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Sunday, October 17, 2010

Found a New Favourite Blog


Today has been a kind of a lazy day after a crazy week.

Tuesday Dave got a phone call from the school principal that makes all parents' hearts drop to their knees. Basically Daniel broke his arm in an accident, please come to the school. I was at Massage Therapy and Marissa came and told me. When she said, "the ambulance is on its way", my world spun a hell of a lot faster than it was 2 seconds earlier. I met Dave and Daniel at the hospital (they got to ride in the ambulance), and after meeting with the ER doctor and the Orthopedic Specialist, we learned he broke both the ulna and radius about halfway between his elbow and wrist. My heart sunk well into the pit of my stomach and my knees got incredibly weak (thank goodness I was already sitting) when the Doctor unwrapped the splint to examine Daniel's arm (it was not a pretty site) and then explained what they were going to do to my child to set the bones. Daniel was just a little scared. My poor baby boy. We finally got home around midnight, exhausted, and poor Daniel was exhausted from the trauma to his body, the emotional fear of what was happening, and all the drugs they put in his little body. Due to emotional and physical exhaustion Wednesday was pretty much a write off.

Thursday and Friday was already scheduled with stuff, and I had to play catch up on stuff I didn't finish Tuesday and Wednesday.

Yesterday, we went to Dave's parents house to celebrate my BIL Greg's marriage to my now SIL Gillian. We met some of Gillian's family, fabulous people, and had a great time overall. Needless to say we got home late, and this was Daniel's first trip since the incident of Tuesday, he crashed when we got home and fell asleep in .25 seconds of his head hitting the pillow. Poor guy.

Today, is a downtime and recharge kind of day. We hope to zip out and pick out some pumpkins a little later. Samhain (Halloween) is coming up really fast and I am so not prepared.

During my downtime, I started to explore some new blogs and came across a few that really caught my eye and added to my follow list. Olde Baggs 'n Stuft Shirts was one of them. Linda has this cute short story documented in pictures. I love it, and having some Dutch names and phrases in there did make this Dutch Girl's heart get a little excited and palpitate. What can I say, I am easily excited.

She is also giving away a gorgeous witch's hat, that I just HAVE to have. Check it out below!!!



Go and read Linda's short story here. I love all the decorations and costumes.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

I Have Been A Little Busy

When the kids started going back to school in September, I looked around my craft room and realized SOMETHING had to be done. I didn't like the way the room flowed for me, i.e. my Cricut was on one end of the room and my computer with the design studio on it was on the other. And as you can tell by the following pictures, it was in rough shape. I had gotten back from Memories Manor and just left everything, there was my birthday, Laura's birthday, back to school preparation etc. And well......things had been piling up for awhile. It got to the point, I didn't even want to be in there and my creativity was stalled big time. And last winter/spring we had a couple of mice in the house and for some reason they liked my room, I cleaned up after them, but with all that stuff in the room, what else was I missing. And besides, I think Dave might have been ready to call Hoarders on me.



Oh look, in the picture below, you can see one of the projects I completed at Memories Manor, my Bo Bunny Yule card holder. The only place to put it was on the door.



This is supposedly my computer desk, but it got to the point there was no room for my laptop. Not good.


My armoire had a shelf come crashing down because the weight of the paper caused one of the support brackets to snap. Whoopsy. So the paper was put in a corner on the floor by the computer desk.



There isn't room on my cutting table to cut much of anything. Ugh.



A week or so after school started I began the big job of clearing EVERYTHING out of my room, except for the furniture. During the clearing everything out process I realized I am much more than a paper whore, I am a ribbon whore, an adhesive whore, a die cut whore, a bling whore. But the bling, how can you say no to bling, all sparkly shiny. Bling completes any page or card.

At the beginning of the process I had only cleared out one quarter of the room, and Laura came down to the basement and saw what I had cleared out and put in the family room and hall. She said, "Wow Mom, you have a lot of stuff!!! Look at it all". I then told her I had just started and that there was much much more to come out of my room. She looked in and all she said was "oh" and walked away. I think it kind of scared her.

As I emptied the room, I sorted and purged and purged and purged. I filled up two black garbage bags of garbage, and a couple of blue boxes were filled, and I have a stack of stuff that is going to be give away or sold at The Scrapping Turtle's yard sale. I was fast becoming a collector and not a user of my scrappy supplies. The room was getting to be a mess, so I didn't create as much as I liked, yet I would still buy more supplies, but was fast running out of room where to put them. Not a good combination.

In terms of the mice, not impressed. When the room was being emptied, and the furniture moved I found mouse "presents" ew ew ewwwwww!!!!!!!!! I went through 1 1/2 big bottles of Lysol cleaner washing the floor and baseboards and other surfaces three times each. Let's just say I am extremely grateful that Stampin Up packages their stamps in those nice plastic containers. I also found that the little critters decided the handles of one of my totes and my sticker binder would make excellent nesting material.

Hopefully we won't have anymore of the little critters move in this winter, because I will show no mercy this time. Dave wants to do the live traps and release them back in the wild, well they didn't work, so I resorted to leaving some poison bait in the back area of the fruit cellar which got rid of them. And after watching many episodes of Billy the Exterminator, the basic, snap on their necks and kill them instantly traps are the best way and the most humane. Besides, those critters carry disease and well, they have no bladder control at all, we will just leave it at that.

Now we can see my beautiful, clean and organized craft room. It feels so good to walk in now. Everything has a place now and the room flows so much better for me. Can you just hear the angels singing looking at these pictures?



My clean and organized armoire. Notice the cropper hoppers of paper on the bottom where they won't cause supports to snap and bring the shelf down.



Beside the armoire is my bookshelf, storing my sewing machine and different materials for sewing.



My cutting table now has room for cutting. The top shelf is where I have put some of my completed projects such as the Advent Calendar from hell (look at one of my previous posts for that story). I left my pegboard as is, because it was working for me. I cleared some stuff on the bottom shelf so I can show off my Cricut cartridges.. My Epic, Jukebox, Stamp Pad holder as well as trimmers all on the table which is put on bed risers so my back doesn't get sore working at the table. Under the table in the iris boxes is scrap paper sorted into color groups, totes for storing extra albums and pages as well as some more boxes of completed page layouts that need pictures and an album.



My computer desk is next to the table so I can plug into my Cricut while using my Design Studio. Ribbon on the shelf above along with Prima flowers and such in the container next to the ribbon.
The unit above the desk is something I stole from Dave's workbench, used to hold screws and such, now holds glitter, pains, perfect pearls and stickles.




Most of my card stock is now in these plastic shelves that I picked up from the Scrapping Turtle when they moved. Works much better for me than the cropper hoppers. Looks its a rainbow of color.



More patterned paper and a little bit of extra card stock that didn't fit on the shelves.




My ribbon holder that I picked up at Michael's for 50% of. Love it. Displayed a few of my wood mount stamps on top.



My bookshelf where I store photos, idea books, craft books, workbooks and my tarot cards. Unmounted stamps that didn't have a home are placed on laminated card stock and slipped in page protectors in the big white binder.




So there is my new room. I am soo happy with it. Now to get some projects finished.

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Saying Goodbye to a Dear Friend


Today was Laurie's Funeral. It was a very hard day today for myself and a number of my close friends. As I mentioned in my previous post, Laurie passed away Monday night after a long valiant fight with cancer. Approximately a year and a half ago, she was given six months to live, and she lived much longer than that. Her strong spirit and determination to live her life to the fullest was probably the main reason she lived longer than first expected.

The weather today once again matched our mood, just like Monday night/Tuesday, it was pouring rain. It was like mother earth was mourning the loss of Laurie as well. The funeral home was packed today, there wasn't a dry eye in the house. It was a beautiful tribute to a beautiful woman. Laurie saw good in everybody, she was loved by everybody who met her. Throughout her entire illness she never complained, she would always tell concerned friends and family that she was fine, not to worry about her, one common phrase from her was "I am good with this." And she always had a hug and a smile for you no matter what. Even though she was the one battling a deadly illness, she was the one who made you feel better. She was one of those people who literally lit up the room when she entered.

Earlier this week, I was doing some clean up in my craft room and came across this poem to be used as the opening page in a tribute album. I won it in the auction at the Scrapping Turtle back in January and never really paid much attention to it. This week it really resonated with me. Here are some excerpts from this poem.

In Loving Memory


Yours was no ordinary life,
But a life well lived and well loved.
You memory offers comfort with the enduring love we will keep alive in our hearts.
We will remember the happiest moments filled with joy,
And find solace in the many ways you have touched so many lives.

As a butterfly lights beside you like a ray of sunshine, for a brief moment,
It's beauty and glory belong to our world...but then it flies again,
And though we wish it could have stayed a little longer
We are blessed to have seen it.

In every heart you touched, in every life you changed,
In every thought you inspired, your love lives on.

Your voice still echoes, your life still inspires,
You light still shines......and always will.

I am blessed to have been a part of your life.

By Patsy Elaine Gaut


Rest in peace my beautiful friend Laurie. Though you are gone, I know you are never far away.


Friday, October 1, 2010

Some Foodie Friday Thoughts

It's Friday!!! And it has been a long time since I last posted. Summer was busy of course, and it was really nice to get back into the school routine.

This past week has been a bit of an emotional one for me and all my friends at The Scrapping Turtle Pond. We lost one of our most beloved Turtles, the beautiful Laurie aka Elmo, passed away Monday night after a hard fought battle with liver cancer. I started my day Tuesday with a text from another dear friend about Laurie's passing. I knew it was coming, but still it was a shock, we all felt it was too soon, but it wasn't our choice. Laurie was ready and as she said, "I am good with it." The whole time she was sick she never complained, she never focused on the negative of her illness. She always had a smile or a hug for you. Tomorrow, Saturday, is her funeral, and I will be going along with a number of other Turtles. It is going to be a tough day for all of us, especially her family. I will post more later this weekend.

Now onto Foodie Friday. As most of my friends know I love food, I love to cook and try out new recipes and I am so lucky that Dave is the least picky eater that I know. He will eat pretty much anything. But he loves chili so I made a big batch Monday.

We usually get about 5 meals out of this and it freezes well, excellent for those days when you have a crazy day. This recipe I got years ago off the internet, I believe it was copykat.com. It makes a lot, I use a massive pot to make it in, but you can always cut the recipe in half. We like things with a kick here in our house, so you can adjust the seasoning to suit your taste, even cut out the cayenne completely if you can't handle any kind of spice. Also, mix it up a bit. Add more beans and less beef, or use ground turkey, chicken of veggie ground round. Make it your own.

WENDY'S CHILI

4 lbs ground beef
8 cups tomato juice (I use V8, gives a little extra flavour)
58 ounces Tomato puree
30 ounces canned Kidney beans, drained and rinsed
3 cups chopped onions
1 cup diced celery
1/2 cup diced green pepper
1/2 cup chili powder
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp garlic powder (I use a whole head of real minced garlic)
2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Brown the ground beef in a frying pan, drain. Put the drained beef and the remaining ingredients into a large pot. Cover the pot, let it simmer for 1 - 1 1/2 hours, stirring every 15 minutes.

And then enjoy!!!