Painting!!

Steve decided to paint the master bedroom this week. We've lived in our house for ten years and have been slowly redecorating room by room. We've finally made it to the master bedroom. It was a medium pink colour with a border of pink and grey flowers and two walls wallpapered in a pink stripe. It really was not my taste at all! I've posted a picture that shows the pink colour, unfortunately I didn't get one of the border. We're painting it Late Wheat. I'll post another pic when its done!

My New Mandoline Cutter!!

For Christmas my Mom gave me a Zyliss Mandoline cutter. I've been wanting one for awhile and finally had a chance to try it out today! It works great. I've posted some pictures of the results! Thanks Mom!

Photo A Day

Well, its the time of year when we start thinking about new year's resolutions. So as I'm pondering what to resolve for 2007, I found a link to a Photo A Day. This would be an interesting way to make a record of all of the eventful and not so eventful happenings throughout 2007. I'm not sure if I am ready to commit to something like this, maybe a better goal for me would be a picture every other day. But if you are interested, here's the link to the idea and a few examples.

http://www.photojojo.com/content/tutorials/project-365-take-a-photo-a-day/

Back to the Real World

Yes, its back to work for me! Christmas is pretty much over except for the clean up. You know, putting away all the boxes, bags and decorations for next year. Taking down the tree and picking up all the pine needles! Although I will hold off on that until Jan 1, 2007! And luckily, Steve is off through the new year so he will be cooking dinner and have a glass of wine waiting for me when I get home after 5 pm! So I guess I'm not quite back to the real world yet!

Cool Christmas Links

I was just on the CTV website and clicked on Kris Abel's blog. There a tons of cool Christmas game links to while away your time. I checked out Pimp Your Nutcracker, Legato and Arm Wrestle a Reindeer!

Here's the link to the blog http://krisabel.ctv.ca/blog/start=2006-12-15.

Relaxing Before Christmas!

Yep, you heard me right! I've been relaxing before Christmas!
The Christmas prep has been finished the earliest ever this year(except for come cooking I'll do today!) So what have I been doing instead of madly shopping and wrapping?
I spent some extra time scrapbooking on Friday and was very pleased with the card idea I scraplifted from Paper Salon(picture on left).
Then yesterday we went to see Casino Royale and it was one of the best James Bond movies I've seen in awhile! Daniel Craig is an excellent Bond!

Joys of the Season

A couple of the many pleasures of the Christmas season is visiting with friends and baking.
This weekend we went to Vineland Estates Winery for a wonderful lunch with our friends Kathryn and Dave. Then on Sunday, we visited with John, Dana and their children Cole and Jaiden. It was a great opportunity to catch up with each other, relax and maybe have a drink or two!


I also finished up the Christmas baking this weekend. Tried out a couple of new recipes as well as the old stand-bys. Of the three new recipes I tried,the brownies turned out well, the macaroons stuck to the pan and the fudge didn't quite set properly!!

Brianne and Brittany made sugar cookies that look and taste excellent!












I also have had a recipe for ages that is a cheese ball shaped into a snow man.
I tried it out and I think it turned out great!

So now its time to finish wrapping the Christmas presents!

The Stockings were Hung......

Here's a few Christmas decoration pictures I took including one of our tree.

It's Done!

I was able to finish up my Christmas shopping on friday as planned. We also put up our tree(I'll hopefully post a picture of it later)and finished with the house decorations this weekend. Now its time to wrap and do a bit of baking! Only 14 days to go!

Checked it Twice!

Well, I've got my list and I've checked it twice and now I'm off this morning to finish my Christmas shopping!! Wish me luck!

Back From Texas Y'all!

Well, we're back from our five day trip to Austin and San Antonio, Texas. Steve had a conference in Austin and as I have always wanted to see the Riverwalk in San Antonio, this was my opportunity. I've added some of my favourite pictures from Texas to my slide show. They include pics of the State Capitol in Austin(taller than the White House!), some spanish missions, the Alamo, the Riverwalk, and a water tower from Gruene(pronounced Green). It was warm when we arrived in Texas, 75F then dropped to half that! It was their first cold snap of the year! But we still enjoyed touring Austin, San Antonio, the missions and the little towns in between. And it was warmer than here!
We also had the apportunity to try out some great restaurants and a couple of my favourites were Threadgills and Chuys. They both have great websites at www.threadgills.com and www.chuys.com. Threadgills is more southern homecooking with a great pecan pie(so Steve says) and Chuys is Tex-Mex. We tried some other Tex-Mex places but I did like Chuys the best!
The Riverwalk was decorated with twinkling christmas lights and was a great place to be on a Friday night with all the people, patios with gas warmers and blanket ponchos as well as school kids singing carols from the boats that cruised along the river!
All the people we met were very friendly and very proud of their state. In the state capitol even the light bulbs in the chandeliers are arranged to spell Texas! I found that the men were very gentlemanly, letting the women on and off the elevator first as well as always, and I mean always(!) holding open doors for women.

This trip was also the first time my luggage didn't arrive with me! But the airlines did get it to the hotel around 11:30 pm, I had arrived at 3:30 pm. On the way home, Steve used some upgrade tickets to get us seats in business class. So we flew in luxury from Dallas to Toronto and what a way to fly! I'd love to do that again!

The Freak Lunchbox

In Halifax, where Steve was this week, there is a great candy store called The Freak Lunchbox!Look at all the candy he brought back! The girls are thrilled!

Instead of Cleaning etc.

Well, I'm supposed to be cleaning this morning but instead I am browsing the web checking out various scrapbook sites for ideas. And I found the paper salon blog, with this really great gift idea! There are a lot more great ideas too!
I've added a link under Blogs I Read. Enjoy!

Cute Site

In the spirit of Happy Feet, do check this site out, its cute!

http://www.star28.net/snow.html

Christmas Crafts, Its a Tradition!

Its definitely a tradition. Every year my daughters and I make Christmas gifts for them to give to their Grandma's and Aunts. This year we drew on two sources to create their crafts, scrapbooking and Martha's Stewart's Holiday crafts magazine. And this year my daughter,Brianne, even hand made her friend Claire's birthday gift! I was pretty impressed! So this past Saturday night, after a hard day of cleaning kitchen cupboards, we glued, curled, rubbed, tied, melted, folded, stapled, glued and ironed to create the all various gifts!! Their Grandma's and Aunts are getting interesting gifts this year!!

Guilty Pleasures!!

Yes, I'm a James Bond fan! Its one of my guilty pleasures! And today when I was checking out Perez Hilton(another guilty pleasure, see more below), he had a link to this Marks and Spencer commercial. Its a James Bond spoof with a cameo by Twiggy and Dame Shirley Bassey singing Pink's Get the Party Started! I wish they still had Marks and Spencer stores here!



Ok, my next guilty pleasure.......yes I'm hooked. Rarely does a day go by when I don't check out all the latest celebrity gossip on perezhilton.com. Yes, he's gay, his comments are irreverant and the ads in the sidebar are 'interesting' but its light, entertaining reading.

And here's another guilty pleasure, pogo.com. This is an online games site with free games as well as games available only to Pogo club members. I've learned to play several card games on this site, like Canasta a gme popular in the 50's. But beware,if you do visit this site, it is addictive!


And yes, I've added the links to these sites to the list of sites I like!

And The Winner Is.......

Emmitt!!

Yes, I was surprised, I thought for sure Mario would win Dancing With the Stars. He was probably the better dancer but Emmitt got the votes! Way to go Emmitt!

Not a lot new

Well, there isn't a lot new with me. Work, house/home work and activities plus a bit of scrapbooking. I did scrapbook all day Saturday but I can't say alot about it because the things I worked on are for Christmas. It was once again a very successful crop put on by Karen of Go Scrapping. I do plan on taking advantage of this weekend's Waterloo Scrapbook tour being hosted by several local stores in conjunction with Go Scrapping. It should be fun! Also, I'm going shopping in Buffalo on Friday with 3 friends and hope to get some more Christmas shopping done........its only 41 days till Christmas!! Till next time!

Dancing with the Stars

Well, next week its decision time! Who will win the trophy? Will it be "Super Mario" or "Smooth Emmitt"? I think I'm rooting for Emmitt. Let me know who you think will win!

In Remembrance

As Remembrance Day is tomorrow, here's a link to a very powerful video in remembrance of our war veterans, http://www.terry-kelly.com/pittance.htm .

Its called A Pittance Of Time, written by Terry Kelly. Here's the lyrics:

They fought and some died for their homeland.
They fought and some died, now it's our land.
Look at his little child; there's no fear in her eyes.
Could he not show respect for other dads who have died?

Take two minutes, would you mind?
It's a pittance of time,
For the boys and the girls who went over.
In peace may they rest, may we never forget why they died.
It's a pittance of time.

God forgive me for wanting to strike him.
Give me strength so as not to be like him.
My heart pounds in my breast, fingers pressed to my lips,
My throat wants to bawl out, my tongue barely resists.

But two minutes I will bide.It's a pittance of time,
For the boys and the girls who went over.
In peace may they rest.
May we never forget why they died.
It's a pittance of time.

Read the letters and poems of the heroes at home.
They have casualties, battles, and fears of their own.
There's a price to be paid if you go, if you stay.
Freedom's fought for and won in numerous ways.

Take two minutes, would you mind?
It's a pittance of time,
For the boys and the girls all over.
May we never forget, our young become vets.
At the end of the line,
It's a pittance of time.

It takes courage to fight in your own war.
It takes courage to fight someone else's war.
Our peacekeepers tell of their own living hell.
They bring hope to foreign lands that hate mongers can't kill.

Take two minutes, would you mind?
It's a pittance of time,
For the boys and the girls who go over.
In peacetime our best still don battle dress
And lay their lives on the line.
It's a pittance of time

In peace may they rest,
Lest we forget why they died.
Take a pittance of time.

Sketches

I found some great leads to sketch sites today on the Go Scrapping message board and checked them out. They are great reference sites and I added my favourites under Sites I Like on the left.

Ah November! Let the shopping begin!

Yep, its November! And so this morning we awoke to a skiff of snow onthe road. Enough to make them icy until the snow melted. But people in my area seemed to slow down so even if you slid a bit, it was OK.
And now that its November its time to start gearing up for Christmas. I have a bit of head start as I have made a couple of gifts already and did some shopping in the US a couple of weeks ago but there is still more to do! Let the shopping begin!

Happy Halloween!

At The Crop

The Waterloo Grand River Kinettes are hosting our second annual At The Crop scrapbooking crop on April 14, 2007. Our first crop was very successful and the second promises to be even better!

And I am particularly proud of myself today as I have created a website that provides the event details and even has a registration form. While it is a pretty basic site, it is the first I have created so that is a success in itself.

With the proceeds of At The Crop being directed to various community projects, it truly is a win/win for the many scrapbookers and supporters who attend as well as the community.

Just click under At The Crop on the left for more details!

Got caught!

Well, I got caught! I started this blog thinking I would let everyone know once I had a few regular posts in.......well, until today I only had one blog in just over 2 months! Holly asked me about my blog on Friday night at scrapbooking. I never really thought anyone I knew would read my blog! So now I'm back! Thanks for asking me about it Holly! Hopefully my next blog will be in less time than over 2 months!

So far the other bloggers I know are scrapbookers. I think we're hoping to keep in touch with all our friends and family but also hoping to record events as they happen for future use in journalling our scrapbook pages. Yes, I said journalling, the thing I never seem to get to on my pages! So here's to journalling, may I see some on my pages!

Yesterday I came home from a day of scrapbooking in St.Mary's with friends (Kathryn aka Kathleen, Brenda aka Barbara, Pat, Joan,Erin, Donna, Andrea and Terry) to find a new computer and printer/scanner all set up in our kitchen!!! I was very surprised and pleased! Now I don't have to listen to the rattle of the fan on our old computer! And I'm hoping to scan some of my layouts to post to this site. We'll see if I can do that in less than 2 months!!

First Blog

Well I thought I'd start my own blog. It seems like it will be a good way to update everyone about what's happening with me and also create a journal of events for future reference.

We'll see how it goes!