Scissor Quirk

The Right Nows/Hello October.

October. How can you be here already?? I'm still thinking that it's January, this year has flown by so quickly. And that all the adults that told me time starts to fly by faster as you get older are right. Seriously. October?? (I'm already thinking about my new year 'goals', though - lol - Ssssh).

Not that I don't like you, month of orange leaves and tights and pumpkin pie and costumes. Thank you for the last few sunny days we've had that made it feel like August, until the night rolls around and my dreams of still camping are quickly smushed with blankets needed & windows closed.

I have a lot of dreams for you, October.

It truly is nearly a new season for me - my current full-time contract is done at the end of this month, and it is the beginning of some time to finally put some patiently-waiting, piling-up dreams into action!

I have grand ideas of re-vamping and filling my little Bubbly Shnooks to the brim for the holidays & preparing for my first craft shows (I have notebooks and piles of post-its full of product & booth ideas!!), working on the next collections (eeek!), applying for school, finally putting together some super-secret pitches, planning a few online classes for next year, and working on a blog redesign & party for the beginning of November - ahh. It's refreshing! I'm *so* excited about everything this month (and the next few) will bring, and at really really finally having a moment to stop & do things for me. Yay!

Not to mention finding a rad Halloween costume & Thanksgiving this weekend!
(for us Canadians....)

Photo taken in Seattle last weekend - Park-exploring. Fall-clothes-wearing.

The Right Nows:

- I actually readied some pictures to blog this week - like, recent pictures.
(I'm so bad at that lately, I feel like I need to pat myself on the back).
- After a too-long hunt for accidentally deleted software (doh!), I'm realizing how really really bad the apartment needs a massive fall clean.
- My computer refused to work the other night because it was full.
(Goodness. It turns out it needed a fall clean, too).
- I'm so excited to use this rad vintage nautical transfer pattern I found!
- My first vintage dress is on it's way here! It was a steal, I couldn't resist!
(I have been for so long - slim pickings at our thrift shops for them).
- I lost my fave necklace. I feel lost without it, so I got version 2.0. lol.
- I'm hoping to make a few of my own vintage dress(es) this winter - yay!
- I'm now in search of the perfect vintage fabric for said dress(es)
- Also in search of lonely knitting needles to make some bangles.
- Found the perfect flat boots, that look rather like my heeled boots but w/o the killer heel (that was all they had left last year after I wore out my flat boots).
- I left in such haste yesterday for work, I ended up wearing my house flip-flops
- Craving a scrapbook session & thrift/inspiration trip this weekend
- Slowly but surely conquering the work catch-up list! Eek!

Whew! More than I thought I had to say today, in this post...lol.
Anything you're looking forward to October, for?

Will be back momentarily to finally post up some playlist goodness.

Oh, Random (+ Sea Creatures).

Hello, yellow. :)
Just a quick note to say:

- We are back from our little hammock/motorcycle trip, and it was so fun! (mosquito-ridden, but fun). Will post more on that, soon!

- I have so much work to do (you know, outside of work-work - the usual), but it's so delightful outside. I just feel like playing hooky after work and going to lay on the grass at the beach, some crocheting in hand. Honestly, the warmest sunniest days ever, right now! :) No drive to get her done.

- I somehow ended up looking at pictures and videos of the elusive Ogopogo yesterday (it all started with planning our lil upcoming September trip to the Okanagan, where I grew up). I swear I saw him once, back in the day.

For those who don't know - and that will be many of you, I think - about this Canadian legend/Loch Ness 'Ogopogo', it's a fabled sea monster of sorts that apparently lives in Okanagan lake. There are sightings as far back as 1872,
and it sure is fun to look for/be scared of/swim from when you're little!

(photos from here and here).

What is it about the strange-impossible-but-possible?
Fills me with wonder, still.

PS - I ended up looking at big foot and loch ness, too, from there. lol. Which then reminded me of this old classic movie - 'Creature from the Black Lagoon' - that I saw for the first time on tv a few weeks ago. Usually I'm not one for black & white old horror movies (I find them really too-cheesy-for-me), but this one scared the crap out of me. It was so creepy! lol.

Perhaps it's because I was the kid who swam really fast because I was afraid the fish would bite my toes? I love love to swim, really (lol) but I was always a little wary of all the stuff that's in the lake/ocean that we don't even know about & can't see. Gives me shivers! lol. It's beautiful but daunting to me - still to this day, I'm not a deep lake/ocean swimmer.

Anyhoo - those shots of him hiding in the murky depths peering up - especially when the girl is swimming - eeek!! My worst fear ever! lol.

Wow! Random. lol.
What have you been up to/randomly thinking about?

I'll be back later with a giveaway (yay! It's been a while!), & hopefully some craftiness/scrapbook pages & goals. :) Happy day, friends!

This Week:

Hello, yellow!

My cousin's staggette this weekend was so fun! Full of visits and good wine and chocolate and dancing! :) Lovely! I haven't gone out dancing in a loooong time!

Since then, obviously, my plan to blog-with-a-vengeance this week has failed, so far - lol. I have photos to blog, but the upload-and-blog-them gods are working against me, I swear! Well, actually - my schedule is all off and I'm trying to adjust to sleeping like a normal human once again and doing laundry catch-up and house-cleaning catch-up...oy. lol. Oh, chores and routines, you taunt me.

Hopefully I can get some snaphots of life up tonight after watching baseball.

For now, my week looks like this:

- I refuse to work! Well, I mean I have to 9-5 it, but beyond that...
- I will catch up on those piled-up e-mails
- Boot camp! My knee is oodles better & I feel like a lump! lol.
- Collect some yarn for a present
- Make said present (in a bit of a hurry, of course) - but all in good fun
- Watch Z's baseball (& volleyball?) - crocheting in the sun!
- Find a helmet & some gear (more on this, soon!)
- Blog lots and lots of good stuff
- Cook something at home, cuz it's been waaaay too long
- Bake some cookies, cuz ditto.
- Thrift/garage sale hop this weekend, finally!
- Alter some summer clothes, if there's a moment
- See Eclipse, finally! Geesh. I'm dying, here.
- Plan my blog makeover (the design is bugging me sooooo much, here!)

Red Strikeout = Failed Miserably

Pretty chill, yeah? Fun stuff. And if it doesn't get done, no biggie. :) Perfect!
What are you up to this week?

Some things I found and am loving, in the meantime, here -
Beautiful/On My Mind:

(photos: room, stars, motor chicks, water, dream catchers).

A little random, yes. Such is my brain. :)
Have a happy enjoy-the-sun kind of night, friends, & thanks for hopping by!

Whoa, Goodness + This Week.

Dude. Camping was lovely, this past weekend! :) Nine of us work folks drove up past Whistler to Birkenhead here in BC for the long weekend - it was super fun! Impromptu hikes and smores and fires and roasted hot dogs and no rain! :)

I had to get right back at her with a crazy crazy busy week after returning from tenting it - it's Thursday already?? - thus, the bad blogger-ness (I'm hoping next week will be the last of the too-busy-to-think-weeks this summer, as I finish up some projects that have been on the agenda for a long long while - think, April...lol. Ugh.) It's soooo hard to work at night in the summer, specially cuz it's getting hot out there! I know I have to for another few days at least to catch up, but then it's back to the sunny nights & weekends away. :)

On that note, totally just resonated with this catch-up post of Diana's.

Trying to get my head around all the deadlines, so I made a list -
This week I need to:

(I need this as a screensaver, today! - photo from here).

- attend a screening of 'Waking Sleeping Beauty'
- work on some super-secret CHA projects for a lovely paper place
- finalize the other biiiig super-secret project, finally!
- do my pop-up book class homework (ie - somehow plan all my pops!) 
- book long-awaited eye, chiro, & haircut appointments
- fix/lift my bike seat so my knee stops hurting from it!
- finish up some tardy July Guest Design gig pages
- buy typewriter ink, finally!
- replace the missing camera cable
- start boot camp again, now that I can bend said knee
- plan some upcoming crochet presents
- anticipate my Uppercase #6 arriving

Some things are already crossed off, already! It's a miracle!! :) lol.

I have high hopes this weekend to buy a camping hammock & 'test it' at the beach, I'm determined to go thrifting (I hope hope I can squish it in!), wear my new bathing suit at some point, and there's plans in the works to go viking ship sailing, which we've been meaning to do since 2007, literally (while there after clicking, be sure to check out the vintage scrapbook page that was my 'current fave' at the time- yikes! lol. Funny how our opinions about our own art evolve and change over even a few short years, hey?) Just, you know some busy fun. 

I heard someone say the other day that summer is either really really can't-get-anything-done busy or not busy at all - which seems totally way too true at the moment. How's your summer looking?

I hope to blog over the weekend when I can lift my head up out of the piles of paper, paint, and pencils. :) Lotsa good stuff coming up soon, promise! :)

This Weekend:

Was a long one! Woot!
We had Monday off, here in Canada, which was so rad! :)

My best friend & her hubby flew in from Calgary for a few days to visit (yay!) & sleepover in our humble abode, and we had fun milling about town and seeing some sights and eating yummy food and drinking on the roof. Aah. So fun!

- I only took about 5 measly (& pretty horrible) photos, this being one of them:

(hubby up @ the Capilano Suspension Bridge - but not on the bridge yet)

The others are seriously trash-worthy. Ugh. lol. I always like to put the camera away and enjoy what I'm doing, while sight-seeing - always have - even with my lil point and click! And at this point in my new-camera-knowledge I would end up spending my sight-seeing fiddling with settings and reading manuals more than seeing what I'm there to see, which is soooo not fun for me. I like to be where I am - Not there, but occupied! That's a little silly, no? lol.

Needless to say, this cemented the fact that I need a full day to mess around with the new camera first to avoid the not-taking-pictures-thing again! Bad, Michelle. And the suspension bridge was super-fun and beautiful, pictures or not! I was misty and a little rainy-but-dry and just plain pretty & green!

And we also:

- barbequed on the rooftop at sunset & sipped Sangria
- Had the best sushi I think I've ever had!!
(yummy rolls with odd combos like papaya, tomato, mango, etc - om nom!)
- Watched 'The Big Lebowski' (for the umpteenth, rad time!) while crocheting
- Practiced (successfully) some more crochet patterns!
- Played a whole lotta 'Clue' board game
- Rode the bikes around Stanley Park with some photo op's, this time
- Visited my favorite paper store on Granville Island (Eeek!)
- Had lots of fresh fruit & veggies & Terra Bread
- Treated ourselves to birthday pedi's & mani's
- Celebrated Mandy's birthday (with delicious cake, too!)
- Saw 'Iron Man 2' after yummy pub food

Whew! And I feel like that was just the tip of the iceberg! lol.

One of those busy-go-go-go weekends, with a little chill time, and lotsa catching up. :) It was sunny enough that we had to be outside, and it was just so rad to hang out with one of my besties, because usually mountains separate us!

I officially feel like a waaaay behind lump today, now, though - lol. It was super-hard to get back to boot camp this morning after indulging in 4 days off & some sleep-in time and pasta. ha ha...

So lovely. :)
How was your weekend? Long? Fun?

Hope it was a blast!

I'll be back very soon with some new scrapbook goodness, too, so stay tuned!