Guest Blogger: My Diorama Daughter

Hi!I'm Lizzie.I am Ollie's daughter. This is my indian village, your probably wondering what that swirly thing is on the teepee,it's a long piece of sausage. The reason I made this is because my homeroom teacher Mr.B assigned it,he said to the class,"You shall all do either a diorama,or a essay".Of course I chose the diorama. Then he said,"It is due:February 29 2008". I did a little research,then a couple days later me and my mom went out to Michaels.We bought some clay there. Then when we got home I started my diorama. About one and a half days later here I am finished. Then the day it is due I'M SICK! Great! 

These are the tribe's horses. The horse is an important traveling device for the natives. 
Don't get too close! It's fire! Oops, sorry, false alarm, it's just a fake fire. Does the thing next to the fire look like anything you remember? That's right! It's a canoe! The natives usually cooked their food over the fire,if it was meat,of course!  
Aren't these the cutest?!I made them myself! All they are is PRIMO clay baked in the oven at 130C[275F for Ollie's friends in the U.S.A.]. The little grey and white thing in the background is a candle made of buffalo fat[again made out of clay]. 

Good Bye Mrs. Whiney Pants

Oh my. I've just been miserable for the past week or so. Stressed to the max and although I totally internalize most of it (not the healthiest thing to do), I feel like a horrible person. I feel like I've neglected my family and my pets and my house. But I'm done. Yes!!! I wrote my ethics final this morning. I have never been so excited to walk out of an exam. I almost floated out of there, plus I think I might have even done well, even better. This is a picture of me yesterday before I left for my final day on pediatrics. It was a fun rotation and I think I might like to work there, but I'm so tired right now.

I've had this book propped up on my desk for about a month now, still wrapped in the plastic. I promised myself I wouldn't open it until I finished my course. So today I came home and ripped off the plastic. It's such a lovely book. I'm going to savour it for the rest of the afternoon. Then I think I might finish my apron for the Sassy Apron Swap. Totally forgot about that deadline and just relax. Aaah, relax...

Thanks to everyone for the kind words of encouragement. I made it!

Sore throat & boredom

My sweet Lizzie has been home sick for two days now. The novelty of being home on a school day wore off after the first hour or so. Cartoons have been watched, books have been read, Horse Isle & Webkins websites updated, and video games played. Plus mom is busy studying and going to school, so I'm not a great companion for her. Poor little girl.

I would just kill for the opportunity to stay home and do nothing. Isn't that just the thing with mothers? We can be deathly ill, but still feel the need to clean the bathroom. I have such a hard time doing nothing. I always have to have a project in my hands. I can't even watch tv without knitting and/or reading a magazine or book at the same time. I think I have a problem.

Tomorrow the big exam day, so I've been studying like crazy. I can't wait until 1:00pm tomorrow for it to be all over, until finals start that is.

Update: I just realized the irony of complaining about being too busy studying to be a good sick companion to my daughter, yet taking the time to update my blog. However, this is one of the things keeping me sane right now!

One down, two to go

Are these glasses pretty? I love these glasses even though they are just from Ikea. But you know what, they are dirty, dirty, dirty. They've gone through the dishwasher yet they still have little pieces of grit attached to them. In fact all my dishes have grit attached to them. We've taken the dishwasher apart and cleaned all the little compartments. I've tried every rinse agent I can find and numerous types of dishwashing soap. So now I've decided just to hand wash everything. It's a bit of a pain, especially when I've feeling particularly tired and lazy, but I get a sense of satisfaction from seeing my nice, shiny, clean glasses at the end. And I think it might be more environmentally friendly? That I don't know.

Thank you for reading my little rant. Oh, and I finished my paper. One more read through and I'm sending it off. Two more days and I should be free of biomedical ethics FOREVER. Yeah right, like I'll never deal with ethical issues as a nurse....at least I won't have to study it anymore!!!

A little confession

No I didn't decide to run away to Hawaii, thought I've contemplating running off to several places the past few days. Apparently, I have no self-control! Admittedly, this is not much of a surprise to me.

I've been sneaking peeks into your blogs for the past couple of days. My only excuse is it gets me through the madness. I am still working on my paper. It's past midnight and I'm trying to figure out how to stretch out the three pages I've written so far into six (yes, I double space). This is a crazy week coming up for me, but I've decided that I can't stop blogging. I miss it too much. Less than two months now and I'm hooked.

I know I'll get through this week, I always do. My husband will be the first to tell you that I'm a total drama queen. I stress about assignments and worry that I'll fail and drive everyone crazy with my fretting. Then I always pass with flying colours. I think being a perfectionist and a neurotic is a bit of a bad combination sometimes. Actually, it's probably a bad combination all the time.

The picture above is from Hawaii last Christmas Eve. I had a crazy sunburn from being on the beach all day, but I was loving it. How I wish I was there right now...

Exercising a little self-control

I think I've said before how much I love having a blog. It's been so fun reading the comments and meeting other bloggers with similar interests. Having said this, I find myself spending more and more time on the internet and less and less time focusing on my schoolwork. 

I realized yesterday that I don't have two full weeks left in February, just a mere 7 days, in which I have to study for two major exams and write an ethics paper. So I am putting myself on a self-imposed hiatus, until I produce a reasonably well-written paper and some study notes. Hopefully knowing that I cannot visit any blogs will be enough enticement to spur me on to completion. However, I've also added some additional awards for myself such as eating sushi & watching a chick-flick tonight. I'm all about the rewards.

For now I'll leave you with these beautiful flowers Javier surprised me with last night. I think they are so pretty and springy. Plus they smell fantastic.

This is me playing with the macro function on my camera and obviously procrastinating.

And this is a shot of my blooming hyancinth (also taken with the macro function) that I bought to replace the amyrillis.

Okay, enough. Wish me luck!

A Few More Things to Share

I love stationery. Sometimes, when I have a spare moment, I'll just browse the aisles of Staples, just looking at the fun little pens and sticky notes. Calgary has a fantastic store called Reid's Stationers that is absolutely delightful. I could spend hours browsing through the notebooks and greeting cards and drooling over the really expensive pens.

I went to a lot of stores on my recent trip to Toronto, but I'm pretty sure these fun little items came from a store called the Papery on Queen Street West. They had bin after bin of these wonderful little Japanese creations. Most of these went to my daughter, but I kept the mushroom shaped page markers for myself. A girl's gotta have some cute to keep the textbook reading interesting. The little guy with the blue hat is a pencil sharpener and the other mushroom is a tape dispenser. The little white container holds the teeniest little pencils. I could have bought so many other things in that store. I didn't even consider buying paper. It would have been just too crazy.

These bunnies just insisted on coming home with me too. They jumped into my basket and we were off. I think we'll use them with some string to hang some photos on Lizzie's wall.

I taught Lizzie how to knit and crochet last year and she's been working at it sporadically. She knits like crazy for a while, then doesn't touch it for months. I thought these little sheep would encourage her to keep going. If not, I have no problem adding them to my knitting needle collection.

I found this little bird in a charming shop also on Queen Street. I can't even speculate on the name of the store anymore. It's just a blur of wonderment and delight in my memories, somewhat like the view from a carousel. I just loved the "imperfectness" of him, with his chips & cracks. He, along with a 3" high model of the Eiffel Tour, has moved in on one my shelves in my office area. his name is Jeffrey (yes, I'm one of those crazy folks that name my possessions).

What I did (or actually am still in the process of doing) during Reading Break

I swear this is a huge improvement over what my basement looked like this morning. 

See--you can actually see bare floor in the following photo.

My basement is my dirty little secret, literally. I am proud to show off the rest of my home, a lovely 2-storey 1910 home that has been lovingly renovated and restored (not by me). Usually when a tour of my home passes the basement door, I mumble "thatsjustthebasementyoudontwanttoseethatohdidyouseethekitchen" before my guest realizes what has happened. I've divided the "junk" into four separate piles.

1. What we can't live without - this includes Christmas, Halloween & other holiday decor, luggage, camping supplies, old lamps (just in case) & folding chairs, plus some other things I can't seem to get rid of (old vcrs anyone?)
   
2. What can be taken to the thrift store - clothes and toys that Lizzie has outgrown, clothes and toys that I have outgrown (clear throat here and move on), old books & magazines
   
3. What can be recycled - old boxes and paper products & an odd assortment of plastic packaging
   
4. What has to go to the landfill - I've tried to limit this as much as I can, still there are things that just can't go anywhere else. I won't mention them here, lest you think any less of me.
   

The basement is just one of my numerous projects on the go this week as I relax and enjoy my break from school. I won't list the other projects here because then I have to commit to actually doing them. However, you can be assured that they include sewing, knitting, painting, cleaning, and maybe the opening of a text book or two.

I still have to show off the things I bought on my getaway but here's a little peak.

Isn't she sweet? Her name is Barbabelle. I loved watching the adventures of Barbapapa & family when I was little. I found part of an episode here. My family owns a couple of Barbapapa books, one in French. Relying only on my limited high school French and pictures, I faithfully read the book to little Lizzie years ago every night before bed. Does anyone else remember Barbapapa? I'm not even sure if it was just Canadian or not? Anyone know?

I had the time of my life...la la la

Okay I promise not every post will start with a quote from Dirty Dancing. I did have the most wonderful time. It was a really nice break from the monotony of everyday. Here's a few (actually more than just a few) of my favourite moments...

1.  Walking mile after mile around Toronto. I wandered really. I miss just walking. It's too convenient to hop in the car and drive wherever I need to go, especially in the winter. My whole body ached after my first day of shopping.

2.  Sitting in the hotel lobby after seeing Dirty Dancing, drinking piping hot Blueberry Teas, chatting, and people watching with my darling, Javier.

3. Reading my book and enjoying a leisurely breakfast 3 days in a row, that I didn't have to prepare first. I walked in, chose my selection from a variety already laid out, and relaxed.

4. Spending part of the afternoon catching up with an old friend whom I'd lost touch with. We hadn't seen each other in almost 10 years! It was awesome.

5. Window shopping! There are so many wonderful stores in Toronto. I bought a few things, which I will share with you later this week, but mostly just browsed. I love dreaming...

6. Feeling completely overwhelmed by the yarn store of my dreams...Romni Wool. Yarns of every fibre, colour & weight to the rafters. Plus a basement full of deeply discounted dicontinued yarns. Sigh...

7. Meeting one of my personal heroes at the yarn store. I was paying for my selection and recognized a voice next to me. It was this AMAZING woman, Cathy, who is a street nurse in Toronto's inner city neighbourhoods. I saw her in a video I watched during one of my nursing classes and she blew me away, almost to tears. If I was still in Calgary, I would work as a street nurse. Fortunately, Medicine Hat does not have the same opportunities. I can't really describe how it felt, meeting this woman. I was speechless, and then I completely embarrassed myself by throwing my arms around her and giving her a huge hug. Okay, a little weird, but I couldn't help myself. We chatted a while about knitting and nursing. It was one of those random encounters that you wonder if they are truly random after all. It was my favourite part of the whole weekend and so inspiring.

8. Touching the Stanley Cup. I'm not a hockey fan, not even a little bit, but I accompanied Javier to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Even I felt a bit awed by the evidence of such talent & tradition. Javier is a major hockey fan and it was his favourite moment, I think.

9. The constant activity in the city. I'm a big city girl at heart. I love the noise and people and constant "goings on", even late at night.

10. Getting a manicure before heading out to my day of wandering and shopping. It's looking a bit worse for the wear 3 days later, but it was marvelous. Normally, I don't go for the bright red fingernails as we can't have it when we are nursing, but I'm off for the week, so a treated myself.

We've returned now, back to Medicine Hat. I'm always glad to come home to my wonderful house. I missed little Lizzie, but I didn't miss my cats. 

Images courtesy of the following sources, in this order: www.germes-online.com; www.amazon.com; www.photo.net; www.craftlover.wordpress.com; www.kcap.toa.ca; www.hockey.thetazzone.com; www.minimike.net.

Nobody puts baby in a corner

10 points to whoever knew what movie this is from? Better yet, who saw this movie when it first came out in the theatre? I did, I did. Man, I feel so old. I remember feeling so naughty going to a movie called "Dirty Dancing", especially when one of my girlfriends told me there was a shot of Patrick Swayze's butt in the movie. Gasp!

Sorry I've been MIA for a few days, but Javier and I were off to Toronto, in case you didn't figure that out from my previous post. It was fabulous and I'll give you all more details tomorrow.

Going to "Dirty Dancing: The Classic Story on Stage" was one of the highlights. I loved the movie and was almost a little embarassed to tell people what we were going to do, but the musical was so fun, despite the drunk couple behind us who insisted on singing along with the songs and pointing out each scene play by play. Who gets drunk and goes to a musical? I had to "shush" them a few times.

The play followed the movie very closely adding a few scenes about the 60s civil rights movement that didn't really add much to the story. The dancing was amazing and I'm totally inspired to take dance lessons. I just know with a few lessons I could absolutely do what they were doing (ha ha ha ha ha). I fell in love with the costumes. I'd love to wear one of those gorgeous dresses every day. I'm sure it wouldn't be impractical at all, especially with a cute little apron over top.

It was definitely a fun way to spend an evening and I would recommend it to anyone who likes musicals.

Happy Family Day (or President's Day to my American friends), and to all who are enjoying Reading Break, have a fun week!

Love is...

Tucking your wife into bed with a kiss on the forehead after she "accidently" falls asleep reading.

Letting your spouse bring a tv into the bedroom

so he doesn't get lonely during overnight shifts at the hospital.

Weekend trips to Toronto, complete with spa treatments, shopping & a musical.

Giving hints for Scrabble words and giving up your own 

really good scoring opportunity.

Surprise notes written on the inside of cupboard doors.

Bringing home trashy mags to a sick wife.

Giving up the "good" grilled cheese and keeping the burnt one for yourself.

Silly little insider jokes.

Have a Happy Valentine's Day celebrating the things that define love in your own house.

Lessons in Life

We had a couple of sad events take place this weekend. For Lizzie really, and by extension of her pain, for me too. Javier takes a more realistic "tough guy" approach. Lizzie and I had a couple of minutes to spare between taking our cans & bottles to the recycling depot and moving on to the birthday party, so we decided to visit the puppies at a local pet shop. Little Lizzie fell head over heals in love with a little puppy. She knew in her little heart that we were not going to get a puppy, but you can't control your heart right?

We travel far too much to bring a puppy into the house and we don't think it would be fair to kennel a dog. However, the look on her face almost made me want to go over to the counter, plunk down my credit card, and prepare for some hardcore puppy training. That was my mother instinct. Thankfully, my practical instinct kicked it and made me realize how mad Javier would be to come home to a puppy!

She was pretty subdued for the rest of the day and even the following morning. I asked her what was wrong and she said, with a big fat tear running down one cheek, "I think I have a pretty bad case of puppy love".  Awww.

The puppy above is similar to the one in the store. Image source: http://members.shaw.ca/crystaljems

We left the puppies and moved onto another pet store that specializes in fish, so Lizzie could spend some of her "hard-earned" recycling money on some fish for her aquarium. 

She saved her money and bought her own tank at the beginning of January, along with Tom & Jerry (in above picture). I thought this was a great idea, until I realized I'd be the one cleaning the tank.   Oh well, anything for the little girl right?

Anyway, she's had the tank for over a month and she wanted a couple of new fish, which she purchased. We followed the store's instructions and released the fish into our tank. One did a couple of loop-de-loops and promptly flopped down on the bottom of the tank, belly up. The other lasted for about 12 hours, before joining his dearly departed friend at the bottom of the tank. It was a sad, sad day. She christened them Chester and Brightheart before we surrendered them back to the store, because she felt they couldn't go to heaven without names. Again, awww. 

All in all, it was not a successful weekend for pets. She's smiling again though. She never stays sad for long.

(side note: the store agreed to give us new fish once we fixed the water quality in our tank)

Favourite Corner #2

This is little Lizzie's bed. It is also the place I climb into every week day morning for a brief snuggle as we discuss our day's plans together or simply doze for an extra few minutes. These moments together started after I got her some flannel sheets for her bed. Little girls also make great heaters, so the combination proved too irresistible. This bed is also the place where she and I read before bed and say our prayers together.

It is a very girly room. Bubblegum pink. Her choice and it is filled with lots of little girl clutter. We have very close friends who have a son one year younger than Lizzie. He REFUSED to even go into the room. He stopped at the threshold like there was some type of invisible force field barring the way.

The decorating is mostly her idea. She's pretty set in her likes and dislikes. I like things a bit more subtle. I've also given up trying to make the room too decorated or tidy. It's definitely her space, but once in a while I think I'd like to go and hang out in there, put on some music...

Select a book from the shelves...

And while away the afternoon, soaking up little girl vibes.

Update on the coffee situation: I settled with the tea in the morning, but early afternoon I had to go anyway, and just so happened to go by the coffee shop for my daily fix. I've decided that right now is not the right time to give up my coffee. Too much school stress. Maybe I'll just wait until work stress is all I have to deal with...or maybe I'll just forget about giving it up all together! Who knows?

Update on name situation: I decided that my nom de plume will be Ollie. Thanks for the advice! 

The best laid plans...

Sometimes I'm just to clever for my own good. In my continued efforts to give up coffee, I decided the best thing would be to just get rid of all the coffee in my house.  This was a couple of days ago. So today I woke up and what did I want? Coffee, nice strong coffee.  And what did I have in my cupboard...decaf tea. I'm so sad.

Balance

I was sitting down today to write about the struggles of balancing life. You know, school, family, everything. However, I usually start by selecting whatever pictures I want to include and today the pictures seemed to take an awfully long time to upload onto blogger. I took the time to visit a few blogs and Liz's post from yesterday made me change my mind.

I am so grateful that I have this opportunity to go to school. I work a shift at the hospital once in a while, but mostly I just concentrate on school and family. I complain about not being able to do whatever I want, but really, I am doing what I want. Every paper I write is getting me closer to my dream of being a nurse. It doesn't matter that my house is a mess and I just can't finish some of my crafting projects. I don't have to create gourmet meals every night (or any night for that matter). It may be cold outside, but I've got a lovely warm house to come home to everyday and people that love me.

It doesn't matter that the inside of my head (and the top of my worktable) looks like this....

or I'd rather be doing this...

The point is I have the choice to do whatever I want. So today, I will go get a coffee and muffin from my favorite cafe, buy some flowers to brighten up the dreary day, pick up Lizzie from her sleepover and delivery her to another birthday party (the girl is a party animal and social butterfly), work on my school project, and relax with my family tonight. And I will be thankful for every minute of it.

Another WIP Completed

I'm having a lot of difficulty completing my school work these days. Other things seem so much more important, like making an pouch for the Ipod Touch Javier gave me for Christmas. It's a very cool little gadget, but I was worried about it getting all scratched and I wasn't impressed with the covers that were available, so I set to knitting myself one. No pattern. Just a ball of yarn and some knitting needles.

It's not the greatest looking thing but I think it will do the trick. I added a little pocket to the back to hold the earphone and used a vintage budget to keep it closed. I made a crochet chain to wrap around the whole thing to keep the flap from flying off and launching my precious music across the room.

The inside is lined with some inexpensive poly-cotton I had lying around and I also put a layer of felt it to provide some padding. 

Like I said, it's probably is not the best looking ipod cozy out there, but at least I can wrap up my ipod and through it in the bag. 

By the way, thank you to everyone who has taken the time to post. It's really encouraging and getting little notes makes blogging even more exciting.

Puppets

I always have the very best intentions, but often my intentions are bigger than my schedule or abilities will allow. I long to be one of those people who send thank you notes and little gifts at whim, but often dates pass without popping anything in the mail. I think that maybe I'll be able to do this when school is over, but who knows? Sadly, maybe I'm just not blessed with that gene.

I have friends in Vancouver that have two sweet little boys and try as I might, I always miss their birthdays. This year, I tried to make up for some missed events and I made this puppet theatre. Excuse the photo and wrinkly fabric. I figured it would probably get even more wrinkled in the mail, so I didn't bother with the iron. It was a fun project and I especially like making two dragon puppets to go along with it. I wish I'd taking better pictures of them. The pattern is from Bend the Rules Sewing by Amy Karol.

Once again I'm stick in the "when is winter going to be over" and "I don't want to go to school anymore" doldrums. I have such a hard time concentrating on school stuff. There are so many other projects that I want to do, plus I seem to spend far too much time on the internet. I was reading a post earlier this morning at Flossie Teacakes that made me think of what's important. I just have to keep that in mind and remember that school is only temporary and I'll have the rest of my life to do what I want. Even better, I have a wonderful family that supports me through it all and they are what is truly important.

Have a nice day!

Introducing my family

It took me about a week after starting this blog to confess to my husband what I was doing. I was exactly hiding anything from here. It was more that I thought he'd tease me mercilessly for jumping on the 'blog'wagon. In the end, it was no big deal, as long as I promised to maintain our privacy by not using our names or posting pictures of him without his consent. I first planned to use our initials, but it seems a bit impersonal. So I gave my family the choice of their own aliases. So without further ado, I would like to introduce you to...

Javier. I'm not really sure where this name came from other than we both love Spain (our honeymoon was there). As you can see from this picture, he is dark and handsome with an affinity for small, furry feline animals. What you can't see here is how tall he is and how kind and funny and charming he is. This picture was drawn about 4 years ago by our daughter at age 5. It now hangs on my craft room wall.

Lizzie or little Lizzie. This was her choice for a name, and I think it suits her quite well. You'll see plenty more of her and all her various activities, so I won't say too much for now.

Me (crow's feet and all). I don't plan to refer to myself in the third person very often, but I guess I need a name too. I'm having difficulty coming up with one, so I'd like your assistance readers. A couple of suggestions have been Lolita or Lola, but I'm not convinced. To help you out, here are a few random things about me...

• I love rabbits. We had a population of domestic rabbits in our old Calgary neighbourhood and I used to look like an idiot trying to catch the little baby bunnies. I miss them.
  
• I am completely addicted to caffeine. I've been trying to cut back, but have not been completely successful. I need my coffee or I'm just not happy.
  
• I didn't figure out what I wanted to do "when I grew up" until I was already grown up, but now I know I want to be a nurse more than anything.
• Every cupboard in my kitchen is organized by type, size, and colour, except for my pantry, which I can't seem to keep tidy. I think I may be slightly obsessive-compulsive.
• I cannot sit and watch television without having something to do. I'm a great multi-tasker.
• I love tulips. I made my wedding bouquet with tulips from the local market.

So there you have it. Me in a very small nutshell. Tell me what you think.