Ignore this

Ignore this picture, I'm just stashing this here for other purposes.

 

Old Photos

Lina is working on her "Family Heritage" Badge for Brownies. She is pretty lucky that this is an area I can really help her with. She is supposed to draw pictures of what she, her mother, grandmother did and played as a child. I have been scanning images of relatives (boys and girls) that Lina and I picked out to show her friends what children wore way back when.


This little girl is my Great Aunt Agnes it would have been taken around 1910. She was my Grandfather's younger sister. His picture is below.

Don't you just love her ringlets?

Agnes Evans b.1906

This is my Grandfather. My father's father. What a handsom little man. This picture would have been taken around 1907. He looks like an executive, someone who should be reading the New York Times and smoking a pipe. I wish I could have met him, he was apparently a very nice man.

Joseph Henry Evans b.1904

I got a digital camera!

Hey! Finally!

I took the plunge and parted with a few (or more) hundred bucks and bought a digital camera.
Aren't you impressed? I am. It took me two years to part with the dough.

So now I can slowly introduce you to me...in pictures.

Here's my old dog Kramer. Ain't he a beaut? And so snuggly.


Give a bit and I'll figure out how to use this contraption, no one, in my opinion needs this many options in a camera. I have fallen asleep reading the manual twice now.

But I and very excited.

Pictures of a disorderly craft room will appear soon..... 

Inspiration Friday - Cats

Pretty Literal eh?

This is a ATC drawn for a Nervousness SWAP a year or so ago. His image became very popular with my daughter, neice and nephew who like to call him "Frazzled". I think he was up late last night finishing some crafty project or another, drinking WAY to much coffee and is at the point where one gets all giddy, giggly and twitchy. If you take a moment to stare into his eyes you'll find yourself getting very very sleepy...... zzzzzzzzz.


Ha Ha! Now that you are under my spell, you suddenly find you have the urge to smile to yourself, yawn contentedly and while you curl up on top of some sort of unfinished knitting project , a human will stroke your fur as you purr contentedly...

Oh, did I say that? I've been awake since 4:00 am because one 11 year old siamese wanted to sleep on my head purring and one 10 week old kitten (who is a purring machine) wanted to sleep on my neck while simultaniously bitting one 11 year old cat on the head. I'm tired and worn out (in a giddy, giggly sort of way) and said 11 year old spent from 5:00 on outside and said ball of Mischief was dumped unceremoniuosly into Lina's room with the door shut behind him. Unlike me, Lina can sleep through an earthquake. I figure Mischief is hers and she can deal with his fiestiness at 5:00 am better than I.

Moms who don't deal with sleep deprevation are such grumps!

I didn't get to post my craft room organization pictures yet (along with some other items) on Wednesday I ended up with 6 kids at my house due to the freezing rain (buses cancelled) so mid-afternoon, I couldn't concentrate on work any more and spent my time cleaning and working out on my bike. I will get them posted ASAP. 

Home... again.

I knew it would happen. When I left work early yesterday I made sure I had enough work to keep me busy at home today. The freezing rain was bad enough that I had to pull over on the highway twice on the way home to re-scrape my windows. It rained all night and into this morning. It's 8:38 am now and the rain has started to turn to snow. All of the area's buses are cancelled, school buses and city buses. So as Lina won't be going to school today I agreed to watch my other Brownie Leader's children as well. I am starting to think buses will be cancelled every Wednesday now. This is the third week in a row that buses have been cancelled.

Anyway. It isn't the best timing for me. I have to get 15 binders for the upcoming Board Meeting and they need to get out via Purolator on Friday. I have hotel arrangements, flight arrangements and catering to deal with and while at home I am without a printer. Needless to say I opened a file on my hard-drive called "to print" and I will be keeping the printer busy first thing tomorrow.

I am working on gathering some pictures for Inspiration Wednesday to post in a few moments. Today's theme is "if only...." and will feature wonderful craftroom organization... from other people.

Progress

My craftroom is coming along. I am so excited. I can see the floor. OK so I am easy to impress.

This weekend I forced myself to get a last coat of paint on my shelves and got both of them up. I went through all (and I mean all - phew!) of my magazines and organized them into subjects. Now I have sewing/emroidery magazines and books, house/garden/decorating, knitting/crochet/weaving, beadwork/leatherwork/metalwork, drawing/journaling/art, kids crafts, and holidays. Those magazines which I don't keep whole (such as Piecework or beadworking magazines) I cut up and have just the best parts and ideas in page protectors in about 15 large binders. Next I am going to get those divided into subjects as well.

Now that I can see the floor, I need to sit o it and go through my boxes one by one. I already threw out about 3 garbage bags out of my closet. Most of which comprised of daily reports I got from Lina's daycare since she was 8 months. It was a walk down memory lane to read about when she played with blocks and when she bit her friends. But ultimately I couldn't find a good enough reason to keep them all and out they went. Next cam 4 years of Lina's artwork. I kept quite a few pieces, especially those that had her hand/foot/fingerprints on them.

So now it is time to get mean and decide what stays and what goes. The good news is that I now have a full shelving unit dedicated to photos and genealogy. A full shelving unit dedicated to resource materials and magazines and will probably have space now to store completed work (for craft shows and maybe an internet store - I have one on Etsy but nothing to sell at the moment).

This week marks the first week of my new boss. It'll take quite a while to get everything the way he would like to see it. I am optimistic that my job may run smoother after he is through making changes.

We are expecting some wicked weather here today and tomorrow. A total of 25 cm (about 10 inches) of snow and/or ice pellets is expected to fall in the next 24 hours. I have seen anything yet but for once I find the prospect exciting. Rain last week brought our snow levels down dramatically and the world was getting to look grey and tired like it does in the spring. A new blanket of frosty clean whiteness will be a welcome sight!

4:04 pm Update: Crap. So much for fluffy white snow. It's decided to be freezing rain instead. I am homebound early before I get stuck in town. Hopefully snow tomorrow!

Rain Day

Back to the grind for me. I was stuck at home yesterday because of some nasty freezing rain, mind you I worked most of the day (joys of having a laptop). The radio didn't announce that the bus companies were cancelling the schoolbuses until just before Lina was to be picked up, so she was waiting for the bus when a neighbour stopped to tell the kids that the bus wouldn't be coming. Not quite a snow-day but fun for the kids all the same. I had four kids at my house for most of the day (the 3 neighbour kids, 7, 9 and 11 years old).

I tried to get into the office to pick up some work for the day but I had to turn around half way after a tractor trailer jack-knifed on the highway. By that time I was all over the road because of the ice so I turned around and went back home. Our street was a skating rink by the time I pulled into the driveway. I practically skated to the neighbours to get Lina.

Working out has made me so tired that I spent last night yawning. I took today off from the gym. It's not much fun when I am so exhausted all the time. So I treated myself and went out for lunch with a few people from work. Chicken sub and wedges, yay!

Tonight I am back to Brownies. I'm not quite enthusiastic about it but I'll get er done! (OK no more redneck comedy for me)

Tomorrow is the last day for my boss and then next week we start under our new boss. I'm afraid that it'll be a while before I am in a routine again. I did have time at lunch to check out a few new pictures at flickr and read all of 1 blog update but I am so far behind checking out what everyone has been up to. I have 119 updates to read and I'll never find the time. I feel so out of the loop. My craftroom is still a shambles but there is light at the end of that tunnel. I actually said no to some Brownie training this weekend. Can you believe it? I actually said no and put my needs first for a change. And to think I didn't even make any resolutions this year.

I'm All Smiles

OK, so, last night Hubby tells me that he'll be a little late coming home because he has to stop of at the grocery store to buy me a cake. "Why bother?" I ask, cause we don't usually go out of our way to celebrate the adult birthdays around here. "Well, you know if I don't buy one, Lina won't talk to us tonight, it's a big thing to her". He's right. Lina NEEDS to have a cake to celebrate a birthday. So when, he got home, the cake was off limits, I wasn't allowed to look at it.

After a wonderful steak dinner with portobello mushrooms and some red wine, hubby proceeds to set up the cake complete with 36 candles (yes, it looked just like a torch). Jody was over and the guy wouldn't stop recording the whole fiasco with his cell phone. When Hubby put the torch down I was dumbfounded. There written on the cake was....



For those of you who don't know what that means, it means this.... that my Hubby went out and bought me this...



... and that it was sitting in his truck outside waiting for me. What a freak! Who does those things? I can't stop smiling. Jody has the whole thing recorded, me sitting there with an incredulous look of awe and disbelief on my face as Jody, Hubby and Lina sing Happy Birthday to me.. I am now the proud owner of a 2003 Honda CBR 600 F4i. My good friend Stef and I agree that I'd better keep up the gym stuff so that I can show off my butt this summer. When I noticed she was online this morning and sent a quick "guess what I got for my birthday?" to her she responded "what another bike?" when I sent her the link to a picture the bike she just about crapped - she had been joking about the getting another bike thing.

So. Hmm. I guess I'm not going to get any older for a few years.

Thanks hubby, you are a hard act to follow! (His birthday is in April and I don't know what to give him that is even half a special and as thoughtful!) I can honestly say that you are wholy responsible for making the past 18 (going on 19) years the most special of my life. I can now say that I have spent half of my life with you!

Wow!

Good Morning!

See... I am trying to retain my momentum. Yes, it's the 36th anniversary of my birth. I sure didn't feel like waking up, no... actually, I just didn't feel like getting out of bed. Hubby and I have been working out at the gym for a couple of weeks now and my body just decided to say "holy crap will you give me a break already!" Oh well, I guess it is worth it, to mark my 36th year today, I actually had to use a new belt notch today or my jeans would have settled a little lower on my hips.

I intended on scanning an image of me when I was about 6 holding my Sasha doll (I have these two dolls although this photo credit belongs to http://www.sashadolluk.co.uk/) to show Angharad how special those dolls are to me but opening up my craft room door reminded me that I should have put another coat of paint on my shelves last night 'cause the room won't organize itself. Finding old pictures will be a challenge for a few weeks.

By the way, Lina just loves her kitten and the new addition to the family is relishing his new "Uncle". Fester, my 11 year old Siamese is being heartily tortured but the little critter whom Lina named "Mischief Mittens", a very fitting name if I do say so. Poor Fester can't even walk down the hallway without the little-leach-with-teath latched onto his rear. Kramer, our big Golden Retriever is good with the critter though. They are the same colour and they look quite cute together with the Mischief curled up between Kramer's paws.

I will see if the digital camera is in the office today so I can take some pictures tonight.

Happy New Year!

Hello All,

It is pretty obvious that my surfing and my computer life have been sadly neglected while I was on my extended Christmas Break. When I turned on my computer this morning at work, I had 169 updates to read on my Bloglines account- Whew! I have a lot to catch up on. I am happy to report that I am rested, energized and optimistic about this new year. I think I will make a habit of taking time off after the holidays every year - it's been a long enough break for me NOT to do any thinking.

Tomorrow's my birthday. I will be 36 and I am having a hard time with the fact that this one is actually bugging me. I never cared about my age before. I just don't feel 36. Not that I felt 35, but this one seems to be on the other "side" of something. One of the kids from across the street told me a few months ago that I don't "look" like a "normal" mom. She said moms tuck their shirts in their pants, were high cut waists and don't do cool things like ride motorcycles. I guess the 36 thing is tied to the fact that the age disparity between the inner me and numerical age is starting to widen. Oh well, societal views never held much clout for me anyway. I figure I am going to be 25 for ever. (Should be interesting when I'm 80! ha ha)

Christmas was not creative this year. But it was actually nice just for that reason. Lina and I did make a 30 foot garland for our tree but other than that I didn't stress myself out by making any Christmas gifts this year. I know that I will have to make up for it (to myself) next year, but I'm OK with that.

What I am most excited about occured in the last three days of my holidays. I have taken a huge plunge and have torn my "craft room" (we've been calling it the "crap room") apart and have started actually redesigning it. Designing it as a workspace. I have one wall that will house 10 feet of table space and above it will be 3 shelves 10 feet long. It wasn't supposed to be so involved, I had actually just intended on cleaning it, but I quickly came to the conclusion that this room was no more than a junk room and that I deserved to have a dedicated space designed for what I like to do. I am so happy with the colours too. The walls are already a soft grey and the shelves and tables are going to be what's call "semi-sweet chocolate" a nice dark brown. Everything is a mess, especially since I had to put the craft junk back into the room (it was in the hallway) because we had a 4 month old puppy come to visit who chews on everything. I am still in the process of painting shelves, it takes so long because I have to warm up the garage with a propane heater to paint (hey it's Canada eh!) and I have to use oil based paint on the shelves. When it is complete, I will have a permanent set up for my sewing machine (no more dragging it out of the closet and trying to find my bobbins). I will have peg boards for my beadworking tools and I will have over the workspace lighting for sorting tiny beads. I also decided to weed out my craft room and concentrate only on those techniques I use most regularly. Knitting, crochet, beadwork, drawing and photography/genealogy will stay, as will sewing. Everything else, I will take a hard look at before keeping. And that way I can really think about some of the new things I would like to try - like journal making!!!

I'm so happy happy happy. Now I only hope my husband has the patience to deal with my decorating project for the new few weeks.

I hope everyone had a lovely holiday season this year!