How time flies

We had Ben's birthday party today - two days ahead of his 'real' birthday. A pool party - that's what Ben always requests, and that's what Ben always gets. It's easy. Somehow Mother Nature has always smiled on this and it has always worked out. I will post more and put up some pictures, but in a moment of weakness tonight as I was making the kids their supper, I ate some of the leftover cantelope. [Canteloupe?] Bad mistake. I didn't think two pieces were going to hurt me, but I am suffering now. I developed some sort of weird allergy to honeydew and cantelope in my mid-thirties (honeydew is way worse) and eating them makes my stomach quite sick. But being, the eternal optimist, every now and then I try a piece anyway, just in case the allergy has departed as quickly as it arrived. Um, nope. Still here, but seemingly worse than ever. :-(

Anyway, in honour of Ben's birthday, here's a layout I did several years ago (November 2005!) using a lot of fabric and notions for a frugal scrapbooker article. I still kind of like it, but Ben and I have both come a long way since then. :-) Funny how I can still remember almost every detail of his birth! Wonder how long it takes those memories to fade................

Canada Day (a little late)

It was a beautiful day here, and we started off the morning with the boys marching in the Sherwood Park parade with their karate club! It was very exciting for them, and very odd for Ron and I to be standing watching a parade with no kids! I can't tell you how weird that feels! There was a lot of walking, and I heard a rumour that Marty had to be piggy backed through part of the parade. He might have been tired, or maybe he just used his charm to get out of a little exercise. ;-)

In the afternoon, we went to my friend Lesley's house for a barbeque. Since the sun was shining, and her house was in the middle of renovations, the bbq moved out to the street. It brought such a big smile to my face, watching doors open from all the houses around the crescent and people wandering out with their lawn chairs, their cold drinks, their barbeque fixins'............ It must be so lovely to live in a neighborhood where everyone has similar interest and enjoys each others company.

Lesley makes a fruit dip that is to die for. I don't normally have much of a sweet tooth, but this Skor Dip makes me want to pull up a chair and grab a spoon! Try it for your next gathering. The fruit that you use to dip with makes it 'seem' healthy.

Skor Dip
1 pkg (250g) cream cheese
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 pkg skor bits

Mix cream cheese and sugars together until smooth. Stir in vanilla and skor bits. Let stand in fridge overnight to soften skor bits. Serve with apples and strawberries. Enjoy!

Another book recommendation

Not that I've had much time for reading! But I happened to take this one out of the library as an audiobook, and loved it so much I had to read it too! It's fabulous! Unforgettable characters, courage, humour, love. Go read it!!! Or listen to it!! There's no better way to make your daily commute exciting than an audioboook. Love those things. Even if my mind drifts off, which is typical, it is easy to skip backwards and listen to passages again.

More Flowers

Wind is an evil thing when you are trying to take close up photos! Even a slight breeze makes your flower move enough so that they are blurry in your photo. And the weather here has been so crummy and so WINDY that my attempts to get out in the garden with my camera are generally foiled. It's such a time of beauty though, I am trying to capture all the stages of my perennial flowers before we get plunged back into winter. Now there's a lovely thought. The days are getting shorter already though.......... :-)

June is almost over

and I am drawing a deep breath. Garden is planted, although very high maintenance because it has not rained this month. School is over. Soccer just finished. Bathroom renovations will be wrapped up tomorrow. Phew. Why I decided it was a good idea to take a close-up/nature photography course in the middle of the June chaos, I will never know. :-) The blog just slid way, way down the priority list. I'll get back to posting here soon. I have a ton of photos and a lot of stories to share, and July looks to be a little less stressful.

this month's book selection

I was intrigued with the description of this book on the back cover, and selected it for my book club this time around. It started out slowly for me, but I ended up enjoying it greatly and rereading parts, as well as listening to the audio version when I commute to work. A different style, quite melodramatic, and set in a different time and place than books I usually read. Check it out if you need something new to read.

from the Chapters Indigo website "Barcelona, 1945. A great world city lies shrouded in secrets after the war, and a boy mourning the loss of his mother finds solace in his love for an extraordinary book called "The Shadow of the Wind," by an author named Julian Carax. When the boy searches for Carax''s other books, it begins to dawn on him, to his horror, that someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book the man has ever written. Soon the boy realizes that "The Shadow of the Wind" is as dangerous to own as it is impossible to forget, for the mystery of its author''s identity holds the key to an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love that someone will go to any lengths to keep secret".

Close-up and Nature Photography

I'm taking a course right now with Metro College in Edmonton with my friend Kim Gowdy. I'm slowly learning and getting better, spending a lot of time on my belly in the wet grass. :-) I started out hand holding the camera, but it's pretty tough to get decent photos with a macro lens that way, so I ended up buying a new Manfrotto tripod with a ball head. Love that thing, well worth the money! Here's a few samples from Wagner Bog, a natural area west of Edmonton (sadly the orchids weren't blooming yet), and a few shots from my garden.

My Enemies

It's a really really bad year for cutworms. I just hate these guys, how they mow down germinating seeds, young lily shoots, small sunflowers, anything green. So sneaky. So devastating. Sigh. I've been excavating for cutworms a couple of times a day for the last few days and hopefully I am making a difference. I can't believe how many there are this spring........... perhaps because it so very dry. Sure hope it rains soon. I am planting into dust and it is tough to water everything on an acreage.

Summer Issue of Canadian Scrapbooker

Here's one of my favourite layouts published in this issue. I love the photo of my mom and my son, and I love the way I managed to take some really old pieces of paper (5 years maybe?) I thought I would never use and made them look good. The trick seems to be cutting them into small pieces. :-) My frugal scrapbooker article this issue was about using up your stash and it was a fun project. I really enjoyed going through my old pieces of patterned paper and breathing new life into them. And every time I used a sheet up, I felt such a strong sense of satisfaction! I encourage you all to dig deep and blow the dust off the semi-gloss Keeping Memories Alive paper or whatever you've got buried.

This is really hard to take

I'm trying to be patient, and I am no stranger to Alberta weather, but still ........... This is what I woke up to this morning. The forecast had called for up to 15 cm of snow overnight, so I guess we were 'lucky'. And the snow has evolved into freezing drizzle this afternoon. Also pleasant. ;-) Forgive the whining.

I can't find my snow brush, my mittens have long been put away and my tomatoes are huddled together in my little greenhouse, with a tiny space heater going at full speed to keep the temperature above freezing. Sigh.