A Happy Birthday Wish and a Free Element

It may seem like a regular ordinary day to you (even though it IS Saturday so perhaps it just a nice day off too) - but for me this is a special day, for it's my Sister In Law Judy's birthday! This is a day when I can do something extra to let her know just how much we love and appreciate her. Judy has been a constant encourager to me over the years. She's always got a kind word and a helping hand if needed. If I had to pick a flaw I would say it would be her ability to completely overlook my flaws and just make me feel like I'm someone unique and of value. I hope that you are showered with love and honour today!

You can visit Judy's blog to leave your own well wishes by clicking on the Happy Birthday Judy Graphic above!

I found the following sentiment, Judy - which nicely expresses how I feel about you.

You've made a difference in my life, I hope that you can see how happy I am we're joined together by the same family. You're one of those special people who make others feel at ease, it's a pleasure knowing someone who gives herself unselfishly. Your spirit is always ready to comfort and encourage, do you ever have a moment that you feel discouraged? So when I think of you I drop the "in-law" part, leaving me a sister cherished with love inside my heart.

I look forward to seeing how you got pampered today. I love you so very much.

In honour of Judy's day I'm giving you this pretty flamingo element. Judy has a FINE collection of flamingo items she's collected over the years. I hope one day she will dig them out of storage to share with us on her blog one day! And as you can also see if you visit my sister Nina's blog (link in my links list to the right) as she has also 'flamingo-ed' her on a pretty card too!

Click Graphic to Download

Demi and I visit the dentist!

Ohhh so PRETTY!

Ok, I admit I've been a baby about this whole going to the dentist thing. My dentist's office (other than the needles and discomfort of trying to hold my mouth open for an hour) is actually a pretty painless thing to do. As I showed you yesterday, unlike Jack and Jill I did not fall down but did break my temporary crown... and today I went in and got it replaced with a nice shiny gold one. When Cheryl showed it to me in its case, like a miniature piece of jewellery, why I just HAD to take a picture of it for my blog. I hope when I die someone will pry it out of my mouth and figuring what it cost me if they sold the gold it could sponsor a child in a third world country for a year. After all, as my Mother in Law reminds me often - you can't take it with you!

Hey, it looks like i have sideburns *snort!*

Ohh all gleamy-shiny!

What was fun, was once I explained to Cheryl and Dr. Nofle that I was going to blog my crown Cheryl got a twinkle in her eye and told me I was not alone in wanting to share this. She'd heard that even Demi Moore, the actress, recently posted her own unflattering photo on twitter of her with a MISSING tooth! Well, if Demi can do that so can I! You can read the article of Demi's experience HERE.

So, OBVIOUSLY I did not take a picture of my own mouth - Cheryl and Dr. Nofle joined me in bringing you this fun post.

Dr. Nofle and Cheryl

Thank you for letting me post your photos and I'll not be afraid to bring my camera next time too. I think it says a lot about both the facilities and your friendly staff to allow me to do this. PS - its a nice time to say thank you to your entire office (especially Heidi) for fitting me in whenever I've had a problem, for cancelling appointments when I had to shift them and for phoning with reminders when I've forgotten.

Alpaca and Deer, Yard Sale Buys and a Tooth

If you follow my blog you know we have friends who own alpaca. They are very interesting creatures. Every once in a while Roger sends me a photo or two. I thought you might enjoy this one of 'Frosty' meeting two deer.

Mom and a Friend at a good yard sale

I also promised to blog about the good deals I got at the yard sales I went to last week with Mom and her friends. This photo is just a sampling of the great deals I found. Pictured here are a set of place mats for $1, a star and moon mirror (which matches our guest room decor), 13 tupperware spice containers for .25 cents each, a DVD set of 20 Alfred Hitchcock movies for $2, and a set of bright, colorful glass pasta bowls for $4

And finally... I could be upset about this -

That's adhesive on the bottom, not food LOL! This is my second temporary cap from a molar in as many weeks. I must be hard on my teeth, or grind them at night because I've managed to crunch up two. The edges are very sharp! I think I'd rather it came out of my mouth then to have swallowed it with my food. And I'm covered totally by dental. So, I'm not upset at all. And my appointment to get the real cap put on tomorrow. So its good. really. I'd love to know if you have a scary dental story!

Home Again!

We arrived home safe and sound from a quick trip to the coast where we spent some quality time with our folks. I say safe and sound because we had hoped to travel the previous weekend but we had a problem with our tires on Sebastian {VW Van} We truly had a hand of protection on us because the 'shimmy' we felt was enough of a cue for us to get it checked out. The prognosis? Had we traveled a long distance on our back left - it may have exploded! The treads were separating inside the wheel.

We had a wonderful visit and I got ferried around to a ton of yard sales. Will post about this later. The trip home went very fast but Mr. did stop for me by the bear carving at the entrance to Manning Provincial Park. I've always wanted to stop here.

Enough about me - my friend JanMary {Ireland} has some incredibly exciting news! Her husband made the BBC news - I won't spoil it, rather you can click HERE to be transported.

Free Tim's!

 

Click on the add to be taken to Tim's so you can believe it with your own eyes!

Ack! The Gurl Drives...

She's going to SO kill me for this picture - I'm sure! Well maybe not but she could at least drive down and wring my neck if she wanted now. Moms are SO corny, right?

Ok, well it felt totally weird but our girl got her licence - finally! She's in her 20's but I never got mine until I was 28. I don't recall what the holdup was for me, I guess I managed to get around on my two legs (is this why my knees are sounding like sandpaper these days?) Anyways I think I truly appreciated it when I finally did it - and so I am knowing how wonderful this must feel to our girl.

Anyways, just a few days after getting her hot little hands on her licence she calls up out of the blue on Sunday evening and says she's coming down. Not for a reason or out of duty, just coming down because she wants to hang out with us. So she came and scooped me (Mr. Miles had a meeting) and we went to Tim Hortons and she treated me to an Ice Cap. It DID feel very strange having HER drive ME! And wonderful. Seems like yesterday she was 'driving' one of those little hard plastic push toys on the sidewalk.

So, to redeem myself (and get taken out for more Tims in the future) here's a real pretty picture of us.

And in honour of this milestone event, I created a small element pack for you. Its personal use only. Hope you enjoy!

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD!

Pretty Petals, Aches and Pains, Useful App and a Free Element!

I'm going to post some of the photos I took in the orchard blossoms the other day - so pretty. I experimented a bit and have decided some of these are best in black and white.

I'll toss in some of my aches and pains and woes here, just bypass this bit if you've got groans of your own or find it depressing. LOL! I lost my temporary cap on the tooth I had worked on last week. It had some sort of temporary stuff on to protect what they will build on, while the gold cap is being made up. I did not even think about it, and when something got lodged in between I used a toothpick and.... ya. Of course the dentist is closed until next week - not open on a friday. Such is life in a small town.

And, last week when my Mr. actually dragged his ailing body to the Dr's I was all set to cave and book a physical. Well, the new incoming doctor is not accepting any physicals at the moment. Ok, if you have something that is laying you out then they will get you in, but if not then you have to wait. I don't like to go in at all - so though I have some concerns I guess it can wait. Remind me in three months ok?

So, mainly what I was worried about is that my feet have been hurting. Like I would get up first thing in the morning and as soon as my lil paws hit the floor I'd think "Wow!" {something's wrong here!} It hurt! But after a while it would sort of go away. Well, its been sort of off and on.

And so I'd think I need to work out more so I'd go on the elliptical or a good stompin' walk in the orchard rows. And I'd feel fine. Oh, I was SO confused.

Thank goodness my daughter did some research for me and I think we have it nailed. After reading THIS article I'm sure its plantar fasciitis. Every single thing listed here is my symptoms to a tee. So it looks like I'm going to have to take it easy on my feet. For me, this is SO hard to do.

Enough of my 'stuff' and onto more good things - after a few more pretty pics, of course!

I could not resist to do that last one in color. It was so soft and beautiful on the 'bee on a dandelion' view! {there's no bee there, its just how I think a bee must see things - perhaps with a mazillion facets coz they have them crazy facetted eyes. think its like a kaleidoscope to them?}

*****

I think this application sounds just wonderful for fonts - especially being one you don't have to download, you can use it online! This guy has such a great sense of geeky humour!

*****

As promised - I've created a high-quality house element. I'm offering it in black and white as well as a wood texture look - like in the preview. I really would love to see how you use it - why not send me small jpg of your layout and I'll feature you here? To download the element just click on the graphic and it will take you to the download link. I am using drop.io I think drop.io ROCKS and they just added some AMAZING features for presentations in real time etc... so you may want to check that out as well while you are there. There is a reason PC Magazine gives them top accolades!

Have a wonderful, safe (long for us in Canada) weekend! If you find yourself with some free time and want to do some scrapbooking... then you're going to want to scoot over to KIMS coz she is having a big sale on some amazing products!

We Love Tim Hortons!

Some countries have their Krispy Kremes and EVERYONE has Starbucks, but here in Canada we have our Tim Hortons. What is Tim Hortons you ask? Its our favorite Doughnut spot. With several dozen styles of signature donuts, muffins, bagels and other baked goodies its a place where little kids press their faces against the glass display (while us adults would LOVE to but know better) Its our own Canadian coffee spot where its always clean, friendly and fast. And its open late - an anomaly in a small town like ours.

So the other night after helping my Mr. at school he offered to take me out and I leapt at the chance. Donuts AND a Date? Woo Hoo!

So we are sitting at a small window on the side of the building which gives us a view of the drive through window, when Mr's eyes seem to wander from mine. Well, knowing he'd never look at another woman - truly - I asked him what it was that was taking his attention from me. He replied, in a bemused tone "A horse is in the drive-thru" So, ok, I KNOW its been a 12 hour day for him but surely I've not entirely caused him to hallucinate? So I lean over to see...

Yep, thats definately a horse at the drive-thru. How sweet! Of COURSE now I want to take a photo, and since Mr. WAS the one to buy me my camera 2 yrs ago and knows it lives in my purse and on my eye... he 'scuzes me to snap away.



See? I got a full shot!

So, if this is not fun enough, I wait till the gal is finished ordering and starts walking toward me. I ask her if I'm able to catch a few shots and she's fine with this. And then she tells me the order she placed was for HER HORSE!

Really, her horse is fond of the bagels - I'm sure the grain one, right?

NUM!

Good to the last crumb!

And yes, I did wind up tracking her down and I've put the local tv station in touch with her. Thanks for allowing me to feature you, Sasha - and your darling horse!

Too Busy, Cloudscapes and Congrats!

I am sorry I've not been very consistent with my posts - I'm still finding myself way too busy. This is not a bad thing - in fact the irony of it all is that it generates more blog-fodder than I could ever time time to write about... only now I don't have the time to do that. Seems silly. So please forgive me if I've not visited your blogs lately - I'm going to do a morning of sit & sip and catch up with you as soon as I am able! Its not for a lack of 'want to' LOL!

I had a lovely Mother's Day! The best ever, in fact. As I was thinking on it, about how Mother's Day is a day to give and receive honour to our Mom's, and as Moms... I turned this idea around - I wrote a love-letter to our children. For, without being able to "Mother" them, my role would be unfulfilled. It would be like a musician never being able to touch an instrument, an artist with no paper nor pencil or brush. The joy of being a Mom is truly only realized when your role is recognised, encouraged.

I thank God for our children. My cup truly runs over!

*****

Saturday was a day of amazing cloudscapes. I made myself wander outdoors several times throughout the day - each time the sky had rearranged to make a new stunning scene. It was breathtaking. I should have made a bowl of popcorn and kicked back in a lawnchair all day to watch the show being played out. I did take photos to share. I'm going to post a few here - and I've also made a slideshow which I'll try to host at the side of my blog!

*****

Short and sweet - last but not least, I'd like to say CONGRATULATIONS to my friend JanMary - who's just opened her own ETSY shop, featuring her beautiful, wearable art! You can find her blog HERE, and her shop HERE!

Camping Trip, Card for Mom, and Pretty Paisley Giveaway!

Whew - I finally have time to post some of our camping photos. We only went for one night, but it was perfection! I managed to be packed and ready the very SECOND my man was finished school and the weather co-operated completely.

It took a matter of 1/2 hour to set up and prepare dinner. The lake was calm and the air soft. Sigh. Mr. begrudgingly poses for me before I turn my camera elsewhere.

Though this is not out in the wilderness, there's no actual town nearby either, just a small gathering of perhaps 10 houses or so, among orchards. The beach is gravelled and when we sat at night a group of about 8 deer 'crunched' their way between our site and the lakeshore.

I love this site with the tall ponderosa to shelter. I was sad I forgot my special camping rake. That's another blog post in itself I hope to share soon.

This lake is popular with fishermen and I wondered at these interesting eggs in the water? Any ideas?

The sun remained the next morning and we lingered until 10:30 - basking in the rays. I would have LOVED to have stayed another day but it did give us a taste of what summer will be like.

The drive home was scenic and gorgeous. The balsamroot flowers are in full glory - and here are some photos we took along the way.

Whole hillsides were 'buttered' with the blossoms!

A small bouquet of them in front of some 'hoo-doos' (the clay formations in the background) I'm fascinated by hoo-doos and will do another post on them someday too.

Payback time from my Mr - he makes me pose in the midst of the field...

But I think HE'S the pretty one here!

And so you can see why we got caught up. Truly an amazing sight. I could have stayed all day with my camera as my eye.

*****

And now, onto my latest card-making. I feel quite safe to show off my Mother's Day card I created for my Mother-in-Law as she is completely anti-computer. I used KimB's gorgeous Antoinette Kit, it was PERFECT for this project.

I love the way Kim's flowers 'pop out' so realistically - and I added a final, tactile element with this big green sunflower I had salvaged from another project.

I included two sentiments inside - on from son to Mom and one from me to Mom, a thank you from me for the blessing of her son in my life. I had to create my own envelope as this card was oversize.

Just click on this graphic to be taken to Kim's blog where she has instructions on how you can buy this AMAZING kit!

*****

And finally, a little present for you! This one is personal use only. Thank you goes to my dear friend VALINDA who helped me with this by giving me the idea to completely recreate it from the bottom up from an older version I'd made. I would NOT have thought of that, Valinda. No, not - really (we were arguing in a nice friendly "let me pay for lunch" kinda way, haha!) At any rate, it turned out so well that I've included both a full size 12 x 12 overlay as well as the element as a single. These have a silvery-metallic look! Enjoy - and I'd LOVE to see how you use these. Click on the graphic to download.

Lou is NEW (her grand entrance to DSO)

Yeah Yeah! Kim was queued up to be next, and AmyW... but sigh sigh sigh - newness wins out. For I remember what it was like to be a new designer. And what it SHOULD be like LOL (hanging my head in embarrassment for by this time I SHOULD be a designer but its just not worked out this way, and I kept HOPING for it to happen but am realizing its probably not realistic) HOWEVER - all the more reason to celebrate my friends who ARE designers. Ok, off the soap-box here.

Louise, so fondly known to all of us as LOU-CEE, has thrown her hat into the ring and is now officially a designer for ... (trumpets) DSO! She's got two kits up for sale - both LOVELY! So, why not check out her blog to find out all the details on how you too can own these pretty designs - at 40% for an introductory savings. Click on the graphics to be taken to Louise's Blog!

Ohhh - so soft and lovely - perfect for your spring layouts!

And this NEWS TO ME kit is soooo pretty that I opened it immediately after downloading and whipped up a card for my friend Angie's birthday!

I can see many, many great projects coming from this kit, how about you?

Ok, now to go and work with and upcoming kit from KimB and some terrific items from AmyW. (rushing off!)

We got away for a night of camping on Thursday - I will post on this in a day or two, just need to catch my breath! Have a wonderful last 1/2 of the weekend.