Wednesday 31 December 2008

Rockin Diaper Bag!

Take a look at this home sewn diaper bag from Tina's blog.




Isn't this just too cool? Way nicer than the ones we had in the eighties! LOL

Visit her site and see a few more angles of it and all the cool pockets in the inside - and then leave her a comment.

I think she should go into business.

What do you think?

Tuesday 30 December 2008

You are the Graduate

I realized last weekend that I have not done a scrapbook page since November 23rd! Do you believe it? Okay I did 34 Christmas cards a week ago, but no pages for over a month and so at this rate it will take me until 2010 to finish scrapbooking the year 2002 and that is moving backwards so I I put life on hold to get a page done!!

Pretty fast actually - paper, stickers - yup I used stickers, and some rub ons. I have kind of lost my mojo, so when I get it back I may add something else to the page.



You are the Graduate - Harold's graduation picture.

Monday 29 December 2008

Christmas 1961

I was inspired by a fellow blogger posting remembering all the wonderful Christmas' now and way back. She posted a photo of her family when she was little.
So I dug this one up to remind me of just how wonderful Christmas is...even when we mourn the loss of loved ones, Christmas still draws us to one another and reminds us of the power of family love.


I am number six in this brood. The blondie.
I don't know how my Mom had time to do all the baking and cooking in preparation for Christmas and ALL the festivities and visitors that accompanied the season, have us all dressed in our Sunday bests, and still look spectacular herself. Amazing woman!

Don't ya just love that old lamp?

Sunday 28 December 2008

Circle of love! and other "planets"!

Now this is what I call a Circle of Love. LOL

My sweetheart has never looked so good...
...of course I have never had such nice legs either. :)


This is made from a photo I took of a lake close to our home. The trees are reflected in the bottom half and you can see the fountain in the top at about 11:30.


This is a Saskatchewan - wheat capitol of the world? and the City sky scape encircling it.
I took this photo on the U of S grounds looking over a field of wheat to downtown.
The Bess is at about the 11:00 position.

All of these are much more impressive in large format so please click on them. See how many of our downtown buildings you can recognize. The Parktown?

If you missed my other posts on the "planets" I have made in Photoshop, click here (my personal favorite).
and also here for my first attempts at making Photshop "planets"

Don't you love a few days off work to eat all this good food and play on the computer.

Friday 26 December 2008

Don's Photo Boxing Day Blitz



Don's Photos is having it's annual sale and man, it is a good one.

If you are looking for a point and shoot camera, now is the time!

But what I wait for all year is there 9 cent sale. Yes 4X6 prints are just nine cents and nobody develops my pics better than Don's.

I know it sound a tad strange, but I wait all year and on boxing day I get busy. I spent four hours late last night going through all my photos from 2008 choosing all the ones I want developed in 4X6 and saving them to a file. This morning I uploaded them to Don's - a process that took five hours ~ yes FIVE hours because I uploaded 223 photos which came to several gigabytes.

And the years worth of 4X6's cost $22.00.

Now I will wait for Blacks 8X10 sale and their occasional 5X7 sale.

Photo hint. As I upload my photos during the year and go through them picking out the best, I copy those that would make great 8x10's (or 5x7's) to a separate file (named 2008 8x10). Then I am ready when the sale comes. If you get on Blacks and Don's mailing list you will hear about it a few days before it comes.

And now for a few Christmas memories from our home.


The presents under the tree still bring excitement and anticipation.






And here is part of my Christmas morning haul - note the Michael Buble and IL DIVO CD's - on my MP3 player already...been listening to them all day. Mmmm these gorgeous young men singing love songs with their fabulous voices and an assortment of body lotions ~ life is good! And for my more culinary side - a very cool salt and pepper grinder set. I am happy.


Our dinner table awaits our guests.
The blessings of sharing our blessings with others.
This is the best gift of all.


Our guests and enough food to feed an army.
Food, fellowship and friendship.



Then a post Christmas supper rip roaring game of Taboo - the youngens against the old ones.


The youngans won, but I am sure when we challenge them again we will win - we just took a little longer to warm up, old age and all. They just beat us by a hair!

Our missing kids called and so we were able to connect with them. I am giving thanks that they spent Christmas with loved ones and friends - especially Mark who is on his own in Thompson. The saints (his church fellowship) kept him well fed and loved over Christmas and for that I am giving a prayer of thanks. Thank you Lord for your people!!

Next year our children will all be home and there will be a huge gang of us and then....in another few years, Lord willing, the grandchildren will change the whole tone of our Christmas mornings.

Right now I kind of like getting up with David putting on the coffee, having a leisurely breakfast and THEN digging into the gifts about noon ~ unlike the days of little ones coming into our room at 5 am to ask if they could go downstairs NOW?

I do pray that you have had special moments to love your family and friends and that this joy and peace of the season will follow us and stay with us into the New year.

His Blessings to each and every one of you!

Thursday 25 December 2008

Disturbing Christmas

I am copying this post from the web site of Sovereign Grace Ministries and author C.J Mahaney
posted 12/23/2008

The days before Christmas can be a tiring season of preparation, planning, shopping, and wrapping. But I think as we prepare for the Christmas celebrations, dinners, travel, and gift giving, it’s equally important that we pause and prepare our souls for Christmas.

During this time of year, it may be easy to forget that the bigger purpose behind Bethlehem was Calvary. But the purpose of the manger was realized in the horrors of the cross. The purpose of his birth was his death.

Or to put it more personally: Christmas is necessary because I am a sinner. The incarnation reminds us of our desperate condition before a holy God.

Several years ago WORLD Magazine published a column by William H. Smith with the provocative title, “Christmas is disturbing: Any real understanding of the Christmas messages will disturb anyone” (Dec. 26, 1992).

In part, Smith wrote:

Many people who otherwise ignore God and the church have some religious feeling, or feel they ought to, at this time of the year. So they make their way to a church service or Christmas program. And when they go, they come away feeling vaguely warmed or at least better for having gone, but not disturbed.
Why aren’t people disturbed by Christmas? One reason is our tendency to sanitize the birth narratives. We romanticize the story of Mary and Joseph rather than deal with the painful dilemma they faced when the Lord chose Mary to be the virgin who would conceive her child by the power of the Holy Spirit. We beautify the birth scene, not coming to terms with the stench of the stable, the poverty of the parents, the hostility of Herod. Don’t miss my point. There is something truly comforting and warming about the Christmas story, but it comes from understanding the reality, not from denying it.


Most of us also have not come to terms with the baby in the manger. We sing, “Glory to the newborn King.” But do we truly recognize that the baby lying in the manger is appointed by God to be the King, to be either the Savior or Judge of all people? He is a most threatening person.


Malachi foresaw his coming and said, “But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap.” As long as we can keep him in the manger, and feel the sentimental feelings we have for babies, Jesus doesn’t disturb us. But once we understand that his coming means for every one of us either salvation or condemnation, he disturbs us deeply.


What should be just as disturbing is the awful work Christ had to do to accomplish the salvation of his people. Yet his very name, Jesus, testifies to us of that work.


That baby was born so that “he who had no sin” would become “sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” The baby’s destiny from the moment of his conception was hell—hell in the place of sinners. When I look into the manger, I come away shaken as I realize again that he was born to pay the unbearable penalty for my sins.


That’s the message of Christmas: God reconciled the world to himself through Christ, man’s sin has alienated him from God, and man’s reconciliation with God is possible only through faith in Christ…Christmas is disturbing.

Don’t get me wrong—Christmas should be a wonderful celebration. Properly understood, the message of Christmas confronts before it comforts, it disturbs before it delights.

The purpose of Christ’s birth was to live a sinless life, suffer as our substitute on the cross, satisfy the wrath of God, defeat death, and secure our forgiveness and salvation.

Christmas is about God the Father (the offended party) taking the initiative to send his only begotten son to offer his life as the atoning sacrifice for our sins, so that we might be forgiven for our many sins.

As Smith so fitly concludes his column:
Only those who have been profoundly disturbed to the point of deep repentance are able to receive the tidings of comfort, peace, and joy that Christmas proclaims.

Amen and Merry Christmas!

Wednesday 24 December 2008

More Planets



This is the night skies over Honolulu taken by my son Mark back in Nov 2006.
I think I have found another addiction....

Tuesday 23 December 2008

PLAYING in Photoshop

I have been playing in Photoshop tonight - making "planets".

This photo below started as a panoramic I took of the shore line in Lunenberg Nova Scotia June of 2007. I took five pictures and stitched them together in Photoshop to get the panorama.

In this new technique, I have taken my panorama and bent it into a circle. It is called making "planets" and it is just too much fun!



Isn't that just the coolest technique? Click on it to get a larger version and to see some of the detail. It is much clearer in real life but I have shrunk it to save space on Blogger.

What do ya think?

Sunday 21 December 2008

Il Divo - Amazing Grace

Please turn off the music to the left.

Wow - this is so incredible I went out today and bought the CD.

Hold on to your seats at about the three minute mark - you will have chills up your spine.

Amazing Grace was written by a slave trader who by the grace of God recognized his wretchedness before a glorious God who alone could save him from his life of sin. If you don't know the story behind this song and the writer, click here John Newton, Amazing Grace.

Hope you enjoy this. It brings tears to my eyes because I too was a wretched, lost, blind sinner, but for the grace of God. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. Eph 2:8-9


Saturday 20 December 2008

The Heavens declare the Glory of God


The skies display His craftsmanship.



NASA

Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make Him known.




They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard.





Yet their message has gone throughout the earth,
and their words to all the world.




The message bursts forth like a radiant bridegroom after his wedding.
It rejoices like a great athlete eager to run the race.




For His unfailing love toward those who fear Him
is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth.




Consider Him who made the heavens.....

Thursday 18 December 2008

Wednesday 17 December 2008

Shortbread!

Just a quick update on the Christmas baking post...the shortbread is ALL GONE!!
just a few crumbs this morning.
hmmmmm

Christmas Cards!!

Do you believe it?? Yes, I made a card today! Several of them. For someone who never, EVER attempts cards because I cannot think smaller that 8X8....well I did it! Allison and I started at about 3 pm this afternoon and we just finished up about an hour ago - that is just over six hours of card making (and a little TV watching) and my back is killing me! But I have just over thirty cards to send out for Christmas... okay, New Years because if dear husband doesn't get the family letter written tonight they are NOT going to make it on time.

So here are a sampling of our creations today!

















Hey - now to get them into envelopes with the yearly newsy letter, addressed, stamped and taken to a mail box!!

Merry Christmas everyone.

Monday 15 December 2008

Christmas is here!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! (sung to the tune of "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas")

And I love it.

The only thing missing is my sweet kids - Paul and Allie in Victoria (where I hear there is snow!) and Mark in Northern Manitoba - Thompson busy firefighting in minus 40 weather. They will not be home for Christmas. sigh...

But Harold is home and so is Allison and that means Sammy her fiance is around here a lot too - eating... and playing board games with us. You can't marry our daughter unless you love to spend the evening playing board/card games and eating chocolate covered almonds. That is just the way it is. He has passed. Although he prefers taco chips and cream cheese spread which Allison makes for him twice a week!

With about 30 candles lit last night and some goodies prepared, a few friends and neighbours stopped over for some Christmas cheer.

We had fun and it looked very festive around here.

Now it feels like Christmas is underway even if I am not quite ready. But that doesn't matter. It will come anyways and the love of family and good food will make it a great time together.

Then I will hit the gym and try to undo the damage.

I have not yet made my Christmas cards....and should be doing that right now...but I am really tired and so uploading a few pics and a short blog seems a little easier tonight. Heading to bed in 30 minutes with a good book seems even easier. The Christmas cards may arrive after Christmas - I have 40 of them to make. yup...I am running a tad late.

My to do/buy list is getting shorter and my VISA longer...sigh..but they are all, for the most part very practical items for these grown kids of mine. You know... socks and underwear. haha just kidding.. although they do make a good stocking stuffer.

I baked this morning - up at the crack of dawn because they had to be done before work at JSI today...which BTW has a HUGE shipment coming in this Wednesday....give Laura three hours to get it all out though...hear that Laura? Three hours....hehehehe. I digress.


Yes, I made Gingerbread men and shortbread cookies early this morning and I am so proud of myself. And number one son decorated them... because he had the day off and I was flying out the door.

I wasn't going to bake this year...
At ALL!!
No time!!

The plan this morning was to head to the gym and work off a few of the treats from the weekend.

But Harold asked if I could please make some gingerbread men for him to take to his office party tonight. How could I say no??? This was a special request.

So instead of the gym I nibbled on gingerbread dough. mmmm

And since the kitchen was covered in flour and ginger bread dough, well why not make some shortbread too.

So I did.

As soon as it cooled though I packed up half of the shortbread to slip into the ever growing box of stuff I need to ship off to Mark.

I knew it would not last long around here... mmm melt in your mouth shortbread - just butter, icing sugar and a little flour to hold it together.

And Harold decorated the gingerbread men. Did a mighty fine job I think. I mean, really how many 27 yr olds take the time to do this kind of work.

Hahah - love that guy!

David is now eating the shortbread that was not packed... okay I have had a few pieces myself too.

Enjoy the season. Enjoy the small things. Enjoy the moments with loved ones. Give thanks for all the blessings. Rejoice! For we were once lost, but in Christ, found! This is amazing grace!

Sunday 14 December 2008

What you REALLY want for Christmas...


Come. Just unwrap the paper from this corner, peeling back the tape. Go ahead. Look. It’s all right—keep breathing. I know, I know … breathtaking, isn’t it?

visit this beautiful posting by Ann Voscamp at Holy Experience

Tuesday 9 December 2008

PHOTOgraphic

In June of 2007 I took one of my best photos when visiting Peggy's Cove in Nova Scotia. I have often considered getting it blown up and framed. It was a perfect foggy morning and, well it is just one of those great shots! The boats were lined up beautifully, no shadows and vibrant colours. The photos just said to me - this is where the fisherman leaves his boats after a long day at sea. I could smell the fish in this photo. I love it!

Here is is. I actually cropped this one down - and you will see why in a minute. You might remember the one I scrapbooked and hung at JSI for a while. I have reduced the quality for the blog, but the original is a real keeper.



Today Allison and I were running around doing a little Christmas shopping and we decided to check out the new Indigo Book store. I thought I should pick up a photograpic magazine for my stocking (shhh, Santa still comes to our house) and for my firefighter/photographer son, Mark.
My jaw dropped when I saw this..... now take a look at that picture of mine up above one more time.






Of course I bought it and made a bee line home to compare the shot with my own? I mean - was this guy there the same day as me? or .... what????

Well, if it weren't for the little white boat next to the red one....well I would swear.....

This photographer must have been there a few hours after me when the fog was lifting a little. Either that or those three boats always park in the same place every day, which I have heard fishermen do.

So there you go... a brief moment of excitement ...but no, it is not mine...maybe one day. :)

In the meantime I am going to dream of my next camera upgrade (Olympus E3 or E30??) and keep taking photographs.