holy heckin'

Occasionally I check my stats with stat counter, just to see how many hits I'm getting a day, etc. I get the usual 7-10 of you wonderful people .. but today, there were 107 hits, mostly from countries like Croatia, Brazil, and only 1 second hits. But how bizarre is that?

january day

We got another dump of snow last night, and although I live on a rainforest of an island .. it was NOT spared the snow. *sigh*

I always feel so badly for our kitty. He's nearly 12 years old and strictly an outdoor cat. We adopted him when we first moved to the Island, and then he was just an indoor kitty, only have access to the outdoors by way of our balcony. We moved several times, and still .. he remained an indoor until we found out we were expecting Hailey. I heard so many horror stories of cats suffocating the baby .. that we made our *cats indoor/outdoor cats (at night and naptimes especially). During that time, both Dave and Hailey had developoed allergies to the cats dander, and then we made the decision to make them strictly outdoor cats. Normally this is okay .. the temps don't dip that low, and we have sufficient covering from the elements for him to hide out in .. but when it snows and it's chilly, I feel bad and wonder if he's warm enough on his blanket in his little sheltered corner. He eats ALOT more during those times .. and I hand it out as fast as he can eat, just to ease my guilt and hope the extra food is keeping his little body furnace going strong.

I know he loves the outdoor freedoms, being away from the roudiness the girls can be, and only coming for some love when HE wants.

*we adopted a cute little orange and white kitty to keep Meesha company .. but unfortunately when we moved to our current residence, he ran off. :(

my current project

Well sort of 'current' but really I'm finished it except for adding the buttons.
I just LOVE the old fashioness of a hand made layette on a baby. Just so cozy and cute!

yitl #4

This week, Suzanne's posted word to be inspired from, was PROUD. And this what I did with my card. I'm kind of realizing I need to keep all embellishments fairly flat with this card album, so only paper and one flower brad were what I used. Our family photo on the back, to finish it off.

brrr

For the past week or so, our temps have been dipping down to as far as -6C at night, and then only climbing as high as 3-5C during the day. It makes for very chilly days, even with the sun shining brightly against the blue sky. I do love it, and it's a wonderful uplifting change from drabby, dark, rainy wintery days that we've come accustomed to here on the Island. One doesn't quite realize how low their butt was dragging, until you get a string of sunny days .. and the moods lift dramatically.

*the picture shows the design the frost 'painted' upon the car window

wordless wednesday

January weekend days spent in the sun, on a piece of playground equipment = perfect.

tis the season

No, not THAT season anymore. But here in these parts .. THIS is what the boys live for. Hockey Night in Canada, just not in the NHL .. but rather just a little small town team, trying to fulfill their dreams by way of engaging in some no contact hockey.
This is just a shot of the boys watching fellow team mates make their play.

Dave is #3 in case you're wondering. :)

yitl #3

Suzanne's asking us to use the word "blue" for our inspiration in creating this week's yitl card. Here's mine. I went pretty realistic by using blue, and using the word too. Nothing fancy about it.

alissa'isms

I must record this somewhere before I forget, so ignore if you're not into 'kids say the cutest things' posts.

Hailey, Alissa and I were discussing what parts make up their lineage.
Hailey: we have dutch, scotch and fin in us, but how much?
Me: I'm 100% dutch, and Daddy is 1/2 scottish 1/2 finnish, which makes the both of you 1/2 dutch, and a 1/4 scottish and finnish.
Hailey *nods her head in understanding*
Alissa: but I thought we were all human.

bahahahahah

wordless wednesday

It's more then a facination ...

WINNER!

Alright .. time's up. Thank you to all that commented and left ideas on what's inspiring you right now. And the lucky winner (thanks to the automated number generator) is ...
Pam said...
How cute is that! I love the pink of course! Happy Anniversary to your blog!
9:15 AM, January 12, 2008

Pam, I already have your address and even if you hadn't mentioned loving pink, somehow I think I would have guessed right. ;)
I'll pick up the yarn in the next couple days and get started on it right away!
Congrats!

could it be?

Could it possibly be teasing me into thinking spring is right around the corner?
I can't recall ever seeing buds this early, and I'm pretty sure with the cold winter we've had thus far, these poor little buds may verywell be confused by some of the unusual sunny days we've been treated with. It's back to rainy days, and with that comes warmer temps, so maybe, JUST maybe this little bush may have a chance to fully bloom before the next dump of slushy snow.

I'm going to let the toque giveaway remain open until Wednesday. So keep your comments with what's inspiring you, keep coming.

pink toque/blogging anniversary

In my pre Christmas frenzy of gift making, I didn't have time to make myself anything. I made this very same pattern in a brown/green camo yarn for one of my brother in laws, and really liked how comfy it felt on my head when I tried it on for size. So I picked up some pink yarn to make me one. It is THE most comfiest toque I have ever worn. I don't wear hats, not because I'm vain and don't want messed up hair .. but hats just don't suit this big noggin of mine. But I tell ya .. I'll suck it up any day of the week for this cute, sassy little hat that keeps me oh so warm.

I'm also reminded .. my blog anniversary has come and gone (December 4th) and because it was a busy time .. I thought perhaps we'd do a little celebrating a little late. I've been blogging for two years now! Who ever thought I'd be able to keep up a spot on the web for that long? I don't do journals or diaries by hand, and thus had no idea if this blogging thing would be something I would continue with either. It helps that I type much faster then I can write .. the backspace button is far to handy, and I don't get a cramp when I post long entries. But putting all that aside .. I've also loved getting feedback, support, sweet comments, cyber hugs and praise from some very important people .. YOU! Since part of the reason I keep blogging is YOU, I'd like to reward you. Post me a comment, sharing with me something that's inspiring you right now. It could be the beautiful sun shining in your window, a magazine article that has captured your fancy, the chocolate bar you have half consumed, or maybe your kitty rubbing against your leg. I'll pick a number (automated), and for you, I'll crochet you up (in your colour choice) a nice toque like the one I'm modeling above. You'll love it! And if you're one of my readers that live in Cali, Florida, Alabama, or Texas .. (I think I just listed nearly all my readers :P), perhaps a fancy schmancy crocheted clutch purse?

Inspire me!

yitl 2

And the second word for yitl, is 'winter', so this is my little card expressing my take on what I think the word means to me.
The photo sticker and word stickers are all by DCWV, as is the snowflake sticker. This card took me exactly 5 minutes, nice hey?!
And this card I added to the back because there just were to many more winter related words I wanted to use.

more white!

It snowed again last night, leaving the world around me a very white and clean slate. Trudging through the slushy snow again this morning (it rained on top of the snow making it soupy) .. having to forge large deep puddles because avoiding them would mean walking out in the middle of a busy road, I discovered I bought THE very best pair of boots. Each little piggie kept nice and toasty warm and most importantly .. dry!
So after dropping the girls off, I came home and scooped up my camera and headed out again down the back road behind our place. There's always a few gems hidden, for my camera to find. And these little white berries topped with a dollop of icy slush made my subject. Okay .. so I confess it was the only photo that turned out remotely okay. Note to self .. learn how to adjust settings to accomodate the bright white of the snow.

first 30 mins

Suzanne's blog challenge for this week is to focus on JUST the first half hour of your waking day. Write a blog entry describing it in depth. Include details such as what time you wake up and what your mood is generally. Are you usually well rested? Do you use an alarm clock to wake? If so, is it set to music or buzzing? Use lots of descriptive words!

I usually wake before the alarm clock goes off at 6:30am (I'm a morning person and although I don't HAVE to get up that early, I like to). I go potty, then go downstairs and get the coffee started. While the kettle is heating up (we use a french press so have to boil the water), I pull out all the lunch things from the fridge. I make up both girls lunches/snacks to pack in their backpacks and set it aside. It's about 6:45 or 6:50am by now. The coffee has steeped and I'm ready to pour me a cup of strong hot java with lots of cream. With my coffee in hand, I head towards the computer for my 'me' time. I check email, google reader, and 123-scrap.com and facebook (if there's not to many posts on all, I can usually do a quick catchup). At 7:20am, I head upstairs again, and wake Alissa up (she's easiest to wakeup (a morning person like here Mama)), and then when she's awake and tickled enough, I move to Hailey's room and try waking her. She's in a loft bed, so it's harder to tickle, and annoy her awake. With both girls knowing they have about five minutes to lay there, I head for the shower and continue getting ready for the day. The shower stops and the girls are to have feet planted on the floor and on their way to getting themselves dressed and teeth brushed for the day. By 8am we're heading downstairs to get breakfast, comb their hair, put socks on (last thing to do before leaving the house .. we all hate socks), and by 8:35, we're heading out the door, to walk to school.

Okay, I realize that's more then 30mins .. but I couldn't stop at that. I had to take my full morning routine right until I get the girls out the door. :P

it's not all about being cute anymore

We got dumped on through the night and woke up to a very balmy, very soggy, covered in white, world. I say balmy, because it IS above zero, hence the soggy snow and misty rain falling. UGH! THE worst kind of snow to ever get, but that's pretty much the usual for around these parts. And for the past 11 years of living here, I've foregone actually buying myself a pair of practical rubber boots (also known as mud boots, rain boots, etc, in other parts of the world) to keep me dry during those slushy snow falls. I just pull on Dave's size 12 mens and clomp outside to supervise the girls, but pull on my faithful running shoes for walking out into the real world. Heaven forbid I'm seen with a pair of mens size 12 steel toed rubber boots, clomping my way along the sidewalk.

So today, after trudging through ankle deep slush, all the way to the school and back .. I sucked it up and suggested to Dave that we go get me a pair of boots. I want dry feet, dammit!

And of course .. there's no ladies rubber boots to be found. Why? Because it's January. Those kinds of boots are shipped out to the stores in fall and spring. (I ran into this problem one year for the girls too. The big box stores don't realize that not all of Canada is covered in snow for six months out of the year)

The sales lady suggest looking in the mens section, because I don't need fashionable boots .. black will do. Okay, so not a good idea .. but I did find a hiking book that's 100% waterproof, has thinsulate so my toesies will stay toasty warm, and work for these kinds of days, but also will double up for our geocaching adventures. Finally a good pair of walking/hiking boots. They aren't cute, but they work .. and I'm as practical as they come .. so perfect match.

inevitable

When your mother takes more then 30 pictures in any given day (minus last week's down time from over exhausting myself in December's photo a day challenge), you're apt to be a little camera shy. Shy or just rebellious? .. that is the question. When there are trees to hide behind .. that's where I'll find my girlies peeking out from behind. See her eye, forehead and whisp of hair? Silly girl! She'll thank me there's SO many photos of her childhood, when she's a grown woman.

yitl

My scrapping friend, Suzanne from O' Scrappy Day, is holding a few challenges on her blog, and one of them is to alter a deck of cards (or anything smaller the 5x7) using the word she posts. I'm going to alter the cards, but want to use whatever is in my thoughts or inspiring me that particular week. So here's my card for this week. The keys represent the accessibility of the new year.

If you'd like to play along, check out Suzanne's blog.

some recent scrapping

1. My nephew married this past summer, and what a gorgeous evening wedding it was.
2. Our GIANT sunflower we grew this past summer.
3. Hailey's grade three school photos.
4. Alissa's grade one school photos.
5. Our school put on the musical "Where the Wild Things Are", based on the book of the same title. Hailey's class were some of the 'wild things' and she was a wild dog. Hence the crazy hair and snarly look on her face.

contests

Last Christmas, my wonderful hubby gifted me an mp3 player. It wasn't an iPod because I didn't think I needed such an expensive player just because of it's brand. My mp3 player keeps me very happy .. but I'd never turn down a free iPod .. nor turn my face to a contest that's giving away one. The Big Bald Blog is running a contest for an iPod Touch (which is much more then I'd ever imagine owning, but wow would it be nice!) and more, so that's where I'll be entering.

new

A new year, full of new promises, hopes, goals, and best of all .. empty uninhabited space to fill.

I love flipping through the new years calendar and seeing white empty space. Not like my life is overly busy with scheduled appointments and dates, but to see crisp clean pages ready to be filled with anything of my choosing. It's invigorating and exciting.

I generally don't make resolutions persay, but I do like to make certain goals for my upcoming year .. but don't really put much thought into it. There's the usual, be a better mom, wife, daughter, sister, friend. Be wise with spending habits, lose weight, be more involved with the school, etc etc. Of course I hope for those things this year as well .. but I'm really going to focus on the 'lose weight' one. Last year (hee, I can say that now ) after looking into some heart arrhythmia I had been having, the doctor did a bit of a physical take on my situation (checked bp, blood sugar levels, cholesterol, and the like) and encouraged me that if I didn't want to fall victim to any hereditary diseases that plague my family, I needed to lose weight. Of course that may not be a free ticket out of what may already be in my genes, but it would give me a fighting chance at least. I didn't do much of anything to change my current state of being, but now as I contemplated my upcoming year .. the year I turn 35 .. I must make those changes.
So today is my new beginning and as I build up my willpower to fight against the temptations of the food world, I hope that come October, I can celebrate my 35th year with a new self worth, one I can be proud of and excited about.

So here's to the new year .. to a new start .. a new outlook .. and new perspectives.