Love my yard!

I so love my yard. Even with the wonderful, warm, season over, there is always so much to love in my yard. I miss all the colour of the garden, and getting out to tend to it in the sunshine, but the view can still be spectacular from time to time. This morning was a very busy one in the yard, and I just thought I would share some of my photos of this morning with you! Hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

The Gold Finches frequent my yard, and altogether I have seen 3 couples feeding on my Cosmos along with plenty of babies! I love this sight!

Blue Jays are no stranger to my yard!

They have the most beautiful and striking colour and I love to listen to them as they 'warble' with happiness when the peanuts are plenty for the eating! I love to watch them sit in the lilac tree and watching them gobble up peanuts can be quite entertaining!



This little Red Headed Woodpecker is the most comically of the fine feathered friends that come and visit in my yard. Watching them eat the peanuts and sunflower seeds is delightful. They work so very hard pecking away and getting their fill. I love watching him fly into the tree and peck away at the sunflower seeds to break it open! Such a wonderful delight to see in the morning!



Mama and Papa Cardinal.....simply beautiful! They jump from branch to branch in the lilac tree making sure that it is safe to get in on the seeds! I love how papa will watch out for mama while she eats. He is never far from her at all. I love when he gets the seeds and feeds her! Such a beautiful site to see!

Now this last feathered friend was quite the surprise this morning! I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this magnificent creature sitting on the top of the tree. I thought I was 'seeing' things! By the time I had grabbed my camera, he was getting ready to fly away, but I managed to capture this wonderful shot just in time! I so love nature and the joy it can bring! Even nicer when it is right in your very own backyard!

Hamilton Wingfest

It is evident that festival season has begun in the Hammer, and I am loving every bit of it!!! I look forward to festival season every year and it really couldn't have started at a better time for me!Last night was the opening of Hamilton's Wingfest, and Kim Mitchell was playing. I was so jazzed up and raring to go for last night. I really was looking forward to having a great night out to have fun, and the weather was even good for it. Thankfully, Mother Nature decided to be nice, and although the clouds started to roll in, we weren't blessed with any rain at all!!!!

We headed down to the festival a little early and were able to catch a great new band from Toronto on stage. They have a pretty good sound, and they are brothers. If you get a chance you should check them out here at Fairchild. They were the band that performed right before Kim went on stage.

Just prior to Kim starting, I was standing there and I got a text. I thought it might have been my sister asking me if I was there, but it was my good friend T!!!! She was telling me to have a great time and that I did! I even called her and told her to listen, but we had a bad connection...LOL. She probably thought I had too much to drink or that I really just had rocks in my head, but I am sure she still loves me anyways!!!! After all it was a WILD PARTY and I was in ROCKLAND WONDERLAND, with PATIO LANTERNS!!!! :)


Anyways, just wanted to share some of the photos from last night's concert! It was amazing and Kim NEVER disappoints! I was just so happy to have gotten out of the house and have such a fun time as this has been a pretty frazzling week for me, and well, I just needed to relax, unwind and just think about ME for a change! It felt GREAT!!!!

Walking with Dinosaurs

Yesterday we attended the Walking with Dinosaurs show at Copps Colliseum. The show was fantastic and the dinosaurs so realistic! These gigantic creatures were made to life size and moved around the arena as if they were alive. To experience this amazing show was one that I am glad I didn't miss.

What can I say about the show? To begin with I must admit that I wasn't entirely sure what it was going to be all about. There was one man on the arena floor who was the narrator, telling us the story of the dinosaurs through the eyes of a Paleontologist. He walks around the arena, amongst the dinosaurs as he tells their story.


The narrative is very educational and yet not boring at all. There are lots of great pieces of information that take you through all 3 ages of dinosaurs, being that of Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous. As the story is told, you learn more about different species of dinosaur and what it would have been like for it to walk the earth. You learn about their size, what they ate and who their enemies were.Although I studied dinosaurs as a child, I was still very fascinated with the show. It really brought to light what life on earth before man would have been like. To see these creatures roaming the floor, brought a realization that we are lucky they do not still exist. They certainly are a fascinating creature, and to have managed to survive through the different changes the earth had taken, simply is amazing.



If you ever get the chance to see this show, I would recommend it. Children of all ages will love it!

Summer Shutterbug Challenge

Well it is beginning to feel like summer has already arrived here in Ontario, although it has been quite wet this past week. I have been loving the sun and warmer temperatures and getting this early taste of the summer season.

With summer comes many opportunities for photo ops and that will lead to even more creations down the road. Summer means getting outdoors more, spending quality time with family and friends and making lots of new memories.

At Scraptures, we have 3 different Shutterbug challenges on the go for the summer months. I love the idea of these challenges to help in the pursuit of new photos. One of these challenges is the Summer Shutterbug challenge. For this challenge a list of 100 different photos has been posted. We have been asked to take as many of these photos as we can, from now, until the end of August. Each one listed is just a word. We are told we can interpret them the way we see fit, and this is going to really allow us to think beyond the lense.

I have printed off the list and have already begun to take those photos. I am so looking forward to seeing how many of these I can get done, and will definitely have lots of great fun creating my pages using my new photos.

This photo was taken for #6 Nature. I love the softness of the plant life with the ladybug on the branch.



This is for #12 Floral. This yellow rose was planted in my back garden as a memorial for my Mother. Yellow roses were her favourite.

This photo was taken for #18 Made of Wood. This is a tree trunk that is in the Arboretum in Hamilton, Ontario. It reminds me of Grandmother Willow in Disney's Pochahontas.


This photo was taken for #60 Strength. This is Webster's Falls. The strength of water.....



Stay tuned for more photos from this challenge and some from some of the others. I am hoping to get lots of new photos to scrap this summer and can't wait to begin going on all of those adventures!!!

Mary, Mary, quite contrary

How does your garden grow? Well my garden has really started to explode over the past week and the blooms are all a plenty! Today's weather was absolutely gorgeous, the sun was shining, and the temperatures were so summer like! It is time to embrace it while you can, because they are calling for rain during the first long weekend of the season. Here is a small peek into my garden, which is one of my 'other' passions!

My bearded Iris is one of the focal point in my yard and I just love the colour of these! Below are the Martha Barlow Columbine and Clematis. I just love the poofy floral heads on these Columbine. They are a tall and slender plant and they have the prettiest little blooms. The bees love these and I so love being amongst the nature in my very own backyard. The Clematis grows up a pole that is in my yard that was put there by the previous owner. They used to grow grapes, but instead of trying to remove the poll, I decided to utilize it.


My Miniature Iris look so pretty and have really multiplied over the years. I just love these for their shape and their colour. Lots of fun inspiration comes from walking through my garden. It is no wonder that I love floral patterns and beautiful fresh colours in scrapping. My chives are in bloom and I can' t wait until I can harvest it and use it in my cooking and summer salads! Nothing any better than fresh herbs when you are cooking!

Well I hope you have liked taking a small tour of my garden, and perhaps these photos can also inspire you! Hard to believe that when we bought the house there was no fence and the entire backyard was cement! It has been a lot of work, but it has so been worth it! I will try and share more photos as more things begin to bloom and I will get some over view shots as well! This is something on my TO DO list:)

Organizing and purging

Spring has arrived and with Spring, comes cleaning! Spring cleaning is something that happens every year at my house (sometimes even twice), and my scrap room is no different. As I get into my room more often to create just for me, I have found that I need to purge and organize everything again. It truly seems that it is a never ending story, but that is what happens in a world where there are so many goodies to temp us and we fall weak in the knees over all of the new fun stuff that comes out. With CHA being held twice a year, it is so hard to keep up with things and that just means twice as much trouble when trying to store everything!

Although I have gotten a good start on things, it is a very long process. There is so much in my little room, that I don't want to leave any nook or cranny unturned. One of the biggest jobs for me is card stock and pattern paper. I decided that it was time to tackle the card stock first, so that I could find out what colours I was in need of and see what I already had at a glimpse.



My file box is the perfect place for card stock. It allows me to have everything divided into folders by colour families, and then indivdually by colour tones. It is amazing how much of certain colours we find we have, once we start to sort it all out! I can't even move the folders in the drawer, so I know that I had better get a good move on things and get some of those projects created that are in my head.

Next I will have to tackle the pattern paper, but in order to do that I need a good couple of days. Right now, there is too much creating to be done, and I don't want to take the time to sort more paper. This is an on going project for me, so stay tuned in the weeks to come to see what progress I have made! Hopefully along the way I will get some purging done as well, and find a little extra room. (if there is such a thing)

Imaginisce and Tombow

In March, Tombow and Imaginisce teamed up for a great week of creative inspiration on both of their blogs. On March 29, 2010, I received an email from Joanna Wallace @Tombow that I had been selected as a winner from their blog for a prize package from Imaginisce. I was so excited and have been waiting with great anticipation for my package to arrive.

Well, today was the day! OMG, let me just tell you that it always feels to good to get a package in the mail, but this package is extraordinary, to say the least. My package contains so many goodies and all of it from the Imaginisce To Love and Cherish collection. This stuff looks beautiful online, but it doesn't compare to actually seeing it first hand. This set is absolutely GORGEOUS!!! It is a stunning black and white collection with such a classy feel to it. The flowers are beautiful and some have patterns on them, the ribbon is elegant, the rub-ons have the most beautiful scroll writing on them and the stickers have such class appeal! Then there are the stamps!!! They have such a WOW factor to them and although they are simple designs, I can see them being used in so many ways, with so many colours!!! There are flowers, journal blocks and my favourite, the scroll work!

I can't wait to get creating with this stunning collection and have truly been inspired by the Design Team on the Imaginisce blog. They always do such beautiful work! Thanks ladies!

Thank you to Tombow and Imaginisce for such a wonderful prize package! You certainly do know how to make it a happy mail day!!!

Look what's popping up

Well the weather is absolutely beautiful and the sun is shining and my garden is quite happy about that. I love this time of year, when the birds are singing, busy making their nests, squirrels are scampering through the yard, and the flowers are popping up all over the place. It is a nice time to reflect about all of the new and wonderful things the new year holds in store for us.

Here is what is popping up today in my yard:

Shutterbug Challenge March 29-April 4

Well, T, has been at it again! This week she has us taking pictures from the kitchen!

Since I was late with last week's challenge, I decided that I had better get this one done on time! Some of the gals have taken their photos already, and everyone's vary. We have had cakes, appliances, and of course, I had to be different with mine (AGAIN)

My photo is of something that just sits there, but brings me much joy! It is something that always brings a smile to my face and constantly reminds me of my childhood.

So here we have it, from my kitchen:

Spring's arrival

Well, today's weather is absolutely perfect, with the sun shining bright! The air is a bit cool, but the sun feels warm and the rest of this week is suppose to be gorgeous! I took the opportunity today to get out in the yard and start with the major clean up that is needed, so that all the new growth can breathe and flourish. Everything is popping out of the ground already, and there are even some blooms out there. Such a nice start to the season, and it can only getting better from here on in.
Recently at Scraptures, T has started a Shutterbug Challenge, and although I missed getting mine done last week, when she posted it, I did it today! I figure I had better get better at doing this, as she has already posted another one for this week. The challenge was to take a photo from a bird's eye view. So after being out in the yard and looking down at the beautiful flowers, I
decided that that is what I would take my photo of. (I took 3)