Happy Independence Day!
Until next time,
J.
10 Best Cookie Baking Tools
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Monday, July 4, 2011
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Let the creative juices flow!
I first came up with the idea of making a creative planner a few years ago when We R Memory Keeprs introduced their Memory Dock system. It was a collection of organizers to help you document your ideas for scrapbook layouts. I really, really liked the idea, and the planners were gorgeous (if not a little expensive). But the sections that were included and the available refills really didn't suit my style of page planning, and I couldn't use it to record ideas for other non-scrapbooking crafts. So I said to myself, "Self, why don't you just make a creative planner? And that way you can have everything you want in it, and nothing you don't (there were things in Memory Dock system that would have gone unused)!" And that's exactly what I did. My creative planner's first home was a beautiful tapestry daytimer that I received as a graduation present when I graduated from high school. It's now moved into its new permanent home: a 2" mini-binder that I covered with a hand-stitched plastic canvas cover. The cover took me a long time to make, much longer than I had anticipated actually, but I think it turned out really well. The final step in the process was to decide what sections I wanted to have and make dividers for it. I have sections for Scrapbooks and Journals, Book of Me Layouts, Plastic Canvas, ATC's, Sunday School crafts and general crafts. I also have a section for lists of supplies like my punches, a section for lists of things that I need and a section with store addresses and hours, and a list of crafty websites I like along with user names and passwords. Now I'm working on gathering up all the notes I have all over and putting them into my planner. Call me crazy, but there's something so satisfying about flipping through my planner and seeing all these project notes all together in one place. Here's some pictures for you to admire.
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Until next time,
J.
Friday, July 1, 2011
Happy Canada Day!
Some friends of mine celebrating Canada's 144th birthday...
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From left to right: Shawne Alexis, Jami Michaela, Holly Jayde and their furry friends show off their Canadaian spirit.
Holly Jayde, Bucky the Beaver, July the Bear and Pierre the Bear.
Jami Michaela and Melvin the Moose
Shawne Alexis and Van the Bear (yes, Van is short for Vancouver, home to 2010 Winter Olympics)
Shawne is all dressed up and ready to go see the fireworks in her Vancouver 2010 hoodie, Mommy's fleece hat and carrying her Canada flag.
Happy Birthday Canada!
Until next time,
J.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Missing Sammy
Today marks six months since I had to put my Sammy-Cat to sleep. (Yeah, doing it a week before Christmas sucked big-time.) In my head, I know I did the right thing. Sam was sick - he was losing weight in spite of the fact that we were feeding him more and more, he howled in pain if you tried to pick him up, he couldn't jump up on the couch anymore - he had to dug his claws in and pull himself up. When we took him to the vet that last day, she said that because of his age, and with the symptoms we described, that cancer was a strong possibility. And he was ready to go - after the vet gave him the needle it took only seconds for his heart to stop beating and for him to cross over the Rainbow Bridge.
My heart, however, has been a little harder to convince. The hardest thing to get used to after he was gone was the quiet in the morning. Sam used to show up in the kitchen for breakfast every morning, and would carry on like he hadn't eaten in three days until I gave him his milk. It was so weird the first few mornings not hearing that. I'd look around for him, and then remember that he was gone. I went to work in tears just about every day that first week (the second week I was off for Christmas), and I cried myself to sleep almost every night. I knew that he was better off but I couldn't help missing him. I've known him literally since he was a baby. I got him from a friend of mine, and she got him from the caretakers of the Bible camp where we both worked the summer before I started college. At the time, my dad used to get every third Friday off, and those weeks I would stay with Iris and her roommate Miriam on Thursday nights and we'd all go to school on Friday although usually at different times. I slept on the futon in their living room and Sam was my night-time companion. Well....it was more like he was my night-time stalker. If I moved around too much he used to jump on me. When Iris got married and moved to a new apartment where she wouldn't be able to have Sam, she asked if I would take him. She said she knew he would have a good home with us and she'd be able to come and visit him (sadly the one time she did come to visit him he hid - he'd been shuttled around so much that summer that I think he was afraid she was coming to take him away again). She had no idea! I'm firmly convinced that while Sam was here, he was the one who ran the house, and not any of the humans who lived in it. He was incredibly spoiled, although if you asked him he'd probably tell you he had the worst life imaginable! He used to meow mournfully all the time when you talked to him, and let me tell you, no one can tell a tale of woe like Sammy could! And he perfected the art of the dirty look and would use it when you made fun of him (and he could tell when you were making fun of him too).
Sammy's favourite thing was his catnap blanket, although he did have a strange fascination with empty wrapping paper rolls and plastic grocery bags (it was absolutely hilarious to watch him play with an empty plastic bag). Mom had actually bought the blanket for my brother to give to his cat, but Abby never paid much attention to it...except when Sam wanted it, and then she'd go and lay on it or play with it or do something else to keep Sam away from it; she was a real stinker that way. Some of his favourite foods were doritos (the nacho cheese kind), olives and bread. He acquired these likes living with Iris. On the day he left us, I bought a bag of Munchie Mix which has doritos in it from the vending machine at work and Sammy and I had doritos together one last time before we went to the vet's office.
We had lots of laughs living with Sammy, and he gave us one last one on the way to the vet's. He had been roaming around the car yowling (unlike our dogs, he never particularly liked car rides) and was in the backseat when Dad and I suddenly heard a loud whistling sound. We both turned to look, and saw that Sammy had stepped on the power window button and rolled the window down.
Even though it's been six months, I still miss him, and thinking about him still brings tears to my eyes (I'm crying right now writing this). It's strange, but for a while after I put him to sleep I had this feeling like I'd somehow let him down by not trying to treat what was wrong with him and that I'd given up on him. I've gradually come to accept that I actually did the very best thing for him by letting him go and not prolonging his suffering, but it's been a long journey to get to that point.
And now that I've thoroughly depressed myself and anyone reading this, I'm going to sign off.
Until next time,
J.
My heart, however, has been a little harder to convince. The hardest thing to get used to after he was gone was the quiet in the morning. Sam used to show up in the kitchen for breakfast every morning, and would carry on like he hadn't eaten in three days until I gave him his milk. It was so weird the first few mornings not hearing that. I'd look around for him, and then remember that he was gone. I went to work in tears just about every day that first week (the second week I was off for Christmas), and I cried myself to sleep almost every night. I knew that he was better off but I couldn't help missing him. I've known him literally since he was a baby. I got him from a friend of mine, and she got him from the caretakers of the Bible camp where we both worked the summer before I started college. At the time, my dad used to get every third Friday off, and those weeks I would stay with Iris and her roommate Miriam on Thursday nights and we'd all go to school on Friday although usually at different times. I slept on the futon in their living room and Sam was my night-time companion. Well....it was more like he was my night-time stalker. If I moved around too much he used to jump on me. When Iris got married and moved to a new apartment where she wouldn't be able to have Sam, she asked if I would take him. She said she knew he would have a good home with us and she'd be able to come and visit him (sadly the one time she did come to visit him he hid - he'd been shuttled around so much that summer that I think he was afraid she was coming to take him away again). She had no idea! I'm firmly convinced that while Sam was here, he was the one who ran the house, and not any of the humans who lived in it. He was incredibly spoiled, although if you asked him he'd probably tell you he had the worst life imaginable! He used to meow mournfully all the time when you talked to him, and let me tell you, no one can tell a tale of woe like Sammy could! And he perfected the art of the dirty look and would use it when you made fun of him (and he could tell when you were making fun of him too).
Sammy's favourite thing was his catnap blanket, although he did have a strange fascination with empty wrapping paper rolls and plastic grocery bags (it was absolutely hilarious to watch him play with an empty plastic bag). Mom had actually bought the blanket for my brother to give to his cat, but Abby never paid much attention to it...except when Sam wanted it, and then she'd go and lay on it or play with it or do something else to keep Sam away from it; she was a real stinker that way. Some of his favourite foods were doritos (the nacho cheese kind), olives and bread. He acquired these likes living with Iris. On the day he left us, I bought a bag of Munchie Mix which has doritos in it from the vending machine at work and Sammy and I had doritos together one last time before we went to the vet's office.
We had lots of laughs living with Sammy, and he gave us one last one on the way to the vet's. He had been roaming around the car yowling (unlike our dogs, he never particularly liked car rides) and was in the backseat when Dad and I suddenly heard a loud whistling sound. We both turned to look, and saw that Sammy had stepped on the power window button and rolled the window down.
Even though it's been six months, I still miss him, and thinking about him still brings tears to my eyes (I'm crying right now writing this). It's strange, but for a while after I put him to sleep I had this feeling like I'd somehow let him down by not trying to treat what was wrong with him and that I'd given up on him. I've gradually come to accept that I actually did the very best thing for him by letting him go and not prolonging his suffering, but it's been a long journey to get to that point.
And now that I've thoroughly depressed myself and anyone reading this, I'm going to sign off.
Until next time,
J.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
UFO Invasion
I have yet to meet a crafter who does not have UFO's - Un-Finished Objects. I myself have a huge collection of UFO's. I'm really good at starting projects, but not so good at finishing them. But until this past weekend, I had no idea how many UFO's I really had. I have to say... I was a little shocked. And I couldn't even remember what a lot of the UFO's were meant to be! The UFO's in question were all plastic canvas projects, and I had lots of bags of cut pieces, but no notes for most of them, and yarn for very few of them. So I purged. I kept only the ones that a) I actually had some of idea of what they were supposed to be, and b) I knew I would actually finish them. The stitched pieces went in the garbage - I cringed the first few times, but by the end I was tossing with the best of them! The unstitched pieces went into a plastic bag so that I can go through them and figure out what pieces are worth saving, and what pieces are too small to do anything with.
So I made a resolution. From now on, if I want to start a project I'm going to make detailed notes on it and file it in my creative planner until I complete one of my UFO's. My reward will be to get to start a new project. Pretty good trade-off, I think. It will also help me avoid the the question of "what the heck was this supposed to be?".
So...be honest now. How many of you have UFO's lurking in your closets and cupboards?
Until next time,
J.
So I made a resolution. From now on, if I want to start a project I'm going to make detailed notes on it and file it in my creative planner until I complete one of my UFO's. My reward will be to get to start a new project. Pretty good trade-off, I think. It will also help me avoid the the question of "what the heck was this supposed to be?".
So...be honest now. How many of you have UFO's lurking in your closets and cupboards?
Until next time,
J.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Happenings
I can't believe it's been a month since I last posted! Where has the time gone?
Lots going on with me lately. I've been sick with the stomach flu TWICE in the last month (as have both of my parents). I've been home the last two days because of it.
I bought myself an iPod, and I am L-O-V-E! My cell phone contract is up in July and I'll be able to get a new phone. For the longest time I was waffling between another Blackberry (which is what I have now and I really like it) and an iPhone. I finally decided that I wanted another Blackberry, due in part to the fact that Blackberry is coming out with a tablet that can be used with Blackberry phones. But there were some Apple apps that I really liked. Solution? Buy an iPod! I've downloaded a few really neat apps; my favourite one being iBibleQuiz. You get 10 multiple choice questions about the Bible and have to select the right answer. My average score is 70%; given that I'm a Sunday School teacher I'm not sure if that's good or bad. The only thing I don't like about it is if you pick the wrong answer, the app doesn't tell what the right answer is.
One of the most exciting things that's happened is that I finally finished the cover for my creative planner! I started it last fall, and it ended up taking much longer to finish it than I thought it would. But it turned out so nicely (I think) that the time spent was well worth it. Now I just have to make the dividers for it. I hope to have pics to show off soon.
I've been doing a lot of reading too. And I, uh, kinda went on a shopping spree at Blessings a couple of weeks ago and bought a whole bunch of new books and CD's. I'm not going to tell you how much I spent, cuz I'm kind of embarrassed. But suffice it to say that I am thoroughly enjoying all my new purchases, and will be reviewing some stuff in future blog posts.
Until next time,
J.
Lots going on with me lately. I've been sick with the stomach flu TWICE in the last month (as have both of my parents). I've been home the last two days because of it.
I bought myself an iPod, and I am L-O-V-E! My cell phone contract is up in July and I'll be able to get a new phone. For the longest time I was waffling between another Blackberry (which is what I have now and I really like it) and an iPhone. I finally decided that I wanted another Blackberry, due in part to the fact that Blackberry is coming out with a tablet that can be used with Blackberry phones. But there were some Apple apps that I really liked. Solution? Buy an iPod! I've downloaded a few really neat apps; my favourite one being iBibleQuiz. You get 10 multiple choice questions about the Bible and have to select the right answer. My average score is 70%; given that I'm a Sunday School teacher I'm not sure if that's good or bad. The only thing I don't like about it is if you pick the wrong answer, the app doesn't tell what the right answer is.
One of the most exciting things that's happened is that I finally finished the cover for my creative planner! I started it last fall, and it ended up taking much longer to finish it than I thought it would. But it turned out so nicely (I think) that the time spent was well worth it. Now I just have to make the dividers for it. I hope to have pics to show off soon.
I've been doing a lot of reading too. And I, uh, kinda went on a shopping spree at Blessings a couple of weeks ago and bought a whole bunch of new books and CD's. I'm not going to tell you how much I spent, cuz I'm kind of embarrassed. But suffice it to say that I am thoroughly enjoying all my new purchases, and will be reviewing some stuff in future blog posts.
Until next time,
J.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
March Blahs
Will this winter never end? I am getting so tired of the snow and cold; I'm starting to wish that I could just curl up in my bed, wrap my cozy duvet around myself and stay there until... like... June. My bad mood seems to be affecting my creativity too. I tried to scrapbook last weekend, only to discover that I was was missing something for the page layout I wanted to create. That pretty much took the wind out of my sails and killed my scrapbooking mojo. I sat on my bedroom floor, looking at all kinds of pretty papers and embellishments spread out around me and thinking "Now what?". This past Friday I went to Michael's to get the item I needed, only to discover that it's actually not really what I had in mind for the layout anyway (the picture I had in my mind of the item is not what it actually looks like). And I couldn't find anything else that matched my vision of the layout. Sigh.
So I decided that maybe what I needed to break out of my winter doldrums is a new challenge; to put away the projects I'm working on and try something totally brand new. It didn't take me very long to find my new challenge, either. On one of the blogs I follow (Kelaia4Him), I've seen some pictures of a collection of scripture cards and a holder that Kelaia made for a year-long challenge at FaithSisters (another blog I follow) a couple of years ago. I decided to check it out and see what this challenge was all about. In a nutshell, it's 52 words (one for each week of the year) that you study and look up scriptures for, and then use your findings to create an ATC, scrapbook page, rolodex card, etc. I went through all the posts and wrote down the words, and I've already got some ideas about what I want to put on some of my cards. The only thing I haven't quite decided on yet is whether to do ATC's, or 3"x5" cards. I was thinking 3"x5" cards, because I saw a really nice photo album at Michael's that I could get to store my creations in, but now I'm thinking ATC's (I may still get the photo album for storing them though). With any luck, I'll have something to share very, very soon!
Until next time,
J.
So I decided that maybe what I needed to break out of my winter doldrums is a new challenge; to put away the projects I'm working on and try something totally brand new. It didn't take me very long to find my new challenge, either. On one of the blogs I follow (Kelaia4Him), I've seen some pictures of a collection of scripture cards and a holder that Kelaia made for a year-long challenge at FaithSisters (another blog I follow) a couple of years ago. I decided to check it out and see what this challenge was all about. In a nutshell, it's 52 words (one for each week of the year) that you study and look up scriptures for, and then use your findings to create an ATC, scrapbook page, rolodex card, etc. I went through all the posts and wrote down the words, and I've already got some ideas about what I want to put on some of my cards. The only thing I haven't quite decided on yet is whether to do ATC's, or 3"x5" cards. I was thinking 3"x5" cards, because I saw a really nice photo album at Michael's that I could get to store my creations in, but now I'm thinking ATC's (I may still get the photo album for storing them though). With any luck, I'll have something to share very, very soon!
Until next time,
J.
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