Yoo Hoo, remember me?

I'm the cute, slender, blonde, young chick who runs this blog.  Hah!  Gotcha!  I am neither slender, nor blonde (although I was when I was younger), nor young (read my last comment).  But I can be cute! I think. Or maybe not. Oh now I'm so confused.  I wish we'd never started this.
I survived my recent bout with the fugly-u.  that's my new code word for the (very) UGLY Flu.  You may use this code word if you like.  Of course I hope you never have to, but if you do, I and millions of others who are reading this post, just like you are, will know EXACTLY what you mean.  How cool is that?  It'll be like we're in a secret society.  The Fugly-U Society.  Shhh.  We'll come up with a secret handshake too.  One the cool kids will NEVER figure out. 

Now that THAT is out of the way, I have good news.  It's time for the big reveal.  Well, it could be big.  If you look at it that way.  My first set of the "Seasons" Inchies was received and so I can show it to you!  I think it's only right that the recipient gets them before YOU see them.  Although I could change my mind at any moment on that.  For now, that's my philosophy.  Here they are: 

WINTER

Are ya chilly yet?  That's all folks!

PS.  Thanks for being patient with me while I was out of commision.

And now that I'm feeling better, I'm partying with these folks

75 hours

That's how long I've been sick, in bed.  I've heard there are ``super-bugs`out there and you had better believe it.  I miss you all and god willing and the creek don`t rise, I`ll be back on line (and eating) soon.
Love ya!

Woo Hoo!

I just moseyed on over to Gingersnap Creations and discovered that I'm a Ginger Gem for the second time.  I am SOOOOO excited!  For those of you who are not in the know, you should get in the know by going to see this wonderful site .  You don't know what you don't know until you know what you don't know.  Gingersnap Creations.

Go see are the arty goodness over there. 

This piece is in no way related to Gingersnap Creations.  It's just something I had fun makin.

!

Have you ever put things off?

Well, I did.  Seriously.  Put off sending in five years worth of professional credentials and now all five years are due next Monday and I havne't even done them.  Yes, you are supposed to keep up with these, but who has the time? I mean there are so many other WAY MORE FUN things to do.  Well, the bad news is that if I don't get them done and in the mail by Saturday, they could conceivably take away my license to practice.
THAT, my friends, is why I do not YET have any more pictures of our zipline adventure to show you tonight.
In fact, if you REALLY want to know how serious this is, I'll have you know that outside my studio window are this year's International Fireworks Competition taking place and I CAN SEE THEM FROM MY STUDIO!  I have never missed going to these. But yes, folks, it's true, I have my blinds drawn and have not watched.  Is that self-control or what?  Yeah, right, if I had self control, I wouldn't have put myself into this situation.
So please be patient with me, I will get back on track.  In the meantime, here are some pics from our trip.  Just not anything to do with ziplines.  Feeling sorry for me yet?  Nah.  It's OK.  I didn't expect you would.
She says as she smacks herself in the forehead, saying "you dummy" over and over and over again.

First, we have Glacier National Park.  Pretty, eh?

Next, here are some examples of this guy's art-his entire yard is full of these treasures and we drove by a few times, wondering what it all was.  Finally we went in and asked him.  He is an artist, and was rebuilding his house, which had just burnt down.  So he had his little girl Luna show us around.  It was a magical place and she was a magical little girl.

A barn (complicated description, don't you think?)

We found this field of wildflowers against a backdrop of trees which had obviously been in a fire-my daughter heard a really strange howl and urged (no, make that ORDERED) me to get in the truck and as I did, a coyote ran by where I had just been.  Normally, I don't mind coyotes, but not in the middle of nowhere and not when we hear what quite possibly could have been his lunch calling us.

I owe her one.

Are ya sick of me yet?

You always have to end with a sunset, right?  If we hadn't spent so much time is fields of widflowers and side-stepping coyotes (OK, that's BS), we would have been home before this sky happened.

And that would have been a travesty

TTFN

Yes we did it!

We did the ziplines.  AND (the best part)?  We both lived to tell about it.  I will not however tell you about it tonight.  I am too tired.  Tired and sore.  I know, I know, this could be considered whining by some.  All I can respond to that is until you have hiked up a mountain and rappelled down it 350 feet about the forest floor on what should technically (in my view) ONLY be used as a power line, and is 1692 feet long:

SHUT UP AND LEAVE ME ALONE

Don't misunderstand.  I say this with love.

Good night.

Montana

We haven't gotten too much shopping done yet, except we had a great time at JCPenneys, which I love.  And YES, I spent some moolah.  Natch. What we actually did most of the day was hike.  You heard me, I said the H-word.  HIKE.  For that reason I am a hurtin unit tonight.  Happy, but hurtin.  In honour of our visit to the great USofA, I am showing you a pic of a little album I made when we were in DC.  Hoops & Yoyo go everywhere with us, even to Thailand when we were there, BUT I FORGOT THEM ON THIS  TRIP!!!  I feel so guilty.OK, enough of that.  I need some sleep.

You can cick on the pic to make it bigger. 

I'm linking up to New Friends Friday, cus I'm meeting, what else, New Friends there!  See you tomorrow!

Friday Fill In #190

1. _Laughter _gets rid of my headaches._.

2. _Hi, do you_ are the three words that started off the last email I sent.

3. What I'm most looking forward to today is _going to Target_.

4. _A comment on my blog always_ puts a smile on my face.

5. Where in the world  is Waldo? and why hasn't he been found yet?_

6. _A holiday was_ just what I needed!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to _a yummy supper out_, tomorrow my plans include _art galleries and more shopping_ and Sunday, I want to _survive the ziplines we're booked to do_!

See more here.

Move it, Move it!

This week over at The Order of the Opus Gluei they have us doing jumping jacks for this week's challenge.  No, just kidding.  I couldn't do a jumping jack if my life depended on it.  Well, maybe if my life depended on it.  But what kind of a situation would that be?

I guess I would have to have been taken hostage by an insane personal trainer who could possibly have heard me refusing to exercise in any way, shape, or form and decided that s/he would lock me in a gym until I ran 6,395 miles on the treadmill and did 218 one-handed push-ups.

Like THAT's going to happen.

But now I've frightened myself.  Give me a moment to catch my breath.

OK.  The Poobahs over at The Order of the Opus Gluei have actually challenged us to move some of our (my-substantial) stash out of our crafty places.  This happened to be right up my alley!  I made a to-do list on my holidays and the biggest item on that list was to complete my Palm Springs album BUYING NOTHING NEW IN THE PROCESS!  Ha!

And I've done exactly that!

So here are four pages from that album.

I am so happy how this worked out!

Must go now, I'm off to Montana for the weekend

If you don't hear from me, that'll mean I haven't got any wireless internet access and with the (cheap) motels I've booked, that's very possible.  If I don't see you before, have a super weekend!

And don't forget to go visit The Order of the Opus Gluei!

What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday-Part One

I had no intention of finishing this LO when I started it tonight.  I should be getting ready to go to Montana tomorrow.  But the phone rang and I was on there for quite a while and then I forgot that I should have been packing, and I then accidentally finished the LO.  I should say before you see it (on my next post) that a whle back some of us social workers were marching on the legislature buldings, to protest cut-backs to essential services, and we wore these tartan scarves in the official tartan of our (evil) provincial government.  There were numerous dogs and children (and the Raging Grannies) and I was taken with these dogs, with their tartan scarves.

You'll know what I mean when you see the finished LO.
Dogs are people too!

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday-Part Two

In the time it has taken me to get this post onto the puter, I have finished the LO.  Did you know you have to staple photos onto a wool fabric background?  I do.  Now.

Please go see lots more What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday?  entries.  (It's like peeking in people's windows when they're not looking.)

AAARRRGGGHHH!!!!

Earlier tonight I had my Adobe Editor, Adobe Organizer, Outlook Express and 5 different webpages open.  And YES, I was doing something with all of them.  and YES, I've done this before with no problem.

Not so tonight.  No, tonight, my idiot computer decided to speak French again and I couldn't finish the post I was in in the middle of, with 4 pictures already uploaded.So.  I had to close all eight activities I had going on, plus dump my in-the-middle-of post, with 4 pictures-already-uploaded, and shut the darn puter down and start all over again.

I wish I lived in Argentina.  They don't speak French there, generally, do they?

I am SO not on a pink cloud.

I was so miffed, I refused to do my post again and instead wandered around in Blogland.

NOW Blogger tells me I am not signed in, but if that's true, how can I be posting this???

Huh???

I'm over it now, but I'm going to continue to party hearty with these folks:

So there.  Humphf.

Playdate

I went to Edmonton for the weekend.  and while I was there I took at class at Treasured memories with Lisa of You Know How I Roll.  I had SUCH a good time!  There were two other ladies in the class and it was so much fun to see how each of our projects turned out so differently.
Here is the first book:

I love her colours!

Beautiful!

Then our second beauty:

This is so elegant.



I think it's really romantic.
In case you're wondering why I'm not giving credit where credit is due, it's cus I didn't get the ladies' permission to say their names on my blog.  I guess all you'll have to just admire their work and see how talented they are!

Here's our fearless leader Lisa.  I think she thinks I'm a groupie and I guess I am cus I think she's very artistic.  It was thanks to one of her tutorials that I actually did a self-portrait, something I swore I would NEVER do.  See, she makes the impossible possible. And that's a BIG deal, for me, who thinks I can never do anything.

Can you tell how much fun we're having?

Here's mine:

We learned how to layer and give depth to a surface, the surface being a children's board book.  I learned lots of different things, and had a blast using all sorts of goodies from Lisa's extensive stash of treasures.  I mean TREASURES! 

Here are some closer looks at some of my pages, first because it's my blog (tee hee) and second, because I'm relly pleased with how it turned out.  I wanted to come home and make another one right away, but gave my head a shake when I heard myself plotting how to get a board book from the little girl next door without her knowing, as it was Sunday and all the stores were closed.  (I should probably get some therapy.)

The photograph of the first one is a little dark.

Mr. Right.

And finally,.

That's it.  I loved the class and I love my book.

Thanks Lisa!

Gophers

In Torrington, Alberta, there is the world-famous "Gopher Hole Museum".  I'm not kidding, it really IS world famous!  It was not world famous until PETA got wind of it and protested.   That made it world famous.  

Before I go any further, I have to warn you.  If you ARE a PETA member, or if you have any objection to seeing gophers in what some might consider compromising positions, please click your back key and visit me tomorrow. Now that I've warned you, we'll go forth.  Please keep in mind that there are a BAZILLION gophers in the world and their burrows trip horses who then break their legs and have to be put down as a result.  And if I sound like a redneck, it may be because I am.  

BEHOLD:

 

First, the little critters fight back.  Probably hunting hunters.

 

It must have been one fine meal.  Probably included bumbleberry pie, I'll bet.

 

On the way to a fire call, one of the fire-fighter tripped and fell.  His colleague  has a good sense of humour, but I don't see him making a move to help.

 

A parishioner finds the sermon a tad boring. I can relate.

 

Young love.  You can't see the Harley in the foreground.

  

Hanging out at the town pool hall.

 

The high school fashion show.  I'll bet there is a dance after.  Wanna chaperone?

 

A joyous occasion.

 

A Royal Canadian Mounted Gopher and his trusty dog, Fluffy.

 

Drama at the beauty parlour.

  

This one's for Jana.

  

Vancouver or bust.

If you're still with me, you must find these funny, as did I.  When I was in the museum, there were some young women looking at the vignettes and laughing so hard they were crying.  One of them said she has some, shall we say, incontinence issues.  She should have been in my shoes, I could have used a pair of Depends.

Friday Fill Ins #188

1. Life is _all we've got_.
2. _Just_ keep going.
3. My last text message (or IM) ended in these three words: _Call me_.

4. _Lobster_ is what I'm thinking about for dinner sometime soon.

5. On the 1st day of August _I spent a great deal of time wondering where summer was_.

6. _My daughter is_ lively and energetic.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to _a sauna and swim at the hotel_, tomorrow my plans include _the farmers market early in the morning and then a class with my friend Lisa at Treasured Memories_ and Sunday, I want to _come back to town and go to A Taste of Calgary_.

 

 

I hope you go and visit more Friday Fill Ins!