Ok, so I had good intentions to blog every week with a challenge....and once again I am unable to commit to my plan. But I plan on continuing to try. Which is too bad because I was hot-scrappin there for about a week. Gettin stuff scrapped, made a couple of cards....which I still haven't sent out....but perhaps this weekend I'll get on the bandwagon.
This weekend I'm dedicating it to starting all those christmas projects that I have saddled myself with. Got lots to do and gettin on to little time to do it in! Perhaps also will put some outdoor christmas lights up. Yes, I know it is only November, but there appears to be a slew of people in my neighborhood that are getting in on some Christmas action. Besides, it snowed a flurry today and this may mean that the real snow could be on its way. So best to get lights up outside before the danger aspect of it becomes more dangerous (?!?!?!). Anyhow.....that's all for now folks!! Ok, let's just sum up before I take off...

Weekend challenge: christmas and christmas projects! Let's get the party started!

I took a trip to Micheals today. Mostly because I had to get one measly thing. But also because I thought I'd check out the Christmas wares also. All the stores were already into Christmas before Halloween came and went, and because I'm of the firm belief that Christmas should not start until Halloween has played it's cards, I refused to even glance in the Christmassy direction of stores that decided to jump the gun a little too early this year. But see, herein potentially lies my mistake and I discovered this today. The Christmas isles at Micheals already look as if they've been ransacked! Apparently people are hot to trot to buy Christmas decor....especially those crafty people who frequent Micheals. And I was there (today) on a weekday. There were definately a few people there exercising their purchasing power(don't these people work????? and maybe they should be exercising something else other than their VISA cards). Anyway people are well into their Christmas decorations shopping if what I saw today has anything to do with it! That leaves me with a decision. Go crazy and buy decorations now, or tempt fate and wait until Dec. 1. Myself tells me to wait until Dec.1. Then you know that if it is sold out, it was just never meant to buy. Take that! Oh ye Christmas shoppers.

Halloween. The night of ghosts and goblins.....well, more like boy pirates, girl pirates, Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, and Snow White. Also many Spidermans, and for some reason, small chickens. We actually ran out of candy. As much as it hurt me to do so, I had to turn the front light off, and just for good measure I shut the lights off in the rest of the house too. I guess that's the universal sign for 'no more candy available at this house'. I also took the opportunity to dress K-dog up. Thanks to my mom for all her help in the costume. I took K-dog out for a quick walk in our neighborhood while it was light out. Honestly, I felt kind of dumb.... but one look at K-dog snuffling around with this silly outfit on made me laugh. Sooooo here's a picture

She was a spider. Oooooo, scary! Not the greatest picture, but really couldn't get her to stand still for picture taking opportunities!

Also must be posting a picture of what the house looked like all aglow in Halloween splendor. This is the first time I've decorated for Halloween, other than the traditional carving of pumpkins.. I even found some nifty lighting....although I think next year I should have a colored light in my porch light....














Ok, once again, lame pictures, but the idea is there. And now it is all over and we can legitimately start thinking about Christmas......

Yeah, I did decorate my house for Halloween.....had a bit of spiderweb stringing help from mom. The only abnormal thing is....I have spider web, but no spiders. Been on the lookout for some crazy large fake spiders, but not finding much. Am finding that people totally buy early for their holidays now-a-days. Leaves nothing less for us bargain shoppers to peruse when it all finally goes on sale (not that there is alot left to go on sale). I do have a couple of fake black cats....maybe they are only black cats when you look at them, then when you turn away they turn into the spiders that are weaving their webs around my front porch, then when you turn back they turn into black cats again. That's an idea; I'm going with that! And on that note....of course you all noticed the christmas stuff already in stores. I shakeith my head and rolleth my eyes. Pictures of my front porch coming....just waiting for the gailin wind outside to take a break.

Halloween Challenge

Ok, This weekend will be the last weekend (kind of anyhow) before Halloween. My challenge is to decorate the front porch of my house. I've actually gone out and bought a few things already. It may be only a small decorating feat....but as the years roll on, hopefully I'll continue to add cool things to my decoration collection. You know, something along the lines of Christmas decorations. And hey, you may feel that decorating for Halloween is goofy, but were I live I see inspiration everywhere and I really want to join in the fun. Pictures to be posted at the end of this weekend....hopefully!!!!

A New Challenge

Ok, so I'm trying to restart this blog. For all you dedicated readers out there!! (mom, sisters....maybe one friend...). I'm going to start out with a challenge per week for me. And that will then lead to at least one post per week. I could fail terribly at this...or perhaps I will be successful. Only time will tell.

So, the challenge for today was to take the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful fall day that was today! So after spending my morning saying good-bye to one husband that had to go to work, and a houseguest that stayed for the weekend, I decided I would go for a bike ride. Needless to say, I have NOT been on my bike for probably 2 months now. Yes, that is pathetic. Plus I'm still getting over a horrible cold and am currently having plegm issues. So, with camera in hand, I took off to T-Park. I decided I would take the more difficult but much more beautiful way to the park. Unfortuneatly by making that decision I also took a horrendous crash down a somewhat steep incline right in front of 2 dudes. One which just crashed only moments before in basically the same area where I had just landed. I think I must of slid about 20 feet, on my back, headfirst, without my bike. So after I brushed off my embarrassment and all the prickles that I landed in, I carried on in good ol' stoic fashion, and really enjoyed the fall colours and the warmth of the sun. Of course because I am soooo out of shape, and having phlegm issues, I had to stop several times to recover from exertion, wheezing and snorting. So in the end I did complete my challenge, got some fresh air, and got a couple of good pictures!

More scrapbooking...

I know of a certain sister who would much rather see 'swag', but I haven't taken pictures yet so she will STILL have to wait! (Sorry!) Just thought I'd post yet another 'veer away' from the originally proposed colour scheme of my wedding album. And in pink yet! This is paper used from the Basic Grey 'Perhaps' line. Totally get inspired by that paper. And some bazzil solid paper with some BG rubons....still the best rubons I've used yet. They are so sturdy! Not much else to report. Other than windy windy windy here. But semi warm at least.

I think the rain is gone???

I finally got some pictures uploaded from my camera to the computer. Heck, there's been enough rainy days where one could really do nothing else, so I don't have any excuses other than laziness.

The one thing about this page that I don't like is that I added the names of everyone in the picture along the sides. I now wish that I hadn't done that as it takes away from the page. But it's important information and I didn't really know where else to put it. Gotta love those diecuts!! And I've successfully used vellum! I'm pumped! And now I have officially veered away from the color coordination of blue and green that my wedding album was supposed to be. And I don't care!

Revelations..

So, over the past couple of days I've had a few revelations.

1.) My poor cat has mats in her fur! I didn't really realize it until about a week ago when I was trying to brush her and I felt lumps on her back. They were mats! Poor little kitty. She's been somewhat neglected since we got our puppy. So now, whenever I can make her lay still for a couple of minutes I've been working out the mats. One at a time. And boy am I pulling out a lot of hair in the process! But I think it's a good thing. Her fur feel so nice and soft and smooth where I've worked out the mats. And she sits for this....so she must feel better afterwards (you kind of have to understand Jingles to know that she doesn't sit for very much! Unless you want to play a game of hit and miss with her claws). It's been about a week and I've worked myself from her neck and am now around the tail area, so almost done. I've pulled out handfuls of hair. So maybe she won't be leaving so much of that hair on my furniture....

2.) Our lawnmower does not have an oil drain plug. Now go figure! Anything with oil in it should have an oil drain plug to assist in the changing of oil! Something that is recommended for all 4 cycle engines. Of course we no longer have the owner's manual (hmmmm, go figure! And this is only the second year of ownership) so I couldn't even look it up in that. So after some fruitless searching on the internet, I gave up and just tipped the sucker to drain the oil. Now it sits. I must go purchase oil and air filter next.

3.) Justin Timberlake sounds like a girl. Now in my defence I don't normally list to 'Hitlist' radio stations. But hubby has XM radio in his truck and I was driving it today and I don't know how to make the radio go to back to regular radio. So I was stuck listening to XM. Which isn't bad, if I could have found a decent station to listen to. I gave up and listened to nelly furtado, some fergie type thingy, old TLC, then this song came on and I thought "I've heard this song before....I know who sings it....girl group, girl group, girl group....or maybe female solo artist. I was stuck, so got home and downloaded it from the internet. Shocking! It was JT. So I downloaded the song just to see if it was the same song. Shocking! It was! He sounds like a friggin girl. Weirdo!

Enough revelations for today.

For Mom...

Ok, here's something semi new just because I haven't posted in such a long time! This was the card I gave mom for mother's day. It's got a little shabby chic going on. My style really is shabby chic with lots and lots and lots of embellishment. I've been cruisin some of my favorite blogs lately and noticing that I'm not really liking the direction cardmaking is going (of course there is the few exceptions to this comment). Simple and blank. Or weird color combinations. Mind you there is nothing wrong with weird colour combinations, but when they don't jive they just don't jive!!! But I guess to that everyone has their ups and downs when it comes to being creative. Heck I certainly do. It takes me 7 days to complete one scrapbook page. At the rate I'm going I won't be even close to completing my wedding scrapbook before the end of the year. Anyhow, I'm totally addicted to Basic Grey paper lately, although the mindboggling patterns can be difficult to work with. Really now, how does one overembellish a piece of scrapbook paper that is already so busy it makes your eyeballs roll? I guess you just enhance it.

More adventure in cake..

Ok, now I know there is a sister out there waiting for me to post pictures of winning cake swag.....but you'll have to wait a bit longer cause I just don't feel like taking pictures right now! Instead I'm concentrating on studying for the RN exam which will occur in about a week and a half. Yes....must study. I can't wait until it is over. And all fingers crossed that I will pass so I don't have to worry about it again. The worst of the worst would be if I didn't pass and had to fiddle and fart around with nursing textbooks until september. I think I'd die. I want to be free from school!!!!! (here I say that and currently my work is going to send me and the other grad nurse to perioperative school for 2 months starting the 1st of June. Lovely. Not that I'm not appreciative, cause I am...they pay for it afterall and I'll get paid to go. But the thought of homework during the summer does not turn my crank whatsoever.)

So today I will post a picture of my big achievement over last weekend. The first 4-tiered wedding cake I've ever made!! (My own wedding cake was only 3 layers). And all covered in fondant! Whoot!

The sword sitting on the table has cut 28 wedding cakes, all in the same family. Pretty cool. I think the cake was a hit. It was all chocolate with chocolate ganache filling and covered in buttercream, then fondant. The flowers were silk. Took me a whopping 1.5 full days to create it. For me, impressive. What was even better was that I had made way too much ganache filling, so made it into little chocolate balls covered in cocoa for the gift opening the next day. Those who didn't choke when inhaling cocoa dust really loved them (actually those who choked must have liked them too cause they kept coming back for more....but there was always some type of poking fun comment regarding inhaled cocoa dust).

Ohhh, the cake....

So I was convinced by the sisters to enter a cake in a contest, interpreting my favorite t-shirt from an online company. I worked on my cake, slaved on my cake, then went to post pictures of my cake, and saw many other fabulous interpretations of other peoples favorite t-shirt for an online company in the form of cake! Not only that, but I didn't take any wacky pictures of me making the cake, or eating it for that matter, so I'm kinda the odd man out with the cake. Regardless, I sent the pictures in. And now I'm posting them here so everyone can see my cake.

This is titled..."the loch ness imposter meets the loch ness monster". Of course the t-shirt I interpreted is also called "the loch ness imposter" Great t-shirt from threadless. Anyhow, the cake is half gone now.....

More puppy show

Ok, here are some pics from the dog show last weekend. Did I say Kona won 2 red ribbons and a blue ribbon??? We were some proud puppy parents!Here is Kona posing outside on the 'not quite spring like conditions' grassy patch.

She's closing her eyes to the competition here. What one doesn't see, doesn't make one nervous! Kind of a good strategy I guess. But I don't think she was nervous. I was nervous enough for all of us! And I didn't have to do anything but carry poop bags and last minute grooming tools...not that there is much on her to groom either....but just in case. Just to get that last minute flyaway! And here is what happens at the end of a really long weekend! It took her a matter of seconds to find a comfy spot in the back seat of the truck and fall asleep!

Doggie show!

So, we're back from our first puppy show. Yes, this weekend Kona was a show puppy. That l'il gremlin girl! She did good. I think she went through a very big learnin curve this weekend, with being in the show ring for the first time, being in this crazy, busy environment for the first time, and having so many people want to pet her for the first time!! I know that some show dog owners won't let the public pet their dogs; it's for their own reasons I know, but we let everyone pet Kona. Of course there is the disclaimer we always say first..."She does jump on people and she still likes to nibble once in awhile. She also likes long hair! So petter beware" And then we try and hold her down (teaching her to keep 4 feet on the ground) while she gets some adoration. She loves it. And at the end of each day this weekend we've come home with a very tired but happy (I think!?!) puppy. This weekend was good practice for her.

She's just on the cusp of actually being able to show. Puppies are not allowed to be entered until they are 6 months old. Kona is 6 months and 1 week. And it shows. She's not as husky and heavy as the older dogs. Which is fine. She was the smallest dog there in stature. I do think she will be of a taller sort when she gets older though. And she was the curliest in coat. Which isn't always a good thing as labs are only allowed to have a 'wave' to their coat, not the actual curls that Kona has on her bum. Whatever, I like her curls. It makes her unique. She showed the best on the second day, Saturday. She trotted well around the ring and she stacked herself when standing (this is when the feet are placed parallel and appropriate in order to make the dog look good when standing and showing). She naturally places her feet appropriately and shows off which makes it easier for the handler! And what her handler (hubbie!) liked best were all the compliments Kona got. Definately made him feel proud about her.

Now the two of them are asleep on the couch. Yep, it's been a long but busy and good weekend.

Dog Blog...

OK, this is turning into a dog blog....

And this is why one doesn't mess with gravity...

And No, Kona is not normally allowed on this chair when I'm around. I was only around to take the picture. Someone was being naughty.

But I admit, it provided some very good laughs.

We don't have easter bunnies...we have gremlins in our house!

I'm still not sure if these pictures are scary or really really funny.

I'm sitting at the computer finishing up my last nursing paper/project (oh thank God! I'll thank God even more when I'm absolutely finished...which will probably be no earlier than midnight tonite!). I'm watching all these people walk by with kids, with dogs, joggers, bikers....Hey, it looks nice outside. The sky is blue, the sun is shining...in fact it looks exactly like it did yesterday. Until I went outside for a walk and got blasted with icy cold wind. Now I'm gunshy to go outside today. I can see those trees swaying in some type of breeze, and the leaves flittering along the ground. I know there is wind out there. Not sure if it's cold icy wind though. Perhaps I will check in a hour or so......

Kona

What a silly looking puppy! She's in a growth spurt right now and she's got all this skin that she still has to grow into. And she's getting these goofy facial expressions now. For example; when she's begging for food she looks at you with half closed eyes and her head sits way back on her neck. She kinda looks stoned, but I think she's trying to look nonchelant (sp?)...just in case one was to give her a little nibble or a small piece of something were to fall on the floor. Then she springs into action. Her nose has also grown quite a bit in the last little while. It's larger and longer.....a more 'mature' look than she had before. Her eyes look small here, but they aren't really. I guess her head has just gotten bigger. And she still has her curly hair. Apparently some labs have a double coat; they keep their curly hair into adulthood, whereas sometimes labs will have a curly coat when they are small, but then they grow into it and the curly hair disappears. I hope Kona's hair stays curly. It gives her character.

So, she's been allowed to become a couch dog. (NOT by me). And she has picked out her favorite spot on the couch. Her on one end of the couch and Mr.Man on the other end of the couch. I now have to sit in a different chair....which is fine as my cross stitch stand is all set up nicely with one of the other chairs. So I won't complain!!! Kona is about 21 weeks in this picture...I guess that is about 5 months old!

Dog vs Cat...

I had to break up a fight the other day. Our puppy is getting very big. She's not really a puppy anymore, but there certainly is lots of puppy attitude. And she's got energy. I really thought that Labs were supposed to be laid back and lazy. This one is not. She gets into these moods where she runs laps around the house. I guess I don't blame her. She does have to stay home along during the day when we're at work. And we don't always get a chance to take her to T-Park for a super run. Anyhow. No puppies or cats were hurt during this confrontation. I must say that Jingles (the cat) is getting much braver during these 'confrontations'.
Kona usually corners Jingles in the guest bedroom (or Jingles' bedroom as this is where the cat has hung out since we've gotten the dog.) By the time I get upstairs to interfere, Jingles is usually under the bed and all one sees is the swiping of paws out from under the bed. It is funny in a sense; I wonder what goes through the cat's head when all this is occuring. I don't know if she is really scared more than she is just mad that her life has been interrupted by this goofy puppy. I guess we should have forced more 'meetings of the pets' when Kona was still a baby. I just didn't want Kona to get hurt. Now I'm afraid for them both.







The picture is kind of blurry, but you get the idea. I'm not sure who looks more scared here, the cat or the dog!

Another nifty artwork project...

To go along with the birthday that that nifty cake was made for, I also made the kids picture frames. I was inspired from many hours of surfing scrapbook blogs on the internet, then decided to visit a scrapbook store and promptly became inspired when I saw the bestest paper ever! Yeah, I know that sounds weird, but sometimes scrapbook paper just speaks to me and says....'Buy me! You won't regret it!!'

So this is a windowbox type of picture frame, which turned out really cool. This was for a little boy (obvious little boy colours!), and really didn't take all that long to make. In fact I made two in one night as I also made one for the little girl too.

I was quite happy with how both picture frames turned out (did I say that yet? Maybe a thousand times?). It was one of those really satisfying moments. So satisfying I may in fact create some more. So all those related relations and friends...look out! You may already know what you're getting for your birthday. (hee hee).

And for all those people who aren't all that familiar with scrapbooking, all the decorating on these frames was done with precisionally cut paper. So there!

Oh that cake!

I was commissioned to make a cake for a birthday, and of course I jumped at the chance. It was a 1st birthday, and since I'm not much of a baby person (didn't really know what to put on the cake) I kind of went generic. I was told 'no limits! Do whatever you'd like to do!' So I did. And this is what I came up with!

I am quite pleased with the final outcome. In all, the cake took me all day to bake. In reality I baked the actual cake the night before, then spent the morning and afternoon assembling it (which didn't take all that long...only 2 layers to the cake) and then tackling the decorations. The part that took the longest was mixing the colored fondant. I've found a recipe to make my own fondant, but so far have found it easiest to use it right after making it. According to the recipe, it should sit overnight. But I find it gets tough and is hard to mix and mold. Go figure. Don't know what I'm doing wrong. BUT the most important part...although the cake looks cute, it also tasted yummy! It was chocolate of course as I haven't found a satisfactory vanilla/white recipe yet. And it had this lemon pudding/cream cheese filling. I still have some of the filling left in my fridge. Yes, I've been eating it plain...without the cake. It's really that good!

Scrappity scrap scrap....

Ok, the long awaited scrapbook pages. I've been trying to finish off my Christmas scrap pages. I may have gone overboard in the number that I've done, but whatever. I won't care anymore after I've finished them and they'll look nice! So, without further ado!

This was done with Basic Grey paper and good old solid color cardstock with some nifty Stampin Up stamps.

I've really gotten into putting a lot of busy embellishment on my pages. I'll probably look back in a year or so and think "What WAS I thinking!?!?!?!" Ha!

Each page has an area for some journalling to happen. I decided I wouldn't write the stories yet. Not until I've finished all the Christmas pages and then I'll go through and make some witty comments.

This page used Basic Grey paper (from the Dasher collection I think), Stampin Up cardstock, and snowflake stampin up stamps. The 'holiday happy' is some Basic Grey chipboard, so is 3D in real life. This is one of my favorite christmas pages! That's enough for now! I now have to go save something from my nibbling puppy...... Sounds like velcro.....must be a shoe of some sort.