Tradition

When the leaves begin to turn and there's a definite crispness in the air, before our thoughts turn to free candy and costumed shenanigans, it's time to remember the good things. Okay, so that sounded a bit trite, but Thanksgiving kind of is. It's all about tradition. Take the food served. squash, turkey, pumpkin pie all of these are foods readily available in the area at harvest time. Our diets are no longer dictated by geography or time of year yet we continue to prepare variations on the same dishes every year. It's tradition. Some of my favorite traditions are the strange ones unique to my family. They're more special because they're ours alone and came about accidentally in most cases.



Tradition 1: Several years ago I found myself home alone on Thanksgiving while everyone ran to and from lessons, stores and work. As well as our family of six we were expecting some family friends, bringing our dinner party to 10 and our prep time to nothing. I figured I'd help and after raiding the kitchen came up with a can of mixed marinated beans and a few fresh pears. Viola, 10 second salad. I've made it every years since. We all contribute a dish to our dinner now (though I think I'm the first to 'invent one :p) making it truly a family affair.






Tradition 2: My fathers birthday is a little before Thanksgiving and my Mom got him Planes, Trains and Automobiles one year. PTA is a John Hughes movie staring Steve Martin and John Candy as to travelers trying to get home in time for Thanksgiving. Every year after dinner we take our dessert into the living room to watch Dale and Neil struggle their way across the country. It's the only time we watch it and it's probably my favorite tradition.




It's my first Thanksgiving on my own, and while I am still going to be having dinner at the house with my family it's still going to be different going as a 'guest'. I'm looking forward to these traditions even more. It's nice when everything's changing, even when it's good change, to return to something familiar. I made my salad in my little kitchen with my crappy plastic dishes and I feel that same pride to be contributing that I felt at 12.

I've made the bean, pear cutouts available for you to download.

Happy Scrapping ♥

It's Good to Be Back

I've got a couple LO's from my trip up on my personal blog: http://bookworm-diva.blogspot.com/

Sorry for the short post.

Happy Scrapping ♥

The Uncertain Glory of an April Day

"O, how this spring of love resembleth
The uncertain glory of an April day;
Which now shows all the beauty of the sun,
And by and by a cloud takes all away."
-Shakespeare

Ah Springtime. Is there any better time of year? Flowers blooming, birds singing and the sun shining. It's currently 21 and sunny outside and yesterday we had a high of 26. I hope it keeps up, I am so over snow. In celebration I have created a some lovely word art with the poem above. Enjoy, but save it 'till tomorow eh? Get out and enjoy the weather! I sure will.

Download

Happy Scrapping ♥


And a happy eighteenth birthday to H.

Princesses and Paperbags

Good Morning to you all!

I hope your weather is as beautiful as ours. We've got a high of 21 coming up today and I just heard on the radio (z103.5 of course!) that this was a record making March due to the complete lack of snow - at least in Toronto. All very exciting, though I know we're due for at least one more blanket. It's probably coming next week, it always happens right around H's birthday.

As you may or may not know, I'm taking a not-entirely-voluntary semester off and reexamining what I want to do for the rest of my life. It's pretty clear that that is not tourism. I've always had a great love of books, and not just the stories in them either. The books themselves are every bit as sacred as the secrets they contain and this combined with the absolute meditative calm I feel in any library has lead me to believe that my future may lie in the Library and Information Sciences. Some digging has told me that the highest qualification you can get is a Masters. Now, I'm not the most scholarly, but I can get pretty awesome grade if I really really try. I had 100% in the Science Fiction class I took as a Gen-Ed last year for mopst of the semester and finished with a 95. Luckily this is not the be-all and end-all of Librarian education. I can get a library technicians certificate through College and that is what I am shooting for now, while keeping the Masters thing as a distant, idealist plan.

All this, coupled with my general love of books and reading has inspired me. I have started creating a collection based on some of my faveorite and most beloved stories. It will be a rather spread out and long-term project. I fully intent to continue adding to it and updating it whenever the mood strikes me. I have decided to sstart with some classics I, and most other Canadians (and I'm sure many of Americans as well) grew up on. Robert Munsch is a Canadian childrens writer who has created countless fun and light-hearted stories. I remember listening to many
of these stories on tape, as read by the author and I always loved the sound effects and the way he told them. Listening to them now, I still admire the way he seems to fully imerse himself into the story, much to the delight of his audience. The Munsch kit will include 3 stories at this point - Mortimer, Milicent and the Wind and, one of his most well know, The Paper Bag Princess. I had some troubl;e narrowing this list down and so I may also use the two runner-up - Jonathan Cleaned Up and Love You Forever (Which I know is a faveorite of many). I already have the Alpha done for Paperbag Princess. In fact, I think I'll make that today's Freebie.

What are your favorite Munsch tales?

More to come. I still don't have any of my usual tools and such because my portable HD is dead, so it'll be a bit slow, but I'm working on it :)

Happy Scrapping ♥

Wish Me Luck

Hey all.

So, things've been a but rocky here lately (what else is new eh?) but, it looks like their begining to even out. Four weeks if job hunting has resulted in an interview tommorow at a shoe store (awesome) and I've actually managed to save some money, so hopefully I'll have my first and last months rent after my first paycheck.

Also, because bad luck comes in 3's (I think that's actually supposed to be 'good things' but, it sounded good), not only have I had to move out and spent 3 increasingly frustrating and depressing weeks searching, fuitlessly (until now) for a job but, my wonderful little LaCie 200G portable hard drive died just before Christmas. Thankfully I had a 2 year waranty but, suckily, try can't get my stuff back for me. I have to take it someone who does that and pray that they can and then sign my life away to pay for it.

Now Im sure you've guessed what I'm going to say next and yes. On that HD was everyting I own. To do. With. Scrapbooking. As well as any pictures that were not photos. So that means, all my LO's, all my tutorials with accompanying screen caps, all my 'inspiration' and quotes I want to use and hundreds of dollars worth of supplies (mostly daily freebies which I can't replace).

So now you know :). Don't feel too bad for me though. Things are looking up.

Happy Scrapping ♥