Scrap with Stacy - Tim Holtz giveaway.

Seriously? Who doesn't love Distress Ink? Have you tried it? It's fantastic. And, grungeboard... I have been dying to try grungeboard! So all you have to do is visit the link, follow her directions to win a fantastic Tim Holtz giveaway. And if you don't enter? Fine, because I want it for me, me and me! :) You have to enter by October 31st, so what are you waiting for! Go, go now but come back and visit me sometime. Just click on the title of this post and you will go directly to Stacy's blog.

Gramma was right, again!

Me: "So, how was your first day of school?" dtr: "Terrible!" Me: "Why terrible? Didn't you have any fun?" dtr: *silence* Me: "Who did you play with?" dtr: "No one." Me: "Didn't you play with Suzie?" (Names may have been changed to protect their identity) dtr: "No, well, a little." Me: "Did you have any fun?" dtr: "No" She has been doing this since JK. She's only 7. What is it going to be like when she is 17? She'll probably just make guttural sounds while glaring at me though a curtain of hair. My Grandmother told me what goes around comes around. She was so right! Eventually, she will start to spontaneously and erratically share information. But it takes a while and if I push she just digs in her heels. "Sigh" Why are girls so complicated? Actually, now that I write this I think that she is over-whelmed with all of this information. New people, new class, new teacher, new homework... Maybe it just takes her time to sort it out before she can share it? Kinda like I just did.

School Lunches

Only 3 more sleeps until school begins and it couldn't be more welcome. My kids are driving each other, and me, crazy. So for the past few weeks I have been slowly getting things ready; purchasing new duds, going through their last years clothes to see what still fits and fretting about what I'm going to make my little monkeys for their lunches. I think they must be two of the handful of children in North America that do not enjoy cold, canned or processed meat. (Actually Mr Man does enjoy a hot dog once in while but you know what my Dad used to call those? Chicken lips and @$$#*!&S) So, for the past few years I have sent my daughter to school with cream cheese sandwiches. I know, ew, but I was desperate to get the little monkey to eat. And she has passed her dislike for cold meat, etc to her little brother. So for his first year of school it was also cream cheese sandwiches for him. (Please don't judge me too harshly) Of course, I like to provide my monkeys with the four food groups. So, I also packed fresh fruit, yogurt, cheese (hard cheese only please, she won't eat cheese slices either), fruit cups, puddings, carrots, raisins, etc. But, I think I have now solved my meat dilemma. Last weekend I made meat balls from hamburger and sausage, oregano, marjoram, onions and mushrooms and stored the cooked balls in the freezer. I figure I can give my little monkeys little meat balls subs or spaghetti and meatballs for their lunches. Thankfully they said they were awesome and are looking forward to eating them. Today I made meatloaf. I made enough for two meat loaves. The one is for tonight but instead of making the second into a loaf I made it in muffin cups. I will send them to school with a little corn and mashed potato on top so it's like a mini shepherd's pie cupcake. Ha! NOw a just have to see if they bring me home empty lunch pails. (I would have taken photos but my cameras in for repairs.)

Tiger's bulging disk

Finally, we know what is wrong with Tiger Woods, a bulging disk. DiSSSSk, get your mind out of the gutter. :)

Do you belive these old wives' tales too?

Moss Hill Studio Workshops

This looks like a fun site that I will be checking out thoroughly later. Right now I feel the need to go check out my neighbours yard sale!

Lemon Cheesecake Bars - Recipes - Food - Canadian Living

Lemon Cheesecake Bars - Recipes - Food - Canadian Living

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1000 Awesome Things

I came across this today. It will make you laugh and cry. Simply put, it's awesome. Please enjoy and share.

Craft projects and fun, free printables

Michael's has a website offering free projects that you can save and print out. I just printed out a project that I can make cereal box journals with my kids. Great way to teach them to recycle and something to amuse them on a rainy day.

Have you ever tried to catch a chicken?

I was watching Mike Rowe catching chickens on Dirty Jobs tonight. (Can you believe there are around 30 thousand chickens running loose in Miami on any given day? I know you're thinking what I was thinking: drug dealers, Cuban cigars, sexy bikinis, cheese-y detectives, retirees, latin music... chickens?) Anyways, as he was chasing the chickens it got me to thinking about my sister's hobby farm. In the eighties my sister, Laurie, and her husband had a little hobby farm that they rented north of seven (aka middle of nowhere, Ontario). I am 9 years younger and would visit my sister once a year for a week or two. It gave my grandparents a break from me and, more importantly to me at the time, it gave me a break from my grandparents. So one summer Laurie and her husband had begun a little chicken coop. They had about 16 chickens (I still know this, why? You'll see.) and I would collect the eggs for my sister everyday. Ooo, what fun I thought. No, nononono. Those chickens broke free every day. Every day (sometimes more than once)for the first couple of days I would run around trying to catch those cunning little creatures. They're fast. They bob. They weave. It's unreal. I would think I had them cornered but it was me that was pwned. And, no sooner did I have all of them in the coop, I would do a head count and sure enough there would be at least one missing. My sister said she thought they must have been getting out from a hole at the bottom of the fence, so I checked and checked and checked I could not figure out how those little devils were getting out. Then I saw it. They flew! No one told me they could fly. I was so annoyed. For the rest of my stay Laurie's chickens had the run of the yard. To this day, I think Laurie was in the house giggling her @$$ off and watching me run around like the proverbial headless chicken.

Treehouse tv website

This is another site that my kids love. Treehouse t.v. has lots of great t.v. shows. Dora the Explorer, Diego, The Backyardigans are some of my kid's favourites. This website has games, colouring pages, etc. to entertain your kid's on a dreary day. Which is not today. It's a beautiful, sunny day and so we're going outside! :)

Spring clean-up can be an unending circle of torment

WHy do I always go overboard when I do spring clean up? It starts small and then I work myself into a frenzy only to be feeling like an achy old lady by bedtime. Besides looking after the kids, doing laundry and other mom stuff, I decided to clean my windows. Which wouldn't have been so bad but then I decided to clean out the garden, that I could see from my freshly cleaned windows. But, before I could do that I decided I should remove the 100+ pickets from my white picket fence. Afterall I could reach the leaves under the fence better and I need to paint them before the lilies grow too tall. So I removed the screws from all of them, then I noticed that some dirt needed to be scraped off that had gathered under the pickets before it started to rain. So I scraped at the dirt and flecks of paint and then I started to rake the leaves. As I was raking the leaves I noticed that the lawn needed to be edged. So then I edged the lawn and raked the leaves and picked up garbage (hiding under some of the leaves) that some lovely pedestrians decided to thrown onto my lawn. And, my lovely little darlings helped me (Thank God). I have the best kids in the entire world! Now, needless to say we are tired and sore and ready for bed and I am left wondering what the heck was I thinking. Why couldn't have just left it at a nice, clean window? Oh yeah, because I could clearly see my messy lawn. (sigh) I'm scared, I still need to clean my patio windows. Oh, what fresh Hell awaits me in the backyard?

Getting there...

I haven`t finished my crochet square yet but I know more now than I knew on Monday. I would crochet a few lines, realize that it doesn`t look anything like the picture and then rip it out. After a few times (more than I want to admit)I finally have begun to imitate the look of the photo. I find the actual directions don`t really tell you everything you need to know about how to crochet. By Sunday, I think I might accomplish a square, or at least half of a really good attempt at a square.

Computer link for kids (www.starfall.com)

Since it s a very rainy day it got me to start worrying about what I would be doing with my kids this summer on dreary days like this. My kids like to play on the computer. I thought I would share this fun educational site. (I learned about it from my kids actually). There are word hunts, seasonal activities, etc. It's a safe site. Enjoy. :)

Navigating

I am having a hard time navigating around Blogger, etc. I haven't figured out why I can follow some people by simply clicking follow at the top of the page and why I can't for others. I also want to know how I can search for like-minded blogs. I know I can click on links below blogs to find blogs with similar tags but... this all seems pretty convoluted. I am sure I could read up on it on here, somewhere, but who wants to do that? I guess I'll just keep playing around until I figure it out.

Is it possible to be crochet illiterate?

Am I a complete idiot? I can't crochet. I used to watch my Gramma crochet. I loved the peaceful, and seemingly, easy rhythm of the hook, yarn and fingers. It was mesmerizing. But, I can't mimic the same rhythm. Aargh, I am looking for that peaceful, methodical movement and I am instead finding frustration. Now knitting, I "get" but I want to learn how to do this well. I hate not being able to do something well, especially when I try so hard. There is a rhythm that I can't follow, like the two-step. My father tried to teach me the two-step, my sister tried and my husband has tried but I still don't "get" it. I can't get into the rhythm, I don't hear the beat the same as they do. My sister says that I have to step in-between the beat. I think I'm looking at crocheting wrong. I need to google it on Youtube. I'm sure there might be something there to help.

Eulogy for Gramma (April 2009)

When I started to help plan this service I couldn’t get past how sad and regretful I felt but then my long-time friend called. She wanted to tell me how sorry she was that Gramma is gone. She reminisced about Gramma’s high heel shoes and makeup. She remembered Gramma listening to rock music in the car. She thought my Gramma was glamourous and cool. That’s when I realized that this service should be about a celebration of Gramma’s life and what she meant to each of us. So, here are some things that I learned from my Gramma... • To love being a girl. • That just because you are over 80 is no excuse to not wear your high heels. • Jeans and sneakers are for boys. • The more stuff the better, especially jewellery! • That lipstick can double as rouge. • To recycle before it became politically correct:  To make old Christmas cards into gift tags.  To reuse candy wrappers as Christmas tree decorations.  To reuse clear milk bags as freezer bags.  To keep all of my ribbons and bows because I will eventually use them again.  To carefully remove the tape from my presents so that I can reuse the paper later, and it makes the anticipation of what is inside that much better  Those little white round plastic things that keep the top of your pizza box off of your pizza make great Barbie tables. • If your shopping bag has been in the closet for more than a month it is no longer a new purchase, even if the tags are still on. • Cleaning the house can be very therapeutic, especially the stove. • That plants and flowers are necessary for a house to be a home. • Gardening is a joy • To propagate plants from cuttings, collect seeds in the garden and grow plants indoors. • To be able to name plants and flowers even my Euphorbia. • To enjoy growing my own food and using it. • To make pie crust and rhubarb jam. • That arts and crafts are fun • How to sew, knit and crochet. • How to crochet hand towels and knit washcloths. • How to make a doll out of a block of wood and pieces of material. • To have fun keeping house before Martha Stewart made it fashionable. • Stuffed animals, dolls and flowers are necessary decorating essentials. • That it is possible to decorate an entire house with flowers, even your husband’s private sanctuary. • Always give freely. Money is just fun paper. • Stealing is not an option. • A Bushel and a Peck and a hug around the neck... • Sing loud and clear, even if you might be a little tone deaf. • If all else fails play “I Spy” to distract the children. • Vics Vaporub cures everything, but if that still doesn’t work try Buckley’s. • If you don’t wear slippers you will get pneumonia. • A cup of sweetened tea makes everything better. • Cheese Whiz and walnuts do taste good together. • You need cheese and pickles for a complete meal. • Sweets are good for your morale. • To be a gracious hostess by welcoming people into your house like they’re family. • Offer what you have even if it might be meagre. • Offer your guests food until you find out what they like or until they get tired of saying, “No thank you,” and give in. • To stay young in spirit. • To try to turn the other cheek. • That my children are a blessing and that I should be grateful for them. • Try not to fret, because it doesn’t do any good. • Try to see the good in everything. • To not be afraid to ask for what I need. • If you want something done right then do it yourself but if you want to be happy then be grateful for what you are given. And, when in doubt, just put it in the china cabinet.

Just do it.

I just watched Julie and Julia for the second time and I have decided to jump on the blog bandwagon. I little stress is good way to up my adrenaline. I figure, a la Julie, that if I force myself to finish at least one project a week then I will feel as if I have done something productive. Don't get me wrong I am very busy. I'm a mom, wife, employee but I need a creative outlet. I have the best of intentions but, ... well, it's like working out. Unless I set up a plan and force myself to follow through I will never, "just do it". I like to felt, scrapbook, paint... really, I'm just all over the map. (I would love fresh ideas too.) But, for now, I think I am going to teach myself how to crochet. It has been almost a year since my grandmother died and I think this would be a nice way to pay tribute to her. She tried to teach me to crochet many times. I have had such a hard time wrapping my head around it. I find the actual handling of the hook and yarn to be really awkward. I hope to have finished a block by next Monday. I have attempted it several times today, ripping out the yarn repeatedly. I want a beautiful, perfect block. Ican do a crappy, uneven block but I want something that would pay tribute to my grandmother. I want a block that pays tribute to the peaceful perfection of completing a project. I want something that would even impress my grandmother.