Friday, December 23, 2005

LUCK HAS IT....

Luck has it that I am actually at home, and that Lina has been graced with her friend Chloe sleeping over and that Hubby and I are relaxing in front on the TV. It's December 23rd and we gave my in-laws a puppy for Christmas- one week ago- which means that for the next year we get to hear the play by play on what the pup ate on any given moment. They have not had a puppy for 12 years and they have a lot to get used to.

My brother is in the middle of thinking about getting his daughter a horse. So it is an animal Chiristmas for our family. "Torque" which is what my brother wants to call Lina's new kitten, is due at our house tomorrow. I am on pins and needles waiting for Lina to meet her new pet.

Happy Holidays All.

It has been a trying year for all.

Love Ria

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Fa la la la laaaa la la la la.

Hey all!

Well a good start to the morning this morning as the office staff stood around the water cooler sipping coffee/tea with a shot of Bailey's in it, while munching on coffee cake. It'll be a slack day around here. We are all going out to lunch together and afterwards going bowling. Bowling? Yes Bowling. One of the young technicians here is a bowling geek (I say that in the nicest way and I am sure he would not disagree), and my boss and the data guy are really competitive at anything when there are bragging rigts at stake. They've already been on his case about how they are going to best him today. It should be a really amusing display of inappropriate non-sportsmen like behaviour. I can't wait. Unfortunately, circumstances added up today that prevent me from going to Lina's afternoon play. I will see the play tonight but I guess in the afternoon version she has a line she get's to say. This is where it sucks being the only administrative person in the office. I am the one who makes all the arrangements and makes the payments. My mom is going to Lina's afternoon performance, I am glad, I am going to ask for a play by play when I get home. I will be videotaping Lina tonight. I have 3 years of her preformances on tape. One of these days, I am going to have to put them all together and cry while I watch the progression of her acting career.

So Lina is getting a very special gift for Christmas this year. A couple of years ago, Lina started asking for a pet of her own. We made her start small. She has be diligently caring for beta fish and gold fish now for two years and I must say she is a pretty consciencious fish owner. It took a bit of convincing, but I managed to get my husband to grudgingly agree that sooner or later we would have to follow through with our promise to Lina. We had told her that if she could take care of the fish then we would consider something larger. Now I guess getting some mice or a rat or something would be the next logical progression but, seriously with us being gone so much in the summer to races, a rodent doesn't make too much sense.

So Hubby and I have conspired and we have adopted a kitten for Lina for Christmas this year. I can't wait to see the look on her face on Christmas morning when she receives the little critter. He is just eight weeks and is a little ball of orange fuzz. My brother is babysitting him right now. I adopted the kitten from the Humane Society. I had to have a long talk with the officials at the Humane Society, they don't allow pets to be adopted for Christmas here. However it was pretty obvious that the timing had nothing to do with a spontanious gift. My husband and I talked about it for weeks before I picked up the little guy. We better than many people know this is a lifetime commitment. We have an 11 year old siamese and a 10 year old golden retriever and our chocolate lab was 11 when he died last February. We have had more than our rightful share of medical problems, surgeries and conditions, we can't bring another animal into our home without really considering what the consequences are.

I have asked my niece to take a picture of the gapher and when she emails me, I'll post it up here. I can't wait for Christmas morning, the little critter really needs a name.

So our tree is up, but the rest of the house has not been decorated yet. I am taking Friday off and that is my mission for that day. My shopping is basically done, just two gifts left to pick up. It feels weird to have the shopping done. It must be a sick symtom of getting older. Normally I am in panic mode at this point. Something along the lines of having started way to many ambitious projects for gifts and staying up late into the evening on Christmas Eve and even as long as into Boxing Day working on stuff for people yet to visit. It has been so bad in the past that I have put off Christmas visits because I was still working on people's gifts. I figured out a month or two ago, that I wasn't going to be able to make gifts this year so I didn't try. Feels good and bad at the same time.

Things have somewhat setteled around the office, one of my co-workers was the successful applicant for the General Manager position and so after Christmas he will begin to take over the role. It feels good knowing who will be my boss, the not knowing was way to stressful.

Well, what a motormouth I am this morning. I suppose I better get back to finishing up some things around here. I certainly hope all of you have a wonderful holiday, whatever you celebrate and I'll try to post during my break. (Yay, I am taking two weeks off!)

Friday, December 16, 2005

Illustration Friday - Imagine

Just imagine, if unicorns really exist....

Unicorn Posted by Picasa

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Working away....

Since I haven't posted any scans lately, yah you are right I have not bought myself a digital camera yet, still scanning, anyway I thought I'd let you all in on one of my almost completed projects. It's a little beaded wreath, about 5 incches across with snowy white flowers against icy leaves. It's going to go on a long trip before it gets to it's destination. When finished, it will be my entry for my December's Bead-it! challenge - "Ornamental". After all when finished it will become a tree ornament. I hope it's new owner will be pleased.


French Beaded Wreath Posted by Picasa

Friday, December 09, 2005

Illustration Friday - Surprise!

Surprise! A cat is about to pounce!

Surprise! Posted by Picasa

Oh where oh were has Riarug been. Lost that's where. My boss annouced about a month ago now that he has decided to leave our organization. We are a small organization and he is our General Manager. It's been a nerve racking experience for me and some of the other staff here, wondering who the Board will choose as the new General Manager. So, to prepare, I have been in a fury trying to complete as much outstanding work as possible so that I will be able to assist the new Manager in getting to know us and his new position - training the Manager in other words.

I've been doing little else. I am so busy at work that I have no free time to blog. I've even been working through my lunches! I have a tree up at home, but it remains undecorated. Lina and I have decided we are going to make most of the ornaments and the tree will only be decorated in white, silver and gold. I think I proposed the idea to her because in my heart I really want to buy a white tree, but it doesn't make financial sense to buy another right now.

We have been making a chain garland out of ribbon pieces from the dollar store. It looks somewhat like this one from Jenny of Sew Darn Cute! Except our if made from filmy, guazy ribbons. I have also been making white snowflakes from pipecleaners like those Martha Stewart ones (you can see them in the background of the pictue on this page).

Tomorrow when it is light, I'll go down into our shed and bring up the boxes of ornaments and Lina and I will go through them and pick out the gold, silver and white ones. And today at lunch I am going to the dollar store to pick through the ribbons so we can finish our garland. Lina is loving working with the glue gun. This is her first time using one and the ease of which she can glue things has set her crafty heart on fire. Last night, after Brownies, we made pompom animals. Since her birthday theme was Madagascar, we made little zebras and tigers from a kit and put thank you tags on theme so she could give them out to her friends as thank you notes.

Speaking of her birthday, that is probably a BIG reason why I am so tired. We had 4 little girls sleep over (7 year olds) last Saturday and at 4 in the morning one of the little girls came down with the stomach flu... bad. At first I thought it was just the excitement from the night before and the cake and such or being in a strange house, she really didn't want to go home though. So I cleaned her up and her bed (there were 5 girls sleeping on two mattresses in Lina's room) puke was not a welcome sight. Believe it or not, neither the poor little girl nor I woke anyone else in the house (except my husband). Anyway, I figured out after the third time she threw up that something was amiss and instead of settling her down again, I sat with her in the living room while she watched Madagascar on Lina's portable DVD player. That was at 5:30 am-ish. At 6:30, I called her mom to come and get her. It broke the little girls heart - she REALLY wanted to stay and wake up with the girls and play. I was vindicated for my decision to call her mom when after I went to the bathroom to check on her I found that she also had diarreah. The poor thing. Her mommy arrived shortly after and we packed her up and got her snuggled in her mom's car. The other girls woke up just before she left and after they said good bye, I turned on them and loudly exclaimed - Bathroom! Wash hands, faces now! With soap! John was already up and busying himself with washing down doorknobs and walls and generally any surface that the girls could have touched. I shooed the girls out of Lina's room and pulled all of the top sheets and pillows and anything soiled that I might have missed and got it down into the laundry. I am happy to say no one other than the poor girls mommy got sick (yet). There is something to say about being quick with germ hunting when someone is sick in your house. Neither John nor I can afford to be ill right now.

Well, I'm off home. I have a splitting headache that just wont go away. Hopefully crafting will cure it!
CRAFT

Leather craft
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Wirework
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Quilling
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Paper Mache

Textiles
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paper craft
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ART

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FAMILY

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Activities
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OCCASION
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CLOTHING & ACCESSORIES
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COMMUNITY & COMMUNITY SERVICE

Girl Guides
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Brownies
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