feeling green

I've been feeling a bit 'under the weather' so please forgive my absence as all my thoughts and activities have been a bit scarce this week.  And because I hate to make a picture-less post...

Lunch, with lots of pepper.  Yum!  Be back soon, xoxo

tag you're it!

I've been given an award by the lovely Simone:


Along with this special award I have to admit to 7 amazing (or weird) facts about myself.  I tend to be less amazing and more on the weird side so here goes:

1.  When I eat chicken noodle soup, I must have a slice of bread with honey to accompany it.  All I can say about this one is "thanks mum"  (I blame it all on her). 

2. I can tie a knot in a cherry stem with my tongue and speaking of knots I can tie shoe laces with my toes.   

3. I can often be found wearing ear plugs during the day.  Hey, I'm a homeschooling mum of 4 children and they are all noisy. 

4. I watch the Oliver Stone JFK movie about 4-6 times a year. 

5. I love documentaries and radio dramas.

6.  I am in the "Generation X" age group but almost all of my siblings are "Boomers" and I have "Builder aged" parents.  Can we say "oops!"

7. I am a Trekkie from way back to the original series and continue to love them all though I never did get into deep space 9.

I am tagging Tami, Krista and Kathi D.  Play along if you have time, motivation and are amazing (or weird) enough :) 

and the prize goes to...

The draw for the giveaway is complete.  My lovely assistant Miss A picked out a paper and here are the results:







Congratulations Kathi D, please email me with your address so I can get your package out in the post.   I'll be posting pictures of what I sent after Kathi gets her package, that way it can remain a surprise for her.  ::suspenseful::

Thank you everyone who participated.  It was a lot of fun to do a draw during this cold winter season and it's definitely something that will happen again (in the future) so keep checking back.

PS, I'm off to brave the Museum with my kids today.  Send me happy vibes as I'm thinking of leaving the stroller at home and letting the girls be free to walk (read: run) while we are there.  Have a lovely weekend, xoxo.

felting

I did manage to go through my photos over the weekend as planned, but I didn't get through them all. It's going to take much longer than I anticipated but hey, it's freezing cold outside right now and I'm stuck indoors a whole lot so it's not like I won't be able to find the time. I noticed a common theme in my most recent photos. I've been crafting but haven't been uploading them to flickr or posting too much about them. I think the January/February freezing temperatures make me a bit slow to post and why not I ask?  If it is good enough for the animals to hibernate then it should be equally good for those of us in extremely cold temps to get a bit of extra-slow-down-time, n'est-ce pas?



Moving along to my pre-felted market tote.   I was working on it way back when and ended up finishing it just before Christmas.  I found the pattern here, it knit up pretty straight forward though I did end up altering the pattern to suit my personal style. 



One of the particular things I didn't like in the pattern was how close the handles looked to each other. It felt like there wasn't going to be enough room to put my arm through the handles and it also just seemed to be out of balance for my eye. After a bit of pattern tweaking it's much better. I left out the stripes this time around but would love to give them a whirl on the next bag. 




Once the bag was all done I added a little chickadee for character. This bag felted like a dream. It came out all thick and with that little bit of mohair in the fibers it had just the right amount of fuzziness. It is definitely a keeper and one of my favorite grab and go bags. 

PS...Thank you to everyone who participated in the giveaway.  I'm aiming to do the draw and the results posted by Friday.  Happy Day everyone :)

crayon cookies

What do you do with all the bits and pieces of broken crayons left over?  I use to throw them out but lately I've taken to melting them down into another art form for the kids to experience. 

It's quite simple actually.  Heat your oven to anywhere from 200-300 F.  Take an old muffin tin (option: you can add foil cup cake liners) and let the kids put the crayons in the compartments as they desire, just make sure there are no bits of paper left on the crayons.   Put them in the oven and watch them melt.  After they have completely melted, take them out of the oven and let them cool.   Use a small paring knife to help remove them from your muffin tin if you aren't using liners.  I recommend using a muffin tin that doesn't get used for baking at all. 

Watch your preschoolers with these crayon cookies, they look almost good enough to eat!

gift away, giveaway

So I survived my first ever mammogram, woot!  I am happy to have the impending event behind me and now I can obsess over the next few days about the results which should be available later in the week.   I've read through each comment & emails regarding the last post and let me say right here "thank you (all) for leaving your well wishes and experiences."  It really does help, you know?  Speaking of what helps, I decided to plan a couple of strategic 'me events' following the big mammo.  Yesterday I went to my local health guru and had a foot detox done.  That was a nice treat but the piece de resistance is the one hour massage that I will be having mid-morning on this fine day.  Ahhh, nothing like a little pampering after some stressing.



And because I've just told you about my gifts to self, it really is only fair that I share.  I am also feeling the love so...*drumroll please*...I will be doing a giveaway.   All you have to do is leave a comment and at some point  your name(s) will go in a draw to see who wins the prize.  I'll leave the comments open for a bit to give everyone a chance and we'll go from there.



Just so you know the pictures in this post are a wip (work in progress) and just happen to be a part of the giveaway.  Hope you like handmade ;)

ETA Thursday Feb 14th:  Sorry to abandon you all this week, I am in the middle of some major photo de-cluttering of my computer and I literally have hundreds of photos to categorize.  I'll keep the comments open until Sunday 11:59 pm then I'll close them and we'll do the draw early next week.  I should be back by then with this huge task completed ::crossing-my-fingers::  Happy weekend all. 

self portrait wednesday??

from me to you...

I've been having a rush of anxiety this week.  I'm having my first mammogram on Monday and the thought of all the picture taking, squishing & squashing is making me queasy.  I suppose it doesn't help that my sister passed away from breast cancer a year ago :(   ...crap, she was so young...and she left behind her hubby, son and young daughter.  Makes me a bit sick to my stomach when I think about it too much.  It's downright nasty and I miss her. 

I suppose it is a good thing to get checked out and make sure all is well on the breast front.   But for me, now that I know someone so closely related that has been diagnosed and who had such a horrific outcome, I just don't want to think about it  I just don't want to dwell on it.  It's a nagging thought that pervades my mind more times than I care to admit.   Oh it is getting better now that time has passed, but still life never does seem to be the same when loved ones leave us.  That's the bugger of it all. 

I know enough to know that life isn't all bad.  I am the youngest of 13 kids, 9 gals and 4 guys and my sister was the only one to have the bc diagnosis.  So statistically speaking we are doing pretty good considering the number of females in our family.  My mum is really healthy at 76 and my dad lived to a pretty good age (74 years).  But the reality of being the youngest weighs heavy on me at times.  Just over a week ago we buried one of my sister's husbands.  I keep thinking about how many people I'm going to have to say goodbye to in my lifetime.   It's overwhelming and at times, to cope, I find myself distancing myself from the ones I love.  Not a stellar coping mechanism I admit, but a reminder of my own humanity. 

I really didn't intend to put all this in print and though I would normally hit the delete button I think it might be good to just get this out there.  This is a big part of me and my little world lately.  Probably explains the ol' creative funk I've been in.  Probably explains a whole lot more than I've been saying. 

If you think about it can you send me some good vibes and prayers, I don't mind the method.  I know this anxiety will pass and I will get a fresh perspective soon enough but for now your virtual support is appreciated. 

seing red

well, sort of.   

My breaky: plain oatmeal & some berry lovin'

Not much to say today so I thought a picture of my breakfast was in order.