Fav fall pic

Since the weather here has been so terribly rainy and just plain YUCK, I needed a fall pick me up. So I thought I would post my favourite fall pic. I took this when me and my husband went on our honeymoon in Algonquin Park in northern Ontario. Please keep in mind that this picture was taken in August, but that's apparently when things start to change there. I saw this singular leaf laying in between the rocks and the colour just stopped me in my tracks. Happy yucky rainy day to all!

I didn't realize how long it had been since I had been on here!!! Guilt has set in, and I am back! The original reason for my hiatus was the big move, but since that was way back in AprilI now have no excuse. So to start things off I have something amazing to share and it comes in the form of FOOD! We went on our annual trip to the apple orchard last week and it was a blast as usual! This time Lincoln was old enough to actually pick the apples and he went nuts. And I am so surprised that he didn't have a huge stomach ache because he ate upwards of 4 apples before we left the orchard! We ended up leaving with 22 pounds in total (which is the smallest amount I have ever picked) and now I am scrambling for recipes for anything apple. I came across this recipe for apple cinnamon bread and after I changed a few things I came up with, well, heaven! So here it is:

APPLE CINNAMON BREAD

1/2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 extra large eggs

1/2 cup brown sugar

2/3 melted margarine

3 medium apples

1/2 cup chopped pecans

- Set rack in the middle of the oven and preheat oven to 350. Grease a loaf pan - set aside.

- Combine flour, baking soda, and cinnamon in a bowl and mix well to combine. Set aside

- In a separate bowl whisk the eggs and sugar until eggs are broken apart. Add the melted margarine and mix until just combined.

- Quickly peel and grate the apples (and when I say quickly I mean quickly! I took my time and they ended up brown. When you grate the apples smaller they turn brown before you know it!) into a shallow bowl - there should be about 2 cups of grated apple.

- Fold in the flour mixture into the egg mixture then fold in the apples and pecans.

- Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with the back of a spatula. Bake until the bread has risen and a toothpick comes out clean - about 35-40 minutes.

- Cool the bread in the pan for 5 minutes then take it out of the pan to cool on a wire rack. Slice and serve with butter.

A moms idea of a vacation

This is my absolute favourite journal page so far!! And it's funny how it's about one of my favourite days in a long time. I needed a day to myself so my wonderful husband watched the kids so that I could take off and go to a coffee shop for the afternoon. I sat and drank and amazing cup of coffee, ate a yummy wrap and bowl of soup and just read. For some reason sitting in a public place has always given me anxiety. I always thought that people were looking at me and wondering why I was alone. Now that I'm a mom I don't care what people think... I'm just happy that I had time by myself!! I ended up getting quite far in my book (Eat, Pray, Love) too. Funny how in the book she talks about American's inability to just sit and enjoy doing nothing. Technically I wasn't doing nothing, but I was doing something just for me for the pleasure of it!

Food for thought...

First of all, yes I deserve the worst blogger in the world award! I've done nothing on here because all my spare time has been spent closing house deals, painting the new house, packing the current house and tomorrow I go back to work. I've done some creating but haven't posted it. So my goal is to update over the next few weeks.

To start: Here's some food for thought! The first was the result of a spaghetti dinner.

The second: A celery flower!!

During this whole journal process one of the things I wanted to do most was wreck the cover. There's just something about it that seemed so wrong but so right. I've always been about taking good care of books so that they didn't discolour, rip, get pages bent, etc. I was so desperate to channel my inner 'rebel' and make the cover of this book my own... but I wasn't ready. Whatever I decided to do on the cover I knew it had to be amazing but I still had so many control issues. Having done over a quarter of the book now I knew I was ready... This is it!! And I have to say I think it's pretty amazing!

Exploring technique

This page I dedicated mostly to trying out some new techniques. It's called "Happy Accidents of the Audio Appendages". My mom said one thing and my ears hear something COMPLETELY different! I ended up laughing so hard that I was crying like a baby and people were looking at me like I belonged in a "special" hospital. Anyway I painted a basic dark background and then went over it quickly with a lighter colour to give it some depth.

After that was dry I added the light swirl for the title and date. Then, by another happy accident, I dropped some water on the page and when I went to wipe it off there were these neat looking water marks! So I added some more water and went to town lol

Then in this picture you can see the circles....... recycling!! I lightly painted on some small bubble wrap (let me tell you it was incredibly difficult to keep Laney from popping every single one!) and pressed down on the page. Finally, after all the painting was done I drew on the flourishes with a black fine tip Sharpie marker.

Hours of work but I am SO proud of these!

Along with some inspiration from another art journal blog (Daisy Yellow) this page came to life. I saw something like this on the blog and decided to do a project with Laney. I drew a bunch of squares on a piece of paper and told her to just make some designs. She was having a rough go of it so I did a few just to show her. Then I decided that my squares looked so neat that I would do an entire page. A few HOURS later I was finished! This first picture is after I just did the black outline with a thin Sharpie.

This second picture is when it's all finished. I thought that filling in all the little doodles with a thin marker would be easy... boy was I wrong! Although it was easy to keep in the lines it took so much longer than anticipated. The final result made it all worth while though :)

New adventures of an art journal

So I've decided to start something new for 2011.... an art journal!! I need to document what happens on a daily basis because there are so many funny/cute/amazing things that my kids do and I can never remember them all. I always say that I'll remember but it gets so busy that I forget. So instead of just writing them down I decided to combine my love of art to make it more amazing. I started to do some research on art journals and I was just floored at the possibilities and beauty. Unfortunately I've fallen behind (yes already so this is not a good sign!) but here's what I've got so far...

BLOG GIVEAWAY!!

I don't know about you, but we are currently sitting under more than a foot of snow! I was out all afternoon shovelling and when I came in the house, all I could think of was "I MISS SUMMER!". So, I've decided to do a blog giveaway for a summer themed stamp set!! It's a clear stamp set from Bella BLVD that contains 7 small stamps. This set it SUPER cute! And how do you win you ask? Simple! All you have to do is comment on this post and tell me your favourite thing about summer! Don't forget to add your email at the end of your post. The winner will be chosen on January 31st. Good luck :-)

Love is a 4 letter word

The challenge: Fill a page with 4 letter words. The bigger challenge: be a good girl and not just write down all the bad words that spill from my mouth on a daily basis! LOL In order to force myself to be a good girl I decided to cut out 4 letter words from magazines and make a collage. I also put my favourite 4 letter word on it's own page and painted with acrylics. I am in love with the fact that I have found my creativity. I stay awake till past 1am on some days just painting, drawing, writing and more, and I pay for it the next day. But when I remember what I stayed awake for it makes it all worth while

Scrappin!

YEEHAW! I actually scrapped! I got a gift certificate this christmas and got some boy papers and boy embellishments so I was prepared this time! I think it's honestly been about 6 months since I've scrapped last...... sad...... just sad

Undecided.......

I'm not quite sure what to think of this one. I finished it just last night. I started out hating it, then I loved it, and now I don't know what to think. I know that it ended up darker than what I wanted it to be, but by the time I realized how dark it was it was too late to change it. Oh well, Laney woke up this morning and said that she wanted it, so no matter what I have atleast one fan!! hehe

So far this year it's been a whole lot of chaos, TONS of laughs, and even more happiness. I actually can't count all the times that I've laughed so hard I cried and, to me, that's about the best that a person can ask for!! In a weeks time we have completely transformed our house, got it listed for sale, cleaned the house from top to bottom (and by some divine miracle it's actually stayed that way!!) and been to the wedding of my god-sister Tiffany. She's planned this day from the time that we were little girls and she looked as amazing as I always thought she would! And to make this year even better, I have also managed to find some time for myself!!! I've read a book and a half, completed a painting, 2 scrapbook pages and started an art journal. The book that I read was Room - it was fantastic! Kind of a heavy topic though. It was about a girl that was abducted at the age of 19 and was keptin captivity for 7 years. 2 years into her captivity she had a son, and this book is actually told from his point of view when he was 5. Having a 5 year old myself made it both easier to understand the way he talks but it was also harder to hear the way that he thoughtabout everything. Part way through the book they escape and it follows him into his adjustment period of living in the world he never knew existed. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone!! Now I'm also part way through the book Eat, Pray, Love. OMG this woman is my new favourite author! I just love the way that she writes. I did things backwards and actually saw the movie before I read the book and the movie made me bawl like a baby and see the world though brand new eyes. Actually the movie is what inspired me to go back to my creative roots - everyone needs some pleasure in their lives! Now I just have to find the time to take pictures of all my latest creations and get them up on here!

Happy new year!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!

Everything has a beginning right? Well this is the new beginning to the rest of my life. Sounds cheesy, I know! But the year of 2010 was such a roller coaster for me. It was the worst year of my life for sicknesses and it was also the first whole year spent without my grandpa. When he left I was still pregnant, so I couldn't grieve like I should have. I was too worried about the baby so I pushed back all my feelings to deal with on another day... but I still haven't dealt. But 2010 was also a fantastic year because we welcomed our son into the family!! He is the second light of my life and watching both him and Laney grow has been AMAZING!!! His birth was much easier than the first but dealing with 2 kids, being only one person, having only 2 hands, and NO time, was a really hard thing to adjust to. Things are much better in that department though! And 2010 also gave birth to something else... dreams. However at the end of 2010 we were taking the necessary steps to turn dreams into reality. I can't say a whole lot as far as detail, but in the last week of December we signed the purchase agreement for 2 properties including a house, large garage, and a business, and then we put our house up for sale! So now that 2011 is here we will be running around like crazy trying to see our place and get the new one. If we get the new one, this will mean a completely different life. My husband will be running his own business, we will have a much larger house, Laney will switch schools (probably next year though) and we will live just down the street and/or around the corner from almost our entire immediate family! Time will only tell how this will go, but we are determined!

So with everything that's going on, I have decided not to have a new years resolution. What I have is a resolution of sorts, but not really lol. I have decided that I will just try to be more creative. When I was younger (and had the time) my life revolved around art and creativity. When I bought the book "wreck this journal" I kind of came back to my roots. I was reminded how much I loved art and creating art, and how much my view of the world changes when I'm thinking creatively. So I vow to try harder to find the time to paint, draw, write, create, and so much more. If I don't, then I don't; sometimes life just happens. But if I do, it will be a happier me, and I think I need that!