Feeling confused tonight

We had a great day for most of the day. Joshua Tree was fascinating although COLD! I got tons of interesting shots Hopefully I'll be able to get to the mall and make a cd. In the afternoon, I had been looking forward to going out to meet some friends and my hostess was worried I would get lost. So we did a "dry run". I had mapquest directions written all down but she didn't see how they could be right and was getting very upset about it, I finally got so fed up with all the chaos that I turned the car round and came home. I CALMLY suggested that I could go do this in the morning when it was light and she wouldn't have to worry about me getting lost in the dark. Well, I'm not sure what happened next, but she told me I should leave "for both our sakes". Wow, get out of here in other words. So I went out. When I came back she was even angrier that I was gone longer that she thought was appropriate and mad that I didn't call. I didn't realize she has taking over the role of "mother" for me. Thanks, not in the market for this. She went into her room and has not come out. I think I'll be looking at changing my flight to get out of here tomorrow if possible, in the morning. I wouldn't live this way at home, with someone giving me the silent treatment and I sure don't want to endure it here, trapped in this house, This SOOOOOO sucks. I was so excited and happy to be coming to spend time with her. I've been trying not to cry all day, but I guess I'll go to bed now and do exactly that. The bird, by the way, is a road runner, I thought they were only in cartoons(!!) and then there are the famous PS dates at the farmers market. Oh well, tomorrow is a new day.

PS I love you

So, scenes. 1. my friend and gracious host, sunning at the pool (r u jealous yet?) 2. snow AND palm trees, how cool is that? 3. a sculpture in the city park. Today we went to an oasis and up 8515 feet in the airial (sp?) tram. It was snowing and blowing at the top and most people had parkas on but there was me, the little old Canadian broad, standing in the wind with a shirt on, smiling like an idiot. It really was NOT cold IMO. Super duper view, tho, and I loved the ride both up and down. We also visited a real oasis, which was VERY kewl, pretty pretty. Walked through the desert to get there, lots of interesting plants out there. I should have some pics tomorrow. Must go back to Target and the CD-maker again. I figure I may as well make it worth my while and get the pics tomorrow at Joshua Tree as well. The weather has been fine. Even at the top of the mountain! :-)

Palm Springs

Here I am! It's taken me this long to get some pictures that I can download to my friend's computer. It's a Mac & I know nothing about a Mac. I went to Target & took some pictures off my camera, had them put on a CD. I put the CD in and here we are! The pic of the trees is the view from my friend's condo and the other is of the lemon tree at her house. Cool, eh? We went to a street fair, for a walk downtown, did some shopping, went for an hour walk today too. AND we spent today at the pool/hot tub. Perfect. Just kind of taking it easy, which is exactly what I came here for. Tomorrow, if it isn't pouring, we're going to Joshua Tree Park for a picnic. I hope it isn't raining! Anyways, now that I have my act together, I'll check in every day. Happy in the sun!

The Last Post

not as in the trumpet melody, as in b'fore I head to the sunshine. Today we had hoarfrost to end all hoarfrost and I HAVE to put a couple of pics of it up-it was like a winter wonderland! I hope the branch shows up how thick it was, imagine the whole world covered with this icycle-y jewels! You know how popular flocking is these days? Well, look closely at the photo of the hill with the arrow. The trees all looked like they were covered with fluffy white flocking and lo and behold, look at what I found! ( I was supposed to be working, in between a meeting and the office, I just couldn't NOT stop) Anyhoo, if I am able, I will post pics from Palm Springs. I'm not taking a laptop, so I don't know if I'll be able to, but hey, back in a week, if you don't hear from me before then. And yes, Virginia, it IS warmer there. TTFN

One More Sleep

Apparently the low here is higher than the high in Palm Springs right now. what the heck???? That's just wrong, there is no other word for it. I mean, it's lovely to hang around outside in our balmy-ooo,-isn't-this-wonderful! summerland, but I'm going to California to WARM UP! Global warming? I DON'T THINK SO. Take that, Al Gore. You can kiss my chubby white warm Canadian tush, if I freeze in Palm Springs next week.
And while I'm on this particular soapbox, why is it I have to be at the airport for my flight 3, count em, 3 hours before my plane leaves, when I'm in the air way less than that? Has the world gone crazy? I think so. OK, I'm done now.

Wordless Wednesday

I Heart my Art

Opus Challenge #38. I love ATC's. They're so much more do-able than full LO's. Inchies are even more fun, but how can you have an inchie exchange? You'd get your inchie in the mail and open the envelope and whoosh, the inchie would fly out onto the carpet and the cat would get it stuck to it's paw and run off with it, with you chasing after yelling "Give that back you stupid cat!". Oh my, I"m exhausted after that sentence! I really should be packing, two more sleeps and I'm off to California. I'm gonna have a date shake. AND, I'm going to the CHA show! I am beside myself with excitement! Talk about being in the right place at the right time. Wow. Back to the point of this post, the Opus Challenge. I did my ATC's with a quote which pretty much sums it all up for me: "Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life". Picasso said that. And he knew. He only had one ear. He knew, trust me. I can come home from the worst day on earth, make something, anything and it's OK. It makes it all better. Picasso knew that and so do I. Peace.

AAARRRGGGHHH!!!

So I have this friend. I offered to drive her to the airport. It meant I would have to get up at 3:30 AM, but what are friends for? So I did. I got up at 3:30 AM and was at her door at 5AM as promised. It took a while for her to come to the door and she was in her PJ's. She said to me, "Oh! It's NEXT Monday."
I cannot tell you what I said to her, suffice it to say it wasn't "The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain."
I'm going to bed now.

Kind Over Matter

This is my ATC for my first ATC exchange. It's through the Kind Over Matter blog here I love this blog, it's simple, full of lovely photos and uplifting. It makes me smile. So I took the leap and signed up to trade an ATC and then guess what happened???? the Opus Poobahs have put forth an ATC swap challenge as well! Isn't that always the way it is? I was asked to join a monthly swap here in town and I declined, because frankly I don't think anyone would want one of my ATC's, but I've gotten some confidence since then and well, the rest is history. I'm smiling tonight. Tomorrow I'll post my Opus ATC's 'cus I actually got them done today, as soon as I saw what the challenge was. OK, OK, I'm a tad OCD. But I'm smiling.

Prayers for Haiti

It's so hard to watch, all the suffering. I can't imagine. I got an email from the friend I'm going to visit next week in California and her eldest son is in Haiti with 17 students. She finally heard that they are safe in a compound outside of the capital but of course she's worried. The news tonight said the government is going to airlift them out tomorrow, thank goodness. But the people who are left behind......
I live such a blessed life. I was in the Twin Towers, long before they fell. I was in New Orleans, again, long before Katrina. I was in the Dominican Replublic, the poverty is unlike anything we have here. Each time these disasters have happened, I remember what it was like before the devastation. I work with immigrants and refugees. The conditions in so much of the world are totally unlike our privileged safety. I came upon a client, one I had come to love, at my last job. She was crying. Her brother was dead in Iraq-an American bomb. What can you say?
We just have to love them with our feet. Action, not words.

Opus Challenge #37-STARS

This was fun. I sort of piggybacked last week's challenge by trying to use up my somewhat obscene amount of scrapbooking supplies. Stars, as many as I could reasonably fit on the page. I was kind of tired of doing ATC's and LO's, so did this in a frame and it's now on display in my livering room. No, that's not a typo, that's how my daughter used to say "living room" when she was little. Maybe it's because she and I both love liver so much. Or maybe not. Maybe she was just a little bit challenged when it came to areas in our home. She's fine now. "Cinnamon" causes her some grief from time to time, and "specifically", though. Specifically cinnamon. I hope she doesn't read this.

Friday, on Saturday Fill ins

1. The lesson I learned yesterday was that Creator has a plan and sometiomes I need to wait until he has all the furniture arranged.
2. Fights sometimes break out where friends and family meet.
3. All these years I thought I would never get old.
4. My parents were terrified when I arrived.
5. The truth is there is a god and I'm not it.
6. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to scrapbooking, which is exactly what I did, tomorrow my plans include going to the Scrapyard to pick up my CHA pass for Anaheim, and Sunday, I want to finish my summer vacation scrapbook pages, before I leave for my next trip in 8 more sleeps.

Class with Lisa

I took a class quite some time ago with a really cool lady named Lisa, of Treasured Memories in Edmonton. That's like a three hour drive from here EACH WAY, which tells you how much I love their store and Lisa too! She's so talented. Anyways, I see she's running the same class again (Unleash the Artist Within)and so I wanted to post the LO's I made with the backgrounds we made together in her class. (that's a really long sentence)Lisa's blog is here I realize this is a lot of pictures tonight, but I loved what we did, spraying and masking and playing and have made lots more backgrounds since taking the class. I would highly recommend her class if you lived in the neighbourhood (ie Canada :-)) It's a tip of the hat to Lisa for sharing her talents with me.

Here I am!

No, I have not left town, I've been sick. And guess what? I have a follower! I noticed it out of the corner of my eye when I signed into my blog just now, I thought "Huh? What's a follower?" But it's my friend Jana! How kewl is that? Now that I know how good that feels, I'm going to become a follower of the blogs I follow! OMG, it's a whole new world out there. Maybe I should google "follower" tee hee. I can barely write the word "google" as a verb without twitching.
So I've been sick, laying on the couch and I should be tonight too, but I kept smelling something like gasoline in my studio file cabinet and I couldn't ignore it anymore. One of my drawers is a tool chest and so I had to take out my drill, floor tiles, hammer, vice grips, you get the picture and at the very bottom of it all I found an exploded can of Liquid Wrench. Good lord, it stinks. What do I have Liquid Wrench for, you ask? Actually, for the truck, but as I ruminate on it, I remember using it in the old house to pull the tub faucet out of the wall once when I had to replace it. It was all rusted and I had to lay down in the bathtub, put my feet against the wall and yard on the thing until it flew off and I flew backwards. The Liquid Wrench made all that possible. Why is it in my studio, in my (relatively)new condo? Well, where else would you put it? duh.
One more word on the tub story, I really should start dating again. I remember when I called my mom and told her I was going to be getting divorced and she said "who will fix the roof, if the roof needs fixing?" I'll refer you back to the tub story once more. It didn't happen when I was married and neither did the roof get fixed. Nuff said.
The pics are of a journal page I did the other night, I love love love the wood stamp from Cornish Heritage Farms!
The dress on the page is an attempt at printmaking-I'm doing this daily art thing where I cut up a bunch of typed tasks and put them in a little box I made and I pull one each day and do it. So far I've had to draw a map of where I went all day, cut swatches out of colour combinations that inspired me as I was out and about, drew everything in my briefcase-you get the idea. I wish I could remember where I got this from, but I just can't. It's pushing me out of my comfort zone anyways. Today was the first day I haven't actually done the task-I was supposed to read an entire book today. Not going to happen.
The other picture is from a little football album I made. It's Tim Holtz' film strip ribbon and I love it. Time consuming to cut out and adhere all those little pictures, but I still love it.
Whew! If you're still with me, you're a better woman than I! I need to visit the blogs I follow now and then crawl back to the couch. TTFN

ATC DAY

I've spent the whole day making ATC's (and a quick trip into work to say good-bye to one of my staff). Life couldn't be much better. Well, actually, on second thought, it could. I could never have to go to work again. Only if I have lots of money, of course. I know enough to be careful what I wish for. I made a Valentine's hanging heart too, all glittery and fun. I'll post it tomorrow probably. It's been a perfect day today, you don't even need a coat, although I wore a spring jacket, just in case. "Just in case what?" you ask. Just in case the weather changes, a horrific blizzard blows in, my truck breaks down and I am stranded with no food or water for 48 hours until they plow the roads and rescue me, on the brink of death. Don't laugh, it could happen. This is Canada. God Save the Queen.

Wild Women

I was blurfing last night and came across this awesome poster by two very talented ladies, Heidi Daiseybones and Blisschick Christine. It's pure Eye Candy, IMO! It's available for download here

Friday fill ins #158

1. There are places in my mind that I think I've visited, but it may have been only in my dreams.
2. A very strong fan and a warm hug would blow those clouds away.
3. Standing in the corner was a way of life for my big brother.
4. Lions and tigers and bears, oh boy!
5. He went out tiger hunting and came back with a guinea pig.
6. Only sleep keeps my mind from wandering.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to going to bed soon, tomorrow my plans include relaxing and on Sunday I want to go into work, stay a very short time and come home quickly.

Opus Challenge Trimming Down

I have a new little point and shoot camera. I used it tonight to take the picture of this LO. If it's no good, I guess you won't be reading this post............ I will have deleted it. I thought I could give it a try and see how it looks. Plus my worktable is kind of messy. But it always is, so that's just me.
I am trimming down my button collection. I realized I have more buttons that I have a right to, sat down and organized them by colour-when I went into that box, do you think I could find a turquoise one? So I used clear buttons and alcohol-inked them the colour I wanted. It worked well. This LO was fun and it makes me smile.
I'm going to hit the POST button now and look at the photo. If it looks really bad, I'll delete and try abain tomorrow. If it's not bad, I hope you enjoy. Goodnight.

Mindfulness

I've chosen my word for 2010: Mindfulness. It's a word I've come back to over and over again in the past few years, but I've never really made it my focus. Being Mindful IS about focus. "Mindfulness: the trait of staying aware; paying attention to your responsibilities; thoughtful; a meditative state of enhanced awareness.
I go to a group each Saturday and meditate with a group of like-minded women-it's the highlight of my week. I try to start each day with a short meditation, but I'm not so good at it, I have a habit of waking up and immediately going one hundred miles an hour in terms of how I plan to spend my day/unfinished business from yesterday. When I am consciously being mindful of my thoughts, feelings and actions, I slow down. I will do my best to be mindful of not getting too hungry, angry, lonely or tired. (HALT) I will be mindful of what and how I eat, I will be mindful when I am cooking my food and when I am eating it. I will do my best to be mindful of how I present myself to the outside world: of my choice of words, my dress, my attitude. An Elder once told me that his definition of spirituality is "to be pleasant". I thought that was way over-simplified initially, but on further consideration, I realize he is right. I will do my best to be mindful of the effect I have of other people. My daughter, my friends, my colleagues, my employees, my clients. when I am doing my artwork, I will be mindful of how I choose to create. I will be mindful of how I spend my time.
And this post is the beginning of being mindful about my thoughts and how I want to share those thoughts.

Wordless Wednesday

My cat is blogging for me tonight

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Something's been bothering me

for quite some time now. Has anyone else noticed around December that if you drive down the street, any street, very late at night, that there are deflated "blow-up" plastic Christmas decorations lying around on the ground as if they've been partying all night? What's up with that? Are there gremlins who lurk around in the wee small hours, letting the air out of these things? Or poking them with a pin? Or have they REALLY been boogying all night at some plastic blow-up decoration party? Maybe they drink too much.
I find it all very disturbing. Maybe next December I'll start a charity to benefit deflated plastic blow-up decorations. Yes, that's what I'll do. Unless of course there is already an agency devoted to this cause. I've never heard of one.

I promise

This will be the last "Christmas" post of the year. Well, last year, actually, I'll likely do more in December (2010). Very likely.
I know Christmas is SO over, but I wanted to post these particular LO's. Plus, I'm watching a DVD on TV that I taped a couple of weeks before Christmas, so REALLY it's not even happened yet! I know this for a fact because I can hear John Lennon's "So This is Christmas" in the background.
These are three LO's I made using some of the blog candy I got from Opus. I had such fun, really I didn't do much else yesterday except work on these. Well, and kind of putz around. Today I went out for a bit and slept a lot. I've been up for a couple of hours, long enough to eat and start back on the many many pages from our trip this past summer. But I'm debating going back to bed for the night.
It's always fun to scrapbook pages from a fun vacation, I get to relive the memories all over again. For instance, we were in a shop in Vegas, one that had some vintage/romantic types of jewelry and clothing. I loved everything in it. In fact I took pictures. If I'd had more money I would have bought something, but photos seemed the next best thing. At any rate, there was a newspaper clipping on the counter that screamed "Brittany spends $35,000.00 in 10 minutes at ____!!!" This store of course. I've never spent $35,000.00 on a vehicle, for crying out loud. And it takes me one heck of a lot longer than 10 minutes to choose a truck, let me tell you. This shop was next door to a store with outlandishly expensive chandeliers and thrones and sarchophaguses (sp?) and the like and I remembered seeing Michael Jackson on TV shopping in this store. Saying, "I'll take that, and that, and that, and that." I didn't buy anything there either. Quelle surprise.
I have pictures of the bathroom in a diner in Kingman Arizona, an authentic Route 66 diner. It was really neat. (Neat is such a Neat word). I took pictures last week in a bathroom in a Greek restaurant in Lethbridge-maybe I have a fetish. No, I just think it's way cool when people carry their theme into their bathroom. The Greek restaurant (which served Butter Chicken,and stir-fried shrimp, so I'm not sure how authentic it was) was FULL of treasures, everything from a lava lamp in the midst of brass turkish coffee urns and fluffly Frosty the Snowman.
Maybe I'll post some pics of the Greek restaurant tomorrow, although I'll spare you the biffy.

It's midnight

and I haven't chosen my word for 2010 yet. I DID say I would by the end of the day. Maybe my word should be procrastination. Nah, I don't really procrastinate. I just get distracted. Maybe I'm ADHD. Ooooh! Squirrel! Now, where was I?
It's not my fault really, I was blurfing (my friend Jana's word) and you know how it is, you start at one blog, then click on a link, then click on another, then another and before you know it, you've arrived in some other galaxy. Which is exactly what happened. As I recall, there was a link that said "Free vintage clip art" and before I knew it, I had 20 more images in my clipart file and plans to make 367 new ATC's before I go to bed tonight. Two hours ago I was going to get up at sunrise and go to the woods to take pictures...did I mention it's midnight? Oooh! I hear an airplane! What was I starting to do?
Oh yeah, my word. I'm waffling between "music" and Focus" Given this blog, maybe "focus" is the best? Hey, can I recycle a potato chip bag? I'm leaning toward "music". Excuse me, I have some ATC's to make.

Friday Fill Ins

My Friday Fill-Ins:
1. Last night we watched Julie and Julia, awesome movie!!
2. By the end of this day, I will have decided on my word for the coming year.
3. The funniest thing is that once Christmas is over, Santa leaves town on a tractor in the sky.
4. He said: The reindeer may take the rest of the year off. She said: And just who do you think is going to do the housework?
5. I'm thinking it's time to go back on my diet, so where do we go from here?
6. I lost my mind last year and it's up to us to find it.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to visiting some friends in a little town west of here, tomorrow my plans include not getting dressed all day, and Sunday, I want to go see Avatar with my ex-husband, Aunt Linda who used to be Uncle Mike (?!) and our daughter.

If you want to play along: here