out of the mouth of babes......

Within the past two very long days, a few of Hadley's comments have made me chuckle. As we were pulling into the cemetary Abigail was saying how much she had to pee. Once out of the car as we were waiting to walk up to the grave Abigail once again stated her need to use the washroom, with me replying you will just have to wait a wee bit longer. Then here comes Hadley chiming in...."Ab, you have to learn to hold your pee inside your bum...me do that..my pee is staying in my bum"..lol. Then this morning as we are on our way to get Celia from the kennel, we are driving a bumpy gravel road. Hadley then goes, "hey mom, watch the bumps. I am trying to pick my nose because I have boogers. See(insert her sniffing her nose)....

We have made it home from our whirlwind trip about 10 last night. All of us went straight to bed and there was not a peep heard from anyone. It killed me trying to get up this morning. We did manage to all get up and dressed, a lunch made for Ab and her off to school(hopefully she makes it through the day with no melt downs due to being tired) and then Hadley and I off to get Celia. Now the dog is going nuts due to being so happy to be home and Hadley off playing on her computer. All I want to do is sleep. I cannot believe how tired I feel. Hopefully coffee number 2 will soon perk me up. I am holding off on getting a third one until I get some food in me...otherwise I will be shaking like a leaf with all the caffeine. Then it will be off to do some very needed housecleaning. I could knit a sweater with all the cat/dog hair around on the floors and some of the furniture. SO this will be my goal..just to vaccum. Then it will be a nice quiet afternoon (crossing fingers) of either catching up with my book or watching a movie.

with death comes life....

There is an old irish proverb that says ....

"When death comes it will not go away empty."

That is exactly how I am seeing it at this very moment. With the loss of my grandmother from our family, we will now be gaining a new member within our family in the very short future. As of this morning my sister has begun to go into labour, and is in the hospital at this very moment awaiting the arrival of her baby son Joshua. I want to thank everyone who sent out their condolences to me.....I truly appreciate it from the bottom of my heart! Well I should go off and finish my packing and other stuff so that we will be ready to head out to Toronto in the morning.

sad news this evening.....

I just got home from shopping in the city to hear that my grandmother passed away at 7:30pm this evening. It was a little bit unexpected. She went into the hospital a few weeks ago with an unknown infection, which they finally diagnosed last week and were treating her. She started to come back from it, or so it appeared. Though 2 weeks ago I thought that this might have been the end. I do believe that she is now in a happier place along side with my grandfather. For the past few years her dementia was overcoming her, and she just was not who I remembered her as. So we will be heading down to Toronto on Monday to be there for the wake in the late afternoon and her funeral will be on Tuesday. Here is one of the last pictures that I have of my grandmother. This is when they met Hadley for the first time. This was actually the one and only time my grandfather saw her because he died just a little over a month after this visit.

layout share....

So I finally got this one layout I have been working on for the past week. I would literally sit at it for 5 minutes at a time and then walk away..lol..then last night I made myself just sit down and do it. I do hope the title makes sense somewhat to others....instead of marksman I played on the word and used marksgirl. The glimmer mist did not turn out how I invisioned it..I wanted more of a paint ball like splat, and I will also have to try and flatten out my layout. Once the mist dried it totally curled up my paper. I never had that happen to me till now. Today is a busy day of laundry(a good six loads..where does it all come from....grrr...mind you I am doing all three beds worth of bedding also), cleaning up the kitchen and running to the store to get more paint for Ab's school project. I am also hoping to go down and do a wee bit of creating in the late afternoon.

cards...

yes folks you heard me right I said cards. Now why did I say cards...because I made some! Not one, not two, but yes three. Believe it or not, I also made them in not time. Mind you they are fairly simple. SO for valentines day all my loves got their very own card. They also realized how much of a gesture this was from me since I rarely do a card...lol... I asked Ab do I ever make cards and she goes "NOOOO" so I tell her ...see how special you guys are to me then..I made you cards. Well enough with the suspense here they are...sorry for craappy pic but I took it late at night therefore meaning awful lighting.

I was able to do a quick bit of shopping yesterday and spent a wee bit..shhh don't tell anyone;)...on a scrapping side I goot some chipboard letters a few sets of stamps and some peeboo paint. On the art side I picked up some masonite canvases, gesso, raw canvas, gel medium, fabric, beeswax and a paint brush. Stay tuned within the next few months to see a little project I plan to do with some of these art supplies..I plan on doing it up at my scrapping retreat in April...it will be a mixed media/scrapbooking type project. I plan to prep everything within the next month and bit, so all I have to do is put it together on the weekend.

Well today is family day..not much of a family day when one person still has to work..lol..I suggested him taking it off, but this week he will be busy in all the preparations needed to do in bringing the president of the USA here on Thursday. I cannot complain though, he is back in the position where he loved, and plus the overtime pay does not hurt..lol...Plus he will be trying to take off some time before April 1st(he has over 2 weeks of vacation to use up)I am hoping we do basement reno's during that time:) Anyways back to today...so far the girls are playing good..each one of them are on a different computer playing in Webkinz world with their new webkinz they got from Grandma for Vday. I can now see Hadley wanting more of these since she is becoming a little pro on the computer/internet. Later I think we will try and go to McDonalds with the neighbour and her 2 girls. They can burn all their energy off at the play place.

love is in the air....

Happy love day to all! Well I am a wee bit of a goof. I awoke this morning and went downstairs in my normal "autodrive" with Hadley. I was on a mission to get Hadley some cold medicine. I placed some items on a stool beside my peninsula part of cupboards and proceeded to the fridge to get her medicine. We successfully completed mission "medicine", and then I grumpily went to the coffee make to make my much needed "juice"(this is one tedious task I really hate to do...I do it every morning during the week and love it when John does it on the weekends) I teased him earlier to go do it, and he responded coyly with..well maybe it is done...with me saying ya right. Well I went and lifted the lid of the coffeemaker, seeing that fresh grounds were sitting ready to go. Seriously people..this is the greatest gesture anyone can do for me. As I saw this, I could feel the huuge smile envelop my face and my heart growing 10 times bigger. I fell in love with John once again:) Well as I am doing this I see something out of the corner of my eye, and Hadley exclaims gllefully...flowers mommy. What is sitting right beside me and one would have to be bling not to see it...3 vases full of longstem red roses for myself and the girls. A dozen for me and then another dozen to be shared between Ab and Hadley. So as you can see I was truly in autodrive...I looked right at them and did not see them..lol. I was totally not expecting anything from John, so that gesture once again had made my heart grow several more sizes(I am starting to feel like the grinch) After this post I hope to run downstairs and make the 3 of them some simple cards...which all of you know that I am not a huge card making fan so that is a huge "i love you" gesture on my part :) I meant to do it earlier this week and just did not get the time to do it. So here is a pic of our yummy flowers.

Now I did try and scrap yesterday, but did not get too far. Why is it that I can have 2 racks full of pattern paper, but cannot find the right piece to scrap with. Or I do and I do not want to use it, because what if I have a better photo to scrap with that paper and I only have one piece left and it is an older paper so I could not find it easily if I want more of it...LOL...I so need to get out of that mindset....seriously....

Anyways not much on the agenda today. Hadley is feeling sick with a cold , thankfully she has no gymnastics...which I am liking...no running out the door this am. I hope to run to a little gift store here in town, she is closing her doors and is selling off everything..she had some nice old shelves and such that held all her products on. Then I will be making a v day dinner of crab, shrimp, cheese fondue for us to enjoy. Tommorrow I hope to get to Home depot to order my dooors for all the rooms in the basement and maybe look at some ceramic tiles to do the landing with.

Well off to create...smooches to all!!!

"rainy days"

It is both a rainy day outside today and in the art piece I have to showcase. As I let the dog out to do her buisness I stepped out onto the deck and what do I smell....spring. With all this rain outside it has brought on the earthy smell of spring. It was such an awesome smell to overwhelm my senses. I do realize though that it is just a little tease that mother nature has to offer. For by tommorrow this smell will yet be frozen over with all the rain that is falling today. As long as it is not to cold I will be alright with that. On a good point the girls ice rink next door will have a nice new surface to skate apon. And of course winterlude should be perfect. I was hoping to maybe attend it at some point this weekend, mind you that all depends if Ab gets her project finished in a timely manner.

Now onto the art portion of this post. This is a small mixed media canvas I was working on eraly this week. I am debating whether or not I want to apply beeswax to it. I think if I find the time I will. The best part of the beeswax is the smell that comes with it. The art piece then not only becomes pleasing to ones sight, but also ones smell. You just wan to eat it up, it smells so delish;) I have a few neccessary chores I need to get done today, and then I hope to do a little bit of scrapping. Unfortunately for me to be able to scrap, I will have to tidy up my studio..blech...I hate having to clean up there..especially when all I want to do is create:)

a few phot recaps.....

I quickly made up some storyboards with some photos from a few events from the past 2 months. The fist is showcasing the flower bouquet made from baby socks, hats and mitts and the diaper cake I made. John had to take that last photo of the diaper cake with a diaper on a dessert plate with a fork.
This one is of us when we went skiing last week. The photos are not the best, especially the one of Hadley, because I had our really old crappy point and shoot. It would take forever just to take a photo. I really need to invest in a good point and shoot for times like this when I cannot lug around the big DSLR.

Then here are a few shots of me getting a few pointers on the pole at sexapalooza. One vital thing I found out is pleather boots and the pole do not mix..lol..trying to spin around was a wee bit of a challenge because I had to make sure my boots did not catch along the pole. I defintiely want to do some classes with this..apparently it is a good workout.So today I am home at home with both girls. Ab has been run down with a cold so I thought I would let her stay home and veg abit. I usually send her off but I know how it feels when you are run down, plus there is so much going around in the schools, she does not need to pass anything more on. I have some moving of things around today in the basement. We bought a new tv last week so we have moved the old bigscreen down to the basement for the kids. So I have a few things tro move around so we can wire it all up and then I can bring up the smaller one to our bedroom. I would also like to do a bit more painting/mix media today if I can...we will see about that one though since the studio needs a major clean-up.

Stay tuned...exciting new things coming!

OK, so did I get your attention;) It may not be too exciting for you all, but new things are always good for me..lol...SO I am getting a wee bit bored with my blog and I am in the process of changing things up. I finally have relaoded my photoshop so I can now get down to buisness and gussy this thing up. As you can see above I am creating some link buttons to take you to my gallery or resume and such, so now I can clear up some of my sidebar area with my slideshow and such. I have a new feature to the left...a seach engine to search my blog. Enter any key word..ie layout...and all enteries will come up that valid for that search. I imagine this will take me a few days, so please be patient as I work things out. Now off to work!

"CLEARLY"

So the third word for my ABC a year in the life art journal is clearly. I once again had a awesome time just being able to play. This one was a quick one to do up. Not alot of techniques put into it, but really happy how it turned out none the less. Enjoy!

I feel so very OLD today!!

We had an absolute day up on the slopes skiing yesterday. The morning consisted of some testing to see if the kids are capable of getting on the chair lift to go on the bigger hills. John spent the few hours trying to give Hadley the basics as he walked up the hil and helped her go down. I did my parent duties and helped a few out going up and down the "bunny" hills and sending them to the correct stations. After lunch the reall fun began. Ab passed all her levels and I took up a group of girls on the lift. We started down the hill, and I once again fell in love with skiing. I definitely did not forget how to do it, nor was I frightened in the least. Ab did ok the first bit down and then she refused to listen to me and snowplow or try and do large turns. She just plowed straight down the hill. That was enough for me and I told her I would not go up with her again since she does not listen to me. She also decided she was not yet ready and stuck with the rope tow hills. So with that being said we checked out Hadley's process. I was able to take her up on the little tow(...and that is why my arms are killing me!It took everything I had just to get us up to the top of the tow....)It was very awkward to do.Once we got up there she wanted no help and wanted to barrell down the hill. SHe really did not do too bad. She had a blast. JOhn and her then did a bit of skiing together and I went up and did a few runs before the end of the day. I loved it and so wnat to do it more. The only things now is, my body is definitely telling me how out of shape it is. My knees are killing me everytime I go up stairs an my entire body just has an allover ache.

my first attempt at beeswax

Well I completed my first mixed media project where beeswax is concerned, and let me tell you the video on how to do it looks so much easier..lol. MInd you I did use just a melted down beeswax candle, so perhaps it is not the same thing or maybe they added an additive to it(though I thought they would not of since it came from a honey place). So I will say a little about my piece. First off it is totally inspired by a mixed media artist named Wyanne Thompson(her work is stunning). I first drew out this girl onto watercolour paper and then painted her in with watercolours, crayons and acrylics. I then cut out a dress from pattern paper and applied it ot her. I then cut her out completely and set her aside. I then started painting my canvas. I used acrylics, watercolours, dropped rubbing alcohol onto the paints to help resist, and sprayed with glimmer mist. I cut out pieces from an old book to make the tree. I painted hearts onto a vintage ledger page and hand cut out. I hand cut flowers, blades of grass from pattern paper and also cut out the mushroom and squirrel from a vintage paper. Oh I also drew and painted the snail onto watercolour paper and cut it out. I then applied everything to the canvas. SO this is what is looked like pre beeswax.

I then melted my candle and with a brush, applied the beeswax. It really did not penetrate the papers at first. I then had to iron it out to make it smooth. This is why it was a wee bit tricky. The wax wanted to pool into the middle of the canvas(I used just one of the canvas boards and it seems to be not completely flat.) I also put some glitter onto the canvas in a wind swept type of swirl, but it ended up just spreading everywhere..live and learn right:) SO here is the finished project. It was definitely a learning process and I cannot wait to try it some more. I think my most favourite part was drawing the girl. The funniest part was when Ab sits beside me to see what I was doing and says "hmm this actually looks pretty good"..lol..my little art critic...she's not the only artistic one in the house;) lol

..on a creative streak!

Well I actually finished this layout on Friday morning. It is a very simple bare embellishment layout. I had to do this after the last jam packed one. I am quite pleased with how it turned out. All that was used was cs for the base, one strip of pattern paper that was sanded and folded up like ribbon and then stapled in place. the words hugs, kisses is flocked in light pink and then the ampersand is chipboard. I added a few glittered chipboard hearts, the date and a few squigggled lines(inspired by Katie, whom I learned she was inspired by someone else..lol) and that is it. A nice quick layout, I think I will do more of these:)Weekend was pretty busy with dinner with the girls Friday night, gymnastics and doing up favours and such for my sisters baby shower(will post photos of those soon) a sleepover for Ab and then off to the city for groceries on Sunday. Last night I started a mixed media project. I am painting up a 10x10 canvas and then I did a painting on watercolour paper and handcut it out. I am collaging pieces of pattern paper and old book paper. I hope to have this done today and will post later on once it is all dry.I am also hoping to try beeswax on this one...we will see:)

Well busy day ahead, we are all going down hill skiing tommorrow, so I have to pack everything up today. I cannot wait to see how Hadley does on skiis for the first time..and well it has been way to long since I have been on them, so she just may be better than I:)