Toots for designer friends (nice downloads for YOU) and my iphone gallery for today

First I'd like to give "Toots" for two dear designer friends - first KimB - she has the most LOVELY Quick Page for giveaway on her blog! You can catch that by clicking HERE. Her blog is always full of adventures too - she fits more in a day than I do in my entire week haha!

The second "Toot" is for my friend Linda who has an entire kit for you - only don't wait or hesitate because its only available for free until June 1st! You will be kicking yourself if you miss this one - click HERE to be taken to her blog!

PS:  Leave these talented and generous gals some L♥VE!

The rest of this post is going to be devoted to my little foray out into the world to day – in photos taken with my iphone.  Hope you enjoy!

A burst of spring color! 

Pretty even before this blooms.

Lovely lupine.

Some sort of columbine!

Simply Stunning.

Beautiful underneath as well.

 

Even dandelions are welcome and sunny.

Alive or not so alive – a study in symmetry.

How I wish your browser had “smell” – the aroma of these red willow blossoms would make you levitate!

Plain old spear grass is not plain old (forgetting in a few short months I’ll be biting my tongue as I pick these little heads from my socks…)

Hope you enjoyed my little iphone photo gallery for today!

Mojo 192 - Weekend in Pics - Some Sun for YOU! (freebie)

Heavens - I thought last week was 192 but I see it was 191.  I'm out of sync.  Having a wonderful visit with my in-laws, terrific in fact!   Thus the lack of blog time - family 1st!   Speaking of family, I wanted to post WITH my sister today because that makes me happy but it turns out she's got other things cooking.  Ah well, perhaps next week. 

Here is my take - forgive the photos, taken with my iphone.

I don't know which designer papers these are - I do know thats a graphics fairy lilac and the baubles under the sentiment are both bits of jewelery I have picked up here and there.  The triangle and gold piece is an earring, the green beads from a necklace.  This is some of the ribbon I bought at the thrift store earlier this week - I used glue tape to run the mauve through the middle of the blue.  The scalloped edge of the paper called for my fiskars trimmer.  The sentiment is a stamp given to me by my friend Melanie O and the circle shapes cut out at my Sisters on her nifty little machine.  Sentiment embossed in gold tinsel.  

This week end in (iphone) pics:



Ah - SUNSHINE (Saturday)  Taking advantage of it.

First June Bug! 

I'm happy to see this little dude.

Garage Sales. 

I really REALLY wanted the Le Crueset pot (forefront) but resisted.  It was quite worn inside.  Since I've  gone through the Simplify Your Life workshop I'm resistant to collect clutter.  This said I did buy two new items at the yard sales.  One is a small ice cream maker (it has a cylander which you freeze, I had one before and loved it)  The second item is a rowing machine - a replacement for my old one which was falling apart.  Need this machine to work off all the wonderful food my Mother in Law is cooking up!



Num!  My Mr. cooks!

My Mr made these fabulous ravioli from scratch!  He filled them with a mixture of ground beef, mushrooms and boursin cheese.  Paired with cutlets Mom whipped up it was a memorable meal. 

Finally, here are some Sunshines for you - please use them as you wish. personal or commercial. It would be nice if you credit me when you use these in your kits and I'd LOVE to see how you use these in your kits or projects!    I created these from a drawing which one of my art students had in her sketchbook - turned them into line art.  About 5 inches in size, png format, 300 dpi.   Just right click on each to download.  Enjoy.


Mojo 191 and My Oven ;)

It just feels wrong to not post the same time as my Sister Nina.  We've always posted together but with the days finding me industrious and with her keeping insisting I post and with my Mother in Law arriving tomorrow, well I'd better bite the bullet or I fear I may forget entirely.  Just know Sis, its wrong!  It won't be a habit I easily embrace. 

I really enjoyed this week's sketch - it had lots of parts but was easy to work with. 

Here is my take on this pattern:

The supplies I can name here are the stamp from Inkadinkadoo which I embossed using Versaink watermark pad and Silver Tinsel embossing powder.   I crinkled the black "ribbon" paper with a Fiskars crimper.  The scalloped circle was created on my sister Nina's machine when I visited earlier.  Not sure what papers I used.  The ribbon behind the Birthday Wishes sentiment came from the thrift store. 

Speaking of thrift store, I am really spoiled by the ladies there - they give me "bulk buy" on things because I'm a once a week regular there.  (I don't just buy stuff, I do leave things, especially now I've worked my way through the Simplify Your Life workshop) 

So my latest find is:

All of these - for $3!  No kidding!  You can't really see but there is even some sheer in there - something I've been wishing for. 

Lastly I want to share about my (very reluctant) oven cleaning experience.  I had a friend over just the other day and I told her in a very forward way that I was not, NEVER - EVER going to clean the oven.  I would do everything else in the house but was going to beg my Mr. to do that. If there was one and only one thing that I would ask him to help with to prepare for my MIL's visit, it was the oven. 

This was based on my last oven experience.  See, we like pizzas and pies and pizza pies in this household and they wreak havoc with my oven.  Yes, I do have an oven liner but it somehow permeates right through that I think ;) 

This said and stated, of course I wound up cleaning the oven, there was just no other way.  My Mr. is too busy and he also helped me teaching computer art class this past Friday, giving up 1/2 his own day, bless his heart.  I had him pick me up some oven cleaner and I prepped my nasal passages for the anticipated fumes and warmed up my arms for the 1/2 day upper body workout I knew was coming due to the baked on grime.  Sigh.

But, Mr. brought me home this:









Now I've been living in the dark ages because I had not used this cleaner before - last time I ventured into my oven it was with Easy Off but not this heavy duty stuff.  I know my sister told me about it at one point but it flew through the ear canals and departed.  Had I known!

BTW this is not for self cleaning ovens, which I don't have.  Okay, so I spay this in the oven the night before and ... no fumes!  Light lemon scent.  Hmmm, this is hopeful!  Go to bed, sleep - get up, pull on the yellow rubber gloves that tie me in nicely with the look of the can of cleaner - prep for a 1/2 day adventure with the brillo pad...

1/2 hour later its SPARKLING!  NO scrubbing! 

No kidding.  I was in shock and awe.  I am not paid or sponsored in any way by Easy Off - I only tell what I know and I know that Easy Off made my life easier.  So much easier that it gained me an extra 1/2 day in which I made my Mojo card in and got so much more done too.  I'll be cleaning my oven on a regular basis - with anticipation! 

Do you have an oven cleaning story? 

Appointments and Painting and My Eye and Cherries Jubilee FREEbie!

Whew and what a week it has been!  In pictures, here's what I've been up to:

Just a cleaning (whew!)

Children's Church room - going from THIS

to a pretty and soft and tasteful theme. 

My Eye!

How amazing is this?  My ophthalmologist actually allowed me to get my own eyes sent to me in my email.  It is incredible to examine the minute details of the inside of an eye - almost like an aurora borealis in some ways.  The good news?  My eyes are PERFECT for computing, a good thing because I spend countless hours here but the not so good news is I do need reading glasses to do the close up work on sewing etc but even more of concern is I need "real" glasses for distance vision for driving.  Yeah, really need them. 

I have a little story to tell here - my Mr. also needs a prescription as well - now he is going to order his from the opthomologist here but I had decided that I would order mine online if I needed, I'm going to go with a place I've heard good reviews about.  I won't publish the name at this time pending on how it turns out for me, so I'll do another post on that.  Thing is I can get my first pair for free and I can't pass that up.  However, I did need to try some frames on at the local place to see what suits my face etc...

Well, I just could not take up their time without feeling terrible so I decided to be honest from the get-go and I'm so glad I did.  They were very gracious about it all and helped me.  Very impressive.  I don't really like to not shop local as I like to support or own community, but the difference between free and around $200 is a big leap and choosing to live on one income one has to make choices.  Have you ever had to weigh something out like this?  I'd love to hear your story!

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow - our church is having a "swap" of Pastors - and I'm heading over to Keremeos with my Mr. who does music ministry and our pastor and friends (a couple) as well.  It should be a fun experience. 

Lastly, I've been dabbling around (any spare moment I can squeak in) on the computer (some of it class related at school) and I created this little gift for YOU!  These measure about 5 inches in size.  Click on the word DOWNLOAD to make it yours! :) 

Personal Use

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Tip for Freezing Fruit

A dear friend brought some fresh picked rhubarb - perfect because my mother in law is coming next week and she LOVES to make rhubarb pie. We missed out last year. So I decided to freeze it right away.





I put it on cookie sheets, generally lining it with wax paper first but today I tried a couple of those plastic cutting matts. They worked perfect and...





When it was frozen and ready to go into the bag I only had to lift the matts up, loaded with fruit and tip it straight in!

-- Post From My iPhone

Mojo # 190 and I'm soooo Bee-zee!

Just a super-quick fast post today.  Got too much cookin' and don't want anything burnt, if you know what I mean! 



I'm not enamored of this card, it was a real struggle - too much on my mind to enjoy.  But it got done.  Nothing special used here, just used up bits of this and that.  But it got done.  Can you imagine?  It GOT done! 

Now, I love to encourage people and I felt like encouraging someone today.  So, I used my Free calling using my gmail account and I called wayyyyy up to Northern BC to the community of Taylor.  I've been watching "Village on a Diet" on CBC tv while I work out and I had just reached the 10th episode where everyone got to see how many "body age" years they lost, and the weight and I was so moved by the show that I just picked up the phone and called.  I talked to Melissa at her pizza parlour and I just laid on the encouragment.  The whole town has done a tremendous amount of work and I wanted to let them know.  Have you ever done something like this before?  You might want to check out the show - you can watch all the episodes online.  Just go to cbc.ca and look under "shows" and find Village on a Diet. 

Keep it up Melissa - and each one of you who have worked so hard. You deserve every bit of praise you get!

So, blog readers - have YOU reached out to encourages someone today?  I dare you to do something crazy encouraging.  



Happy National Scrapbooking Weekend!

Wishing everyone a Happy National Scrapbooking Weekend and a Happy Mother's Day too!   I'll post a little about what I've been up to, then celebrate NSW with a FREEBIE!

One thing that I do each week is update my church women's blog and I'm mentioning this here because the OCC Women's Online is coming up to 100 posts in the near future so over the coming weeks we will be giving away some books!  This week's book is:

So if you might like to WIN this book, just leave a comment over on the blog - click HERE!   Send a friend or two - also, each week we give away new FREE Scripture wallpaper for your computer, check this out under "The Gallery" tab.  Besides the free stuff there's a lot of good inspiration to be found, a wonderful place to be inspired. 

I'm also continuing to work my way through the "Simplify Your Life" workshop (via listening to podcasts from middayconnection.org and offered by Marcia Ramsland who is a professional organiser. 

One month later, 107 photos in my online Picasa web album and my house is really shaping up.  I've got SPACE and it feels wonderful - this will propel me to do some redecorating soon.  I've gone through 90% of my drawers and cupboards and the last thing I tackled was chopping down a TON of cardboard boxes I'd been saving.  Many of them were for pieces of equipment or appliances, kept thinking that if we ever had to return an item...  I've got a few friends following along and some even working along with me and its SO encouraging.  You're welcome to join the fun!

I have to share this sign I saw yesterday (on the way to the thrift store where I was headed to retrieve a pretty cupcake stand I saw the day before and decided to buy, but then it was GONE ... sigh ... you snooze you lose - but I DID buy a splatter cover for the microwave and I'd had my eye out for one of those!) 

Is it just me - or is this funny?   I get this mental picture in my mind:

Like inside that building there are people sitting at tables with art supplies... DRAWING meat?  *snort*

 

And I've been teaching digital art class on Fridays at YouLearn.ca Oliver branch.  Its just a few hours in the mornings and its proved to be a lot of fun.  Yesterday's class we did "self portraits" using Art Rage.  I took my sweet Mr:

And turned him into:

I should have corrected his "lazy eye" - he's quite shy about this but it shows up whenever a camera is pointed in his direction.  What a great subject he is though!

I have permission from Jill and her son Cameron who are taking this workshop to use photos of them to show you what we are doing, its such a joy to have family working side by side.  They are so positive, enthusiastic - and as it turns out - talented!

Jill and Cameron - DIGITAL ARTISTS!

Cameron has a good handle on his self-portrait

Jill and herself :)

Can you believe this is her first attempt?  Do you know Art Rage has a FREE version?  just click HERE to check it out!   Saves a ton of money on art supplies. 

And now, on to this being National Scrapbooking Weekend - there are a ton of great giveaways and offers all over the Internet today - I'd like to point you to a few places, you can find them in my sidebar.  In particular Scrapbook-Elements is hosting some fun events, my friend KimB always has wonderful products and gorgeous giveaways (more about that tomorrow or Monday because I used her kit to make a special project)  and then Linda too.  But seriously, check out some of the links in my sidebar for scrapbooking and you will be bound to find lots of great stuff to celebrate!

And even ME since I was already in Art Rage I decided to paint up a little goodie I cooked up - for you for NSW.  Enjoy!   (and Happy Mother's Day!)



Personal Use

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Mojo One-Eighty-Nine & Mel's Magnificent Candle Man

Did you'all get in to vote today?  I hope so.  I almost did not - my day completely messed up from the get-go!  I think its because I decided to take the advice of the "Simplify Your Life" series book suggestion to make a schedule so I did that and had it all laid out... so of COURSE everything went south.  Well the first thing was that I guess I'd bopped my camera yesterday, in all the fire excitement, unbeknowndst to me (I KNOW thats not a real word!) I must have given it a small hit and the shutter zoom button sprung off.  Its only a month old.  I took the chance and drove it up to London Drugs - which was not in my schedule.  By the time I came back to the school where my Mr. teaches in the neighboring community it was mid morning, then my sweet friend Mel O transported me home, down to vote, home again.  Sigh.  I made it through. 

Right, so my card, which I did in pecks between my latest tackling of a huge bank of storage closets in the basement. 

This is as good as I can get with my iphone, seeing as I am camera-less for a few days.  I know my Mr. will loan me back the Nikon - might cost me a few batches of something baked, or perhaps a foot massage.  And a last note I just added three white pearls to this shrivelly strip because I forgot the three dots.  Various Stamps etc, can't find the names. Sorry!

I talked about my friend Mel O the other day - she's a dear friend and she comes and stays over now and again, which she did this last Saturday night and we watched an Janette Oke movie, ate sweet/salty homemade popcorn with toasted coconut and toasted walnuts and painted our nails - purple, yeh believe it or not the Mr. picked it for me.   But I had to share this craft Mel makes.  This is her quaint Santa figurine she's making for a family friend.  Totally made from Beeswax sheets - these take her FOREVER to build.

She says the beard will go much further down.  I have a set of these, a Mr. and Mrs. S... mine have wicks in, but I'll never burn them, they are too much fun to look at.  







A Birthday and A Burning....

This morning I got a call to say that "Somethings BURNING!!!"  so me and my friend Mel. O. jumped in her car (dressed in our Sunday best) and headed to town.

Being it's my Brother in Law Mike's  birthday being celebrated today, one might assume that this smoke could be rising from the candles on his cake...

THIS being the belated card he will be receiving as it somehow did not make it quite into the mail box... we will refrain from any finger pointing here (don't want to do things that might rattle Mike at his age, hehe!)  Oh and this card will be in the mail tomorrow - so hopefully it will look as good in real life.  We hope your celebration was a wonderful one! 

Back to the fire - now, it's not at this restaurant (I'm sure the owner is very relieved!) but I could not help take a photo of this - notice the name???  The fire is in the buildings two stores down. 

It amazes me that one day a place is fine, the next its tinder.  A reminder how fragile is the balance of our lives.  Coulda been me! 

The fire started before 9 this morning and it took out both the Dollar Store and also Osoyoos Christian Ministry Thrift Store.  My friends Iris and Abraham De Vries ran the thrift store and a dear friend also volunteered there for the past several months, putting many hours into re-organizing!  No insurance is the sad sad news.  

Both these stores were assets to the community and will be sorely missed.  The owners were all personable and generous.  At the dollar store they were always supportive of Operation Shoebox, giving a discount on items intended for Shoeboxes going to children in third world countries at Christmas - sometimes the ONLY gift these children might receive. 



Won't you pray for the owners and employees of these businesses, please? 

Because tomorrow, and for many days to come, its going to be very difficult for them.  Imagine if fire ripped through your work place - the ripples are felt all through our community. 



If you would like to leave a comment or prayer for my friends I'll certainly pass them along.