want to spend a few days after Christmas in Forth Worth. Good thing though, my two packages I had been waiting on arrived today. One from Luxe Designs (woo hoo, thanks ladies!) and one from Crafty Scrapper for the crop donation.

A few photos to keep you sated until I'm back...

Fun

This weekend was one of those weekends that I love. Just to sit home and chill out and play. Last weekend I furiously put together an album for Morgan's 10th birthday and once Jill saw it, she wanted me to make a couple for her for her niece's. Which I'm still working on.

But the best part about this was that it made me want to straighten up and clean some old stuff out. I have piles of stuff that I've bought and haven't used and it's all been put into a box and just sat there. So I got rid of a bunch of things and pulled out a few other things to use. Got part of my christmas cards figured out and part way organized for the crop I'm going to.

Also this weekend...plans for a trip to Fort Worth and possibly to see the Spice Girls in Toronto. And go ahead and laugh, you can't say it won't be a good show!

The Little Car that COULDN'T

I'm having a bit of a love hate relationship with my car lately. Except it's been more hate hate than I care to admit. In fact, I actually had to call GM Canada the other day to lodge my hate hate complaints with them so that they know that their car building sucks.

Which is kind of funny because I live in motor city Canada. Right beside the real "motor city" and I have this thing about buying North American cars. And really, my car has seen me through a lot. Two moves, countless trips up the highway, a farmers field in the middle of the winter. You know the drill. But the past month has seen me in the dealership to have it repaired three times.

First, in September my front brakes were making this horrible sound. Kind of like if you had a younger sibling and you were holding them down and punching them in the kidneys. It did this while driving, while turning, while braking. I knew it was bad. Turns out, it was a rock in the brake pad. A rock. In the brake pad. How the hell does that happen? So they removed it and only charged me $75 for the labour. I won't get into the amount of time it cost me going all the way out to the dealership and then all the way to work and then all the way back and forth again.

Then, I took it in for the regular oil change. That was last Thursday. Monday night my car alarm started going off for no reason. I just left it unlocked because the car alarm is this high pitched wailing sound. Not pleasant in the burbs. This was kind of bad because there have been a few break ins to cars and actually, my car was broken in to in the driveway a couple of months ago. So I figured I'd check it the next day. No alarm at all during the day. Pull into the driveway on Tuesday night, boom, alarm goes off. I actually had to leave the trunk unlatched to stop it from automatically locking and arming. I took it in the next day. Turns out I had the exact same problem I had a year ago. The wiring system shorted out because it got too close to the body and heated up.

While I was there the service guy noticed my serpentine belt was cracked. He asked me if I wanted it repaired. I asked him if this was something that should have been found in a semi-annual inspection. He says "are you due?" and I said "yes, last week, when I had it done". He talked to the manager and they decided that they would replace it and I would only be charged the cost of the part, not the labour.

So I called GM customer service this week to discuss with them the cons of owning a Pontiac Wave. Not to yell, not to be all bitchy, just to tell them a few things so they can look into the design of it and maybe make a better car. After all, the only way they'll know about these things is if someone tells them right? Well, I got a free oil lube and filter for my trouble.

Really though, for a car that is supposed to get great gas mileage and have such a great model, it's not been an ideal car. The driver side windshield wiper has never laid flat against the windshield leaving a big blur along the bottom. The car shakes when you go over 105 km/hr. The alarm system has shorted out twice. The car doesn't get the proper gas mileage it's supposed to. It's had two recalls on it already. The automatic model has really uncomfortable seats. And in addition to all the regular maintenance, you have to have special maintenance done to the cooling system because of the size of the car. I'm sure I've forgotten a few things that I'm unhappy with but ya, that's a good list.

Sigh....only 14 more months until I can trade it in...

This is fun

I'm trying to get motivated to go to Target. Kashi cereal is 2 for $5 this week and with the dollar low, it's definitely worth it.

Ok my life is officially sad.

Onwards! Stolen from Jen!

1. your rock star name (first pet & first car). Freddy Sunfire
2. your gansta name (fav ice cream flavor, favorite cookie). Chocolate Chip Chewy Chips Ahoy (notice a pattern? oh and how fierce!)
3. your “fly girl"? name (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name). LRac
4. your detective name (fav color, fav animal). Red Persian
5. your soap opera name (middle name, city where you were born) Jane North Bay (hee hee hee)
6. your Star Wars name (first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first). Racle (That's MS. RACLE if you're nasty)
7. superhero name (the? + 2nd fav color, fav drink). The Pink CC
8. nascar name (the first names of your grandfathers). Edward Theodore (Although I prefer Theo Eddie--sounds faster!)
9. stripper name ( the name of your fav perfume/cologne/scent, fav candy). Lavender Skor
10. witness protection name (mother’s & father’s middle names ). Marguerite Noel
11. tv weather anchor name (your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter). Andrews Amherstburg
12. spy name (your fav season/holiday, flower). Autumn Lillies
13. cartoon name (fav fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie" or “y"). Honey Dew Jammie
14. hippy name (what you ate for breakfast, your fav tree). Peanut Butter Maple (I'm suddenly hungry....)
15. your rockstar tour name (the + your fav hobby/craft, fav weather element + “tour"). The Scrapbook Rain Tour

Happy Autu--Summer?

We're a little confused around here today. You see, this is the weekend I normally take apple picking photos. All in the name of autum/fall themes. Except this weekend it was too hot to pick apples. How hot was it? It was over 100 F. Hot enough to warrant a cancellation of the apple picking and a trip to the air conditioned movies instead. Hot enough to consider going to the beach for the day. Hot to enough to wish Donna hadn't closed her pool. Hot enough to melt while taking a few autumn photos.

Not hot enough to roast a turkey though....Thanksgiving just wouldn't be the same without it.

What a drag it is getting old

I don't know what's been wrong with me the last couple of weeks. I've been really dragging it and it sucks. For some odd reason my knees have also decided to give up on me and have been aching for about three weeks now. Who knows what that's about.

I also had to change allergy medications because the other one just isn't working. Finally gave in and went for acupuncture for my sinuses as well.

I tell you, this getting older thing really sucks. I liked it better when my metabolism was faster, when my legs didn't ache, when everything didn't crack when I moved and also when these stray grey hairs didn't pop up everywhere.

I hear it's all downhill from here though. Wait til I have kids they say! Yikes!

Looking forward to a long weekend. REST! For the wicked!

I was working in the lab late one night...

I've been tooling around on other places (I BLAME YOU FACEBOOK) so I have little time for blogger. But I've also been working on other projects too. Like prepping for a Halloween party I'm helping with/attending at the end of the month.

Last night in the lab we put together spider egg balls and ghostly beings....woooo hoooo haaaa haaa haaaa.

Life is a highway

Or at least that's what it felt like this weekend!

I tried to surprise the kids at school on Friday when I picked them up (they normally take the school bus) but that surprise quickly faded when the Principal demanded I have a note to take them with me. We sorted it all out. And it kind of made me mad but I realized they needed to have that measure in place. However, my surprise slowly faded when most of the kids who know who I am ended up walking by me in the hall to the washroom and telling my oldest niece that I was there. So she wasn't so much surprised as she was frustrated that she couldn't leave the classroom to come and get me.

I was here on a stopover to Toronto because I was teaching an Arty Party for Luxe Designs at Bizzy B's in High Park. I love to find new neighbourhoods in Toronto. Part of me secretly wishes I lived in Toronto and I think I would if it wasn't for the high rent and the fact that my heart is in Southwestern Ontario. It was fun to go up to teach though. And the store was just awesome. So much to look at it was like sensory overload. I ended up picking up a couple of new stamps for my Christmas cards. And I also learned some new tricks. I'll be watching for these neat Luminescence paint things in the future now that I know how to use them. I probably could have done some serious damage in the store if I didn't already plop my paycheque down on my student loan.

Then it was dinner with my friend Anu. Anu and I used to work together so we talk daily but it's still fun to hang out with your friend in person. Almost every single one of my friends lives in Toronto so it's hard to pick who I can see and who I can't. I feel kind of bad. I wanted to see all my friends but my trip home had to be right from the store and Anu is on the way. So we met in Mississauga for dinner which turned out to be hilarious.

I did not know that the QEW and the 403 separate. I always thought the 403 turned into the QEW and that was that. Nope. (Somewhere Annette is shaking her head muttering "Cape Cod June 2004" to herself). So here I am in South Mississauga trying to find the restaurant thinking that I just came off the 403. Anu called me and realized what I had done wrong so I had to make the long trek north to the 403 and the restaurant. And to make matters worse, I ended up behind someone who was learning to drive a stick shift. On a major street. In rush hour. Sigh...

Dinner was awesome and we had a few laughs about her old job and my current one. I miss having her on our team because she did such a great job for us and now we're stuck with...well someone not as good. It took forever for the waitress to get back to our table with our cheque and I ended up not getting on the road until an hour later than I had hoped. I hate driving at night and I equally hate driving through construction at night and the trip up the mountain in Hamilton always terrifies me in the dark. I was exhausted when I got home. But still, it was a fun day.

So now I'm just helping my sister can some green tomato relish (she says "mmmm", Elizabeth says "what smells so bad?") and then we're going to hang curtains and then it's back home for me. I hate these weekends where I feel like I've spent the entire weekend in my car but it was worth it. And hey, I should get used to it. Creative Festival is in four weeks!

Idle Hands

I've been a bit busy the last couple of weeks. Coming back from vacation was good to get back into a normal schedule, but that has also meant getting back into a swing of things. And of course with the new season there is a bit of organizing to do. I had to pull out my winter clothes and decide what was ready for retirement and what needed to be hung up. I was also up in London for a few days extra to take the girls to see Hilary Duff (great show, and we met la Duff afterwards outside) and various other tasks that needed to be completed. Including going to the fair (deep fried mars bars are evil but taste oh so good).

The other news I alluded to recently was a former coworker who left a few weeks ago. It has been REALLY nice not having that around the office. So we've been busy cleaning out, organizing and getting ready for the next round of stuff going on. I can safely say that the work environment has vastly improved in the last two weeks.

I'm off to Scraptivity this weekend in the Bloor West area of Toronto. Looking forward to that. I'm doing a make 'n' take for the ladies there with all the fabulous Luxe stuff. I'm pretty excited to do that. And I'm sure some neat things will make it into my shopping bag...I'm also off to celebrate the girlies birthdays with them. Have fun stuff for them for their birthday.

Then we'll be into October. Which means Thanksgiving...frost...apple picking...and all the good things I love about fall.

A New Era

I'm sure I've been a little vague lately and that's a given. I'm going to be still more vague, but that's for protection. Let's just say this: there is a new era dawning in my life and it's really nice.

One element of my life that has been causing me great stress has been removed. Someone in my life who has caused me this stress is now gone and I am very happy. To the point where I was actually able to sleep this week without worrying about conversations that may or may not happen, comments that may or may not be made, and responses that I may or may not have needed to have handy. Two of us cleaned out and cleaned up and it's the start of a fresh new time which is really nice. I'm very happy this week and it's a really good thing.

Yes, happiness abounds around here lately and it's really really nice.

Happiness

I'm an evil person, I know, but you'll get over it!

Changing Direction

I hate vacation weeks because they always seem to go by so fast. I still have three days off and really, going back to work on Thursday and Friday will be good for one very important reason and then it's a four day week next week so I shouldn't complain but....I hate when vacations come to an end.

I also know that this one is going to be hard to leave because it means leaving my nieces after a whole week together. I'm pretty impressed at what we accomplished though. My goal was to come up and help them get organized. My sister and the hubby did the laundry room (which entailed painting, installing several shoe cabinets from Ikea, a bench in the closet and hooks throughout the room for things like backpacks, bathing suits, coats etc.) and I tackled the kids rooms and the basement. I managed to get it all done last night by 8 p.m. It wasn't easy. We tackled the oldest ones closet on Monday and the younger ones room on Tuesday. Neither one of them was interested in trying on clothes and while some clothes say a certain size, they were either bigger or smaller depending on the item. Several meltdowns ensued. And not just by me.

But now they're looking at a completely organized house. I also managed to get the basement carpets and stairs vacuumed. (Unfinished basement, gets really dusty). I also put most of the old photos from my moms into boxes and organized my sisters scrap booking stuff. I feel like I've climbed a mountain.

We also squeezed in a trip to Birch Run Michigan for some new shoes for the kids. Picked up a pair of new shoes for myself and a new outfit for the fall. I'm off to Cedar Point for three days now with my cousin (aka: the other big sister) and her two boys and two of their friends. I'm pretty stoked about another three days away. Should be fun.

I figure I'll sleep this weekend....HA!

People in canvas shelters shouldn't hate camping

I survived the monsoon of 2007. Well, I shouldn't say that, it isn't fair to people who actually have been through a monsoon. And really, my sister bore the brunt of it. But after all was said and done, I still hate camping.

We camped at this place outside Leamington which was actually quite nice, and by saying I hate camping, it has nothing to do with where we were, what we did, the people I was with or the activities we participated in. I just hate camping. I hate sleeping outside. I hate having to wear a winter hat to stay warm at night (it's August!) and I just hate all of it. Hate smelling like smoke, hate getting my eyes burned from said smoke while trying to adjust the fire. I hate loud neighbours in the morning (seriously, it's 7 freaking a.m., can you not shut up your 500 children all with a first name starting with J about the daddy long legs spiders???) or the loud neighbours at 3 am (were they trying for the record number of times getting told to shut the hell up?). I just hate all of it. But mostly, I hate it when it rains and you're soaking wet like today.

It started raining last night around 11 pm. And continued. And it's still raining. I bet it will still be raining 40 days and nights from now which is when our tent will finally be dry. I absolutely hate it when it rains and you're trying to tear stuff down. Although, like I said, my sister had to do most of the work. We came back from the indoor splash pad and all that was left was the tent and loading the car. That became roll up the tent, roll up the tarp, throw all the other crap in a bag, chuck it in the car and get the heck out of there.

I have to hand it to my sister though. She tried really hard to make me not hate camping. And really, it's not that I don't like camping with them. I just hate camping. I like camping food, I like camping fun, I like sitting around the fire (minus the smoke) and I like the company. I just hate the rest of it.

Sleeping in a nice bed will cure me of that feeling though.

I hope.

Later

I've been so busy this week. Work has been kicking my ass and I've had little time to do anything. Today I'm off for a weekend camping with my sister and my nieces and then I'm heading up to their place to help them get organized for school (closets, drawers etc.) and then I'm off to Cedar Point for a few days. Really looking forward to a little chillaxing.

I also received REALLY good news this week. Not that it's all that exciting or anything, I'm just not going to talk about it here yet. For those who know me, and know what I have been doing through for the past year and a half--it's really good news.

But I did promise some artistic examples the last time I was here. I did a bit of crafting that weekend. Mostly knitting but some scrapbooking. Here are a few samples...

Long Weekend

I love long weekends. LOVE LOVE LOVE THEM. If only because it gives me an extra day to do whatever it is that I'm doing for the weekend. And this weekend I am doing nothing but sleeping and crafting. Yup, finally getting to play just for me.

But first, I have to come clean about my little adventures last night. I decided that I was going to go to The Scrapbook Zone last night to check out their Freaky Friday offerings. Except, it wasn't the Friday for Freakiness. I was thinking it was July 27 but it was actually August 3 yesterday. And no, I'm not that stupid, I'm just losing track of time.

Anyways...I digress...I went to the Zone to check out a few things and since I was heading over to mail a package of chocolate (seriously, $4.80 at the U.S. Post Office and $23.00 at the Canadian one? What the hell is that?) I decided to go check it out. Well, I spent a little bit of money. But it's all good because I used my 40% off coupon to get this:


Which I haven't actually used yet. But I have big plans!

So today I slept until about nine but then got up, had some breakfast and went back to bed for a few hours. Yes, I'm lazy, deal with it. I then hit Michael's because I am sick and tired of my crappy ass paper cutter. Then I came home and went to town. I'm so lucky because I scored some new Luxe stuff and have completely fallen in love with the Pashmina line. No seriously. Three of the five pages I worked on today are all Pashmina. Love love love it! It's so cute.

And then I saw my big mess and decided to quit for the day. Because I said I was going to take it easy this weekend people! Besides, I still have two days to play left!! Woo hoo!

No worries, pictures will come soon.

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!

First day of summer

Welcome to the dog days.

the mystery of the critics muting

I went to see the new Nancy Drew movie with my nieces and sisters yesterday. Having been a fan of the books as a young girl, I was pretty excited to see how they put it all together. Frankly, I was quite impressed. I really enjoyed the movie and my nieces loved it.

My oldest niece has yet to read the books and my sister is just itching at the chance to get her started. She and I were furious readers of the series and since the library didn't carry them, we would read whatever we could put our hands on. My niece, having struggled with reading last year, is turning into quite the little reader and this we are pleased about.

Which brings me to my real rant: the critical outpouring of negative comments about Nancy Drew. Whether it's the movie or the books themselves, I have yet to read a good review of anything. This weekend the Globe and Mail had a scathing commentary on the negative feminism surrounding Nancy Drew, how she was always so proper and how it would be hard to get girls on board with this.

Frankly, I'm not impressed. When I read Nancy Drew back in the dark ages of the early 80's, the only feminist links I found were that I wanted to be like Nancy. I wanted to hunt mysteries. I wanted a sleuth kit. I wanted to be able to go out at night and drive a cute little car and do better than the boys. After all, where was Ned when she was on all her adventures? And the added bonus to this book? I liked to read. I neglected the television, the radio, the --well-- we didn't have video games when I was a kid but if we did, I wouldn't have been on them. I would have been reading. And considering that at that age I knew nothing about boys, clothes, music, or anything else little girls seem to be wrapped up in, it was safe to say that my impressions of the book were that I believed every word written because I had nothing else to compare it to.

I'm tired of this crap about how boring the books are, how plausible it is to believe Nancy could be so wholesome, how she dresses is wrong....and so on. I'd rather read critics cheering that girls are getting back into books again. That finally there is something out there to draw attention to reading a book to follow Nancy and her mysteries. Instead of having them sitting listless on a couch stuffing their faces.

Things to look forward to

I'm in London again this weekend. This time we're celebrating my mom's birthday (68!) and having a little family dinner. It will be nice to hang out together. The kids are looking forward to it and so is my mom.

It's been a rough few weeks and I'm glad that I'm having this time to just chill out and enjoy the summer nights. I'm not looking forward to the next month, but it's just another thing to get through. I've got the day before Canada Day weekend booked off to just hang with the girls and enjoy the four days. Right now, that's the start of the good things in store for July. Other items include a trip to Chicago to hang with the Luxe girls at CHA, of course a trip up here to celebrate the birthday and a night with the kids taking them to see Hilary Duff (cue the youngest: "she has brown hair now, and she wants to be sexy like a grown up")

I sent off my designs for the Luxe team and I'm hoping I see it elsewhere in the next month. That will be really cool for me. Haven't had anything published yet so having that used in any way will be really neat. I'm looking forward to that too.

I have so much to do though. I've let the last couple of weeks go by with lots of stuff slipping. Have to get my scrap crap organized. And finish the last three albums I was going to make. Also have to take some photos of the album I made for my aunt so I can show a few people. Really need to clean some stuff out, go to the cleaners, get organized for a card night....the list just seems endless and you would think with the weather being good and the light lasting longer I wouldn't be so lazy....not quite the case.

So I'll just enjoy the weekend with the fam. And then start doing the other tasks once I get that done.

Goodbye

So my nieces were here this weekend for a big babysitapalooza. And while I love them dearly, kids are a whole pile of work. Really, it took me forever to clean up after them. They arrived late on Friday night and once we got them all set up for bed, it was close to midnight. They were up at the crack of dawn (or as the oldest says "it wasn't the crack of dawn, the sun was out") and just went straight until I made them take a nap in the afternoon. They played with a friend's daughter who came over and once the younger one fell asleep, I had them both hit the hay for a nap. We all slept for three hours. Took them to see Surf's Up (which was cute, loved it) at the late show and then they finally went to bed at midnight. No joke, midnight! They were up again early this morning and going straight. We went swimming and then they took a bath while I cleaned up. I swear it took me an hour to pack up all their stuff, clean up the guest room, clean up the kitchen, clean up the bathroom and get them all organized to get out of the bath. And while I was sad to see them go, I was glad when my sister and brother in law got back to take them off my hands. Kids are too much work.

It was sad though when they were crying when they left telling me that they were going to miss me. Even though I'm going to see them on Friday and this is not at all a long time between visits (we've gone four weeks before). It always makes me sad to say goodbye to them. I hate it. And it just seems to be getting harder and harder for some reason.

How to design for Luxe part 2

So my big plan was to take photos of the process. Because it's really quite funny when I get going. And at one point on Sunday, I had the entire dining room table covered in paper, the table in the family room, the couch, the island in the kitchen, the kitchen table and one counter covered in supplies. Paper was everywhere, cut outs were everywhere and photos seemed to be everywhere but where I needed to find them. My scissors disappeared at one point as well.

However, my camera is still in London, so my photos are nowhere to be seen. Which also sucks for another reason, I can't send photos of my layouts to the Luxe girls to see if they can use them or to see if I need to do more.

Forget about what we did before we had computers and television, what did we do before we had cameras?

How to design for Luxe

Step 1: Agree to design for Luxe.

Step 2: Wait for box to arrive.

Step 3: Open box of goodies shipped from Texas.

Step 4: Jump up and down giddily at all the goodies inside.

Step 5: GET TO WORK!

Stay tuned for pictures.

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!