It seems that the summer has slipped by yet again and the kids are back to school without a hitch. It would also seem that lately I haven't had a great deal to blog about -- but in fact, it's been the opposite, I've had a lot to blog about and little time to do it. Apparently life happens, and there is little we can do to change that.
So let's look at what I've been up to.
Did you see my article on Craft Critique at the end of last month reviewing Alcohol Ink? This was a fun one to pull together. The cool news on this is that PartiCraft online magazine is also using it for their September issue (or at least they requested it). The gals at Craft Critique gave them the go ahead, but I haven't actually seen what they have put out. I've never heard of PartiCraft, have you?
My sister and I took the kids to the African Lion Safari the other day, and my daughter was soooooo thrilled to finally accomplish what she's wanted to do since we went to the Circus earlier this year -- ride an elephant. She of course didn't want to do it on her own, so I accompanied her. I'm pretty sure that this was a first for me too. I think as a kid I rode a camel, but never an elephant. For the record.....their backs are surprisingly bony! (and not all that comfortable).
Funny story actually -- while on the elephant's back, my daughter 'sniffs' and then very seriously says 'Do You Smell Something?' I couldn't help but laugh......because after do you think that it was 'the elephant' that she could smell!
Canadian Scrapbooker Basics is set to publish for the first time this month and should have been available on newstands effective September 1. Unfortunately I haven't seen it yet but of my layouts is supposed to be in there. I haven't heard otherwise so at this point I am only assuming. If you're new to scrapbooking, this might be a great pub for you to check out. Here's the deets on the issue as found at the Canadian Scrapbooker website.
"Canadian Scrapbooker Inc. is proud to present a limited edition of 5 exciting issues of Canadian Scrapbooker Basics “CSB” to be published over the next year and a half. This volume set will take you on a scrapbooking journey starting right from the beginning, removing any intimidation a beginner scrapbooker may feel when starting this wonderful hobby. It is designed to put the basics back into scrapbooking. Each additional volume will build on the one previous by adding techniques to help scrapbookers develop their skills. It will be extremely visually pleasing with easy to follow step-by-steps to ensure that the beginner scrapbooker is not intimated by this wonderful craft."
And just a few more miscellaneous comments:
On Friday this week, I've got another review running on Craft Critique, which is all about Picasa. I can't say much more at this point (you'll have to wait to read the article), but I can tell you that I love this software for digital image management! It rocks! Coincidentally, yesterday - Picasa 3 was released from Google and although I haven't downloaded it yet (I'm having some trouble with that), it sounds better than ever. You can get the announcement from Google about the new features here.
Speaking of Google, have you downloaded the new internet based web browser "Chrome" that debuted yesterday. This morning on my Google search page the download link was there, but now for some reason it's gone. Hmmmm.
We are just one month away now (almost) from our October 4 Crop For A Cause event. It's time now to get our registrations firmed up and set all of our best laid plans into motion. I'm getting excited! Will you be joining us? There's a link to the details in my sidebar and before to contact me if you need additional info.
I haven't loaded a Template in a while, and set aside a few while I was cleaning up downstairs the other day -- so watch for and update to this section next Tuesday (hopefully). I've got a cute little favour bag pattern in mind to load.
I've been busy busy busy over the last week or so making plum 'stuff'. The stuff would be jams, jellies, chutney and salsa. My sister has a whole whack of fruit trees in her yard, and one of them is yup, a blue plum tree! I'm pretty amazed at how much fruit (and jars of stuff) yield from this one lonely tree. Incredible! Here's a couple of random pics. That is of course not quite the complete set of preserves I cooked up -- I've given away a few already. For the record, this one plum tree has yielded:
- 4 pints of plum jelly (which is waaayyy too much work in my opinion)
- 10 pints of plum jam
- 4 pints of plum-peach jam
- 4 pints of chutney (most of which I bottled in 1/4 pint jars) and
- my personal favourite, 4 pints of plum-peach salsa (bottled in 1/2 pint jars)
I will eventually scrap all of this info along with the recipes I used for each of the batches. Now, I just have to figure out now how much sugar, pectin and other ingredients went into it all - and then of course find some people to eat it!!
That's about it for now....I hope not to be quite so absent from the blogosphere this month -- but for now I'll just keep my fingers crossed as I can't make any promises.
