Where does the time go.....

Already at the May long weekend here!  The time has flown so fast it seems. My Dad has only 9 more days of work left then he is officially retired.  He is then moving down to Langley, to his wonderful suite at my sister's house, which is right down the road from my little rental suite too.

I haven't updated much and won't be for a bit due to lack of internet/cable at home.  After being unemployed and job hunting for much longer than I had anticipated, it has been hard to play catch up with all my bills and keep food on the table. So unfortunately I could only catch up on the cell phone bills this month :( But I need that more for work than anything else as I have to call in the minute I arrive at a store to start my merchandising.  It's very difficult not having internet as I use my computer for so many aspects of my life, my art class I just signed up for, sharing my cards that I try to sell to help make ends meet, my photography stuff. It's so strange how dependent so many things I love are on the internet. But it has brought me into contact with so many amazing artists and people that I am very grateful for that.

I am working now and have pretty good hours, but trying to catch up on my bills when so many other things need my money is stressful. I also need a more reliable car as my job is dependent on my having a vehicle as well. I merchandise books and mags in a number of different stores and need to be able to get to all of them. So that adds to my list of stressful things, also I'd really like to be able to afford a new bed lol I am getting too old to sleep on a too short (even for me!) love seat or an air mattress. But all things in time and I know that things are getting better slowly, it's just frustrating to keep struggling right now.

Not too many adventures lately as my son has been working overtime, which is great for him. So hopefully next week end we get to get out and do something. I enjoy the Sunday afternoons with my grown kids, it's nice to just get out and see something new and spend some time just being together, not talking about bills, rent, jobs etc.

I made some cards this week for a card exchange I'm in.

 Also had a nice Mother's Day with my kids and then dinner at my sister's house. It was the first one without my Mom so some moments were making me teary and the weeks up to Mother's Day had me emotional as well as I saw all the Mother's Day ads and cards and everyone getting cards etc. I know it's only the first one but was so sad not making a interesting new project to give my Mom for her special day and making her a card etc.

But my kids were good to me, my daughter made me a card using some of my fave things, purple, flip flops and Mickey Mouse :)

Beautiful flowers from my son. He was up early and went out and got me all the purple flowers the store he was at had, then came home woke me up and put on the coffee :)

The month has been going by so quickly, yet at times has felt like it was dragging. I miss having my internet, the cable not as much as I thought, except missing all the season finales of my fave shows lol
I brought my laptop and printer down to my sister's to use her internet to download and print all my work plano's and info that I needed, so thought I'd use the time to update here too! Hopefully I won't be gone too long and will update when I can, I am hoping to get everything back up soon so I can really make a good informative daily blog post about artists, classes, supplies and really get into my classes etc.

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful week!! :)

Hello May.....

Wow! Another month has wrapped up and May has begun. Time seems to be flying, yet going by so slowly all at the same time.
The last few months have been full of changes, big and small, good and bad, ups and downs. I am grateful for so many things, but mostly just for being closer to my family, especially my little nephews.
So last weekend, my kids and I, ventured out to a British Car Show out in Fort Langley, BC.  There were some really cool cars out there, loved the really vintage looking ones. And the double decker bus was very cool to see. My daughter got up and wandered up to the top but I missed out on that part, I was busy taking pictures as usual! :)

Got a lot of shots of the great little MGB's a few different styles. It's my Dad's dream car, I remember him talking about having a MGB one day. Maybe now that he's retiring it might be something he can look into, having a project to work on would be fun for him I think.

So I am attempting to blog every day this month. Last month I was not very successful with it but I am going to give it a try again. I'm Blogging Along with Effy Wild, she is such an inspiration and you should really check out her blog and her art. So amazing!!

I haven't had much time for creating and making :( But I hope I get some more time on the weekend, I just wish I wasn't so tired after work (merchandising books and magazines), sounds simple I know, but hauling all those boxes and bundles around all day sure takes its toll fast!! Especially the magazines! I am very grateful for the job (after job hunting for months) but wow, much more physical than I thought it would be.

Well off for the night, see you all tomorrow. Have a wonderful Friday everyone!!

Has it really been two weeks?!

Wow!! Time sure does fly and some of it was fun!

We did Easter a day early because my sis and bro-in-law were going on a trip on their own, no kids. We colored eggs on Friday night and it was so much fun having little ones around to color eggs again. Although my grown kids colored eggs and so did the rest of the adults too. Egg decorating is some serious business in our family.

My daughter using the dip technique to get multi colored layers

My son did one egg with his fave band and it turned out great

You know shit just got serious when Dad puts on his glasses to decorate eggs!! LOL

 It was also another first.....our first Easter without my Mom. I found it very hard as I have with all the other "firsts" we've already gone through. I pulled out the cups that we used as kids and that my kids used for eons to color eggs and took them over for my sister's boys. They are only 6 and 2 so the Easter egg dyeing cups will get a few more years of use and that makes me happy.

Can you tell which one is used for the blue dye every year?! haha

Getting the dye ready and using Mom's old china cups ♥

Then on Saturday night we had a big dinner with family and my sis made the potato salad that Mom always made for Easter, I made the rice salad she used to make and Dad did alot of "Remember when..." and teared up a few times. But he did okay and then spent the following week looking after his little grandsons while their folks were having some time away.

Dad has gone back to PG and to give his notice this week. He is finally retiring at the end of May and moving down here, so it will be good to have him close to all of us.

Last week was busy busy with work and aches and pains but it seemed to fly by and my evenings were just gone with napping and lounging. Not terribly productive last week, but I'm hopefull this week will be a better one.

The weekend just past, my kids and I continued our "Sunday Afternoon Adventures" and went to a great little British Car Show in Fort Langley. I'll add pics of that tomorrow evening :)

Hope you all have had a wonderful start to a wonderful week!! And for all things glittery and creative, please go and check out Effy Wild's April Blog Along post, she is truly such an inspiration on so many levels

Almost Easter time....and Blogging Along with Effy

What a nice relaxing weekend spent with family. Well Friday evening was spent making some new friends at a Stamp n Swap evening hosted by Anne Sanderson, a Stampin' Up! demonstrator just a few minutes away from me. It was nice to stamp and visit with other crafters, haven't done that since I moved here.

Saturday was spent helping my sister in her garden, yes I actually did some gardening! And got to spend time with my nephews, which is super important to me. And thanks to the swap part of the night before, I was able to have a few dollars in my wallet and I got to treat my nephews to a treat from the ice cream truck that came through the neighborhood. Doesn't sound like a big deal to most I'm sure, but to me, it was a very big deal to be able to get those wonderful little guys a treat from Auntie. Then my kids joined us and we had dinner with family and played some card game called "Spoons", new game to us but I see it being a dangerous game if it was all adults and alcohol was involved lol It was a very good day with some of my favorite people.

Sponge Bob Ice Cream and a Snowcone

Sunday was spent adventuring with my kids.  I am very lucky that my son likes to drive a lot, makes adventuring more fun because I do not love driving into the busy city or anywhere I don't know.  But we google mapped the route and headed off to a little area my sister mentioned called Deep Cove.  What a cute little neighborhood! And right on the water! Strolled down through the little park, by the yacht club and then up the little main street that had a great little coffee shop for us to try out.

Nothing too exciting, but a good weekend. I didn't create anything this weekend, except a couple little projects on Friday night, so I best get back to that this week. Have two cards going out for a monthly swap I signed up for, want to get a card made for my son's bff, pretty much my other son and get that in the mail too.

I am glad that we kept busy on Sunday since it was the 13th and it was 8 months ago on August 13 that we lost our Mom, very suddenly and unexpectedly. I still miss her everyday, and I'll probably mention her alot on my blog, she was such a huge part of my life and my kids too. I can't believe we are coming up on another holiday and she won't be here with us, I know that it's real, I was with her at the end, but it still seems so surreal that my Mom is gone.  I see all the ads for Mother's Day stuff and things like that, and I pinned a few things thinking ohh Mom would love that for Mother's Day.....then it sinks in, she's not here. This Mother's Day, I won't have a Mom. Do the rest of the the days get easier to handle? Or is every Mother's Day going to be this hard?

My beautiful Mom on her 64th birthday, just a few weeks before she was gone ♥

Well I think it is time to go check on the moon and see what's happening, wonder if the eclipse is noticeable yet. Thanks to Effy Wild and her Blog Along posts for inspiring me to get posting, I have missed a few days but I have made it for more than I thought I would!! :)

Have a great night everyone!

Be Positive

It is something I need to work on every day!! Things have been a struggle for awhile and I need to work on thinking positively on a daily basis. And I need to consciously make the the effort to stay positive. Even if it is only a baby step forward, it is still a step forward.

I think it is time for changes, small, large and all sizes in between. I am going to work on a vision board for myself and put on there the things that I want in my life, I have put it off for months but I think it's time to get to it. I signed up for a card exchange and I haven't done anything like that in years, so it is a positive step to being creative on a regular basis! I have a small girls night of stamping and swapping coming up, yup just found a demo in my area and contacted her and signed right up!! And that is out of the norm for me since I don't usually do things like that unless I know someone!

And this time next year I am going to be part of a couple of online art classes that I have been following and reading blogs from the various instructors, that is my creative goal that I am working towards. Maybe even by summer I'll be doing some classes with amazing teachers like Effy Wild or Suzi Blu These are just amazing talented ladies and I just love what they do, how they relate to all of us and how accessible they are to learn from. Definitely on my bucket list going to do list because it's something I love and want to learn!

And today I went and got all my hair chopped off and dyed it back to a darker brown color. I will post pics of the new do soon, but right now I have an infection in my mouth and my jaw is swollen up to the size of a large orange..lol I'd rather not have pics taken right now. But I went from having hair almost all one length and to the middle of my shoulders at the back to having it chopped, layered, thinned and now doesn't even touch my collar in the back. Big change but I think I like it! :)

No pics to add tonight, but tomorrow I will as I've finished a couple of small mixed media canvasses and I have pics of my cards for my card exchange.

Have a great night all