Red Rover Red Rover ...

... I call Jenny over ....

okay, admit it ... this game was tough ... really tough ...and it was never the easiest schoolyard game for me to play ... and being the tiniest kid in the school yard didn't help much either. But I think it was on the cold and wet gravel field that was our recess playground that i learned a lot about inner strength and determination. Wee tiny me would take stock of the players on the opposite side ... would look for flinching fingers, cold hands, the weak link ... and when called ... would run, full throttle, short little legs pumping as fast they could ... and finally leap onto the joined hands.... crashing through ... landing on the gravel in a heap, knees cut and bloodied from the fall into the gravel ... none of it mattering as long as i, the tiniest kid, could break through ... yup, this was all about guts, determination and the will to succeed ...

geez, and here i thought i was just going to post pictures for Jenny's summer school meme ... i guess that's why i enjoy blogging ... i just let my mind wander and before i know it, a bit of me is spilling across the www universe.

and now, pictures ... some of them were shot just a day or two ago, others years and years ago ... but they are all some of my fav "red" shots.

little me in red

red tulips ... one of my favourites

my red nano, a gift from my daughter ... its engraved with something special on the back!

Honey ... in her red raincoat

Hayley, in a red art installation

Hayley, again ... in red ... with red graffiti

a wet red railing

mmm, fresh raspberries ... another fave!

red lilies ... how cool fiery hot is that???

This post was brought to you by the colour RED and Jenny Matlock's Rainbow Summer School meme. Make sure you visit other meme participants ... i can guarantee you will enjoy it!

red foliage ... so many reds, so many shades of red ...

CHA Sneak Peeks ...

Oh be still my beating heart ... although i have only seen the sneak peeks, I am totally in love ... I tell ya, this industry just keeps getting better and better ... the artists creating all of these beautiful things that we get to use are wow! amazing! I just love that these artists can make me feel like an artist by adding my own photos and thoughts and memories ...

Here are my must have's so far ...

Donna Downey ... this has got to be her year. Her stamps for Unity are gorgeous and absolutely almost everything she has produced for Prima is on my must have list!

Donna's Canvas sheets

Donna's canvas flowers

Donnas Iron Ons for canvas

Prima ... okay, i do love to make my own flowers, but when i purchase flowers, they are almost always Prima ... imho Prima does flowers and bling the best ... and their new releases .... Yummy! oh, their new paper line "Fairy Flora" ... just says Jo all over it!

Prima Paper Butterflies

Tim Holtz ... love some of his new stamps ... and his new seasonal tissue tape

Glitz Designs ... okay I totally need the new "Scarlette" line ... beautiful bold reds, yellows and greens ... and its all fab!

Scarlette

Graphic 45 ... the new "halloween in Wonderland" line is fab ... as well as the new buttons and envelopes.

Pink Paislee ... all four of their new lines are gorgeous, but i totally must have all of the Parisian Anthology" line ... gorgeous soft muted greys ... and love their embellishments, the ruffled darlings, flower darlings, frames, tinsel ribbon and their new portfolio album ... oh be still my beating heart ... (didn't i say that already?)

I have noticed that there are lot of gorgeous trims and embellishments being produced right now ... one could spend a small fortune on these ...

So far the best source for sneak peaks has been Scrapbook Updates ... check it out!

So, have you checked out any of the sneak peeks ... or are you waiting for the full reveals after CHA? What do you love, what are your must have's?

Peace, Love & Paper

Jo

A to Z's of Me

Big thanks to Jenny Matlock for bringing so many interesting people together for her Alphabe-Thursday meme. I have had a blast, "met" so many interesting and enjoyable people, learned a lot of new things ... and just truly enjoyed myself.

I used this meme to explore and record bits of me ... so when the great grands ask what i was like, well ... at least they will have a scrapbook, filled with alphabetic entries that give them an idea of who i actually was ... so much better than 2nd hand knowledge in my point of view ... so now that i have finished the blog portion, i have to print all of the entries and add them to my compendium of me album and the job is done!

I really hope to see you around for the next round ... this time my theme will not be me ... hopefully it will be something much more interesting and engaging.

I will be playing the summer school colours of the rainbow meme ... and as a little head start ... a rose ... this is a real rose, not photoshopped ... i just don't know how they did the rainbow dye job ... it is totally weird isn't it?

As always this post has been brought to you by the letters A - Z and Jenny Matlock’s incredibly fabulous Alphabe-Thursday meme … go visit her blog links to some interesting and amusing Alphabet posts! ... geez I can't believe that this is the last week. Time sure flies when you are having fun!

Peace Love & Paper ~ Jo

Life with a new computer ...

... is totally different ...it's so different from my creaking old computer that was with me for almost 10 years. the problem i am having with the new one, is that there is a lot to learn ... and i am a slow ... yes s l o w learner ... and technology doesn't do slow ... i have little problems because the keyboards are slightly different, the buttons are smaller ... the printer acts different and well its just a whole lot faster. I am hoping that this computer will last almost 10 years as well (yes i am totally hopefull) but we shall see!

and now that i am not stuck in the www traffic crawling at the pace of small car in the slow lane I am exploring at lightning speed ... now if only i could learn at lightning speed.

I am not a ....

Zebra ... yes I said Zebra ... kind of a lame Z word for our Z posts ... reminds me of those alphabet books from my youth ... Z is for Zebra ... C is for Cat ... that kind of thing.

But, I am not a Zebra ... i love the way a Zebra looks, so black, so white, so very little in between ... no grey areas.

I think that is the opposite of me ... I am kinda colourful ... yes, i do think so ... no black and whites here. Just a blend of colours, melding, winding, mixing, bleeding ... kind of sparkling and sometimes effervescent ... but more often than not... muted ... think Monet ... think of his water lilies, evoke a summer breeze, mix in warmth ... lots of love, and a twisted sense of humour ... arms that wish they could encompass the world and heal all wounds ... a tasteful bit of glitter and yeah, you get me ... I am so not a Zebra ... which is a good thing, mostly because i love my opposable thumbs and I don't like walking on all fours ... i did say twisted, right??

As always this post has been brought to you by the letter Z and Jenny Matlock’s incredibly fabulous Alphabe-Thursday meme … go visit her blog links to some interesting and amusing Z posts! ... geez I can't believe that next week will be the last week ... i have really enjoyed playing along with Jenny's meme!

Peace Love & Paper ~ Jo

If you missed my previous posts, you might want to send me an email ... i lost my email addy's in the transfer so i need to restart from here on in. just click the email button on the right sidebar. thanks!

email me!

well guess what i did? ... or maybe it's what i didnt do .... but i lost my address book ... yes it's gone, gone, gone .... somewhere out there in cyberspace my little addy book is blowing in the wind ... so please .... i mean pretty please ... send me an email ... just click the email button ... I need to add you all back into my address book and i dont have your address's ... oh the new computer AMAZING!!!! My ISP .... once again, so horrible ...oh and they "don't support" imac ... so i'm thinking of switching to someone that does.

life without my computer ...

... is darn scary ... i'm typing this from my dd's laptop ... just wanted to say i should have a new computer by tommorrow ... i choose a mac so i'm terrified of it and i don't even have it here yet ... so here's to learning a new system!!! and hoping all of my photos and music and files transfer over nicely and i don't end up tearing out my hair ... crying ... weeping and well ... all of that stuff...

Y is all about yellow .... some of it mellow ...

"They call me mellow yellow" .... remember that song? okay ... for those that are, well, getting up there in age ... remember that song? ... as a preteen I thought that was one of the coolest songs around ... of course i never knew what it referred to ... and i still really don't, there seems to be a lot of urban myths surrounding this song ... but i like it just because of the memories of my life at that time that it sparks ... the carefree attitude i had ... the freedom i felt ...

I arrive at the parking lot to wait for my daughter ... the lines between the stalls are yellow

Remember this one? "We all live in a yellow submarine ... yellow submarine ... yellow submarine..." I loved this song as well ... and again, from about the same time period ... My mom took us to the movie ... again, i was a preteen ... i remember it well because we had drive all the to Kits, which was the side of town that in 1968 was the mecca for all things counterculture and hippie and the birthplace of Greenpeace ... there were not many kids in the audience, which i found really strange for a 'cartoon' movie ... instead the audience was filled with men with long hair and colourful clothes and women in long skirts and even longer hair and the smoke in the air was something other than just your regular cigarette ... It was an interesting time and an interesting memory ... When my own child was young, singing this song used to be part of our bedtime routine ...

what? are you kidding??? in the air ... a blimp ... looking a little like a yellow submarine ... is that not the weirdest coincidence?

"Look at the stars, look how they shine for you" ... I love this song by Coldplay. very straightforward, no hidden meanings ... just a beautiful song about being devoted to someone to the extent that you would do what you could for them ... write them a song ...

to make things even weirder ... the guy operating the blimp is standing by a yellow car ... again, so unexpected!

Yellow ... the third chakra, the solar plexus ... and mine is so out of balance and has been for a while now, this is something i really need to focus on more intently.

DD arrives at the parking lot in a yellow bus ... and it does hold a whole lot of happy campers!

Yellow ... the colour ... has never really been a fave of mine ... i don't know why ... it is sunny, it is happy it is bright ... so why don't i like it? One of the rooms i feel most comfortable in is my friend's living room ... which is butter yellow .... and flowers ... gotta love a yellow flower! Where would we be without a brilliant daffodil or a giant sunflower... or tiny buttercups for that matter? I checked over my scrapbook supplies and i have almost nothing yellow ... no yellow clothes, no yellow furniture, no yellow art ... and yet it is a happy colour ... unless it is an orange/yellow shade and then it just irratates the shizzle out of me (shhh don't repeat that word to teacher) ... Maybe if i learned to appreciate the colour yellow more it would help with my third chakra??? Help the healing so to say ...

and all of those campers can now cross the street ... safely ... who says there is nothing to photograph in a parking lot???

Well this has been a weird post ... wandering from music to health to contemplation on a colour ... sometimes these posts just happen ... and then they move to where i least expected them to go ...clearly i am not a big planner ... no topics neatly researched and set aside ... just another sprawling ramble ... and as I arrive home to finish this post, i think that there are so many small serendipitous things that happen in a day. I was thinking I would never find pictures to go with this post ... I leave, grab my point & shoot as I head out the door to pick up DD from work as a camp counselor ... thinking that I won't find much yellow in a parking lot ... lo and behold ... all of these pictures were right there ... in that parking lot ... just minutes after i wrote most of this post ...

How wonderful yellow is. It stands for the sun. -Vincent Van Gogh

For those that visited last week and answered the eXam ... kudos! you brave souls you ... your answers hanging out for all to see ... thanks for playing ... there was no answer key ... there were no scores ... it was all just some stuff i made up for fun ... fluff and nonsense as it is!

one more thing ... my pc is in the throws of death ... it shuts down mid-sentence ... and its about 9 years old, which is like 2billion in techno years ... and i can't decide ... mac or windows??? let me know what you use and if you like it!

As always this post has been brought to you by the letter Y and Jenny Matlock’s incredibly fabulous Alphabe-Thursday meme … go visit her blog links to some interesting and amusing Y posts! ... geez I can't believe that next week will be the last week ... i have really enjoyed playing along with Jenny's meme!

Peace Love & Paper ~ Jo