not much

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Crochet art by Emily Barletta.

www.emily-b.net

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I love this wedding cake! I don't have a clue who did it as the blog I found it from didn't mention the source. Beautiful!

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Not much happening here. Sienna is sick & napping, Jay & Robin are selling stuff at a toy show, tons of snow and still more coming down, the printer isn't co-operating so can't really do any scrapbooking... This leaves me with... reading! I'm off to find a good book. I finished reading Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights recently and must say that is one dark book. Gloomy is probably a better word. Didn't really enjoy it that much but just kept on reading.
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where should we fly?

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Last Sunday we went to Jay's parents for a barbeque and to celebrate Jay's and two of Sienna's cousins' birthdays. Max and Linda had just come back from Spokane and they bought this fun airplane teeter-totter for the kids to play in. I hope it'll take adults' weight as well - I'm looking forward to trying it myself. :) The kids had fun. The wind was cold though. It was really hard to get Sienna off the plane. Can you blame her? :)

(I swiped this picture from Brandy's blog. Of course I had forgotten my camera at home.)

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Robin got himself a ride to a friend's place yesterday without telling us. He spent the night there. I thought Jay had arranged a ride for him and Jay thought I did. We figured it out later. That turkey! He's in big trouble when he gets home. He definetly needs to let us know if he's going somewhere.

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I was going nuts yesterday with my printer. It wouldn't print sepia pictures. They kept turning out green all the time no matter how many times I cleaned it. I wasted so much ink trying to get it to work. Time for a new printer!! I should find out about the Kodak printer featured in Celebrity Apprentice show. After all, the ink is supposed to be so cheap. :-D The companies featured on that show sure get good advertising.

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A friend of mine started a photography business here in Edmonton.

Check it out:

www.urbanalli.blogspot.com

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special day today

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From CB2 catalog.

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY INCREDIBLE HUNK!!

I LOVE YOU LOTS & LOTS & LOTS & LOTS & LOTS........

YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

eee

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I just want to quickly share couple of things from a book I've been reading lately.

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"So many things about our lives we cannot choose, but we can decide where our minds travel."

(Maurine Jensen Proctor)

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"Sometimes you come around an aisle in the grocery store and see somebody just standing there, looking back, waiting. It usually turns out that this person isn't doing this for fun. No, when you take a closer look you see they are waiting for a dawdling little child. Now, one kind of parent will be waiting there patiently, maybe even with a bit of a smile on her face. She might explain things this way: "I might as well be patient. I might as well relax while I wait, because this child of mine doesn't move fast, at least not when I want him to. Everything is fascinating and novel to him. He is absorbing it all, or trying to. This is his job as a child, and his job takes time. He's just doing his job. I brought him into this big interesting place. I knew very well what would happen. So I'm not surprised or offended if I have to wait in the aisles." And the mother might even add this: "Besides, my child is still on some sort of schedule he brought from heaven. I guess up there they don't care much about clocks or even calendars."

Or, on the other hand, we might find another kind of parent waiting in the aisle, the kind that stands there fuming, rolling his or her eyes, getting kind of crazy with impatience, saying those familiar words, "Can't you just hurry up?"

(Wayne Brickey)

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Please don't give yourself a guilt trip if you are sometimes the mother #2. I think we mothers tend to feel guilty about everything. I just loved that quote because it made me think how in each situation we can decide how we react. We can always choose "where our minds will travel". I'm sure we could all improve in patience. I know I sure could! Sometimes it's easier than on other days. But if we are conscious about our thoughts and how we can direct them in various directions, then we can do better than if we don't even give it a thought.

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Took Robin to the dentist yesterday. He has to go to the University Hospital dental clinic because if he needs any work done, they need to give him laughing gas. Long time ago, Robin restled his dentist to the ground (knocking a big plant down and everything) when he tried to give him a needle. :-D No cavities this time. His teeth are pretty nasty as he still has his first teeth (maitohampaat). They've had to remove many of them.

I had made a lunch for Sienna as we had to leave right after her nap. Guess who forgot it at home? Figures. :)

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Later... I guess some of Robin's teeth are permanent ones and many of them were still baby teeth and had to be pulled out as they had gone so yucky. Basically he hasn't got all his permanent teeth and probably won't get some of them.

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lemonade, where are you again?

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Katja from Skimbaco (please see the link on the right, I just don't have the time to do link stuff at the moment) challenged me to this awesome meme. I love it so I thought I'd do it quickly even though it's late.

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LIFE GAVE ME SOME LEMONS -

IT'S OK, I MADE DELICIOUS LEMONADE - MEME

Rules:

* Copy and paste these rules to your blog post.

* Link back to person who tagged you.

* Write about an incident in your life you first thought was really bad, but ended up being a blessing.

* Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.

* Let each person you tagged know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

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A few years ago, Jay and I were still selling toys and collectibles on eBay. We worked together from our home. Pluses: lots of time together, no commute to work, flexible hours. Minuses: a really messy home with shelves full of merchandise in our tv room and our basement was packed as well, got tired of taking packages to the post office all the time. Our home business was doing great. We were making good money. American dollar was really strong compared to Canadian dollar. It was great as all our sales were paid with US dollars. It got to the point where we felt like we had to move the business out of our home. Just for sanity's sake. I just couldn't stand having merchandise everywhere. We decided to look for an industrial business location. We weren't interested in opening a retail store so we just wanted a space where to put all the stuff and keep on doing eBay business. We were so excited. We started looking. And looking. And looking. And looking. And looking. We literally looked at any space available, yet found NOTHING suitable for us. We felt like we were jumping against a brick wall. It was terrible. We started to get pretty down about it. Eventually (after TONS of looking) we decided to open a retail store instead. As soon as we decided to do that, things started to go so smoothly and everything seemed to fall into place so quickly and without trouble. We were a bit reluctant to open another store again but felt that it was the only thing to do. A little later, the US dollar started going downhill and down went our income. Oops, it was actually at this point we decided we had to open a store, not before. Our income was dwindling away. We realized that us not finding an industrial location was a HUGE blessing. We would have been bankrupt if we had done so. eBay business just wasn't worth it anymore. We were making hardly any money anymore.

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So, here we are. We now own three retail stores (two with a partner). Now we are getting a bit tired of retail work. Anyone who has been in retail business knows that it takes forever to build your business and to see a good income from it. So here we are not doing great financially. We're doing ok but we sure don't have much extra money. We see light at the end of the tunnel but wonder how long until that end of the tunnel comes. We are getting up there in age (we are!) and don't have the patience to build a business it seems. We are getting a bit antsy about our business again and wonder if we want to keep doing it still. Things are up in the air for us once again. We are still hanging in there but for how long... ?? Now I'm looking forward to seeing how the current lemons will turn into lemonade. Can't wait! :)

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I HATE trying to decide who to challenge. Not everyone wants to do these things and I also hate leaving someone out. So, once again I'm just challenging anyone who is interested to do this. This is a meme that has real meaning and we can all receive strength from each other's experiences.

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doilies aren't bad after all

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I used to love crocheting doilies but I've never liked them in my house. Until now, that is. I love this idea of doilies on a duvet cover. I'd do black doilies on antique beige colored linen. Neat-o! :)
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I just had to come and tell everyone who I liked in American Idol tonight. I missed David Archuleta's performance so I can't say much about that. But I loved these three: David Cook, Christy Lee Cook and Jason Castro.

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I'll also give everyone a hint what my secret project is about: it involves TONS of scrapbooking. But that's all I'm going to say for a month or two.

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Sienna is going through one of her "I ain't sleeping" periods. She has a hard time going to sleep and then wakes up with nightmares. I've been bringing her in our bed couple of times which means hardly any sleep for Jay and I. We need a king size bed for these tough nights! Poor girl! I just don't think it's fair that a little girl has nightmares. Last night she kept saying there was an ant in her bed. Bugs scare her. I've been trying to get her used to them. We look at ants outside, check out what the ladybugs are doing, etc. It's so hard to see your little girl suffer in any way yet I know she'll she'll have lots of trials in her life just like the rest of us. They're such a big part of this life. *sigh*

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ps. I have quite enjoyed waking up to Sienna by my side in the morning. Good cuddles. Y

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worm bath & alien pie

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Tulen varmaankin kirjoittelemaan vahemman tanne noin kuukauden verran. Minulla on menossa "salainen projekti" joka vie suurimman osan vapaata aikaani. Mutta alkaa unohtako mua sentaan - kylla tulen postaamaan aina kun vaan ennatan. Tiedattehan mut. :)

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I'm probably going to be writing a bit less than normal here for the next month or so. I started "a secret project" that is taking a big chunk of any free time I might have. But don't forget me totally - I will post stuff still. You know me... :)

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I was getting Sienna ready for her bath the other day and she said:

"I wanna have a nice worm bath."

(worm = warm, that's how she says the word warm) :)

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Sienna once again gave me some pretend pie (she sure likes to feed her mommy). When I asked her what kind of pie it was, she said:

"It's alien pie."

Mmm... Yum-my again. :)

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mellow yellow

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All these pictures are for Elisa who needed some yellow to brighten her gray day. First ten pictures are from our home. So here we go: an ode to yellow.

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Yep, I love smiley faces. :)

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Jay just happened to bring some yellow flowers for me yesterday. Y***

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Notice the daisy hubcaps. What a fun car this would be!

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Gatorade for marathon runners.

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From Metropolitan Home.

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Kit & Lili onesie.

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Ceramics by Marie Torbensdatter Hermann.

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Wildflowers (weeds as Jay would call them) in Suomenlinna, Finland.

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Midsummer bonfire in Seurasaari, Helsinki, Finland. To celebrate the longest day of the year.

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Toivottavasti tama auttoi. Kaksi viimeista varsinkin muistuttaa etta kylla se kesa sitten aina tulee. Tule meille kaymaan. Meilla on keltaiset seinat. :-D

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