More bookmarks and mail art

Here are some more bookmarks. This was a swap for mail art with handmade envelopes and then something handmade inside. I wanted to do something useful and fun so I did ones with things they like. Fish, daisies & Coke stuff.





Then their envelopes are also what they like - Daisies also, Pigs and Vintage cooking.



Well this "studio" is driving me nuts! I have way too many things in here and they have to be organized (AGain!) so I am in the mood for that now it is getting cooler. Only 9C last night (about 49F) Getting chilly! It is still nice in the day which is good tho.

Have a good weekend and maybe I can stay off this computer for a bit! Maybe......

New bookmark

This is a bookmark I made yesterday for a swap. She is a self proclaimed 'clean freak' so I went through some of my old magazines and got some old ads. I then put the background of old wallpaper and added the jewel and the ribbon.

If you know me... then you know this would not pertain to me!

There are so many other things to be doing except cleaning - Right?

Here it is!

Summer envelope all done and on its way to England!







We did the rest of the insulation on Sat and had to cut a hole in the floor EEk! But its covered by a rug and hopefully soon we will be putting something new on this floor.

I got a pic of Sean scootching on his tummy - What a job!!



All of this and more went down there.




All full!



WE are so glad it is done now tho and will be warmer this winter.

Now c'mon! You gotta admit you don't see pics like this at other blogs! lol

I just squeaked in on Artsy Mamas swap and now my head is swirling with ideas for black and white halloween. Should be fun!

Have a good day!

Best laid plans....

No, there is not a pic of the envelope up here. It rained all day yesterday, so today I had to get the addition ready for insulation. It was spitting rain a bit, but not too bad. We are blowing insulation under an existing building that had none, so I got everything out of the way and part of the walls ready. We are also insulating the main crawl space and I had to move some stuff out of the way to get down there.

THEN Sean got home early and we decided to do the blown in this afternoon! We got done about 7 and we were COVERED in the stuff - so off to shower and now we have to eat! I just wanted to do a quick post and show you the handmade postcards I did for a swap a couple days ago.



The scrapbooking thing was last night and it was fun. We all brought pics and did a page. Here is my page of part of the trip to New York with Sarah. It was part of a Creative Memories so she was trying to sell us on all the products too- but I have so much stuff now I have to use!! Neat to see new stuff tho and the tools are neat.




Tomorrow is a busy day too with the nasty pink insulation in a small crawl space. Hopefully we will be nice and warm this winter because of it!

Well, I'm off to eat!

Have a good weekend!

I did it!

I think this writing down stuff really works for me and I need to do it more often! I wrote yesterday that I wanted to get that book done by this week - meaning Sunday or before and I went and read the last pages last night!! WOO-HOO! It is such a relief. I have actually started a new one! But just a bit, cause I am doing the new entry for the mail art in England. I am now doing Summer. I had wrote that down in my book to at least get the rough drawn on today and to have it mailed by the end of Aug. I sat down this morning and I am over halfway done! YAY!

I will post a pic when I am done - maybe tomorrow??




This photo is of a photo I have listed on ebay right now.

Tonight I am off to a scrapbooking store for a workshop. My friend won a workshop for her and 5 friends, so she invited me. I am going to do a page of part of our new york trip. It should be fun, the only downfall being the drive - but that's par for the course up here!

Today it is finally raining, its been a long time and I guess we need it. I didnt mind the 2-3 weeks of sunshine though! It's still warm, so I have the window open and listening to the rain fall while I work on this artwork. Good place to be.

I'm back!

Time flies! So last week Wed I went with Sarah and went shopping and out for lunch. That was nice and then back to my moms to stay over and she went back to work on Thursday. Mom and I worked all day Thurs and Fri cleaning up her basement and outside. Sean came down friday and Sat we finished. So glad thats done! Mom is glad too.

I came home Sunday night and off to Wonderland at 6AM! It was fun, Sarah and her friend and her mom all went. We even went on some rides! So cool.




This one I did NOT go on tho - this is a pic of it in the air and then it comes swinging back through. The girls went on it and had fun.



We came back to town and had dinner and then Sarah went back to her Dads. 2 more weeks of work and then school starts Sept 4! She is happy and they are going to Toronto school shopping next weekend.

So now I am trying to get caught up, putting some things on ebay and cleaning up my work area - HAH! and getting caught up on some swaps I have to do. I have been getting some really neat things! This is some of it. Aren't those wings neat?



This is also some mail art I received. So much fun to go to the mail box now!



Well, I better get back to work, I have been spending SO much time getting updated on all my blogs - I was 4 DAYS without a computer - EEK! I almost have a book done tho - 100 pages or so, and it's only taken a year and half. Ugh. But it is 970 pages and I always am reading library books that have a deadline. My goal is to get it done this week cause I got some more to read yesterday!

Oh Yeah! I applied a while ago for a part time library job and I got it! I go for training next week and very part time, but that is ok at this point because I want to work here too... but a library? How perfect is that?

Talk soon.

Happy Monday!

It is a beautiful day here in the pines! The sun is shining and the breeze is blowing through the trees. The birds are all chirping crazily and I see red squirrels chasing each other around the yard.

The weekend was good - I got down early so I went to Chapters! I went to get the new artful blogging magazine but it wasnt here yet, maybe next week they said. So I HAD to get other mags. HAd to. They had the Marie Claire Idees and I've seen this on other blogs. It looks great! It is in French, but hey I'm Canadian! I had 13 years of French in school - I think I can muddle through. Also, somerset memories, adorn and a neat hobby farm book.



Then the next day we went to IKEA! Yay! But I didnt get anything, I didnt have room, but always some neat ideas. It was also so packed in there we couldnt move! Not fun, when so busy. I hit the flea market on the way home yesterday and all I got there were some fresh tomatoes and cucumbers. I KNOW! I should be growing these myself and maybe some day???

I have been getting some mail art too, this great envelope from Karla with some goodies inside



and a neat envelope from Beth with a great tag inside!



This altered journal was also sent to me in a swap. See the moose and bears? and pine cones? So perfect for me!




Well I better go get some work done! I could spend all day on blogs and then nothing is done. It's getting to be like a bad habit, like chocolate - something you can't resist.

I 'm off again on Wed. I get to see Sarah! We are doing something for the day and then I am at my moms helping her clean up till the weekend. If I dont post tomorrow, I will see you Tuesday. Monday I think I am off to Canada's Wonderland with Sarah and her friend and mom. It's Canada's version of sixflags and its a huge amusement park. I will be sure to get pics of that too!

Have a good day and make sure you get outside! It's almost the middle of August and I have to treasure these days. They are gone all too soon.

Whew, I'm tired out!

And I can imagine what Kari is feeling from Artsy Mama. I looked at a bunch of posts from the party she had yesterday. Yeah, I'm just gettting to some of them now! She had over a hundred "guests" and I'm sure she is thrilled. There were tons of great posts and tutorials and we will have that as a reference too.

There were also some giveaways and I won one already! I won the inchies on Lia's site Art Junk Girl. It will be neat to get started on that! I've been curious about working on something so small.

I also put my name in for a few people that were giving away extra copies of Artful Blogging. I have to have this! Everyone is talking about it and I cant find it anywhere up here. I am going to Ottawa this weekend so I hope I can find it there.

I am going to my aunts again to help her get organized and ready for a garage sale. - But you know what? There is an IKEA 10 minutes away from her house -SO I might have to sneak there too! I'm also hitting that great flea market on the way home on Sunday.

This pic is from our weekend - they were outside our cabin, so I had to take a pic!

I think I am leaving late morning tomorrow - I am going to a local craft show and then hitting some stores before I go there. She has a new puppy too! So I will be sure to take pics of that too.

Have a good weekend!

Artsy Mama's Artful Blogging Party

Hello and Welcome!

I didn't know what I was going to do for a tutorial and then I remembered a previous post I did about my altered puzzle. Sorry if this is a repeat for some of you!

I had to alter a puzzle in some way for a swap on swap bot and I decided I wanted to paint it and put a picture of a frog on there since she liked green and frogs. I had a 24 piece puzzle from the thrift store and I put it together first...






Then I had to paint it, but after it was painted, the picture would be covered and I had to put it back together! So I just separated them a bit and painted. I had some green metallic car paint and I like how it turned out shiny and hard.






I let that dry in the sun and then put the pieces back together.





Then I enlarged the frog to the right size on my scanner and printed it out. I glued it to the puzzle and put the quote " Time's fun when you're having flies" with white marker pen. Now the hard part began! I had to cut around all the pieces so it would go back together. Be careful not to put too much glue because then it will seep down into the cracks and be harder to cut.








After it was cut, I peiced it together to make sure it fit and then I had to take it apart and send it to her. She enjoyed it and liked the frog!






This could be done with any puzzle and you wouldnt have to put a picture on it, you could paint your own or make a design or collage on there. It could be any size but the bigger the challenge. I have seen puzzles as part of a bigger collage too on a canvas or painting. I also did one with a handmade postcard for some mail art. That post is below. The ideas are endless!


I hope you enjoyed your stop here and have a fun day! Thanks Kari for inspiring creativity in us all.

Algonquin Weekend

We got back yesterday afternoon and what a great weekend! The weather was PERFECT - not too hot and muggy but warm and sunny. We drove and hit the yard sales on Sat and then went for a nice dinner and drive Sat night. We went and checked out a resort that is awesome and has 27 holes of golf! Sean was drooling like a little kid. We had gone shopping at some neat stores and galleries in the afternoon and some stuff was so cool! This town is full of inspiration. I was writing ideas left and right. There was also live jazz in the middle of main street with a full horn section. I love live music.

Then Sunday after sleeping in -YAY! we went to Algonquin. We checked in early and they were ready so that was cool. We needed a boat to get across and this was an old cedar canoe with a motor on it and a bunch of seats in it. It was neat!






We were in "Black Spruce" cabin and it was neat cabin with a stone fireplace, couch and chair and then up 6 steps to a loft area for the king size bed and bath. Wood on all the walls and floor. THere was also a screened in porch on the front and our own little rock flower garden.





We went back on the boat and used the included park pass to go to the logging museum and a visitor centre with a display of all the animals in the park and a neat high lookout point.


We came back and sat on the dock for awhile before dinner.



NOW.... Dinner. I had read the sample menus so I had an idea what I was in for and the price for non guests is 54.00 - no liquor - so I figured it would be good. There was to be 5 courses and you had your choice. They gave us a copy of the menu and I am showing it here and I will tell you what we got.






This is the dining room - we had a little place card on our table on a piece of wood and twigs.





The first course is an amuse bouche which is a surprise by the chef - a small thing to start you off. Tonight it was "Bacon and Egg" which was a piece of pork belly and a small quail egg. They were both good.

Next we both got the same - Seared sea scallops, avacado puree, shaved fennel, roasted yellow beet. There were two big scallops on a bed of the fennel and the beet on top with the avacado underneath.

Then I got Lobster tail sous vide, oven-dried tomato, tempura avacado, cucumber salsa and Sean got 12 hour braised bison shortribs, carmalized onions, pommes anna, bison jus. They were both SO GOOD. We shared of course!

My entree was Duck breast seared in French Brandy, roasted red beets, patty-pan squash, fingerling potatoes, peach compote, pistachio dust and Sean had Grilled beef tenderloin, chipotle demi-glaze, summer squash, wild mushrooms, arugala, brown butter mashed potatoes. I didnt know how much I would like the duck but it was amazing - it was cooked med rare which I guess is normal for duck and it was really good. Seans beef was good as well.

So all of our plates were clean! Then the dessert menu and cheescake? Of course thats my pick - Sean got it as well and we brought them back to the room to save for later. I had a bite right away and it was blueberry cheescake wrapped in phyllo pastry and caramel syrup all over and it was warm! OMG so good! I took a picture of Seans before he ate it.







WOW. NOw that I've bored you to tears.... lol! Really neat and I love variety so it was perfect for me. Not to mention breakfast! It was included as well and there were fresh muffins, croissants, danish, fruit plate, cheese plate, cereal and yoghurt and then you got your choice of hot dish! Sean got eggs benedict - really good and I got french toast with hot fruit compote made of fresh blueberries and raspberries. I was also torn about the apple and brie omelet- but didnt know if I would like apples and eggs together?


And since we didnt see any moose -;( I've lived up here for years and still havent seen one - I got this postcard of some in the park.




And a pic from the museum




I collect moose things and I still havent seen one! Bummer -I will need to go up in the spring because that is the prime time for them to come out of the bush because of the black flies. I'd be getting away from them too!

Next springs road trip!We are lucky that we are so close - just over an hour to a park that is thousands of acres. Lots of hiking trails and lakes to canoe.

It's cool too that on our way back we thought of the THOUSANDS of people that were returning to the big city - either Toronto or Ottawa after this long weekend(7000 people got stopped outside of TO and half of them were charged with speeding!) and we were taking the back way home - no traffic and coming home to a place that is less populated than the resort we stayed at!

Always nice to go away and yet nice to be home.

This is a shot out my back window. Nice weather and to keep on all weekend! And a long weekend up here so as to the last post - Sean and I are gonna take off tomorrow! We are gonna go west and go to a neat town about 3 hours away. It's big cottage country with neat stores and lots of lakes. We were lucky to get a room! There were tons that were booked.

And on Sunday we are gonna come back across Algonquin Park. It is a huge provincial park- thousands of acres and its been a long time since I've been up there. We are staying at a resort right in the park on sunday and you have to take a boat to get there. That sounds neat... and little cottages with king size beds and screened in porches on the water and dinner and breakfast is included up in the dining room.

Can't wait! Summer road trip - bringing the tunes and snacks and probably stopping at every yard sale along the way! There should be a lot cause of a long weekend.

I'll take lots of pics and see ya Tuesday!

August!

Now it's August! It doesnt seem to be going too fast for me - just right. Which is nice. We have had so much rain in July it didnt seem like summer at all. This week tho is supposed to be sunny all week and hot! NIce.

At my famous library, I requested some books and they have come in! I am so excited - this way I can check them out and not pay for them if I don't think they are worth it.

This one was good. THe french general by Kaari Meng. She has a retail store in California and sells online. This book was filled with great photos and some good ideas for decorating and crafts.








A nice way to spend an hour or so out on my hammock on Sunday. It was wonderful! No bugs now and a breeze blowing. I got some other books done too and what a treat! It's hard not to do that every day... but then nothing would get done!

I'm hankerin ( is that a word?!) for a road trip! It's sunny and its a long weekend up here this weekend and I just want to tour! I 'm gonna look into that today - I'll keep you posted!