Running with Scissors

New blog name

2012-02-06T21:06:00.001-05:00

I am in the process of changing this blog over to be completely Stampin up. I have decided to start working my Stampin Up business and instead of adding a third blog, I have decided to rename this one "Running with Scissors", which will be my Stampin up biz name. I have decided to keep the address for now, easier for my followers to find me. Over time I hope to tweak the layout of this blog and you will see my upcoming workshops, ideas, special Stampin up deals etc. I am in the middle of a learning curve here and trying to figure things out. Your patience is appreciated.

Town of St.. George Layout

2012-01-15T20:50:00.002-05:00

Powering through my Bermuda album to get it done. Very basic layout here, tons of photos cropped to fit on the page, letters cut out of patterned paper using my Cricut, some pattern paper added as a simple embellishment, different stops in St. George written along the top of the photos. Done and ready for the album.

Buccaneers Beware Layout

2012-01-10T11:45:00.002-05:00

Here is a layout that I got to play with fire to make, and no one was injured, double bonus!!! Hanging out in the stocks in St. George Bermuda, what use to be for torture and shame is now for tourists to have fun. Kind of weird when you think about it. LOL

The papers and accents piece were from Rusty Pickle, I sanded and roughed up the photos and burned the edges of the accent pieces, the 3D elements are from Dress It Up.

Enjoy!!!

Bermuda Witch Trial

2012-01-09T14:39:00.002-05:00

Another layout I finished while at the Cottage with Denise and Marissa in August, but haven't gotten around to posting until now. Yep, I have procrastination down to a fine art.

This layout is a series of pictures of a re-enactment of a witch trial in Bermuda, which unfortunately was a common world wide occurrence. This particular re-enactment is a 17th century trial. The actress who played the suspected witch was hilarious and could throw out some really good one liners. LOL And the "drunkard" tied to the post was some poor unsuspecting tourist from one of the cruise ships.

Card stock was Stampin Up 12 x 12 in Basic Black, the border and boots were made from card stock in my stash, letters were Thickers and the ribbon was from a Scraptivity kit I purchased a very long long time ago. I cut the witches boots out on my Cricut using the Happy Hauntings cartridge, and the buttons on the boots are Stickles. Enjoy!

Waiting for The Ferry Layout

2012-01-08T12:48:00.000-05:00

Bermuda album is almost done!!! Woohoo. Just have to finish journalling on some pages.

Supplies I used were lots of bits in my stash. Anchor was chipboard covered in some glue sand (I think that is what its called LOL). Cut the banner with a banner punch from Stampin Up, red cardstock as the base and some white self adhesive linen as the centre and inked the edges. Used twine as the string for the banner.

Close up of the banner.

Close up of the anchor, not what I was exactly hoping for, but not to bad. Its fun to experiment with new techniques, who knows what you will end up with.

Adventures in Bathroom Renovation

2011-12-17T15:40:00.000-05:00

We just finished renovating the kids bathroom. It wasn't something we had planned to do this year. But circumstances beyond our control nudged us into renovating the bathroom.

As you all know, we had a fabulous two week family vacation back in July. The night we got back from our trip was late, and we had a rather unpleasant surprise awaiting us at home. It was 11:00 at night, we had just got home and I was on the hunt for laundry baskets to get started on the mountains of dirty laundry that we brought home with us. As soon as I stepped into Daniels room the hardwood floor felt off under my feet. I looked down and to my horror there were a number of pieces of hardwood floor all warped. My first thought was since we left Dalwhinnie at home with family who dog sat for us, she had a few accidents while we were gone, it wouldn't have been the first time she did this. I knelt down and smelt the floor, yeah, no shame, I smell floors. LOL Nope, no doggy pee smell. I looked over and saw the baseboards peeling away from his wall. The wall that his bedroom and kids bathroom share. I ran into the bathroom and saw the toilet had sprung a leak and the water ran along the wall under the floor. Dave ended up being on the phone with the insurance company at 11:30 at night. Thank goodness we had people in the house while we were gone, otherwise insurance wouldn't have covered us. Lesson learned, if we ever leave the house for more than 24 hours water is being turned off.

Here are some pics of the damage in Daniel's room and the kids bathroom. Not a fun welcome home scenario.

After talking with the insurance company and finding out we were insured, we decided we should just go ahead and completely redo the kids bathroom. When we moved into the house in 2002 they were 6 yrs, 4 yrs, and 20 months old. It suited their purposes at that time. But fast forward 9 years they are now 16, 13, and 11. It wasn't working. It was actually a source of frustration for the kids and Dave and myself. The only towel bar we had in there was no more since Daniel decided it was a monkey bar a few years ago, the shower pipes were constantly banging, the only sink had a slow drain and we couldn't fix it regardless of how much liquid plumber we used. The cheap builder grade vanity sucked and was getting banged, storage sucked, and now the toilet was inoperable. After getting the cheque from the insurance company for the almost $10,000 worth of damages that one little leaky toilet caused, we contacted a few contractors for quotes and design. In the end we decided to go with Anckor Construction out of Waterloo.

A few days before construction was to begin I took some pictures of the old bathroom. The kids decided they have outgrown the green walls with wallies of fish, hey they were cute at the time and they loved them.

Love this corner, the non working toilet. The medicine cabinet that looked and was awkward, the towel bar with no bar. Yuck.

Did I mention the storage sucked. Large towels were kept under the sink, hand towels and wash clothes were stored in a hand me down basket on the counter. The drawers were used for make up and tooth brushing supplies, first aid supplies etc. To add to the counter clutter we had some baskets for the girls' hair brushes and hair grooming supplies, and facial cleansers and such.

Add to the fact that Laura constantly left her pajamas on the counter didn't help. LOL

Here is the lovely blue shower tile. Notice the towel rack hanging on the back of the door? It was a pain, the towels would never dry properly being pressed again the wall, would always be falling off, and Daniel could never reach to put his towels away.

The shower. Ugh, never enough room on the tub edge corners to store all the supplies that two teenage girls need in the shower. Water would always leak down the side in the corners and all over the floor. The pipes would bang if you changed the temperature to quickly. Dark and dingy inside when the curtain was closed. Yuck.

A picture from the hallway. Notice where the linen closet is here, in order to give us more room in the bathroom we decided to move the linen closet to the other side of the bathroom door where there was a huge dead space between the shower and the hallway wall. Don't know what Tice was thinking by not utilizing that dead space, it was something that has bothered us since we moved in, along with the crappy plumbing.

Then the day came and Shawn and Steve completely gutted the bathroom. Wow!!!!

It appears the toilet left a bit of a mess, look at the black mould. EWWWWWWWWWW. And some of those water stains look old. I remember sometimes sitting on the toilet and it would rock and shift.

A little more black mould from the shower. Bye bye black mould.

See that lovely dead space behind the shower. Shawn is going to make us a linen closet there.

Dalwhinnie checking out what happened to the bathroom. She was not impressed with the loud noise of construction and I ended up having her constantly under my feet where she would cower in fear of the noise. Crazy dog. Old door way where the linen closet use to be.

Shawn replaced the floor boards where we had black mould, thank goodness, and one thing we noticed right away, was Daniel's allergies. Daniel inherited my lovely allergy genetics but even during winter months, his nose would constantly be running especially at night and early morning when he was in bed. I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. I washed his bedding, blankets and all, every week. We ripped up all carpeting throughout most of the house, especially the bedrooms. I tried to keep his room dust free as possible. After Shawn and Steve gutted the bathroom, and got rid of the black mould, his runny nose is no more.

We decided to do away with the bathtub completely. Kids never used it anymore, it was too small. We decided to go with a stand alone shower instead.

Now the electrical is done, walls are painted and the tiles are installed. We decided to go with a natural stone, the look of natural stone is something that I have always been drawn too. Now I have some in my house. Woohoo!!!

Love the shower, especially the built in shelving. Sweet!!

As with any construction project we had a few minor glitches. Especially when it came to shower. Could not get the hot and cold to work properly. Shawn order a new thermostat for the shower thinking that the original could be faulty. New one didn't work at all either. They ended up cutting a hole in our new linen closet to find that when the house was originally built, they had put in the hot and cold pipes to the shower backwards,(have I mentioned we have had a fair number of plumbing problems in this house). The plumber ended up having to do a little criss cross piping to get the pipes where they should be. Afterwards Dave reminded me that when we first moved in we had to have one of the Tice's plumbers come in since the hot and cold in the kids shower was backwards. At the time, the cartridge in the shower handle was reversalable, so he just turned it 180 degrees and problem was "solved".

Now the bathroom is finished. It was a long three weeks of the five of us sharing a bathroom, made mornings interesting and quite the juggling act. But the finished result made it worth it.

View from the hallway. Linen closet in its new location. Which gave us added room in the bathroom itself.

The new shower. Ahh. So neat and tidy. And look no towel rack hanging off the back of the door.

Love the built in shelving keeping shower clutter contained. And the door is trackless. No more gunge in the tracks that never can get cleaned.

The new, actually working properly, toilet and place to hang some towels above the toilet.

The new vanity, mirror is coming. Two linen cupboards and lots of cupboard and drawer space help with keeping the counters clutter free.Everything has a place. Double sink vanity helps to keep mornings and evening running a bit more smoothly. And look I don't see Laura's pajamas on the counter anymore!!! LOL

Only a couple of things left to do. Besides the mirror being installed, Dave has some spots on the ceiling to clear up in the main floor hallway. The spots resulted from when the water from the toilet leaked into the floor joists and thus to the ceiling of the hallway. Looks like Dalwhannie had an accident on the ceiling. Ewwwwww.

Overall we are happy with the job and quite pleased with the end result. Only problem is, makes our master bathroom look like a sorry mess. Time to start saving up for the next project. If you live in the area and looking to do some renovations I highly recommend Anckor Construction. The finished the project in a timely fashion, have a real eye for detail, and the workmanship is excellent.

Sights of The Season

2011-12-12T23:11:00.001-05:00

I am still alive and well. We have been living in renovation world around here for the last few weeks, kids bathroom is having a complete re-do, I will post more about the saga later when everything is finished. But for now I would like to share some holiday spirit with you. Enjoy.

Some Halloween Projects.

2011-11-04T13:59:00.000-04:00

I know I have been a really bad blogger lately, I have been working on some other things right now and of course life stuff as well. But my crafting hands have not been idle. Here are a few projects I made for Halloween.

This is a banner I made in a class with Natasha Byrne, a fellow Stampin up consultant. I love the Pick Your Poison Designer Series Paper on this banner and of course the glittered letters, gotta love glitter. LOL You can see more of Natasha's projects and some of her classes on her blog, Stampin Enchantment . Natasha is excellent at teaching workshops and classes and she is a very talented lady.

At the end of September I was in the Thrift Shop with my Mom and came across some bottles that caught my eye as possible decor items to alter for Halloween. And at $ .50 a piece why not? As per my normal self, I put the projects off as long as I could and rushed to finish them. Again, I kept it simple. I used Pick Your Poison Quick Accents from Stampin up and some bits of Halloween ribbon that I have picked up over the years. I popped the labels with Dimensional Adhesive, but first since the labels were stickers, and I didn't want stickers, I plopped them in some baby power first, shook off the excess and adhered with the Dimensional Adhesive without having to fight myself from being stuck to the labels in the first place.

I also made and sent some treat cards to my youngest four nieces and nephew. I used black ribbon, melon mambo card stock, black card stock, the Sweet Centers stamp set and round treat cups all from Stampin Up. The patterned paper and brad all come from my stash. When I punched a hole in the stamped image to make room for the treat cups, I was left with a cute saying that I placed inside the cards as a greeting.

When I was planning to do the altered items I knew I wanted to do "Wool of Bat" with some black bat "wool" inside the container. I had the perfect die cut font, and bat images that I could cut out of vinyl. But when I went to adhere the vinyl to the clear glass container I realized that the vinyl letters and bats wouldn't show up against the black wool. So I found some yellow tissue paper where we keep the gift wrapping supplies, and with Mod Podge ripped and adhered the yellow tissue paper to the container. After it was completely dry I rubbed on a little bit of alcohol ink to tone down the yellow and give it a more aged look and then adhered the vinyl.

These are three Ikea vases I found at the Thrift store as well and with some bits of ribbon and black twine we have three different potions bottles.

Wacky Wednesday Giggle

2011-10-12T13:10:00.000-04:00

As a woman who has given birth three times and her bladder has never been the same, I can relate to this saying. (I cross my legs every time I sneeze.) I saw this on Pinterest and it made me laugh, and cross my legs while doing so.

Enjoy!!!

Old German Mill Adventure

2011-09-25T18:50:00.002-04:00

This afternoon Dave and I took the kids on a hike on the rail trail out by Glen Morris to find the Old German Mill. It is an old woollen mill that was built in the late 1800's just outside of Glen Morris, at one point it was a hotel but Canadian Pacific Railway forced the person who owned it out of business when they decided to put a railway past his place and cut his access to the only road in and out of his home. He later sold his property to the Township and it has been abandoned since about 1945. History research I have managed to find states there was a murder here in 1941 when it was a hotel, and the murderer and motive have never been found.

The ruins, are fascinating and we spent a fair bit of time exploring. And here are a number of images I managed to captured today.

Daniel, Laura, and Amanda entering the building, at least what is left of it.

Inside what is left of the mill. So serene yet eery. I loved it.

What looks like plaster that kids have taken a B.B. gun to and what appears to be brickwork from a chimney.

Love the trees growing out of the foundation of the old mill. Mother nature is quick to reclaim what was taken.

Dave and Dalwhinnie taking it all in. For Dalwhinnie, the best part was a chipmunk running past. Oh the joys of being a dog. LOL

Playing around with some of my photo editing software from Picasa

The river just outside the mill. This would have been where the rapids were to power the mill.

I know we will definitely come back here again, probably after all the leaves have fallen off the trees.

Jenkins Family Road Trip Day 14, July 14

2011-08-23T08:32:00.006-04:00

Our final day of vacation. We checked out of our hotel and they allowed us to leave our car there until 4 p.m. so we could finish off some things we wanted to see and do before heading off to Montreal for a stopover. Such as the tour of the crypt. But first we wanted to check out some stores on a street just around the corner from our hotel that we hadn't had a chance to explore yet. I saw this window display, and well we didn't get to far from here. We ended up spending a couple of hours in this store known as Boutique Medievale (bear with me I don't know how to use the accents on my computer).

They had clothes, hats, scarves, jewellery, daggers, swords, chalices, chessboards, tapestries etc. Everything for the medieval enthusiast. I was in heaven!!! We all ended up with something and for Daniel's birthday we ended buying Troy Chess pieces with a sweet chess board made to look like a castle wall with turrets on each corner. He has been dying for a really nice chess set and we found numerous ones here. Took him awhile to pick the pieces and chessboard, and later that night in our hotel room he beat his dad's butt in chess.

I ended up getting some rune pendants for me, Marissa and Denise (my besties). The girls ended up getting some jewellery as well. Dave didn't really want anything for himself, I think he was hoping Daniel would share the cool new chess set. LOL

We had to go back to the hotel and deposit our purchases in the van, and grabbed some lunch (did I mention we lost track of time, whoops) and headed back to Notre Dame Basilica.

The guide I spoke to the evening before was busy, but a young lady was more than helpful and took us through a secret door at the back of one of the side altars, down a spiral staircase into the crypt. I was allowed to take pictures, but not allowed to use a flash so some of the picture are of poor quality due to a low shutter speed and no tripod to keep the camera steady.

First off we have the memorial plaques to Champlain and some of the first Governor Generals of New France. In the crypt, if the cross is white, they do not have the person's remains, but if the cross is black, they have the remains and they are place behind the plaque in the crypt. They do not have Champlain's remains, but they have been looking for years in hopes of finding them. They believe his remains would have been treated very much like Bishop Laval's (which they do have), and it is very possible they would have been buried near or in the basilica.

The main part of the crypt is where the bishops, archbishops, cardinals are buried. You can tell what their rank in the church is based on the number of tassels on their plaque. A number of bishops have a spot in the crypt, but are buried in France as they never even came to New France during their term as Bishop of the Parish.

View of the clergy catacombs in the crypt.

Here we have a shrine to a number of Jesuit priests that were killed by Native Americans in the early years of European settlement. They are considered martyrs and the basilica has relics of four the Jesuit priests.

And now we are getting ready to go into the crypt where the civilian remains are. But first we had to pass through this ornately carved wooden door. The carvings represents various stages of Bishop Laval's life.

The crypt itself is very very dark, with two extremely large ossuaries containing the remains of over 900 people. They also have Bishop Lava's casket on display. They accidentally found his casket while doing renovations under one of the choirs in 1877. And with this discovery and subsequent reburial, there were quite a few celebrations and ceremonies throughout Quebec City. You can read a bit more about what had gone on with the discovery of Laval's casket here. And also read about Bishop Laval and his importance in Quebec history here.

Here is a picture of site just outside the crypt that that they are excavating looking for more remains. The original cathedral was not as large as it is now, there was a cemetery on either side of the cathedral and also within the cathedral itself, very much like in Europe. A number of families had their own pews and underneath these pews you would also find the family burial plot. If someone in the family died, they would remove the family pew, lift up some of the stones underneath, bury the person, put everything back for the next mass. With the reconstruction of the Basilica in 1923 after an other devastating fire, they moved the remains from the cemetery and in the Basilica to this crypt. Our guide explained that to this day residents and workers in Old Quebec still find human remains during renovations, gardening etc. and bring them to the basilica and the remains are placed in one of the ossuaries.

This is one of the best pictures of one of the ossuaries I could find. We then managed to see the register and with a list of names provided by Dave's sister Mary, our genealogist, and his mom. we went through the whole list a few times and managed to match some names and sent them off to the family. Mary was going to try and see if they match based on the info she has managed to find so far of their ancestors. One thing I know, there were a lot of Maries and Jacques in both lists. Whew. And our guide was so kind and patient waiting for us to finish our research.

Afterwards we went to Montmorency Parc in Old Quebec to get some pictures of the statues of Louis and Marie Hebert. Along the way we found a Statue of Bishop Laval.

The statue is a grouping of three, Louis is the centre statue, rather high up. I had to go across the street to get pictures.

On one side is a statue of their son in law Guillame Couillard.

And on the other side is Marie Rollet. Here is a picture of Dave, Laura, Amanda, and Daniel with their great-great-great- etc grandmother.

By this time it was getting close to 4:00. We rushed back to the hotel to claim our van before being charged extra and headed to Montreal for dinner and an overnight stop. The next day we headed for home sweet home and ended our two week road trip.

In looking back on our trip, I would love to go back to any of the places we visited but the two that would top my list would be Salem and Quebec City.

Jenkins Family Road Trip Day 13, July 13

2011-08-22T10:32:00.006-04:00

This was a very full day for us. It was a family history day, lots was seen, and hundreds of pictures were taken. Dave's family roots on his mom's dad's side (try to stay with me here) are from Quebec, going back to the first settlement of Quebec. In fact Dave, our children and his family are direct descendants of Louis Hebert and Marie Rollet, Louis is considered the first Canadian Apothecary and first European to farm in Canada. Marie is famous in her own right, she taught a number of Native American children to read and write and was well loved by them. Dave and his family are also connected with numerous other names in the list of the founding families of New France (Quebec). But I will try and not bore you to much.

It was a gorgeous day and we were able to see the stunning view from our room in daylight.

The majority of family research we would be doing today would be in Levis, across the river from Quebec City. The quickest and most efficient way to get there is by ferry. And it also gave the kids something to do as well instead of just sitting in the van AGAIN.

One of the first things we found was this plaque, in honor of the Samson family. Another important name in the history of Levis and Quebec City, and Dave is a direct descendant of this family line, my mother in law's maiden name is Samson.

The plaque is on the property of this house, we are not sure of the connection, possibly the land of one of the early Samson families during colonial times?

Throughout Levis are various streets named after Dave's ancestors. We managed to find a few of them.

And this is the family homestead, Dave's great grandparents lived here until they moved to Mt. Clemens, just outside of Detroit in the early 1900's.

Every time any one of Dave's family is in Levis and Quebec City we have to take a picture in front of the homestead. I am sure the people living in the area are starting to wonder why these crazy English speaking people want their picture taken in front of a regular house, across the street from a hamburger stand. LOL

Our next stop was to the cemetery where the family plot is. A distant relative by the name of Colonel Robataille, had the remains of a number of ancestors transferred to his plot since they were moving a number of graves from another cemetery, to a mass grave in this cemetery. We aren't sure who exactly he had buried here. I love the marker Colonel Robataille chose, different than any other grave marker in the cemetery; which also made it very easy for us to find.

Here is the statue marking where the mass grave is. The number of bodies moved is astounding, 15,000 were exhumed. That must have been a huge undertaking.

Our final stop in Levis was the old A.C. Davie shipyard, where Dave's great great grandfather was a carpenter. It is now in ruins but they are working on restoring the site to what it once was and there is a museum across the street in one of the old outbuildings and the house where the Davie family lived. The Davie shipyard was an important piece of the history of Levis and maritime history of the St. Lawrence River.

These pictures show what is left of the shipyard where they would repair and build hundreds of wooden ships every year.

Once inside the museum we were fortunate to see a scale model of how the shipyard would have looked like when in use. The patent slip was a unique technology invented by the Davie family to help in the process of ship repairs. It use to be that to repair ships they would have to wait for low tide, do the repairs quickly before the tide came back in, and then would have to wait until low tide again to finish what they started, which would sometimes take weeks to complete. With this unique patent slip they would bring the ship up to the underwater rail system and lay a cradle underneath the ship when the water was high enough, and when the low tide started they would place special wooden bolsters underneath, once the tide was low enough the ship would be resting on the cradle and bolsters and using a crane would be hauled up to one of several areas to be worked on. This allowed the shipyard to work on numerous ships at any one time during anytime of the tide cycle.

Tools of the carpenter.

Afterwards Daniel had to put on the diving mask replica they have. And of course Laura had to make faces behind him. Joys of siblings. LOL

After the museum we explored the Davie family home. There were various artifacts from the Davie family throughout the home and upstairs they were still renovating. I loved being able to see the different layers of linoleum, a time capsule of flooring styles through the years.

Afterwards we went back to Quebec City had dinner at the hotel and decided to wander around Quebec City before heading to the waterfront to watch the the 3d presentation "The Image Mill"

I loved the old European feel of the streets, I could have spent days wandering the streets of old Quebec City.

Unfortunately a rain storm came in and we made a mad rush for the Notre Dame Basilica to take shelter from the rain, along with a number of other tourists. The details of the architecture were stunning. At one point Dave had to take Daniel back to the hotel to go washroom, and there were no public washrooms in the Basilica. Amanda decided to go with them and we would meet up at the waterfront later when the weather cleared. So it was just Laura and I left.

We sat for a bit and just enjoyed the peace and quiet that came over the building as people started to leave. I started to wander around, looking at the shrine to Bishop Laval etc. At the back was a small display about the history of the Basilica back to the days of Champlain. Near the end of the display they talked about a crypt under the church with hundreds of Quebec's founding members remains. Which made me wonder if there might be some of Dave's ancestors underneath the Basilica. At this point they were announcing that the Basilica was closing, so I walked up to a couple of young men who appeared to be working at the Basilica and started to ask questions about the crypt. One of the young men was originally from Maine so he was my designated guide for the discussion of what is under the basilica. Turns out he was a direct descendant of one the Champlain's ship engineers but we determined it was a ship that came after Dave's ancestors Louis and Marie. Too make a long story short, he told me to come back the next day and we could have a tour of the crypt and access to the register listing the names of all the people down there. So basically Dave leaves me unattended for a period of time, I start to talk to strangers and end up with a tour in the bowels of the Notre Dame Basilica in old Quebec City. Not a bad start to our evening I believe. LOL

After being released from the Basilica, we were literally locked in, Laura and I wandered to the waterfront and met up with Dave and crew along the way. We were given our free 3D glasses and found a good spot where all of us would be able to see the show.

The show is a presentation of Quebec's history in 3d images projected on the silos. It started with prehistoric times and ended with today, and was about an hour long. Well worth it and best of all it was free.

Playing scrabble on my iPhone waiting for the show to begin.

We wandered back to our hotel room for the next day would get our tour of the crypt beneath the Notre Dame Basilica.

Jenkins Family Road Trip Day 12, July 12

2011-08-21T12:41:00.003-04:00

Today was the day we headed back to Canada, but first we had to get through Maine. We stayed over night in Bangor to break up the trip. Breakfast at Denny's across the street from the hotel we stayed at and we were on our way.

Maine is a gorgeous state, very much like home. Loved it.

Maine is full of lakes, rivers etc. and the scenery is gorgeous. Along the road to Quebec there were numerous look outs to stop at. We pulled over at one so we could stretch our legs and enjoy the fresh air. We stopped along the Kennebec River, where Benedict Arnold and his troops travelled on their ill fated trip to Quebec under the orders of George Washington in 1775. He started with 1100 men, and by the time they reached Quebec City, they were down to about 500, losing a number to sickness, desertion, accidents etc. The mission was a complete failure and in 1780 he was caught sending military secrets to the British. Dave and I wondered if his experience in Quebec affected his stance on the American Revolution, thus causing him to switch sides.

Closer to the Quebec/Maine Border we stopped at another lookout overlooking the mountains in Quebec. It was stunning, but unfortunately it was a hazy day and the view was not what it could be.

We arrived in Quebec City after dinner where we celebrated Daniel's 11th birthday. Yes, we gave the our son the gift of spending the day in the van for his birthday. We are awesome parents. Lol

After we arrived at our hotel in Quebec City, we gave Daniel some gifts we picked up up for him in D.C. I think we did well smuggling the gifts from D.C to Quebec and him not noticing.

The Birthday Boy himself.

Opening his gifts, from us, some packs of Baseball Cards, a wire Mandala. From Laura, Cosmos Kinetic Art , and from Amanda Newton's Cradle.

Watching his Newton's Cradle in action.

Our hotel in Quebec City was the Hotel Manoir Victoria. And we highly recommend this hotel to anyone visiting Quebec City. Its in the heart of Old Quebec, Valet Parking, excellent staff, clean and spacious rooms.

And this was the nighttime view from our room.

Jenkins Family Road Trip Day 11, July 11

2011-08-20T14:31:00.004-04:00

Today was the day we visited Salem. I have always been fascinated by the history of Salem, specifically the witch trials, since I first heard about them years ago. We started out with the Salem Witch Museum. Just outside the museum is the impressive statue of the founder of Salem, Roger Conant facing the Salem common.

The Salem Witch Museum is housed in an old church. No pictures were allowed inside, but both Dave and I were impressed with the presentation. We start out in what use to be the sanctuary and is now a sitting area surrounded by dioramas depicting various scenes in the story of the Witch Trials of 1692 where 20 people were killed and more than 180 people accused and imprisoned on charges of witchcraft. All started by some girls showing "symptoms" some experts speculate what they did was out of boredom, basically 17th century mean girls, Puritan style. Other experts also speculate that the girls' symptoms were from a bacteria in wheat flour. I guess no one will know for sure. If you don't know the full story and are interested I recommend reading more information here. There is far too much for me to post here on my blog.

After the presentation on the witch trials and the horrors that were caused by these young girls and the beliefs at that time, we were ushered into another room which I was more than impressed with. They have a new exhibit titled WITCHES: EVOLVING PERCEPTIONS . The exhibit examines the evolution of the word witch and thankfully dispels many myths and misconceptions of the term "witch". Starting with the Celtic Wise woman, who was the local healer of her village and would help with delivery of children, taking care of the ill etc. Enter the early Christian church and for some reason the early church leaders were threatened by these wise women, and instilled fear of Satan and convinced people that these wise women were in league with the devil. Thus the witch hunts began, and unfortunately, though the Salem Witch Trials are famous, hundreds and thousands of people were killed at the hands of the Church, on charges of witchcraft. The exhibit ends with a recorded explanation from modern Wiccans what their religion is really about, and talks about how witch hunts still go on today, just in a different form i.e. Senator McCarthy, aids epidemic.

Afterwards went to see the the Witch Trial Memorial. The memorial is located next to the 17th Century Charter Street Burying Point.. Entering the memorial you will see an inscription of the victims' protests of innocence, which are interrupted mid sentence by the wall, "symbolizing society's indifference to oppression". In the centre are six locust trees, last to flower and first to lose their leaves "represents the stark injustice of the trials". At the rear, you see the wall is "crumbled" and looks out into the burying ground, "a reminder to all who stood mute witness to the hysteria". Along the wall, are 20 stone benches, each bearing the name and execution dates of each victim, in chronological order which they were killed.

Found this tombstone in the old burying ground from one of the original residents of Salem who came across the Mayflower. Totally fascinating.

While walking through Salem we found Daniels St. and we had to get a picture of Daniel standing under the street sign.

Also in Salem is America's oldest candy shop, the YeOlde Pepper Candy Companie The candy shop was started in 1806 by Mrs. Spencer who lost everything in a shipwreck on her way to America with her family, the citizens of Salem decided to help her out knowing she was a candy maker and gave her a barrel of sugar, which led to the Candy Shoppe. You can read the full history here. In the store, they had a huge jar full of Gibraltars, the candy Mrs. Spencer was famous for, the jar was found in the Hawthorne hotel during renovations, they believe the candy was made in the mid-late 1800's. Not sure how good it is now though.

Laura, Amanda and I decided to explore some shops, I was looking for a something special for Laura as an early 16th birthday present, and Dave and Daniel decided to explore the ship "Friendship". This is a replica of the original Friendship . The original ship was built in Salem in 1796 and travelled all around the world carrying all sorts of goods from spices to sugar to coffee. On her last voyage back to Salem, the war of 1812 had begun, but the crew didn't know about the war. They were captured by the British and were surprised to learn that the U.S. was at war with Britain. Friendship was then used by the British for the rest of the war to transport goods and troops. A model of the original ship is also on display at the Peabody Essex Museum .

I like to finish this post off with a couple of photos of Laura and Amanda hunting for shells along the shore in Salem. A beautiful port town as well. Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to see everything we wanted, which means I have to come back to Salem again. Hopefully soon.

Jenkins Family Road Trip Day 10, July 10

2011-08-19T10:58:00.006-04:00

We spent the day at the Boston Harbour front and it was a perfect day weather wise. Simply gorgeous.

Our main activity for the day was the New England Aquarium. Just outside was the Atlantic Harbor Seals. And they were quite busy when we arrived. I loved this guy sticking his head out of the water, soaking up the sun

Once inside, Laura got to pet some stingrays, no pictures unfortunately, because there were sooo many people it was crazy.

The jelly fish exhibit was fabulous. I managed to get some good shots of these amazing creatures.

The favourite part of the aquarium and where we ended up spending most of our time was the penguins. Fun creatures. Daniel even got to play with some of them. They have a flashlight attached to railing along with viewing deck and you play with the penguins by having them chase the light in the water. It was too cute.

We had the pleasure of being able to observe the penguins being fed. Each penguin has their own personalized arm band. There are a couple of trainers with feeding trays and a couple more with boards listing the different penguins, so they can make sure each animal gets the amount of fish they require. As soon as the penguins saw the trainers most of them lined up waiting for their turn.

And shortly after that was feeding time in the giant ocean tank. This time the trainer is underwater and feeds the stingrays, sharks, and other carnivore fish. One giant stingray kept landing on his head, like it was giving him kisses and the giant sea turtle was content to sit at the feet of the trainer.

At the end of the visit we went to the Northern Fur Seals outdoor exhibit and it was feeding time. This guy is the oldest seal and is blind so they were hand feeding him.

For lunch Dave had lobster of course, can't be in New England without having some lobster, he shared with me and it was amazing.

After the aquarium we wandered around the harbour front, kids had some lemon and watermelon ice on the dock and we soaked in the glorious sunshine.

Before dinner, we decided to go to Paul Revere's house, Dave's sister Mary, her husband John and son Evan was in Boston the same day as we were. Unfortunately, we were unable to meet up. Mary and John were in Boston for the weekend for a family wedding on John's side. At one point we were within blocks of each other. So instead Mary took a picture of Evan in front of Paul Revere's house and we took a picture of our three in front as well later on and sent it to Dave's mom. Our way of saying "hi Grandma!!" LOL

We had dinner at Tia's restaurant out on the harbour and headed back to our hotel. The next day was a trip I was looking forward to Salem!!!

Jenkins Family Road Trip Day 9, July 9

2011-08-17T10:55:00.003-04:00

After a dark and rainy drive the day before, we woke up to clear blue skies in beautiful Rhode Island. We started our day by doing laundry after breakfast. I didn't take pictures of our dirty underwear. You can breathe a sigh of relief now. LOL

After we finished laundry we were going to do a quick stop at the Newport Tower, which is a landmark that has fascinated Dave for a while. There are many theories around about what this tower possibly was and who built it, from the Templar's, to the Chinese and everything else in between. Earlier I had said "we were going to do a quick stop", well.......Dave was studying the tower and I was wandering around the park trying to get some good shots of the tower and surrounding area. At one point I saw Dave talking to a gentleman and they were both obviously in a deep conservation about the tower. So I wandered over. Turns out the gentleman was Jim Egan, who lives and breathes research on the tower.

We started with an extensive talk with him around the tower about what he has found. And the various theories that abound about the tower. The outdoor talk was eventually followed by a PowerPoint presentation in his Newport Tower Museum .

Jim started to point out many idiosyncrasies with the tower. And its connection to Governor Benedict Arnold who was the great-great-great grandfather of Benedict Arnold the "traitor", who called it "my stone built windmill"

One reason Jim believes it wasn't originally built as a windmill is this fireplace that is on the second floor. Why would a windmill have a fireplace? Wouldn't that be dangerous to have a fire in a windmill? He also noted the different odd places that support beams would have been placed such as this one next to the fireplace.

At one point Jim had an astronomer from the Rhode Island university come and study the tower and see if there is an validity to Jim's theory that the windows in the tower, which again are oddly placed, are aligned with various astronomical events such as solstices and equinoxes. And based on the the astronomer's research yes, they are. In the museum, Jim has photos he has taken during different astronomical events that show how these windows are aligned.

Jim's museum is also a camera obscura, if you are unsure what a camera obscura is you can read more about it here . Not only is the museum a camera obscura he has also created a sundial on the floor that measures time for a whole year and has the different solstice and equinoxes marked on the floor.

Based on his research Jim believes that the building of the tower is connect to John Dee, who was a mathematician, cartographer, astronomer, and navigator in Elizabethan England and was one of Queen Elizabeth I's advisors. It is Jim's theory that John Dee sent the plans for the tower and where to build it with one of the first expeditions to the new world and that the tower was a giant timekeeper that was part of a fort designed by John Dee and built by Sir Anthony Brigham.

You can read more about Jim's research and theories here . It is lengthy, but he is thorough in his explanation and if you are a history buff you would find it quite interesting. Jim also has a number of videos on his website as well and was part of a documentary on the tower for the Discovery channel a number of years ago. Jim was a fascinating person to bump into in Newport and if you every happen to be in the area don't forget to visit the tower and the Newport Tower Museum across the street. A hidden gem amongst tourist traps.

After spending more time than originally planned at the tower, we made a slight detour to Warwick, Rhode Island on our way to Boston. In Warwick, is the office for The Atlantic Paranormal Society aka TAPS , founded by Grant Wilson and Jason Hawes and stars of the popular SyFy channel's Ghost Hunters and one of my favourite TV shows. Dave is an air and space geek, and I am a paranormal investigation geek. So I couldn't be in the area without stopping by the TAPS office for a photo op. Unfortunately, since it was around 6 pm on a Sat. evening in the summer, the office was closed. But Laura, Amanda and I did get a picture to say "we were here"

And then we were off to Boston for our next stop on our road trip adventures.

Jenkins Family Road Trip Day 8, July 8

2011-08-16T10:18:00.002-04:00

We have been in D.C. for a week. It was time to move on, with a stopover in Rhode Island on our way to Boston. But first we had to say goodbye to the White House, the other side. It was a hot humid and really hazy day so the pictures are bit "foggy".

While taking pictures I noticed armed guards on the roof of the white house with binoculars and zoom lens. So I had to use my zoom lens and get a shot of one of them. "Look, I have I one of those too" Somehow I think theirs are a bit more powerful than mine. lol

Various organizations and such were camped out around the White House. Including a group which appeared to be representing Native Americans.

We then hit the road and headed for Newport Rhode Island. They were also calling for severe weather in the D.C./Maryland area with flash flood warnings for later in the day so we wanted to miss that if at all possible. Things were going fairly smooth, and then we decided to let our children play in traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike. Lucky for them traffic wasn't moving on the Turnpike, which became a giant parking lot due to an accident between a tractor trailer and a smallish car. We sat here like this for about an hour. Everybody got out. Walked their dogs, stretched our legs, some people were playing lacrosse in the ditch, some people were playing catch. All in all everyone was in good spirits about the situation and we all made the most of it. Not much else we could do. Oncoming traffic was shut down as well so emergency crews, who were flying up and down both sides of the freeway, could access the accident.

Unfortunately this delay put us in rush hour traffic through New York City, which I have never been to before, someday I would like to fly in and spend a weekend there exploring the city. Added to my bucket list.

Shortly after New York city the rains started and we ended up driving through the dark and rain in Rhode Island to get to our hotel. It made things interesting and Dave and I were a little bugged eyed and exhausted by the time we arrived at our hotel. We got everyone settle into bed and crashed ourselves. Getting ready for the next leg of our journey to Boston.

Jenkins Family Road Trip Day 7, July 7

2011-08-15T20:51:00.005-04:00

I am back from a week at the cottage with my besties, Denise and Marissa. Did you miss me? You can read about some of our adventures on Denise's blog here. I managed to get a number of layouts done, I just have to find them and take pics and post them when I can.

Our final day in D.C. We started off at Open City for breakfast. This day we had our breakfast out on the patio, and this little fellow decided to visit and see what we had. I gave him a soggy animal cracker that was on the saucer with my tea. In about 30 seconds 5 of his friends showed up and they had a little fight over the cracker.

This was our visit the Smithsonian's Natural History museum day. And this fellow greeted us at the entrance. Which of course put the movie Night at The Museum in my head and the phrase " Me no dumm dumm. You dumm dumm. You bring me gumm gumm?"

What big teeth you have Mr. T. Rex. LOL

Amanda found a wee crystal quartz on her walk through the museum. We were hoping to be able to take it home. Didn't quite work out.

And the biggest public draw in the museum was this, the Hope Diamond, probably the most famous diamond in the world, and supposedly there is curse with the diamond, as legend goes. At one point the diamond was owned by the French Royal family, until the French Revolution, when looters stole most of the Crown Jewels, when it disappeared for a number of years before resurfacing again in England in the early 1800's. It then changed hands numerous times and went to the Smithsonian in 1958, donated by Harry Winston to the Institute.

The highlight of our visit was the Human Origins exhibit was just opened recently. It was really well done showing how scientists have traced Human Origins and addresses many misconceptions about the study of Human Evolution.

A small exhibit on Korean weddings. I found these outfits stunning and spent a fair amount of time looking at the details of the embroidery.

And then it was dinner and back to the hotel to pack, for we were too hit the road the next day for the next phase of our adventure.

Jenkins Family Road Trip Day 6, July 6

2011-07-28T21:12:00.005-04:00

I know I am a little behind in my vacation updates, things are a little busy for me as I have been getting ready for a week long trip with my girlfriends Denise and Marissa for a scrapbooking week at the cottage. Lots of photo editing, sorting through supplies and packing as light as I a possibly can. Which is actually a massive feat for me, since I am NOT a light packer. We will be leaving first thing tomorrow morning, and I am not sure if there is internet up there or not. Probably not. So I will probably be offline for a week, which is probably a good thing, so I can focus on getting as many pages done as possible.

Back to our vacation. This day was Spy Museum day. Unfortunately no pictures were allowed inside the museum, so what pictures I have here are some stock photos I found online.

If you ever get to D.C. I highly recommend the Spy Museum. From the outside it didn't look too big, and there was restaurant attached as well as a large gift shop. The museum can hold so many people at a time so we were given tickets for a certain time block. We thought we would poke around for a couple of hours and go explore some more of the area. We ended up staying there the whole day. There was so much to see and do.

After an elevator ride up , they started us in a "briefing room" where on different placards around the room are secret identities. We were to pick one, and memorize the information on that particular identity. After about 5 minutes we were "released" into the main part of the museum. It was impressive and very interactive. There was a computer station where we went with our memorized secret identity information to get our missions. It was to give the visitors a feel of what it is like to be a spy.

The museum itself was fairly interactive. We learned the various techniques about how they "bug" places. Makes you wonder how private conversations in your home really are. Learned about the different spies throughout history. One station had us looking at radar images and we had to find objects such as fighter jets etc in China, and in Afghanistan looking for encampments and caves.

The museum was filled with hundreds of artifacts such as this car from one of the James Bond movies, it was part of the exhibit on some of the ways agencies tweak vehicles and boats etc. for their purposes.

I loved this, a one shot gun disguised as a lipstick. I want one.

This was in the cold war area, describing what was going on in espionage in the 50's and 60's, especially Berlin. They had a replica of the tunnel that the West built under the Berlin wall to spy on east Berlin, apparently East Berlin knew about it, but let them dig anyway. And then used it as a media attack on how evil the west was.

There brief articles on the many different spies from the era, such as various husband and wife teams who were parents and spies. Including one poor woman who was living with her husband in East Germany, she was a spy for the west, and someone turned her in and she was imprisoned for a number of years. She was eventually released, the Berlin Wall fell, and she was elected to political office. One of the first things she did was have her and other files unsealed, to see what East Germany had on her. Turns out her husband was the one who turned in her. She filed for divorce the day after finding out. Unfortunately I don't remember her name and I can't find anything in Google about it.

And here is one of the "spy pigeons" trained to carry cameras.

The exhibits were amazing, and so much to take in. Learned about how a double agent in Spain by the name of Joan Pujol Garcia code name: Garbo; misled the Nazis in regards to D-day. Fed them false information saying the allies were landing at another set of beaches further south. The allies hired Hollywood to make inflatable tanks, house etc. so it look like a mass invasion was happening, which caused the Nazis to divert most of their troops further south and thus allowing the true location of the allied landings to have minimal opposition from Nazi troops.

At the end, was another computer station to complete our secret identities "missions". Unfortunately for me, my middle aged brain, mixed in with information overload and the burger from the cafe wasn't sitting well in my stomach, I bombed my mission. Basically I would make a terrible spy. Laura on the other hand, passed with flying colors. I wonder if I should be concerned.

So much to see and do, and not enough time. The down side of visiting the spy museum is the thought that this is information that we were allowed to know. What else is out there that we don't know. Freaky!!!

Afterwards, Daniel bought some mustaches to help him with his disguise. Do you think it worked?

After visiting the museum, we decided to head to the capital building first before heading to dinner. On the way we stumbled up the Naval Memorial. It was not one we had heard of in our research of what to see and do in D.C. The outdoor memorial has a sea map of the world as the centre surrounded by various bronze statutes and reliefs, fountain pools, and waterfalls. It was a hidden gem.

Loved this one statue, called "The Lone Sailor".

A close up of some of the reliefs surrounding the plaza.

We had to take a picture of the Canadian Embassy. Dared the kids to run up to the embassy like someone was chasing them, saying "you will never catch me, never!!!" They didn't go for it. LOL

The Capital building.

Memorial to General Grant. Its funny, all these statues as memorials to great individuals in history, and they all have pigeons sitting on their heads pooping on them. I don't think this is what they had in mind. LOL

On either side of General Grant are statues commemorating both the Union and Confederate side of the civil war.

Dinner at the Elephant and Castle, yummy. And back to our hotel to rest up for the next day's adventure. Another Smithsonian museum. Stayed tuned, and be patient. :)

Jenkins Family Road Trip Day 5, July 5

2011-07-26T14:16:00.007-04:00

I missed a picture from July 4 to put in my previous post. It is ME!!! Normally I am the one taking the pictures, the family photog that I am. So there are never pictures of me, or at least very few pictures. During our trip I gave Daniel my little Olympus camera that I usually carry in my purse. And when we were hanging around, relaxing before finding a spot to watch the fireworks from, he snapped this lovely shot of me. Look out America's Next Top Model, here I come.

Back to our regular scheduled updates now.

We decided to visit Arlington Cemetery, and it was probably the hottest day during our stay in D.C. We took the tour bus/train through the cemetery, and only lasted a couple of stops before we said "Its too bloody hot. We quit" LOL

Our first stop was the Kennedy family grave site. We first had to see JFK and Jackie Kennedy's graves, and with them are the two young children they lost. One was a stillborn, and the other was a young boy who only lived a couple of days. We noticed that the boy, Patrick, died in August and JFK was killed that November. Jackie had a horrendous year losing not only her infant son but also witnessing the murder of husband. What an amazing woman.

The eternal flame.

A wider shot of the grave site. Everyone honored the rule of silence while visiting the site.

The view from the Kennedy grave site. Stunning.

Nearby, we have Bobby Kennedy's grave.

And Ted Kennedy's grave.

During our tour we learned a brief history of Arlington Cemetery. Time for history lesson for my readers.

The land and the mansion, Arlington House, was originally owned and built by George Washington Parke Custis, adopted grandson of George Washington. George never had children of his own but Martha had four children from her previous marriage. And George Custis was the son of John Parke Custis.

George had only one child, a daughter, named Mary Anna Randolph Custis, who was married to Robert E. Lee Upon George's death he gave Mary the right to inhabit and control the house for the rest of her life, and upon her death the estate would then go to her son George Washington Custis Lee.

Fast forward to the American Civil War in 1861. When Virgina seceded from the Union to become part of the Confederacy and Lee was name Major General for the Virgina Military. Fearing for their safety Mary and Robert left their beloved Arlington Estate, which was captured by Union forces. Mary was of poor health, and the taxes were due on the property in Jan. 1864. Unable to make the trip to Virgina herself to pay the taxes, she sent the money with a trusted servant, but the government wouldn't take the money, saying Mary had to pay in person. They seized the property and Arlington National Cemetery was established by Brig. Gen. Montgomery C. Miegs who turned the estate into a cemetery for Union soldiers only. I guess he was a little ticked at Robert E. Lee. He also attempted to make the home uninhabitable should the Lee family return. And Miegs had himself and his family buried within a 100 yards of the house. He really really didn't like Lee.

After Robert and Mary's death, their son, George, took the matter to the court of Alexandria (Arlington today) claiming "that the land had been illegally confiscated and that, according to his grandfather's will, he was the owner." And in December 1882, the U.S. Supreme Court returned the property back to the Lee family stating "that it had been confiscated without due process"

In March, 1883 George sold the property to Congress for $150,000 to become a military reservation.

End of history lesson.

The number of graves at Arlington is amazing. If it wasn't so hot I would have enjoyed exploring more of the cemetery.

The second stop, was Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We arrived about 5-10 mins before the changing of the guard. Again, complete silence was expected. Everybody was so hot, I don't think we could have made much noise anyways. Again, a very moving memorial to those who sacrificed their lives. The tomb has a soldier from WW I, WW II, and the Korean war. The Vietnam Soldier was identified a few years ago through DNA and his remains were interred to a site near his family.

The changing of the guards was impressive to watch. The discipline and the precision the soldiers exhibited was amazing. A few minutes after the changing of the guard, one of the spectators decided to cross the barrier, to get a better look maybe, but I have no idea. The guard, who has been absolutely silent until then, not even acknowledging that others were there, basically told the individual to get back to the other side. And based on his tone, he would not hesitate to use physical force take the person out. I do believe that individuals brain must have melted completely in the heat. LOL

NASA tribute to the astronauts who have lost their lives over the years. This was across from the Tomb of the Unknown soldier. There were a couple more places to get on and off at during the tour, but we all said enough. Lets get out of this heat.

Afterwards, we drove all the way to the Smithsonian's Udvar-Hazy Air and Space museum Hanger.

This is the Lockhead SR-71A Blackbird. If you are a fan of the Transformers movies like we are, you will recognize it from Transformers 2, its the plane they turned into a Transformer, who used to be a Decepticon but changed alliances to the Roboticon. I thought it would be fun if we ran around the museum with a shard of the Allspark and try to see which aircraft would come to life. Dave just rolled his eyes. He is no fun. LOL

And the reason we drove to the Hangar, the space shuttle Enterprise. Dave was in complete and utter heaven, to put it mildly. LOL

What caught my attention was this model used in Close Encounters of The Third Kind. Apparently production crew who made this model had some fun and hid various objects on the model. Including a cemetery and R2D2. It was fun trying to find all the object listed on the card.

Jenkins Family Road Trip Day 4, July 4

2011-07-22T12:35:00.005-04:00

The 4th of July was also our anniversary. We have been married 19 years, I'm starting to feel old now. *sigh*

We decided to go to the Smithsonian Zoo in the morning, it was about a 10 min walk from our hotel. We were hoping to see the Panda bears they have there, unfortunately, they were no where to be found. Probably sleeping somewhere well hidden.

The zoo itself is much smaller than the Toronto Zoo, so just a few hours was enough to explore the zoo. We started off with the Cheetahs, there were babies born to one of the female Cheetahs earlier this spring, but they weren't on display. In one enclosure there were three Cheetahs snoozing, and I'm not sure if its a warped sense of humor, but the first Cheetah enclosure looks right into the Zebra enclosure. Seeing this cheetah laying in the grass watching the zebras graze and twitching its tail in anticipation, made me giggle. Lunch was so close...........yet so far away.

The lions were probably the most active creatures that day. The enclosure had a number of lionesses with a number of cubs.

We then went back to the hotel to have a nap during the heat of the day. We have learned that it is best if you can be in air conditioning mid day in D.C. in the summer. The heat and humidity is very uncomfortable, especially for us Canadians who aren't use to it.

Before dinner we went to the White House, of course the area around it was busy busy busy. Numerous protesters including one young fellow who had a loud speaker and was making up poetry and raps quoting the Bible and other sayings of how we are all going to hell hell hell. lol

My attempt at trying to get a picture of family in front of the White House. It appears that when individuals are in front of the White House their sense of hearing and ability to exercise proper manners leaves their beings completely. Dave and the kids lined up for the shot, and I had my large, just can't miss Canon Camera at the ready, yet people would stand between me and my family. I started to yell and ask them to please move, no response, it was like I didn't exist. After a few mins of me yelling and looking like a fool, since I was waving my hands at nothing apparently, the seas parted, briefly. I had my camera set on continuous shutter and snapped a number of photos quickly. And look ma, we got a few extra members added to our shot. LOL Love the fellow with the ears, those who knew my father, would say look he has your dad's ears. LOL

We went for dinner at Founding Farmers Restaurant , it was our second time having dinner there. If you ever vacation in D.C. I highly recommend this restaurant, it was the best one we ate while there. They believe in getting as much of their food as possible from local family farms. Amanda, Daniel and I had their made in house with real lemons lemonade, simply fabulous. Dave and Laura had their homemade ginger-ale, they said it was the best they have ever had. Reservations are recommended as it is a popular place.

Afterwards we went to the Lincoln Memorial to see the various memorials and watch the fireworks. When we arrived around 6:00 this is what we found, wow. And by the time fireworks started there was barely any room to walk in and around the Lincoln memorial.

View from the memorial, unfortunately the Reflecting Pool was under renovations and was just a giant mud pit. Also, the WWII memorial was closed for the day as well, this was the area where they were setting off the fireworks.

While waiting for fireworks, we wandered around to visit the memorials we could. We started with the Vietnam Veterans Wall. The design of the wall is so simple, yet so moving. You can't help but reach out and touch the names engraved on the wall. And there are so many names, its overwhelming.

The Three Servicemen Statue.

Next we went to the Korean War Veterans Memorial was next. As we approached the first sight that greeted us was the statues of various soldiers walking, like they were emerging from a Korean forest, it was eery, yet I couldn't stop taking pictures of them.

We wandered a bit more, saw the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial under construction, it is suppose to be finished this August.

We went back to the Lincoln Memorial and found a spot on some grass. The fireworks were phenomenal. Some were in shapes like hearts and stars. Afterwards we made the long and extremely crowded walk, back to the the subway station to catch a train back to our hotel. When we arrived at the station, it was packed and more and more people were coming. They added extra trains to the system, but they were all packed. We decided to stay back and wait till the congestion eased. Seeing trains with people pressed against the doors was not something I wanted to join. LOL After the fourth train went by, the station was pretty much cleared. We talked to two of the police officers who were on duty in the station. With all those bodies crammed into a small underground area, it was hot and humid down there and these poor guys were in full uniform with bullet proof vests and all off course. They were so glad to see their shift was almost over, they were soaked with sweat. I didn't have any water bottles left, otherwise I would have given them some water. And yes, the wait was worth it. We were able to sit during our ride back to the hotel.

Jenkins Family Road Trip Day 3, July 3

2011-07-20T12:10:00.007-04:00

Sunday, we were more rested and decided to go to Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. It was also a learning curve for us to figure out the subway system in D.C. While waiting for our train I wanted to get a shot of Dave and the kids. Took a bit, but I managed to get one nice one. WooHoo!!!!

And in 0.2 seconds it went to this. Knew it was too good to last. *sigh*

After a bit of a walk in the D.C. heat, we think its hot here right now, nothing compared to D.C. in July. They had people selling bottled water everywhere. Some people you wondered where they got their water. I think this time of year D.C. sells more bottled water than souvenirs.

But I am side tracked once again, we arrived at the Air and Space Museum and Dave was just a little excited.

One of the first things Dave wanted to take the kids to was all the space exploration artifacts. He was like a kid in a candy store. It was fascination seeing the Apollo 11 pod, and to see where the astronauts actually sat, you cannot be an astronaut and claustrophobic. They are sitting in such tiny spaces during flight. I had Daniel stand next to it to give an idea of the size. My camera had a hard time picking it up, but you could see the damage it sustained while re-entering the atmosphere.

Of course there was a Hubble Test Telescope, and no Dave was not allowed to take it home. One large telescope is enough, and besides we have no room and I draw the line at one sky shed in my backyard.

They also had an entire section on the Wright Brothers outlining their life stories, and all the incredibly hard work they went through to build the first aircraft that actually flew. Turns out their father didn't have a handy or technical bone in his body, they learned from their mother who loved to tinker around herself. They were very close to their sister Katherine who travelled with them after they become famous.

Here is the Spirit of Freedom in which Steve Fossett few around the world in. A little too small for my tastes in travel.

Amelia Earhart's Lockheed plane that she flew across the Atlantic and nonstop across the U.S. in. Along with a jacket of hers and flying goggles.

Dave was excited to see this. Apparently this is a full scale engineering test model of Voyager. I believe a couple were sent to explore Saturn, Jupiter, and Uranus. I will have to ask Dave to verify if my memory is correct.

After a long day we headed back to our hotel and while waiting for a table to free up at the Open City Restaurant across the street. I decided to play with my camera and take some photos of the passing traffic.

This particular road was closed due to construction, yet we never ever saw any workers working on said road the whole week, and they had a police officer there at all times "guarding" the do not enter area. At first we couldn't figure out why they needed 24/7 police presence at a road that is barricaded incredibly well, you would almost need a tank to get through the barriers. But witnessing some really really bad drivers turning on a red, trying to turn down the street (I have NO idea how the missed the giant illuminated "DO NOT ENTER" sign with the police and flashing lights) we understood.

Open City was a wonderful cafe that served home-made dishes at excellent prices. Laura said the cappuccinos there were the best she ever had. But it was always busy, especially on weekends. It appeared it was full of customers from the time it opened at 6 a.m. until it closed at 11 p.m. And all their food was made in house, no pre-made frozen and put it in the oven you get at most places other than fine dining.

We ended up eating breakfast there as often as we could. Their veggie Rancheros omelet was amazing, and portions were generous. Daniel loved their Buttermilk waffles of course.

Jenkins Family Roadtrip Day 2, July 2

2011-07-19T14:23:00.003-04:00

Our room at the Omni Shoreham in D.C. was fabulous. It was a suite actually, with a large bedroom with two oversized queen sized beds and a large sitting area with a sofa bed for Laura. The hotel was built in 1930, so the room sizes were generous, tall ceilings, large windows, etc. And because we would be staying during our anniversary, which was July 4, we had a plate of chocolate covered strawberries, blood oranges, cranberries, and almond brittle along with a bottle of champagne and a note wishing us a happy anniversary. A beautiful touch to begin our vacation.

Because we arrived around midnight the night before, we decided to let everyone sleep in as long as needed, had a brunch in the hotel restaurant and decided to head to Mount Vernon. The home of George Washington. It was a gorgeous sunny day, perfect for some outdoor exploration. Mount Vernon is in Virginia, so we drove through the heart of D.C.to cross over to Virginia. Traffic was interesting to put it mildly.

Mount Vernon estate was 8,000 acres when George Washington owned it. He inherited it from his older half brother who died without any heirs. Right now, it is obviously no where near 8,000 acres, but still an impressive size nonetheless. And the main house overlooks the Potomac River. Stunning.

Mount Vernon as it is today. We looked at some older pictures just before renovations started in the late 1800's, looks somewhat different, especially in the roof line, but overall they have tried to stay true to how the home was originally at the time of the American Revolution and when Washington was President. During the American Civil War, Mount Vernon was considered a peaceful area by both the Union and Confederate armies. It was required they could enter the grounds of the estate but they were to leave the arms at the entrance.

We were not allowed to take any pictures inside the home, they have as many original pieces from George Washington as possible, and they recreated the décor as close to how George and Martha Washington had decorated their home in the 1700's. George and Martha had no children together, but Martha had children from her previous marriage to Daniel Parke Custis, and she was a wealthy widow before she met George. When they both passed away, the estate went to nieces and nephews who slowly sold off the estate bit by bit.

Here is a the few from the back porch. I can imagine the number of people over the centuries who would sit here during hot lazy summer afternoons and watch the day go by on the Potomac.

View of the back porch from the bottom of the hill. The porch and surrounding hillside had people trying to get some shade and relaxing the afternoon away. Couldn't resist, the large tree on the left is a Pecan tree, wonder if it stood there when George Washington lived there.

After the house, we wandered the grounds and just past the slave quarters was the barn, where Laura found some residents she couldn't resist saying hello to. The horse girl that she is, she was like a homing beacon in finding them.

Jenkins Family Roadtrip Day 1, July 1

2011-07-17T17:39:00.003-04:00

Our family vacation was a blast. We all enjoyed much needed time away from everyday life and stuff. It has been a few years since we went on a road trip as a family and the kids were asking when we would go again. So July 1, we left home bright and early heading for the border, destination: Washington D.C.

Our first little glitch was the border, we decided to cross at Fort Erie, since Lewiston/Queenston bridge is always backed up and usually Fort Erie is not a problem. Not this time, we spent three hours in line before we actually got to the bridge, then it was customs on the U.S. side. By this time everyone is starving for lunch. We found a Bob Evans just outside of Buffalo, and started the U.S. leg of our journey.

In order to get to D.C. we had to go through Pennsylvania first, and part of our Pennsylvania journey would take us through the Allegheny National Forest. We filled up with gas in Jamestown, it was a pleasant surprise to fill up the gas tank for less than $80, something we don't see here in Ontario any more when filling up our van's large gas tank.

And we were onward, D.C. here we come!!! But driving through Allegheny is where we had another glitch in our adventure. We had our destination programmed into the GPS which showed our estimated time of arrival, the Allegheny area of Pennsylvania is rather, hilly, to put it mildly. Turns out our GPS's estimated time of arrival was based on distance as the crow flies, didn't take into account steep inclines and declines. For every 20 mins we drove, 10 mins was added to our arrival time. Which was rather discouraging since we were frustrated with the three hour wait at the border already. Also, my inner ear was acting up and after an hour or so of my ears popping and all the steep inclines and declines, I was starting to feel dizzy and ill.

And with the steep inclines and declines the roads were also full of all kinds of S curves and what not. Made the drive quite interesting.

But what made up for the frustration of seeing our arrival time becoming later and later was the scenery, it was gorgeous!!! We also had a good chuckle at a sign for a church that said "Gerry Free Methodist Church". Does that mean there are no Gerry's allowed in that church? LOL

We finally made through the Allegheny State Park and Pennsylvania, into Maryland, where we encountered our next obstacle, toll roads. We Canadians aren't use to having to pay to drive on a highway. LOL And the closer we got to D.C., the busier the roads got, which made the line ups at the tolls longer. We finally arrived at our hotel in D.C. around midnight that night. We stayed at the Omni Shoreham Hotel, and it was a beautiful sight to see after a long adventure to get there. They had valet parking for us, and they took our luggage upstairs for us so all we had to do is crash and burn to recharge our batteries for our next adventure.

Some Bermuda Scrapbook Pages

2011-06-20T15:56:00.005-04:00

Things have been a little busy around here the last few months. But I have managed to get a few more pages done for my Bermuda Album.

Close up of the Say It with Crystals Accent I used on the reception page. Bling can complete a page. I love bling.

Reception Dinner two page layout using lots of photos on some BoBunny and Say It with Crystals bling and a couple of brads kicking around.

Close up of the flip flops I made for my Horseshoe Bay two page layout. Used my Life Is a Beach Cricut cartridge for the flip flops and title. Life Is A Beach is one of my favourite cartridges.

The full two page Horseshoe Bay layout. Again, super simple, don't have time to mess around with lots of different layers. I am trying to just get this album done lol. I can't remember the name of the pattern paper but it is gorgeous and sparkly. What more could a girl want. Cardstock used was Bazzill and that was it.

Larry the Lizard was a layout I made during Crop For the Cure. Took me ALLLLLL DAY to make this layout. I am impressed I got this one done. Between helping Denise with her Stampin up booth, catching up with lots of my scrappy friends, eating, talking some more, eating some more, walking to the stone crock, eating and talking and talking and helping Denise some more. What can I say, I was a busy girl.

I'm still not 100% satisfied with this layout. Its missing something to me but thought I would just post it anyways.

Patterned paper was from Kaisercraft. Cardstock was Stampin up. I punched the flower from Stampin Up's new Blossom Bouquet Triple Layer Punch and some Robin's Nest Dew Drops as accents on the Blossoms. Used the Scallop Edge Border Punch to spice up the centre accent. And just did a basic outline stitch around the outside edge of the layout using Bazzill In Stitchz thread. For my journaling box I just traced the outline of the lid of the Tupperware container that held my blueberries (healthy snacking was part of my day as well) and hand cut it. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Ostara (Celebrate Spring)

2011-04-25T12:01:00.003-04:00

Happy Spring everyone!!! It was a surprisingly nice long weekend, originally they were calling for rain, rain and more rain. We ended up with sunshine and amazing temperatures that allowed us to turn off the heat, and open all the windows to air out the house. Which our house needed BADLY. I have been sick now for almost two weeks with a nasty cold, my voice right now is pretty much gone, think Kathleen Turner raspy sexy, hey sounds better than smokers raspy voice. And a nasty cough that has forced to me to sleep in a room separate from Dave so we can both rest better. I am feeling better, getting there slowly and the sunshine this weekend helped.

We celebrated Ostara this weekend (a month late, I know) but with the way the moon cycle was the holiday weekend was a little bit later than normal and well..........the real Ostara kind of slipped away from me. I also called this weekend "Celebrate Spring" weekend. The reawakening of the earth after a long winter's slumber. I have seedlings started on my windowsills, started to clean out my gardens, then I got sick and the weather sucked. LOL

I also made these cute little baskets for the dinner table place settings for our dinner. I filled them with some Lindt goodies (I love having a Lindt outlet nearby) and Hershey's Cookies N' Creme eggs.

Here is a close up of the side of the baskets. I drew my inspiration from a tutorial at Splitcoaststampers. The original artist made hers with a handle and it held the little Lindt chocolate carrots. It was too cute. I made mine minus the handle. I used brown and green card stock that I had kicking around for the basket and the grass edging of the basket. For the fencing, I used Stampin Up's Woodgrain Stamp and stamped it in Early Espresso ink on Whisper White card stock. I cut the pickets and bar according to the tutorial measurements, inked the edges with the same ink that I stamped the image. Adhered to the baskets and filled the baskets with the green grass that you can pick up at stores everywhere this time of year. And then filled the baskets with the yummy chocolate.

This weekend we also colored eggs, my kids are 15, 13, and 10 years old, but they never are too old for coloring eggs and egg hunts. Here are our three dozen gloriously colored eggs. And we turned them all in to devilled eggs, A LOT of devilled eggs. LOL

A full basket after the hunt. I made it a bit more challenging this year. When they were little we could hide the treats, eggs and baskets pretty much in plain site, but with getting older, my kids are also getting wiser. Darn. So each year, we have to get a little more creative.

At the end of the day we had our Celebrate Spring Dinner filled with lots of good food such as ham, chicken, potatoes, rolls etc. Our dessert was little cakes that I baked in the shape of eggs, my rule was that if you wanted dessert you had to decorate your own egg. I provided the icing, the family provided their imaginations and creative abilities. A mess was made, but everybody had fun.

A couple of the finished masterpieces.

Wherever you were, whatever you did, I hope you had a fantastic holiday weekend. Happy Spring everyone!!!

Soul Restoration Giveaway!!

2011-03-24T20:50:00.000-04:00

Brave Girls Giveaway

2011-03-24T20:45:00.003-04:00

Head on over to the BraveGirls website and enter their giveaway, especially if you are looking for a soul restoration. Today they posted pics of their new clubhouse being put together, along with many of their friends and family who helped put it together. I just love all the bright sunny colors they used in their decorating. Makes me happy. To celebrate the completion of their new space they are doing a giveaway of their online Soul Restoration course, which I have been wanting to do since I saw it on their website. Just go and visit their blog and leave a comment.

I couldn't figure out to embed a video into this post, so you will see the video about soul restoration in the post above. Still trying to figure out Blogger and how it works. LOL

Spring Is Coming - Some Macro Lens Fun

2011-03-06T15:01:00.000-05:00

We had lots of rain yesterday, followed by snow last night, followed by some fabulous sunshine today. It must be March in Ontario, which means spring is coming. Woohoo!!! This afternoon I went out to top up the bird feeders and to look for some signs of spring and found that our Pussy Willow was forming some buds. When the Pussy Willow "blooms" (I guess that is what you would call it), you know winter is pretty much over. So exciting. I had to grab my camera and take some pictures with my macro lens that Dave bought me for Christmas (I am sooooo spoiled).

And when I was topping up the bird feeders I noticed this on one of the finch feeders. I know it was a cold snowy winter, but I didn't think it was that harsh, it seems someone was a little hungry and had to make one of the feeding holes much bigger.

Beach Bums With Style

2011-03-05T11:56:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago I completed another layout for my Bermuda album. Slowly but surely, I am working on completing this album.

This two page layout documents what happened when we all went down to the beach for some sunset wedding photos with the wedding photographer. We started out with some nice set up shots of Andrew and Caroline on the beach and well, one thing led to another and we all just ended up in the surf in tuxedos and dresses. These candid shots ended up being the best pictures of the day.

I had a hard time with my lighting to get proper images of the layout. I think I have to work on getting my light box put together and see if that helps with future photos of my layouts.

Aside from patterned paper I kept my embellishments simple. I used the Scallop Trim Border punch from Stampin up and Prima Flowers that I found matched the paper colors perfectly. For the title I used Lyrical Letters Cricut cartridge with co-ordinating Bazzill cardstock.

Close up of the Prima flowers, the centres had material that looked and felt like soft suede. Very pretty.

The Neverending Card

2011-02-26T17:56:00.000-05:00

Daniel has a birthday party tomorrow and for the card that he will be giving to his friend, I decided to make a neverending card. I had never made one before and saw it explained in the Stampin Up Consultant's magazine Stampin Success. I watched a video tutorial and knew I could do it. Little did I know how stinkin easy it was to make. Just four simple pieces of cardstock, folded and adhered in a basic pattern and voila!! You have a neverending card, and they way you decorate it is all up to you. The possibilities are endless!!

My card base was Real Red cardstock, I used Celebrations Specialty Designer Series Paper and Quick Accents to decorate the card. For stamps sets I used the Birthday Bakery (a hostess gift) and Whimiscal Words (last years Sale-A-Bration gift set).

Here is part one.

Part two.

Part three.

Part four.

Just a word of warning, kids can't help but constantly play with this card. I had to tell Daniel to put it down before he wore it out and couldn't give it to the person it was intended for.

Winter Photography

2011-02-22T15:20:00.001-05:00

Today has been a beautiful sunny day. Freezing cold, but the sun was gorgeous. I said screw the vacuuming, loaded Dalwhinnie and my camera in the van and went for a drive. First I went to Witteveen Friesens out on Governors Road, just by Paris, and sure enough they had some of their prize winning Friesens out.

Witteveen Friesens is a breeder of Friesen horses, and being half Friesen myself I always try to drive by when I can and see if they are out. The Witteveens are world renowned for their breeding stock, Martha Stewart has bought a number of her horses from them. And when these horses are in full run it is stunning to watch. Seeing some of what appeared to be their younger ones out I had to pull over and take some pictures.

Since it was a very cold day, they weren't moving too much but I did get some shots of these beautiful horses and the surrounding country side. I will post a few of them here.

In this first shot, this horse was standing apart from the rest of the herd, and she was so regal. Like she knew I was there with my camera and was posing.

This one is one of the fields adjancent to where they were. In warmer weather there are horses in all of the different fields. I will definitely come back in the spring/summer, when they are all out and a little more lively.

These two stuck close together for warmth. And I don't blame them one single bit. I was out there for five minutes taking some shots, and my fingers were red and numb.

Dalwhinnie was a little put out that I left her in the van, but kudos to her for not barking, which she usually does when left behind. And as a reward for behaving, I took her to a trail along the Grand River where she got to smell all kinds of neat smells and met a new friend, an apricot colored poodle. Unfortunately, I couldn't take my camera on the walk as it is kind of hard trying to take a picture holding onto Dalwhinnie's leash while she is trying to get to the latest and greatest smell.

Valentines Day Treat Boxes

2011-02-19T12:54:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day earlier this week. Since it was a Monday, ours was a little crazy busy. Dave had to drive to Windsor to pick up some friends coming back from a cruise, I had to drive carpool for Laura and crew, Amanda had dance, and we had a couple of extra children over after school/dinner. Whew.

I did manage to make some homemade fudge and put some pieces for each person in these cute little boxes I made. I got the idea from Stampin Up as part of a promotion they had earlier in the year promoting some of their Valentine themed stamps and paper. They were quick and easy to make and oh so cute. I love them.

P.S. if anybody is interested, I have LOTS of fudge. LOL

Found a New Favourite Blog

2010-10-17T13:05:00.002-04:00

Today has been a kind of a lazy day after a crazy week.

Tuesday Dave got a phone call from the school principal that makes all parents' hearts drop to their knees. Basically Daniel broke his arm in an accident, please come to the school. I was at Massage Therapy and Marissa came and told me. When she said, "the ambulance is on its way", my world spun a hell of a lot faster than it was 2 seconds earlier. I met Dave and Daniel at the hospital (they got to ride in the ambulance), and after meeting with the ER doctor and the Orthopedic Specialist, we learned he broke both the ulna and radius about halfway between his elbow and wrist. My heart sunk well into the pit of my stomach and my knees got incredibly weak (thank goodness I was already sitting) when the Doctor unwrapped the splint to examine Daniel's arm (it was not a pretty site) and then explained what they were going to do to my child to set the bones. Daniel was just a little scared. My poor baby boy. We finally got home around midnight, exhausted, and poor Daniel was exhausted from the trauma to his body, the emotional fear of what was happening, and all the drugs they put in his little body. Due to emotional and physical exhaustion Wednesday was pretty much a write off.

Thursday and Friday was already scheduled with stuff, and I had to play catch up on stuff I didn't finish Tuesday and Wednesday.

Yesterday, we went to Dave's parents house to celebrate my BIL Greg's marriage to my now SIL Gillian. We met some of Gillian's family, fabulous people, and had a great time overall. Needless to say we got home late, and this was Daniel's first trip since the incident of Tuesday, he crashed when we got home and fell asleep in .25 seconds of his head hitting the pillow. Poor guy.

Today, is a downtime and recharge kind of day. We hope to zip out and pick out some pumpkins a little later. Samhain (Halloween) is coming up really fast and I am so not prepared.

During my downtime, I started to explore some new blogs and came across a few that really caught my eye and added to my follow list. Olde Baggs 'n Stuft Shirts was one of them. Linda has this cute short story documented in pictures. I love it, and having some Dutch names and phrases in there did make this Dutch Girl's heart get a little excited and palpitate. What can I say, I am easily excited.

She is also giving away a gorgeous witch's hat, that I just HAVE to have. Check it out below!!!

Go and read Linda's short story here. I love all the decorations and costumes.

I Have Been A Little Busy

2010-10-06T12:22:00.006-04:00

When the kids started going back to school in September, I looked around my craft room and realized SOMETHING had to be done. I didn't like the way the room flowed for me, i.e. my Cricut was on one end of the room and my computer with the design studio on it was on the other. And as you can tell by the following pictures, it was in rough shape. I had gotten back from Memories Manor and just left everything, there was my birthday, Laura's birthday, back to school preparation etc. And well......things had been piling up for awhile. It got to the point, I didn't even want to be in there and my creativity was stalled big time. And last winter/spring we had a couple of mice in the house and for some reason they liked my room, I cleaned up after them, but with all that stuff in the room, what else was I missing. And besides, I think Dave might have been ready to call Hoarders on me.

Oh look, in the picture below, you can see one of the projects I completed at Memories Manor, my Bo Bunny Yule card holder. The only place to put it was on the door.

This is supposedly my computer desk, but it got to the point there was no room for my laptop. Not good.

My armoire had a shelf come crashing down because the weight of the paper caused one of the support brackets to snap. Whoopsy. So the paper was put in a corner on the floor by the computer desk.

There isn't room on my cutting table to cut much of anything. Ugh.

A week or so after school started I began the big job of clearing EVERYTHING out of my room, except for the furniture. During the clearing everything out process I realized I am much more than a paper whore, I am a ribbon whore, an adhesive whore, a die cut whore, a bling whore. But the bling, how can you say no to bling, all sparkly shiny. Bling completes any page or card.

At the beginning of the process I had only cleared out one quarter of the room, and Laura came down to the basement and saw what I had cleared out and put in the family room and hall. She said, "Wow Mom, you have a lot of stuff!!! Look at it all". I then told her I had just started and that there was much much more to come out of my room. She looked in and all she said was "oh" and walked away. I think it kind of scared her.

As I emptied the room, I sorted and purged and purged and purged. I filled up two black garbage bags of garbage, and a couple of blue boxes were filled, and I have a stack of stuff that is going to be give away or sold at The Scrapping Turtle's yard sale. I was fast becoming a collector and not a user of my scrappy supplies. The room was getting to be a mess, so I didn't create as much as I liked, yet I would still buy more supplies, but was fast running out of room where to put them. Not a good combination.

In terms of the mice, not impressed. When the room was being emptied, and the furniture moved I found mouse "presents" ew ew ewwwwww!!!!!!!!! I went through 1 1/2 big bottles of Lysol cleaner washing the floor and baseboards and other surfaces three times each. Let's just say I am extremely grateful that Stampin Up packages their stamps in those nice plastic containers. I also found that the little critters decided the handles of one of my totes and my sticker binder would make excellent nesting material.

Hopefully we won't have anymore of the little critters move in this winter, because I will show no mercy this time. Dave wants to do the live traps and release them back in the wild, well they didn't work, so I resorted to leaving some poison bait in the back area of the fruit cellar which got rid of them. And after watching many episodes of Billy the Exterminator, the basic, snap on their necks and kill them instantly traps are the best way and the most humane. Besides, those critters carry disease and well, they have no bladder control at all, we will just leave it at that.

Now we can see my beautiful, clean and organized craft room. It feels so good to walk in now. Everything has a place now and the room flows so much better for me. Can you just hear the angels singing looking at these pictures?

My clean and organized armoire. Notice the cropper hoppers of paper on the bottom where they won't cause supports to snap and bring the shelf down.

Beside the armoire is my bookshelf, storing my sewing machine and different materials for sewing.

My cutting table now has room for cutting. The top shelf is where I have put some of my completed projects such as the Advent Calendar from hell (look at one of my previous posts for that story). I left my pegboard as is, because it was working for me. I cleared some stuff on the bottom shelf so I can show off my Cricut cartridges.. My Epic, Jukebox, Stamp Pad holder as well as trimmers all on the table which is put on bed risers so my back doesn't get sore working at the table. Under the table in the iris boxes is scrap paper sorted into color groups, totes for storing extra albums and pages as well as some more boxes of completed page layouts that need pictures and an album.

My computer desk is next to the table so I can plug into my Cricut while using my Design Studio. Ribbon on the shelf above along with Prima flowers and such in the container next to the ribbon.

The unit above the desk is something I stole from Dave's workbench, used to hold screws and such, now holds glitter, pains, perfect pearls and stickles.

Most of my card stock is now in these plastic shelves that I picked up from the Scrapping Turtle when they moved. Works much better for me than the cropper hoppers. Looks its a rainbow of color.

More patterned paper and a little bit of extra card stock that didn't fit on the shelves.

My ribbon holder that I picked up at Michael's for 50% of. Love it. Displayed a few of my wood mount stamps on top.

My bookshelf where I store photos, idea books, craft books, workbooks and my tarot cards. Unmounted stamps that didn't have a home are placed on laminated card stock and slipped in page protectors in the big white binder.

So there is my new room. I am soo happy with it. Now to get some projects finished.

Saying Goodbye to a Dear Friend

2010-10-02T17:31:00.003-04:00

Today was Laurie's Funeral. It was a very hard day today for myself and a number of my close friends. As I mentioned in my previous post, Laurie passed away Monday night after a long valiant fight with cancer. Approximately a year and a half ago, she was given six months to live, and she lived much longer than that. Her strong spirit and determination to live her life to the fullest was probably the main reason she lived longer than first expected.

The weather today once again matched our mood, just like Monday night/Tuesday, it was pouring rain. It was like mother earth was mourning the loss of Laurie as well. The funeral home was packed today, there wasn't a dry eye in the house. It was a beautiful tribute to a beautiful woman. Laurie saw good in everybody, she was loved by everybody who met her. Throughout her entire illness she never complained, she would always tell concerned friends and family that she was fine, not to worry about her, one common phrase from her was "I am good with this." And she always had a hug and a smile for you no matter what. Even though she was the one battling a deadly illness, she was the one who made you feel better. She was one of those people who literally lit up the room when she entered.

Earlier this week, I was doing some clean up in my craft room and came across this poem to be used as the opening page in a tribute album. I won it in the auction at the Scrapping Turtle back in January and never really paid much attention to it. This week it really resonated with me. Here are some excerpts from this poem.

In Loving Memory

Yours was no ordinary life,

But a life well lived and well loved.

You memory offers comfort with the enduring love we will keep alive in our hearts.

We will remember the happiest moments filled with joy,

And find solace in the many ways you have touched so many lives.

As a butterfly lights beside you like a ray of sunshine, for a brief moment,

It's beauty and glory belong to our world...but then it flies again,

And though we wish it could have stayed a little longer

We are blessed to have seen it.

In every heart you touched, in every life you changed,

In every thought you inspired, your love lives on.

Your voice still echoes, your life still inspires,

You light still shines......and always will.

I am blessed to have been a part of your life.

By Patsy Elaine Gaut

Rest in peace my beautiful friend Laurie. Though you are gone, I know you are never far away.

Some Foodie Friday Thoughts

2010-10-01T09:30:00.002-04:00

It's Friday!!! And it has been a long time since I last posted. Summer was busy of course, and it was really nice to get back into the school routine.

This past week has been a bit of an emotional one for me and all my friends at The Scrapping Turtle Pond. We lost one of our most beloved Turtles, the beautiful Laurie aka Elmo, passed away Monday night after a hard fought battle with liver cancer. I started my day Tuesday with a text from another dear friend about Laurie's passing. I knew it was coming, but still it was a shock, we all felt it was too soon, but it wasn't our choice. Laurie was ready and as she said, "I am good with it." The whole time she was sick she never complained, she never focused on the negative of her illness. She always had a smile or a hug for you. Tomorrow, Saturday, is her funeral, and I will be going along with a number of other Turtles. It is going to be a tough day for all of us, especially her family. I will post more later this weekend.

Now onto Foodie Friday. As most of my friends know I love food, I love to cook and try out new recipes and I am so lucky that Dave is the least picky eater that I know. He will eat pretty much anything. But he loves chili so I made a big batch Monday.

We usually get about 5 meals out of this and it freezes well, excellent for those days when you have a crazy day. This recipe I got years ago off the internet, I believe it was copykat.com. It makes a lot, I use a massive pot to make it in, but you can always cut the recipe in half. We like things with a kick here in our house, so you can adjust the seasoning to suit your taste, even cut out the cayenne completely if you can't handle any kind of spice. Also, mix it up a bit. Add more beans and less beef, or use ground turkey, chicken of veggie ground round. Make it your own.

WENDY'S CHILI

4 lbs ground beef

8 cups tomato juice (I use V8, gives a little extra flavour)

58 ounces Tomato puree

30 ounces canned Kidney beans, drained and rinsed

3 cups chopped onions

1 cup diced celery

1/2 cup diced green pepper

1/2 cup chili powder

2 tsp ground cumin

1 tbsp garlic powder (I use a whole head of real minced garlic)

2 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Brown the ground beef in a frying pan, drain. Put the drained beef and the remaining ingredients into a large pot. Cover the pot, let it simmer for 1 - 1 1/2 hours, stirring every 15 minutes.

And then enjoy!!!

Levi

2010-07-27T17:31:00.000-04:00

This is an older layout that I made back in February. I experiment with chipboard and alcohol inks and perfect pearls with this layout. I used some chipboard letters that inked with a mixture of different Adirondack Alcohol Inks. I then used a Perfect Medium pen and outlined the areas of the letter and brushed on some Perfect Pearls. I loved the old leather effect of the end result.

The layout itself shows pictures of the different Levi/Lee's that are in Dave's family. It is a tradition to name the the first born son in the Jenkins family with Levi or Lee as the middle name. It is in honor of Dave's Great Great Grandfather Levi Eslick who fought in the American Civil War as a confederate.

June Turtle Shell

2010-07-07T13:37:00.000-04:00

Now that the Turtle Shell reveal has been posted over at The Turtle Soup, I can show my creation. I had so much fun with this, must be because I used alot of pink. I used patterned paper from the Girlfriends line by TPC Studio as well as ribbon, rubons and chipboard stickers. I layered two kinds of patterned paper on top of each, cut out a section from the striped paper to use as an accent on the front. To reveal the striped paper behind the pink, I used a technique I learned from Teri Beri, you can check her blog out here, she also has a YouTube channel. I cut out the Ooh La La on my Cricut using the Forever Young cartridge. For the pink and white strip across the page I used Bazzill, of course, the white strip I sprayed with Silver Foil Smooch Spritz. The flowers, and pin are from Stampin Up pretties kit (which has since been discontinued). The flowers are plain white, so to start out with I inked them with black Staz On Ink by using a regular make up sponge which you can pick up real cheap at any drugstore, Zellers, or WalMart, I then sprayed them with Vanilla Shimmer Smooch Spritz to give them a shimmery effect. The large flower has a Filigree Embellishment again from the TPC Girlfriend line, and the two smaller flowers I glued small pearls from the Pretties Kit. The pins baubles I glued on with some 3 in 1 Glue so they wouldn't slide around and adhered it with some glue dots behind the big flower. The shell was a lot of fun to do and I can't wait for my turn for this month's shell.

After Blood Sweat and Tears It Is Finished

2010-07-04T22:16:00.003-04:00

I know its July and a lot of us are no where ready to think about Christmas. But this little, and I say "little" with sarcasm, project has FINALLY been completed. I picked up this Kaiser Craft advent calendar kit last November/December from the Scrapping Turtle. This is my first big altered item that I completed by myself with no supervision at all. And believe me supervision was required. I am a scrapbooker, I don't do altered items, but I have been striving to "Scrap Outside My Shell", as they love to tell us over at the Turtle. So I did, at times I wanted to pull my head back into my shell and continue with what I know, but with many stops and starts I persevered and with lots of blood (seriously blood was shed), sweat, and tears (3 Kleenex boxes were used to soak up the tears), I can now say "OH MY SANTA, IT IS FINISHED!!!!"

The advent calendar kit comes with all the wooden pieces and cardboard cubes and numbers, I purchased paper, bling, stickles, and paint separately. To start off with you have to separate the pieces of wood, but when you do that you are left with these little "knobs" sticking out that have to be sanded down. After what seemed like centuries of sanding I managed to sand off 3 knobs out of a 100 million knobs. I then had the "brilliant" idea of taking an exacto knife to "cut" off the knobs. I am sure you can see where the "blood" part of "blood, sweat and tears" comes in. Dave has some really heavy duty exacto knifes leftover from cutting drywall in his work bench area. Did I mention, I thought I had a brilliant idea here. I grabbed one of his knifes, not realizing it was empty and that the bin said knife was in was full of blade replacements that were NOT being stored in a plastic sleeve, just left exposed for a klutz like me to reach her hand into. I felt the slice in one of my fingers and knew instantly that was not a good feeling. I quickly pulled my hand out to see copious amounts of blood oozing out of my finger and down my hand. My first thought was "This is sooooo not good"

I ran up two flights of stairs, leaving a blood trail in my wake, to the kids bathroom (this is where the sweat part comes in), to our large first aid drawer. What can I say, we are a family of klutzes hence the large first aid drawer. I grabbed a box of large gauze pads I always have on hand and started putting pressure on my finger. Dave, I am sure drawn by the sounds of profanity coming forth from my vocal chords, came upstairs and his first question was if he had to take me to emerg. Told him I was fine, I would give it about half an hour and if the bleeding hadn't stopped then I would go to emerg (which is 1/2 an hour away as well, I might add) After about 15 minutes, sitting on the toilet, crying (the tears part) at my stupidity (so much for my brilliant idea) and having soaked three gauze pads, I had visions of me bleeding to death right there in the kids bathroom and the NCIS team led by Gibbs would come and investigate my demise. I know Dave isn't in the American Navy or Marines.......... but Dave's dad did serve in the American Navy............ back in the 60's............... before Dave was born............ so that "technically" makes us an American Naval family......sort of. Ok, I admit I think it would be cool to have them over at my house. I can hear Ducky proclaiming my cause of death. "Well Gibbs, it appears our poor girl died of extreme blood loss of the right middle finger while crafting. It reminds me of when I was in Scotland blah blah"

Needless to say, the bleeding eventually did stop, took about 1/2 hour. I was left with a lovely deep slice on the tip of my finger. I did clean up my own blood trail and afterwards Dave had the brilliant idea of using a Dremel tool to take the knobs off, which he proceeded to do in about 5 minutes out in the garage for me. Thank you Dave.

Once the blood and tears dried up and my finger healed I painted the wood and chipboard numbers, sanded some more, trimmed paper to fit the chipboard cubes and put it all together and trimmed the edges with Kaiser bling. I also cut myself a few more times, just some flesh wounds. For the back ground I sprayed black card stock with Smooch Spritz in Gold Glow and Vanilla Shimmer, ripped some shimmery white card stock for the snow and cut out Santa and his reindeer and sleigh, snowman, moon and trees with my Cricut. The picture below shows the finished project.

Here is a close up of the trees. I cut them from Core'dinations card stock, added Snowmarker by Marvy to the edges, waited a few minutes and used the heat gun to "pop" up the snow followed by Stickles in Icicle to give it a "glistening in the moonlight" effect.

The snowman is cut from the same white card stock as the snow covered ground but I edged him in Bashful Blue ink from Stampin Up so he wouldn't blend in too much and used some black Kaiser bling for his buttons. Unfortunately the picture doesn't show it too well.

Now that this project is finally completed after 7 months and a loss of large amounts of blood, I think I will take a break from altering things for awhile. I need to heal. And a box of band aids now has a permanent home in my Craft Room.

May Turtle Shell

2010-06-22T22:07:00.000-04:00

I usually participate in the Scrapping Turtle's month "Pass the Shell" challenge put together by my dear friend Heather. With the challenge, there are usually 3 teams and the first person on the team will receive an email from Heather with a picture of the layout she has chosen from the gallery. Those people have to each do a layout based on the one they received, send their version to Heather, who then sends their layout to the next person on the list, until everyone has completed a layout. You only know what the layout done by the person before you looks like, you have no idea what other participants have made or what the original layout looks like. At the end of the month we have the big reveal on the forum. Its fascinating to see how the one layout has evolved from person to person on the different teams. Lots of fun.

This layout is from the May Turtle Shell, I can't reveal my June one as the challenge is not finished. This is from our trip to Bermuda a few years ago for Andrew and Caroline's wedding. My patterned paper is from The Paper Company, I cut the title from the Storybook cartridge on my Cricut, the shell border and sand dollars are from the Life's A Beach Cartridge from Cricut as well. Cardstock is Bazzill of course.

I miss Bermuda. Dave, when can we go to Bermuda again? Soon, I hope.

It Has Been Awhile And A Recipe

2010-06-21T11:10:00.002-04:00

Happy Monday morning everyone!!! I know I know, it has been too too long. Life has been busy, good, but busy for me.

I had my surgery April 27, and all went well. And I am feeling much much better. My hemoglobin levels have stabilized and I have been slowly getting back into my exercise program, it has been about a year since I have been able to exercise at a good exertion level. Boy does my body feel it, I have also tacked on a few pounds in the last year but starting to lose those now since I can get my body moving more again. I never realized how much those fibroids actually affected me over the last little while, until they were removed.

After my recovery it has been crazy crazy busy. Among other things we have had lots of dental appointments, all three kids had their regular dental check ups, but Laura and Amanda had to go back for sealants on some molars and both have had orthodontic appointments, especially Amanda. She had x-rays and moulds taken of her teeth, then there was the meeting with the Doctor to discuss the plan of action and of course the cost, oh the cost, that was painful. And then back again to get her top braces on, they put wire on the front four teeth only this time. She goes back to her regular dentist at the end of July to have a couple of teeth removed, and then two weeks after that she goes back to the orthodontist to have the wire put on the rest of her upper teeth. And with the orthodontic x-rays we found out that her wisdom teeth are impacted and she will need to have those removed when she is a little older after they have finished forming. Poor girl, her mouth has had and will have a lot of work.

Now onto the recipe. I found this recipe in my copy of Canadian Living Special Issue Market Fresh from last year. It was really really delicious. I would post pictures but we ate it all. Yummy!!! This a nice refreshing summer recipe. It is vegetarian, add a pita with hummus and some salad greens and you have a complete, healthy, and incredibly flavourful meal. I love the surprising kick from the cayenne. Enjoy!!!

CHICKPEA SALAD WITH LEMON CUMIN VINAIGRETTE

1 Can (19 oz/540 ml) chickpeas, drained and rinsed

3 Plum tomatoes, chopped

1 Cup Chopped English Cucumber

1 Cup Chopped sweet pepper of your choice

3 Green onions, thinly sliced

1/2 Cup Chopped walnuts

1/4 Cup Chopped fresh mint

1/3 Cup Crumbled feta cheese

VINAIGRETTE:

3 tbsp Lemon juice

2 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil

2 tsp ground cumin

3/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

VINAIGRETTE: In large bowl, whisk together lemon juice, oil, cumin, salt and cayenne.

Add chickpeas, tomatoes, cucumber, pepper, green onions, walnuts and mint; toss to coat. Sprinkle with feta cheese and serve.

Epic Blog Post On My March Break Madness

2010-03-30T21:32:00.010-04:00

Long time no post. Hard to believe that March Break has come and gone almost two weeks ago. Yikes!!!! Parts of my March Break were very busy but very fun.

To start things off one of my best friends ever, Marissa, celebrated her 40th birthday over the break. She has almost caught up with Denise, my other best friend ever, and myself in age. Of the three of us she is the last one to turn 40 and we had to make the celebration worth it.

On the Sunday at the beginning of the break Denise and I along with Marissa's husband, Scott, managed to arrange a surprise crop for Marissa at her house. We had a tropical theme because this time of year in Canada, we are ready for sunshine and warmth.

Here is Marissa, the Birthday Girl herself. We dressed her up for the Tropical theme. Love the glasses on the head. Silly girl.

One of our fabulous crop guests was Hannah, and she brought little Jack. We just had to dress him up to suit the theme of the day. Not sure if he will appreciate this in about 15 years though. But he is just to cute and photogenic.

Throughout the day, we had a core group of ladies who stuck around to crop the day away, and we had a few others that came and went as their schedules permitted. We managed to get a group shot of those of us who were able to stay for the day. Thank you to everyone who came and cropped and laughed the day away with us. Love you all.

Denise made the cake of course. And once again her talent shined for all to see. She made this gorgeous Hula Girl Cake. It tasted as wonderful as it looked.

I couldn't resist posting this pic. After the birthday song was sung and the candles were blown out, it was time for Marissa to cut the cake, except with the doll being on it she couldn't resist showing her sick sense of humor (that is why I love her). She had to take out hula girl in the process. The look on her face is priceless and Tracey, well her face says it all. Meanwhile Tracey's daughter Maya just quietly ate her cake. I think Maya thoroughly enjoyed the cake because afterwards we caught her sneaking a finger full of icing. Too funny.

After the cake Maya decided to have some downtime with her Mom Tracey. Isn't she just the cutest. I do believe the Turtles make very photogenic babies.

After Sunday, my fibroids kicked in big time. I was on a Tylenol #3 road trip Monday-Thursday. What a way to spend part of my March Break. But my surgery is coming up on April 27, hopefully sooner. Keeping my fingers crossed that this surgery will help the severe pain.

During the break I participated in Pass the Turtle Shell over at the Scrapping Turtle. One of the fabulous Design Team Members, my dear friend Heather, picks a layout from the gallery, and with 2-3 teams of scrappers, we do layouts based on the previous person's interpretation of the original layout. The first person on each team is the only one, besides Heather, who knows what the original layout looks like. I hope I explained how it works properly. If you have any questions just ask. Pam was the Turtle before me, and here is my version of the layout based on Pam's layout.

The pictures are from Andrew and Caroline's wedding in Bermuda, almost five years ago. I miss Bermuda. I would love to go back to Bermuda. (sigh)

Then on the Saturday at the end of March Break, Denise and I had another surprise for Marissa in celebration of her 40th. We kidnapped her for day, gave her a $50 Visa card, and took her on a scrapbook tour in Toronto. Of course we started our day at the Scrapping Turtle's garage sale.

Here is Marissa harassing one of the girls at one of our stops.

Of course one of our stops had to be to Stamping Bella. In the store they have this lovely piece of artwork. Kind of reminds me of Denise, Marissa and myself. The DReaM Divas.

One of the lovely ladies at Stamping Bella took our picture with their sign outside the door.

After our visit there we went for lunch at this restaurant we passed on our way to Bella's. It was a mom and pop burger joint, that looked like it hasn't changed in almost 40 years in terms of the decor. But the food was phenomenal. The burgers were homemade and HUGE!!!! The french fries and onion rings were also homemade and delicious. I can't remember the name of the restaurant but I do see myself going back. After we filled filled our tummies we continued with our shopping.

Our last stop was at Scrapalicious. Another fabulous store. By this time were getting tired and hungry, again, lol. Shopping is hard work you know. We called up Tracey and we met up with her and Maya at a nearby Kelsey's for dinner where we were rambunctious and our laughter and voices carried very well. Enough said. Our waiter surprised Marissa with a Molten Chocolate Lava cake in celebration of her birthday, something we all had a few spoonfuls of.

After a long and busy Saturday getting myself all shopped out, I was up really early the next day, or as I like to say, at the crack of stupid. To drive a couple of hours to attend the christening of our newest niece, Brianna. It was wonderful to be able to see family that we don't get to be with too often because of time and distance.

Here is the little sweetheart with her mom and dad (Kathy (Dave's sis) and John) along with the godparents. My brother in law John (I know two John's, are you confused yet?) and the first John's sister Diane. Brianna is Diane's mini me.

Close up of the little girl of the hour in her fancy dress. Gorgeous!!!!

Dave's dad was once again able to baptize another one of his grandchildren, of the 12 grandchildren, Brianna is the fourth one he had the special privilege of baptising. And of course Brianna is completely memorized by her grandfather.

After the service we all went to Kathy and John's house for a luncheon and we were able to relax and enjoy visiting everyone. Of course Brianna's big brother, Kristopher had to get in on the action and ham it up for the camera. Silly boy.

Amanda was lucky enough to hold Brianna, lucky was right, because that little sweetheart definitely made the rounds that day.

Afterwards we went back to Dave's parents house where Amanda's attention was demanded by their cat Basil. It seems like he doesn't get any attention.

Amanda and I decided to go down to the lake and take a look at what was left of the ice caves. After a busy crazy day around lots of people, it was good for both her and myself to just have some quiet time and recharge our batteries down at the lake. Even Dave eventually joined us when he saw us sitting on the rocks by the lakes as he drove by.

And to make the day even better, I was able to hold Brianna as well. Living far away from family, I don't get to see my nieces and nephews as much as I would like. Which makes the time I do get to spend with them even more precious.

Should I Be Concerned

2010-03-15T17:45:00.000-04:00

The other day I was putting towels away in the kids bathroom and came across this scene. It made me stop and do a double take. Barbie appears to be suffering the after effects of a "few too many" during an evening of socialization with her friends.

My first thought was "Which one of my demented children put Barbie in this position and why?" My second thought was "Should I be concerned that one or more of my children know the after effects of a few too many?"

You have to admit though that Barbie has a cute outfit and her purse and shoes are to die for.

After some questioning Laura admitted to being the one who did the posing. I told her next time to put the purse farther away, you don't want it to get ruined.

Reveal Day

2010-02-15T12:26:00.003-05:00

Today is reveal day at the Scrapping Turtle. I can show the world what else I created in my room with the kit I was given.

First off we have "First Day Jitters". I used Bazzill cardstock (what else would I use?), American Crafts ribbon, and the Miss Muffet Font from Quickutz. And yes, that is a pic of Dave all ready for his first day of school, he barely fit on their chairs and was asked to not come back since he was too much of a disturbance for the class.

Next we have "Mad Science" Once again Bazzill cardstock was used, some American Crafts glitter cardstock (I love that stuff) used for the goo in the flasks and "sparkles" by the title, the Flasks, 12 inch border, and Zelda font all from Quickutz. The rest including rub ons was part of the Piggy Tales Simple Simon Collection.

Last was my altered item. I really scrapped outside of my shell on this one. This is the first altered item I ever did 100% on my own, outside of a supervised class setting. I picked up the plaque at a dollar store for $1, painted it with kaiser craft red paint left over from another project I am working on, rik rack ribbon kicking around my stash, American Crafts ribbon, some misc buttons and embroidery thread also kicking around my stash, and some circle grunge board that I did up for the "shhh, study area" . I think for my first time, I did OK completing my first altered item by myself and I came out of the experience pretty much uninjured. I am working on another altered item, but I injured myself in step 2 of the project, more on that when I actually finish the project and post it.

A Sketch Challenge

2010-02-07T18:57:00.004-05:00

Heather, one of the Design Team members at the Scrapping Turtle, issued a sketch challenge. She made a sketch, along with a layout she did of based on the sketch and we were each to make our own layout. Here is her sketch:

And here is my take on the sketch. I used Reminisce Frosted paper, Karen Foster sparkle brads, QK Jolly font, snowflake, label and border die.

Product of the Month At The Turtle

2010-02-06T22:02:00.000-05:00

I had so much fun working with the Product of the Month over at The Scrapping Turtle. The product this month is American Crafts Glitter Paper and was fabulous to work with. It is nice and thick and holds the shape of whatever you cut it and unlike a lot of other glitter paper, you and the surrounding room aren't covered in glitter from working with it (okay, that might not be a good thing, being covered in glitter is so much more fun), and it went through my Revolution like butter.

I chose to use some pictures from the Diva Go Scrapping Retreat in Stratford that Denise, Marissa and I went to a few years ago. It was so much fun and nothing says "diva" like sparkle, lots of sparkle. I used the lips and purse 2 inch Quickutz dies, Quickutz Mademoiselle font and nesting label die, Black Bazzill Cardstock, Luxe Patterned paper, and Kaiser craft 12 inch strip of bling.

Exciting News!!!!!!!!

2010-02-01T09:36:00.002-05:00

I have some exciting news!!!!! I have been sitting on this news for a little while now, ready to burst with excitement. I am the Guest Designer for the month of February at the Scrapping Turtle!!! Lori and Hannah called me a couple of weeks ago to ask if I would be their Guest Designer. Without thinking I said yes, then I dropped the pepperoni that I had in my hand when I realized what I just agreed to. Dalwhinnie used the pepperoni on the floor situation and my distraction to her full advantage and seized the opportunity with her mouth in .03 seconds. Lucky dog.

I love crafts and scrapbooking is one I spend most of my free time on. Being Guest Designer is exciting and an incredible honor on one hand, yet thoroughly frightening on the other. My work is being put out there for everyone to see and like a lot of people I worry whether or not my work will be "good enough". Silly I know. I am also not one who has not posted a lot of her work for others to see. For me, being Guest Designer is an excellent opportunity, as we like to to say at the Turtle, to help me "Scrap Outside My Shell".

I will be posting different layouts and other scrapbooking projects throughout the month. I even have to do a card challenge which I have been working on in my head for about a week. I have a couple of ideas, not sure which one I will run with. I will let you all know when the time to reveal comes.

Today is the sneak peak at the Turtle Board and on their blog. The day we reveal a little taste of what we created with the kits we received. I was given the Simple Simon Collection by Piggy Tales. I chose to do Amanda's school picture from this year in black and white, which really popped on the red card stock.

A Walk In The Woods

2010-01-31T21:41:00.003-05:00

It has been a cold wintry week here in Southern Ontario. Amanda had the 24 hr stomach flu earlier in the week and Dave and I were fighting colds and the kids were getting lethargic hanging around the house all the time. I decided what we needed was to get out and get some fresh air. Amanda ended up going to a friend's house for the afternoon, so we had just Laura and Daniel. We decided to grab some bird seed, get everybody bundled up, load up in the van with Dalwhinnie and hit FWR Dickson Settlement Conservation Area to feed the Chickadees. I took along my camera with the new zoom lens I got for Christmas, hoping to get some good shots of the birds.

A lot of times we haven't had much luck in getting them to come to us to eat, especially when we have Dalwhinnie. She wants to play so she starts barking at them, which causes them to not come near. Today we were lucky, because it was so cold out there really wasn't anybody on the trails, we had the area pretty much to ourselves, and Dalwhinnie kept her mouth shut!!!! The birds were hungry, they were all around us calling each other. I ended up with some really good shots. I set my camera on the sport setting which allows me to take continuous photos while I hold down the shutter. Worked like a charm, I would focus on one child, be it Daniel or Laura, and waited for bird to land and would press the shutter button and hold it down until the bird left. A few of the shots are shown below.

Here is one that landed on Laura's hand. It's like it is deciding which seed to take.

Laura with one of her Chickadees. Laura lucked out today, she pretty much always had a Chickadee on her hand. Her fingers were frozen after a little while, but she wanted to keep feeding them.

I love this one where the Chickadee is looking at Daniel as if asking permission to take some seed. Daniel was thrilled with today, this is the first time a Chickadee has landed on his hand, all the other times before he didn't have the patience to sit still and wait.

This was an afternoon we all needed. We returned home for some hot chocolate and tea, we were frozen by the time we came home, thawed our fingers and toes out and kicked back and relaxed. We all felt recharged and ready to face a new week.

Week 2 of the Challenge

2010-01-19T10:00:00.004-05:00

We have now started week 2 of the X-Weighted Challenge. I did my weigh in yesterday morning and I lost 1 pound. Woohoo!!! I have also joined a couple of community groups: Scraphoppers, a group of friends from the Scrapping Turtle Forum and Twitter Girls, a group of girls that I am starting to form friendships with over on Twitter.

My diet is improving, slowly. My goal this week is to cut as much added sugar out of my diet as possible. When I have my cup of tea, such as my English Breakfast Tea, I will add Stevia instead of sugar. When baking I will not taste test the product before and after baking. And I will focus on eating more fresh fruit and veggies. This weekend will be the real test as it will be Amanda's birthday this weekend and she will be having a couple of friends over for a sleepover on Saturday night. There will be munchies and pop of course and I will be making her favourite; a rich, decadent, triple layer chocolate cake. Heaven help me.

Exercise..... I haven't started my program yet. My fibroids kicked in last week and I was on a Tylenol #3 road trip and I spent most of the week on the couch or in bed. Not fun, can't wait for surgery. My energy levels are getting back up. Right now I am getting ready to do the fitness test, and then some yoga to stretch out my muscles, they are feeling really tight and sore. Tomorrow I hope to start working on my couch to 5k program. I can do this.

I am going to finish off this post with a recipe that I made last night for dinner. It is out of the Epicure Selections "A Healthier You" cookbook.

Mexican Beef and Black Beans

1 lb Extra lean ground beef or veggie ground round

1 each, red and green peppers, chopped

1-2 tbsp VE Taco Seasoning

2 tsp VE Poco Picante Salsa Mix

2 tbsp VE 3 Onion Dip mix

2-14 oz cans black beans, drained and rinsed

VE Pepper to taste

1. Heat a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add beef and cook for 8-10 minutes, stirring frequently. Drain fat.

2. Lower heat to medium-low. Add all remaining ingredients, and simmer for 5 minutes. Serve with whole grain tortillas or on a bed of whole grain brown rice.

Makes 4 servings

Per serving: Calories 260, Fat 5 g (sat. fat 1.5 g, trans 0g), Cholesterol 60 mg, Sodium 220 mg, Carbohydrate 25 g (fibre 7g, sugars 2 g) Protein 30 g

I ran out of taco seasoning, so I used what I had of Fajita seasoning, which wasn't enough either, so I added some Pueblo Bean Dip Mix, and some Louisiana Hot and Spicy Dip mix instead. The dish had a really nice kick to it. Made this dish with ground beef last night to help get my iron levels up, but I have made it with Veggie ground soy and it was yummy.

Let the Challenge Begin

2010-01-10T23:15:00.002-05:00

This weekend was the beginning of the 6 month X-Weighted challenge. Six months to get my act together and literally shape up. Six months to reach my fitness and weight loss goals.

My fitness goal is to run 5K, I have started the couch to 5K program before, but quit about half way through. I am determined to see it through this time. Time to dust off my runners and get moving again.

In terms of diet, this was not a good weekend. Saturday was the day for my Quick Kutz class in St. Jacob's. A day of creativity, making some amazing projects designed by Lori (there are days I would love to be in her head to see how she thinks up these projects) and a day to spend with my friends Marissa, Denise and Heather. We always have lots of laughs, and boy did we laugh this weekend. Unfortunately, these once a month outings are not too good for the diet plan, especially if one has my will power, which is not much. Doesn't help we went to the Stone Crock for dinner. I started out the meal pretty good, some good healthy salads from the salad bar, some samplings of the hot buffet, but then I had seconds of the veggie pasta and the beef stroganoff. But then it was time for pie, you CAN'T say no to pie at the Stone Crock (at least I can't say no), their pies are made fresh in the bakery kitchen two doors down. I LOVE their bakery, you can see right into their massive kitchen and watch the ladies make all the goodies straight from scratch. Did I mention I love their pies. And the selection, lots of choices Last night there was blueberry, cherry, pecan, and of course apple, and more but I can't remember them all, I got stuck at the apple pie. I had some cherry and some apple pie, they tasted soooo good, but not good for my waistline. Today was a better day, I had oatmeal with apples and cinnamon for breakfast, a couple of eggs, some fruit and veggies for lunch with some tortilla spirals, dinner was a couple of slices of veggie pizza with a titch of ground beef and two cups of tea and lots of water.

Let the challenge begin. I KNOW I can do it.

PhotoShop Fun

2010-01-06T09:27:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I finally got a chance to sit down and play with my Photoshop Elements. Using tutorials from Jessica Sprague I had a photo of my niece Heather when she was visiting over the Holidays. I changed the hue and saturation to give the picture an "aged" look and then did some tinting on her face with the brush setting and tweaking the foreground color. And then with the star brush with a white foreground color to give the sparkle effect in her hair.

Here is the finished photo.

And here is the original photo that I started out with. Isn't she the cutest?

Maple Baked Beans

2010-01-04T10:03:00.002-05:00

I noticed that I posted about the X-Weighted Challenge right above a post with recipes for Guinness Stew and Candy Cane Brownies. Kind of ironic isn't it? I think I will balance things out with a healthy recipe instead.

It is January, Christmas is over and so are all the over indulgences that go with it. Our budget is tight, all those bills are starting to come in, and our pants are tight, all those cookies, cakes, drinks etc, are starting to show themselves in extra poundage and inches.

Right now in the oven, I have some Maple Baked Beans slow cooking for tonight's dinner. Something that is slimming to both your budget and waistline.

It is Monday, and it is stupid night here in the Jenkins household. I have to run carpool today for the high school kids, which means I leave at 1:50 p.m. and get back into town around 3:15, just in time to pick up Daniel and Amanda from their school. Amanda has dance tonight, she needs to be ready to go at 4:45, which means she needs to eat her dinner at 4:00, which is the same time I am on my way out the door with Daniel to take him to his Karate class. Thankfully, Marissa takes Amanda to dance along with her daughter Alexa. I get home from Karate around 5:30 or so, and then have to go pick up the dance girls at 6:30. And who knows when Dave gets home. So in the midst of this madness I need to have dinner ready for the five of us to eat in shifts. And this recipe is a lifesaver. It is from the cookbook Dinner Survival by Sandi Richard. You have to watch Sandi in her show Fixing Dinner on FoodTV. Fabulous show for cooks short on time, love love it.

Here is the recipe:

1 1/4 cups dry white navy beans

5 cups water

1 onion

Sauce for Beans:

1 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp maple syrup

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp Dijon mustard

1/2 tsp Sambal Oelek (crushed chili paste)

add more if you like it hot (we do)

2 tsp vinegar

1/4 cup molasses

1/2 cup ketchup

1 cup water

4 bacon slices

THE NIGHT BEFORE:

Rinse beans in a colander, discarding shriveled ones. Place beans and water in a large stove-top pot at high heat. Finely chop onion, adding to pot as you cut. Stir. Bring to a full boil, then reduce heat to medium-low for a low boil. Set timer for 15 minutes.

Combine brown sugar, maple syrup, pepper, mustard, Sambal Oelek, vinegar, molasses, ketchup, and water in a large oven-safe pot or casserole. Trim and discard most of the fat from bacon.

When the time rings for the beans, transfer beans, water and onion into the sauce pot and stir to combine. Lay bacon on top. Cover, let cool, then place in fridge overnight.

IN THE MORNING:

Set the oven to 250F (set at 225F if gone more than 10 hours) Place beans in oven.

At the end of the day when you get home, reset oven to 350F. Remove 1 cup of beans with sauce into a bowl. Mash with a fork, return to bean pot and stir. Place beans back in oven, uncovered. Set timer for 20 minutes. When timer rings put some whole grain bread in the oven next to the beans, then turn off oven. Put together a salad while the bread warms and voila you have dinner!!

I am allergic to pork, so instead of real bacon, I use vegetarian bacon, gives the dish the same smoky bacon taste, but without the added fat and for me itchiness.

If you do use real bacon in the beans and you live in the area, I highly recommend you get your bacon from Oakridge Acres. They have the best bacon (at least according to those in my house who can eat bacon) and it is lean!!! No fat to drain when you are finished cooking the bacon and there is very little shrinkage.

X-Weighted Challenge

2010-01-02T11:24:00.004-05:00

Happy New Year everyone!!!!! I hope everyone had a wonderful time over the Holidays. Santa was very good to all of us here in the Jenkins household and it was good to have some time off and spend it with family and friends.

If you were like me, you probably ate and ate and ate and ate over the Holidays. I stepped on the scale yesterday morning after a good New Year's Eve party of food and drink and had a "That can't be a good thing" moment when I saw the number on the scale. All I could think of is that the X-Weighted Challenge can't come soon enough.

What is the X-Weighted Challenge you ask? If you have ever watched the show X-Weighted on Slice, you will know how they go into people's homes and lives and revamp their eating and exercise lifestyle. I have always loved watching the show when I can, seeing people who have struggled with weight loss and the emotional issues that tend to go along with why they are overweight in the first place. Now the experts at X-Weighted are putting together a National Challenge for people to "Get Fit and Lose Weight". I follow X-Weighted on Twitter and found out about the challenge initially through Twitter, and said I would join the challenge, which has now put me on their blog here , and caused me to think, "I can't believe I am doing this"

When I was asked to be featured on their blog I was at first hesitant, "What if I totally fail and at the end of the Challenge I am still at the same weight and fitness level as I was at the beginning." I decided to go for it, that this will force me to focus and stay on track, make me accountable, because a lot of people across Canada have now seen my face splashed on a National Blog......gulp (I still can't believe I did that)

Some people will look at me and think I don't need to lose any weight, but underneath I know I need to get my act together. My muffin top is getting bigger and I have my family history of diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and osteoporosis to think about .

I have always been a skinny girl growing up, I was teased in grade school for being so skinny some times, I can still hear "Skinny Minny Miller". But in my teens and early 20's being the "skinny girl" was advantageous at times, I could eat whatever I want and still wear my size 6 clothes. I was also very active so I burned off the excess calories. But eating whatever I want has caught up with me. I have also had three children and am not as active as I used to be, combined with being 41 years old with a slowing metabolism the pounds have crept up on me. In 2006 I saw myself in the family pic of my sister in law's wedding and was shocked at I how I looked, that is not me. So two girlfriends and I joined a small private gym, I lost a fair bit of weight and was about 15 lbs away from my goal when the gym closed, tried another larger chain gym, but then the recession hit, Dave's company got hit and we had to trim corners financially, so I gave up my gym membership. We purchased a treadmill with some income tax money and got a Bosu ball thrown in. I told myself I could continue the regime on my own. Nope, among other things human laziness has gotten the better of me ,the pounds are starting to creep back on again, I am not as heavy as I was in 2006, but if I don't smarten up I will be soon.

Am I nervous about doing this challenge? You bet I am, since I have made it very public to do this.....there is no turning back. I am also overwhelmed by the prospect, I have a very full life. My oldest daughter Laura is in an International Baccalaureate Program for High School, which means we carpool with other families to and from the school which is about 1/2 hour away from our home, the other two need to get to their school as well. Almost every single weeknight is taken up with at least one child's activity (horseback, dance, karate, swimming, piano), and there is all the other "Life" stuff.

As some of you know, I have uterine fibroids, one of which is quite large and they literally knock me of my feet for a few days to a week each month. Because of the fibroids my hemoglobin is starting to get low, not too bad yet, but enough to make me feel it, which will also affect my exercise program. I am booked for surgery at the end of April to have the fibroids removed, once that is done and my hemoglobin gets back up to normal, I can ramp up my exercise program.

I will have to tweak the challenge to suit my life for now and whatever is thrown at me in the next six months, but I know I can do it!!!! How about you?

The Challenge starts January 9th, who is in?

A couple of recipes as requested

2009-12-07T18:47:00.003-05:00

We are well into December and we have snow actually sticking on the ground here. I had to find my winter driving skills today driving to karate and horseback, some wicked black ice out there.

On Facebook today I mentioned that I was making Guinness Stew and Candy Cane Brownies for dinner tonight and I had a lot of requests for the recipes. Here they are, enjoy!!!!

Guinness Stew (I call it this, but the recipe is actually called Deep Dish Pub Pies, I got it years ago from Homemakers.com)

2 lbs (1 kg) boneless lade, cross-rib or round steak or stewing beef, cubed

1/2 cup all purpose flour

2 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

3 tbsp vegetable oil

1 cup onions, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced

3 cups beef broth (I use the VE Beef Bouillon)

1 can of Guinness

1 cup plain tomato sauce (I use V8 for added flavour)

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 bay leaf

1/2 tsp thyme

2 carrots, diced

2 potatoes, diced

3/4 cup celery, diced

1 1/2 cups small mushroom, halved

Topping:

1 (about 14 0z/400 g) package frozen puff pastry, thawed

1 egg lightly beaten

Combine flour, salt and pepper in a plastic bag. Add beef and shake to coat with flour. Reserve remaining flour. Heat 1 tbsp of the oil in a large, heavy saucepan set over medium heat. Brown beef cubes in batches, adding more oil as needed. Add onions and garlic and cook until softened. Add broth, beer, tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, bay leaf and thyme. Bring to a boil, stirring well to scrape brown bits from bottom of pan. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 1 hour or until meat is nearly tender. Add carrots, potatoes and celery, cover and simmer for 30 minutes, then add mushrooms and simmer for 15 minutes longer or until meat and vegetables are tender.

Mix reserved flour mixture with a little cold water until smooth. Stir into beef mixture and bring to a boil, stirring. Simmer for about 5 minutes. Remove bay leaf. Taste and adjust seasoning. Divide beef mixture between 8 individual casseroles (each about 10 oz/300 mil or 4 inches in diameter) Cover with foil.

Make -Ahead: Beef mixture may be refrigerated before or after filling casseroles, for up to 2 days)

Topping:

Preheat oven to 400 F. Roll out pastry to 1/8 inch (3 cm) thickness and cut into 8 round that are the same diameter as the casserole dishes (pastries will puff up during baking and shrink slightly in diameter) Place on large baking sheet.

Chill until pastry is cold, about 15 minutes. Brush with lightly beaten egg. Bake in preheated oven for about 12 minutes or until puffed and golden brown. Reserve

Make Ahead: Pastries may be made up to a day ahead. Cover with a tea towel and store at room temperature)

Bake foil-topped casseroles in 400F oven for 15 min or until bubbling hot. Remove foil, top each with reserved puff pastry rounds and return to oven for 5 minutes. Serve hot.

If you like beer, have a can of Guinness while eating the stew/pies.

I normally don't make this into pies, I don't always have the time. I skip the pastry part and just eat the stew part. You can also add dumplings to the stew the last 15 minutes or so of cooking.

I have also made this stew in the slow cooker. Brown the beef and add to the slow cooker. Use the beer and some of the broth in the pan that you browned the beef in, scraping up the bits and add this to the slow cooker with the rest of the ingredients, mix well and cook on low for about 8-10 hours.

Now for dessert:

Candy Cane Brownies

This recipe is from Canadian Living Holiday Best 2002

2/3 cup butter

8 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped

4 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

4 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt

Topping:

1/2 cup crushed candy canes

2/3 cups mini chocolate chips

Line a 13 x 9 inch metal cake pan with parchment paper, set aside.

In saucepan over medium-low heat, melt together butter and semisweet and unsweetened chocolates. Let cool for 10 minutes. Whisk in sugar, then eggs, 1 at a time, whisking well after each addition. Whisk in vanilla. Using wooden spoon, stir in flour and salt. Scrape into prepared pan.

Bake in 350 F oven until cake tester inserted in centre comes out with a few moist crumbs clinging, 25 to 30 minutes.

TOPPING: Sprinkle with candy canes, then chocolate chips; return to oven for 30 seconds (do not let topping melt). Let cool in pan on rack. Refrigerate until cold, about 1 hour. Cut into bars. Makes about 40 bars

I use a whole package of candy canes (i think there are about 12 or so candy canes per pkg). I can't be bothered measuring crushed candy canes. I put the unwrapped candy canes in a large Ziploc baggie, seal the baggie and beat the crap out of them with a rolling pin. It is a great stress reliever. I also just eyeball the chocolate chips on top as well, in my world you can never have too much chocolate.

We also say screw it to refrigerating the bars for 1 hour. After a couple of hours I remove the brownies from the pan, and cut into squares while the chocolate chips are still ooey and gooey and oh so good and you end up with chocolate all over your hands and face. Yummy.

Scrapping Turtle is Having a Spooktacular On-Line Crop

2009-11-05T10:09:00.003-05:00

At the Scrapping Turtle Forum, one of the forums I like to hang out at, is having a "Spooktacular On-Line Crop" beginning Nov. 13. There will be challenges and ballots given to win some awesome prizes, don't know what the prizes are, but knowing the Turtle they will be awesome. If you are new to the forum, go and register, tell them I sent you, complete at least 2 of the challenges from the on-line crop (it will be fun, trust me) and you and I will each win some ballots.

Gotta Love Halloween

2009-11-04T21:11:00.000-05:00

I love Halloween. I love decorating, getting the costumes figured out, picking out pumpkins and raiding the kids treat bag (my hips and stomach don't appreciate that part though)

It is a yearly tradition in our house that I take a picture of all three kids with their pumpkins after we carved them and are waiting for the pumpkin seeds to finish cooking. Of all the pictures I took that night, I like this one the best, it shows all three of them laughing, shows them as I see them and why I love my three babies (yes Laura, you maybe 14 but you will ALWAYS be my baby). Why are they laughing? That splash of white in the left hand side of the picture is a clue. That would be Dalwhinnie who decided that with me sitting on the floor with a camera sticking out of my face, it would be a good time to jump on me and lick my ear, ewwwwww!! Nothing like dog licks in the ear.

This year for Halloween it was just Daniel and Amanda who went Trick or Treating with their friends, Laura opted to stay home and hand out candy, I think she realized it was more work than she expected. Of course I have to take some pictures before they head out. Daniel was walking death, again, and Amanda was an enchantress with a purple and black wig that lasted about 3-5 houses.

When I look at this picture it makes me giggle. Daniel had his toy sword with "blood" (ya gotta love boys) and was swinging it at our Pirate, Mr. Doomsday, who is trying to get out of his grave, except it looks like he is ready to take Amanda down who is smiling sweetly, without a care in the world. She doesn't see her brother who appears ready to slash his sister down into oblivion, but she is an enchantress, she will use her magical powers to deflect him. Daniel has been foiled again. Bwahahaha!!!!

And finally, here is our house with the decorations. My favourite would be the giant spiderweb and spider. And we can't forget Mr. Doomsday. Poor Mr. Doomsday who will be stuck half in and half out of his grave forever......well right now he is in storage in my basement.

A couple of cards

2009-11-03T21:07:00.003-05:00

I have been busy making a couple of cards. This first one is to welcome my new niece. We haven't had a chance to actually meet her yet because we have had the flu in the house, she is about a month old already, hopefully we will be able to see her very soon. Kathy, if you see this, you didn't see this, right?

The stamp is Geordie The Giraffe, it was in my loot bag from Crop for the Cure (thanks Tracey) and I colored him in with Copic markers, the words "little one" is a Close to my Heart stamp. Patterned paper is Basic Grey (sprinkles), ribbon I am not sure, got it in a grab bowl at Scrapfest, cardstock is Stampin Up, the Threading Water Stamp from Fiskars was used to give the scalloped edge at the bottom of the pattern paper.

This card I made just because. I will probably give it to one of my girls at some point. Patterned paper is from Stemma, stamped image and wording is Close To My Heart, flower rub ons and bling is from Bazzill and again I used the Threading Water punch from Fiskars.

That is my three posts for today, to make up what I missed posting yesterday and Sunday. We shall see if I can blog everyday this month for National Blog Writing Month. I think if I do I need to treat myself to something scrappy, maybe a Quickutz die, or new Cricut cartridge, or more paper because lord knows I don't have enough paper!!!

Jessica Sprague has a new free class

2009-11-03T16:33:00.002-05:00

Just got an e-mail yesterday from Jessica Sprague that she has a free online class and that registration is now open. It is called Holidays In Hand. I have taken one of her classes before and she is a fabulous teacher for adobe and digital scrap booking. And as with all of her classes you get free downloads. Check it out here and register if you can. And the best part is you don't have to "keep up" with the classes. You can work at your own pace, so if you have a crazy busy week and can't get to the lesson right away, you do it 1, 2 or 3 weeks later or even 1 year later.

Double Ginger Crackle Top Cookies

2009-11-03T10:34:00.002-05:00

We have had the stomach flu come through this house for about the past week. Daniel started last Wednesday, Dave and Laura kicked in Saturday night. Today, everyone is back to school and work. Woohoo!!!!!!!

We have had a month of at least once a week someone gets sick in this house except for me, I have just kept going, didn't have time to get sick I suppose, having to take care of my bubonics. Also, yesterday my mom fell and broke her wrist so I will have to be zipping out to Woodstock to get her a few groceries and such.

The other day, with Dave and Laura comatose on the couches, Amanda still having her lingering cough and Daniel still complaining of a stomach ache, I decided I had enough. I tried to raise some money for my "Ria is sick and tired of taking care of sick children and Dave and needs a vacation preferably to the Caribbean and/or Hawaii" fund. I didn't get too far. Denise and Marissa and Lisa offered to come with me, they are such good friends that they would be willing to make such a big sacrifice for me. We decided on Hawaii. But the only cash I got was some Canadian Tire money from Lisa, she said I could buy some bungee cords with them. Maybe I could stowaway on a plane and bungee myself out when we are over Hawaii?

I read on one of the blogs that I follow that November is suppose to be National Blog Writing Month and that you are suppose to try and blog everyday. Huh? I am lucky to blog once a month sometimes. It is now November 3, I think I am about two days behind already, what if I post three posts today, would that count?

Now for the recipe. With people's stomach acting up, I decided to make some Double Ginger Crackle Top Cookies. Boy did my house smell amazing last night. It is a recipe I use from Epicure and it calls for their Crystallized Ginger. I love their Crystallized Ginger. Usually the grocery store kind of crystallized ginger tends to be pale in colour and small, and when you read the ingredients they add some other stuff besides ginger and sugar, to prolong the shelf life. Last year I got my first can of VE Crystallized Ginger, opened it up and the smell was AMAZING!!!! The ginger was a nice dark color, moist and chewy and I was able to eat it right out of the container with no funny aftertaste. I read the ingredients which are as follows: ginger, sugar. THAT IS IT!!! Pure ginger with sugar, and the container I opened last year is still good, almost gone, but still good. This crystallized ginger is fabulous dipped in melted dark chocolate.

DOUBLE GINGER CRACKLE TOP COOKIES

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp VE Ginger

1/2 tsp VE Cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup finely chopped VE Crystallized Ginger

3/4 cup shortening (I use butter to eliminate the trans fats which are a lot worse than saturated fats for your heart)

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

3/4 cup white sugar, reserve 1/2 cup for rolling

1 egg

2 tbsp Molasses

1 tsp finely grated lemon zest

1. Preheat oven to 350 F

2. Whisk together first 6 ingredients and set aside

3. Cream shortening (butter), brown sugar and 1/2 cup white sugar until light and fluffy.

4. Beat in egg, molasses, and lemon zest.

5. Gradually add dry ingredients, beating well after each addition.

6. Place 1/4 cup white sugar in a shallow bowl. Form dough into 1" balls, roll in white sugar and place on a parchment line baking sheet 2" apart (I just used my pampered chef stone ware, greased)

7. Bake for 10 minutes or until "crackled" on top. Cool before storing.

Enjoy!!!!!!!!!

Catching up and a recipe

2009-10-23T11:06:00.004-04:00

I admit it , I am a terrible blogger. I see it has been over a month since I lost posted. Yikes!!!!

For the last three weeks we have had a flu bug in this house. I have been lucky in that it didn't strike me down, but it got everybody else here. According to the Board of Health, if you have the flu, chances are it is H1N1, so I assume that is what we had. We ended up spending Thanksgiving here at home and missed out on seeing our brand new niece, but we are planning to go down to Sarnia this Sunday and meet Brianna. I am so excited, charging my camera batteries right now.

I have used this morning so far to catch up on my internet world. Went over to Two Peas and watched their weekly Video Warehouse Walk. I so want to work there, I think it would be fun if Denise, Marissa and myself had jobs in their warehouse, Dave thinks nothing would get done if we were there. I wonder why he would think that?!?!?! I also watched their Finally Friday Video with Kristian Werner. She showed how to make the cutest card using Basic Grey's Nook and Pantry paper line and stamps. Love it. You should check it out.

Today is a cloudy, cold, and rainy day so I am dressed in comfy sweatpants and sweater, sitting here in my craft room and hope to get some scrap booking done. I have to make a card for my niece to welcome her to this fabulous world and finish the mystery kit I picked up at the Scrapping Turtle for this month. Hopefully I will get around to posting pics later of those projects.

Last weekend Marissa and I held an Epicure open house here at my home. We had a fabulous turnout and everything we made was given two thumbs up. We had Spinach Dip, Crab Dip, layered Nacho Cheese Dip. Shortbread with dark chocolate for dipping, vanilla spritz cookies, chai and Christmas Tea with an amazing gingerbread syrup, baked brie with Red Pepper Jelly and Pinoit Noir Wine Jelly. We also made a fabulous gingerbread cake using the new Gingerbread Spice blend and served it with Vanilla Creme Anglaise. Here is the recipe. I would post pictures, but we ate all and it was delicious.

Enjoy!!!!!

OLD FASHIONED GINGERBREAD CAKE

3 eggs beaten

1 cup white Sugar

1 cup molasses

3/4 melted butter

1 tbsp VE Gingerbread Spices

2 tsp baking soda

2 tbsp hot water

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups boiling water

1. Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C)

2. Lightly grease a 9" x 13" (23 cm x 33 cm) baking pan. Lightly dust with flour, tapping out the excess. Set aside.

3. Beat eggs, sugar, molasses, butter and VE Gingerbread Spices in a mixing bowl.

4. Dissolve baking soda in hot water. Stir into egg mixture.

5. Stir flour into mixture until batter is smooth.

6. Add boiling water and mix well. Pour into prepared pan.

7. Bake for 45 minutes.

Marissa and I found this cake reminds us of Koek, which is a Dutch cake we used to eat growing up. Adding some chopped apple and/or raisins would also be a nice addition to this cake.

VANILLA CREME ANGLAISE

1/2 cup whipping cream

1/2 cup milk

1/2 VE Vanilla Bean

2 large egg yolks

2 tbsp granulated sugar

1. Place whipping cream, milk, and VE Vanilla Bean in top of double boiler over medium heat. Stir frequently for approximately 3 minutes, or until mixture begins to heat and small bubbles form at edge of bowl.

2. Remove VE Vanilla Bean, split lengthwise with a small knife and scrape out seeds. Add seeds to mixture. Rinse pod and set aside to be reused.

3. Whisk egg yolks and sugar in a small bowl. Slowly add heated milk mixture in a steady stream, whisking constantly.

4. Return mixture to the top of the double boiler. With heat at a slow simmer, stir with a spatula for approximately 3-4 minutes or until the mixture thickens slightly.

Serve with warm gingerbread cake. Yummy!!! Especially for a day like today.

September Quickutz Class

2009-09-18T16:37:00.000-04:00

This past Saturday Denise and I (Marissa wasn't able to make it) went to our monthly Quickutz class at The Scrapping Turtle. And Lori did it again by designing an amazing class.

First here is the September pages to go in our calendar binder. We used alcohol inks on Quickutz self-adhesive clear plastic and then cut out leaves and the scroll frame. I loved the final look. I see some money being spent on alcohol inks now.

Next was this card. We used the silhouette of the tree from the Recycle kit. With some ribbon of course and finished off with a hat pin, the point safely tuck behind the tree and frame, so people like me don't poke their finger and draw blood.

Finally is the layout. We used some of the nesting dies to make some of the trees/flowers and with a brown distress ink, stamped script on the letters for the title. I love the blues, green and browns together.

Once again Lori, thank you sooo much for an awesome class.

First post in a long time with a kick butt recipe

2009-09-09T21:06:00.002-04:00

I know, I know. It has been a long long long time since I lasted posted. August was a whirlwind around here. A brief summary of our August goes like this: We went to the ROM with Dave's sister Mary, her husband John and two of their offspring, Rachel and Even. We saw the Dead Sea Scrolls and excerpts of the Egyptian Book of The Dead. Fed stingrays and got mooned by an organutan at the Toronto Zoo. I turned 41 and got a brand new, absolutely fabulous Canon Rebel. Three days later the brand new camera and I came crashing down when Dalwhinnie (my normally lovable dog) tripped me up while we were doing a light jog to get some shots of a hot air balloon landing in a nearby field. I think the whole village of Ayr heard me curse and swear at the dog. The camera survived the fall with only a few minor scratches on the body. Me, I scraped up my left knee and wrist a little bit, and took a nice big chunk out of my elbow, it has been over three weeks and I am still healing. Laura turned 14 and had an amazing sleepover with some of her friends. We met family of Scott and Marissa's from England, their little guy got along so well with Daniel, it was like they were always friends. Had to say goodbye to my nieces, Angela and Heather, who flew back to B.C. to be with their mom. During their last few days in Ontario they stayed with us and we all had a blast, water gun fights and roasting hotdogs and marshmallows over the fire pit. Did some major back to school shopping and got Laura ready for her first day at high school, can't get over how much my baby girl is growing up, I am so proud of her.

And that folks, is just the tip of the iceberg of what happened in August. I haven't had a chance to do any scrapbooking during August, but I hope to start back up again now that the kids are back to school and we are starting to settle into a routine.

Now for the recipe. I am a member at Pioneer Woman's new cooking website, Tasty Kitchen, and in my list of friends is a lovely woman and amazing cook by the name of Paula Jones who also shares recipes on her blog bell' alimento. I have read a number of her recipes and oohed and ahhed over the pictures. Tonight I made her Rum Chicken and it was a big hit!!!! Even Daniel, who normally we have to fight with to eat, had two servings!!!!! Here is the recipe below and when you have a chance check out Paula's recipes. They are fabulous!!!!! Enjoy

What you’ll need:
4 large chicken thighs
3 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter
4 fresh sage leaves
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup Rum
large pinch of Nutmeg
s/p

What to do:
Pat your chicken thighs dry with a paper towel & season well with s/p on all sides & set aside. Place your chicken fryer/skillet over med-high heat. Once your pan is hot, add in your butter.

Once the butter is melted, add in your sage leaves & then your chicken thighs. Sprinkle thighs with your Nutmeg. Cook your thighs until they are browned on all sides. Turning as necessary.

Once the chicken is browned, add in your chicken stock and cook for approximately 5-6 minutes. Lower the heat to simmer/low & add in the rum. Cover your pan with a lid and cook for approximately 20 minutes or until your chicken is cooked through. Turning every so often.

Buon Appetito!

Lake Huron at Sunset

2009-08-04T13:57:00.001-04:00

We have had a very busy week here at our house. Laura, Amanda, and Daniel spent the week at Dave's parent's for Camp Jenkins. While they were gone, Dave and I managed to get a lot of purging, cleaning, and sorting done. We also enjoyed sleeping in, lazy mornings, slow breakfasts, went to see a movie one night, went out for sushi another night. It was nice. Sunday, was off to Bright's Grove to celebrate my father in law's 70th birthday and my Sister in Law's 45th.

My in-law's have a wonderful house right on Lake Huron. Just walk across the street and you are at the beach. While there, all the grandkids were at the beach pretty much everyday, thank goodness the weather actually co-operated this week. Sunday we spent the afternoon hanging out on the beach, eating, laughing, drinking, and catching up with family and friends we don't get to see too often. After we were full of all kinds of yummy food including cake and pie (really good pie cousins from Michigan brought over) we sat on the porch to enjoy a beautiful sunset. After awhile some of us wandered to the beach to watch the sunset from the breakers. It was a beautiful night. The temperature was just right, the beach was pretty much empty of people except for us.

Here is the group watching the sunset. I couldn't resist taking a couple of pictures.

I think we would make this a daily ritual if we could.

Of course here is the sunset. The beautiful sunset. Some days I wished I lived here, just for the sunsets.

A perfect way to end a perfect day.

Bella Bvld is doing another give away!!!

2009-07-31T18:06:00.002-04:00

Just got back from popping into Bella Blvd's blog and they are doing another giveaway. It is paper packs from the new lines they released at CHA along with embellishments to got with them. Fabulous. Go to Bella Blvd and check it out and enter for your chance to win!!!!

Celebrate!!!

2009-07-24T12:09:00.003-04:00

On one of the message boards that I sometimes visit, someone posted a video link that has been making the rounds about a couple's non-traditional walk down the wedding aisle. I watched it and I found myself immediately smiling, laughing, and crying. It was fabulous. They were celebrating what is suppose to be a milestone day in a person's life. They were celebrating their love for each other and life.

Watching this video made me think back to my own wedding and my serious walk down the aisle. Dave and I have talked and we both agree if we were to do our wedding all over again, we would keep the reception, that was so much fun, but the ceremony, we would change. We wouldn't do the big serious church ceremony and all the pomp and circumstance that goes with it. Don't get me wrong, I loved my wedding day, I loved my dress and feeling like a princess for a day, but the church ceremony, that is not me anymore. If Dave and I were to get married today, I would like the ceremony to be a celebration of our love and commitment to each other and our lives together, and we would want our friends and family to celebrate and laugh with us.

Below is a link to the video. Enjoy. I hope it puts a smile and laugh into your day like it did mine.

Wedding Entrance Dance

Jessica Sprague Lesson 2- Brushes

2009-07-22T17:53:00.003-04:00

I managed to get Jessica Sprague's Lesson 2 - Brushes done. WOW!!!! Super super easy or what and after exploring her site and being linked to all kinds of websites that offer free brushes, I am sooo excited. It has opened all new world to me.

Anyways, here is my completed assignment from Lesson 2. Not bad if I do say so myself. Need to experiment a bit more, but I think I got it. Woohoo!!!

Bella Blvd

2009-07-20T18:29:00.002-04:00

My good friend Heather introduced me to Bella Blvd, I hadn't heard of them before, but after checking out their stuff I don't know why. Oh my goodness!!! Their stuff is absolutely freakin' fabulous!!!!! I love love what they have in their idea gallery and then today on their blog they posted sneek peaks of their new lines coming out soon. I want it ALL!!!!!!

If you love to scrapbook or are new to scrapbooking you have to go and see what I am talking about at Bella Blvd and check them out, you will be glad you did.

July Quickutz class

2009-07-18T16:27:00.005-04:00

Once a month I go with Marissa and Denise to the Scrapping Turtle for their Quickutz Class. Quickutz is a product line of die cutting machines and die cuts used in paper crafting, to learn more check out their website here. We are members of the Quickutz club at The Turtle which give us a discount on Quickutz products, special deals and a monthly class where we make some projects designed by the incredibly talented Lori.

The July class was Christmas in July where we made a fabulous two page layout for Christmas pictures. Once again Lori outdid herself, we always joke about wanting to be inside her head when she is creating the projects because they are always fabulous. Below is the completed two page layout, ignore the crooked trees on page one, I didn't realize they were falling off until I loaded the pictures. Whoops!!!!

Close up of the first page, notice all the layering, love it. Used pop dots to make some of the elements "Pop".

Here is the second page.

The second project was another calendar page and photo page to go into the calendar album we are making. I loved the swimsuits hanging on the clothes line. Too stinkin' cute.

Touched by An Angel Hair Pasta

2009-07-18T15:17:00.000-04:00

Thursday I went with Daniel and Laura to the St. Jacob's Farmers Market. I love going there, seeing the rows of stalls full of fresh produce and being able to buy directly from the farmer. The colors of all the blueberries, raspberries, peppers, tomatoes, carrots etc. It is a feast for the senses to be there. At the end of the day we came home with a cooler full of fresh produce that I couldn't wait to use in making dinner. I decided to make an Angel hair pasta dish with roasted peppers and pesto, it is a tried and true recipe from my Eat, Shrink and By Merry cookbook. The original recipe called for fresh basil, but I forgot to pick some up, even though there were stalls with fresh picked and potted basil. I guess I was too distracted by everything else going around me. Instead I used some of the Epicure Pesto Herb mix and it worked out perfectly.

I rounded off the meal with fresh corn on the cob with fresh watermelon and raspberries for dessert. It was delicious and everyone (except for Daniel) cleaned off their plates.

Here is a picture of the main course of the meal, yummy. Dave was looking at me kind of funny while I was taking pictures of my dinner. I told him it was for my blog and don't worry, I won't getting any more nuts on him than I already am.

Here is the orignal recipe along with my tweaking:

2 large red bell peppers
1 large yellow bell pepper
1 large orange bell pepper
1 1/2 cups packed fresh basil leaves (I used 1- 1 1.2 tsp or so of Epicure Pesto Herb Mix)
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp minced garlic (approx. 2-3 cloves of minced fresh garlic based on how garlic you want it)
1/2 tsp salt
8 oz (227 g) uncooked angel hair pasta (capelli d'angelo)
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (you can get this in the deli section of grocery stores, don't get the powdery not real Parmesan but we will call it Parmesan cheese that you usually find next to the pastas and sauces in the main part of the grocery store, just not the same as the real stuff)
freshly ground black pepper (optional)

Preheat broiler. Halve red, yellow, and orange peppers. Remove stems and seeds. Place peppers cut-side down on non-stick baking sheet. Broil until blistered and charred. Transfer to a large bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let stand for 15 minutes. Peel off skins. Set 1 red pepper half aside. Cut remaining peppers into thin strips. Set aside.

In food processor, puree reserved red pepper half, basil (or pesto herb mix), olive oil, garlic, and salt until smooth.

Cook pasta according to package directions until tender but firm. Drain and return to pot. Add pepper strips and basil puree. Toss to combine. Serve sprinkled with Parmesan cheese and freshly ground black pepper, if desired.

Enjoy!!!!!!

Figuring out photoshop

2009-07-14T22:50:00.003-04:00

I picked up Photoshop Elements 7 as a really good deal at Costco a while ago, but haven't been able to figure out how to actually use the program. Adobe has a good thing going when they charge you close $100.00 for the program (with my Costoc coupon I got it for a lot less!!!! I love good deals) but no instructions on how to use it unless you spend another $60.00 at Chapters on the manual.....I don't think so. Thanks goodness for Jessica Sprague!!!! I have started Jessica Sprague's free photoshop course and after looking at the first couple of lessons, the course is FABULOUS and she is such an amazing teacher!!! She explains everything on the videos clearly and walks you through it all step by step.

The lessons started last week, but I was too busy last week with company and birthdays to start. Since the course is online, I can start anytime I want, perfect for people like me. Tonight, I completed Lesson 1, PNG Frames and Word Art, below is my finished project.

I am so excited at being able to actually figure out photoshop. Also check out her website for lots of free tutorials and links to more free stuff. I love free stuff!!!!!