Me On A Monday - February 18th

Hello Everyone.  It's Family Day here in Ontario - a holiday.  Family Day isn't an old holiday & it was mostly designed to give us a break between the New Year & Easter breaks, although not all provinces & territories celebrate or if they do, not on the same day.

So what have I been up to?  Well most of my activities are all indoor varieties. I will claim the weather to be mostly at fault for that.  Ten days of snow/ice storms  does take a toll.  Getting out for fresh air has been difficult with so much ice underfoot.

Our front window coated in ice

I did not see my shadow on the 2nd - Ground Hog Day, so according to legend, an early spring, but I am sure that rather large rodent, Wiarton Willie tells tales.  Again the forecast for the week is calling for a few days of more snow ... in the words of the great philosopher, Poo - oh bother!

Add caption

Reading:  I've read "There There"by Tommy Orange,  which was a difficult book to read so it took me a while to finish. It tells the story of twelve characters from North American First Nations, each of whom have private reasons for traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow.  All 12 have difficult memories & stories that tell of prejudice towards First Nations.  I am still sitting with it so I am not sure I liked or didn't like.

I also read "The Diary of A Bookseller" by Shaun Bythell.  He owns The Bookshop, in Wigtown - Scotland's largest second hand bookshop. I found it an easy read, it flowed quite nicely but I must admit I was not keen on his dumpster diving shop assistant, Nicky.

Scrapping:  I vowed to myself at the start of the year I would keep track of the month by numbers & so far I'm true to my word.  I even created a page for January "A Month of Numbers" 

I also created a page for the garden album's January page.

And I finally got around to making the title page for our 2019 Day to Day album;

Cards:  I missed the January class because of my piriformis injury, but I did attend February's class & made these 4 cards, along one special birthday card for a lady at our church turning 75:

At home I made a couple of Valentine Day's cards

It's amazing what can be done when not wandering through Pinterest for hours on end.

Hope everyone has a delightful week & I leave you with a mash up of several quotes all rolled into one thought;

“Hard work keeps the wrinkles out of the mind and spirit.” “If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you'll never get it done.” “It's not knowing what to do, it's doing what you know.” “Someday is not a day of the week.”
 

Take Three Thursday - Of The Heart

In an effort to notice more of the ordinary in my life, I have decided to share what I have noticed this week in Take Three Thursday.   The idea is to take 1 - 3 photos that are linked some how; by theme, by colour, by date, by moment,  by points of view. There is no formal link in but please feel free to join in.   What have you noticed this week?  

Please have a peek at what others are noticing this week:
Melissa at: Bits & Pieces 
Mrs Wookie at: Mrs Wookies Wanderings
Alexa at: Trimming The Sails    
Karen at: Random Reflections

This week my noticing are all about affairs of the heart,  because today is Valentines Day.  I am a great believer in love & not that love conquers all, but that traveling through life with love makes the journey hopefully sweeter.  In my opinion, that traveling doesn't necessarily have to be with another of our own kind, but even with the love of 4 legs & fur ...

Over the years I have collected, mostly for the PSHs, heart shapes, so today I share three of those.

A stone/rock in the shape of a heart

 

How I put bird seed out for my feathered friends

A potato in the shape of a heart

"Love is Love, it can never be explained"

Taking Care Of The Business of Me

I'm taking a little break - I'll be back later in the month.

Take Three Thursday - WPSH Link In

In an effort to notice more of the ordinary in my life, I have decided to share what I have noticed this week in Take Three Thursday.   The idea is to take 1 - 3 photos that are linked some how; by theme, by colour, by date, by moment,  by points of view. There is no formal link in but please feel free to join in.   What have you noticed this week?  

My three has grown to 4 as this week my finds are part of the WPSH - see link in at 

Eileen's:A Bracelet of Days

The List:

1. At the end of the day
2. Pool of light
3. Fastener
4. Nail
5. A group activity
6. Water dispenser
7. Horse
8. Chocolate
9. Peel/peeling
10. Holly
11. Dressed for the season
12. Glitter
13. An instruction
14. A crossing place
15. Flight
16. A measurement
17. Orange
18. A natural feature
19. A carved object
20. A method of communication

If you find any of the above hard to get you may substitute one or both of the subjects below.

Alt A. A keyring  
Alt B. Show and tell - something you made 

 
 # 5 Group Activity:  from our village's Farmer's Parade of Lights

#11 Dressed For the Season:  Many shrubs get wrapped up to prevent drying out from the winter winds & protection against the salt spray from the road way.

 #13 An Instruction  - in this day & time I'm So surprised that someone in the proofing department didn't catch & request a re-write. Instructions of  Shooting Children it's my submission for #13 

 And The Fourth entry of Take Three

  #8 Chocolate.  This was a gift from my previous boss at the clinic.  It was the first time ever he has given me a Christmas gift.  I like the ceramic three tier tray (perfect for my at home tea parties) much more than the chocolate; I'm not a fan of Godiva chocolates or dark chocolate.

 

Me On Monday - January 28th

"Winter is on my head, but eternal spring is in my heart..."  Victor Hugo (hope dream giftbook)

It's been a very uneventful week.  Too cold, icy & windy to walk outside; in plain speak, it's January in southern Ontario. Other than to church I haven't driven anywhere.  Mr Man & I did run some errands together into the near to us city for groceries but our timing was between snow events.  We have been blasted with lots of snow days, plunging temperatures, some nights with the wind chill factored in -32 (c). We are "bracing" for a "major" snow storm scheduled to arrived Monday afternoon into Tuesday morning.   I am baffled by the language used by the news reporting on the weather - it's all so disastrous & catastrophic.

As of right now I'm reading a trilogy of books, loaned to me by the lady I cat sit for; The Muskoka Novels by Gabriele Wills. 

Muskoka is an area north east of where I live & it's a well known area of cottages & lakes.  From Wikipedia; Muskoka is a summer destination for Toronto residents and was the #1 most searched Canadian destination for vacation rentals in 2017^[3]. The Muskoka region was also ranked #1 for best trips of 2011 by National Geographic, and was a finalist for the same distinction in 2012.  Several Hollywood stars have large "cottages" in the region; Tom Hanks, Goldie Hawn & Kurt Russell & Steven Spielberg.

As of right now I'm making slow progress on my sort of scrapping stuff.  I read in one of my minimalism books, that organizing & sorting of stuff while makes things tidy, it still isn't addressing the problem of too much stuff.  I need to ponder that one a little more. But for now the non seasonal related papers are organized by colour group into 12X12 plastic containers which are then inside the wire storage drawers.

I found in my sorting of crafting stuff, a die cut set of hearts I have but obviously never used because I did not know it contained a banner or border edge - it's like shopping in my own stash.  So I was (easily) distracted & made up a quick & simple Valentine's Day card using the border edge. 

Last week I received some very happy mail - always grateful for online blogging friends.  What a great project Ruth has undertaken, a year of thanking.  You can read about Ruth's project here:  This West London Life

As of right now, there's no new job looming, no prospects in the fire but I'm told not to be discouraged, it's the time of year, projects are just gearing up again after the Christmas break.



"some small courtesy may restore someone's faith in humankind. Thank goodness for kindly & cheerful ladies at the checkout."
 ... a bit of a paraphrase Charlotte Gray (smile giftbook) 
   ... and may I add thank goodness for blogging friends.

Take Three Thursday - Marking Time

In an effort to notice more of the ordinary in my life, I have decided to share what I have noticed this week in Take Three Thursday.   The idea is to take 1 - 3 photos that are linked some how; by theme, by colour, by date, by moment,  by points of view. There is no formal link in but please feel free to join in.   What have you noticed this week?  

Please have a peek at what others have found this week:
Melissa at: Bits & Pieces 
Mrs Wookie at: Mrs Wookies Wanderings
Alexa at: Trimming The Sails  
Karen at: Random Reflections

This week what I've noticed has much to do with my 2019 goals; my discovery of a new way of setting goals, especially around my scrapping & storytelling style & methods.

While I am looking forward, I thought it would be interesting if not helpful to maybe have a look back on how I kept notes about the weather as my gardening scrapbooking is what I do most of.  I've been keeping notes about weather since high school because of a geography project.  By the way I scored a very high mark for my completed project.

What I noticed about my early weather calendars was the sense of fun & play about them, even in recording winter months or maybe because of winter.  I do know that I would find a sticker sheet & use it, no saving or stashing, no buy extra just in case.  Then as I review my current calendars I noticed a lessening of product use & definitely a lessening of play & fun on my page.

So my threesome to day is a look back, plus it also serves (me) with a reminder of returning to play, fun & using the stuff I have.  I haven't yet put together 2019 January's calendar page but you can be sure there will be a return to a sense of play in recording the month's weather.   Also to note, it was fun to look back to see how if any the weather patterns have changed.  Oh & these pages are not part of my school project, like so much from my youth, nothing was saved.

The first page is from 2004, the second is from 2005 & the third is from 2013

And yes I did have a quick thought "oh I wish I had bought two of those snowmen dies & sticker sheets because I would use them now " (would I though ?).

"wake up with a smile, go after life, live it, enjoy it, taste it, smell it, feel it."  Joe Knapp from  hope dream giftbook

Me On A Monday

Currently: I am in recovery mode.  I spent most of last week laid up with a painful injury & taking lots of pain & anti-inflammatory medication.  If I missed visiting your blog, I apologize, sometimes the pain was a little more than I was comfortable with. Sometimes with lots of medication I may not have been at my best to make comments! Most days I had a narrow window of being upright as sitting impossible, standing painful.  But I'm much better now.  So, let's begin again...

Currently Reading:  The More Of  Less & New Minimalism.

 Design Your Next Chapter, by Debbie Travis, a decorating icon in Canada, who now owns a retreat centre in Tuscany Italy.

 What Alice Forgot;

I read Designing Your Next Chapter first as it was an inter library loan & it needed to be returned within 10 days of pick up.  The book that has surprised me the most is the New Minimalism.  It was a second choice to fill a question but turns out, very well presented with lots of nice photos.  These two ladies have, I think, blended very nicely several of the latest & previous styles of de-cluttering & minimizing your belongings.  It read quite easily & flowed in thought.  They write as if talking to friends  I picked up several ideas & quotes.  I'm just starting What Alice Forgot.

Current Weather: we are in a January deep freeze with wind chill temperatures of -28 (c) - this type of cold can cause frost bite within 5 minutes of exposure.  I think my St Fiacre statue (parton saint of gardeners) was shivering in the cold.

Currently Thinking: a lot & reading on how to set goals for myself, & for our little family in 2019. Trying to include my OLW into this.

I recently read someone's blog post about setting goals & it was like a shock going through me when I said aloud "ah ha, that's what is missing from my to do goal list"  This person, who's blog is not one I have read before this post, & here's the sad part, I cannot remember who's blog it was on!   This brilliant, yet ever so so simple idea was that she posted her list with a goal intention of why she was putting the item on her 2019 to do list. So right now I can only send out my thanks via The Universe to her for this brilliant, usable & simple idea.  So I have now listed an intention with all of my nine goals for 2019 (I did try to come up with 19 goals but 9 are reasonable & doable).

Currently Putting Knowledge Into Action:  Previously I would put on my goal list something like "use up scrapping stash" or "sort scrapping stash" with out stating (or maybe even really thinking about) the result I was looking for.  No specifics, no time line, no steps needed to achieve the goal. Just some loose goal - use up stash ...  So now my 2019 list has the goal with a stated end result intention I'm looking for, along with at least 3 steps to achieve.

Sketch Stash

Example: Reduce Scrapping Stash: Intention: the goal is to reduce the amount of paper storage I require.  To feel less guilty about the amount of money I have spent. To use the products to make the pages that I took those photos for.  Step One: Make Up Page Kits From Stash: I plan to make 12 page kits from the stash for my garden album by end of March. I have made two so far;  injury (life) got in the way of goals (plans).  Step 1a:  is to sort paper into season; i.e. snowy related product; colour co-ordinate; local / sort embellishments; Step 1b: put in 12X12 sleeves with photos or list of photos needed. Step 1c:  Pick 1 or 2 sketch layout for each month which allows variance & idea of how to lay out papers, embellishments & photos. 

For January

For February

I am definitely using my OLW of Focus on this goal, which ties in with my January Angel Thought of  Surrender & Release.  I'm releasing the old way of doing goals, I'm surrendering the fear of using that special paper in case one day I find a really special idea for using it.  Now is that time for special paper use on current layouts.
  
What about you - how are you doing with your 2019 goals or resolutions?  Settling in with your One Little Word?

"Every morning is a new beginning, a chance to try again, to start over."