saturday centus ~ The Fire

Saturday Centus ... so I'm a few days late ... I am once again playing along with Jenny's Saturday Centus ... just click on the button at the bottom to read other entries ... you know the drill by now ... Jenny gives us a prompt to incorporate in our story of less than 100 words. Jenny's prompt is in bold

I found this one tough ... I knew exactly where i wanted to go with it, but in my mind it was a whole chapter ... paring it down to under 100 was really tough for me. Thanks for hanging in a reading my little take on the prompt

The white-bearded fat man rolled through the church doors red faced from both exertion and the cold of a white winter. Snow falls from his great coats as he bustles an armful of firewood to the woodburning stove at the front of the church. Slowly he bends down on one knee and opens the iron gate on the side of the stove … he patiently stacks kindling and wood and carefully sets flame to it all. For him these are the best moments at church, before the preaching and the singing, there is the silence, the quiet, for peaceful meditation in the warmth of the growing fire.

T-2 and counting ...

not to make this a quick post, which in reality it is ... i want to wish all of you peace ... peace at this time of year .... peace no matter what you faith is .... peace ... it is important to us all ... to our well being, to our inner sanctum, our core ... our heart ... our soul ...

take a moment, no matter how rushed you are ... no matter how many presents still need to be wrapped, no matter how many things you need to accomplish ... just take one moment ... breathe in .... exhale ... and let there be peace ...

Merry Christmas to all from Honey and Us!  and disregard the pine needles on the floor .... sheesh, one more task ...

This peaceful little post is interrupted by the insanity that is my "homemade" christmas ... still have to finish 2 gifts, bake more gingerbread cookies, wrap presents and sip on something yummy!  Merry Christmas to you all ... and for you Jenny Alphabe-Thrusday people, I will be around to visit you all after Christmas ...

a little red and a little white...

I did these a while ago and had them up on "the inspired scrapper" blog ...

yes, i finally did a christmas page ... i just never tend to do theme ish stuff, put i did love the pout in this picture and the challenge at IS was to scrap a Santa photo

I did this layout in response to the scrap and inanimate object challenge.  I snapped a quick photo of this post earlier this year ... and i miss seeing stuff like this ... now that so many events are posted to social media you don't see as many flyers glued to posts and walls and such ... couldn't help but admire the art these posters bring to the street ... so much cooler than just an internet post ...

We are all sick as dogs here ... ah yes, the annual just when you couldn't get any busier cold has arrived ... i blame daughter and her working at the mall dealing with all of those shoppers germs ... anyways we are off to a harp concert ... hopefully we can hold all of our sniffles at bay until it is over ...  have a wonderful day all!

Peace, Love & Paper,

Jo

Saturday Centus ~ The Conversation

Once again joining Jenny Matlock and her crew over at Saturday Centus.  The bolded sentence is the prompt we are given to work with ... the rest is mine ... and i just squeaked in at 100 words precisely this week.  This week i learned the value of a contraction .... tee he he

"What was he thinking? OMG! Elves are soooo 2009..."

“Yeah, like when’s Santa going to stop dragging us through the dark ages” squeaked the rabbit … “we’ve all worked so hard at ditching the whole “fairy tale” thing … and then there’s that whole chimney thing … creepy.”

“Oh I hear you Bunny”  … I don’t visit kids at night anymore … I mean seriously if you get caught by Mom  while you are in their kiddies bedroom rummaging for their newly lost tooth they get all up in your grill.   Now I simply IM and transfer funds to the kiddies bank … so 2010 and so not creepy”

Okay, I am off to read all of the other entries ... try and join us if you can!

all you need is ....

Love ... and there is nothing greater than that.  It's the glue ... it's the stuff that binds us to another ... or others ... objects, sunsets, sunny mornings and crisp autumn days ... to country, to hearth, to home ... it's that gut wrenching glue that allows us to give and receive love so freely if we desire ...

the very notion of love has spawned so many great works of art in every endeavour from dance to painting to sculpture to music to the written word and on it goes ... it keeps our worlds in sync and the earth spinning on its axis ...

it's the blue in the sky and the eye of a child, the silver in a shiny fish or the hair of an elderly gent ... its the air we breathe and cool of the river ... it is, simply love ... and it is, all you need ... well food, hydration and shelter go a long way too ...

now scamper over to the delightful Jenny Matlock's blog and check out all of the other entries for the letter L ... as in love ...

Peace, Love &  Paper

~Jo

Kindred Spirits ...

Mona Lisa Mae has found a kindred spirit in the lovely Christmas sock monkey ornament ... she climbs up the tree and sits on the branches just below her new friend, who hangs from a red ribbon ... they communicate all day long ... i wonder what they are saying???

you can click on the picture to make it larger

I have a friend i call my kindred spirit ... we can talk all day ... and then not for weeks, and then just pick up without missing a beat ... and its always good ...

This quick little post is brought to you by the letter K and the amazing, wonderful, talented and oh so generous Jenny Matlock and her alphabe-thursday meme ... make sure you stop by and visit some of her "students" ... it's always fun!

doing circles ...

yeah, so i played with circles ... not many circles ... just one per page ... and a couple of these layouts were from sketches over at Creative Scrappers ... I did these back in the fall, hence the autumn theme on one of them ... i love to use circles on layouts, they just kinda bring the eye to a main focal point within themselves ... and they are not just random shaped pieces of paper ... they have boundaries and definition and yet they are soft ...  anyways, here is what i came up with!

Yeah, i just love my mostly monochromatic layouts ... i know a lot of you probably find them boring but i like the focus they place on the photos ... not the paper and such ...

just a closeup of some of the details ... i loved using just a tiny strip of colourful striped paper ... i coated it with glossy accents so it looks like it is epoxied ... (is that even a word?)  I just wanted something to play against the vintage feel of the layout

I loved this thanksgiving line of papers from Teresa Collins ... i toned down the dotted paper by painting on a wash of white ...

and i totally love these flowers by Doodlebug designs ... it's a break from their usual cutesy stuff

I just had to make a little sweet layout of my daughter with her horns standing against a word wall ... yeah,  horns ... tsk tsk ... she is an ebil kitty!

so yeah, that's what i was doing this fall ... now to get my butt in gear and start making my christmas gifts ... don't dare tell me how few days are left ... i'm already in full panic mode ...

I got ... jack ...

yeah ... jack ... nada, nil, nothing ... jack

and its a shame cuz so many wonderful things start with J ... like Joy ... Jo (me)  tee he he... Jerk (my nickname) and that's a whole other story and really it is  not an indication of my character, rather its a name my dad gave me based on the way i jerked my little body across the floor when i was a toddler ... i never did crawl ... i went from nothing to jerk to walk ...

but back to the jack ... the nothingness this week ... really it wasn't nothing, it was kind of more than nothing ... it was kind of the perfect storm in the past week ... there was family drama, friend drama, pet drama, computer drama, camera drama, drama drama ... 

"Ahem, Mona Lisa Mae here ... we interrupt Jo's rant about the storm that surrounds her to remind her of simple pleasures ... 

like shopping together ...

sipping pretty drinks together ...

going to the lion king together ... and remember Jo ... like Rafiki says, It's in the past."

now what was I ranting about??? oh yeah ... jack ...


This post was brought to you by the letter J, and the wondrous Jenny Matlock and her Alphabe-Thursday meme.

20 minutes ... tick tok ...

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my American friends and bloggy friends ... enjoy your meal, your company, your day off and your black friday, celebrate with great gusto!!!

Here in Canada we have already celebrated our Thanksgiving, it falls in October for us ... each year I have a great many things that I am thankful for ... especially life, health, family & friends.

Today, on the eve of the American Thanksgiving I am thankful for 20 minutes ... you got it ... 20 minutes!

gotta love first responders and all of their shiny equipment

This morning I went downtown to meet up with some gal pals to do lunch and shopping at a German Christmas Market .... I was looking forward to seeing pretty German glass ornaments ... taking in the aromas and tastes of Gingerbread, Sausage and Mulled wine ... and starting the festive season off with a bang ...

Where there is smoke .... (there was a fireball but i wasn't able to photo it)

first responders on hand for blocks ... my two friends hanging out across the street

Oh it did start with a bang ... 20 minutes before the gates opened a propane tank blew ... hurling flames into the sky, billowing smoke every where ... surrounding  us ....  quickly the sounds of alarms and fires engines, police cars, ambulances rang through the air .... lights flashing, roadblocks being set up ... so here I am ... with my friends, on the street .... all of us so thankful for 20 minutes ... if it had happened any later and happy shoppers where filling the area who knows what devastation there might have been.  And always thankful for first responders ... the men & women who have dedicated their lives to the safety and wellbeing of the rest of us.

We decide to head for cover and warm up with a tasty coffee .... Mona Lisa came out to play!

and throwing caution to the wind, we decided that a decadent chocolate fondue was in order ....

MLM is loving her individual Mink chocolate

Thank you ... to whoever is taking note ... out in the cosmos... thank you for the 20 minutes ... I feel positively blessed.

Izzy & Sue and that wad of tinfoil looking sculpture

Me & Izzy!!!

This post is brought to you by Extreme Gratitude and dear sweet Jenny Matlock and her fabulous Alphabe-Thursday meme.  Check it out for other "thankful" entries.

Igloos ...

an igloo ... taken from wikipedia

yes,  I said Igloos .... so what is an igloos you ask and why would i write about them???  well there is this kind of standard running joke that a lot of tourists to Canada expect to see Igloos .... cuz, well ... i think it's because our tourism kinda promotes specific images which give visitors the wrong impression of what and who Canada is ...  Here's what else seem to be on every tourist site or brochure ... Moose, Beavers, Royal Canadian Mounted Police in their red uniforms ... totem poles, and kids playing ice hockey on frozen ponds all year long ...

RCMP this Remembrance Day

and then let's snap back to reality ... the last time i saw a Beaver it was on "Billy the Exterminator" and the beaver he was relocating was in Louisiana ... kinda cool ... and yes we do have them, but they aren't damning up every river ... and hey other parts of the world have them too!

I have never seen a moose up close and personal ... they would be a lot more north than were i am ... but deer, i have seen deer,  but not walking the streets ... it's not like you would visit here, leave your hotel and see a moose crossing the street.  Our RCMP do wear those fine red uniforms ... (I love the boots!)  but only for dress occasions, parades that kinda thing.

Surprisingly most of us live within a couple hours drive from the USA border, and the weather is very very similar to the northern USA  ...  so no year round frozen lakes or igloos ... those you have to go way north to Canada's Central Arctic or Greenland ...

and an igloo ... it's a snow house ... a house made of snow ... sometimes it's a real house ... sometimes it's a small temporary shelter used by hunters ...

So speaking of houses ... ahem .... Mona Lisa Mae is still waiting for her's to be built ... when will i find the time?

Mona Lisa Mae is growing weary of sleeping in a pocket in my purse ... i really do have to make that house.

Well this not so fine post is brought to you by the letter I and our fabulous Jenny Matlock's Alphabe-Thursday Meme ... we do love the Jenny ... and her other participants as well ...  check them out for some fab, cool, interesting I posts ...

cards in 10 ....

... 10 minutes that is ...  Check out the Inspired Scrapper for my post on winter themed cards ... and there is a bonus ... all of the cards can be made in 10 minutes ... easy peasy simple cards  ... here are a few of them!

So quick, So easy and So darn wintery ...

Peace, Love & Paper!
~Jo

H is for Happy Heart, Hayley, Honey & Home ....

Hayley dressed for work on Halloween day

and i do have a Happy Heart ... i have an amazing daughter Hayley, and a cute little dog named Honey ... and we live in a tiny little Home ... but even tiny little homes are larger than large when  filled with love & happiness ... and that's really all i have to say about H ... it's all good ... it will always be good because of the love ...

Honey, playing Hide n seek in the left over Halloween Candy.

As always, this post is brought to you by the fabulous Jenny Matlock and her Alphabe-Thursday meme ... the best meme around ...

Mona Lisa on Halloween ... I carved a wee little pumpkins just for her ... she says she wants her own little house to sleep in at night so stay tuned!

Peace, Love & Paper


~ Jo

Blythe ... the giveaway

be still my beating heart ... I have wanted a Blythe doll since forever ... and dear sweet Melinda of Melindas fabric fancies  told me about a Blythe giveaway ... so here i am blogging about in hopes to win a Blythe of my very own ... oh my fingers are crossed so hard right now ...
here she is ... the beautiful Blythe up for grabs ...  courtesy of Melly Kay and featured on BlytheLife.com
isnt she just  gorgeous!

okay, crossing my fingers so hard that they are bleeding ...

Today ...

over at the Inspired Scrapper ... I posted this layout for the "Using Imperfect Photos Challenge" ... go on and take a look at the challenge ... there are also wonderful layouts by Susan Tutt and Erica Perkins.

This is the first layout i have enjoyed making in a few weeks ... my last two projects, a mini album and a card, just didn't turn out the way i wanted so i have been in a bit of a scrapping funk, but more on that another day ... well maybe another day.

This layout was pure play ... i used very old patterned paper ... and random older bits like Heidi Swapp clear stars, Bazzill chipboard stars and an Imaginisce brad.   I also used some new bits like the Tim Holtz word and button, the Maya Road star pin and the vintage images from Crafty Secrets.  I even used a broken bling bracelet.

I used some of the Claudine Helmuth stick backed canvas to create a second background ... i sprayed it with a purple, pink and grey glimmer mist and let it dry.  after it dried i ran through the big shot with embossing plates ... then i ran an ink pad over the embossed areas and ended up with something all my own ... this also served a dual purpose as there was a Pegasus on the patterned paper that just wasn't quite right for the theme and i needed to cover it up.

The chipboard stars were fun to make.  I ran the stars through the same embossing plate, then i inked them with gold, and heat embossed them with a iridescent powder.

i also used a bit of tulle behind the photo just to give the layout a little bit of a hazy/diffused area.  I changed the colour of the title letters using .....  and finally i coloured the chipboard gears with two shades of the glimmer glam ... it was fun to just play with techniques and relax ... especially after my recent scrapping disasters.

So peeps, haul out a bad photo, go visit The Inspired Scrapper, and give yourself time to play with techniques this weekend.


Peace, Love & Paper ~ Jo

in the garden ...

In my garden there is a large place for sentiment.  My garden of flowers is also my garden of thoughts and dreams.  The thoughts grow as freely as the flowers, and the dreams are as beautiful.  ~Abram L. Urban

I love this clematis ...

My own gardens were quite neglected this year ... everything grew ... everything was watered & fed, but nothing new was planted ...   my little patch of garden in the front is in the full sun, but it is really just a strip of perennials ... which i plan to change up next year ... and my little bit of garden in the back is full shade ... again, perennials ... shade grass, ferns, hostas, a giant helabore, and in the one corner that gets a bit of sun, a rhubarb plant.  The rhubarb plant has been in the family now for 4 generations ... starting with the MacKenzie's in Victoria ... with cuttings given to children as they married and moved into homes of their own ...  It's kind of cool to have a cutting of a cutting of a cutting of a cutting ... I wonder how many other family members still have a cutting of this plant  ... i'm guessing not many.

my helabore ... so hard to get a good photo as the flowers face downward 

I love to visit gardens ... be they tiny, large or completely accidental!

I found this teeny tiny accidental garden growing in the cracks in the pavement on the side of the road

Mona Lisa is high above the city ... at the top of the Queen Elizabeth Park Gardens.  These gardens are gorgeous and were once a basalt quarry .... The Blodel Floral Conservatory sits atop of the park.

Mona Lisa hiding in a silver palm inside the conservatory ...

pretty flowers ...

more pretty flowers ...

And here is a small garden ... this one is in Steveston, BC which is a small historic fishing village ...

Mona Lisa Mae found a little friend to play with in the garden

and I love this blue chair that was just sitting at the edge of the garden ... totally random and cool!

Okay my patient peeps ... nuff about the Garden stuff ... this post has been brought to you by the letter G and the wonderful Jenny Matlock and her abfab Alphabe-Thursday meme.  make sure you check it out to see what the other participants wrote about.

Peace, Love & Paper
~Jo

I get by with a little help from my friends ...

I love friends .... I love having friends, i love being a friend ... be it acquaintance friendship or a deep down soul sista friendship ...

coffee is best when shared with friends

I feel blessed that in life i have had some amazing friends  ... ones that have stood the test of time and stood with me through good and bad ... some of these amazing chicas are recent friends and some are long term friends ... And recently I have found some wonderful blogging friends ... women who are interesting, sharing, caring & fun ... and these dear girls make blogging so much fun.

Mona Lisa Mae and one of my very bestest friends in the whole wide world ... 

And some friends are fleeting ... there for a while ... usually found when you have something in common and then lost once that common interest declines ... and yet I am blessed to have had such wonderful fleeting friends ... people whom i have been lucky enough to learn something from ... and to have shared something with.

Mona Lisa May is all dressed up for Halloween ... that little black button is actually a little spider

and speaking of friends ... Mona Lisa Mae has been out and about meeting some Fantastic and some Frightening Friends these days ... the frightening friends are really only scary till you get to know them ... they really are fun friends ... they just look a little different than the rest of us ...

Meet the VooDoo Princess .... complete with pins!!!

Playing amongst the gourds

Hey once again coming to your from the fabulous letter F and the Friendliest Meme hostess this side of the moon, Jenny Matlock ... check out her blog for links to other fun and fabulous F posts!  and then just keep checking out her blog ... i guarantee you will find a chuckle, laugh and/or giggle several times a week!

Happy Halloween from the whole crew!!!

“True friends are those who lift you up when your heart's wings forget how to fly.” ( author unknown)

Peace Love & Paper .... oh, and Candy!
~Jo