It's Coming...........

Only 32 days till Halloween....hard to believe that it will be here in a blink of an eye.  Soon the night will be filled with monsters, and witches, vampires and werewolves, ghost and goblins, all in the quest for the ultimate candy find.   Yesterday I had some time on my hands after work so I headed off to Value Village.....it was almost as if it was beckoning me - "Corinne......come to Value Village....we have Halloween Costumes and accessories" They already have all their Halloween stuff out.  This year for some reason I can't explain I am rather looking forward to Halloween.

I was amazed at all the things Value Village has in stock for Halloween...spotted a cute pair of glittery devil horn barrettes (they are really cute)....and spotted some awesome wings from angelic to devilish to butterflies and fairies....Oh the ideas started to swirl about in my head like little pieces of candy corn.  I haven't dressed up at work in many years but this year I plan to do just that...not dress up all fancy for work but to dress up in a costume of some kind.  What should I be....a Witch, a Vampire, the Bride of Frankenstein, a clown (too boring), a mermaid - no none of those but after walking the isles of Halloween costumes and accessories I came up with an idea and ran with it.   Yes I know what I shall be but I'm not telling! Nana Nana Boo Boo  Yes I left Value Village with a bag in hand of items for my costume...still have a few more things to gather.  I am hoping by the end of next week I will have of my costume together.

I dug out my few decorations that I have at the office for Halloween.  I do think I need a few more things....so off to SuperStore and the Dollar Store after work today to check things out and see what I can find.  Can't explain why but I am in the Halloween mood this year.  I Even ordered a couple of Halloween Magnolia Stamps from Diana's store Magnolia-licious.  I might even get a couple of Halloween cards done up this year.

muhahahahahaaaa

Corinne~

Early Morning Hours

Last night Al and I hadn't been home for more than 15 minutes when the phone rang....it was about 1:30am.  When ever my phone rings in the early hours of the morning my heart skips a beat and falls straight to the pit of my stomach.  I think I worry too much about my kids sometimes.  hehe

Anyways is it was our daughter Meagan....this is the second week in a row that she has called home in the early hours of the morning.  Turns out that her tires on her car were slashed last night along with all the vehicles on her street.  Both tires on the drives side of her car were slashed.  She came home to find a note on her car from the City Police as did every other car owner on the street find the same card and note.  The police were letting everyone know that this incident had been reported to the police along with a case file number. So I guess next week we'll be off to Saskatoon to get new tires put on her car.  She is filing a claim with SGI on line today crossing our fingers that vandalism is covered. 

Good thing Meagan takes the bus all week and doesn't need her car and very rarely drives it on the weekends.  Unfortunately her room mate is not so lucky and needs his car every day to get to and from work and to his night classes.

Even though my heart hits the pit of my stomach when I get calls in the wee hours of the morning I am glad that my children remember that they can call home any time of the day and we'll do what we can to help them....even if it means getting up at 2:30 in the morning and picking them up because they have had a few drinks and don't want to get behind the wheel or take a cab to a stay with a friend...they just want to come home Or getting up at 5am and picking them from their friends place because the are not feeling well and just want to come home.

Happiness

.......something we all experience some more than others so I've heard.  Every now and then something I see or something that happens makes me reflect on the things that make me happy.  Today one of the things that made me happy was to watch the Saskatchewan Roughriders win Saturday's football game against the Hamilton Tiger Cats.

Some of the things that make me happy!

• My family - my loving husband and my three wonderful kids
• Memories of my dad - sometimes it makes me sad as I wish he was still here so I could sit with him over a cup of tea and discuss life in general.
• Memories of my grandparents - they were the best grandparents I could have asked for, especially my Grandma Gardner - a wonderful lady that I think of every day.
• My extended family - aunts, uncles and cousins - they have impacted my life in many ways
• My friends - old and new friends they help make us who we are today
• My fur babies - Rocco and Lucy - my most faithful companions who great me after work everyday with so much joy and love and genuine  happiness to just see me walk through the door
• My job - yes my job makes me happy.....I go to work Monday - Friday 7:30 am - 4:30am.....I really miss my Human Resources job but I am grateful to have the job I have today and some wonderful co-workers.  Some that are dear friends too...and time spent with them is important to me.
• Having the freedom to make choices 
• Having hobbies - photography, scrapbooking/stamping/card making, stained glass, along with others
• Filling in blanks in the family tree and being able to research the family lines back a few hundred years
• Above all the most important thing that makes me happy is the guidance I get from our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ.

There are many other things that make me happy from the little things in life to the big things.  There are far too many things to list here.  It never hurts to reflect on things that make us happy and fullfill our lives with love, joy and peace.

Kitchen Reno Pictures

After a long wait I am posting some photos from our kitchen renovations.  I still don't have photos of the cupboards as we still have to get glass put into a couple of doors and buy the microwave/range hood for above the stove.  Once I have those I will take more pictures and post them for you all to see.

As for the dining room we still need a light fixture and a dining set.  So once we have those in place I will post pictures of those as well.

The other thing we have to do is get the base boards and window moldings.  That should happen within the next few weeks.

Enjoy the pictures!

 BEFORE

 Taken from my living room

Taken from in front of my kitchen sink

Looking from the kitchen sink to where the dinning room will be.

DURING

Taken from the corner where my pantry will stand

Al taking out the flooring that my grandparents put in back in 1980

Looking from the kitchen entrance into our new porch

Looking from where my pantry will stand down to the corner where the sink will go

Same location as above

The new stair well.  This used to be closed off completely with a door to access the stairs

Paint is up on the walls. 

Taken from the doorway into the kitchen from the porch

Taken from the dining room.

Lucy had to sneak into the photo too!

Looking into the dining room and feature wall in the kitchen

Taken from the corner by where the sink will be.

Lucy didn't want to miss out on another photo op!

Dining Room.

Looking into the porch from kitchen entrance

Hope you enjoyed the little tour around my new kitchen and dining room.  I haven't taken any after pictures of the cupboards up yet as we still haven't installed the over the range microwave....hoping this weekend or next!  I now have the glass doors in for our feature cabinet.

More Tilda's

A while back a met a wonderful email friend Caroline who sent me some stamped images of  Tilda with Flowing hair as she was soldout at Diana's Magnolia-licious store.  I wanted to share with you some of what I have colored with my Copics. 

Tilda with her umbrella reminds me very much of what our weather has been like here.  We didn't really have summer this year we had more rain than we needed.  I guess we'll have to wait till next summer for better weather.

Loving Couple - Tilda and Edwin will be used on a card for a wedding we will be attending in October.  I really like how this stamped images expresses Love

Hope you enjoy these images.  Once I am able to set up my scrapbooking/card making supplies in our spare room I will be able to get to making up cards with these images.  Thank you again Caroline for sharing these  stamped images with me.

Tilda with Three Flowers

 Tilda with Tree flowers is one of my favorite Tilda stamps.  Both images are colored with my Copic Markers.  I didn't jot down the colors I used on the Blue outfit.  Both images are also stamped on Cryogen White with a hit of iridescent.

 

A week or so back I seen a card that was done to look like a black and white photograph.  I decided to take the plunge and try this method with a twist.  I really like black & white photographs with a touch of color.  Here is my version below.

Copic Colors Uses:
C1, C3, C5, C7 & C9 with R00 and R81 were used for the pink flowers.

I am really happy how these two cuties turned out.  I'd love to hear what you think!

Poop Happens!!

What a topic for a blog post eh!  Well as it happens today after work I stopped by to visit a friend of mine that has a Day Care in her home.  As it turns out I find her on the floor in the bathroom reading a story to a little girl in the process of potty training....awaiting the poop.  Boy did that bring back memories of when my children were at the stage from babies to toddlers and going through the potty training days!  I can remember sitting with my kids waiting for that little tinkling sound or the plop plop of poop...... WOW seems like a life time ago....now my kids are all on their own and the phrase "Poop Happens" has changed somewhat for them, either way it happens!

It is funny what sparks memories!  I can't believe that they are setting their own independent paths in life...I can remember thinking it would take forever for them to be on their own....and here all 3 of them fly the coop the same summer.  Poop happens~

Crafting

Last night seeing there wasn't much to watch on TV and being home alone, I decided to dig out my Copic Markers and some of my Magnolia Stamped Images.  I set out to coloring and finished probably 3 or 4 images up.  It is amazing how relaxing coloring can be. At this rate I will have a few images done up before my darling hubby and I can get my crafting area set up in the spare bedroom.  First carpet needs to be ripped out and lament flooring laid then I can set up my scrapbooking/card making and sewing machine so I can get to finishing some quilts.  I guess I should start looking for a comfortable chair and a desk to set up my scrapbooking/card making supplies.  For my sewing I want to get a table that is similar to what most halls have, you know the ones with the collapsible legs.  I guess I should also set up a place for my computer/printer and scanner.  The spare bedroom will be only a temporary home, at least until we get the basement finished then I will most likely move down there.  I am looking forward to having a place where I can leave my stuff out and not have to worry about packing and unpacking everything just to complete a card, scrapbook page or a quilt.

Back To School

Today is my daughter's first day of University.  Meagan has been on my mind since I woke up this morning.  I know she will do well, I am so excited for her....I am wondering what she will wear to school...I know sounds crazy doesn't it but hey I'm a mom what can I say.  I hope her first day goes well.  She only has two classes today and doesn't start till 11:30am...she should be well rested for today.

Meagan bought her books on Friday...bought a wireless printer and a sleeve for her laptop, loose leaf and everything else she needs to go back to school.  The nice thing is this is something she wants to do so I am sure she will do well. 

As for her major she is undecided at this time, she has a couple of ideas but wants to make sure she is making the right decisions for herself.

Photo Ops

This morning as I was getting ready for work the weather man said that there was heavy fog hanging over Prince Albert.  Sure enough when I let the dogs out for their morning constitutional the fog had set in around the farm.  It was so beautiful with sun's rays cutting through the trees peeking through.  I only wish I had more time this morning to grab my camera and head out for some wonderful photo ops. 

As I was driving down the grid road I noticed that there was an abundance of spider webs again.  Not as many as the last time when I caught these beauties on my camera but lots just the same....again no camera in hand.  The other thing that I noticed about the spider webs was that they were only on one stretch of the road, maybe some of the spiders were staying where it was warm, as dropped down to +2 C last night....just a tad cool.

As I was approaching the city limits the fog was thick over the river...you couldn't see a single building.  Again I sure wish I would have 1. had the time to stop and 2 had my camera with me as there was an amazing Photo Op at the train bridge.  I would have had the bridge peeking out of the fog til close to half way down the bridge then it would have only been fog. 

Back up and Save!

With living in the electronic age...the digital world I decided to do the smart thing and store my photos on a portable hard drive to save space and resources on my computer...well wouldn't you know it the portable hard drive crashed on me...now I can't read on my laptop or my computer.  There are all kinds of photos on there from pictures of my kids, to Christmas' & Easter, Summer Holidays and my house renovations.  I called my computer gal at the Coop and she is going to have a look at it for me and see if she can get the drive to read and pull the files off for me.  Please say a prayer that she will be able to save my photos for me!  If she can I am going to do a double back up...one a portable hard drive and another I will burn CD's of the photos that I really really don't want to loose. 

My fingers, toes and legs are crossed too.....

Ying' Birthday Candy

For all you Magnolia Stamp lovers head on over to Ying's blog by clicking HERE and see how you can have a chance to win a couple of the new Magnolia stamps being released this fall. 

Here is a quick look at the candy Ying is offering in celebration of her birthday.  Ying is diving the prize up into 4 categories so be sure to check her blog and see how you can enter.  You have from Sept 1 - 27 to enter your name as she will be making the draws on Sept 28th.