Destination: Friendship

I forgot to add this yesterday. It is the layout that Stéph made me from last years Superbowl win. I am just waiting on her pictures and SHE gets a layout this time - yay! (psst - either way, I was making you one. Either because you won or as a thank you. If it had been three years in a row, you deserved at least that. lol) Merci, ma belle. It's a great addition to my collection.

Sew Much To Share

I had a great long weekend last week despite being hit first with a cold of Friday then stomach woes on Sunday which lasted almost all week. My niece, Brianna came over last Thursday since Friday was her PA Day. She came to school with me on Friday and volunteered in the JK/SK room. She loved 'working' at the school with me even though we barely saw eachother throughout the day. On Friday night we hung out and scrapped and enjoyed eachothers company. It is the first time she has ever been out without either of her sisters with her. By bedtime, I was stuffed up and worn out. I knew the season's cold was here. Thankfully, Saturday's plans consisted of more scrapping, chatting and pj's all day. I introduced her to youtube and we watched alot of different art sites with techniques and ideas. Sunday, on an impromptu trip to De Serres, we grabbed some canvas, watercolour crayons and a few other things so we could create all night. Unfortunately, that is when all the stomach woes hit and I came home and went to bed for two hours. We finally cracked open our first paint bottles around 8:30 and didn't go to bed until we were done our projects .... 1:30am-ish. She painted her first ever canvas - a sunset over the ocean - and I did a painting for my bathroom using 3-8x16 canvases. Since I can't paint anything of substance, it is a blend of colours, this time using a brush rather than a palatte knife. One day, I will attempt something less abstract. I will post a photo of it after I hang it tomorrow. (The bottom layout is based on a sketch, created by Jeni, over at Bad Girls)

** ** ** On Saturday, I joined Meg & Renée on a field trip to Smiths Falls. Can you say "WOW!" This antique place was beyond loaded with stuff. To try and describe the hoards of things they had is almost impossible. I can only say that it is truly and wonderfully obscene. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that my camera battery was on it's last legs so these two pictures were the only two taken. I managed to find a pile of spindles that I am going to use for basement table legs. Meg found giant spindles ... I cant wait to see what she is going to do with them. Renee found a great jar of buttons, a vintage postcard and two marmalade jars that her mom had when she was a youngin. Throughout our time there, as we walked sideways and maneuvrered in and out of teeny-tiny places, I listened to the two of them chatter back and forth about the wonderful treasures they have in their own homes. This and that from when they were kids. Their grandmothers ________ or their moms _________. You could hear it in their voices how much they cherish and appreciate these items. Truth be told - it was one of the highlight of the day.

Unfortunately, after leaving them, my travels got a little, shall we say, 'interesting'? Someone was certainly watching over me (again - 2nd close call in 3 weeks). As I was slowing down to take a right turn, I pressed the brake gently only to feel a *pop* sensation and have my brakes go. Because I was going at a slow speed, I was able to finally come to a stop not too far ahead. After a call to K, he concluded that my break line must have broken. I walked over to the gas station, bought some brake fluid and filled up the resevoir. One press of the brake and I had a puddle under the car ... then I had to drive home with only back breaks. Eeks! Thankfully, Ogilvie wasn't busy at all and I made the slow crawl Aviation to hit the 417. Another thankfully, I take the 417 home so there was no reason to have to hit the brakes (or so I had hoped). I put my hazards on, reduced my speed to 75 and made a slow and safe journey home. It wasnt nearly as bad as I thought it would have been. Good time to live in the country and have alternative routes to go home. I didnt need to make but 4 stops the entire trip.

** ** ** Today was a productive day in front of the sewing machine. Before Christmas, I bought a patterned quilt cover, for my spare room, from Ikea. I really liked the muslin look of the fabric so I picked up a plain muslin quilt cover as well. Today, I cut it in half, sewed new seams and added rod pockets at the top so I will have coordinating fabric colours. I also picked up some organza, in the same shade of green as the pattern, to act as an overlay. If you haven't sewn with organza before ... don't! Not a fun fabric to work with. I have a new found respect for all the wedding ladies who do it for a living. oy-vay. Fortunately, the overlay leaves alot of room for

** ** **

As for this week, nothing major planned outside of a couple of appointments on Thursday. (then again, with a brakeless car, my options are limited to where people want to drive me. haha) My niece Brianna may be coming over again so I imagine more creating will take place. My goal for the week and weekend is to tackly my fabric journal project. After hijacking Tanya's "a touch of whimsy" concept, I am a tad out of my element and am overwhelmed. Should be an interesting experience. Stay tuned.

hmmmm...???

What's wrong with the layout below?? What a dummy, am I. fUu days of summer - wth????? lol I have NO clue how I did that .... any clue how I can get it off without ruining the crystal effects on top??? lol Geesh.

(just thought I would point out my error. now I need to try and fix it.)

*Our Weekend Escape* *Fun Days of Summer*

I created these two layouts last night trying to use up more of my stash. I have alot of the MM Passport line so I just did them in that. These photos were taken on our girls weekend in Montreal this past August. As a momento, we all had our charicatures done with "Montreal" written on them. All journalling is on the back of the layouts and both are from Beckyy Fleck's February Pagemaps. Unforunately, my new printer/fax/scanner sucks - but it gets the job done for now. Even slightly blurry, you get the just of the concept.

In the meantime, he is a You-tube remake that will likely get a chuckle. Someone from school showed it to me last week then Stephanie and I had a good chuckle over it on Superbowl Sunday.

If you need some sweetness, check out this cute 3 year old. I found it when I was looking for the Punjabi Thriller link.

Ma Petite Soeur

Once again, another layout using Becky Fleck's sketch. Slight variations but easy to see the intrepretation. The "It's A Girl" flower center was given to me almost 22 years ago when my sister was born. I figured, rather than having it kicking around, I would give it a permanent home in a scrapbook. Journalling reads: So tine & cute. Grown into a beautiful woman. I love and treasure all of our moments together. ...xox...

In the meantime, I'm not sure what is up with this new scanner. The colours are uneven and some of the elements are blurred. My camera is at school so I figured this was a good choice. Especially for those of you who are still in utter shock at the amount of blog posts I have in just 35 short days. Let's hope it keeps up. I am really enjoying this contant creating process and I owe it all to DVDs. Makes being in here a little less lonely. :o)

4/50 layouts. 0/5 mini albums and/or projects. 4/13 ABC's of Me - Life Art Journal. 35 ATC's.

*Action* ~ *Because* ~ *Clearly*

I fell behind on my ABC's Of Me Art Journal but got all caught up in a day. Whew! It looks so easy when they do it on you tube. I wish I could fast forward myself like they do! I am still very out of my element and comfort zone. Mixing and blending. Layering and techniquing. I have one picture in my mind but what turns out on the paper is no where near close to what I see in my head. If only I could translate it the way I wanted, I would be much happier with the results. Luckily, "C" was just released yesterday, so I have two weeks to come up with a concept for "D" before I have to create it.

In the meantime, I am still trying to follow my goal towards using my stash. Because the supplies I used were minimal, I am not going to be counting my art journal pages in the total. I have to confess though, I did buy some goodies BUT (and I will stand by my but!), they were purchased as an exchange for something I had already bought so ... no money changed hands. A perfect validation, if you ask me. I spent part of Sunday looking at CHA '09 stuff with Stéphanie and, well ... I need to create, create, create. There are some yum-a-liscious things being released so, hopefully, I won't be too far under my goal and can still get them not too long after they start arriving. My saving grace will be Becky Fleck's Pagemaps ... you can count on that!

Action Because

Clearly

Pittsburgh Steelers - BOOOOOO!!!!

It was bound to happen eventually. After two straight wins, my luck of the draw wasnt so lucky and, with that, I eat my humble pie as I say to Stephanie ...

"Please e-mail me your photos at your earliest convenience."

Go Cardinals, Go!!

I sit here today, with my sweet friend, Stéphanie, as we wait patiently for the Superbowl to begin. It's our annual Superbowl together. The boys in one room and the gals in the other - scrapping and running out for commercials. Each year we have a bet to see who's team is going to win. I have won two years in a row (poooooooor Stéph - muuuahahaha.) The loser owes the winner a layout. I wonder what next years prize is going to look like. Can't wait to see it, ma belle. (teeheeheee)

GO CARDINALS GO!!!!!!!!

Stéphanie highjacking Mell's blog post.... GOOOOOOOOO STEELERS GO!!!!!

Ok.... back to your regularly scheduled blog.

Well then .. now that life makes sense and the Cardinals are about to WIN ... I want to thank Tanya for fixing up my blog for me. Lots of work, I know, but I do appreciate it. For my non-musical bloggers ... you will see that I have (well - Tanya has) put my playlist front and center. Easy for you to pause or change at your discretion. I will be back to gloat later about my third victory. (or eat humble pie ... but I am staying optimistic!)