Bella's Lullabye

I am absolutely in love with this piece of music. From the movie Twilight, it reaches the depths of my soul like no other music has. It brings such raw emotion to the surface of my being that I am unable to hold back the tears. Happiness, anger, contentment, frustration, joy, resentment, love ... these are but few words that I know to describe the sheer scale of feelings that I have when I hear this. At the very least, should you listen to it, I hope you enjoy this serene melody.

Bella's Lullabye by Carter Burwell.

This, that & the other

*** A quick "pre blog post note" since this has actually been sitting in my draft file for 5 days now. I just came in from letting the dog in from the beautiful out of doors. There, fluttering about, was a colourful butterfly .... in March. I hope the pretty creature has a safe place to hide should the freezing rain they are calling for, on Saturday, arrive. A butterfly in March .... hmm!

Also, a new 'develeopment' since my post about walking in the weekend to end cancer. After doing the training research as well as putting in persective the amount of money that must be raised in order to walk, I have come to the conslusion that this may not be the year for me. I am very sad about that. On the training part, I really do think I could walk the 30kms without a problem. It's the fundraising part ... which I hear is a tough one. Especially considering that, if you don't raise the minimum amount, you can't walk. ($1250/1 day $2000/2 days) So ... I have promised myself that, next year, I will do the TWO DAY walk, giving myself lots of time to train and raise money. That being said, I have officially volunteered to be an event volunteer. I am just awaiting my assignment. If I can't give one way, I can give another. ***

Back to your already delayed blog post ... from Monday. :o)

Things have finally quieted down after a month of craziness. Some of it by choice, alot of it by obligation. Either way, not a moment to myself - but for 3 days - in an entire month. Between nieces sleeping over and doing outings with them, family visiting from both Hamilton & Alberta, more gatherings with other family members getting together with friends and a bunch of home improvement stuff, I haven't touched a creative outlet in just as long. Hopefully that will change as I soon begin an attempt at digi-scrapbooking for our schools flyer that will go out in the mail. No pressure. In the meantime ... Tanya, Renee and I went to Rideau Antiques this past Friday. This time around, I made sure that my camera battery was charged so I would be able to capture the craziness on film. Afterwards, we drove into Merrickville for some lunch and local shopping on the main drag. What great little stores they have there. I fell in love with ... well, alot! Here are some pictures of Rideau Antiques. Very overwhelming and daunting but fun to dig and come across that perfect find. Going to Rideau Antiques? Just remember one thing - - when someone yells "Marco" you must reply "Polo" or risk the chance of never being seen again....

Weekend To End Breast Cancer

On the weekend of June 5th and 6th, hundreds of men and women, both supporters and survivors, will band together to participate in the Weekend to End Breast Cancer. For many, a two day walk, totalling 60 kms will be achieved. For myself, I will be participating in the 30 km, 1 day walk, to be held on the 5th. Together we will hold our heads high and band together to raise money for this great cause. If you would like to join me in this journey, I would love to form a team. Together we can make a difference! (registration is $75.00. In order to participate in the 1 day walk, you must raise $1250.00. For the two day walk, the amount is $2000.00. Click here for event details.)

To help with the training process, I have jumped on the Donna Downey/Tanya bandwagon (she read about it on Donna's site, I read about it on hers). While the two of them belong to Map My Run, I have become a member at Map My Walk. Hopefully this tool will provide me with some great assistance as I train for this grand event. Wish me luck.

*** W A R N I N G ***

DO NOT

use your

HEIDI SWAPP IRON

with beeswax.

I used this last night when I pulled out my melting pot to play with some yummy beeswax, fabric and canvas. Today, when I went to plug in what I thought was the printer's cord, my iron (which I obviously and accidentally plugged in) threw a spark that near caught my hair and blew the breaker. oops.

I woke of on Friday morning and made the mistake of blinking. Next thing I know, it is Sunday night and I haven't stopped. Not that it was a painfuly hectic weekend, just busy and full. Rewarding even. I got alot accomplished.

• Thursday was all about me. Hair done, nails done, waxing the eyebrows and a stop at De Serres. After leaving work to head right to the city, I finally made it home around 9:30
• Friday, I ran home and packed my bags for my evening out and to tidy up the spare rooms for my 3 nieces who were here for the weekend. (ages "almost 12", 13 and 16.) before heading over to Tanya's. She made a delicious supper of steak nachos (hers are very good with the refreshing taste of cilantro to compliment them) with chicken wings. Once we were done eating, the baking commenced. Together we made 6 dozen muffins (2 dozen banana-chocolate chip and 4 dozen chocolate chip), 3 double batches of confetti squares (1 butterscotch and 2 chocolate), 3 dozen tarts (2 dozen buttertarts, 1 dozen lemon tarts ... and I made the tart shells from scratch) and pan of rice krispie squares. We had also wanted to make some brownies and cookies but called it a night around 10:30. After visiting for a bit, I was home by 11:20 and in bed by 1.
• Saturday found the girls and I leaving K behind as we got up early and headed State-side. We did some shopping, stopped at the library so I could look up some genealogy stuff for a distant cousin then went to Trombino's for their famous chicken wings. On the way home, we stopped at Scrap City (on the reserve) and yes, I did break my 'use my stash' rule but only this once! She had some Heidi Swapp Silhouettes on sale for $2.50 in ones that I didn't have as well as a couple of stickles ($1.99) in colours that I had wished I had a couple of weeks ago. After getting home around 5, we got in our comfy clothes, the 16 year old went out with her boyfriend, and the creating began with all three of us doing canvas projects.
• Today I drove the girls home - but not after I made another stop at De Serres to exchange a couple of canvases for a slightly bigger size. I picked up a few more paint paraphenalia and home they went. A quick visit with my sister-in-law then off to Michaels to get a quilting iron (which I wound up not getting). No SBing supplies, just some wooden letters. It was after 6 when I got home and I didn't stop there. Last weekend, I sewed curtains and a chiffon/organza overlay for one of my spare rooms. K and I finally hung the 3 curtain rods tonight for it (there is a bamboo blind on the inside and a muslin drape in the middle with the overlay on top - all of different rods) and I am good with the way it looks. I also hung a canvas that I painted last weekend the bathroom.

That brings me to now. It is currently 8:34 and I am just too tired to go and take pictures of last weekend and last night's creations. I am also too tired to go and finish the second canvas that I started last night even though I am itching to do it. I am actually stepping out of my abstract box and attempting an actual picture. Should be interesting. This week will also see me quite busy - right through to Sunday but, hopefully, it will still have that same feeling of accomplishment. Here's to a great week with picture updates in the next day or two.