Sues Birthday & failed freakin fireworks festival fotos ...

Happy Birthday Sue C! I had a wonderful time celebrating your day! and the fireworks after dinner were a delight!

Sadly, my little p&s didnt do such a great job but i did get some interesting results. I really like the photos, despite the fact that you cant tell if they are aliens or fireworks ... This was the Brits night to shine at the fireworks festival.


these remind me of seahorses ...


and these little aliens are floating on a stitched up sky ...


dandlion ... quick, make a wish ...


it's a flower .... maybe a lotus ... or a protea ... or a flower from Sue's weird tree ....hmmmm

crop results ....

It is soooo hot in my house i can barely function ... the storm on Saturday was a brilliant bit of relief from the heat, but it brought with it a whole lot of humidity ... I think I will be hanging out in my basement today doing laundry ... at least it is kinda cool there ... and oh yeah, did i mention that's where my scrap room is??? It might just be a whole lot of fun!

Speaking of cropping ... i did manage to get one layout complete during the POTP crop, mostly I worked on my mini album ...until i did a page that just didnt work ... it was a photo transfer accident ... so I am taking a break from it till i decide how i want to approach that page.

anyways, here's my new page and three others that i had in various stages of completion, they are all done now!


Okay, so I used this paper twice ... I love this piece of paper from the Collage Press Knave of Hearts collection ... I am guessing I will use it again, at least one more time :) Hey its my darling Queen of Cupcakes ... trust DD and I to head off to the Caribbean Festival and of all things find cupcakes!!! She had Chocolate coconut and I had mango, and they were delicious!!! Check out The Crazy Cake Lady to get some, by the way, CCL is a Crop 4 Kids sponsor ... so share the love!!!


Yes I am using a Nick Gilder song title, (I am just disregarding the rest of Nick Gilder's lyrics when it comes to this layout) ... but I did think the title went really well with this overexposed shot ... This layout is for my Songbook Project .... I totally love music and I find I get a lot of inspiration from music when I scrap, so I am doing an album with my music inspried layouts ....


So you all know my Divine Miss H is not the tough thug type ... but earlier this year, as a training exercise, her camp leader group had to pull "characters" from a hat and come the following day as that character ... So here is my little baby thug! Love that whole fake tatoo on her neck ... I got some great shots of her, but this one was fuzzy ... but i like her tough expression the best on this one ... that and the fact that the printer ran out of ink midway through ... In reality her bandanna is baby blue and she is wearing a spiderman touque, so she really didn't look so tough :)



More Collage Press, only this time I used Sweet Shoppe ... and love those Tim Holtz fragments ... yup, same cupcake, same Caribbean fest ... Hayley : "Did we buy these as photo props or do I actually get to eat mine???" This from the girl that took over 300 pictures at the aquarium :)

As always ... thanks for stopping by!

Tagged ... and a bit of serendipity ...

So my friend Carrie tags me ... here's the goods

1. Collect the book that you have most handy
2. Turn to page 161
3. Find the 5th complete sentence
4. Cite the sentence on your blog
5. Pass it on to 5 other victims (Oops! bloggers)

And here is my sentence:
"So, I'd like to see how it has affected everyday life."


The book I had handy was Clara Callan, by Richard B. Wright I picked up this book a couple of weeks ago at the 2nd hand book store.

Here's the serendipity ... it has given me a few secret little pleasures (no, not those kind .... sheesh) ... The book was signed and dated by the owner ... i thought dating it was kind of unusual ... but i now know who owned it before me. And to my amusement, It contained a neatly folded piece of letterhead paper ... so I can assume that I know where this person or maybe someone in her family works ... and written on the letterhead, page numbers, and plot notes, turning points in the novel, summations, a chronological chart and character points ... so i am assuming that the previous owner belonged maybe to a book club??? It also looks to me like she wants to ready writings by Virginia Woolf and James McCain (yes he is the son of who you think, he is also a Marine and a Poet)

Underneath the notes lies a postcard ... The front of the postcard is a reproduction of "The Umbrella" a painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir ... the renown french artist ... and I am thinking, wow, this is just too perfect ... it completely fits the mood I am trying to create in my little french mini book ... so it's off to the scraproom for this little treat!

and the back of the postcard ... George and Penny are greatly enjoying the galleries and museums in London ... and the wedding in Scotland was wonderful ... The card was sent to the owner of the book, just two months before the book was signed and dated by the owner!
Dontcha just love little treasures!!!



oh, btw, Brenna, Rae, Erica, Lois & Sue D .... consider yourselves tagged!

A work in progress ...

So here we go, I took a couple of shots of one of my unfinished mini albums. It is a glimmer mist album and so far I have been working on glimmer misting, stamping and adding a few elements such as Cavalinni postcards to form the basic backgrounds on each page ... I wish you could all see the glimmer mist pages, I have used several colours and layers on each page so there is definite depth and glimmer ... sadly it's just not showing up on the photos.

A couple of people have asked me what this album is for, or about, and I never seem to be able to explain it correctly ... So here it is ... the working title is "When I See Paris" ... and it is going to be journaling heavy. and no, it's not based a planned trip to Paris or my desire to see Paris, rather it is snippets of my daydreams and thoughts about Paris ... it isn't a what if ... rather, it is me, there, in my imagination and wanderings.

I will be adding photos of myself ... maybe others ... and I am seriously considering handstamping all of the journaling ... I have these little tiny Fontwerks alpha rubber stamps that might just be perfect ... I'm still thinking on that aspect ... so that's where this album is at ... the others are much simpler and hopefully they will be finished this weekend.


I used a Tim Holtz stamp and one of his ornate plates on this background ... totally cool stuff!


I love the glimmer mist on this page ... I was going for a sheets of rain effect ...

As always, thanks for stopping by ... and geez, i seriously need a groovy tag line ... :)

So I've been scrapping ....

~ with friends! Last Friday in Lions Bay with Diane and Izzy ... it is always so much fun to be with these two!!!

~ at the Scrapaholic's meetup last Sunday ... another great time!

~ but not finishing a darn thing ... I have 3 mini books in various stages ... one needs a few more embellishments ... another just needs to be bound with my ... but i don't have the right sized coils, and the third, needs photo's and a whole lot of work ... it did take me the entire day at Lions Bay just to glimmer mist all of the backgrounds and set up some of the pages. And I have 3 layouts that are almost done ... one needs one rub on, another needs the title, and the third needs all of the Tim Holtz fragments attached and a title ....

~ but i have been having fun, and it is the most scrapping i have done in a while so it feels good to get the creative juices flowing again ... I'm hoping to finish up all of my projects by Friday and maybe get them photographed.

No photos of the scrapaholics crop ... my dd took my camera to the aquarium (there is whole story there) ... but she took some amazing shots for me to scrap for her ... I think a mini album is in order ~ hopefully one that I will actually get finished!


Izzy ... looking just a tiny bit scary!!!

Diane ... such a serious moment ... I can't even remember when we were serious ...

Diane gave me this uber cool "mini" Starbucks card!!! totally cool!!!

Hayley, getting a shot as up close and personal as possible with the dolphins.

Jelly baby!!! Okay ... singing now "I don't think your ready for this jelly, I don't think your ready for this jelly" ... dancing now ... well in my chair ... clearly it's bedtime, I'm getting a wee bit crazy :)

Sometimes I dream ...

... of living in the south of Italy ... in a small village, maybe by a lake ... in a small farmhouse that has been around for decades ... and i surround my house with beautiful flowers ... lavenders, sunflowers, roses .... and herb garden ... a must have for perfect pasta ... and a vegetable garden ... lots of beans & peas & tomatoes & zuchinni. And i ride my bicicletta into the market daily ... maybe pick up a fresh loaf of bread, some cheese, a bottle of vino. and the air is fresh and the summer's are hot ... i stop for coffee and listen to the sounds of the everyone in the square ... women chatting as they shop for the day, men arguing over football ... children at play, the baker conducting business ... and i take in the sights and sounds and smells and i am in a bit of paradise ...

Snap back to reality and i am in my tiny backyard barbequing chicken for dinner ... its about 7:30 and the hot air is starting to cool ... and as i wait to turn my chicken I take in the sights and sounds and smells of my own little neigbhourhood ... the Italians next door have company over and were cooking earlier ... the scent of good food lingers, and there is laughter and glasses clink as more wine is served ... and the Romanians down the door from them have carved out a beautiful garden from the overrun green space ... this year they have beans and tomatoes and beautiful geraniums and other delights .... she tends to spent flowers while he waters the garden. On the other side of me the Bosnian's have finished their meal and the women is clearing dishes while he waters his little plot ... and I look at my little garden and admire the beauty of the flowers and start watering it in between turning my chicken ...

So I take in all of the sites, the patios, the gardens the people ... the sounds, of dishes and watering and gardening and talk and laughter and foreign voices ... smell, of wet earth, flowers, cooking ... and the warm air ... and I realize that sometimes my day dreams are not so different than my reality ... and it's finding these little perfect moments in reality that make life so special ... repeat after me ... "there's no place like home, there's no place like home."

oh, and some pics of a few of my fave's in the garden right now ... my clematis and hellabore ... for some reason they are not in my daydream but i think i will expand the size of my dream garden to include them :)


the spent flower of my clematis ... these always fascinate me .. like a living puzzle ...


my clematis in full bloom, isn't she just gorgeous?


my hellabore ... so shy ... you never see it's face as it hangs towards the soil ... i had to stick the camera under it and pray for a semi decent shot ...

As always, thanks for stopping by ...

a perfect saturday ...

yeah, i had a great day ... started off dropping Miss H to work at 7:30, Hit the local farmers market with Lisa ... bought lots of yumminess ... carrots, cherries, raspberries, young english peas, dandelion jelly, and brilliant swiss chard ... Loved the organic mushroom stand, didn't buy any, maybe next week, but dont ya just love how mushrooms grow??





Then out to coffee ... to a place that actually cares how they pour a cup ... had a wonderful spanish latte, laughed, smiled, talked, giggled ... great time, and then followed by a trip to the used book store ... got some wonderful finds ... ran out of money there ...





later at home, staring at the pile of laundry feeling its not such a great day anymore Miss H calls to say she is off work early and do I want to meet her??? Thats teen code for shopping ... another great time, it is always fun when your teen wants to hang with you ... oh yeah, picked up fake prada sunglasses for me and fake DKNY sunglasses for the divine Miss H ... and then hit the sale at Aldos ... oh god I wish I could wear heals ... there were some gorgeous very 3" plus heels there ... settled for a suede beaded sandle on sale ... and H ... shoes & more shoes :) all in all a great day ... now im going to have a coffee and a biscottie and watch a movie while dear H parties the night away. Thank gawd she had money left over for a taxi tonight :)

June bug, June bug and a little July bug

Hey ... my internet is working!!! and has been working for a couple of days now! which is really cool, 'cept when the guy came out to "fix" it today (the date was scheduled last week) there was nothing to fix ... so, it seems to have fixed itself ... personally i think it was little computer faeries, dressed in beautiful little lace dresses, sparkling with dew drops kissed by the dawn's first golden raes, and carrying wands made from delicate slivers of pink crystals and of course having blue led coloured wings ... they must have chased away the computer gremlins in the middle of the night ... right???

So anyways ... June Bug! the newBasic Grey line is to die for!!! you have to check out the "paper doilies" all four of them ... these are a gotta have ... and the woolies, and the journaling cards ... sheesh be still my beating heart. This line is oh so colourful and you all know I don't do colourful ... so I am playing and having fun with this. I did two layouts with this line and plan to do a lot more. The first one is of my Dad ... who couldn't help but be distracted by a wind blown background ... and the second one is of my own Divine Miss H ... i only used the colours that were present in the photo ... the background is painted with Distress ink ... yes you can paint with distress ink, just add a little gel medium to the ink, mix it all up and then paint away ... for this lo i just wanted the feel of a windswept yellow sky ... i used the new Golden Medium with Glass beads in it so you see random little beads here, there and everywhere ...

And the July Bug???? a red dragonfly that landed on Izzy's car antenna outside of Pick of the Patch. I have never seen a red dragonfly before ... tres cool, dontcha think???