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!

Birthday cuddles with Daddy......

Abigail and Lloyd yesterday.....

Lloyds birthday dinner....

We tried to persuade Lloyd to go to Montanas for his birthday dinner but he just plain refused lol....there was NO WAY he was going to wear that moose head ;) so he took us to Joeys Med Grill for dinner instead! We had a lovely evening! When we first arrived they didn't have a table large enough for us, and as all their tables are bolted to the floor, we were seated at two small tables. I was really sad that we would not be all together, so our waitress was really apologetic and mentioned it to the Night Manager, Mark. Lloyd said we could go elsewhere, but I knew he had wanted to go there for his birthday dinner. Mark came over and said they could move us to a table that seats 5 and that they HAD sat 7 there before but that it might be a tight fit...I said I didn't mind at all so long as we were together...so we all moved over and it was wonderful :)

At the end of the meal Mark came over again and asked how the meal was and if we had been happy with everything.....I love Joeys....we have always been so thrilled with the service there and NEVER had a bad meal EVER - we've been going there since the first week we arrived in Canada.

Last night was so much fun! I had some lovely Red Rooster wine....one of my favourites...in fact I had far too much for me lol! I had the butter chicken - so did Susie! Chris had the Miso Ramen bowl...Laurence ordered the lobster stuffed ravioli that is also stuffed with crab and shrimp.....I tried some of his and it was yummy......Abigail ordered sliders but then wished she ordered the butter chicken! She ate some of mine! Lloyd had the quesadillas.....

Instead of staying for dessert we picked up a birthday cake on the way home and had that when we got back!

Everyone was in a good mood (even Chris lol although its hard to tell in the pictures lol) and it was just a great evening!!

homemade sidewalk chalk.....

livelifecreateart.blogspot.com/2009/03/handmade-sidewalk-chalk.html

I think we will be making some of this as soon as I have a kitchen!!!

Boat and Sportsmen show...

We had another great day at the Boat and Sportsmen show at the Agricom today. We went last year and LOVED it and decided to go again - have to say we think this is one of the BEST shows of the year at Northlands as there is something for all ages!! The kids have a lot of fun there and learn a lot too. Abigail got to stroke a Great Horned Owl (did you know they are already sitting on their eggs out there in Alberta)!!! The children got to try archery again. We had fun looking at all thre boats, quads, dirt bikes etc and ate LOTS of mini donuts!!! So much more than that to see - All kinds of things about wildlife, conservation, hunting, boating, watersports, fishing, archery......

I ran into an old friend - in fact a friend of Vals, Bobbie - so it was nice to say hello to her!

The building work at Northlands is amazing and it changes there every time we go - it is going to be HUGE!!!! :)

Welcome back!

Welcome back safely to Edmonton Tess and Ryan.....after a HORRIBLE journey through the mountains in snow and fog and on horrible roads.....I'm so glad you made it home safe and sound!!

English Coastal Scenery....

Pictures from the English Dorset Coast....