No Peeking Bernie

Lol, I doubt that my father in law is peeking here on my blog...but you just never know :p! Okay, now for some background information for you before I tell you my idea and see what you think of it. My Father-in-law is an avid canoeist, actually we all are in this family pretty much...well not so much the extended family (Aunts and Uncles) and so I thought that I should find 1-2 rubber stamps that were about canoing. I looked online, I finally found 2 stamps that I really really liked and thought my Father-in-law would like too...I got them in the mail yesterday too :D! Yep, I had a pretty good mail day yesterday :)!
I stamped out the image onto some watercolor paper, then colored in the image using various markers that I had and so now here is what I am thinking of doing. Oh yeah one thing I forgot to say was this is for my Father-in-laws Bday prezzie, sorry my morning Tims hasn't kicked in yet :P! So I was thinking of coloring in the images I stamped out, then going out to find 2 nice small frames that the images would fit in and frame them for him. What do you think????? Cheesy, corny, bad idea?? Let me know plz :)! So here is what I have done so far, and I wanted to share it with you to give you an idea of the image I am working with first...but had to put it down here at the bottom of my post in case my Father-in-law started to read my blog. Nice image eh?? Okay, so I am not a professional coloring expert here...but I still LOVE this image...



Hugs,
catherine

TY TY TY TY gals

A few weeks ago I won some blog candy from www.janesaddiction.typepad.com , and it arrived yesterday in my mail :)! Lookie what was in the package :)! I received a sheet of clear acrylic stamps, a sticker sheet with sentiments on it, a Copic sketch marker, a martini stamp, 3 other little stamps and a technique booklet. I am sooooo excited and I can't wait to play with the stuff I received in the mail :)! The large sheet of acrylic stamps had a theme...it was a party theme. Kinda neat, will post some pics later of some creations using this stamp set!! Sorry, I tried several times in different lighting to get a picture of the large sheet of acrylic stamps but it wouldn't work. Will just have to create lots of projects with them for you :p!






Then I also received in the mail this beautiful card from Tracy H., which was a nice surprise :)! Both of these gals made my day, thank you so much to you...BIG *HUGS*!!

Weekend at Grandma and Grandpa's cottage

We were away this past weekend at my parents cottage, since it was a long weekend and all :)! Here are just a few of my favorite pictures that I took over the weekend and thought I would share them with you since I haven't been crafty. But never fear crafty time is near, lol, oh brother that was corny. I have to be crafty tomorrow since my Father-in-law and my dh's uncle are having Bdays coming up...have GOT to do something.

This first picture is of my 4 year old son, who is lying on a teeter totter at the small playground just down from my parents cottage. My kids and their friends spent a lot of time at this playground over the weekend...our ds was drawn to the teeter totter though.
Here is my dd waving at Grandpa (aka. Boppy or something close to it), who is sitting across the playground sitting on a picnic table talking to a friend of his or a fellow cottage owner. She was enjoying swinging, then just happened to spot my dad and started to get all excited :)! Too cute :)!



My poor dd not feeling well at my parents cottage community annual "Hot Dog" day, so much so she slept through the whole event and didn't wake up until everyone was packing up to go. My parents cottage is one of 30 or so cottages in a little community, and it is a beautiful spot to grow up during the summers. I have been going there since I was a baby, same with my mother and her family...kind of neat eh? It is like our own personal "Neverland" :D! We still don't know what is going on with our dd, she was seen by the duty dr. tonight and she said she hadn't seen this sort of thing before. But to put Benadryl cream on it...if she gets worse bring her back!!!



Here is a great picture, because this picture brings back a lot of memories for me at my parents cottage...this is a picture of my 2 sons and some of their friends playing on 2 large rocks. They called it "The Witches Cave", I don't think my crew had a name for it when we used to spend hours on these rocks hiding from the adults and running through our forest pathway systems we had. See what I mean by "Neverland"???




I just happened to look up from talking to one of the fellow mom's and a good friend of mine, when I saw my son just gazing off into no where...I just had to have that picture. So here he is deep in thought or something, just lying on one of those big rocks I mentioned above and you can see in the other picture. Although he sort of has a goofy look to him, which I didn't notice until I posted the picture on here...lol!




Here is a picture of my dd wearing her sun hat, and she is getting ready to go over to the playground...to get some of that nice foggy misty seaside air. She sort of reminds me of Strawberry Shortcake , perhaps it is all the pink she has on :p!






My older son is walking across the playground with a Hot dog and a pop in his hand, trying to eat it as fast as he can so that he can go back and play with his friends. Lol, unfortunately he doesn't look too happy in this picture...oh well...it is a hit or miss thing at this age :)!





This picture is a good one, this is my 4 year old trying to be a rescue hero and he is wanting to try and rescue me. I am apparently the princess, even though I was unaware of this adventure and the fact I was in it. I am not even in this picture but this is what he told me when I went over to talk to him, however he was kind of stuck in the tree and needed the "princess" to save him. Sounds like a new good "Fairy Tale", that should be written..I think it would sell lots of copies....of how the Princess saves the noble prince..lol :p! What do you think??





My sons decided that they wanted to go say goodbye to their friends, and so they felt a loud banging parade was in order. So my oldest got 2 of Grandma's water jugs, and started banging them together...our middle son used a ball to bang with his hands.







I realized that most of my pictures if not all my pictures were of the children, so I decided that I had better take one of my parents with the kids too. Here is part of the beach that we played on for a bit, that is if it wasn't raining or lightening out!!! My parents are helping my dd down the ramp, she was having a hard time getting down to the beach and so they offered to help her :)!





We decided that we should go down to the beach to play in the sand before we all piled into the van to come home, and my dd wasn't too fond of a BIG dog that was there. She thought grabbing the closest thing, which was Grandpas leg was a good idea and to hold on for dear life. Plus, she wasn't too sure of this somewhat damp and sticky sand :)!










Then she thought that Grandma's leg just might be better, and she also thought that she needed a hug. Plus, I think she thought if she went with Grandma that perhaps she would be able to sneak into the water...that is until she spotted the seaweed moving in the water. Guess it is snuggle time, and a great time to take advantage to get a hug out of it too :)!





Here is my oldest son and a little girl that he also became friends with over the weekend who is just a little bit younger than he is, they are running up to the playground together. Thought this was a cute picture too :)!










I just happened to luck out and get this picture of my dd, she was swinging in the little kids swing and she was on the return swing towards me. I didn't think that I got the picture I wanted, but I was happily surprised about what I did get :)! She is wearing her brothers sun hat, since he kept dropping it...my Aunt put it on her to keep the sun off of her for a bit. The funny thing is that she would keep this hat on, but not her cute little pink sun hat on that she did have on earlier....






My mom and my Aunt were both up at the playground with us for a bit, they both decided to give the other swing set a try...I don't think they knew I was going to take their picture. Tee hee....gottcha!!!












This is the little girl that my sons made friends with over the weekend, both my 4 year old and this little girl really liked the Teeter totter. Her mother was on the other end, and was giving them both a turn on it. When it was just the two of them on it, they didn't really balance out well!







Here they are again, but this time my oldest son hopped on for a quick Totter :)! Boy was it a hot afternoon, and very Muggy...









Here is my dd picking flowers in what used to be the baseball diamond, well....she is picking Dandelions. It looks like she is in a huge meadow, but she isn't...tee hee! She looks like she is in her own little world there, not noticing the older children running around her making lots of noise.









Here are my 2 kids with the little girl again, up in an old apple tree that is in the baseball field and they wanted me to take their picture! Pretty cool pic I thought :)!







Now for the final picture that says it all, as how well our weekend went and how busy we had been! Lol, but he doesn't look comfortable at all...he slept like that almost the whole way home.

I am back...well sort of....lol

Today is a busy day, no time to stop and take a breather let alone someone developing a rash or fever or runny nose or cough :(! Last Thursday my dd had her 18 mos needles (one in each arm), we then were driving down to my parents cottage when my dd started to gag a bit plus she had a fever. I pulled over changed her clothes, and luckily it was foggy with a heavy mist...so I walked her around outside for a few minutes but we still had 1/2 hour to drive to the cottage. We got there she seemed to perk up, the next day she was hot still but seemed to be okay just not hungry at all. That night she developed a cough, then a runny nose...by Monday she was miserable :(! We headed home Monday late afternoon and she luckily slept the whole way home, and she also slept through the night that night which I was worried she wouldn't do. Yesterday, she was so miserable and cranky plus she didn't eat much at all :(! This morning I noticed on her left arm a swollen hot pink rash on her arm, which I only noticed because it looked like a burn and she was scratching it. I thought perhaps she slept on it funny, but it still hasn't gone down any, so I am off at some point to the duty dr. to have her checked out and I will keep you posted as to what happened with her.
Before all this happened my 4 year old son, has a Speech/Language appointment this morning at 11 a.m. and I hope that goes well. It is part of our long drawn out adventure that I will tell you more about later!! While he is off with me, my Aunt is going to be looking after the other two kids and I think she will take them over to a playground near by or take them to her house. Then I might take her to the duty dr. just up the road from the Speech center, which would be so much easier especially since I will have my Aunt with us. Then we are going to go for a picnic lunch, that I just finished making and packing up to eat while we are waiting for our afternoon to pass by.
My oldest son is going to his first overnight summer camp at Bayside Camp, it is a great camp that my dh and I have attended when we were young...but not as young as our ds. He will be there for 2 nights and for 3 days without mommy or daddy...I am nervous but feel he is ready. He is sooooooo excited he can hardly sit still, he keeps asking me if it is time yet to goto camp and I keep telling him that we don't have to be there until 3 p.m. I hope he has a wonderful time at camp, and will come home with lots of fun stories ....no injuries too would be nice. He is at that awkward stage of not knowing where he begins and or ends....poor guy!

I will talk to you all later, and I hope to have something crafty for you soon :)!

Hugs,
catherine

Blog Candy at Kathrina's Creative Place

Kathrina is having a wonderful blog candy giveaway, it is one that should NOT be missed out on...so run on over to her blog and please follow the directions :)! Here is the link to her blog:

http://katharina1704.blogspot.com/2008/08/100-000-hits-blog-candy-elisabeth-bell.html

Have a super day...will have more pics later :)!

Hugs,
catherine

Christmas in August

So here is a Christmas card that I made this afternoon, and since it was soooooo hot and soooooo muggy I thought I needed to cool off by making something Christmas'ish (new word). However, I didn't feel cool at all and so I went and put my head under the kitchen tap thinking that I would cool off. I did actually it only worked for a few minutes...then my hair went crazy curly and I dunno if I really want to show you how curly. Anyways, I got a new stamp set in the mail from "The Artful Inkables" called "Natural Heritage" and I just had to use it for this card. I just LOVE this stamp set, and I can't wait to use it more often :)! The patterned paper and the cards base is from SU, everything else is from some other store (either Carousel or Michael's).


Hugs,
catherine

crafty, crafty, me

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Okay, so I am not exactly one to keep a neat or organized recipe box or scribbler or album or whatever it is one uses to store recipe's in. Here is what I do, I get a recipe from someone and then I stick it next to or somewhere around my phone book. NOT a good place to stick recipe's because they get lost, or too wrinkled and then there is my dh who isn't impressed by my filing system. Neat looking storage system eh?? Not quite!! For awhile now I have been debating as to what to do with my recipes, and now I figured it out :)! Here is what I did :

1) I went to Zellers and found a cheap small 2 pictures to a page photo album.



2) I bought some 4 by 6 recipe cards from the Dollar store, actually my dh bought them at the Dollar store on his way home from work yesterday.

3) I found all my recipes that were stored around my phone book, and I sorted them into 2 piles: a) sweets and b) soups and things.

4) Then I wrote them all out onto the 4 by 6 recipe cards, and then put them into the photo pockets. I also made 2 dividers for the two sections, here is a picture of one of the dividers that I made.

This one I actually took pictures of is for a friend of mine, who wanted a few of my recipes and so I thought it would be nice to copy them out and give her a nice recipe album. So this one is attempt number one, and I can't wait to get started on mine now :)! I will start it when the long weekend (this weekend) is over with...then I will take pictures of it when it is done. Hope everyone has a great weekend, and hope you get some crafty time in :)!

Hugs,
catherine