Self-Portrait Tuesday: MOM!


This isn't really a self-portrait, because I didn't take it, but you get the idea. It's sometime in grade 6, so age 11. I can deduce this from the fact that I got glasses (aren't those SWEET frames?) in January that year (1990), and my hair cut in March-ish (so the back was finally the same length as the sides.

I always practiced my flute while sitting at the piano. But my annoying sister decided she would practice piano while I was practicing flute (she was super annoying). You can get a sense from this photograph of my frustration.

Please note the following details:
a) My mint green pants. I thought mint green was the best colour ever. Seriously, how could it ever go out of style?
b) Matching belt.
c) That grey kitten statue-thingy on top of the piano. My Mom still has that. She loves it. There's a matching mother cat.
d) The grey plant pot on top of the piano. It was a fake begonia. The fake begonia that my Dad watered while everyone else was away one time. It didn't even look the faintest bit real.
e) Gingerbread house. I remember trying to eat it much much much after Christmas. It was very stale. We made them in Girl Guides I think.
f) My music folder, the white one with teal and purple writing on it. It was from St. John's Music. The tan one next to it, that one is one my Mom covered with herb wallpaper for my sister. I thought it was ugly, mine was much cooler. ;)
g) My Bundy II. That was the brand of flute I had. I loved that flute. But I hated practicing it. I took flute in band class from grade 5 through to the end of grade 8, then I quit because finally my Mom said I could. My Gramma said I would regret it. But I never really learned to read music and it was getting harder and harder to keep up, and I never wanted to practice. I kept the Bundy II until I went off to college, and then I sold it because I needed money to buy paints and other art supplies. Now I kind of miss it and wish I still had it. More for the sentimental value, it's not like I'd be any more likely to practice it now.

My Mom always says this is one of her favourite pictures of me. It makes me laugh.

I'm A Failure at My Own Projects

I was a little apprehensive to start a new blogging project this year, because I have this horrible tendency to procrastinate. And lookey here, it's January 31 and have you seen my January Hometown Six photos? My big plan was to take them over the month... and I think I have, well, maybe three that I could actually use. Part of the problem is that I work during the day and after work it's too dark to take photos (hey, it's winter and all, and this is Canada), so pretty much I can just take them on weekends when it's daylight and I can go out. So my new big plan was to take them this past Sunday, as I was at the hockey thingy all day Saturday. But of course then it was super snowy on Sunday all day!

So, I've extended the deadline to February 6th. For myself, and for those who said "Yeah, I'd love to participate!" but haven't yet. Thanks to all the keeners out there who were very enthusiastic and took their photos and got them up right away, you're an inspiration to me. :)

And the new February Hometown Six Challenge will be up February 6. Thank you for your enthusiasm and good attitudes. :)

Dear Columbia

Dear Columbia Sportswear,

This past weekend I was a volunteer at the Canadian National Pond Hockey Championships in Huntsville, Ontario, Canada. As volunteers, we were told :

"Columbia Sportswear Co. & Sorel is outfitting all championship volunteers and officials with outerwear to keep them comfortable regardless of the weather Ontario’s north throws at them. "Keeping volunteers and officials warm and comfortable, and looking on the top of their game with Columbia Sportswear & Sorel’s distinctive clothing, will contribute to the success of this important championship," says Jeff Timmins, Marketing Manager, Columbia Sportswear Co. & Sorel (Canada)." (from the Sponsorship section of the Pond Hockey website)

I was pumped. I mean, I'd love a Columbia jacket, I can't afford one. But when I showed up on Friday at Volunteer HQ, I was given a LARGE MEN'S FURRY-HOODED BLACK JACKET. It was the largest jacket I've ever seen. I had requested a womens size medium, had something gone wrong? I was informed that they didn't get the right sizes. No, they didn't have any extra ones I was told, I would have to wear that. It covered my knees. It was as big as a house. The sleeves completely covered my arms and hands and went well past my finger tips. What time is it? I don't know, I can't find my watch!

And unfortunately, it wasn't until later that I discovered it was down-filled. Sure, down is nice and warm, but I'm allergic to it! Luckily the next day I wasn't forced to continue wearing it, but unfortunately for my outdoor volunteer position I was given a large womens fleece to replace it, which was still too large for me.

If I could attach pictures to this comment form, I would, to illustrate just how large these jackets were. I was very disappointed I did not get an appropriately-sized jacket. a) it was very hard to do my volunteer position (as a rink assistant taking care of the ice surface) in a jacket that went past my knees and arms or in a fleece in a Canadian winter, and b) I looked very frumpy in a position where I should have looked respectable as a person representing the Canadian National Pond Hockey Championships.

I was disappointed that we were not properly outfitted for the weekend as we were assured we would be.

Sincerely,
Michelle




P.S. Yes, those could quite possibly be some of the most horrid photos ever.

Busy Day, Busy Life

So my busy week is coming to a peak... tonight is the start of helping with this... should be an interesting weekend. Apparently it is a "big deal" event. I promise to take some photos. :)

Sorry for the lack of interesting posting and also for not having the chance to reply to emails... I shall get at it early next week.

Have a great weekend!

This Week's Best Search Phrase

The best search phrase this week so far leading someone here:

Canadian Bachelor Party Weekends.

Mike, I totally blame you.

Music Reviews of My Past

So while I was at my parent's house over Christmas break, I picked up a bunch of my old cassette tapes that I had while in high school. Music that I thought at the time was THE BEST MUSIC OF ALL TIME.

Since returning to Ontario, and adding the cassettes to the Hot Rod for listening pleasure (I even bought a cassette tape box thing at the dollar store, who knew they still sold them?), I have since come to other conclusions about my early musical tastes. I'm now not quite so sure that the mid-90s were a good time for music.

So, without further adieu, I present to you some of my non-Christian cassette tape selections from 1993-1997-ish:

Joey Lawrence, Self-Titled: You may have known him from the tv show "Blossom" and the fact that he was famous for saying "Whoa!", but did you also know he sang? This was the first cassette I ever bought, I was 15 and was away from home by myself for the first time ever (well, besides summer camp and school field trips), in Ottawa for a youth conference. I went to a mall in Hull, Quebec, and bought this. The store sales guy spoke to me in French. I said "What?" and then he said in a very annoyed tone "DO YOU WANT A BAG?" Anyways, I loved this tape. I thought no one could ever top how good this tape was. My favourite song was the last one, "Read My Eyes," and I knew exactly how many seconds it took to rewind this song from the end so I could listen to it again. But now that it's over a decade later, I think that Joey a) rapped too much, and b) tried to be a little too cool. I was listening to the tape again for the first time in a good 9 years, and I kept waiting for the really good songs to come on and they didn't. None of them were that great.

Jamie Walters, Self-Titled: You might possibly remember him as the guy who played Donna's boyfriend, Ray Pruit, on Beverly Hills 90210, you know, the guy who beat Donna up. He sang too (I'm sensing a trend here). This tape was gold, it was so good. Sometime last fall I was shopping at Independent Grocers and I heard one of his songs on the loudspeaker, and I thought "Man, I wish I had that tape to listen to." And when I was driving back from the airport after getting back to Ontario after Christmas, I had actually put this tape into my carry-on backpack instead of in my suitcase like the rest of the tapes, so I could listen to it on the drive home. My favourite song was the last one on this tape too, "Perfect World." There was something about the early and mid-90s and people singing about the world.

Wet Wet Wet: They sang "Love is All Around" from the "Four Weddings and a Funeral" movie soundtrack, which was my favourite song for a good while. I bought their CD used on the weekend for $2. The rest of the songs are not nearly as good as my memory makes them out to be.

East 17, Walthamstow: I was like the only person in Canada to even know who East 17 were, let alone listen to their music. This made me very cool, or so I thought. I heard them on an international radio show that Q94fm had on once a week, and I really liked one of their songs that they had played. But I couldn't find any information on them (this was of course before the internet), or their cassettes, so I wrote the radio show a letter. And they read it on the air (and I crossed "international superstardom" off my list of life to-do's). And they sent me a home-made cassette of the song that I loved in 5 DIFFERENT VERSIONS. Sadly, I no longer have any idea where that tape is (but trust me, it's at my parents' house somewhere, because the reverse of it has a recording of them reading my letter and thus my proof of my short-lived international superstardom). I did however find a copy of this tape... and it is definitely, uh, I don't know how to say this politely, not very clean. What was I thinking? Besides the dirty songs, they sing a lot about saving the world and not losing your soul.

East 17, Steam: After listening to Walthamstow, I haven't been able to bring myself to listen to this one.

I had a lot of Christian tapes too, if you grew up in youth group culture at the time you might recall (although I was unfortunately unable to find most of these tapes at my parents', I think due to the fact that they travelled with me to college and have since disappeared into college-moving-land:

Amy Grant, Heart in Motion: What youth-group-going-female didn't have this tape (or CD if they were RICH)? Wasn't her velvet dress sweet? I had one very similar for my grad photos in 1996.

Michael W. Smith, Change Your World: "Cross of Gold" was sooooo good. Remember that? I have a very distinct memory of listening to it on a WalkMan on the way home from a youth group trip to Oregon.

Michael W. Smith, The First Decade: This was one of the first Christian tapes I ever bought, and nicely gave me an introduction to the world of MWS. I loved "Kentucky Rose" and "Go West Young Man" was such a good life theme song. Or so I though. Somehow I always ended up going east.

Steven Curtis Chapman: Greatest Hits: I loved the photos in this tape-liner. Some of the songs were way too old-school for me though.

Steven Curtis Chapman, Heaven in the Real World: I always had a problem with spelling out loud, so I never could figure out what they were spelling in the Bible camp song "I am a C-H, I am a C-H", or when SCC sang "He is the K-I-N-G of the J-U-N-G-L-E", so thank goodness the liner had lyrics. Sometime later in life I started deliberately trying to spell things out loud or in my head without visualizing the letters, and to this day whenever anyone says "pray" in my head I spell "P-R-A-W" (yes you read that right).

Jars of Clay, Self-Titled: I got this tape at a youth conference in grade 12 in Winnipeg I think. Geoff Moore and the Distance played there,as part of their "Home Run" tour. This album (Jars of Clay, not Geoff Moore and the Distance), is still one of my top favourites of all time.

dcTalk, Free at Last: Oh how I wish I still had this tape. Actually, it would be better yet to have the CD.

Okay, that's all I can remember. How about you? What were your favourites of the same time-period, or your high school days? (Hopefully someone else's would be more embarassing than a few of mine). ;)

Dumpling Love

One of my most vivid memories of 2003-2004, the year I lived in a duplex apartment with Jodi and Rachel, is one particular meal.

It was after Christmas sometime, at lunchtime after chapel. I can't remember anymore what I was eating (probably a tomato sandwich, or mortadella and provolone), nor what Jodi was eating (probably something involving cheese). But Rachel, Rachel was eating Chinese dumplings she brought back from Christmas in Edmonton.

And they were so hot she was slurping and blowing and burning her mouth. But she kept eating. Finally Jodi and I said "QUIT EATING THAT" and "wait until it cools off!", but I think Rachel was so excited to be eating dumplings that the thought didn’t occur to her that she should wait a bit. It was seriously one of the funniest moments of the year.

Anyways, the major point of this story is coming. Last month when I went to Hamilton for a wine and cheese party (I just ate the cheese, and had some fake wine, I don’t drink alcohol), Susie, Melissa and I went out beforehand to Kelsey's and had appetizers. They had new dumpling things called "General Tao Gyoza Dumplings"(go figure) so I ordered those although Susie and Melissa were convinced they would be gross. But they were tasty.

And, on the weekend I found that Wong Wing-frozen-food-maker- people now have "NEW!" dumplings for sale. Chicken ones. So I bought a box. And they are SO good. I looked for a link to Wong Wing but all I could find was this.

I could seriously eat them every day.

Unfortunately my box ran out already and I have to go and get more. I now understand Rachel's excitement.

Craftinator/Sporty Spice

Okay, so I currently have 3 purses on the go. All are cut out but have no actual sewing accomplished yet. One is a custom order that I hope to have done by the end of next weekend (usually I'd have it done much sooner, but this is a busy week... ugh!). The others will go up in my shop sometime.

To answer the questions people keep asking me:

a) Yes, I made all of that stuff.

b) Most are my original pattern designs, a few I used store-bought patterns for. Mostly I use patterns to learn new techniques to make my own pattern-drafting skills better.

c) Yes, I have sold things. Check out the "sold items" link on the right side of my Etsy page. I've done a few custom orders as well that aren't up on Etsy.

d) Yes, I take custom orders. I love custom orders. Email me through the link up over there on the right of this page, or you can contact me through my Etsy shop. Most of the fabrics I still have more of, if you see something you like. And yes, I can add more pockets and zippers. Yes, I can make it a different size, add a longer strap, etc. etc. Let me know what you're interested in. Or, if you have a fabric you want made into something... let me know. I can do that too. :)

I got a big large jumbo bag of assorted fabrics on the weekend to play with... lots of faux fur and felt and a few flannels and assorted odds and ends. I've never worked with faux fur before, but I'd love to try to make something cute.

But unfortunately I have been busy and will continue to be busy through the end of this weekend. This past weekend I was busy playing floor hockey until 2 in the morning (brought me back to memories of my grade 6 championship match), and then this next weekend I'm a rink assistant at this. But Saturday evening I'm having a craft night with my friend Laura... I expect I shall be exhausted from scraping the ice, but hopefully I'll get something fun started/finished. :)

Craft Challenge

Back a long long time ago, like sometime early last fall, I volunteered to participate in Maria's Craft Challenge. The agreement was that she would send some raw materials from her home in Sweden, to be crafted into things, and then sent back to her.

The above is what I recieved in the mail from her... lots of fun paper bits, 2 pieces of yarn, a gold glitter pen, a few cards, and a piece of soap. Oh, and a piece of wood too. Originally, I wanted to use everything she had sent minus the soap, and add only white paper to the mix. But eventually I got bored with that and I wanted to knit something.

This is the pile of what I ended up coming up with. All these pictures are "clickable" for a better view.

The hat was a basic black touque that I invented a pattern for. The black yarn was my own, and I mixed in a strand of fibre that Maria had sent to one row of the knitting. I like the way it turned out, very fun. I had hoped she would like the colours, espcially since they came from her! :)
I cut the text freehand out of some white paper... usually I write it first but I just eyeballed it this time. I think it turned out okay, except the "o" is weird.

I think this card is my favourite. I used a background of an off-white cardstock that I had on hand, and the orange cardstock came from Maria. The music and various other language papers came in the package from her as well. I cut the butterfly out off of a piece of wrapping paper I think that she had sent.

This little gnome illustration, I loved it. So cute. I glued it to the tag that she had sent, and used the fibre to attach it to the card.

The blue cardstock and ribbon were my own, but the ricepaper came from a teensy tiny envelope of Maria's. The flowers were cut from some vellum she sent.

Apple blossom magazine page or perhaps wrapping paper? More of the ricepaper as well. My own pink background and ribbon.

I really liked this card as well. The vellum was the same as the little flowers came from, it was printed with various butterflies. More other-language paper and ricepaper. I stitched the butterfly on and adhered it to my own blue cardstock.

It has been neat to see what other people got and created on her Craft Challenge Blog. It was a very fun project.

January 23, For the Record



See results here. I'd also like to point out that the guy in my riding won by 21 votes. TWENTY-ONE.

Yes, your vote makes a difference.

Calendar Catch-Up

Okay, so I totally have all this stuff that I need to play catch-up with and post to my blog. Including an end-of-the-year post (you know, since January is almost over!), but I don't think I'm going to get to that today.

I did however want to post this, and I was waiting until the recipient actually got the present... but due to my tardiness, her skipping the WSC Christmas party, me getting her address wrong, her not knowing the correct address, and me not seeing her until tomorrow, Nat's not going to get it until tomorrow. And I think sometimes she reads this so I didn't want to post before she got it.

But anyways, I happen to think personalized calendars are great. My old roommate Jodi used to always get a family calendar every year which I thought were hilarious. Unfortunately I didn't have a picture of Jodi's deceased cousin Beth on Nat's calendar (I couldn't figure out how to word that any more delicately...).

So, here are some shots of the calendar making process and some of the individual pics. Most of these pictures were from summer 2004, some of the dress ones are earlier.



All the pages once they were ready. I printed the calendar pages off of about.com, on coloured paper, on a colour printer. I did the collage pics on Photoshop and printed them onto photo paper I got at Dollarama. It's some weird brand, and you get 25 4x6 sheets for a dollar, I love it. I taped them onto the calendar pages, because that's what looked best rather than printing them directly onto the calendar pages.

I know I've posted one of those turtle pictures before, because it was seriously one of the funniest moments of my life. There was a turtle in the middle of Hwy 48, and you can't just leave a turtle in the middle of the road. And Nat and Mike wouldn't pick it up, so I did. And, thus, it peed on me. But hopefully it went on to live a happy life on the other side of the road.

An assorted collection of the required Oscar Night and camp banquet dress-up days. I used to think that purple dress was soooo pretty (ew!). But I still totally love that peacock blue dress. Nat used to always bug me to borrow it. I still have it, but I haven't any opportunities any more to wear it. :(

Somewhere I have one more picture of Mike in the background. These pictures make me laugh so hard.

I think this collage pretty much requires no explanation. Although that one picture (Nat will know which one I mean), best photoshopping job EVER.

Too bad the Rocket died. But the Hot Rod lives on!

So this collagey-thing was the hardest to do... because this was a video (from Youth Quake 2004) and I had to take screenshots off of MediaPlayer and paste them into Photoshop, then crop and cut and past them into the collage document. It took forever!

Okay, that is all. Enjoy all the embarassing pictures, I'm sure I'll regret posting this one day! ;)

Red Vineyard Bag

Red Vineyard Bag
I'm totally lame at writing descriptions and thinking of titles. Sometimes I think I'm even worse at that than I was at writing yearbook captions. :)

Tag, You're It!

It's been awhile since I've done one of these, but I've been tagged by Joleen:

4 jobs I've had in my life:
1. Arts and Crafts Instructor and Cabin Counsellor,at a private girls' camp, summer 1999
2. Waitress/Dishwasher/Chambermaid, at a salmon restaurant/campground/cabin rental place, summer 2000
3. Youth Ministries Intern, at a United Methodist church, summer 2001
4. Camp Program Director and Program Administrator, at a small CSSM camp, summers 2002-2004

4 movies I could watch over and over:
1. Kate & Leopold
2. Serendipity
3. Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken
4. Napoleon Dynamite

4 places I've lived:
1. Porcupine Plain, Saskatchewan
2. Teslin, Yukon
3. Marion, Illinois
4. Sudbury, Ontario

4 tv shows I love to watch:
1. Law & Order, preferably L&): Criminal Intent
2. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
3. ER
4. Antiques Roadshow

4 places I've been on vacation
1. My Gramma's house or my parents' house
2. British Columbia (family trips to visit relatives)
3. Caronport, Saskatchewan
4. Stouffville, Ontario
(That was a tough one, I don't know that I've ever been on a legitimate vacation).

4 websites I visit daily:
1. Bloglines
2. Etsy
3. World Wide Wood
4. dooce

4 of my favorite foods:
1. Pizza
2. Mushroom Soup
3. Stir Fry (the kind that I make, not just any old kind)
4. McDonald's McChicken with a slice of tomato.

4 places I'd rather be right now:
1. My apartment
2. My Gramma's
3. Somewhere in western Canada
4. Hanging out with Jodi and Holly

4 bloggers I am tagging:
1. Holly
2. Rebecca and Peter
3. Carly
4. Drina

What's Cooler than Squirrels?


I love squirrels. And I love this purse.

Retro Gold Floral Bag

Sometimes I think I use the word "retro" too much. But here it is: Retro Gold Floral Bag.

Weekend Products

This weekend I helped paint an apartment on Saturday for most of the day, but I did have a little time to go and pick up my door prize from the new fun bead store in town. Hurrah, I won about $20 worth of beads!. Although most of it was things I wouldn't have normally bought, there were a few especially fun things, a few weird things, and some great wire for making sturdy necklaces/bracelets/anklets/etc. that I am really enjoying.

I worked on a pink tote yesterday. It's a bit different (and definitely a lot bigger) that what I usually make, but I think it turned out really well.

I also worked on another purse, but I haven't had time yet to edit the pictures and get it up... maybe in a little bit.

Growing Like a Tall Tree, Eating Lots of Dirt

When I was a kid I used to sing that, well, actually, I still do.

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday dear Carly,
Happy birithday to you!

22 years old, 22 years old,
Our little birthday girl's 22 years old!
Growing like a tall tree,
Eating lots of dirt
Our little birthday girl's 22 years old!

Non-Post

Today is one of those days where sitting in front of a computer all day is so completely and utterly totally boring. Like there is nothing at all interesting to do work-wise or internet-wise.

But I did find this:

"Why should you buy your name as a domain name right now? Because of this, that's why. Even if you never intend to make a website using yourname.com, you should buy it anyway."
Link via Julie R. Niedlinger

Have a great weekend. Don't forget about Hometown Six, if you're not done it yet. :)

A Little Late



While I was in Alberta over Christmas I made a few Christmas cards and gift tags and assorted Christmas packaging... here are a few of the results. Unfortunately this year Christmas caught up with me and I didn't get many Christmas cards sent out... and even ended up giving my Gramma just one mitten with the promise of another! Luckily I finished the second one on Boxing Day!

These cards and the box were all decorated with rubber stamps from my Mom's growing collection, most are Close to My Heart or Stampendous or Stampin' Up brand stamps. I especially liked the big evergreens with red sentiments stamped over them.

Pop Ups

As per the request of the masses, I believe I have successfully gotten rid of the annoying popups that were occuring when people were visiting this site.

Please let me know if you're still getting them... but I think I found the annoying code.

Thank you for the dedication of readers like yourselves who endeavour to make this website and the internet in general a more likeable and happy place for all.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Becky!

Already my new year's determination to send birthday cards and presents on time this year has failed me!

Hope you have a great day and a fantastically wonderful year ahead. :)

White Chocolate


This weekend I found a few great fabrics, I especially like this small floral print! It quickly found it's way into becoming this bag. :)

Orange Lemonade Handbag


Continuing my theme of fun-vintagey-fabric-retroey-styled handbags, here is the latest installment.

Glass Ladybug Necklace


Very recently, two bead stores opened in my little town. Not one, but TWO. Nuts I say. But anyways, I happen to think this is ideal/cruddy. Ideal because I love beads. You can make so much cool stuff! Cruddy though because I am sure I will spend way way way too much money there.

Anyways, on Saturday I checked them out for the first time. The first one I was not altogether too impressed with... it had a lot of beads and all, but the set up wasn't very nice and all the beads were individually priced for the most part (rather than sets or bags of beads). I bought one green stone bead there, and when I took it up to the till the guys said "One bead? You're only buying one bead?"

Yeah, totally. I'm poor.

But the second store I liked tons better and had much cooler beads I thought, and plus they were pretty much all sold in sets (i.e. 30 beads for $1.10 on a strand rather than 1 bead for 10 cents... I just like it better in sets, so much easier and seems cheaper). I bought a bunch of beads there and plus it was the grand opening so I got a discount out of the discount draw (15%) plus the lady was super nice.

So anyways, I got these neat ladybug beads and made this necklace. I really like it.

And, you can buy it here. :)

The 2006 Blogging Project: Hometown Six

Here it is, the long-awaited post about my 2006 Blogging Project. I know the masses are eagerly awaiting it. ;)

So, I was trying to decide what to do. I had done a few mail exchanges in the past, and of course the Random Interview Project (1st Edition and 2nd Edition), but this time I wanted to do something different.

So here it is. It's a web-based project. And it (potentially) involves you. If you have a blog, or a Flick account, or a MySpace account, or a whatever. If you don't, you can of course start one, because that would be neat.

So, welcome to Hometown Six. One of my favourite things about blogging and blog-reading is the interactiveness, and the chance it is to step inside another's world.

This is a twelve-month project, and ideally, participants can participate for 12 months. But, you can also opt to participate on a month-by-month basis, I know sometimes everyone doesn't have the time/energy/commitment.

But what does it involve? Introduce us to your hometown, where you live. What's it like to live there now, in 2006? I've been mostly a non-specific location blogger... mostly on purpose, but I think this project should introduce you to the area a little more. You can be as specific or as general as you'd like if you choose to participate. This project is designed to introduce and teach us all a little bit more about where you live and the place you call home.

How exactly do you participate? Well, each month, on the sixth day (being two thousand and six and all), I'll post a challenge. Most of them will be photography related. So having a digital camera would be ideal, but you can get around it I'm sure if you'd like. You will have basically a month to finish the challenge. Let me know that you've participated, and I'll post an entry each month with all the participant links.

Make sense? Sound fun and cool? Great. I hope a few people will be excited about this and will have fun with it.

So, here we go. January's Hometown Six involves collecting photographs of six signs of your hometown or area's name. I suppose this could include 6 photographs of signs saying "Chicago", or a combination of 6 sign photographs including "Chicago," "Illinois," "Blah Blah County," "Corn Street," or whatever.

Have fun. And let us all know in the comments if you're planning on participating, and please update me if you can when you've posted your post about it.

Thanks everyone, I'm looking so much forward to this. :)

Handsome Man


I think Blackey, more so than anyone, was thrilled that we were all home for Christmas this year. I finally got around to looking at my Christmas pictures today... I think I'll make a little collage and post it maybe tomorrow if I have time. This particular picture is in my top favourites.

Isn't Blackey a handsome little man? He's 13 now, so technically he's a senior citizen.

Citrus Chrysanthemum


I bought this fabric awhile back when the nearest Fabricland was closing it's doors and had a big sale. I wasn't really sure what to make with it, I thought for a long time about making a skirt... but last night I finally made this purse.

I Seriously Do Not Know How I Didn't Previously Know About These

If you ever visted me when I lived in the big brown house at school, you will remember the late great bacon collage.

And you will understand why I love these.

Link courtesy of Awesome.

Hello 2006, Here You Are

Wow, 2006 is so busy so far... I'd love to post something more substantial but I have a ton of work to do so this will just be snippets:

a) Peter and Becky voted me one of their favourite blogs of 2005 (wow, that's great!). I'm honoured.

b) I meant to mention this earlier, but my bloggish-related blog Dialog: Breaking the Bubble was nominated for a SuperBlessed award. Hopefully over this next year I'll post to it more, I wasn't very consistent in 2005 with that.

c) I feel like I haven't been home in forever! I got back to my house at 1:30am on Thursday, worked Thursday, hung out with a friend Thursday night, worked most of Friday, drove down south Friday afternoon, went to my other camp's Christmas party (the one I worked at for three full summers then a week this past summer), stayed over night, then ended up staying over for New Year's Eve, then came back up north and home late Sunday evening. Monday I slept in and unpacked finally from being home for Christmas, and cleaned my room a bit, and watched tv, and did some sewing.

d) Finished this last night. I had been saving that fabric for awhile, I was debating about what to make with it. I really like the way this turned out. I still have more of the fabric left, so plan on a few more things from it as well.

e) Work. I have a big meeting tomorrow and lots to do to prep for it... so I should probably get back at that. I woke up the middle of last night wondering if the meeting was today or tomorrow... phewffda on it being tomorrow because I had absolutely nothing prepped for it.

f) I have a few other things I'd like to post, including my 2006 Blogging Project, but those will have to wait until later or tomorrow or later this week sometime most likely. Until then, hope your 2006 is going swimmingly well and you have a great 362 days ahead.

:)