My writing table....

This is writing table in my bedroom...also where I scrapbook and make ATC's....often use the laptop when not sat on the bed...the only thing I wish is that the window was lower so I could see out more when I'm sat down.....in my new bedroom I will definitely make the windows lower - as I have in the new kitchen! I like to be able to look out when sat down!

Cheesy...

....enjoying a grape!!

To celebrate Spring...

Lloyd surprised me with these beauties last week - a wonderful welcome to Spring!!! They look so pretty on my writing desk in my bedroom window! Very cheery especially on a snowy day like today!!

Another wonderful welcome to Spring was the gorgeous sound of Canada Geese flying overhead while we were at Vals house on Friday (the official first day of Spring)!!! Yay!!!

Changed it up!

So here is the finished page - I changed it quite a bit as I didn't like the original page. I added the travel cards from the London tube and the parking ticket from Richmond as well as a few other embellishments!

Sunday Brunch at Starbucks.....

Lloyd and I relaxed in the armchairs by the fire in Starbucks today....Lloyd with his oatmeal and latte and me with my parfait with granola and London Fog (YUM!!!!!)

Edmonton and Sherwood Park are under Winter Storm warnings and the snow is coming down pretty hard now and the wind is starting to blow it around quite a bit - when we got home our driveway had disappeared.

We plan to stay home for the afternoon and start some seeds off then curl up with some movies. Our Saturday was sooooo busy that we wanted a relaxed Sunday with some time just for Lloyd and I and then some family time in the afternoon.

What are you up to this Sunday?????

I wonder what he was dreaming about......

Funny things happen when I talk to Tess on the phone...

....like I get my arm stuck in my sleeve and end up doing chicken impressions.....and my four year decides that he should follow the cat out onto the porch roof and play out there and he should take out half his toys too!!! He must have been out there quite a while because there were also quite a few toys down in the front yard in the snow where the dogs were.....and Grayson gave up playing on the roof and came in with me through my window. Sam eventually came and knocked on my door all excited and told me he had been playing on the roof so I went and looked and sure enough the girls bedroom window was wide open!!! I looked out and was chocked to see all these toys out there on the roof!!!! Oh my!!!! Thank you Laurie for going out there to get all the toys!

Another scrapbook page....

and no I haven't done the journaling yet.....hhmmmm I have quite a bit to catch up on ;)

I don't like this pictures without matting - so I might take them off and do some torn mats.....or something......

I really like using negatives on a page though - I saw that in a magazine last month!

One of my favourite artists...

Kelly Rae Roberts - a collage artist from Seattle. I just LOVE her work. It's just been released on journals and magnets and other household items too! I'm really excited and hope to see it in Canadian stores really soon! I got the book for my birthday (signed copy woohoo)!!! And Lloyd recently bought me one of her prints from Etsy (thank you baby) and we are on a list waiting to hear when her originals are next released.....I would LOVE an original!!!

I chose the 'Let It Go' collage myself because my 'word of the year' is COURAGE....and this collage ends with 'Manifest Courage' but I adore all of Kelly Rae's work.....you can check her work out on her blog at:

kellyraeroberts.blogspot.com/

and follow links form her blog to her Etsy store!!

My Cousin Lynn.....

While we were in England we went to visit my Aunty Pat and Cousin Lynn. As a child I would sometimes go and stay with Lynn in the summer holidays and she would come and stay with me - as we are close in age - she is younger than me by a couple of years I think (Lynn????) I have wonderful memories of making up dances to songs, winning endless beach balls from scratch and win tickets at the local store, trips to the seaside and the shell shop, baton twirling, and it was Lynn that gave Lloyd his nickname 'The Squirm with the Perm' (my poor baby hahahahaha) although she apologised profusely the other week hahahahaha!!!! I guess way back then she NEVER imagined I'd marry him ;)

I also had a lovely visit with my Aunty Pat and had some pictures taken with her and my Mom but I won't post them on my blog because she wasn't feeling that well and had the Doctor visit while we were there - so I don't think it would be fair to post them here - but I had some printed off to send to her and I have some for myself to keep :) It was lovely to see them both after so long and I really enjoyed our all too brief visit!!

Lynn is engaged to a Canadian guy and they are really hoping to marry in the near future - Lynn is hoping to settle in Ottawa but the immigration rules are so crazy and so expensive that its keeping them apart right now :(

Good luck Lynn - I hope it doesn't take too long!
xxxx

Lynns slow worms...

When we went to visit my cousin Lynn, Abigail and Sam were thrilled to meet her rabbits, cats - and especially her slow worms!!! Sam thought they were so cool! It was such a shame that Lynns Son Evan wasn't there - he is just a few weeks older than Abigail, but he was in school while we were visiting.

Cushion....

The first picture shows us with my Sister Karen in the cafe in Hamleys Toy Store in London. We had lunch there after I had been to the Canadian Embassy.

The second picture shows a cushion with the Union flag on it that Karen gave me - isn't it gorgeous?.......I plan to keep it in the bag until my new bedroom is done and then have it in a nice arm chair by the fireplace.

The last picture shows Teddy Long Legs - he was my teddy when I was a little girl!

Letters from Malle...

(click on the pics to see in better detail)

We received two letters from Malle, the little girl we sponsor in Mali, recently...one is from her directly - written by her volunteer worker, and the other comes from World Vision letting us know that the Christmas money we sent her was received. Lloyds team at work wanted to purchase goats for Malle and her community but it turns out that you can't actually choose specific animals for a specific community but you can donate the cost of specific animals and then let that community decide which animals will work best for them....

So now we will wait to hear which animals they chose and then they will send us a picture of them with the animal/s they chose!! Malle lives on a farm where they grow, amongst other things, peanuts!!! And her village is sure to need animals of some kind, so it will be interesting to know what they pick!

We also sent Malle, and Margori (the little girl in Peru that we sponsor) a package each for Christmas with all kinds of stickers, bookmarks, ribbons and Disney Princess socks etc etc in it and its lovely to know that the packages arrived safely :)

I really enjoy sponsoring children through World Vision :) Malle is Muslim and although World Vision is a Christian organisation, they do NOT push their beliefs on the community and they ask the sponsors not to either - I really like this about World Vision!!!

Lloyds birthday.....

Birthday cake time on Monday! Oh and everyone was looking at Susie as if she was mad because she was singing Happy Birthday in French!!!! ;)

The next birthday is August - Chris....so by then the kitchen will be finished and I will have my counters and the pictures will look decent :) instead of seeing all the workmens tools and mess in the background and my lovely island of planks of board ;)

Scrapbooking...

Not very good pictures...and no journaling done..... but two pages I did yesterday...I got 500 pictures developed on Monday of my trip to the UK, but I also want to scrapbook some old photographs of my childhood - inspired by some of the recent magazines I've been reading...I liked this picture of me with a snowman - I must have been about 5.
The other layout shows some old pictures of me with my Sister Clare when we were little....and then two pictures of us recently when we went out for lunch - Abigail took those with my iphone and they aren't great pictures - a little blurry etc but I still wanted to use them!! I like that the page shows us together as children and now!