It's like deja vu but not really

As time goes on and my Peanut Butter Pie gets bigger and smarter and more loquacious, as she starts asking questions and wanting to learn about the world she lives in; I have these moments. Moments where I begin explaining something to her and the words of my parents dance from my lips.

Whether explaining that "Bees will not hurt you if you leave them alone." or telling her as we look at the neighbors white and pink apple blossoms that "those flowers are where apples come from" Each time I tell her something I hear the same words spoken to me in similar situations. I clearly remember my Dad telling me the same thing about apple blossoms in the back yard of our house in Calgary when I was about 9 or 10 years old.

My Mom is still around but my Dad passed on when I was 15; watching my daughter and my nephews grow up can be very bittersweet at times. Not being able to share these moments with him falls into the bittersweet category very neatly.

I truly believe that he knows and loves is grandchildren and that before they came to us, he was with them. Not being able to share our day to day lives is heartbreaking. I just know that my sister's boys would be the light in his eyes and that my daughter would have had him wrapped around her baby toe.

I just shared a fresh cherry from the tree in our backyard with my daughter.

While I'm sharing, here are some of the brilliant Blogs I've been following lately. These bloggers catch my attention for a number of reasons, they make me laugh, they make me cry, they share some of their finds, they tell a good story, they share their work and their process and I keep coming back to see what they're going to be doing next.

Artmind I've been following Artmind for quite sometime. Her Blog is a mix of excellent how-to tutorials ranging from making a plaster mold to making your own sidewalk chalk. Mitsy also shares her works in progress, her creative experiments and her workspace. I return again and again to her posts for inspiration and to get that itch to make on my own. Her most recent post, a tutorial about colouring liquid porcelain clay and adding colour to it made want to run out and take a pottery class just to get my hands into some clay again.

Autumn Olive is another that I pop into whenever their is something new posted. Her posts are chock full of vintage treasures, tasty recipes and new projects she's been working on. With a new vintage shop opened up, I'm looking forward to her posts about making a go of running an online vintage shop. As an online seller myself I like to glean bits and pieces about how others run their business.

This week marks the return of the 5 question Friday feature. I have some great artists and artisans lined up for the next few weeks and I'm excited about sharing their answers with you all again.

More from the trip,

My mom is a proud displayer of some of the kitschiest poured cement garden statuary I know of. In her defense I believe that she makes some of the best use of it, she includes it in the landscape of her yard so it is a part of it and not the only thing you see in the yard. It helps that her yard is vary large and spaceous. My favourites are the howling coyotes.

stops and starts

I have a long tradition of stops and starts, I'm in the process of trying to bypass the stops but life always has a way of dropping a detour here and there. as you may have noticed 5 questions is still on a break but I've got some great features in line and we'll be good to go for the end of this month. I'll keep you posted.

In the meantime here are some more vacation pics:

the dull gray areas on these mountains are dead trees; victims of the Pine Beetle epidemic. There were shockingly large areas along the Trans Canada where there were no living trees left.

Nearing the home stretch

Where is my mind?

Once upon a long long time ago I could listen to the first few bars of any song on the radio and tell you who was playing and what song it was. Somewhere over the last few years or so I lost that ability.

Sure, I could say that now-a-days all the songs on the radio sound the same or is it that all the bands on the radio sound the same.... but I know that that depends on which station is being played.

Some how I've lost touch with what's being played on the radio and who it is playing that song that's been stuck in my head all day long. Fortunately; I'm slowly gaining that long lost ability back. It's good to see that I'm gaining my mind back again. That new song by Glasvegas really rocks!

Road Trip Day Two, or how to continue a weekly feature on poured cement garden statuary on the road

On day two of our road trip we stopped at the Enchanted Forest. If you aren't familiar with this roadside attraction I think you ought to stop in the next time you're traveling the Trans Canada through the Shushwaps, not only is full of charming trails decorated with 1950's kitschy goodness plus there's no better way to run off excess energy for another long stint in the car than to run run run and climb and run, and crawl through little houses ad run and climb up a tree houses than to run it off in an Enchanted Forest.




I last visited when I was in elementary school and recall almost all of the same houses and statues. There were a few newer attractions but for the most part it was a walk down memory lane for me.



It seems that poured cement follows me now or perhaps I'm just seeking it out all on my own. This post features some of the forests finer pieces of fairy tale statuary.

Trips here trips there and trips everywhere you could trip to

We've returned from our long and busy road trip vacation. It would seem that the peanut can withstand road trips now sans the children's gravol. After eighteen months since our last visit to Alberta we spent all of our time with family and we even managed to slip a visit in with some friends here and there as well as take in a wedding too.

We celebrated Christmas and birthdays and stuffed ourselves with our parents cooking. We stuffed so much in that I'm pretty sure I could use a few weeks off to get back into routine. Because my husband's parents are divorced we split our time between 3 homes and I never really feel like I get a good enough visit in with anyone. The peanut took center stage and charmed all grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins as well as a one or two perfect strangers here and there.

We came back with more than we left with and today was spent unpacking and finding places to put everything. Also there was that ant problem but more on that tomorrow. I'll share travel pics over the next few days. (unfortunately unseasonal cold weather hampered plans for more storm photo-shoots and the sun wasn't cooperating for a borealis session but I think I have some new images to list on Etsy once I get through them all despite the husband being ill during most of our trip with insomnia and some kind of gastric bug)

It's good to be home.