Sunday Scribblings Winter Tale

Sunday Scribblings prompt " A Winter Tale" All photos taken winter 2006, except the second to last one!

I love the winter where I live

Rainy days, and nights

I love the cozy evenings

Gleaming Christmas lights

I love snuggling under blankets

Around the flickering fire

Watching romantic movies

Or Comedies of my desire

I like the power outages

After wind has swept the streets

Serene Moments of darkness

Hearing my heart beats

I love compulsory conversations

Replacing bustle, and sound

Cards and board games

candles lit all around

I love those rare occasions

White blankets all the trees

Cleaning up the city

With a snowy breeze

I enjoy hibernating

In a home with hearth

Fixing that special meal

Validating the families worth

I love winter coats to bundle in

Wind against my face

Luxury of a loving home

My peaceful winter place.

Altered Lamp

This is the brass lamp I bought in the late seventies, early eighties. It was quite expensive back then. I know I bought it on sale. It fit with my wrap around wall unit and brown plaid couch. It had a beautiful different shaped silk shade the deteriorated over the years. It got knocked and there was a small rip in it! This is the best before photo I could find!

Here you can see I gessoed it, but you can still see the palm trees peeking through!

I first altered this lamp a year ago July when the family room and kitchen were freshly painted. Truthfully I despised it. Too Aztec looking for me, not my style. I used sparkling H2O paints so it's sparkly but just bugged me every time I looked at it!
That's the joy of being artistic...you can always change it up! I didn't like the old brass pattern of palm trees that showed through it either!

These treasures were dirt cheap at a closing out sale,. Unfortunately my original plan of incorporating the hearts didn't pan out, they were just too heavy! I'll save them for another project! The other plastic jewels worked well!

This is the air drying molding clay I used.First I rolled it out with a rolling pin, then molded it around the lamp. That was quite a feat when it became loose. I needed a second package just to get around all of it! Thankfully it shrinks and hardens when it drys.

I covered it with three packages of clay. Two the first day, where I molded around the jewels, then a third one I used as a filler the next day. It completely tightened around the lamp and jewels. The first clay I paid almost ten dollars for. The second two Pepper got at the flea market for one dollar each. The universe does provide I tell ya!

After that I painted it with acrylic paints. After it had dried for over a day I modge podged it to seal everything. I may also varnish it as an extra coating!

The lamp is actually darker, I lightened the photo too much.
I was using the inferior camera.The finished product is more true to life!
I changed the shade because I needed it for the my grandfathers antique lamp in my living room.The family room fireplace wall is painted black so it pulls it altogether.
Click on this photo to enlarge and get a more accurate view.
Here is the finished product and I love it. It's not for everyone, but it's whimsically me!

Happy Thanksgiving to All my American Friends

It's the American Thanks Giving, this was in my email. I wanted to share it because my heart truly believes this is how we manifest our dreams. When I look back at the most successful part of my life I was always grateful and daydreaming.I'd imagine it and then it would come to be. I'm even embarrassed at some of the things I wished for, and how they appeared. Even when I haven't been grateful there has been a lesson in it...changing my attitude changes my life. It really has and still does!

A Secret Scrolls message from Rhonda Byrne
Creator of The Secret

The greatest thief of human happiness and abundance is ungratefulness. Any lack in our lives - whether in money, health, or relationships - is simply the evidence of a lack of gratitude. If you focus on lack you are not being grateful, and that will bring more lack into your life. Yet the simple state of radiating gratitude summons everything to you.

No matter who you are or where you are, you can change your life with gratitude, but you must feel it with your whole heart and radiate it from every cell. Gratitude is not a mental exercise, and in fact, if you simply use your mind for gratitude it will have little or no power. True gratitude comes from your heart! You must think gratitude through your heart, speak gratitude through your heart, and feel it intensely in your heart.

Then practice gratitude relentlessly. As you practice gratitude you will attract more thoughts and feelings of gratitude. In a short time your entire being will be saturated with it, and you will experience a happiness that is beyond what you can imagine. This is what is ahead for you when you choose gratitude as your way of life. And if you can really live in this highest state of gratitude, you will never have to ask for anything. Everything you want will be given to you before you even ask, because gratitude is the magnetic substance that opens every single door in the Universe.

This Thursday is Thanksgiving in the United States. To celebrate Thanksgiving, I want to share an excerpt with you from The Secret Daily Teachings, which is being released in the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia on December 9th. This excerpt presents an easy way to start using gratitude and integrate it into your life by making every Thursday "Thank You Thursday." As you "Thank your way through every Thursday" you will open the most powerful receiving channel within you.

From The Secret Daily Teachings - Thank You Thursday

"Today is Thank You Thursday. Today and every Thursday is your day to say and feel "Thank you" in as many ways as you can.

Write a list of all the people and events you want to give thanks for.

Return thanks today to those who have done things for you.

As you walk say "Thank you" in your mind with each step you take.

As you drive, make each time you stop your cue to say "Thank you."

At various times in the day, think and feel "Thank you" inside you seven times in a row.

Look for every opportunity to say "Thank you" to other people, and say it with so much meaning that the person looks right at you.

Thank your way through every Thursday, and make "Thank you" your predominant thought, feeling, and words of the day.

"Thank you" - two words, inconceivable potential power, and all they need is you to put the power into them by expressing them.

Thank you!"


Excerpt from The Secret Daily Teachings

. . .

May the joy of gratitude be in your heart,

Rhonda Byrne
The Secret... bringing joy to billions

Today I am very thankful for my wonderful

American friends!

Store fronts and love language

I took these photos a few weeks ago when I went to the book launch.
Just goes to show there are so many way to express your creative nature.

Unfortunately one of our cameras in on it's last legs. We switch off, and lately I have had the deteriorating one so my photos are a bit grainy, and the lighting is off. It had a good run though. Peppers looking for a new one, she wants it small, simple to maneuver. She's had no luck. We love the ones we have now!

These stores are located on West Broadway in Vancouver British Columbia.
It's always fun to meander around there and fourth ave! Very inspirational!

I found a link on Violette's blog to discover what your love language is. I took the 30 second quiz , "Acts of Service" is my love language. When people do things for me I feel adored. Probably because I have served everyone my whole life. Even as a kid it was my job to care for, or serve someone! Now I feel so blessed when I receive a coffee at my computer. As I age I feel a bit more vulnerable, things like carrying cups down stairs with my bad knee can be nerve wracking. I do it, but I love it when someone else can do it.
When my daughter brings home a load of fresh veggies, or wraps all the Christmas presents. When Bryan washes the floor on his hands and knees, ( I use a vileda mop) but he does a better job. Don't get me wrong I L-O-V-E- my Vileda! When they clear out the fridge without being asked, or straighten the utensils it's royally appreciated.

We had company last friday and after dinner the kids quickly cleared up the plates. I am a considerate cook, (unlike my mother whose kitchen looked like a tornado hit,angering my dad that she forced me to clear up after her chaos). I clean as I cook, making sure to load and unload the dishwasher so it's ready after dinner. That way if I get help it's easy for them, if not it's easy for me, win win! It was so nice that they just popped up and started clearing and cleaning so I could visit with our friends.

I probably don't express enough what it means to me and I should. I reciprocate by doing things back. What is your love language? Take the test and let me know.

Scribble Soup Scrabble

Dream Goddess and I went down to our local nursery to see the Christmas decorations yesterday! Today is one month until Christmas, I'll be sharing the photos during the season. So many beautiful things to absorb.

Then off to the roadhouse restaurant in White Rock to split a chicken burger.
We often do that. It's less filling. That way if we're still hungry we can have dessert.
The food was scrumptious....definately gets my seal of approval! They have just moved next door and expanded. Half is decorated like the old place in fifties fashion,very vintage, the other half is done more formal with crispy white table clothes.

There were quite a few dolls in the Christmas displays,
this one sort of goes with the story below!

I'm loving the challenge of Scribble Soup, give it a try!

Your starting word is "meet"...Your first sentence must contain "meet"... For the next sentence, change one letter in meet eg. feet....Your second sentence must contain this word...etc...

We meet at the sky train station. I pick her up, drop my friend home, we carry on to return the green dishes I bought the day before. It was quite a feat to get there though. First we stopped at Princess auto to buy a gift certificate, and beat the Christmas rush. Costco was next to pick up my creamer. I found a seat on Peppers command, while she went through the check out with a huge load. The Cashier thought the bag I painted was so neat interrogated where she got it! After a quick bite, we left the store with piles of eats and a few treats!

London drugs was next, to get my money back, and find rollers I could heat. Yesterday I tried to roll my hair to my head. No heat, the rollers were dead. I bought some that weren’t much of a deal. The cashier was such a dear; she loved Peppers makeup wanting to know where it was from. Fascinated by my painted purse, suggesting I should make them to sell, then smelled our soap I fear! Each item she’d fondle then placed to her rear on the conveyor belt. It was late, she was slow, we didn’t want her to hear, we burst through the doors, laughed so hard, even shed a tear!

A bridge mix of blog!

Driving along with my friend yesterday I was dumbfounded to see a new bridge almost fully constructed. Where have I been? Hiding under a rock I thought...but I looked next to me and my friend was just as shocked. We giggled in fascination of how it just suddenly appeared out of no where....Were we in Alaska? Could this be the bridge Sarah Palen was speaking of....was it dropped a country down, into Canada? No it was just a new Golden Ears bridge linking to Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows British Columbia, where they used to load a few cars on a ferry boat and tote them to the other side of the river....PHEW....I am not losin it! The photo was taken from the car window.

My friend Dream Goddess and I shared a cookie and cinnamon bun with coffee in this nostalgic little diner, made up to resemble the fifties era! Located in Fort Langley it has lovely atmosphere,
with great baked goods and a nice lunch menu!
It reminds me of my childhood in North Vancouver!

Wee all the way home did a cool meme, the five things you want your child to know before they grow up! I could have copied her first four answers but chose my own.

1) There is only love or fear that drives your life. Ask yourself which one you are following. Personally I think love works better!

2) Perfection is a wasted energy for those with low self esteem; instead strive for your own personal best!

3) Relinquish the need to be right, it’s an ugly trait, no one wins, and eventually the truth will be revealed.

4) Be kind to everyone, give them the benefit of the doubt, everyone has a story, some worse than others. You never know when you may make a life altering difference!

5) What ever you do to another comes back ten fold. Karma baby, Karma! Honesty, generosity, and loyalty are amazing traits, don’t ever under estimate them!

Little Candy Store In Fort Langley. So adorable.

Morsels of goodies to tempt every sweet tooth!

Quaint and pretty, decorated to resemble the pages of a story book!

And on a lighter note .... here are five more things I want my child to know!

!)Always wear clean shoes and under wear….you can tell a lot about a person by their shoes…and everyone knows about the underwear!

2)Never eat the yellow snow! Need I say more!

3)If you have a jelly belly wear a loose top.

4)It you are a big bummy mummy, wear a long loose top

5)And if you have chubikin legs, don’t wear ankle socks and a dress! I’m just saying…it’s not a good thing!

Sunday Scribblings Grateful

Pepper and the babysitter she has as a child. There is a fifteen year age difference. They're great friends. Selina and hubby came for dinner and brought us a gigantic poinsettia, we had so many laughs over how big it is. Beautiful to say the least....it takes up a large part of the room!!

I always wanted Pepper to marry a guy just like Selina's man! She did!
The four of them hamming it up for the camera!

It matches lovely with the table I painted a while back! Now if only I could keep it alive.

Where are my dear friends plant goddess, garden gnome lover, and nature nanny? Feeling Christmasy yet with all this red and green?

There’s not a day that I don’t wake up absolutely grateful. So when I saw this Sunday Scribbling prompt I was excited.

Sure there are days when my knee is in pain, my energy is extremely low, or some other annoyance get me down. Like last year just before Christmas when my car broke down and was in disrepair for six months or when the pipes in my kitchen sink backed up or when I used the top compartment freezer as a fridge for almost a year. Sure I have gone a few years without a dishwasher; I’ve been through several cancer deaths, loss of a career, a debilitating illness and a nasty divorce. Still every single day I feel ever grateful for what I do have. A wonderful family and friends I thoroughly connect with on an intimate level, food on the table,things to keep me stimulated and a really nice roof over my head. Honestly I have so much goodness in my life; I have everything to be grateful. But if I happened upon a moment of discontent, I can turn on a television station, see children sick or starving, and I'm snapped right back to reality.

I’ve learned you can have everything and actually have nothing. I really had a deluxe life for years. I worked hard and played hard, I was super mom, and extraordinary wife. I was all, did all, for everyone. There were days I woke up at five A.M. showered, rushed off to turbo wash my car, vacuum the inside, drive half hour to work for a seven o’clock shift. That’s pretty much a metaphor for my life back then.

Now I am more like Pa Kettle….if anyone is old enough to remember those humorous movie gems. Slow going to say the least, instead of using energy to worry, I use it to create things. Instead of keeping my car clean weekly, I try to get my Sunday scribblings done! Yes I was really grateful back then…. But the true sign of being grateful is seeing all the wonderment and joy in life despite the upsets. I think I do that rather well! Of course I do it with the love and support of friends and family!

No hugs

August 08

May 07

He has ten beautiful children. His humor includes dry sarcasm garnering a smirk or two and a few intermittent laughs. It’s the only bond he has with his kids. Bustling to and fro, he readies for the gathering of his brood. Twenty seven including grandchildren and spouses.

Every type of liquor is available; none of the kids over indulge. Mother rarely deviates from her preferred instant coffee. He barbecues burgers when cued. The kids chat amongst themselves, a chance to catch up. Squabbles are unheard of with this crew. Frustrations bubble below the surface, past wounds callused over but unforgotten. A few uncomfortable rifts are smoothed over with idle chatter.

Mother is demonstrative and loving, dad is obviously proud. He rarely shows emotion, never hugs his kids. Instead he watches their interaction with a half smile, popping in and out of conversations with bits to share. You can see the contentment in his body language and on his face. When everyone disperses, my daughter makes a brave move and grabs him for a hug. Surprisingly he hugs her back! Now every time she leaves his home she ritually hugs him, and he lets her!

Scribble Soup Black

Taken on November 8th through a drizzled car window on my drive home.

I found this new site through Lilly, Scribble soup for writers block.

I really enjoyed this exercise, I hope you do too!

#17: Black is back

What rhymes with black? In two minutes write down as many words that you can think of that rhymes with black. Now in 8 minutes write a paragraph using those words.

Black attack smack wrack crack stack plaque

Jack Sack hack lack pack back flack lack Mack knack

rack track whack yak quack

Black is gone

Jack’s black mood

Hovered like plaque

On a decaying tooth

She wished he’d just pack

A sack and be done with it

Tired of all his flack

She wished him gone

The whack to the face

Was the final attack

The switch clicked to off

The marriage was void

She had a stack of reasons

Why it was over

That last smack solidified it all

Her knack to rectify past indifference

Had been squandered for years

On a quack who barely gave a damn

She continued to lay the delicates

On a rack to dry

Much like her life

The essentials were riddled

With life stains

Wracked with disrespect

Tired of the lack

She’d hack into her courage

Turn her back, look for a new Mack

A friend, a lover, a man who

Knew how to giggle and yak!

Unconscious Mutterings 303

This is a letter my friend wrote and had published in our provincial newspaper! It's the follow up to number 5 on my mutterings!

Published: Tuesday, November 18, 2008

My son and his friend have visited many countries with few problems and when they return home to Vancouver they feel safe and very comfortable.

My son tells me they travel smart, know the ways of the world and believe taking transit to downtown Vancouver and walking to their pub of choice is safe.

But on Friday night they went downtown, where my son was punched, kicked, thrown to the ground, choked and robbed.

His friend stood by helplessly with a knife held to his throat.

This is not an isolated incident. When did we give our city away? How can we take it back?

Unconscious Mutterings week 303 they say.....I think!

1. Please stop ::judging people from the outside in, we’re more than the bodies we reside in!
2. Move over :: and make room for each car to travel with ease.
3. Sweet as ::pie, my daughter when she’s at her best!
4. Bet ::you didn’t know I despise wearing socks, and my black jeep is 16 years old!
5. Mad about ::my friends son getting jumped, robbed and beat up by five men, while his friend stood watching with a knife held to his throat. This young fella traveled the world with no incidence of violence and here on his own turf this happens…..you bet I’m mad!
6. It’s over ::so get busy finding the best part of yourself and enhance it!
7. Intend to ::be more charitable when ever possible
8. Blame ::only yourself for past mistakes!
9. Jefferson ::Bill Jefferson Clinton
10. Heartless ::is the person who can walk past the homeless without acknowledging they may be mentally ill, or a child of abuse!