In My World

Chall enge #5 - Stickers, die cuts, and rub ons   Stickers, etc. are another great challenge to me.  I have yet to find my perfect storage solution so once again I will be seeking inspiration from you. Stickers, die cuts, and rub-ons are some of the hardest things to organize because the different sizes and shapes pose many challenges. Rub-ons present their own challenges because if they aren't stored properly, they stick to each other and then they are useless. SORT : time to be ruthless. Consider if you are really going to use these items. If you bought a whole sheet of die cuts just to use one or two tags, why are you hanging on to the whole sheet? Those stickers you bought in 1999 were adorable then, but definitely not your style now, are they? So, sort into piles: TRASH, SELL, DONATE, TO KEEP PURGE : Throw out the TRASH pile. Bag up, and assign a price and your initials to the SELL pile and put them directly into the garage sale box. Make immediate arrangements to r...

I found this adorable little mini album while "visiting" Pintrest.  I'm planning on trying it out this week.  I think it would be an excellent gift idea.  I found the instructions here .

Enjoy!

Mom and I went to see the Downton Abbey movie at the local theatre this past week.  You know how "these things" can go so very wrong but I can honestly say I was enthralled.  It was brilliant.  And be seeing it on the big screen it was easier to see all the details of the beautiful costumes and furnishings.  I will not go into details because I don't want to spoil the event for anyone who hasn't seen it yet. The best part is that you don't have to have watched the TV series in order to follow the movie . . . but . . . it was so nice to see our favourite characters again and how they have changed and, more importantly, stayed the same.  I really loved the downstairs mutiny.  (oops! I guess I let one spoiler slip) Dame Maggie Smith (aka the Dowager Countess) is her wonderful ascerbic self.

I know I've seen these in the grocery store but I don't think I've ever tried one.  Can someone tell me what they are like or do I need to go out and buy my own . . . LOL? CLEARLY SIMPLE There’s only four (4) simple, non-GMO ingredients in your favourite Clearly Canadian Original. 1 - Carbonated Spring Water From Canada's finest natural water sources 2 - Pure Cane Sugar Sweetened with non-GMO cane sugar (25 grams / 325ml bottle) 3 - All Natural Flavouring The natural essences of your favourite fruit flavours 4 - Citric Acid For shelf life and a little extra zing https://clearlycanadian.com/en-ca/

We started from Gananoque ON with some pretty ambitious plans today.  First item on our list was to visit Fort Henry in Kingston ON.  There is a special promotion right now that we were happy to take advantage of.  We paid full price for our visit to Upper Canada Village at the beginning of our trip and that allowed us free passes to Fort Henry.  It works the other way around as well.  Another thing I learned is that if the entry fees to all the National Historic Sites we visited total to more than the cost of a season pass, we might be entitled to a refund of the overage.  I'll be adding up our fees and if we meet the criteria, we'll see if I'll get the refund over the cost of a season pass.  I'll let you know how that goes. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and the fort is very interesting.  I'm so glad we went.  Hold on tight, Hal.  You really don't want to fall in! ...

I really did enjoy watching 12 Years a Slave.  I found most of it to be dramatic and well-acted.  My only disappointment was the way the ending was done.  It seemed like the director said "well I'm bored now" and really rushed the end.  Is the book like that too?  I've never read it myself. Did you know the original book was writter by Solomon Northrup (the main character in the book and movie) who was a farmer and professional violinist in New York until he was tricked, drugged, kidnapped and sold into slavery?  Well, I didn't know that.  I am going to add this book to my to read pile which is so long I will probably by 89 before I actually open the front cover. Did you ever watch the movie?  What did you think? Academy Awards, USA 2014 Winner Best Motion Picture of the Year Brad Pitt Dede Gardner Jeremy Kleiner Steve McQueen Anthony Katagas 12 Years a Slave (2013) became the first film directed and produced by a black film...

Declining your ballot: Not in the next federal election The federal government has no interests in changing the federal elections law in the near future to allow voters a chance to register a declined vote, a form of protest vote that hit record numbers during the recent Ontario election. JORDAN PRESS, OTTAWA CITIZEN   Updated: June 25, 2014 Voting  ASHLEY FRASER  /  OTTAWA CITIZEN SHARE ADJUST COMMENT PRINT The federal government has no plans to change its elections law so that voters can register a declined vote, even though that form of protest hit record levels in Ontario’s recent election. The Conservative government made sweeping changes to the federal election law this year through the Fair Elections Act, including detailed rules around voter identification at polling stations. However, the office of Democratic Reform Minister Pierre Poilievre said this week that the government “has no plans to amend...

It's Week 4 of the Get Organized Challenge Tools and Adhesives Gather together all of your tools and adhesives into a big box and let's start S.P.A.C.E. ing them! Sort :  one by one, put each item into piles: FAVOURITES, TRASH, TO SELL, STORE, DONATE.  Purge :  For the SELL pile, bag up and assign a price and your initials to tools and adhesives that you don't love or use anymore and put them in your garage sale box. Throw out the TRASH pile. Arrange pick-up or drop-off of the DONATE pile. Assign :  Store your most used items in a basket or box or other system right on your desk, within easy reach. Divide the STORE items into categories that make sense to you: cutting tools, pens, punches, templates, etc.  Containerize :  This is the time to tidy up your tools. Tools need regular maintenance to keep them efficiently working. As you put your tools away in whatever container (drawers, shelves, boxes, baskets - always ensuring the container is clearly...

This chicken dish was a hit with everyone at our last family dinner. I used much more stuffing than this photo and my chicken was really juicy as a result.  This photo was borrowed from Google since my chicken dish disappeared before I could take a photo . . . LOL. 2 chicken breasts, skinned and boned 2 tbsp Dijon mustard 4 cups spinach 1/4 cup olive oil 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar 1/4 cup cubed feta cheese 1 tsp chili powder 1/2 tsp garlic powder 1/2 tsp onion powder 1/2 tsp sea salt 1/2 tsp ground black pepper Butterfly the chicken.  Coat the inside of the chicken breasts with mustard. Chop the spinach and place it in a mixing bowl.  Combine spinach with half the olive oil, the vinegar, feta cheese, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, sea salt, and pepper.  Mix well.  Place the spinach mixture on top of one breast and then place the other chicken breast on top.   Coat liberally with the remaining olive oil. ...

I had to borrow this photo from Google.  I wish I'd taken a photo of the soup I made. 3 tbsp olive oil 1 small red onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic, chopped 4 cups cauliflower florets 4 cups vegetable stock 1/2 tsp dried thyme 1/2 tsp dried basil 1/2 tsp sea salt 1/2 tsp ground black pepper 1 cup light cream or whipping cream 1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese 1 apple, thinly sliced Heat the oil in a medium-sized pot.  Saute the onion and garlic for 3-4 minutes, or until the onions are translucent. Add all the other ingredients, except the cream, blue cheese and apple.  Bring to a boil then reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes Using a hand blender, puree the soup until smooth.  Gently stir in the cream and blue cheese.  Garnish with apple slices. Note:  Not everyone was excited by the idea of blue cheese in their soup so I left it out and put a bowl of crumbled blue cheese on the table with the apple slices.  Thi...

Except for one stop to pick up a letterbox and the occasional Tim Hortons stop, today was spent driving from Quebec City to Gananoque ON.  Translation . . . I dozed and Hal drove. We had planned on supper at our hotel, Ramada by Wyndham Gananoque Provincial Inn (how's that for a confusing long name?), but the restaurant served only Indian and Pakistani cuisine.  There was not even a sandwich or burger on the menu . . . sigh . . . I would have been fine but you know Hal wasn't having it. Supper was at a nearby Chinese Buffet (Hal even had a Chinese beer called Tsingtao) and then we settled into our room for the evening.  We have Sportsnet so we are watching the Raptors game. Looking forward to being home tomorrow.

It's Time for Challenge #3 So, your paper is beautifully organized, your scraps carefully stashed or purged, and your desk is gleaming! You are starting to get organized. Doesn't it make you feel creative? Don't you want to get cropping? Well, you CAN'T scrapbook without PHOTOS! Our third challenge is to organize our photos. Here is an excellent article to get you thinking about how to organize those precious photos before we start to  S.P.A.C.E.  them: https://www.scrapbook.com/articles/organizing-and-storing-your-photos-and-negatives Please take a moment and read this excerpt from Design Strategies for Scrapbookers: Photo preservation begins with safe storage.   Remove photos stored in the old magnetic albums immediately.  A magnetic album has cardboard pages with adhesive on them and a plastic sheet to cover the photos.  The adhesives and plastics in these albums are highly acidic and can ruin your photos very quickly. To safely ...