Bucket List 2012

I really hate new year’s resolutions. It seems to be the perfect set up for failure. So I decided to do a bucket list for 2012.

I know that a bucket list is suppose to be a list of things you want to do before you die. In my case my bucket list is going to be 12 things that I hope to do/learn  by the end of the year.

So here I go in no particular order:

1. Crochet a garment with set in sleeves. I’ve been a real chicken about making anything for the family with set in sleeves. Any tops I have made have either been vests, sleeveless or the sleeves are part of the body. No seaming. For some reason set in sleeves really scare me, so I think it’s time to bite the bullet and give them a shot.  I was thinking something like this:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/pink-girls-jacket-crochet-pattern-with-flowers-and-wave-border

Would be perfect for the two littlest grands for Easter.

2. Learn tunisian crochet. I mean really learn, I didn’t realise until recently that tunisian is quite beautiful and is not only for afghans. Just take a look at this:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/tunisian-jacket-baby-sweater

How cute for new baby to be and her big brother Em. I also have another pattern that I would love to do called the Bead and Roses Coat from the Master Class Crochet book.

3.  After 3 surgeries and chemo in the past 2 years my immune system is non existent. I have a tendency to catch everything going around and ususally end up on antibiotics because my body can’t fight it on my own. So my hope this year is to build my system back up.

4.  To tie in with the above my stamina sucks big time. Walking is still painful for any length of time and I’m ususally exhausted after 15 or 20 mins. I think the treadmill is going to be put back to work this year. Maybe getting back into using it everyday will help.

5.  My 4 youngest grandbabies are sadly lacking in scrapbook pages. I think it’s time to catch up

6.  Complete one crochet project per month for Christmas next year so that I’m not in a panic by Christmas Eve. Sorry Don but more yarn will be required for this one

7. Purge, purge, purge. The two bedrooms upstairs are still packed with stuff from the girls. I think it’s time that the rooms get cleared. So my darling daughters if there’s anything you want from either of those rooms you better let me know soon. There is a great calendar here http://www.mysimplerlife.com/decluttercalendar.htm. I love that it has one job a day like clear out one corner  and clear out paper in a box. Not so overwhelming that way.

8. Don this your only warning, I have decided that I will have to nag you more this year LOL I really, really, really want the flooring put down in our room. Don’t care about the wood stove room so much but really want our room done. So be prepared to be nagged on a regualr basis.

9. Start planning our trip to the east coast. I know we can’t do it this year (financially and time wise) but next year that is my big wish.

10. Be more financially responsible and put a dent in my credit balances. We’ve over indulged in the last couple of years and now is the time to get back on track.

11. I really enjoyed our photograhpy challenge this year and I think it should be reinstated for this year. What do you say Jamie and Shari?

12. Remember to tell and show my family I love them by word and deed this year. All of them have been so supportive over the past couple of years and I don’t know if I have shown them how much they mean to me. This year I am going to make the effort to show them more.

I hope all my family and friends have an awesome 2012 and have all their wishes and dreams come true.

 

 

 

 

Wow what a year!

Happy Birthday to my sweet youngest daughter!

You started the whole birthday blogging off last year and  I hadn’t really intended on doing a yearly blog post for each of my girls, but you my darling have had such an amazing, challenging and life changing year I couldn’t not blog about it.

I guess you could say the year really started on February 19th when this happened:

Welcome sweet Emery

You and Sean became parents. It has been amazing watching you grow into you motherhood. That you adore your son can be seen in every gesture and thing you do for him. That your son adores you is so obvious every time we see the two of you interact.

Kisses for Mama

Whee

Daddy love

Emery wouldn’t be the good natured baby that he is if you and Sean weren’t doing such a good job.

Then as if your year wasn’t exciting enough you thought that you should do this:

I thee wed

The look on your face when you walked down the aisle to meet Sean, you were so focused and so ready to take this next step in your life.

Committment

You have chosen well, you can see how much Sean loves you every time he looks at you. It doesn’t hurt that he has a warped sense of humor like the rest of us

All mine

So for most people that would be enough excitement for one year but you decided to throw in one more little thing into the mix:

Read my shirt and no it's not a hand me down

Yes another sweet baby to love. Even though it’s not quite what you planned you are already planning ahead to make this little person as welcome and loved as our sweet Em.

So my sweet Ashley here is to another amazing year in your future (maybe not quite as busy)! Happy Birthday sweetie.

Love

Mom

The handsome is 8!

8 years ago today we welcomed you to the family Ephraim. You were such a surprise to Grandpa and I, you were a BOY! We didn’t know what to do with boys! We had girls.

We soon found out that baby boys were a lot like baby girls until they got a little older and then look out! You were a going concern once you got motoring.

You were a busy boy always moving, sometimes it was hard for grandpa and I to keep up You always seemed to be interested in how things worked. If grandpa was working on something you were always there asking questions.

You are determined and can be extremely focused when something interests you. You were so focused on doing your best last weekend on the kids triathlon that you participated in, we were all so proud of you.

Keep up the good work sweetie and continue to grow and learn. Hope you have a great birthday.

Love

Grandma

Photo challenge – The finale

Well it looks like our photo challenge is drawing to a close for this year. With other obligations taking up our time we’ll have to put the weekly challenge on hold. Maybe we can start up again next spring and make it a yearly occurrence. What do you think Jamie and Shari?

We let Becky chose the theme this week (or was it last week) and she chose Old and then promptly continued to insult her father and then Jamie started insulting her mother. Such smart ass daughters, I really don’t know where they get it from

When we go to visit the grands in Ennismore we always pass this old “bulldozer”  that has been abandoned on the side of the road. The vegetation has taken over and there is not much visible anymore. It has always intrigued me and I have wanted to take some shot of it for some time but we have never stopped to do so. The challenge gave me the incentive to drive out there after work this week and this is the result, enjoy and comment.

Eyes?

 

I would like to go back in the fall and see what it looks like in autumn colours. And finally this one is for you Becky

So here’s to a fun challenge and maybe we’ll do it next year

 

PS Apparently it is a “skidder” not a bull dozer LOL

 

The boy is 4!

4 years ago today we welcomed you to the family. You were our second grandson just a little wee fellow only 5lbs 13 oz. You seemed so tiny.

 

So tiny

You might have been small but you were mighty! You wrapped your mommy, daddy and sisters around your little finger.

You were an easy going baby and were quite willing to try almost anything out. I really can’t remember you crying very much when you were little, you always seemed to be smiling.

Water baby

As you have gotten older you seem to have no fear and I’m sure you have given mommy and daddy heart attacks with some of the stuff you do. I know that you make grandma shake in her boots some days.

You are extremely mischievous and have even upset grandpa to the point where he has given you a time out for the mischief you have gotten into.

Dare devil

You have a unique perspective on the world and are quite willing to share it with all of us. Hence all the Skyler stories on Facebook. You make us laugh and smile.

Me: Whose birthday is it?

You: Mine starts today.

Me: And how long does it last?

You: (dead serious) Until Thursday.

You must approve of your new Uncle Sean because this is what you did during the ceremony LOL!

Thumbs up!

Well little man you are now about to start on a whole new adventure. In a couple of weeks you will be starting school and I can’t wait to see what kind of mischief you will get into now. Just don’t get sent to the principle’s office too soon

Love you sweetie.

Cheese

 

Photo challenge Week 9 Magic

As my children and grandchildren will tell you we live in a magical place. We have always said that the fairies live near us but we haven’t really tried to catch them as with all magical creatures we feel they must be free.

This week I went on a mission, not to capture these wee magical creatures and hold them, but to capture them on film for posterity.

Hiding

Can you see her, look carefully.

Just a peek

The sunflower fairy was not easy to capture, she always managed to hide behind something just as I was about to snap her picture.

Flying away

Her mate was just as challenging and hopped on a sunflower to hide himself.

I will have to continue my quest to capture this elusive magical creature as I was not successful this time

Go check out Jamie and Shari to see what magical pictures they came up with and find out what Jamie has in store for us next week.

Photo challenge Week 8

So it was my turn to pick this week and I decided on perspective. One thing I have really loved about this challenge is that it has taken me outside of my comfort zone and made me more aware of my camera. I find I am more comfortable with the controls on my camera and more willing to take chances with my shots. So this week I tried to change how I take my photos. I tried to change the angle, the focus and shoot in unexpected ways, I looked through my viewfinder a little more carefully.

Here are my three favourites from this week:

Broken stalk

The stump

The path

So don’t forget to check out Jamie and Shari and leave all of us a comment. We would love some feedback.

Photo challenge Week 7

So here we are week 7, wow! I would like to welcome my friend Shari who has decided to join the mayhem and do our weekly challenges with us. Go check her out and don’t forget to check out Jamie’s offering too.

I did not enjoy this challenge. When I first read what the challenge was going to be I thought motion shouldn’t be a hard topic. Ha, was I ever wrong. I actually googled “motion in photography” and then read this article  hoping it would help. It did sort of, I tried panning:

Panning?

Interesting but not quite what I had in mind. So then I decided to try zooming and ended up with this:

Zooming?

Again interesting, still not what I wanted. I think a lot more practice is needed to perfect both these techniques.

So the final effect I read about was slow shutter speed. I’ve always loved the photos like this and wanted to try the technique. So off we went to the Stockdale mill to see what I could come up with. Though easier then the last 2 effects this one was not without it’s challenges. We first went around 5 pm and couldn’t get a decent shot because the sun was too bright and all my shots were over exposed. Back home and some more research and back we went aroundf 8 pm and this is what I got:

Finally

This has to be my favourite shot of the whole week. I think I would like to crop it just a little but other then that I am really pleased with how it turned out.

What do you think?

So my challenge for next week is “perspective“. Good luck Jamie and Shari

Photo challenge Week 6 – Gasp!

So the challenge for the week was to use our in camera editing features. We were to post a total of 6 pics, 3 unedited and the other 3 edited. I found this challenge a lot of fun and had a hard time picking just 6 photos for this one.

So here we go:

Barn board unedited

I couldn’t believe how much the filter intensified the red in the barn boards.

Barn Board2 unedited

Barn Board2 edited blue filter intensifier

Old barn unedited

Old barn edited Sepia

This is one of my favourites. I love the look of old pictures and this reminds of an old print.

Check out Jamie’s and please comment or join us. The more the merrier.

I think from now on the setting should be photographer’s choice as long as it’s not AUTO and we alternate picking the topic. What do you think Jamie

Photo challenge – Week 5

So Jamie my beautiful daughter (who has a mean streak) chose JOY as this week’s topic. Anyone that knows me, knows that my family is my greatest joy. This really should have been last week’s challenge. So since I was family challenged this week I decided to make the subject “Joy is found in unexpected places”. So without further ado:

Joy of new life

A baby blanket being made for a sweet baby girl who arrived safely, new granddaughter to a friend.

Joy of warmth in the winter

A surprise pile of wood when we returned home from Kitchener. We will be toasty warm this winter.

Joy of nature

The joy of living in the country and looking out my window and seeing the beauty of nature around me.

So my darling daugher how did I do?

So I would like to offer you a slight twist to this week’s challenge if you dare accept it (snicker).  Our cameras have some interesting features and since we are restricted in only using SOOC (straight out of camera) pictures I think we should explore those features as follows:

6 shots each, 3 SOOC and the same 3 edited in camera.

We have the option of Monochrome, Quick Retouch,  Colour Outline, Filter effects, and Trim.

So do you accept my challenge?