What can you use brochures for?

The list is endless.

How about for a fund raiser, a special event, your shop or store, or your online outlet.

How about "How To" pamphlets, local attraction information, or school newsletters.

The brochures at Vista Print Canada are both professional and affordable.

25 double-sided colour bi-fold brochures for only $47.99.

Larger quantities are also available.

You can even upload you own design or use one of their design templates to create your own custom look. If this is the one chance you have to get your product noticed, you really want a well designed brochure. The more eye catching, the better.

Vista Print also sells business cards, promotional items, marketing material, invitations and announcements and so much more!

Some of their current specials include: lawn signs, small window decals, t-shirts, sticky notes (these would make great stocking stuffers for family and friends), logo design and letterhead.

They also have a special for oversize postcards. Imaging taking a really cool group picture at a family BBQ and then getting it made into postcards to send to family in far off places. Or what about your Christmas cards - picture postcards instead! Cool huh? And 50 of them for only $15.99!

The ordering process for Vista Print is so simple. Just follow the online steps and prompts and you will have a quality product in your hands before you know it!

A blogger's life

I just spent several hours reading blogs. I'm just wondering...am I the only one? How do people get anything done? I mean, it is not like I would have been doing housework or anything had I not been reading blog, but it makes for a valid excuse. And why do I keep typing anythign instead of anything...does my left hand go faster than my right?

I often wonder how many hours bloggers put in to come up with some of the really witty stuff they write. I mean do they have a life outside of blogging? I know some of them are making an income from blogging, so there is more incentive to write but still, they must spend several hours a day blogging.

I try to do my best to have a post for each day but life often gets in the way. Do these popular bloggers that actually make money from their blogs do regular things like laundry? Or can they afford housekeepers?

I wonder cuz, I can't seem to do it all. Spend hours blogging (ok mostly reading blogs) and then get other stuff done too. I truly believe the computer has the technology to steal time -cuz I know sometimes I get on the computer at a decent hour (9am - hey I am vacation!) and before I know it - it is 3pm. And I have done nothing, zip, zilch for the entire day. Should I be worried? I mean that is my life passing by, and here I am wasting it reading about someone else's life?

Ironic?

Whatever - sometimes I just think too much.

Christian the Lion

Christian the Lion

Have Kleenex handy.

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Wednesday Rambles

Wednesday Rambles...doesn't that just roll off the tongue?

Kinda like a 14 yr old saying "Hiiiii Mooooom" after an evening spent sharing a bottle of Blue Nun wine with two friends under the bleachers at school does.

What? You never did that? Nah, me neither, *cough*

So anywho.....Works for me Wednesday is on vacation this week, not that I had anything planned for it anyway, but so, I have to do something else.

So I figured I'd give y'all (not Southern (not even American :)) but like the sound of y'all) a peek at my latest baby quilt.

So I decided to try something a little different from the 1st baby quilt, so I got all fancy and changed the pattern a tad.

Then I continued with a border of pale yellow.

I attempted to miter the corners of the yellow border, because my sister (who is not the least bit crafty - by her own admission) said it would look nicer. After several failed attempts and several hours of thread ripping, I decided my non-crafty sister didn't know what the heck she was talking about and my non-mitered corners looked just fine -thank you very much!

I will be adding another wider border in the blue bug fabric and then the binding in the bright yellow bug fabric. I can't continue yet because I was lazy yesterday and did not wash the blue bug fabric and today is Wednesday.

Wednesday is Papa's (my father in-law who lives in our basement) laundry day, and even thought he only ever washes one small load (in hot! with a gallon (smells like) of bleach), it is his day, so I cannot use the machines - cause he might feel like washing 20 loads one day and if I were to use the machines on a Wednesday, his day, it would completely screw him up.

Ya ramble much?

So anyhow, I have to wait until tomorrow to wash the blue bug fabric and continue working on this quilt.

Oh and in other news....

my son woke up last night, I guess technically this morning at 12:30, with a bloody nose. He stood outside my office door (yes I was still on the computer) which is right next to the bathroom! and said "I think I have a nose bleed", all the while dripping blood onto my cream (ok dirty cream-coloured) carpet.

I got his nose to stop bleeding and then promptly Googled how to remove blood from carpets. Ah the wonders of technology. I managed to get it up...and the dirt hides what I couldn't get out.

I want to tell you that my son's soccer team won their game last night....but they didn't ....so I won't.

Oh and it's raining again today.

So how is your day going?

What I have been up to lately

It has rained 8 of the last 9 days. Very hard at times. Look. I am sick of rain.


Decided I needed some help keeping my sewing table clean.

Made my son a bag for when he goes hunting or scouting with his Dad.

It's not quite cammo but will do fine.

Four small pockets inside

Been working on another quilt top. This is not how it will be laid out when done. The little strips at the top will be placed between the solid green squares for each row. I really need a bigger design wall.

Made a couple burp cloths for nephew's baby.

I made myself this cute teacup pin cushion - it's really easy to just grab pins out of the saucer too.

Bought new flannel to work on baby quilt #2. I will post pictures of the progress on that one soon.

Finally had an appt with a new chiropractor. I have another one tonight. I had only been twice in the past year - I am very out of whack. All the sewing and computer work probably doesn't help.

My very first award!

Thank you Vickie! My friend over at Frenchy Addict gave me this award - I am so honoured!

(Side note: When is blogger gonna allow Canadian spellings without correcting them? Language choice people!)

The rules are :

• Put award logo on your blog
• Add link to the person who awarded you
• Give 7 bloggers this award
• Add link to awarded bloggers

• Leave a comment to those awarded

Ok so now my chance to pass it on to other Brilliant Blogs - so fun!

Vickie of Frenchy Addict - A fellow Canadian - I am going to bestow this award back to her because she really does have an amazing blog. I met Vickie via a tote swap held by Down To Earth.  Vickie spins a tale of such beauty and serenity with her words and photos. She knows how to see the beauty of life in everything she does. I so want to live where she does. Hey I know your address Vickie, maybe I'll pop by sometime :) Kidding.....kinda.

Chocolatechic - I love to read about the daily lives of chocolatechic and her two chips (oh and her Superman too). She also has some really yummy looking recipes.

Lisa of Polka Dot Creations - Lisa is a Mom and polymer clay artist. She also really likes to make cute little skirts out of old amazing patterned sheets. She inspires me to want to do more sewing.

Melody of Trap Door - I don't even remember how I found Melody, but I love visiting her blog. She makes the most amazing looking food creations! I gain weight just reading about them :) She is also around my age - and I can totally relate to a lot of what she reminisces about.

Gil of The British Woman - Gil lives in the same Province as me, but a little too far for a visit. She introduced me to FOFing (something available at A&P grocery chains in Canada - you will have to check out her blog for more info). She also has some great recipes and she just seems like the type of person I could spend hours talking to.

SouleMama -  I am sure many of you already know of Amanda. She is an author of a couple family oriented crafting books. I love visiting her blog - it reminds me what life is supposed to be about. Slowing down and smelling the flowers.

Rhonda Jean of Down To Earth - A really great blog about simple living set in Australia. She inspires others to chose or at least try a simpler way of life and makes it look really easy and rewarding. She has raises chickens and sews and knits and had a vegetable garden and oh so much more. Yet another place I would like to live or at least visit :) She also hosts some really cool craft swaps.

I hope you take a minute to check out some of these blogs that I enjoy so much.

CSI

One of my favorite TV shows is CSI (Crime Scene Investigation). We don't watch a lot of TV around here, the news daily and I'll watch CSI when I remember it is on and my DH watches Stargate Atlantis when he remembers it is on.

My son also really likes CSI and wants to be an investigator when he is older.

There are two spinoff shows from CSI - CSI New York and CSI Miami.

Now CSI New York isn't bad - it stars Gary Sinise after all :)

But I do not, for the life of me, understand why CSI Miami is still on the air! The lead in that show, David Caruso, is known for his overacting. I think I have watched the entire show once and it was pure torture. It is SO phony that is isn't funny. There are a ton of videos on Youtube making fun of him.

It is like a parody of the real CSI. Even the story lines don't make a lot of sense. And the crimes are always solved but not always explained.

I believe, it has the same writers as the original CSI, but maybe not - if it does, maybe they only write the Miami version after downing a dozen beer - hey maybe doing so would make the show more enjoyable to me too :)

The Baby Shower

I know most of you don't know my niece Sandra, (although a couple who read here do) but I am going to post a few pictures from her baby shower anyway.

The shower was held in the rec room of the apt building Sandra's in laws live in.

Balloons on the floor to look like pond
water, lil duckies all over the room.The gifts

The Grandmas
Sandra's mother (visiting from British Columbia) & next to her is Dave's Mom,
and in the back in the white dress is the step-grandma, my sister in-law

This is Krystal, Donna (Sandra's step Mom), Sandra and Amanda.
Krystal & Amanda are Sandra's younger half sisters, although I think
Krystal (8 yrs younger) and Sandra could be twins

This is Dave & Sandra - the new Mom & Dad

Gift time

Her friend knit the baby a tiny purple sweater :)

Sandra opening my gift

The baby is a girl and will be named Samantha - cute cake huh?

Cutting the cake

Behind Sandra is my sister Heather (L) and Sandra's MIL

More baby fish (fry)

Baby fish are called fry.

If you remember from the last time, we saved 5 fry - we think the bigger fish ate the rest, as the mother can often give live birth to 20-40 fry at a time.

Some of the 5 fry we rescued died, we had 3 left when we went camping a couple weeks ago. My husband texted me while away, to say 2 of the 3 fry died, but he had found a new little fry in the tank.

The one last fry left from the first batch, was now large enough to go into the main tank and not be eaten.

So now we had 2 adult female mollies, 1 large female fry and one little fry. You still following?

Well Sunday morning as I was rushing around trying to get breakfast cooked and get ready to go to the baby shower, my son yells that there are more baby fry.

We found 13 this time!

Now the only good thing is that the male mollie died a week or so ago and so cannot impregnate the fish anymore - the bad news is that the female mollies save the sperm to fertilize themselves when they feel like it.

So 2 large fish and 1 med one in main tank.

The one under the birthing tank (where we put the most pregnant looking female fish), is the fry from the first batch we rescued about a couple months ago.

And 13 little fry and the one a week older are in the fry tank.

Can you see them?

Kitchen Tip Tuesday - Simple Breakfasts

I used to often skip breakfast and just grab a coffee, and then end up famished by lunchtime. And because I was famished, I would just scarf things down and not even prepare a proper lunch either.

Lately, I have been eating breakfast and if I put too much thought into it, it becomes overwhelming, what should I make, what will use the least amount of dishes, what do I have on hand. Ya I know, I think too much sometimes :)

So todays' post is all about simple - throw together breakfasts that aren't junk food.

Eggs - all kinds of eggs - I like scrambled a lot because, again I don't have to try too hard with them. Fancy them up with some sauteed onions and mushrooms. Top with cheese, tomato or add spinach - you can do SO many things with eggs that you can have different eggs everyday.


An easy favorite we always had as kids was to boil eggs, peel while still hot/warm, chop them up and then toss with a bit of butter or margarine and salt & pepper. I ate this almost everyday in the winter time.

Bagels - we usually always have some of these on hand. Cinnamon raisin bagels are great with peanut butter.

An Everything bagel ( poppy seeds, sesame seeds, onion bits) with mayo, lots of fresh slices tomato (even better if it is from your own garden) and salt & pepper.

I LOVE these.

Fresh fruit - any kind you have on hand, with a touch of honey and lemon juice - a great summer breakfast.

So many good choices when you getting thinking about it. Ok now I am hungry :)

For more great kitchen tips, check out Tammy's website.

The Boy's Birthday Party

J's actually turned 11 in April but he wanted to have a summer party where we could grill burgers and hot dogs and play outside, so he postponed it until now.

Well I survived the party. Man, we only invited 3 other kids but I could swear they somehow snuck another 20 or so in, either that or a small herd of elephants.

It ended up raining, so outside play was out, which left lots of running around and lots of videos games, both of which they enjoyed immensely.

Oh video games

In their natural state

We had hot dogs and burgers for dinner and a build you own sundae bar afterwards.

Chocolate shell sauce, M&M peanuts, crushed Oreos
and sprinkles - what more could you ask for?

All went well until the balloon got sucked into the ceiling fan (which is extremely funny to 4 11 yr old boys, especially when the Mom jumps a foot off the couch from the noise)....and even then, all went well :)

Predictable expression to finding money in the card

Opening the last gift

Great ..just what we needed :)

I am however, glad, birthday parties only happen once a year.

This is how I feel about it too :)

more cat pictures

Apparently I Iike to torture myself...

because I have started another baby quilt.

Now it is not like I don't already have a kazillion other partially finished projects that need to be worked on....but I had a few squares left from the first baby quilt...and well one thing led to another...and there is another baby coming in September, so.....:)

I also managed to make a couple bibs and another burp cloth for my niece's shower.

I made two that are not even fit to take pictures of and then I got the bright idea to use binding for a bib - it worked pretty well as shown here.

For this one, I made the ties out of the same oh so soft fabric.

And a matching burp cloth.

I suppose I really should clean more often...

it looks nice clean.

I am going to be bold and show you before and after pictures!

This is how bad it was just a few days ago!

The after - still kind of cluttered but the
stuff is off the floor & the drawers can close

The oh so messy cutting table

Much betterSome of my fabric stash & sewing area

Much neater

My cluttered deskAnd my neat desk :)

Now to see how long it lasts :)