Rehearsals, Finales and Birthdays

Hello Monday.We had another busy weekend.  I`m not sure I`ll know what to do with myself if we ever get a weekend off!

We went to two performances of Westside Story at the school.  Erica took Musical Theatre this semester and her and 60 other students have been pouring their heart and soul into the production.  It showed.  It was amazing.  We saw Westside at the Stratford Festival a couple of years ago and this show was equally as good (I think even better!).  Erica was in the pit band playing tenor sax.  These kids literally rocked this extremely difficult score.  Music, band and theatre were such a big part of my life growing up and I`m so happy my girls have been able to experience the thrill of performance and the everlasting friendships it creates.

On Saturday it was the finale of the show and also Erica`s 17th birthday.  Happy Birthday Erica.  This has been quite a year! Show Choir, Westside, Africa!!!!, ski team, working! Wow! We are so proud to you.

While we were at the show on Friday Sydney baked dozens of cupcakes for Erica.

They were delicious!

Sharks vs. Jets!

On Sunday our attention moved to dance rehearsals for Sydney`s recitals this week.  

I can`t wait to see the show!

To Do and I Do.

Rainy days and Fridays never get me down.  Despite the monumental rain coming down today I had a great day!  I was able to complete this gorgeous wedding order of my vintage glass jewels.  The rich amethyst colour is so beautiful.  Somehow in all the doom and gloom the skies became just bright enough for me to take these pictures.

oh! so lovely.

If you ask me if I do custom work I would say 'I do'. I especially love to work on wedding orders.  I can work with you to create the perfect design for your wedding party that really reflects your style.  You can even send me a swatch of your dresses and I can help you colour match.

So for my other to do list - the garden did not get crossed off today (and it might not even on the weekend).  Our forecast is for rain, rain and more main.  This weather combined with our weekend activities which includes Erica's birthday, cupcakes, attending the school play, dance rehearsals, lacrosse equipment to purchase, etc. doesn't leave much time for gardening.  Anyways, garden work can wait and there's always next week.  This rain was really well needed so I'm sure the grass and garden are happy to soak it all up. 

Have a great weekend friends!

Bees, Blooms and Boos

Today was a day to be thankful for air conditioning. It's sweltering today.  Heat and humidity just doesn't agree with me.  I turn all red, I'm quick to get a headache and most importantly it plays havoc with my hair.  I had a lot of indoor work today and I didn't mind at all. In the afternoon though I decided to take a boo outside.  This expression was not something I had grown up with in fact it leads me to a funny little story.

Years ago when selling our first house we had a British family come through for a tour.  At the time of selling our girls were just babies (2 and nearly newborn).  Usually we would leave and take the girls for a walk when we had appointments but this one was in the evening and the girls were gearing down for the night.  I just tried to stay out of the way in our basement tv room.  As they were walking up the basement stairs I thought I heard the husband say "I'd just like to take a poo out in the backyard".  I know my eyes were as wide as they could be when I heard this and I really wasn't sure what to think next.  As you can imagine, I was quite relieved to find out he only intended to look around!

The bees are loving our lilacs right now.

e

We have several types of lilacs.  Our tree this year is particularly spectacular.  I will miss the smell of lilacs when the blooms are done.

So delicate and pretty are the blooms.

I had such good luck with Callbrachoa  last year that I bought them again.  Here they are in Mango.

Off to dance drop offs and the grocery store.
Have a great evening friends!

New Goodies in the Shop

You may have read my post last week (wow! that was already last week).  No wonder I can only manage about 1 post a week (maybe 2 posts if I'm really lucky).  The time just seems to be flying lately.  I had fun playing with all my beads.   I love the new colours.  So summery and fun to work with.  I came up with some really lovely colour combinations. Inspired by summer dresses with a touch of the candy shop.  Modern with a real vintage feel.  Perfectly feminine and fun!

Lemon yellow, mint green, sky blue necklace.

Sky blue bracelet. So light and easy on the wrist.

Gorgeous pink and mint green necklace.  A virtual ice cream cone!

Aqua and mint dangle earrings.

...more to come later this week!

Creative Candy

I've been so excited to dip into my new beads.  I think finally this week I will be able to have some uninterrupted creative time. Unloading my bags I see a lovely burst of summery colours.  Shimmery aqua blue, fresh mint, vintage green, opalescent blue, creamy pink and lemon yellow just to name a few.  My head is happily spinning with ideas.

 I love the unexpected colour combinations that I can already see as the beads roll around on my table.

Creative candy is so much better than real candy.  It gives me such an energy boost that's long lasting and calorie free. What more could I ask for?  I hope to have some new creations in my shop later this week.

The Call of the Wild...

This morning after two different trips to the school I sat at my kitchen table enjoying my 1st cup of coffee.  I make a pot of coffee everyday the same way but some days it tastes so much better than other days.  Today was one of the those better days.  It's slightly dark and overcast outside as it is still drizzling with remnants from an overnight storm.  I watched this visitor for a while happily munching on our dandelions.

 I realized it was so noisy outside and this time it wasn't the sounds of renovations or pool pumps on overdrive as neighbours open their pools for the season. No it was noisy with birds.  They seemed to be happily singing at the top of the their lungs.  There was one lone voice though that could be heard above all others.  Distinctive but for my untrained bird call ears I have no way of knowing what type of bird it was.  It really reminded me of my childhood though. Instead of commercials for pop and fast food (well, of course we had those as well) but in addition to those we had these commercials from the National Film Board of Canada. One minute informational vignetttes on our wildlife.  There was a distinctive opening which the bird call reminded me of.

I'm not sure exactly sure what programs I would have been watching to see these - Mr. Dress Up and the Friendly Giant would have been commercial free.  I doubt very much it was being picked up by the american affiliates while I was watching episode after epidsode of The Partridge Family and The Brady Bunch (those were good years!).  I definitely saw them all though...the beaver, the chipmunk....over and over.

Some pretty anemones in the garden.  One of my favourite flowers.

----

I'm quite pleased with the new template in terms of picture size.  My old template was quite narrow but I am now able to increase the size of my pictures.  Which I love!

Also, thanks so much for the comments on my new banner.  I think I'll keep it for a while.

Boring but Safe.

Morning friends.  Things might look a little different here.  A little bland at this point you might say. Last night when viewing my blog I got a warning about the templates and designs that I am using from Shabbyblogs (and many other bloggers as well).  Never had any problems using them over the years.  Maybe they've been hacked - it's not really clear - but I'm not taking any chances.  So I've deleted and cleared any and all designs I've been using from them.  I'll miss my happy little look and my little bird banner but I have no interest in taking chances with malware and viruses.

Of course, my former design took me hours and days to put together (not to mention all the hours just thinking about it!) and wouldn't you know it I don't have hours or days to do it right now.  So, I'm going to have to make some quick changes and use the general blogger templates.  So normally you might say please excuse my mess while I re-design my blog look but today I think it will end up looking cleaner than it ever has...maybe I'll like it and it will be the new me!

I apologize for any inconvenience.